April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Alan Ayckbourn’s “The Norman Conquests,” revived in London by Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic Company and now exported to Broadway, is a remarkable invention.

Three full-length comedies view the same extended-family July weekend in adjacent locales, providing titillating revelations as funny as they are serious. They may be seen in any order, and if you don’t have time for all three, each stands perfectly well on its own.

You may not yet know the six fine young British actors, but you will recognize at least one person they play: yourself.

Ayckbourn, now 70, has some 70 plays under his belt. They are comedies of the best sort: hilarious and frolicsome on the surface, sobering, even melancholy underneath. They generate superior laughter, whereby you laugh not only at the people on stage but also at the real members of your own family they inevitably evoke.

We are in the Victorian home occupied by unmarried Annie and her unseen termagant mother, bedridden upstairs, but casting a formidably unnerving shadow on the entire family. Because Annie is finally about to take a weekend holiday, her henpecked brother Reg and persnickety wife Sarah are visiting to care for mother. So, too, is brother-in-law Norman, a bumbling but charming associate librarian and would-be seducer, plotting that clandestine weekend with Annie.

Shy Veterinarian

Present as well is Tom, a shy veterinarian, presumptive mate for Annie, but too timid and tongue-tied to press his suit. They will eventually be joined by Annie’s sister Ruth, Norman’s domineering businesswoman wife. These constitute a sextet whose attempts at conviviality are continually frustrated by repressed urges, unsuccessful adulteries and impotent rage at crippling self-consciousness.

In “Table Manners,” we are in the dining room, amused by the antics of frumpy, sex-starved Annie, maritally disappointed and officious Sarah, grudgingly uxorious Reg, timorously enamored Tom and irrepressible imaginary Don Juan, Norman, hatching that weekend with Annie though ever-dominated by Ruth.

In “Living Together,” we get serial frustrations in the living room. Sarah foils Annie and Norman’s projected escapade. Tom makes a bit of a fool of himself trying to locate Annie’s cat, whose foot he should treat. Reg strains unsuccessfully to initiate a session with one of his self-invented and risibly complicated board games. Norman’s debilitating drunkenness vies with Ruth’s muddle-making myopia in setting off contretemps.

No Sex, Please

Finally, in “Round and Round in the Garden,” some wildly boisterous but maladroit sexual tussles involve Tom with Ruth and Annie with Norman. Fiascos abound and Norman finally confronts Ruth, Annie and Sarah, all three of whom he has been sexually pecking at, leading to a riotously deflating epiphany.

It is preferable, though hardly imperative, to see all three plays on the same day. However it is done, one’s slaphappy involvement with these befuddled but assiduous clowns grows from play to play, until one finds oneself howlingly absorbed in their thrashings and belly-flops.

The six actors -- Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Stephen Mangan, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter and Amanda Root -- could not be better, and Matthew Warchus (of “Boeing-Boeing” and “God of Carnage” fame) conclusively establishes himself as one of our era’s supreme farce directors. Production values are up to snuff, notably Rob Howell’s costumes and David Howe’s lighting, and the writing is consistently superb.

Ayckbourne’s greatness lies in deriving humor not so much from outrageous plotting and streams of one-liners, a la Neil Simon, as from deep insight into human foibles, affectionate kidding of erotic fantasies and verbal pratfalls, and unerring evocation of human folly and flailing. In short, his unsurpassable understanding of our fragile, fallible human condition.

At Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway at 50th Street. Information: +1-212-239-6200; http://www.telecharge.com. Rating: ****

What the Stars Mean:
****       Excellent
***        Good
**         Average
*          Poor
(No stars) Worthless

(John Simon is the New York drama critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: John Simon in New York at jis1925@aol.com.

Last Updated: April 23, 2009 22:30 EDT