Ready to go One Step Beyond: left to right, Liz Quinlan, Chris Meadley, Stuart Green, director Jon Mills, Jess Murray and Pamela Gourlay
YORK poet, songwriter, journalist, podcaster and festival director Miles Salter is adding playwriting to his cultural tool bag.
His debut short play, One Step Beyond, will be staged by York Settlement Community Players in a sold-out run at the Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, from tonight (26/05/2025) to Wednesday.
“It started life as a short monologue several years ago. It’s a bit Nick Hornby meets John Godber. I like the humour in it. All men are a bit nerdy about something. I enjoyed writing it. I think it’s good fun,” says Miles in a aptly short summation.
One Step Beyond is being directed by Harrogate filmmaker, scriptwriter, prop and set designer and promo video producer Jon Mills in his directorial debut under YSCP’s nurturing project The Direct Approach.
Meet Steve and Kerry: married for a long time, but Steve’s vinyl collection, Madness to the max, may tear them apart. Luckily they have a counsellor…and Steve’s friend Boring Ryan on hand to help them out. It must be love, love, love.
Steve (played by Stuart Green) is “a man in his 40s or 50s, depending on how many pints he’s had. Content and uncomplicated,” says Miles. “Kerry (Pamela Gourlay) is a woman in her 40s or 50s, depending on how much sleep she’s had. Pin-sharp and unfulfilled.
“Boring Ryan (Chris Meadley), Steve’s friend, is that mate we all have but we’re not sure why. Counsellor Marcia(Liz Quinlan) is a professional listener who can still – just – see the bright side.
“Our fifth character, Jen (Jess Murray), runs a ceramics class. She exudes warmth and calm, like a Zen hot-water bottle.”
Seeds were seen for One Step Beyond in 2021 when invited Miles was among more than 200 York artists who applied for £1,000 love letter commissions to be staged at York Theatre Royal in Love Bites on May 17 – the first day theatres could reopen after lockdown restrictions were first lifted – and May 18 in a celebration of the creative talent across the city.
“I wrote a ten-minute piece, originally called It Must Be Love, about a bloke talking about his midlife crisis, his wife and his love of Madness, ” he recalls. “Juliet [Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster] said ‘close, but no cigar’.”
Hey you! Don’t watch that, watch this! It’s the heavy-heavy-monster sound of a brand new play, Miles Salter’s One Step Beyond
Rejection did not deter him. “Last year I went to one of Settlement’s summer sessions, where I saw a play about two people watching their child in the park and it turns out one is a ghost. Anyway, after that, I started writing It Must Be Love about Steve and Kerry.
“He’s obsessed with Madness; she’s a control freak. Their marriage has lost its spark and energy, and so they go to see a therapist, Marcia, who’s rational and almost like a Greek chorus, connecting the action and saying ‘when are you two going to wake up?’.
“It’s fun, not particularly profound, and it’s very influenced by John Godber’s plays and Nick Hornby’s writing.
“At first I wondered if I was being a bit unoriginal, but I decided I wasn’t! Everything is influenced by something else, isn’t it. The play has as many laughs as possible in there, and it abides to that thing of not taking yourself too seriously.”
Miles quoutes a “very good piece of advice” he received. In a nutshell, “Make’em laugh. Make’em cry. Make’em wait.” “Every good writer understands that. When I write, I don’t want it to be too dark or too light. That’s what life is: funny and ridiculous, but also sad and melancholy and beautiful – and that’s what you’ll find in my poetry too.
“Life is a crazy, strange mixture. One moment you’re sad, and then you’ll hear a funny story and you’re laughing your head off. My play reflects that.”
One Step Beyond takes its title from Madness’s 1979 debut album and second hit single, but it also nods to another meaning of that phrase. “One of the things about therapy is that it’s quite a brace thing to do. A lot of people avoid it. Only a relatively small number of men will go to counselling or therapy.
“It occurred to me, that thing of going one step beyond what you think you’re capable of. Be brave, go for it, whereas if we don’t try things, we can get terribly stuck in our little worlds, which is kind of sad. As the therapist says. ‘it’s sad people when people give up, it’s too easy to do that’.”
You could say that writing One Step Beyond was a case of doing exactly that by taking the step beyond after Miles missed out on selection for Love Bites. Once bitten, but not twice shy.
York Settlement Community Players in Miles Salter’s One Step Beyond, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, May 26 to 28, 7.30pm. Tickets update: SOLD OUT.
Writer Miles Salter
Miles Salter: the back story
WRITER of poetry, journalism, fiction and songs since 1990, when he first came to York as a student of English Literature and Drama.
His CV includes stints as presenter of The Arts Show on Jorvik Radio and director of York Literature Festival and York Alive festival. Host of York Calling podcast.
Fronts York rock and Americana band Miles And The Chain Gang.
Jon Mills: the back story
ORIGINALLYfrom Birmingham. Studied English at University of Leeds before settling in Harrogate.
Background in film-making and scriptwriting. Now rekindled his interest in theatre, creating props and sets for York Settlement Community Players’ productions of Separate Tables and Picasso At The Lapin Agile, along with York Mystery Plays’ A Creation for York and A Nativity for York.
Produced promo videos for YSCP productions. One Step Beyond marks his directorial debut under YSCP’s Direct Approach scheme.