The title – No Post on Sunday – tells us we’re in nostalgia territory, back in the days when snail mail was delivered six days a week. And we’re only minutes into the play when we realise this small town called Smithville still has a post office. By the end it’s clear that everyone knows everyone else and – despite some very different personalities, concerns and objectives in life – they all care about, and for, each other in this community. Nostalgia indeed.

Initially the Meg Rollandi-designed set in Circa Two looks busy and cluttered: patterned panels at the back evoke the 1970s; cardboard boxes are strewn on stage; Venetian blinds hang in space; a hoarder’s cubbyhole on one side, a tidy domestic space on the other; a mattress and pillow tucked in near a stack of coloured pigeonholes … All very intriguing.

It begins to make sense when local radio host PK (Nicholas Smith) takes us on a audio tour of Main Street, Smithville, abetted by pop-up master Jacob Dombrowski. We discover a post office, town hall, hotel, supermarket, dog biscuit factory, train station … And, represented by a long-drop of Venetian blind, the newest building in town: a high-rise apartment block called Ultim Towers. That’s a lot of town on such a small stage!

But Everybody Cool Lives Here (Artistic Director, Rose Kirkup; play Director Isobel MacKinnon) is all about inclusion and dissolving supposed limitations. Pigeonholes may have their uses in the mainstream where such syndromes as those named after Down and Asperger lead to learning difficulties but here they present an opportunity to invent a fresh way of devising theatre.

In her programme note, MacKinnon calls their devising process a non-hierarchical “radical act” which creates “a horizontal space for these theatre makers to determine what a valuable, worthy story might be. As a result, this work is a merger of the concerns and imaginings of this company of actors.” What has emerged, from an experience she describes as “at turns unexpected, hilarious, chaotic, subtle and poignant”, is a delightful story that proved the importance of community and communication.

Three ‘stand-out’ young actors from last year’s award-winning Fringe show Wake Up Tomorrow – Duncan Armstrong, Jacob Dombrowski and Nicholas Smith – head up the No Post on Sunday cast, supported by Andrew Gunn and Barnaby Olsen as an idiosyncratic range of characters.

Armstrong and Dombrowski are consummate clowns in their respective roles of David Stanley the Post Master and Harry the Postman. David, whose habit of playing practical jokes on people is not always appreciated, is engaged to the local radio station’s roving reporter Wendy Martin, amusingly played with no-nonsense purpose by Nicholas Smith. The tall and short of it is they are a very comical couple and we can only wish them well – but something mysterious begins to threaten their future happiness.

Harry has the all-important job of delivering the mail and boy is he a smooth mover as he boogies to the muzak in the Ultim Towers lift. The Mayor (Olson) in the penthouse is expecting the plans for his promised Aqua Park, a Gentleman (Gunn) below is dependent on his medication, and the shy Woman (Olson) further down still seems to have attracted Harry’s affections given she ends up with a gift he was supposed to send to the Mayor’s wife on holiday in Barbados (one of many piquant set-ups that disappear into the ether).

On the other side of town, Eco Bill (Gunn) lives in his Eco House and makes art objects from other people’s junk. Every day he hopes against hope for a letter from his son and Harry is very compassionate as the days pass without a result.

Only we see the mysterious black-gloved hands interfere with the mail in the dead of night. But everyone suffers when David’s invitation to Wendy to a romantic dinner goes astray and Wendy’s fan letter to Jason Kerrison (lead singer of Op Shop) ends up in the wrong hands and is misinterpreted.

Misunderstanding and miscommunication have been grist to the comedy mill for centuries and here they are expertly exploited for pathos as well as fun. Best known for his hi-jinks antics, Duncan Armstrong’s internalised sadness at Wendy’s no-show is truly moving.

The sound design by Rowan Pierce and Owen McCarthy’s lighting enrich the experience greatly, as do Meg Rollandi’s costume designs. Stage manager Lucie Camp and her Assistant Catherine McBride complete the team that delivers on its promise.

Amid the animated after-show chit-chat more than one person compares it to Wheeler’s Luck, and it occurs to me there’s a bit of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in there too. But No Post on Sunday stands proudly on its own as a highly entertaining and often poignant tale about community and communication: a fine example of Kiwi commedia. 

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