Communicating Doors: London Premiere Reviews

Communicating Doors opened in the West End in 1995. This page presents extracts from some of the major reviews of the London premiere of the play.

Daily Express (by Maureen Paton)
"This is Ayckbourn in his favourite male-feminist mode, albeit with the lightest and most entertaining of touches."

Daily Telegraph (by Charles Spencer)
"[Communicating Doors] is a welcome reminder that at his best Ayckbourn is still a dramatist in a class of his own. Nor that he has lost his ability to surprise and delight.... The play may be hokum, but it is superbly enjoyable hokum."

Financial Times (by Alastair Macaulay)
"Playwriting is a craft; and Alan Ayckbourn, who has been one of its master craftsmen lo these many years, takes his craftsmanship to virtuoso heights in Communicating Doors.... Ayckbourn has returned to the West End in high style."

The Guardian (by Michael Billington)
"Ayckbourn is at his most devilishly ingenious... His [Ayckbourn's] invention is still unflagging and that he knows how to exploit the theatre. As always, he directs his own work with great élan."

The Independent (by David Lister)
"It [Communicating Doors] is a clever but ultimately superficial comedy. And Ayckbourn fans awaiting the dramatist's return to top form may still feel he is still marking time, albeit with characteristic aplomb."

Independent On Sunday (by Robert Hanks)
"A hugely likeable and enjoyable comedy.... It's strong women who take control of history here, while the men are all flawed and reelable.""

Mail On Sunday (by Louise Doughty)
"A gloriously tongue-in-cheek summation of various elements from the other 45 [plays].... Ayckbourn himself directs and the combination of these talents provides that rare theatrical experience: one which lets you relax and enjoy yourself, safe in the knowledge that you are in the hands of a supreme master of theatrical technique."

The Stage (by Peter Hepple)
"Communicating Doors is so intricately constructed that I am afraid Ayckbourn left me behind more than once, yet it has such certainty and drive that one willingly accepts the premise on which it is based."

Sunday Express (by Clive Hirschhorn)
"His [Ayckbourn's] 46th play is a lightweight hybrid with Hitchcock undertones and an ingenious premise which ultimately bogs down in a plot too contrived for its own good."

Sunday Telegraph (by John Gross)
"The jokes are quite good, the thrills (with a bow to Hitchcock) are reasonably thrilling, the ingenuities are diverting enough to make you overlook the occasional hole in the plot."

The Times (by Benedict Nightingale)
"A highly enjoyable exercise in wishful fun."

Today
"Mr Ayckbourn tampers with time in a brilliantly constructed fantasy.... If ever anything had hit written all over it, Mr Ayckbourn's farce-paced production is it."

All reviews are copyright of the respective publication.