The Wayside Motor Inn

One hotel room, 10 characters, five simultaneous subplots, one night: If it weren’t for the glaring lack of British accents, you’d swear The Wayside Motor Inn was an Alan Ayckbourn play. Of course, the smiling photo of 83-year-old A.R. Gurney on the Playbill cover is another giveaway. You know you’re at Off Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center to see a revival of a 1978 work by America’s most prolific dramatist, who in 2013 turned out play No. 53. But the interwoven construction is straight out of Ayckbourn, the indefatigable 75-year-old Englishman who’s penned 78 full-length plays himself. And that’s a fine place to be. Gurney fans may feel a little displaced for a couple other reasons. The setting is Boston not the playwright’s usual haunts in Buffalo, N.Y., or its environs. And the motel’s denizens—empty-nest seniors Frank and Jessie (Jon DeVries and Lizbeth Mackay), oily sales rep Ray (Quincy Dunn-Baker) and wisecracking waitress Sharon (Jenn Lyon), and more—aren’t his usual WASP subjects. It just might be the most un-Gurney Gurney play you’ll ever see—which makes Wayside all the more captivating. (On a related note, his late ’80s two-character hit Love Letters begins performances on Broadway Sept. 13.)