Alan Ayckbourn’s Second Act Surprises with Comic Mayhem

by Zack Rogow

I don’t want to be the spoiler, but I’ll just say that Act I of “Improbable Fiction” is as different from Act II as Kansas is from Oz. And yet …the two parts of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy are connected, just as the people around Uncle Henry and Aunt Em’s farm in The Wizard of Oz metamorphose into the characters in the Emerald City.

Ayckbourn’s “Improbable Fiction” begins with a realistic setting in a cozy British living room where Arnold (C. Conrad Cody) plays the perennial host for a writers’ group. The writers disdain each other’s work, despite Arnold’s best efforts to offer encouragement and keep the peace. In this collection of wannabe authors, each member writes in a different genre: sci-fi, mystery, children’s picture books, historical romance, musicals, and even instruction manuals.

The writers’ facial expressions and body language express what they really think of each other’s work—great fun! Jess (Lori Mrochinski) cannot hide her grimaces from the extremely earnest Grace (Alicia von Kugelgen).

Grace fancies herself an author-illustrator of children’s books, but she only does the drawings. Jess rolls her eyes at Grace, but Jess cannot even start her own novel, saying: “Just by writing, I’ll ruin it.”

To bring this contentious group together, the host Arnold proposes that, despite their writing in such disparate genres, they could collaborate on a collective work. Even though everyone pooh-poohs this ridiculous suggestion, that’s when the fun really begins.

Suddenly, Act II brings in lightning-fast costume changes. Cheers for the costume designer Ava Byrd and to the backstage crew who make those rapid and multiple transformations possible. The lighting, props, and outfits play a big role in the humor of “Improbable Fictions,” all excellently well done at Masquers.

Does playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s gamble to make Act II so different from the first half of the play pay off? There were many chuckles and giggles in this comedy, but not many belly laughs. Ayckbourn relies for the play’s humor on the silliness of bad genre writing, mocking overblown descriptions in historical romance novels, and the predictable action of a melodramatic detective story.

The playwright gets a lot of mileage out of the malapropisms of the sci-fi writer, who keeps using the wrong multisyllabic word. Those jokes making fun of failed authors feel like a flimsy premise, though, for a full-length play. To my mind, the best comedy is, oddly enough, serious. It shows us something deep about human nature or our society, and belly laughs come partly from that recognition.

“Improbable Fiction” at Masquers Playhouse lacks substance, but it has an excellent and highly versatile cast, and it’s an enjoyable romp.

“Improbable Fiction” by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Angela Mason, scenic design by John Hull, Angela Mason & Michael Clark, costumes by Ava Bird, lighting & sound by Michael O’Brien, by Masquers Playhouse, at Point Richmond, California.

Info: masquers.org – to March 1, 2026.

Cast: C. Conrad Cady, Atessa McAleenan-Morrell, Lori Mrochinski, Alicia von Kugelgen, Anna Kosiarek, Tyler Null, and Simon Patton.

Zack Rogow is a playwright, poet, and literary translator based in Berkeley.