Trippy fun comes through PTC’s ‘Doors’

Only a handful of modern playwrights have produced comedies that return again and again to regional stages. Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” (now at Portland Stage Company) and anything by Neil Simon all qualify. Theater programmers know audiences flock to these shows. So they indulge us and keep staging them – and for good reason. They’re smart and funny.

Alan Ayckbourn’s “Communicating Doors,” running through Feb. 18 at the Bangor Opera House, fits squarely into the category with its mix of intelligent writing, time travel, sex farce and murder mystery. Although Ayckbourn is a prolific playwright, “Communicating Doors” is his best-known and best-loved play in this country. And the Penobscot Theatre Company production, spiritedly directed by Adam Kuykendall, shows why.

The story opens in an upscale London hotel in the year 2014. A dying millionaire claims to be acting out a fantasy to spice up his final days by employing the services of Poopay, a dominatrix. But the plot whips in another direction when the old guy enlists the “sexual consultant” not for kinky sex but to witness his signature on a note confessing he killed his two wives. His preying business partner is implicated in the admission, and when he threatens violence, Poopay unexpectedly and inexplicably time travels through a closet door back to an earlier decade. The information she carries with her can save more than just her own life. In the interactions that take place during her journey, Poopay gives a whole new meaning to the term “first wives club.”

It’s a far-out idea, but if the cast gets the zippy pacing right, if the actors believe in the absurdity of their activity as reality, and if the audience surrenders to the brain strain of trying to follow the plot, then “Communicating Doors” can be a hilarious theatrical experience, with a few moral lessons thrown in for good measure. In the hands of PTC’s ensemble troupe, which looks to be having as much fun as the audience, the one-room, three-decades story is a good trip.

Yet as careful as the group choreography must be, I kept coming back to two characters on whom the success of the show depends: Dom Poopay, played by Kae Cooney, and Ruella, the shrewd second wife played robustly by A.J. Mooney. In the end, “Communicating Doors” is their story, and while it would be unforgivable to reveal the reasons here, suffice it to say that their mutual trust builds the heart of the story. You may laugh your head off, but if you don’t also get a little choked up at the end, then these two actors haven’t done their jobs.

Cooney and Mooney do their jobs. As their characters build faith in one another and as Mooney’s Ruella schools Cooney’s Poopay in the ways of personal pluck, they reveal that not only is sisterhood powerful, it will also outsmart you in the end. With Kari Floberg, who portrays the flightly first wife Jessica, the women act out what surely must be one of the silliest threesome scenes in theater history, but they also steal the show.

Still, the guys in the cast shouldn’t get short shrift. Paul Rhyand, as a daft hotel attendant, is particularly entertaining as he tries to decipher the kinky relationships of the people around him. Eric Clem, as the husband, and Rich Kimball, as the accomplice, are onstage less, but, while I wish Kimball were a bit more threatening, they each add something bright to the loopy world of this sci-fi script.

Small details may occasionally break the mood: wobbly English accents, a swallowed line, wacky wigs, thick makeup and – of all things – a door chain that is pointed to but doesn’t exist. But “Communicating Doors” is a time warp story worth the trip.

Penobscot Theatre Company will present “Communicating Doors” through Feb. 18 at the Bangor Opera House. For tickets, call 942-3333 or visit www.PenobscotTheatre.org