FATE as much as a fete plays its hand in A Garden Fete, one of the octet of interlinking plays that make up Alan Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges.

Just to remind you, all eight with their 16 different endings, ten characters and only two actors are running between now and May 5 in the Grand Slam finale to the first production of the full cycle since Ayckbourn's 1982 premiere. Badges for loyal service await those who complete the set.

A Garden Fete is the blonde on blond play: the one where callow, slouching teenager/fair maiden Sylvie Bell (Claudia Elmhirst), home help to the headmaster's wife, wonders whether she is doomed to village life with school handyman Lionel Hepplewick (Bill Champion), he of the lolloping gait, unruly straw thatch and big ideas beyond the cricket field boundary. Is her life mapped out or will fate cast her to the wind?

This is Pygmalion or My Fair Lady with not one but two tutors: Lionel and his blunt advice on deportment and dress in the first half, followed by English literature lessons with alcoholic headmaster Toby Teasdale.

Elsewhere in Intimate Exchanges, Teasdale has ranted like one of those Grumpy Old Men on BBC2 about the ills of British life - a speech that has had audience members asking for the list of complaints to be printed on tea towels or T-shirts! - but here we see another side of him, vulnerability and frustration.

Just once in 15 years, he says, he comes across a pupil who makes him feel he can make a difference and blossoms under his tutelage, but always this is the pupil who falls by the wayside. Champion's best characterisation peaks anew as the roots of Teasdale's slump into alcoholism are exposed, and the scene is all the more remarkable for being played out while he throws sponges at Sylvie in the stocks.

Elmhirst, too, plays this comic yet sad contretemps with exquisite pathos, and her layered performance as Sylvie brings a lump to the throat.

Ayckbourn's direction adds yet more to Elmhirst's still burgeoning skills.

One more reason to see A Garden Fete: Champion's cameo as wheelchairbound Joe Hepplewick, homily-spouting village poet and God-fearing bigot and pedant. An old man as awful as his poetry, but twice as funny.

Intimate Exchanges, A Garden Fete, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, last two performances, April 25, 2.30pm, May 2, 7.30pm. Box office: 01723 370541.