ALAN Ayckbourn had a dual motive for writing the tragic-comic Things We Do for Love.

First, he had always wanted to write a play set on three different levels of a house at once: an impossibility in the Round at his theatre in Scarborough, but a live proposition once the Stephen Joseph Theatre moved into the old Odeon building in 1996 with its end-on second stage.

Secondly, Ayckbourn took this opportunity to address the social transition that had seen a shift from a society rooted in the family unit to one where many people lived on their own, through choice or circumstance. (See Paul Allen's A Pocket Guide To Alan Ayckbourn Plays for further exposition.)

Workaholic Barbara Trapes (Janine Wood), former scarily-perfect prefect, now devoted assistant to an investment consultant, is exercising the choice option. In her early 40s but looking younger in Wood's characterisation, she owns an early Victorian house in south-west London, where she has the middle floor, kept as orderly as an accountant's book. She has rejected men since one teenage conquest, just as she rejects vegetarianism, workman's tea and all Scots.

In the basement is Geordie postman Gilbert (Rod Arthur), alone through circumstance, not by choice. His wife died young, since when he has become obsessed with "living saint" Barbara. We see only his ceiling and a step ladder, which he climbs to paint his answer to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, in a tribute to Barbara that extends to a fixation with her cast-off clothing.

The flat upstairs will provide a temporary home for "porcelain princess" Nikki Wickstead (Cate Debenham-Taylor), who had a fourth-form crush on Barbara and is calling upon her for the first time in 11 years after being subjected to physical and mental abuse by her ex-husband.

With her is the gorgeous new "Big Bear" in her life, Scottish fianc Hamish Alexander (Robin Cameron), who has left his "manic depressive Viking transvestite" wife for Nikki.

Outwardly bonny, Nikki is damaged by her past, and each month with Hamish is marked off as an anniversary. You can already sense the breath being strangled from their relationship, and it is apt that Ayckbourn's design allows the audience only a condensed view of the upstairs bedroom from knee-height downwards, although this will provide an outlet for visual comedy too.

The worlds of Gilbert, the innocent abroad, Barbara, the self-contained but discontented cynic, and Nikki and Hamish, the too-perfect couple, will clash with humorous yet dark consequence in a social comedy superbly executed by Christopher Luscombe and his excellent cast on Janet Bird's triple-decker set. Casting a different-coloured light on each floor for the scene changes - with red for the staircase meeting place - is but one touch that marks out Luscombe's superior directorial art.

Box office: 01423 502116.

Updated: 09:27 Thursday, April 08, 2004