"Communicating Doors" by Alan Ayckbourn.

The Studio Theatre, West Bridgford.

West Bridgford Dramatic Society.

The communicating doors in the title of the play are in a hotel room, and they allow some of the characters to travel through time, returning to the same hotel room twenty years earlier. But not everybody gets transported, and not everybody gets transported to the same era.

The play kicks off in 2014, in a suite at the Regal Hotel. Julian has arranged for a prostitute for seventy-year-old Reece Welles. The girl, Phoebe, is a dominatrix who goes by the name Poopay Daysir. Reece's regular was not available so Poopay got the job! Reece doesn't want her for what she usually gets paid for as that would, in his own words, "Finish me off altogether, in my condition". Instead, he wants her to witness a confession and then deliver it into the trusted hands of one of the partners of his solicitors.

Reece's business partner Julian had bumped off Reece's previous two wives, and as Julian didn't want this information out in the open, and realising that Reece was about to confess to Phoebe, he had to make sure that Phoebe was dispatched also.

Phoebe escapes through the time travelling communicating doors to the evening that Reece's second wife, Ruella, was due to meet her doom at the hands of Julian. The year was 1998. After much convincing, Ruella also goes through the communicating doors and travels back another 20 years, 1978 and to Reece's first wife, Jessica, but in the meantime Julian is still chasing Poopay, as well as Ruella.

This might sound like I have told the whole story, but there's so much more to discover through the communicating doors!

Julian is played by Jeff Tullin. He welcomes Poopay into the flat at the start of the play, after which we find out that Jeff is, not only quite a rude character, he's also very dangerous! Played with a lovely sense of menace, there's also some nice comedy scenes that contrast well with Jeff's threatening behaviour.

Phoebe aka Poopay is played by Sarah Godwin. In this play the Phoebe that we end up with is a very different Phoebe to how we first envisage her, and via that journey we also get to see two different sides to Sarah's acting skills.

Stephen Herring plays the older Reece, and like Phoebe we see two very different Reeces, and the later Reece at the end of the play is not one that we would ever consider from the first vision. Stephen also gets to present two different physical sides to the character.

Ruella, Reece's second wife who Phoebe first encounters through those doors, is played by Alison Scotney. This is a great character, one that has to think quickly to take control of her destiny, and Alison straight away convinced me of the character. I then, at the end of the show, read the programme to find out more about Alison, as I'd not seen her before, and found out that this was Alison's first board treading for a while, and a newcomer to West Bridgford Dramatic Society. None of that showed at all because Alison was so at ease in character as well as being in front of a sold out audience.

Ruella decides to go through the doors and this is where she comes into contact with her husband as a twenty something on his wedding night with the first wife, Jessica.

Reece, the younger, is played by Harry Longbottom, not the only Longbottom that has theatrical talents! Of course, with this being the honeymoon, the costumes for both young Reece and Jessica are, shall we say, un-cumbersome! Harry has fun with this role, and on Tuesday's warm evening, at least there would be no chance of him overheating under the lights!

Jessica is played by Emily Martin. There are some lighter moments with Jessica, even though she soon discovers that she would be killed off seven years down the line. Unlike Harry's character though, there's a return of Jessica near the end, so did Ruella and Phoebe manage to alter the course of history, or should that be the future? 

Harold Palmer, the only security guard in the hotel, is played by Adrian Bacon. Adrian has a big role physically which contrasts quite comedically with the petite Alison with one scene where he is having a debate with Ruella. Plenty of comedy with this security guy as well. Adrian gets to wear two very different suits as this character, but what I also noticed was that the shoes changed with the costumes. This may be an odd thing to say, but a lot of the time, with male costume changes, you notice that the shoes are kept the same; here they have been changed to match the new costume. It's the little things like this that create an extra veneer of realism.

Directed by Danny Longbottom. While I am on the subject of the "little things", Danny has observed these things meticulously. I deliberately noted the change of the door numbers and the matching accessories for Palmer. This is a long play - you certainly get your money's worth at two and three quarter hours including interval - but the pace is the thing in this play and there's never a dull moment.

Set Designers are Andy & Ali Bakewell. As soon as you walk into the theatre space you get hit visually by a wonderful set, and you note the five doors, which indicate that you are in for a farce. The majority of the set is the living space of the hotel room, a cut away bathroom and bedroom door. The attention to detail in the main room and bathroom needs noting and will give you plenty to pore over during the interval or on your way out. The "communicating door" itself has a magical time spanning feel about it, thanks to the lighting design plus the window is mirrored until the effects start. A brilliant set which oozes class whether in 1974, 1994 or 2014.

Sound Designer is Jem Woolley and operated by Rob Dixon. The sound effects, combined with the lighting effects for the door gives you a flashback to those old science fiction films you used to see on Saturday mornings at the pictures, and I love that retro feel it gives. Also I must mention the depth of the sound effects really create that distant feel with some of the scenes.

Lighting Designer is Sav Dixon and operated by Calum Sharp. As with the above comments, the blending of the sound and light teams really make the whole feel of the play come alive.

The costumes and props, to which I've already praised, are thanks to Jerome Foley, Jo Sharpe & Mandy Stephens. 

I have seen this suspense packed, sci-fi influenced and wordy Ayckbourn masterpiece once before, but this cast made it seem as if this were the first time that I had seen it. It has the wit that we have come to expect from Alan Ayckbourn as well as some nice plot twists, that you don't see coming, but he doesn't forget to include the human element of these characters.

"Communicating Doors" is at the Studio Theatre in West Bridgford until Saturday 10 May. If you miss this run, you don't have the option to go back in time, so catch it while you can!