Earliest To Latest: The Road To The Divide

The Divide is Alan Ayckbourn’s latest work, an epic narrative for voices in five parts which will be presented as a one-off gala reading on 27 September as part of the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
The Divide is a satire of the sexes set in a post-catastrophe UK where men and women are segregated by the Divide. Told through documents and diaries, the piece brings to mind authors as diverse as Margaret Attwood and George Orwell with a touch of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Of course this isn’t the first time Alan Ayckbourn has ventured into the future in his writing and his interest in it stems from a young love of the golden age of science-fiction writers.
“I began to love the allegorical stories they told, when they were using science-fiction as an allegory of, if we continue thus, then we will finish up here. This particular realm of science-fantasy wrote about the present day from a future stand-point, which - of course - is a very strong part of science-fiction. Reflecting the present day or extending the trends of the present day to its logical conclusion.”
The influence of such writers can be seen throughout Alan Ayckbourn's career from plays as diverse as Henceforward... to Communicating Doors, Comic Potential to Body Language.
And as his latest work is about to be unveiled, it's interesting to note that this genre - from an archivist's perspective - is where it also all begins.
What is believed to be the earliest surviving manuscript written by Alan Ayckbourn is called The Season and is held by The Borthwick Institute at the University Of York.
Written no later than 1958, The Season is a rare surviving example of Alan's writing prior to his first professional commission. It is a strange love story set over four scenes and four seasons, which moves from Edwardian England into a post-apocalyptic landscape.

An extract from the first page of Alan Ayckbourn's The Season
Copyright; Alan Ayckbourn

Alan has frequently mentioned he recalls writing approximately nine plays before he was commissioned to write The Square Cat, most of them comedies but "with a couple of exceptions which had been rather morose pieces." The Season falls into the morose category.
Described on its frontispiece as a "drama in four scenes", The Season begins in Spring in Medieval times, before moving through the seasons and time into Edwardian England and then the future.
It follows two characters, The Traveller and The Girl and the relationship which develops between them until the third act when The Girl, now The Woman, is close to death and the world apparently about to be engulfed by an apocalypse.
The final scene sees The Traveller meeting with The Girl, but apparently for the first time, venturing forth into a winter wasteland which has apparently been unseen since the catastrophe. The pair agree to explore the world together and set off into the snow.
Of course, the final scene could all be a pretentious metaphor for death from a 17 year old writer - and the scene alludes to death being like winter - but as the play mentions emerging from vaults into the world, it seems more likely to be a vision of a future after a catastrophe.
What's interesting about the final scene is - from today's perspective - the presumption would be this is a nuclear winter, but when Alan wrote the play, the term had not even been invented and there had been relatively little research into the after-effects of a nuclear war. Science-fiction writers - possibly read by Alan himself - had though explored this territory.
The Season is a fascinating oddity, although it offers no indication of the writer Alan Ayckbourn will become aside from the imagination of the piece. It is of historical significance though not only for being the earliest Ayckbourn play, but also one which shows an interest in a genre which will permeate his work from Standing Room Only (1961) through to The Divide (2015).
Just as The Season finishes post-catastrophe in a strange new world, so his latest work, The Divide, begins post-catastrophe in a world where the sexes are segregated and the world is no longer as it was.
But to discover more about this strange new world, you'll need to see The Divide.

The exclusive semi-staged reading of The Divide takes place at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Sunday 27 September from 3pm - 9.30pm (with three intervals and a supper break). It will feature Alan Ayckbourn's company at the SJT plus special guests. Tickets are priced at £60 (including picnic supper), £30 and £15 and can be booked via www.sjt.uk.com or by calling 01723 370541.

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Confusions

Alan Ayckbourn's revival of his classic 1974 play Confusions is currently in repertory at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

To mark the popular revival, the blog has unearthed 10 facts you probably didn't know about the play.

Confusions is in repertory at the Stephen Joseph Theatre until 26 September and further information and booking information can be found at www.sjt.uk.com.

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Confusions

1) Contrary to practically all reports, all five of the Confusions plays are linked. In Mother Figure, Lucy is married to Harry, who we see trying to call her. Harry is the businessman who appears in Drinking Companion and who is served drinks by a waiter. This is the same waiter who appears in Between Mouthfuls (at presumably the same hotel), who serves Mrs Pearce and her husband. Mrs Pearce appears in Gosforth's Fete and mention is also made of her husband. In the final play, A Talk In The Park, the most subtle and easily missed connection is that Doreen is the former wife of Gosforth, who Milly mentions in Gosforth's Fete. Doreen talks about her former husband being a landlord, which is a subtle reference to Gosforth.

2) The origin of Confusions lays in another play entirely. Mother Figure was originally written for an evening of short plays by different authors called Mixed Blessings (a follow up to the well-known Mixed Doubles, to which Alan also contributed). However, Mixed Blessings had just one week of performances in Horsham and Alan took back Mother Figure to use as the first play in Confusions.

