Yesterday marked a significant anniversary in Alan Ayckbourn's career in theatre. It Marked the 50th anniversary of him directing one of his own plays for the first time.
On 14 April 1963, Alan directed a revival of his fourth play Standing Room Only at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent.
Alan started directing professionally in 1961 with a production of Gaslight at the Library Theatre, Scarborough. Following that he had directed more than a dozen plays professionally before he tackled one of his own plays.
Although this would not be viewed as unusual now, at the time it was not common for playwrights to direct their own works and largely it was only well-established playwrights - such as Noël Coward - who had made the successful transition.
Alan was part of a new wave of writers who would begin directing their own plays - Harold Pinter notably fell into this group - although very few had either Alan or Pinter's professional experience both as actors as well as experience of directing other people's plays.
The production of Standing Room Only - which was heavily revised from its original production at the Library Theatre in 1962, directed by Stephen Joseph - featured Elizabeth Bell, Peter King, David Halliwell, Stanley Page, Caroline Smith and Heather Stoney.
It also marked the first time one of his own plays was attributed to Alan Ayckbourn. Prior to this production, all his plays (including the original production of Standing Room Only) had been attributed to his pseudonym Roland Allen.
In the interview extract below, Alan Ayckbourn talks about his early work as a director directing his own plays
The two careers - writer and director - developed separately. I didn’t begin with the idea of directing my own plays; at the time people said writers should not direct their own plays. It wasn’t done, although there were notable exceptions including Noël Coward and a few others, but really you weren’t supposed to do that. And then I was allowed slowly to direct my plays in Scarborough, but never in London.
I think the experience of acting in the plays was so mind- blowing that I initially had no thought of directing at all. But as my directing career developed, it encouraged me towards a director’s eye and so the last few plays I was in as an actor, I spent the time checking the lighting, checking the set, checking the pace of the scene and was really a bore as an actor. I would have fired myself! I became more and more objective to what was happening as a director and a less objective actor. I was a waste of space as an actor by the end of it.
It was only a year or so before the two careers joined up and one or two of my writing contemporaries at the time saw this and said “This is good, you can direct your own show” and many a writer tried to follow me, but they didn’t have, of course, independent directing experience. They were going into a rehearsal room with their own play for the first time as a director - it’s difficult enough going in as a director full-stop, but going in as a writer-director unless you’re really experienced is incredibly difficult. I was reasonably experienced by the time I got to direct my own first play, I was at least able to understand the procedures, the geography of directing and I was able to do the plays.
I’m able now to step away from the writer and become the Mr Hyde or the Doctor Jekyll side of myself. I think of Mr Hyde as the writer and Dr Jekyll as the director. I’m slightly more benign as a director than I am as a writer.
This extract is taken from an exclusive article in the website's new publication Unseen Ayckbourn. A completely revised and heavily expanded new edition of the 2009 book Sight Unseen which includes new and expanded entires on Alan Ayckbourn's unpublished, unproduced and 'lost' plays as well as an exclusive interview with the playwright about his early professional theatre experiences and a behind-the-scenes look at his flop 1975 musical Jeeves,
Unseen Ayckbourn is currently available via amazon.co.uk by clicking here, but look out for further details about the publication and other news soon.
