‘INTIMATE EXCHANGES’ AT OLD GLOBE

If he hasn’t already done so, there’s a clear chance that Alan Ayckbourn will join the ranks of writers whose names have been solemnized by becoming adjectives.

While Ayckbournesque may seem a bit rococo (Ayckbourn, one suspects, would be the first to laugh), the word would have to denote plays with his same diabolical taste for comic geometry: three bedrooms on one stage (“Bedroom Farce”), a simultaneous time-frame in three separate plays (“The Norman Conquests”), a different kitchen in each of three acts (“Absurd Person Singular”) or three floors of a house compressed into one, with action happening on all three at once (“Taking Steps”). But who else would have such a crossword puzzle sense of dramatic strategy?

If not necessarily Ayckbourn’s best play--or, in this case, plays--”Intimate Exchanges,” which just had its partial American premiere at the Old Globe, is surely his most devilish one to date. It is a set of 16 permutations springing from one weedy English garden and one pair of actors--repeat, one--playing up to five roles apiece.

Within the first five seconds of “Exchanges,” the identical setting gives rise to two possible opening scenes. Five days into the action, each of these has two possible second scenes, from which comes a choice of two third scenes and, finally, a choice of two closing scenes. This constitutes 30 scenes and 16 possible endings and 400 pages of script, of which the Globe, which has demonstrated an abiding affection for Ayckbourn, has chosen to give us a taste: Just two permutations of one play served on alternating days. They are “Affairs in a Tent” and “A Pageant,” with “A Pageant” the funnier and more touching of the two.

Ingenious? Yes, and surprisingly simple in the presentation (if not in the devising), even if the presence of just two actors playing so many roles means a good deal of tricky and contrived onstage-to-offstage communication while one or the other performer changes a costume.

Yet if Ayckbourn were merely a creator of gimmicks and gag lines--he would not be attaining the prominence increasingly bestowed on him. He is much more than that: a British Neil Simon (or latter-day Moliere), with the same talent for funny dialogue dictated by real characters in a state of terminal anguish, with serious dimension, acute national temperament and a vivid offstage life.

Bored wife, alcoholic husband, dense handyman, insecure young nitwit are not illustrious points of departure for “Intimate Exchanges,” but they suffice. The action itself is even less exceptional. In play one, “Affairs in a Tent,” we follow the collapse of Celia Teasdale’s marriage to her alcoholic school principal of a husband, as she skirts an affair with the handyman, Lionel Hepplewick, who is already involved in one with Celia’s ditzy household helper, Sylvie Bell. If this sounds complicated, it only gets more so when you consider that both Sylvie and Celia are played by Kandis Chappell, while Lionel and Toby Teasdale are both played by William Anton.

“A Pageant” gives us the same characters in another configuration. Toby and Sylvie, who has decided she wants an education, fall in love during some private tutoring sessions. After some wrangling over who is to play the queen in a school pageant, Sylvie or Celia, a decision over who is to remain queen in Toby’s life is equally resolved. A consummation of extramarital passions is averted, capped by a surprisingly warm and happy ending.

To illustrate Ayckbourn’s keen knowledge of human nature, compare the alternate endings of “Affairs in a Tent.” In the one the Old Globe gives us, the hitherto dithering and debilitated Celia becomes a successful businesswoman encountering her ex, Toby, still smoking and drinking and rather at loose ends in a country churchyard. The other ending offers Toby, who has stopped smoking and drinking, having become a full-time caretaker for a totally fallen-apart Celia.

And so it goes. As if playing all of these characters were not enough, there are peripheral ones, also undertaken by the stalwart Anton and Chappell. What’s fun is comparing the actor to himself--noting, for instance, that Chappell’s Celia doesn’t hold a candle to her Sylvie Bell, simply because Sylvie is more fun. Observing the contrivances that allow for all of the permutations and different characters to exist is also part of the entertainment.

Those contrivances, of course, are also what get in the way. Suspension of disbelief is sometimes a tall order--along with the specifically English character of the humor. It takes some getting used to, but director Craig Noel has an uncanny feel for Ayckbourn’s special brand of comedy. He’s done a splendid job of heightening the ramifications. It’s an evening and a half, not to say two.

Performances in Balboa Park continue through May 3, with “Affairs in a Tent” playing Wednesdays and Fridays, 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 and 8 p.m., while “A Pageant” plays Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., ending May 3. Tickets: $16-$22. (619) 239-2255.