Taking Steps

What do you do when you are buying a derelict house for your wife but find that she is leaving you? That is only the beginning of Alan Ayckbourn’s 24^th play Taking Steps.

Ayckbourn has written and produced more than seventy full-length plays, beginning in 1972. Taking Steps is an early play (1979) and challenging for any company to present. St Jude’s Players have met that challenge and are largely successful.

The play takes place on one mad night in three rooms of a creaky mansion, ready for re-development. However, in a typically Ayckbourn twist, all three rooms are presented on one level with the actors pretending to walk or run up and down stairs and through corridors around the three rooms.

It takes a little while to adjust to this quirk, watching actors seemingly being ignored by other actors (because they are in different rooms). However, once the audience become used to it, they can settle back and enjoy the convolutions of the plot.

Director Kym Clayton has done a polished job masterminding the movement on a small stage. Thanks to his work the play flows smoothly and the characters are clearly defined. I particularly enjoyed his addition of music to highlight Mark’s soliloquies.

I don’t normally mention the script in a review as this is beyond the actor’s control, but the plot establishment of this play takes a long time and the laughs in Act 1 don’t start for quite a while. Performing multi-levels on one level contributes to this. Judicial cutting of long scenes often helps but is not always permitted by the licencing company.

Jack Robins gives us a suitably bombastic, self-centred Roland. His pill induced sleeping scene in Act 2 was a delight. Varying his tone a little more would give his long speeches variety.

Anita Zamberlan Canala, as Lizzie, has a delightfully irritating English drawl. As she notes in the programme, “Lizzie represents the high maintenance big sister you’re glad you don’t have.” She is totally believable as the aging second rate dancer and holds many scenes together.

Mason Willis’ Mark is Lizzie’s brother, who is caught in the middle of the whole marriage breakup while trying to engineer a reunion with his ex-fiancé. His version of stair climbing is for me, the funniest, as were his ramblings that put other actors to sleep. On opening night his accent was not always consistent lapsing into Australian at the start of the play, but this improved as the play developed.

Adrian Heness’ Tristram, the substitute lawyer, provides some of the funniest moments in the play. Too often tall actors do not use their height to advantage; Heness does and this adds another level of humour to many of his scenes. I particularly enjoyed his scenes in bed, alternately praying and being molested by a sleeping Lizzie. His scenes with Kitty (Mark’s ex-fiancé) were touching and amusing at the same time.

Tony Busch is well known for cleverly drawn characters and his Leslie, the owner of the house desperate for a sale, is no exception. Ingratiating to the max he slimes his way through the play, and the scene in which he is mistaken for an intruder is wonderfully funny. He gives a highly entertaining performance.

Jessica McGaffin’s Kitty (Mark’s ex-fiancé) starts slowly but builds in Act 2 and as mentioned above, her scenes with Tristram are very tender.

St Jude’s have a well-deserved reputation for making the most of a small stage space and this set is no exception; well executed and with attention to detail, it becomes one of the stars of the play. Set dressing and costumes are appropriate to the period and add another finishing touch.

Due to sudden serious illness, Mary-Jane Minear had to take over lighting and sound at the last minute and while there were, understandably, a few sticky moments, I am confident these will be corrected over the next few performances.

While Taking Steps takes a while to warm up, Act 2 delivers in a number of ways.

Barry Hill