Viv Hardwick talks to Liza Goddard as she prepares for an Ayckbourn double-act.

LIZA GODDARD confesses she agreed to star in Alan Ayckbourn’s 74th play without even knowing what it was about.

Life Of Riley started rehearsals this week using the same cast as the Stephen Joseph Theatre (SJT) revival of Ayckbourn’s 1994 comedythriller Communicating Doors, which opened this week – before the two alternate until October.

“This will be my third world premiere.

It’s wonderfully funny and about how a man’s situation affects all his friends. In fact, both plays are about life-changing decisions and transformation. I’m sure that’s why he’s running the two together because the man’s a genius.

“It’s a great honour to be asked back and you never like to say no, because another time you might be too old or can’t do it. He asked me last year and I said yes. He hadn’t even written Life Of Riley.

“He said, ‘You’re a proper actress.

You say yes before you know what the part is’.”

Her previous roles for SJT include Life And Beth and Snake In The Grass in 2008.

She says of two-play summer seasons: “You can’t think of anything else apart from the play you’re in.

People say, ‘it’s an Aykbourn’ as if every play was the same, but they’re all different. What’s marvellous is that you look back and realise that each play was a window on the time it was written.”

For now, Goddard is focusing hard on Communicating Doors, which features a mysterious door, time travel and a professional dominatrix.

“Like all thrillers, it’s quite complicated to learn,” she says.

She describes Ayckbourn – the world’s most performed living playwright, and SJT’s artistic director until last year – as a man with a marvellous mind. “He was ahead of his time in 1994 with this comedy-thriller, because theatre of this kind has become popular in the years after that.

“My character is a fierce, middleclass woman who, unlike me, has an incredible intellect and can explain everything in this world logically.”

Her character is called Ruella, which sounds more like a description than a name. The five other actors are Laura Doddington, Laura Howard, Jamie Kenna, Ben Porter and Kim Wall.

Goddard loves the fact that the play pays homage to films such as Psycho and TV’s The Twilight Zone.

“We are thinking of having a quiz for the audience to see how many tributes they spot,” she says.

As Ayckbourn writes in such a filmic style, having to take into account the 3D “in-the-round” presentation at SJT, she’s surprised that not more of his work has made the silver screen.

“Then again, a Hollywood producer would probably ruin it. So it’s better that people have to come to the theatre to see it,” she says.

Child star Goddard, who has worked regularly on TV for most of her 60 years, expresses sympathy for the younger female cast. “They haven’t got much on during the play, so they are worried about what the audience might see. They’ve been down the gym a lot,” she says.

With any new Ayckbourn there’s an anecdote for the cast, to get them in the mood for rehearsals. For Life Of Riley, it’s how your life can change by the people you meet.

“He told us how his life was transformed by coming to Scarborough for Stephen Joseph. It was never a plan, he just happened to get an interview for a job here and it happened to be with Stephen Joseph,”

she’s says of Ayckbourn’s late theatrical mentor.

■ Stephen Joseph Theatre, Communicating Doors until October 8, The Mikado to September 4 and Life Of Riley, September 16 to October 16. Box Office: 01723-370541 sjt.uk.com