Communicating Doors [Paperback]

Alan Ayckbourn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 1995

How Ms. Poopay Dayseer, a twenty-first century Specialist Sexual Consultant, while peddling her 'services' to an elderly hotel room client unexpectedly finds herself running for her life. How her flight through a communicating door brings her face to face with her own past and with Ruella who apparently died under suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier. And how Poopay's gradual friendship with that remarkable woman changes the future for both of them...

A time-travelling comedy thriller, Communicating Doors is published to coincide with the West End opening in 1995.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in London in 1939, Alan Ayckbourn spent most of his childhood in Sussex and was educated at Haileybury. Leaving there one Friday at the age of seventeen, he went into the theatre the following Monday and has been working in it ever since as, variously, a stage manager, sound technician, scene painter, prop-maker, actor, writer and director. These last two talents he developed thanks to his mentor, Stephen Joseph, whom he first met in 1958 upon joining his newly formed Studio Theatre Company in Scarborough. A BBC Radio Drama Producer from 1965 to 1970, upon the death of Stephen Joseph, he returned to Scarborough to become the company's Artistic Director. He holds the post to this day, though the theatre is now named after its founder. He is the author of over fifty plays, most of which received their first performance at this Yorkshire theatre, were he spends the greater part of the year directing other people's work. More than half of his plays have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or at the RSC. They have been translated into over thirty languages, are seen on stage and television throughout the world, and have received many national and international awards. Alan Ayckbourn was appointed a CBE in 1987 and in 1997 became to first playwright knighted since Terence Rattigan. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (August 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571176828
• ISBN-13: 978-0571176823
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #927,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite Literally, I Laughed, I Cried, July 22, 2000

By 

Abigail Stone - See all my reviews

This review is from: Communicating Doors (Paperback)

This is hard play to describe. I'd call it something like a funny, heart-warming thriller. "Communicating Doors" is the story of a prostitute named Phoebe who is given the chance to save her own life and the lives of two other women when, fleeing a murderer through a communicating door, she finds herself unexpectedly twenty years in the past. This play made me feel a full range of emotions in three hours when I saw it in the theater, and reading it was almost as good. Ruella and Phoebe, the two main characters, are two of the most likable and complex people I've encountered recently in literature. It kept me laughing, and in suspense, right up through the final scene. I rarely give out five stars, but this play deserves it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alan Ayckbourn, Communicating Doors, January 20, 2008

By 

Roland Goodbody (Portsmouth, NH USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Communicating Doors (Paperback)

I was completely won over by this play's clever mix of the comic, the fantastic, and the thrilling. It held me riveted until the very end and its main character (Poopay) was a delight. See a good production of it and you'll bound to end up an Ayckbourne fan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious!, September 19, 2007

By 

Gertrude13 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Communicating Doors (Paperback)

Starts quite slowly, but stick with it!! Act II is ridiculous, hilarious, and a wonderful ending.