Buffalo Rocket,

Rocket Man, June 25, 2009

If you take two from eight (two ways), then two equals six with some left over. It’s mad math but Irish Classical Theater makes it all add up in Alan Ayckbourn’s “Intimate Exchanges.”

The frighteningly prolific Ayckbourn (think Neil Simon mixed with Noel Coward, filtered through David Letterman) wrote eight inter-connected one-act “Intimate Exchanges,” each with an alternative ending. ICTC serves up selections titled “Gardener in Love” and “Affairs in a Tent.” While absurd, they convey a truth that makes married patrons say “We could do that without a script.”

Six characters appear, portrayed by but two people, Vincent O’Neill and Josephine Hogan, ICTC’s Lunt & Fontanne. This is not a sign of the “struggling economy.” Full casting “wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying,” Ayckbourn cautions.

We meet besotted headmaster Toby (“no point in having a small one”) and his played-out wife Celia (“don’t be so unnecessary”); the deluded baker Lionel and the hotcha housekeeper Sylvie; the fey school administrator Miles and the plum character of all, Irene Pridworthy of the school board. Hogan molds her into a strident scold with Bucky Beaver teeth and a loathsome fur hat that may still be alive.

There’s sadness in seeing Celia totally unwind. She deserves better. And while just two actors perform, three take curtain calls. Go figure.   

Director Greg Natale’s props include Lionel’s vile loaf, described by Pridworthy as “hippo dropping,” and a stretchy chest expander that Lionel plays the way Fred Astaire played a cane. For laughs with a few second thoughts, “Intimate Exchanges” is definitely necessary. It plays through Sunday.

- Doug Smith
EIGHT ROCKETS (out of 10).

Night-Life Magazine
Theatre Review by Willy Rogue Donaldson

This mad English comedy takes place on the grounds of a prep school for boys and girls (although no girls are mentioned or seen).  It is a dream vehicle for actors - only two actors are used, but each actor does three different major characters.

Fortunately, these 6 characters are delineated by 2 of Buffalo's best actors:  Josephine Hogan and Vincent O'Neill, and they are at home with anything from Ireland or Great Britain.

Playwright Ayckbourn likes to upset expectations.  We start in the garden of the Headmaster's house, where he and his wife are having a spot of tea and arguing.  You expect this to have a few tears, a few laughs, and come to a happy ending - after all, there are only 2 actors.

But Ayckbourn creates these six characters (and crowds offstage) as interesting archetypes so he can mess with our heads.  As the play continues, more unlikely changes occur and more outrageous lines are delivered. 

The old Headmaster Toby states many reasons for drinking too much, one is that Cricket fields are now lit by floodlights, the players wear little plastic hats, and their shoes bear small ads for condoms.  Well, who wouldn't need a drink or three.

His wife Celia feels her life has come to a halt - like someone has stopped the film with their thumb.  But after meeting Lionel, she makes a decision for change in her life, and Act I ends on a happy note.

Then she scurries into Act II, and the best laid plans gae way aglae in the V.I.P. tea tent on "Sports Day."  We see Lionel return as the Master Baker delivering his prized loaf of bread, and we meet Irene Pridworthy, a wonderful specimen of the no-nonsense spinster with the turned-down mouth.  Celia tries bravely to prepare a spiffy tea for the members of the Board of trustees, but she discovers she's fighting the double whirlagig of smiling incompetence and malevolent happenstance.  It is all too much, her hormones come out, she gets overexcited, and sits down mad as a hatter.  After a visit from Malcolm, the author has her spend the rest of the act under the buffet table wrapped in a tablecloth. 

This engaging and zany play was directed by Greg Natale, who has put quite a bit of bite into it.  I was smiling and tickled during the first act, but by the middle of the second act, I was helplessly guffawing while O'Neill, as Toby, deadpanned the hilarious lines.

The ending is written a bit abrupt, so I don't think Josephine Hogan and Vincent O'Neill get the roaring applause they should.  Too bad they can't take 6 bows, in costume for each character. 

Highlights are the owl's vomitm, the hippo poo, the chest expander, and the mother's race pile-up.