At Warren's 2nd Story Theatre the plot thickens, and it thickens some more, as the company tackles Alan Ayckbourn's clever, but convoluted trip into time travel, "Communicating Doors."

This is 2nd Story's second stab at an Ayckbourn comedy in recent seasons. The British playwright, best known here for his Broadway hit, "The Norman Conquests," has written something like 75 plays over the span of his career. And his mastery of the craft is clear in "Communicating Doors," a reference to those mysterious passageways that lead from one hotel room to another.

In this case, the communicating door is more a time portal. The characters in the play step though it and turn up in different decades in the life of Reece Wells, who in the opening scene has only weeks, perhaps days to live, and has called in a hooker, actually a sassy dominatrix named Poopay Dayseer, to witness his signature on a confession that implicates him in the death of his first wife, Jessica.

But as Lara Hakeem's Poopay, the prostitute, slips through a side door in the hotel suite, she ends up spanning some 40 years, and sharing time with Jessica, and Reese's second wife Ruella, who is about to be thrown from her hotel balcony by Reece's evil partner, Julian.

Director Ed Shea told the audience before the start of the show that it was a little like "I Love Lucy" meets Alfred Hitchcock, and he's right. There's a fair amount of suspense, with at least one corpse whisked away in a laundry basket. But there's just as much slapstick, just as much humor.

Needless to say, the play has a lot of quick scene changes, just the sort of fast-paced comedy Shea does so well. The elaborate set, a posh hotel suite, remains the same throughout the play. It's only the time frame, and the look of the actors that changes. It's Wayne Kneeland's Reese that perhaps goes through the biggest physical change, not so much the other characters.

Depending on who's popping through what door, Kneeland bounces from a trim, vigorous twentysomething, to a old man with one foot in the grave.

At some points, it's a little hard to get a handle on all the warping of time that goes on in this play. But the gist of the show is that the three women, Poopay, and wives Jessica and Ruella, have managed to mess with time enough to bring about a rosy future for Poopay, who in the end lands on her feet.

Shea, who said this was his year for the set, has brought in Trevor Elliot to create a sumptuous hotel room overlooking the cranes and building of the city. The furniture is smart, and there is even a bathroom with a bidet, where important documents are hidden. Who, after all, actually uses one of those things? The communicating door in question lights up and glows every time some one goes through it, like a scene out of Dr. Who.

Although, there are some strong showings from Kneeland, as Reece, and Terrence Shea's Julian, the killer, the show really belongs to the women. Hakeem is wonderful as Poopay, who sort of acts as the thread that binds this complicated play together, while Laura Sorensen, as Jessica, was terrific.

The other solid portrayal came from Sharon Carpenter as Ruella, who seemed the most in control of her situation.

This is a smart comedy, the kind of show that will keep you thinking, as well as laughing.

Prior to show-time Sunday night and seated in a surprisingly comfortable director's chair, I sized up the set of Communicating Doors at 2nd Story Theatre. Seeing swanky purple carpets, snow white sofas, a tiled blue bathroom with a bidet, I thought to myself: What kind of passé production am I sitting in on?

But as the lights turned down, I learned I was remarkably wrong in judging a play by its plush carpeting.

Artistic Director Ed Shea deemed the season's kick-off production "Sudoku on-stage," but forgot to mention the game would be led by a leather-clad hooker, ahem, a "Specialist Sexual Consultant" with a playfully foul mouth and near-perfect comedic timing.

A tale about time travel, playwright Alan Ayckbourn thankfully didn't leave much room for confusion. By over-elucidating the time warp concept (a London hotel room's communicating door serves as a time portal, flinging its traveler twenty years into the past, from 2031 to 2011, and 2011 to 1991) the audience can really fall for the play's top two heroines, Lara Hakeem's Poopay ("It's French for doll") and Sharon Carpentier's Ruella.

We're told Ruella is a good woman before we even meet her, and Carpentier sucessfully fuses spunk and innocuous trickery to make her character more than just a frightened bourgeois wife. Unlike Ruella, we need more time with Hakeem's Poopay, and the audience gradually learns that she really is a hooker with a heart. Hakeem steals the spotlight with sassy comebacks and teary-eyed moments of panic (a wimpy dominatrix, who knew?).

Our heroines are connected across time through Reece Welles, a wealthy scoundrel played by Wayne Kneeland who, in the opening scene, has just days to live. In a bout of eleventh-hour remorse, Reece slyly solicits Poopay to witness a confession implicating him and his business partner in the "accidental" drowning of his first wife, Jessica Welles, played by Laura Sorensen.

