Leila stars as Elizabeth  in 'Taking Steps' by Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn is the world's most performed living playwright. He has written 61 plays and has been internationally acclaimed as both playwright and director. His advocacy of the Round theatre space for almost all of his plays is practically unique. He is the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, in Scarborough, England, where he premieres the majority of his plays.
An attic, a bedroom, 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, embroiled in a tale of love, confusion and freedom.
 
Roland Crabbe is a man with problems. He's about to buy a reputedly haunted house to please his adored wife, Elizabeth - but she is about to walk out on him. What's more, she's left her brother, Mark - a man whose conversation sends everyone to sleep - to comfort him after she's gone. But Mark has his own worries - he's got an errant fiancee stashed in the attic... Solicitor Tristam, and the house's owner, Leslie, arrive to settle the deal - and find themselves caught up in a tangled web of everyone else's problems...
Taking Steps is set in a three storey building, but all three floors are represented on one floor. Hence people can appear
to be standing next to each other, when they are in fact on different floors
 
Tue 15 Oct - Sat 19 Oct 2002
Taking Steps

Alan Ayckbourn's hilarious comedy takes place on three storeys of a crumbling neo-gothic house which self-made tycoon Roland is in the process of buying from its ingratiating owner. Meanwhile his wife Elizabeth, a former go-go dancer, has decided to leave Roland and is trying to creep out of the house unobserved, while her brother is attempting to smuggle his girlfriend into it. With a plethora of people hiding their movements from each other, and a few other complications, this is a classic farce from a brilliant playwright.

At Gala Theatre, Durham
From 7.30pm. Matinees 2.30pm Weds & Sat.
Price: £17.50 - £12.50