STAGE REVIEW : A Light Piece of Fluff : What ‘Relatively Speaking’ misses in production values, it makes up for in wonderful flights of dialogue.

Alan Ayckbourn’s “Relatively Speaking” is very early Ayckbourn (1965). At this point, it might even be called vintage Ayckbourn. It holds up very well, for the light piece of fluff it is. It was written, by the playwright’s own admission, to amuse summer tourists, and these many years later, it is still able to get its honest laughs.

Like Noel Coward, Ayckbourn--even this early--doesn’t write one-liners. His humor comes out of character, and out of the actors’ and director’s understanding that surprising laughs can come out of very ordinary pieces of dialogue.

This production, which began as a workshop at Theatre West, is now at the Richard Basehart Playhouse under the direction of John Carter, and he and his company certainly know the territory.

Carter’s tempos are brisk without being hurried, and he keeps the conversational tone of the dialogue crisp.

Greg and Ginny have been lovers for a month, and it looks as if they might wind up married, at least if Greg has anything to do with it. Of course, there’s the question of those mysterious phone calls to Ginny’s flat at odd hours, the boxes of candy shoved into a bureau drawer, the bouquets of flowers flooding the flat, and the strange men’s slippers under her bed. And there’s the quick trip to her parents’ home that she refuses to let Greg share.

Rest assured, like the craftsman he is, when Ayckbourn has slippers in the first scene, they do become important before the final curtain.

All four of the actors involved in the missed meanings and mixed intents seem to Ayckbourn born.

Particularly impressive is Andrew Parks’ Greg, bemused throughout, continually optimistic in spite of every wrong turn of his imagination. Sara Ballantine’s frenetic Ginny, alternatively loving Greg and dodging the truth, matches Parks’ ease with the deceptively simple lines.

Margaret Muse and Marc Grady Adams, as the older couple who are at the center of Greg’s confusion, don’t have the flashy fun the younger players have to work with, but know how to get sparks from what Ayckbourn has given them.

Although the main thing here is the wonderful flights of dialogue, production values could be a little fuller. But what can you expect when the sets are by Gum and the costumes by Golly?

Where and When What: “Relatively Speaking.” Location: Richard Basehart Playhouse, 21028-B Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills. Hours: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 7. Price: $12 to $15. Call: (818) 701-1845.