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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cynic’s Delight ‘Intimate Exchanges’ Comes Alive With Michael Weaver And Christina Lang Performances

“Intimate Exchanges,” Interplayers Ensemble Friday, Jan.5, continues through Jan. 27 Call 455-PLAY

Alan Ayckbourn’s comedies are not everybody’s cup of Earl Grey, and after seeing “Intimate Exchanges” at Interplayers, I can at least understand that position.

Ayckbourn’s outlook is cynical, his humor savage and his endings depressing and sad.

However, those traits are exactly why I like Ayckbourn, and exactly why I found “Intimate Exchanges” so rewarding. Cynicism, rudeness, a refusal to sugarcoat his plots - these are the things that make Ayckbourn such a wickedly funny observer of contemporary society. Ayckbourn is like “Fawlty Towers” times two.

The plot is nothing remarkable. A woman in a desperately unhappy marriage glimpses a happier alternative when another man (her gardener) comes into her life. Will she go with him?

A pair of outstanding performances elevates this plot beyond the obvious cliches, especially in the wild and edgy second act, in which the gardener has followed the unhappy couple to a seaside resort.

Christina Lang and Michael Weaver each play two characters in this four-character play. Watching them work is a reward in itself, like watching two virtuoso violinists play off each other in a duet.

Both are especially good at playing the middle-class couple Celia and Toby. Lang’s Celia is knotted up with British notions of propriety and reserve, yet her unhappiness leaks through this facade in a heartbreaking way. Lang is particularly good at showing Celia’s vulnerability: Her almost giddy exhilaration when Lionel, the gardener tells her he adores her, and her crushing disappointment when she realizes the man is somewhat of a flake.

Weaver is uncannily good as the husband Toby, a headmaster who drinks too hard. He sits in his chair, half-sloshed, his face in a Churchillian frown at the state of the world, while he pours his venom onto his poor wife.

“You look like a baboon in drag,” he tells her at one point.

When she takes him on holiday, he sarcastically admires “the merry sunlight off the glinting spokes of the passing wheelchairs.”

Weaver has a perfect knack for delivering these lines in the nastiest possible way, yet still making them funny. His John Cleese-like accent is right on the money.

Weaver is also good as Lionel the gardener, a man a step lower on the social ladder, but much more likable. Weaver plays him with toupeed effusiveness; we have a hard time figuring out whether he’s a rare delightful soul, or just a lunatic. As it turns out, Celia can’t tell, either.

Sylvie the housemaid, Lang’s other character, is the only less-than-successful character. Sylvie is played way too broadly - all swaying hips and floozy body language. She comes off as a caricature more suited to a “Benny Hill” sketch, but fortunately the role is too small to make any difference.

Sometimes, the comedy is hard to laugh at because it is simply too sad.

But Ayckbourn and director Joan Welch counteract this nicely with well-placed comic touches. For instance, in probably the most important conversation in the play, Celia suddenly develops hiccups. It softens the edge just enough to allow us to laugh.

The costumes were a problem in this play, especially the unflattering cover-alls that Lionel the gardener had to wear in the first act. He looked more like a doofus than a hunk.

“Intimate Exchanges” was actually written as a related series of plays, with eight different plot directions and 16 different endings. When read in script (it takes up two volumes) it becomes a lesson in how each small decision can change the course of a life. Unfortunately, this point bypasses us entirely onstage, since we have no idea of what the other plots might be.

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