But their plan takes a turn for the worse. Reece's business partner, Julian, played by a murderous Terrence Shea, discovers the confession and threatens death to Poopay (but never touches Reece, as Julian is unmistakably in love with his ailing friend).

In fear, Poopay slips into the suite's side door and narrowly escapes her predator by time travelling "Dr. Who"-style. Upon exiting the time portal, Poopay enters the very same plushy hotel room she ran from, but twenty years in the past. The room is occupied by Ruella, Reese's second wife, who is just moments from being tossed off her hotel balcony by Julian.

After Poopay and Ruella connect the dots, they begin a time-travelling journey in an attempt to change not only their fates, but also the fate of Reece's first wife, Jessica. As the two women - who cannot complete their life-altering mission alone - get acquainted with one another, their interactions result in the purest form of comedy. ("What's it like being a prostitute?" a prim, night-gowned Ruella asks Poopay, clad in a leather corset and over-the-knee studded boots. "Is it fun?")

While I would strictly define this as a women's play - with heroines undoing the vile work of flat male characters - the men in the audience were often belly-laughing louder than their female companions, especially when bouts of bedroom farce were taken to the highest level of lewd.

Ayckbourn's ending, however tender, is fairly predictable. Although you may sense what's coming, you're still on the edge of your seat, wondering how the characters will get there.

Slammed-door farces are delightful opportunities to unhinge us with laughter. But prolific British playwright Alan Ayckbourn wanted a further challenge, so his Communicating Doors has only one door to be concerned about. It closes gently, many times, but dizzying complications ensue.

With their usual buoyant ways with comedies, 2nd Story Theatre is having us bob our heads in merriment as Ed Shea directs an energetic cast (through October 23).

Although it plays as straight farce, this is also a sci-fi thriller - Alfred Hitchcock meets Philip K. Dick - and they go back in time to get rehearsal notes from Feydeau.

Everything takes place in a posh hotel room, exquisitely designed by Trevor Elliot, complete with a fancy bathroom taking a quarter of the stage just so there can be a bidet that figures in the story. (Set designers must be relieved that Ayckbourn didn't have a message hidden in the ticking gear works of Big Ben.)

The antic happenings take place not only today (2011), but in 1991 and 2031. Not in flashbacks and flash forwards, that would be too conventional. Characters go back and forward in time. Nobody murders their grandfather to see if they would never be born, and no one meets their younger or older self, though we briefly meet a septuagenarian as a young man back on his honeymoon. The skyline changes, with more, fewer, or no construction cranes, according to the date.

Since I didn't draw a diagram in my notebook with arrows going this way and that, and since Shea didn't have a flowchart projected in the background for our aid, I soon threw up my hands and enjoyed being carried along in the flow - theater as whitewater rafting. The what and when and whither don't much matter after a while, since the characters are so much fun to watch coping with confusion.

First, in the present day, we meet Reece (Wayne Kneeland), a rich old businessman who made his money the old-fashioned way, by financial manipulation. He knows somehow that he is soon going to die, and since he has just had a hooker sent up to his room, we think we know how. Phoebe (Lara Hakeem) calls herself Poopay because she never liked her name, and rather than prostitute she prefers being called a "specialist sexual consultant." Hakeem makes her a chipper, fun-loving dominatrix, with whip and tight black leather bodice.

But Reece doesn't want hanky-panky, he wants her signature as witness to a confession. He's guilty about being responsible for the deaths of his two previous wealthy wives, though it was his evil business partner Julian (Terrence Shea) who drowned one in a bathtub and threw the other out a window. Julian is a human shark, and later when he gets around to threatening other women, Shea is chillingly convincing. (Really, so sinister. Ed Shea should have him silently solicit donations at the exit.)

The only stable character here is Ruella, Reece's second wife, well played with amused resolve by Sharon Carpentier. Warned by Phoebe, Ruella counter-plots survival strategy. Also brought up to date about her tentative fate, as well as up to the present time, is Reece's first wife, Jessica, played by an intense Laura Sorensen.

Involved here and there in the action is the hotel's helpful house detective, Harold (Joe Ouellette), who brings people to the room and escorts them out. At one point he is asked by Phoebe and Ruella to sneak a dead body out in a laundry hamper and make it look like he died of sexual exertion in another room. What a sport.

