Alan Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps opened at the Orange Tree this week and in the second part of our interview with the playwright and director he discusses why he is drawn to comedy and what makes him a cross between Dickens and Austen. Will Gore reports.

Will Gore: Why do you think you return to writing comedy again and again?

Alan Ayckbourn: It’s the natural expression of the way I write and I guess it is just my view of the world. I just happen to see the funnier side of things.

WG: Do you worry that this focus on comedy may have cost you some critical respect?

AA: As long as the audience are enjoying themselves I don’t mind. Early on I was known as the farce merchant but I wouldn’t complain about that. I’m not a clown who wants to play Hamlet and I think I have split the critics now.

WG: Have you ever been tempted to write an overtly political play?

AA: I don’t write about topical issues – I couldn’t have written about an event like the Miners’ Strike. Instead, I’ve tended to try to reflect people’s attitudes. If I was going to compare myself to anyone it would be a cross between Charles Dickens and Jane Austen as I tend to write plays purely from a human perspective. It’s almost the reverse of what David Hare does. He writes plays about issues.

WG: As with this revival of Taking Steps you often direct your own plays – is directing your own writing tricky?

AA: I would recommend writers who want to direct their own work to go and direct other plays first. When you step into the rehearsal room for the first time and it is your own play then you’ll probably end up in a huge deep hole of your own digging. I guess I’ve done enough directing now though to be able to handle it. I used to develop quite a big difference between myself as a writer and director but nowadays, 74 plays in, I tend to almost direct them while I’m writing – the process is continuous.

WG: What is the attraction of working at small theatres, such as the Orange Tree and the Stephen Joseph?

AA: I think theatre works best on an intimate scale. Theatre is made up of two ingredients, actor and audience, and with that we can outdo anyone with that live experience – movies, TV or radio. It’s ironic that movies are trying to become more live and interactive, but we’ve got that already, it’s called theatre.

WG: Should we worried about theatre’s future in respect of the current economic climate?

AA: I’m out of the loop now but I’ve always been fighting this concept that the arts take a tiny amount of the national budget but time and again people turn to it to make cuts.

You are cutting the soul out of the society. If you hold it up against the need for more roads and better schools then obviously a production of Hamlet is neither here nor there, but as a wise councillor said up in Scarborough, why the hell bother to pay for schools if when kids finish it they don’t have anything to appreciate?

WG: How hard has it been for you to keep on working after suffering from a stroke in 2006?

AA: I’m not that mobile but I think my brain is still clicking over, or at least I hope it is.

After it happened I talked to the doctors immediately and my wife and I said I really need the stimulus of a room full of actors rehearsing to give me my adrenalin shots in the morning.

Writing also still gives me a terrific buzz, so until someone tells me to stop I’ll keep doing it.

Taking Steps, Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, until May 29, for more information and to book tickets, visit orangetreetheatre.co.uk