by Hugh Hunter

Old Academy Players has fallen in love with the work of David Lindsay-Abaire. In recent years, they have produced “Rabbit Hole” (Pulitzer Prize winner) and “Fuddy Meers.” Now they add “Ripcord” (2015) to their growing list, a comedy set in the Bristol Park Retirement Home about two roommates who quarrel in “Odd Couple” fashion.

Abby, a four-year resident, has chased out everyone who has tried to live with her. But good-natured Marilyn wants to stay. This leads to a whacko contest: If Abby gets Marilyn to feel hate, Marilyn agrees to leave, but if Marilyn scares Abby, Marilyn gets to sleep in the bed by the sunny window.

At first, this feels like too limp a premise to float a play, but "Ripcord" proves to be an engaging show. Its appeal lies in the funny, unpredictable ways the women attack and counterattack. Residence nurse Scotty (Chestnut Hill’s Christopher Wunder) is puzzled by their antics but powerless to stop them.

Director Terri Bateman recruits so many Old Academy regulars to play the key roles it feels a bit like a homecoming. Patricia Pelletreau stays perfectly in character as Abby, inventive in her deadpan malice. She also gets to deliver Lindsay-Abaire’s most biting witticisms.

Chris Cutrufello shines in the more slippery role of Marilyn, who manages to avoid being visibly angry by reserving her hatred for all the playfully vicious ways she scares her foe. In her attack plans, Marilyn enlists daughter Colleen (Michele Scutti) and Derek (Jim Golden), her son-in-law.

Bateman, together with Carla Childs, built the set design. Two single beds flank the side walls like dueling warriors. A single light behind a rear wall scrim curtain is used to create scene changes – a park bench, an airplane cargo bay, a house of horrors. (Perhaps inspired by Lindsay-Abaire’s imagination, the troupe uses the curtain for a charming, end-of-show coda they themselves created.)

Essentially, “Ripcord” is an upper tier situation comedy. The succession of attacks and counterattacks result in the women “getting personal,” and we come to care about them. In a graceful way we learn of troubling events in Marilyn’s life. We also learn how Abby came to be so curmudgeonly. And thanks to Marilyn’s meddling, Abby's estranged son Benjamin (Norm Burnosky) dramatically shows up.

Lindsay-Abaire made his mark with warm comedies. He departed from that approach with the more tragic “Rabbit Hole.” But in “Ripcord,” he returns to his prior form, and he has the resourcefulness not to merely redo earlier comedies. He must have been influenced by “The Odd Couple,” but as the women get to know each other through verbal combat, “Ripcord” departs from Neil Simon's darker world of settled alienation.

Old Academy Players is located at 3544 Indian Queen Ln. “Ripcord” will run through June 30. Information at 215-843-1109.