The process of time travel is as much fun for us as it is spooky for them. There is no complicated H.G. Wells machine clanking and hissing, as Harold wanted, just a revolving door with room only for one. It turns as lights blink with sci-fi movie sounds in the background. Cute.

It gives nothing away to reveal that all the good people here come to good ends, just as the villain gets his just desserts. Ayckbourn hasn't written an optimistic allegory about life in general, but Communicating Doors does provide a happy reminder that the future is what we make it - or how we change it.

Murder, time travel, and a dominatrix are just a sample of the items on display in 2nd Story Theatre's remarkably entertaining production of "Communicating Doors," Alan Ayckbourn's spellbinding comedy about events that transpire in the same hotel room during three different time periods.

Poopay (Lara Hakeem), a leather-clad lady of the evening who specializes in taking control of her clients, arrives at a lavish suite in a high-rise hotel. The not-so-gentle man who greets her at the door, Julian (Terrence Shea), leaves her alone with Reece (Wayne Kneeland), his lifelong friend and business partner.

Death is knocking on the frail-looking Reece's door, who isn't interested in Poopay's services. Instead, he asks her to deliver a written confession, accepting responsibility for the murder of his two former wives. His plan is foiled when Julian, the actual killer, gets wind of the guilt-ridden Reece's intentions and informs Poopay, now a loose end, that she won't be leaving the suite alive.

Poopay manages to break away from Julian's restraint and escapes behind a door that transports her to the same hotel room, 20 years earlier, on the night when Reece's second wife, Ruella (Sharon Carpentier), is scheduled to die. Not only does Poopay convince Ruella that she's from the future, but the two ladies join forces to save each other, as well as first wife, Jessica (Laura Sorensen) -- who died 20 years before Ruella -- from Julian.

Ayckbourn's farce is reminiscent of Hitchcock, complete with suspense, intrigue and potentially grisly circumstances. While the fate of these three women is cause for concern and the mounting tension on stage, the author's trademark wit and bawdy undertone is on par with Blake Edwards or Mel Brooks, and the result has its share of howlingly funny moments.

Artistic Director Ed Shea directs the cast with precision on Trevor Elliot's pristine set that is every bit as plush as it is ominous. Hakeem is delightful as the feisty dominatrix who evolves into the frightened and seemingly innocent -- albeit determined -- young woman named Phoebe.

Carpentier's tour-de-force performance as Ruella is a striking combination of nurturing mother, jilted wife and strong-willed woman. Sorensen completes this trio of cagey ladies with her sassy portrayal of Jessica.

Kneeland's charm shines as the remorseful Reece and Shea is villainously playful as his henchman, Julian. The only truly innocent bystander who provides additional comic relief to this absurd series of events is Harold, the hotel's concierge, played earnestly and purposefully by Joe Ouellette.

The prolific playwright was inspired to write this play supposedly from spending too much time in hotel rooms. Like most Ayckbourn plays, "Communicating Doors" is, first and foremost, mindless fun, but after you scratch the surface, there's a valuable lesson to be learned about regret, shame, and forgiveness.

Alan Ackbourn's Communicating Doors, which is currently playing at 2nd Story in Warren, RI, begins as a traditional, light-hearted farce, brimming with wrong assumptions and mistaken identities and quickly assumes a sci-fi/film noir vibe.

Working girl, Poopay (Lara Hakeem), has been summoned to a swanky hotel suite; not for her usual gig as "dominatrix" - but for something more in the style of "notary public". You see, Poopay has been called to witness the signature on an elderly man's confession (Wayne Kneeland as Reece) that he had his two wives murdered; with the actual deed being done by his long-time assistant, Julian (Terrence Shea).

In Ackbourn's creation, the seemingly static hotel room (a lush set, designed by Trevor Elliot) is actually three distinct settings; one present day, one exactly twenty years in the past and one exactly twenty years in the future. 2031 and 1991 are reached via the connecting, or "communicating", doors between rooms that serve as a time machine.

Poopay recruits wife #1, Jessica (Laura Sorensen as the rich, newlywed ingénue) and wife #2, Ruella (Sharon Carpentier as the grounded, plucky, spouse), to travel back and forth in time in a 40-year race against the clock: they are trying to rewrite history and prevent their own violent deaths.

There are lots of entrances and exits - just the kind that Ed Shea is known for - the actors handle the intricate staging (including a naughty, but hilarious, sight-gag) with aplomb while turning in consistently strong performances.

