Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
A playwright and theatre director, to date Alan Ayckbourn has written 89 plays – Family Album attracted four-star reviews when it premiered in September 2022 at the Stephen Joseph, where nearly all his plays are first staged.
However, this year he will stage his 88th play Welcome to the Family, at The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-upon-Windermere, before premiering his 89th play, Constant Companions, at the SJT.
Before the pandemic his other work, having won countless awards, could be seen on stage and television throughout the world, so it was good news when this year Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present was staged in Germany to a terrific response.
Relatively Speaking, How The Other Half Loves, The Norman Conquests, Season's Greetings, A Chorus of Disapproval, Absurd Person Singular and Woman in Mind were all recently revived to great acclaim.
In New York, his biennial visits with the SJT company performing his plays for the Brits off Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theatres regularly received an enthusiastic reception. Sadly, Covid has meant there has been no recent return visit to the festival.
He wrote a best-selling guide to writing and directing, The Crafty Art of Playmaking. This is still in print. His first “novel,” The Divide, was published in 2019.
Inducted into American Theatre's Hall of Fame, a recipient of the Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, he became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.
Source: Alan Ayckbourn's official website www.alanayckbourn.net.
Perform Alan Ayckbourn
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A Brief History of Women
Alan Ayckbourn
Full-Length Play, ComedyA Brief History of Women
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m
A comedy in four parts about an unremarkable man and the remarkable women who loved him, left him, or lost him over sixty years; and of the equally remarkable old manor house that saw and heard it all happen.
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A Chorus of Disapproval
Alan Ayckbourn
Full-Length Play, Dramatic ComedyA Chorus of Disapproval
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 6w, 7m
A diffident widower attempts to escape loneliness by joining the local amateur light operatic society. By accident rather than by design (in fact, by not saying "no" to anything be it a request to obtain confidential information from his company or an offer of illicit sex) he advances from a small part to the lead.
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A Cut in the Rates
Alan Ayckbourn
Short Play, DramaA Cut in the Rates
Short Play, Drama / 2w, 1m
When Miss Pickhart visits the illusionist Ratchet on official Town Hall business, she discovers a sinister secret. Alone in the cellar after Ratchet is called away, she confronts the ghost of Rosalinda who met an untimely death during the saw the woman in half trick.
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Absent Friends
Alan Ayckbourn
Full-Length Play, Dramatic ComedyAbsent Friends
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m
Colin must be comforted in his grief over the death of his fiancee so his friends, who never met the girl, arrange a tea party for him.
Shop Alan Ayckbourn
View all-
A Brief History of Women
Alan Ayckbourn
Full-Length Play, ComedyA Brief History of Women
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m
-
A Chorus of Disapproval
Alan Ayckbourn
Full-Length Play, Dramatic ComedyA Chorus of Disapproval
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 6w, 7m
-
A Cut in the Rates
Alan Ayckbourn
Short Play, DramaA Cut in the Rates
Short Play, Drama / 2w, 1m
-
Absent Friends
Alan Ayckbourn
Full-Length Play, Dramatic ComedyAbsent Friends
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m