Alphabetical Order

Michael Frayn’s 1975 comedy, set in the clippings library of a provincial English newspaper, plays like an elegy to print media. Penned a few years before Frayn’s Noises Off redefined farce, Alphabetical Order shares some of that work’s playfulness but lacks its ingenuity and comic abandon. Although director Carl Forsman and his Keen Company ensemble handle the material competently, the characters still seem like stock types out of a 1970s sitcom.—Pamela Newton