Washington Post - Recommended
"...From the moment he appears onstage, actor Matthew McGee’s flustered, stammering Tristram is the funniest element in Constellation Theatre Company’s season opener, the Alan Ayckbourn farce “Taking Steps.” Not that McGee’s performance is the show’s sole asset: Given an effective in-the-round staging by director Allison Arkell Stockman, and showcasing a winning performance by Matthew R. Wilson as a smug businessman, “Taking Steps” is an affable package of droll dialogue, loopy characterizations, amusing physical comedy and a gimmick (more on that later). Clocking in at two hours and 40 minutes, the production feels extremely long, but the scenes don’t drag, exactly: There’s just a lot of talk and stage business — enough to try the patience of farce-o-phobes — and the pacing is brisk but not lickety-split."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"... There is nothing quite like the hilarious high brow humor of British wit. Combine that with an element of sharp, poignant physical comedy and you have Taking Steps the opening production of Constellation Theatre’s sixth season. There are misunderstood notes, noisy ghosts, and red plaid pajamas – oh my! This keenly riotous farce follows six Brits as they romp about in a three-story former brothel avoiding their spouses and the ghost, kidnapping and intruder and mistaking notes with identities in a manner that has the whole audience roaring with laughter."
MetroWeekly - Somewhat Recommended
"... The story centers on a wealthy British magnate, Roland (Matthew R. Wilson), who's in the process of buying a manse to please his wife, Shearer's Elizabeth –but he's too self-absorbed to notice she hates the tainted place, a former brothel, or that she's actually planning her escape. The remaining characters aren't any better at communication, so the play builds from misunderstandings and mistaken identities. It could all be the basis for a ''riotous British farce,'' as Constellation bills the show. The problem is, though it debuted in England in 1979 and is set in the present, Taking Steps feels as stuffy and pretentious as the house in which it's set. It rarely takes any actual steps toward being clever and funny. It's all just a ruse to make you think it is."
WeLoveDC - Somewhat Recommended
"... When it comes to farce you really don’t need to pay attention to the details-just buckle up and go with it. While funny, Constellation’s Taking Steps gets a bit lost in the details to be the kind of farce I typically enjoy."
Washington City Paper - Recommended
"... Farce is a tricky thing. Some like it crisp and fleet. (Count me among them.) But by its nature, farce tempts actors and directors to go with big, broad gestures—giant pratfalls, huge misunderstandings, epic expressions of shock. If that’s the sort of thing that tickles your ribs, you’ll have a blast at Constellation Theatre’s Taking Steps, an attractively mounted and lustily performed production of an ingeniously intricate country-house comedy in which everything’s engineered to make for maximum confusion about who’s where and which discombobulated nitwit will accidentally off himself with the sleeping pills."
ShowBizRadio - Recommended
"...With a running time of approximately two hours and forty minutes, Taking Steps is a delightful evening of light theatre guaranteed to satisfy. I would not recommend this show for little ones for two reasons. Although the material is never more vulgar than “questionable” (think light PG-13), much of the refreshing wit so often absent from farces will go over kids’ heads and, like I said, it’s long. That said — young teens and up will love this hysterically funny show as well as Constellation Theatre’s unique and fantastic staging."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Taking Steps is a great release, fresh and exuberant and certain to make people of all walks of life laugh heartedly. From beginning to end, it is a ballet of human nonsense that will make anyone’s family members, past spouses, or other unpleasant, necessary relationships seem tame in comparison."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Beds to hop in and out of? Check.Multiple entrances used in clever ways? Check again. Mistaken identities and near missed discoveries? Ditto, and check.If Alan Ayckbourn’s comic gem Taking Steps were a standard British farce, we could stop there and you’d have it in a nutshell. Not so, however, with this riotous play that lives somewhere between No Sex Please, We’re British and the corner of Noises Off and Black Comedy.