Lara Hakeem's Poopay is vulnerable, funny and sympathetic (not that she wants your sympathy). Hakeem does a terrific job setting tone for her cohorts Sharon Carpentier and Laura Sorenson; somewhere in between Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy and Psycho. This trio of heroines has an easy chemistry.

The male villains, Wayne Kneeland as Reece and Terrance Shea as Julian, are nicely played as 100% pure stereotype. Joe Ouellette does a fine job as the long-suffering house detective that has to deal with the chaos in three separate time periods.

Playwright Ackbourn has his characters ruminate on the effects of disrupting the time/space continuum, just enough to make the audience's head spin; under Ed Shea's deft direction the audience can forget about logic and just laugh.

Alan Ayckbourn is today's most prolific playwright.

We've enjoyed his clever, unique plays over the years, and also enjoyed one of his latest, "Communicating Doors", currently getting a splendid production at 2nd Story Theatre.

Director Ed Shea recruited Set Designer Trevor Howard to create the most elaborate set to ever grace the 2nd Story stage.

As we enter the theatre, we see this first class hotel room, complete with a modern bathroom, including a bidet, which plays a major role in the story.

Enter Poopay (Lara Hakeem), a leather-clad prostitute who is greeted by a gruff Julian (Terrence Shea), and passed off to his friend, Reece (Wayne Kneeland).

But the dying Reece doesn't want the dominatrix to provide sex. He wants her to witness the confession of his murder of two wives.

After some frantic action, both in the parlor and the bathroom, Poopay enters a closet door, which turns out to be time-warp, and travels backward and forward during the fast-paced, under two-hour play.

Poopay becomes involved in the lives of Reece's two wives (Sharon Carpenter and Laura Sorensen), traveling from present to past to future through that mysterious portal that takes her into adjoining hotel rooms.

It is a clever gimmick, although at times a bit confusing, as the one set is adequate for similar suites, with only slight alterations in appearances needed to show the passage of time.

The hotel manager (Joe Ouellette) uses a bit of stuffing to show the growth of his girth over the years, while the women change more subtly.

The biggest physical change is in Reece, going from a frisky young man to an aging dying man.

This is one of those plays where telling too much of the plot would spoil it for the audience. What I can tell you is that there are some very funny moments, all done in an old-fashioned film noir style.

Traveling through time and trying to alter future events and undo past ones can be a bit hectic at times, but if you pay attention, you will be rewarded in the end.

Essayist Eileen Warburton emphasizes the strength of the women and their ultimate victories and survival, while the men are corrupt and inept, making it, as she calls it, "a womens' play".

I guess it is, but it is also a big satire that requires perfect timing on the part of all the actors...and they succeed. At times it looks like one of those silly bedroom farces you are likely to see at Newport Playhouse or the Granite Theatre, but for the most part, it is much more cerebral and clever.

Stick with it, and you will enjoy the outcome.

2nd Story Theatre's production of "Communicating Doors" is, simply stated, a lot of fun.

It's part thriller, mostly comedy, and comes to a surprisingly sentimental conclusion. All that variety is staged on a gorgeous set highlighted with some great special effects, and if that's not enough to keep you engaged, there's time travel, too.

Written by contemporary British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, "Communicating Doors" is set in one London hotel room in the years 1991, 2011 and 2031, years chosen specifically for this production.

The play opens in the latter year as a sick, old man, Reece Welles, writes a confession of his sins and seeks an impartial witness to take the document to his lawyer.

Those sins are indeed criminal; they include murder and financial malfeasance. Because Reece can't trust his cohort, the sinister Julian Goodman, he recruits a prostitute, Poopay (she claims it's French), to witness the document and take it to his lawyer.

Poopay takes some convincing because the assignment is outside her usual line of work, but when she decides to help Reece, Julian tries to kill her. She escapes through what appears to be a door linking adjacent hotel rooms.

Instead of the next room however, Poopay finds herself in the same room - 20 years earlier. The occupant now is Reece's second wife, Ruella, who is waiting in the London hotel for her husband to return from a business trip to Greece.

Poopr Poopay is aghast, not only because she's in a new time zone but also because she knows, from reading the confession, that Reece murders Ruella, or has her murdered, to be more accurate.

There are funny moments of confusion as Ruella and Poopay size up one another and sort out what's going on, but it's Ruella who figures out how to take advantage of the time-traveling to save her life and, along the way, change Poopay's destiny.

