All in the Timing is a rendition of David Ives’ one-act comedies, which explore the effect of random chance. The first, and arguably the best, of these is Sure Thing, in which a couple meet for the first time in a café. Time is hacked all ways as each of their social blunders triggers a game-show bell which rewinds the scene. Bill (Rob Hemmens) and Betty (Isabella Charlton Stevens) play out toe-curling misfootings until they finally establish a connection which fast-forwards them into a blissful future together. It’s a wonderfully funny evocation of the idea that relationships hinge upon a roulette of timing as much as attraction or a meeting of minds.
The Universal Language showcases the playfulness and linguistic invention of Ives’ writing. Here, Dawn (Claire Stevenson) seeks the services of Don, a fraudster who professes to teach Unamunda, a language of his own invention which he claims will “unite all humankind”. In a skilful display of verbal gymnastics, the two duet a jabberwocky of cod-European and doowop tropes. Through this apparently meaningless babble they discover a heightened meaning and a love which inadvertently proves the claims Don made for his language.
Words, Words, Words sees simian versions of Swift, Milton and Kafka as the subject of an experiment to see if they can rewrite Hamlet. As literary allusions trip from their unwitting mouths, the subject matter of the play infiltrates their consciousnesses. This reaches its apogee in Swift’s hunger for revenge, which leads to the chimps' literary – as well as lived – recreation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. It’s a wonderfully subversive satire that layers dramatic ironies around a play built of that very stuff.
Somewhat less successful than the other plays, Variations on the Death of Trotsky is nonetheless an entertainingly absurd skit.
Reminiscent of Will Self’s short stories, All in the Timing creates a set of spin-off worlds in which the ludicrous fosters its own logic. Smart, silly and highly enjoyable, it’s well worth catching.