Taking StepsAlan AyckbournFarce. 2 Acts - Scarborough 1979 M4 (25-40s) F2 (20s, 30s). A lounge, bedroom, attic, hall and stairs. |
|
Hard-drinking bucket tycoon Roland has been renting The Pines, a large Victorian manor house and former brothel said to be haunted by ghostly prostitute Scarlet Lucy. He intends to buy the house, unaware that his wife, ex-dancer Elizabeth, is on the point of leaving him. His bumbling solicitor Tristram and the house's owner, builder Leslie, are ready for Roland's signature when he discovers Elizabeth's goodbye note. He postpones the deal and persuades Tristram to stay the night in the master bedroom - he is too upset to stay there himself. From this point, events speed up to a farce-like velocity; Elizabeth
returns and inadvertently beds with Tristram, who believes she is Scarlet
Lucy; Elizabeth's brother Mark brings back his wayward fiancée
Lizzie, who is accidentally locked up all night in an attic cupboard
by drunken Roland; Leslie is assaulted, his motor-bike wrecked; there
are various suicide All this takes place in an ingenious setting where all the rooms, passages and stairs are on the same level. Cast
|