WHO better to bounce up those 55 steep steps to Clifford's Tower for an alfresco production of cheeky Chaucer's Canterbury Tales than skipping pantomime favourite Martin Barrass?

The perennial side order to dame Berwick Kaler's main dish at York Theatre Royal is taking on a new role, not on stage but as a first-time director for York Rose Open Air Theatre's summertime show.

When company producer Anthony Bryce was looking for a comic talent to mastermind a high-speed journey through a trio of Chaucer's tales, he knew Martin was his man. As chance would have it, he bumped into him one day in Parliament Street.

"I didn't know if Martin directed or not, but I thought of him as I wanted to use York people," he says.

"I'd admired his performance in Kes years ago and I thought if anyone can act for as long as he has, he must be good - and he was really acting in Kes!"

He may tease Martin about the art of pantomime but Anthony believes there is an advantage in appointing a director with such a knowledge of the comic craft, and of the needs of actors too. "To make yourself a good director, you need to understand actors, so if you're an actor yourself you must be able to understand them," Anthony says.

Martin is not entirely a novice. "This may be my first time directing a full-scale professional production but I have done theatre workshops and directed those for about ten years now," he says.

The rehearsal schedule is tight. Martin and his cast of Lee York, Kieron Attwood, Lyndsay Maples, Frances Garvey and Jon Adamson began work on The Wife Of Bath's Tale, The Miller's Tale and The Reeve's Tale on Monday at the Grand Opera House in preparation for the opening night on May 22.

Martin knows what he wants from his professional troupe for a show that will last "not much more than an hour". "I want them to be dominant on that stage, and impose themselves on the setting, and where there's pace in the piece, use it," he says.

"Playing in the open air you don't want to be over-faced or out-starred by the elements so you have to have twice the volume, twice the energy. There's no lighting, only the elements, and if you can play that space, you can play anywhere... even the Sunderland Empire!"

Moving swiftly on from that dig at Berwick Kaler's home town, Martin says Clifford's Tower is an ideal outdoor venue: "It has the best of both worlds: it has that amphitheatre feel to it but it's also intimate with the audience being so close to the actors."

Close to the whims of the weather too, as anyone who experienced the first night of Hamlet at Clifford's Tower last July will recall. The heavens rained and rained and rained, and still they played on for the three hours.

"We've learnt from that production," says Anthony. "One of the first things we realised is that a three-hour show is too long, and I knew The Canterbury Tales could be tailored to suit our demands."

He decided that it would be better to work with a professional cast rather than the student players of last summer's production, and to hone the production team too.

Meanwhile, Martin's professional career comes full circle with this production. He made his debut in 1977 playing a sinister Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales for the Orchard Theatre, in Bideford, faraway Devon.

"The tales have that rural quality to them, and there we were playing in barns and schools, with me in my rugby shirt thinking I was Richard Harris," recalls Martin. "Little did I think, doing my first job, ever so grateful to get my Equity card, that I would end up directing it many years later."

The Canterbury Tales, York Rose Open Air Theatre, Clifford's Tower, York, May 22 to June 29, 7.30pm nightly including Sundays. Tickets: £12.50, concessions £10; available from Grand Opera House, tel 01904 671818, Ticketmaster 0870 4000 700, or Clifford's Tower, 10am to 6pm (cash/cheques only). Booking advised; seats are limited.

Please note: Access to Clifford's Tower is via 55 steep steps.

Updated: 09:57 Friday, May 16, 2003