The playwright keeps us hop-scotching among the years, and even though there is very little that's chronological, the time change doesn't get confusing.

The "view" out 2nd Story's hotel room "window" changes, the hotel security man gets and loses a paunch depending on his age, and the playwright gives us just enough information to keep us on track.

The clear tip-off, of course, is when a character goes through the communicating door.

Director Ed Shea and set designer Trevor Elliot must have had a grand time coming up with the time-travel portal. A flash of bright lights, a glimpse of the actor and a wonderful whooshing noise accompany the leaps in time, an imaginative Stargate right on stage. It's very effective - and fun.

With or without the communicating door, you'd like to stay in Elliot's hotel suite with its cushy white sofas and big throw pillows.

All six members of the cast get moments to shine, from Julian, played with convincing menace by Terrence Shea, to Joe Ouellette as the stolid security man who gets drawn into hilariously compromising situations.

Lara Hakeem does a nice job of taking her character, Poopay, from self-assured dominatrix to quavering waif in the face of Julian's threats, and Laura Sorensen is perfect as the maddeningly nonchalant first wife, Jessica, who we're not sure understands what's going on.

The mastermind of the machinations, however, is Ruella, played with aplomb by Sharon Carpentier. She is dead on with her portrayal of a woman who seems mild- mannered enough but isn't going to back down for anybody.

Finally, the always watchable Wayne Kneeland is wonderfully cold as the dying Reece and wonderfully warm when things get sentimental.

In retrospect, you'll realize how cleverly Ayckbourn used the idea of time travel to juice up his story, but as you leave the theater, you'll just be smiling and laughing. "Communicating Doors" is a lot of fun.

2nd Story Theatre's opening show of their season is Alan Ayckbourne's "Communicating Doors", which is an intricate time-traveling comic thriller. A sex specialist from the future stumbles into a murder confession scenario with an addled old man and his business partner. When she tries to escape from the hotel room via a closet door, she is transported back in time from 2031. The show is where regrets are reversed, past hurts are undone, mistakes are modified and murder gets a make over. Set in the same London hotel room in the years 1991, 2011 and 2031, "Communicating Doors" sends two heroines racing back and forth in time trying to rewrite history and change their destinies. The frantic race begins when Poopay, is hired for an evening at the Regal Hotel by the old man and as she exits through the door, it somehow triggers the time machine. Ed Shea directs his six talented performers in a series of twists and turns of the plot that is beautifully crafted and will keep you guessing as to what happens.

Ed brings out the best in his performers, creating comedy and suspense in this cleverly written comedy. He adds many comic bits and suspenseful music to this farce. He is aided in his task by production manager Max Ponticelli, set designer Trevor Elliot who creates a stunning unit set of a plush hotel room and bathroom and costumer designer Ron Cesario who comes up with some comical outfits especially Poopay's. When the heroines race back from each time period, a backdrop of the city is changed so the audience knows what year they are in and also remarkable is the turntable closet with wonderful lighting affects by Jen Rock.

Lara Hakeem plays the heroine of the show Poopay (she explains is French for doll). She wears a blonde wig in the first scene. The character sets off the time machine accidentally which leads to many funny situations in each of the three time periods. Lara commands the stage in this role of tender hearted tart with a very poignant twist at the end of the show. It is fantastic to see her back on stage after a hiatus.

Terrence Shea plays the dastardly business partner Julian. He plays this sinister character and oozes smarmy charm in the role. Terrence adds many layers to his character to hold the audience's interest all night long. Wayne Kneeland is topnotch as Reece who summons Poopay to his room. He plays a 70 year old in 2031 and a 30 year old in 1991. Wayne makes them into two distinct personalities, giving a nuanced performance in this role. Joe Ouellette is Harold, the comic hotel detective who questions Poopay in 2011 and Ruella in 1991. Joe adds to the merriment of the show.

Sharon Charpentier is terrific as the second wife. She shows off her clever side when she realizes she is about to be killed that very night and tries to stop it. Sharon shows a lot of spunk and feistiness in this part, winning many laughs along the way. Laura Sorensen plays Jessica, the sexy Southern first wife. She may be playing a dimwitted gal but she uses her brains when necessary. The three women have to put their heads together to help each other out. Saying anymore would ruin the storyline of this show, just go and see this farcical show and enjoy it without straining your brain.