‘Communicating Doors’ at the Hackmatack Playhouse

The plot of “Communicating Doors” revolves around a hotel suite and three women who play very prominent roles in the life of one man. It’s the year 2014, and when hired dominatrix Poopay (Kristan Raymond Robinson) shows up at a hotel suite, she finds two older men. The younger of the two is a menacing man named Julian (Steven Dascoulias), who finally agrees to leave the room for 15 minutes. It’s then that the other man, Reese Welles, reveals to Poopay that he doesn’t want sex—he wants her to witness his signature on a confession to the murders of his first two wives.

Realizing she’s in over her head, Poopay tries to leave, but when Welles suddenly collapses, she calls for help. Julian returns, ferociously warning Poopay not to leave until he’s gotten Welles into the bedroom. With the signed confession still in her hand, the panicked dominatrix runs into the cupboard to hide, only to find herself traveling through time to the year 1994. When she opens the door, she is in the same suite 20 years earlier, only now it is occupied by Ruella Welles (Debra Wiley), Reese’s second wife. At first, Ruella is annoyed and calls for police officer Harold Palmer. But then, at Poopay’s insistence, Ruella reads the confession. Too many of the facts match, including details of the murder of Reese’s first wife. Most disturbing is Reese’s disclosure that Julian murdered his Ruella on the very night that she and Poopay sit reading the confession.

And that’s when the plot REALLY gets crazy.

A run of the production recently concluded at the Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick, Maine. The entire cast works together like a well-oiled machine—which is especially impressive considering Debra Wiley stepped onstage to replace an absentee actress with no rehearsal and little preparation. Wiley carried the playbook in hand but barely glanced at it. In the hundreds of shows I’ve viewed, I have seen actors step up to cover before, but I have never seen an actress pull together such a complete, three-dimensional character with so little time while giving her a heart, a soul and an enormous capacity for comedy. It was, in a word, astounding. I challenge any of Broadway’s or Hollywood’s “greats” to pull this off half as well as Wiley.

I’ve gotten so used to seeing Kristan Raymond Robinson do pieces such as “The Miracle Worker,” “The Children’s Hour” and “Phaedra” that I completely forgot she is equally skilled in making people laugh. She throws herself so fully into each crazy situation, with such a desperately straight demeanor, that the result is whimsical mirth. Raymond Robinson doesn’t so much show us a character as she becomes that character. Because of this gift, we believe every blink of her eyes, be it tragic or comedic. Poopay’s life has been much less than a cotillion, and while we see her ache for it, we do not see much self-pity. She is determined to make the best of a bad lot. (An extra treat for some audience members was that she spent most of the time running around with her trim legs decorated by thigh-high lace-up spike-heel boots).

Tim Robinson plays a bumbling Englishman, and no one else bumbles so adorably. Jessica Wurtz offers an equally remarkable performance as a sweet and dim housewife with surprising flare. Steven Dascoulias—another actor who becomes his characters—is truly terrifying as the evil Julian. Something about his eyes is flat and dead, like a shark’s. To be in the room with this man is to fear him. It’s a side I’ve not seen of Dascoulias, and it was chilling.

This gorgeous cast came together to make a complicated jigsaw puzzle, only the puzzle was on a turntable going about 78 mph. Genevieve Aichele cast the show perfectly. She trusted her performers and shaped the sharp corners of each complicated story until it was sanded smooth. Her talent makes her a pillar of the Seacoast theater scene.

This is a much different sort of piece than is normally done by Hackmatack—and the change is delicious. It was much too short a run, but those who saw it now realize what they can look forward to at Hackmatack for the rest of the summer.