Whether it's poignant time travel as farce or sci-fi meets life choices, Alan Ayckbourn's "Communicating Doors''‹which opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theatre, Aug. 20‹presents a daunting task for the director. Defining the genre, admits director Christopher Ashley, is the bottom line.
"It's a drawing-room comedy, a thriller, and a relationship play between two women,'' says the steadily employed Ashley. He is talking with us over the phone from the Goodspeed Opera House, in East Haddam, Conn., where he is directing the musical "Red Head.''
"The big problem is that the rhythms of each genre are very different,'' he continues, enthusiastically. "In farce, everything is speeded up. In a thriller, the rhythms are slower to create tension and fear. The other major challenge here was the time-travel element. We had to constantly address the questions, 'Who knows what and when,' and, 'How does that knowledge in turn shape interactions in each scene?' ''
Set in the same London hotel rooms in the years 1974, 1994, and 2014, with the same cast of characters at different stages of their lives, "Communicating Doors'' examines how lives can be profoundly altered with just the slightest bit of hindsight and more than a tad of compassion. The idea is hindsight as foresight. The cast includes Mary-Louise Parker, Patricia Hodges, and David McCallum.
Striking the right note was not easy, especially since the actors in this cast approach acting from different vantage points, says Ashley. It's not that some cotton to farce, and others are more at home in realism, but rather, "Some work from the outside in and others work from the inside out. The director has to know how to talk to each actor. To one you might say, 'You need to earn the other character's love.' To another actor, you'll say 'Faster.' '' He chortles. "The director's art is collaborative and social. And he has to be a psychologist. The director has to figure out what language works for whom.''
The 30-something Chicago native‹winner of an Obie for "Jeffrey,'' and a Lucille Lortel Award and four Dramalogue Awards for Anna Deavere Smith's "Fires in the Mirror''‹has been a long-time Ayckbourn fan and didn't have to do much pre-production research. Ayckbourn is a prolific, popular British playwright. "His work has a farcical tone but it has gotten increasingly dark,'' observes Ashley. "Yet the end of 'Communicating Doors' is atypically upbeat for him.''
Ashley grew up in Durham, N.C., and Upstate New York, the son of academics. His father is a professor of philosophy at the State University of New York in Cortland; his mother, a professor of medieval literature at the University of Maine in Portland. A child actor‹"I wasn't very good,'' he concedes‹Ashley started directing in high school. "But I was too middle-class to think of directing as a real profession. It was so impractical.''
At Yale he majored in English literature and continued directing as an extra-curricular activity, realizing that directing is what he wanted to do professionally‹impracticality be damned! Following his graduation in the mid-80s, Ashley first served as an intern at Playwrights Horizons; later he had the opportunity to assist a range of directors, under a National Endowment of the Arts/Theatre Communications Group program. "I found the experience very interesting because it introduced me to many stylistic approaches. I worked with Ron Lagomarsino, JoAnne Akalaitis, Robert Wilson, and Ingmar Bergman when he [Bergman] directed at Brooklyn Academy of Music.''
Bergman is a major esthetic influence, says Ashley. "His work is simple, yet full. He's wise. I also love the work of Andrei Serban, whose productions are so stripped down, whatever style he's exploring.''
An Early Start
Ashley's first major turning point occurred early. At 22, he directed "The Night Hank Williams Died,'' at Off-Off-Broadway's WPA Theatre, and the play moved to a commercial house. In short order, he was directing in both major Off-Broadway and regional venues; he became a high-profile director with "Jeffrey,'' a gay romantic romp in a world where AIDS is a defining factor.
"That was probably one of the most challenging pieces I've ever directed. How do you marry a serious subject like AIDS with comedy?'' "Jeffrey'' was especially enjoyable, he notes, because "I was involved dramaturgically and editorially. For me, directing is ideally more than interpretation. It's also creation.'' He adds that he enjoys writing himself; indeed, he has penned a screenplay that he'll soon be directing. Still, he would not like to be a full-time writer: "I'm too social.''
Ashley directed the movie version of "Jeffrey.'' "The [off-the-set] rehearsal process, which is primary to theatre, does not exist in a film. All the work is done on the set and in post-production. A movie director has to love editing and realize that film acting is mostly about the actor responding to the camera's presence and the space he's in.
"Unlike theatre, where you have to work on a moment over and over in order to be able to repeat it, in movies there is no repetition. The director has to be able to create that sense of spontaneity on the set. The moment occurs and then it's filmed.'' Another, but related difference: "In a play, the director and actors work together to create a total vision of the work. In movies, it's perfecting a series of small moments, one at a time.''
As much as Ashley enjoys helming contemporary pieces, for him it doesn't hold a candle to directing Shakespeare. "Shakespeare has so much depth and detail; it's very freeing. You can always find something new. Audiences don't go to 'Hamlet' for the story‹since everyone knows it‹but rather for the director's vision of it. I would love to do 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' set in a Victorian living room,'' he offers.
"The characters would be corseted in strict Victorian clothes and they'd have courtly manners. Their journey to the forest‹representing love, freedom, sex, and an escape from a world ruled by rules‹would, in fact, be a dream about one debauched night. During the course of the play, the Victorian living room would become increasingly destroyed and finally be hanging from the ceiling, all twisted. At the end, when the characters come back [from the forest/dream] the furniture has been repaired and is back in place.''
At the moment, Ashley's thoughts are most focused on "Communicating Doors'': "I'd like audiences to walk away with the idea that you can change your life and, more important, change the life of those around you with just tiny acts of affection. It's an affirmative play.'' He pauses."And along the way, I hope audiences are scared. And have had a few laughs.''