REVIEW Communicating Doors, Menier Chocolate Factory

FOUR STARS

IMAGINE what it must be like to travel back in time. That’s the premis of Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors now on at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Call Girl Poopay arrives at the hotel suite of aging and seriously ill businessman Reece only to find that instead of sex he wants her to sign a confession in which he explains how his butler Julian murdered his ex wives at his behest.

However things don’t quite go according to plan because when Reece collapses, Julian finds the letter and Poopay finds herself Julian’s next target.

Trying to find a way to escape she opens the door to what she thinks is a cupboard and in which she can hide, only to find she’s stepped back into the same hotel suite but 20 years previously.

In that suite she finds Reece’s second wife Ruella who in turn once she has been appraised of the situation goes through the same door to find herself in the same suite but 20 years in the past with Reece and his first wife Jessica celebrating their wedding.

With such a plot it could easily have been called Complicated Doors but it’s actually very simple to follow.

And it is a very funny play with some really hilarious moments made even more so thanks to the brilliant cast and direction.

Rachel Tucker plays Poopay who unwittingly finds herself at the centre of the action and who manages to change the course of history in the process.

Imogen Stubbs is brilliant as second wife Ruella, David Bamber does evil to a T as Julian the butler and Lucy Briggs-Owen puts in a great performance as first wife Jessica.

It’s fast, funny and brilliantly put together – a real treat!

Communicating Doors is on at the Menier Chocolate Factory until June 27. Tickets from £25. Visit www.menierchocolatefactory.com or call the box office on 020 7378 1713.