REVIEW by Willard Manus

Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most prolific playwrights in the history of the theater. COMMUNICATING DOORS, now playing at the Odyssey Theatre, is his sixty-first play--and it shows. A contrived, Twilight Zone black comedy about people in a hotel room who walk through a door and find themselves transported back and forth in time, the play has nothing fresh or worthy to say, and is little more than a theatrical exercise, a triumph of technique over content. Wordy, too long at 2 1/2 hours, and directed at a screechy, one-note pace by Barry Philips, COMMUNICATING DOORS mixes murder, kinky sex, marriage and time-travel in uneasy, less-than-credible fashion. The 6-person cast--Amy Chaffee, Ron Bottina, Michael Carr, Lisa Pelikan, Alan Brooks and Rachel Lyeria--work their tails off trying to make this dud play come to life, but it just doesn't happen.
       

        
Through Sept. 27 at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Ave. Call (3l0) 477-2055.