Pure Ayckbourn Farce in ‘How the Other Half Loves’

“How the Other Half Loves,” an early installment in British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s longtime mission to turn the form of farce on its head, receives an exceptionally tight revival, courtesy of Peter Grego’s staging for West Coast Ensemble.

The precision is much needed--the play’s ingenious structuring conceit, in which two separate locations (and story lines) simultaneously share the same stage space, demands (and gets) unwavering focus and split-second timing from its performers.

Fueling the frenetically paced high jinks is a favorite Ayckbourn plot geometry--the hopelessly entangled sex lives of three couples, each from a different social class. Ramona Rhoades and Edmund L. Shaff are the conservative well-to-do’s impeccably schooled in the art of genteel subterfuge; Kathleen Bailey and Christopher B. Duncan are the loosely principled, outspoken yuppies, and Marjorie Bowman and Peter Lavin the naive young marrieds who become the scapegoats when Shaff and Duncan try to cover up their illicit affair.

There’s no trace here of the deepening seriousness of purpose that would emerge later in Ayckbourn’s career--this one’s for those who like their farces pure, if far from simple.

With Ayckbourn’s characters defined primarily by their socioeconomic status (even the kind of office in which the men work together is never specified), the implicit challenge is to invest them with less generic qualities. While the cast evokes their respective stereotypes with gleeful accuracy, Bowman distinguishes herself with the quirky nuances she adds to her mousy housewife. Also noteworthy are Bailey’s fiery-tempered outbursts and Shaff’s acid sarcasm.

The meticulous set design by Don Gruber skillfully blends the different styles of the two overlapping homes to make a suitably detailed playing field. Keeping up with the Ping-Pong dialogue and cross-stage antics might stiffen a neck or two, but it’s well worth the sacrifice.

* “How the Other Half Loves,” West Coast Ensemble, 6240 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends July 10. $15. (213) 871-1052. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.