Playwright: Alan Ayckbourn . At: Eclipse Theatre Company at Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Tickets: 773-935-6875 or www.eclipsetheatre.com; $18-$28. Runs through: Sept. 1
For some reason, the works of Sir Alan Ayckbourn aren't as well-known in the U.S. as those of Neil Simon, even though he is often likened to Simon because he is also extremely prolific and much-produced around the world. There is the supposition that comedy doesn't always travel well to other countrieseven if they share a mother tounge like the United States and the United Kingdom.
Thankfully, Eclipse Theatre Company is doing its part to challenge this idea with an uproariously funny production of Ayckbourne's 1976 comedy Bedroom Farce. It's part of Eclipse's dedication to producing an season dedicated to a single playwright (Ayckbourne's Haunting Julia is up next).
One masterstroke Eclipse had with Bedroom Farce was to bring aboard Remy Bumppo Theatre artistic director Nick Sandys to direct. Not only is Sandys much in demand locally for his fine work as a director and fight choreographer, he's a native Brit, too, with a flair for bringing out bursts of fun physical comedy in the show.
And there's ample opportunity for visual gags and physical humor in Bedroom Farce, which focuses on four heterosexual couples and what happens simultaneously one night in three different bedrooms. It's not a break-neck speed farce, but more of a situation comedy looking at the rhythms and rocky patches of coupled U.K. life in the 1970s.
Sandys' cast of eight are all great, digging down to find some deeper inner lives of their characters who could so easily be played just for their surface quirks. So it's largely forgivable that not everyone is secure at mastering their British dialects at all times (Joe McCauley particularly needs improvement, even though he's spot on with his lunkhead portrayal of unhappy husband Trevor).
It's the marital breakdown of Trevor and Susannah (a wonderfully frazzled Nina O'Keefe)martial that intrudes upon the lives of the three couples (a wonderfully double tiered set of bedrooms by Mike Winkelman matches the characters' status in life to a tee).
As Trevor's parents, Brian Parry and Donna Steele are delightful as the long-married team of Ernest and Delia, who revel in the mundane routines even on the night of their anniversary. As the demanding husband Nick, Stephen Dale gets loads of laughs as he shows his contempt to his inconvenient bedridden situation and his jealousy of his put-together wife, Jan (a no-nonsense Sasha Gioppo), who was formerly Trevor's longtime girlfriend.
Certainly the hectic coupling of Malcom (JP Pierson, doing a very prominent Northern accent) and Kate (an eager-to-please Emily Tate) is also rambunctiously fun thanks to their young-love passion and their childish games of hiding odd objects in unconventional places.
Although Bedroom Farce shows a dated quality now and then (particularly with one character's anti-gay reaction to the possibility of Susannah having lesbian attractions), it still is durable enough to keep the audience in stitches throughout. Much of Ayckbourn's other work may be more sophisticated and fine-tuned, but Bedroom Farce isn't ashamed just to be an enjoyable evening out.