3) The earliest known notes relating to Confusions show it was originally intended to feature six plays. The plays (except Mother Figure) did not have proper titles but were described as: Bride & Groom - Discovery; Marriage Breaker - Reunion & Interrogation; Mother Figure; Man Whose Wife Leaves Him; Reversals (I); Reversals (II).

4) The inspiration behind Between Mouthfuls was Alan Ayckbourn's only produced - and little seen - screenplay Service Not Included. Broadcast at 11pm on 20 May 1974 on BBC1, it is a half hour piece which follows a waiter in a hotel during an end of conference party. Everything is seen through his eyes and we only get snippets of conversation from the guests. Alan refined the idea for Between Mouthfuls in which we only hear what the Waiter hears as he moves between two restaurant tables.

5) Gosforth's Fete was inspired by Alan's experience of civic events during the early 1970s - one suspects when a guest of the Mayor during Scarborough Cricket Festival. The frequency of things not going to plan inspiring the chaos that permeates Gosforth's Fete.

6) It is the only play written by Alan Ayckbourn which was conceived to be performed in-the-round, three-sided and end-stage. The play relaunched touring from the Library Theatre in Scarborough and the tour visited Scarborough (three-sided), Whitby (proscenium arch / end-stage) and Filey (in-the-round). As a result, the set had to be very simple, practical and be able to fit in the back of a van!

7) It was initially hoped the Eric Thompson (father of the actress Emma Thompson) would direct the West End premiere of Confusions - having directed the West End productions of Time & Time Again, Absurd Person Singular, The Norman Conquests and Absent Friends). However his recent experiences directing the flop musical Jeeves by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber and his busy schedule meant Alan Strachan - a now notable director of Alan's plays - directed the production.

8) Despite being written as an ensemble piece, the West End production of Confusions was star led with the husband and wife team of Pauline Collins and John Alderton. The latter cherry-picking all the best roles (Harry, the Waiter and Gosforth) thus losing the links between the plays and the ensemble feel. When he broke his ankle during the run, he performed one evening in a wheelchair and also with his foot in a cast subsequently.

9) Confusions has had more radio productions than any other Ayckbourn play - and yet has never been broadcast in its entirety. In 1979, Mother Figure was broadcast; in 1985, Mother Figure, Between Mouthfuls and Gosforth's Fete; In 1986, Mother Figure, Between Mouthfuls, Gosforth's Fete and A Talk In The Park; in 1988, just Gosforth's Fete. All were different recordings with different casts. Mother Figure and Gosforth's Fete have both been adapted for the radio more times than any other Alan Ayckbourn play with three productions.

10) In a report produced by the licensing agents Samuel French in 2013, Confusions was named the most produced Ayckbourn play by amateur companies.

You can find out more about Confusions at Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website here.

Confusions is in repertory at the Stephen Joseph Theatre until 26 September and further information and booking information can be found at www.sjt.uk.com.

Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.

Happy Birthday SJT & Personal Ayckbourn favourites

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, which Alan Ayckbourn has been associated with for the past 58 years.
All but four of his plays have premiered at the Scarborough theatre in its three homes and he was Artistic Director between 1972 and 2009. Its founder, Stephen Joseph, is also Alan Ayckbourn's most influential and important mentor.
It is also the theatre where I saw my first Ayckbourn play in 1987 with Henceforward... and which has had a huge impact on my life ever since from journalist to Alan Ayckbourn's Archivist today.
To mark the 60th anniversary and the huge impact the SJT has had on my life, I've chosen 10 of my favourite Ayckbourn productions since my first n 1987. You can read about my other top ten SJT plays at the Scarborough In The Round blog here.
So here's a personal list of some of my favourite Ayckbourn memories at the SJT since 1987. Happy birthday Stephen Joseph Theatre!

A Personal List Of Favourite Ayckbourn Productions (1987 - present)
1) Henceforward... (1987): This is what all comes back to, my first Ayckbourn play. The world premiere production, directed by Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in The Round, launching a life-long obsession with the playwright (and which eventually brought gainful employment rather than a restraining order). To a 16 year old geek, this was proof that theatre could easily match cinema and prose: a nihilistic, sci-fi set in a dystopian future, utilising the latest technology (strange to think sampling was once hi-tech) in which, essentially, everyone dies (logically no-one survives the aftermath of the play). It was also tremendously funny and well acted. I still remember walking home and 10 minutes in turning to thinking, "I can't believe what I was just laughing at." My first experience of Ayckbourn tragi-comedy at some of its finest.

2) Haunting Julia (1994): Haunting Julia has long been one of my favourite Ayckbourn plays, even though it's a lesser known one. Partly because it's one of the playwright's few works to be set in Yorkshire and featuring a distinctly Yorkshire lead (Joe, harking from Otley near to where I was born). But I think mainly because it is a play with just three men but in which three women who are never seen are beautfilly drawn and have a huge precense (literally in one case) in the play. It's portrayal of the relationship between a father and daughter is also hugely affecting and the play unfolds tremendously well. Layers reveal layers as we begin to appreciate the tragedy of what happened to Julia and her inevitable 'return'. The moment at the climax where the bed began to bleed (alongside a chill-inducing performance in the original by Ian Hogg) is an image which I've never forgotten.

