ACT Theatre's 'Intimate Exchanges' Opens Tonight 8/21

A Contemporary Theatre's production of the brilliantly constructed social comedy Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn will run from August 15-September 14.

Exploring the consequences of our tiniest everyday decisions, this laugh-out-loud farce mines the space between the lives we hoped for and the lives we have. Two actors, Seattle favorites Marianne Owen and R. Hamilton Wright, play six characters whose crucial decisions determine the course of the story on any given night. Four possible endings and without-a-net acting make Ayckbourn's riotous investigation of fate and free will a blast for audience and cast alike.

 "Ayckbourn has created in very human terms a description of how capricious fate is," said ACT Artistic Director Kurt Beattie. "It's a dazzling tour de force for great comedic actors. And a hilarious description of our chaotic universe. It is one of Ayckbourn's greatest plays and speaks to us vividly about a lack of emotional and spiritual compass that most of us experience today."

Written by one of the world's most popular and prolific professional playwrights, Intimate Exchanges is comprised of eight plays generated from a single opening scene. At the end of each scene, a choice is made and the play divides into its various permutations from this, leading to a basic structure of one prologue; two first scenes; four second scenes; eight third scenes and sixteen fourth scenes. Although there are 16 different permutations, the play is split into eight distinct plays, each of which has an alternate ending.

"The female character makes a decision in the first few lines of the play and from that two quite different scenes develop. The play is about those tiny decisions we all make in our lives that lead to bigger consequences. It's a huge concept and is very difficult as there are just two actors playing a total of ten roles. All the characters are very different and it is a feat of memory for the actors to learn about 16 to 17 hours worth of dialogue. After a production like this you don't have a nerve in your body because it can't get any worse!" said Ayckbourn in an interview with Scarborough Evening News, January 4, 2006.

Intimate Exchanges is rarely performed featuring all 16 storylines due to the inherent challenges of navigating the quick-changes necessary to keep the momentum of the play, not to mention the need for two actors capable of convincingly playing multiple characters-all with different dialects, looks, ages and emotional states, and often occupying disparate physical spaces.

ACT will stage two possible story lines, each with two possible endings for a total of four different plays. Four set scenarios are being designed, along with 24 costumes showcased in more than 30 changes averaging 30-seconds each! All carried out by a master team of dressers and the stellar acting talents of Owen and Wright.

 "It's a great challenge for the director and actors because it needs to move speedily and with nuance," concluded Beattie.

Audiences will have an opportunity to see all four versions based on a pre-determined schedule (see below) which will be made available online and in the lobby space.

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