Review: INTIMATE EXCHANGES Reinforces the Idea That the Future is Unknowable

Intimate Exchanges

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, Directed by Olivia D'Ambrosio; Scenic Design, Anne Sherer; Costume Design, Chelsea Kerl; Lighting Design, John Malinowski; Sound Design & Composition, Nathan Leigh; Properties Coordinator, Esme Allen; Dramaturg, Erik Nikander; Stage Manager, Adele Nadine Traub; Assistant Stage Manager, JorDan Clark

CAST: Sarah Elizabeth Bedard, Jade Ziane

Performances through February 12 by The Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA; Box Office 617-576-9278 or www.centralsquaretheater.org

British playwright Alan Ayckbourn is a popular and prolific playwright, many of whose works have been produced on local stages in recent years. Discovering Ayckbourn's plays has been among my reviewing highlights, especially the Gloucester Stage undertaking of The Norman Conquests trilogy, spread across three seasons (2010-2012) with the same cast intact, several by Zeitgeist Stage Company, and the Huntington Theatre Company's Bedroom Farce as recently as November, 2016. At the Central Square Theater, the Nora Theatre Company is diving into the deep end of the Ayckbourn pool with the complexity known as Intimate Exchanges.

Written between 1982 and 1983, Intimate Exchanges in its entirety includes 31 scenes, 16 hours of dialogue, and 10 characters, all performed by only two actors. Before you pack an overnight bag and a lunch if you're holding tickets to the show, be advised that the Nora team selected two plays from what is essentially eight plays, each with two endings. Depending upon the decision of whether or not to have a cigarette made by the character of Celia Teasdale in the first five seconds of the play ("How it Began"), the die is cast for the remaining scenes to play out. That is until intermission, when the audience votes (by dropping a marble into one of two glass jars in the lobby) for the denouement that will occur in the second act.

During the course of the play, different characters are faced with further two-way decisions and the play splits into two different directions a total of four times, leading to 16 possible endings. The audience is not necessarily aware of all this (unless they've done some homework first), and the actors pull it off with aplomb. Sarah Elizabeth Bedard and Jade Ziane impeccably create their diverse characters (two for her, three for him) by virtue of adopting different postures, attitudes, and British accents. Bedard is helped by a trio of wigs and Chelsea Kerl's costume designs that clearly distinguish between the Headmaster's wife Celia and their hired help Sylvie, while Ziane mixes swagger as the young gardener Lionel with crustiness as Celia's husband Toby and physical incapacities as Lionel's elderly father Joe.

Olivia D'Ambrosio, the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Bridge Repertory Theater, takes the helm at the Nora for the first time, doing her best to clarify the murky waters of Ayckbourn's opus. She guides her actors through the commonplace moments in each of the scenes with natural responses and sincere emotions, fully fleshing out the characters so that they become like real people. However, the structure of the play, with its branching storylines and ongoing changes of character (and costumes) is a bit dizzying. Situating the stage in the center with seating on opposite sides means that the actors are often facing away, adding to the already challenging gleaning of every snippet of dialogue owing to the accents.

Intimate Exchanges is more character-driven than heavy on story, so getting the sense of who these people are is more important to one's enjoyment and understanding than grasping every detail. The performance I attended focused on the arc of Sylvie's life and Bedard's transformation throughout each stage of the young woman's growth and development is noteworthy. At other performances, the emphasis is on Celia's life, and patrons who would like to experience both paths may attend the matinee and evening shows on Saturdays. Each variation of the play is made up of five scenes that will let you see people get divorced or married, start affairs, have children (or not), and die. Not all of the vignettes are equally enthralling, but Ayckbourn is a master at capturing real life and reinforcing that, regardless of our choices, in the end the future is unknowable.

Photo credit: A.R. Sinclair Photography (Sarah Elizabeth Bedard, Jade Ziane)

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