Alan Ayckbourn's plays are outrageously funny. But not all of them are farce, as many assume.
However, "Taking Steps," which Live Theatre Workshop opens next week, is a farce. Ayckbourn himself says so.
"I have written very little true farce," he said in the program notes when the play premiered in Scarborough, England, in 1979.
"Some of my comedies have touched on the farcical, but 'Taking Steps' is really my first since 'How the Other Half Loves.' "
Whatever he calls it, Kristi Loera, director of the Live Theatre production, calls it very funny.
"I love Alan Ayckbourn," says Loera. "He's so funny and he's so smart. His farces have intelligence behind them. The characters have stuff they are invested in."
But Loera has chosen a difficult one to stage: Instead of the doors that are numerous in farces, this play has floors. Three of them.
People are also reading…
While those are three floors on one surface, it still presents a challenge to the tiny Live Theatre space.
"For me, the hardest part has been making sure all sight lines were there," she says.
"I spent two weeks walking around the U (the shape of the stage) to make sure it worked in our space, and all of our audience could see."
Here's how the playwright has described the story:
"An attic, a lounge, a wife in a quandary and a fiancee in a cupboard, a devious builder, a nervous solicitor, a ponderous personnel officer and a drunken bucket manufacturer all embroiled in a tale of love, confusion and freedom."
This is how we describe it: Elizabeth is at a house her husband, Roland, hopes to buy. It's a one-time brothel that is supposed to be haunted. Rather than wait for her husband, Elizabeth scribbles Roland a note to tell him she's leaving him, then asks her very boring brother, Mark, to offer Roland comfort when he reads the note.
While he's waiting for Roland to show up, Mark discovers his fiancee, Kitty, has been picked up for soliciting. He leaves to get her out of jail. Meanwhile, Roland (he made his fortune in buckets) meets Tristram, the man selling the house, and Bainbridge, a shady builder, at the house.
When Mark returns with Kitty, he sees the note hasn't been read, so he assumes Roland hasn't shown up yet. Kitty, exhausted from her troubles, goes to nap in a spare room.
And so the mix-ups begin.
Don't assume this baby is just a barrel of laughs.
"In this particular play, I think he has things to say about love and confusion and freedom," Loera says.
"However, it's also an amazingly hilarious farce."
And she wants the people in the audience to take something with them:
"I hope they take the worst side-ache they've ever had from laughing more than in any other play. And I hope they have a great ride."
If you go
"Taking Steps"
• By: Alan Ayckbourn.
• Presented by: Live Theatre Workshop.
• Director: Kristi Loera.
• When: Previews are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and next Friday; opening is 7:30 p.m. May 7. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through June 12.
• Where: Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway.
• Tickets: Previews $12; regular performances $18, with discounts available.
• Reservations/information: 327-4242.
• Running time: About 2 hours, 15 minutes with one intermission.
• Cast: Travis Martin, Michael Woodson, Amanda Gremel, Nicholas Sebastian Gallardo, Stephen Frankenfield, Michael Woodson and Shanna Brock.
Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.
