Press Release: Communicating Doors

Written by Alan Ayckbourn and Directed by Catherine Morrison

Time Traveler’s Foil Murder

It’s Back to the Future, with sex and violence.  Wronged women get the upper hand on destiny in a hotel suite with a pair of doors that connect adjoining rooms internally in Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy thriller COMMUNICATING DOORS.  Directed by Catherine Morrison, Metro Theatre is delighted to bring this time warp to our stage May 4 – 25.

Poopay, a nervy dominatrix, has been procured for a dying corrupt magnate, Reece, who doesn’t want her for what she usually gets paid for.  Instead Reece wants Poopay to witness a confession about his nefarious  evil deeds and those of his villainious business partner Julian.  Among the details that Reece reveals is the unsettling news that he masterminded the murder of his two wives, Ruella and Jessica. Julian gets wise to the fact that Poopay knows about his crimes and naturally plans to get rid of her.

Poopay escapes the murderous henchman through the communicating door of the ritzy London hotel room.  Much to her surprise, she swooshes decades backward through time where she meets the tycoon’s second wife, Ruella.  Having figured out what has happened, the two women team up traveling backward and forward in time and forewarn the first wife, Jessica, who is on her honeymoon and not pleased about the interruption. Circumstances lead to dragging Harold an amusing hotel detective who has ‘seen everything’ into the story. The three ladies make a determined trio of avenging angels and armed with foreknowledge, become agents of change.

Director Catherine Morrison: “If you could go back in time, what in your past would you like to change?  How would you re-write your personal history?  The women of Communicating Doors get that chance.”

Cast and Production Team

CAST

Reese………………………………Daryl Hutchings
Jessica…………………………….Samantha Silver
Ruella………………………………Helen Martin
Julian……………………………….Samuel B. Barnes
Phoebe………………………….….Jill Raymond
Harold………………………………Roger Monk

PRODUCTION TEAM

• Director………………………………… Catherine Morrison
• Production Manager……………. Catherine Morrison
• Stage Manager…………………….. Toni Scott
• Asst Stg Mgr………………………… Deborah Watts
• Set Designer………………………… Les Erskine
• Costume Designers……………… Sean Ullmann & Rene Schindel
• Lighting Designer………………… Les Erskine
• Sound Designer ………………….. Catherine Morrison
• Technical Director………………… Les Erskine
• General Manager…………………. Les Erskine
• Head Carpenter…………………… Robin Richardson
• Scenic Painting……………………. Tracy-Lynn Chernaske
• Set Decoration………………………Tracy-Lynn Chernaske
• Publicity………………………………. Debra Danny
• Graphic Design……………………. Barbara LaBounta
• Photography……………………….. Tracy-Lynn Chernaske
• Wardrobe Manager…………….. Sean Ullman
• Hair & Make-up …………………. Abbey McLane

The Story

Communicating Doors is about female empowerment.  Two very dissimilar women try to thwart double murders. Ruella  is a privileged, educated woman of 45,  and the other, Poopay,  a Dominatrix  or as she refers to herself “A Specialist Sexual Consultant” in her early 30’s. These women are thrown together, become allies with a mission and eventually become friends.

The women meet in the suite of a posh London hotel in 2002.  The prostitute, Poopay has travelled back from 2022.  She was hired by a Reece, Ruella’s husband.  Reece has lead a life of crime dealing in illegal arms, money-laundering and many other nefarious international activities that resulted in famine, death, and destruction and now wishes to confess his crimes before he dies. Poopay was hired, not for her usual services, but to witness that confession. Reece’s business partner, Julian, wants the confession back as it implicates him and so plans to kill Poopay to get it.

In her efforts to escape Julian, Poopay travels back in time to the year 2022 where she meets Ruella, who is about to be killed.  Somehow the two women must prevent the murder and also go back further in time to 1982 to warn the first wife Jessica that she will also be murdered.  Jessica is on her honeymoon – which she is not pleased at having interrupted.

Harold Palmer the lugubrious hotel detective enters the scene.  He is very skeptical of all of this time-travel; after all in his long hotel career he has ‘seen it all’. He makes an unlikely assistant but these women do not have a lot of options and so enlist his help to out-wit the formidable foe Julian. Dead bodies are such a bother to dispose of – where is a good laundry hamper when you need one?

Communicating Doors is part thriller, part farce, all knotted together in comedy.  It is a testament of well-meaning souls who take it upon themselves to make the world a better place. The women’s actions change everything.

Director’s Talk

Director Catherine Morrison and the cast of COMMUNICATING DOORS held an informal chat immediately following the show on Friday, May 10, 2019. They discussed:

• The challenges of mounting a play involving multiple technical aspects.  Four of the actors have to appear at different ages in the character’s lives.
• Questions and comments from the audience are encouraged.