You can’t label Alan Ayckbourn and Liza Goddard as a double act but the acclaimed Scarborough-based playwright and the actress best known for her comedy roles do like working together.

The pair are reunited at the seaside town’s Stephen Joseph Theatre for Ayckbourn’s 91st play Earth Angel, opening on 13 September.

“We have worked together a few times, I absolutely adore him,” says Liza during a break from rehearsals. “I used to go and see his plays and then got to work with him 20-odd years ago in Season’s Greetings. That was such a wonderful experience.

She’s appeared in both revivals of his plays and in world premieres like Earth Angel, which he also directs. “I don’t think he writes for people. He writes something and then thinks, ‘who would be good for this?” she says.

“His plays are quite difficult to do because they require precision. If you get a word wrong it upsets the rhythm .

“The other day I made a complete mess up and spent two pages paraphrasing the lines. I didn’t do it on purpose. It just happened but it’s very important you get it right because of the rhythm.”

Earth Angel , which Ayckbourn directs, is a play about goodness. A serious play not a comedy, she thinks, although obviously there are funny bits in it. Her character Maxine is “a fantastic part”, she says.

“She’s very fierce – like one of those big northern women with a tiny husband and who is terribly bossy. She’s abandoned her Northern accent and had elocution lessons. She’s quite unlike myself although we all have a terrible side and shout at people,” she says.

She’s having a makeover – hair, nails, pedicure – to bring Maxine to life. “I’m beginning to see her when I look in the mirror,” she adds.

Liza began rehearsals in Scarborough as a new production of Michael Frayn’s comedy opened at the Stephen Joseph. It’s a play she knows well as she toured in a production of the behind-the-scenes farce for eight months. By contrast she also toured recently in the thriller The Croft in a role requiring a Scottish accent. “I had to do the accent all time off stage so I didn’t forget it,” she recalls.

She doesn’t feel typecasting has affected her career. “Only in that I was quite good at comedy and have done a lot of comedy – but also all sorts of serious things too,” she says.”
Ask about ambitions and Liza admits: “I’ve just said yes to everything I’ve been offered. I’ve never had a plan and had some very good parts. There’s still quite a few left to do, like Madame Arcarti in Blithe Spirit. What I’d really like is a nice part in a TV series.”

That last remark brings back memories of the Australian TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in which Liza co-starred with a kangaroo in the late 1960s. Her family had moved to Australia because of her father’s job and she was cast in Skippy as a teenager.

Theatre roles in Sydney – including Shakespeare’s Juliet and the classical Antigone followed. When Liza returned to this country she was cast in the BBC-TV series Take Three Girls and her career took off in this country.

She names her favourite TV roles as Bergerac (because of the two Js – costar John Nettles and the location Jersey ) and Woof, about a boy who turned into a dog.

Working with Ayckbourn has also seen her acting in Stephen Joseph’s in the round auditorium with the audience surrounding the actors. This was ‘terrifying’ the first time but she’s learnt to adapt to the close proximity of the viewers. “The first time I thought I was going to die. You have to concentrate fully and block out the audience. You have to be in character all the time which is marvellous.”

Earth Angel: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 13 September to 11 October.
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