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Intimate Exchanges

By Matt Windman | amNewYork Theater Critic

June 11, 2007

At first glance, it looks like a challenge meant for the advanced theatergoer. But sitting through any or all of "Intimate Exchanges," Alan Ayckbourn's interconnected eight-piece saga now headlining the Brits-Off-Broadway Festival at 59E59, could be the most fun that any of us have at the theater this summer.

It sounds a lot like Tom Stoppard's three-part epic "The Coast of Utopia," but the two could not be more different. In terms of size, "Coast" used forty actors, while "Exchanges" uses two, both of whom play multiple roles, constantly swapping their wigs and wardrobes backstage. In subject matter, "Coast" ambitiously explored pre-revolutionary Russian intellectualism, whereas "Exchanges" is a totally carefree farce.

But most important of all is the fact that the eight plays making up "Intimate Exchanges" can be viewed in any order. They all begin with the same opening scene, with the same question: whether or not frustrated housewife Celia Teasdale will smoke a cigarette. From there, multiple complications ensue that create eight different plays, each of which has two surprise endings. A detailed map of the scenes making up each piece is hung in the lobby.

As directed by Ayckbourn and Tim Luscombe on a backyard lawn set of a makeshift quality, the laughs simply refuse to die down, no matter whether you're attending such a title as "A One Man Protest," where a neglected husband barricades himself into his neighbor's shed in protest of his wife's infidelity, or "Affairs in a Tent," where Ms. Teasdale goes completely insane while attempting to arrange a schoolteacher tea party.

Actors Bill Champion and Claudia Elmhirst reportedly learned 400 pages of dialogue to bring "Intimate Exchanges" to the stage. Simply put, their high-power comedy is addictive. It works like episodic television, where you grow attached to the characters and await watching them engage in further adventures.

Once you see any single part of "intimate Exchanges," you'll need to see at least another two or three.

59E59, 59 East 59th St, 212-279-4200, $50. Tues-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 3 & 7pm. Thru Jul 1.