3) Just Between Ourselves (1996): I was relatively late in appreciating what many people consider Alan Ayckbourn's classic early plays (I only really understood just how good The Norman Conquests was following the Old Vic's 2008 revival) and this production, directed by Robin Herford, made me realise just how amazing the early plays were. It probably also stands as one of the bleakest Ayckbourn productions I've ever seen with the final image of the comatose Vera being sung Happy Birthday extraordiarily affecting (particularly as we, the audience, have been complicit in laughing at her earlier in the play). The splendid tea-making scene was directed and played so well that it actually became painful laughing. The final production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round was also one of the most memorable to me.

4) By Jeeves (1996): And the first at the new Stephen Joseph Theatre was equally memorable but for entirely different reasons. From the tragicomic pain of Just Between Ourselves, we moved to the inspired lunacy of Ayckbourn meeting Wodehouse with this delightfully silly musical which was the perfect way to open the new home of the company. Perfectly cast (has there been a better stage interpretation of Jeeves than Malcolm Sinclair?), this was a jubilant production celebrating a key moment in the history of the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

5) House & Garden (1999): The final play I reviewed for the Scarborough Evening News - and possibly a good thing as what could top it? Practically every major critic of the period attended the production (I suspect the last time the SJT ever managed to attract so many first tier critics for a premiere) for this mind-bending production in which two plays are performed simultaneously in two different auditoria with the same cast. As an actor leaves the 'house' they re-appeared on another stage in the 'garden' and vice versa. Alan has always been a fan of event theatre - those moments when live theatre does something no other medium can - and this was truly an event and showed the SJT at its best and most ambitious. A wonderful memory.

6) Damsels In Distress (2001): Another slight cheat (after all House & Garden were two plays and Damsels In Distress is three), but it's hard to separate the Damsels trilogy from one another. Seen separately, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay are all excellent plays but seen together (as the SJT did on occasions during the original run with all three plays in on day), you got a chance to appreciate the skills of the actors and the cleverness of the writing and thematic links between the plays. RolePlay still stands out as the star of the trilogy but Alison Pargeter and Saskia Butler in GamePlan were a revelation, a superbly funny double act as school girls well out of their depth. Damsels was always rumoured to have been created out of a need to save money for the SJT (three plays, one set, one company of seven actors) and it demonstrated just how creative and inventive the SJT could be when its back was against the wall.

7) My Sister Sadie (2003): I've always been a big fan of Alan Ayckbourn;'s family plays and Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays is one of the great plays for young people. But my personal favourite is his penultimate - as of writing - family play, My Sister Sadie. Essentially a companion piece to Comic Potential, it deals with a the hunt for a military android which is more than it seems and is adopted by a rural family suffering the loss of their daughter. Its themes would be ambitious for an adult play - morality, family loss, what makes us human, the use and abuse of technology - but that they are packed into a fast-moving family play shows Ayckbourn at the top of his game. Packed full of film references from The Terminator to Blade Runner to, this is a sadly under-appreciated Ayckbourn work that deserves more recognition. It also featured an exceptional lighting design by Kath Geraghty.

8) Private Fears In Public Places (2004): One of my all-time favourite Ayckbourn plays, Private Fears In Public Places looked at what it is to be a 30-something in the city in the new millennium. A play of tremendous sadness and loneliness, it also had a wicked sense of humour with unexpected twists and turns. Its structure of 54 scenes played without an interval showed Alan Ayckbourn still pushing himself in new directions thematically and technically. It also arguably has the best filmed adaptation of an Ayckbourn play with Alain Resnais's excellent film adaptation. It's also the only Ayckbourn play I've seen directed by someone other than Ayckbourn and matching the power of the original with Laurie Sansom's extraordinary 2009 production at the Royal & Derngate, Northampton. An excellent amateur production - recently seen by the playwright himself - is also currently touring by Huddersfield's Dick & Lottie.

9) My Wonderful Day (2009): It's always difficult to imagine certain plays being produced again when the original has had a definitive performance - Janie Dees performance as Jacie in Comic Potential being one. My Wonderful Day's original production had an extraordinary and utterly convincing performance by 28 year old Ayesha Antoine as 11 year old Winnie and her experiences of a very unusual day. That is not is not to say she dominated the play, as always in Ayckbourn plays it is an ensemble cast that makes the play work, but Winnie who is never off-stage and through whose eyes we see the play is an extraordinary character even when she is the unspeaking, unnoticed (by the characters at least) third person in the room. An exceptional production at the SJT.

10) Arrivals & Departures (2013): It's extremely difficult picking just 10 Ayckbourn productions at the SJT of note over the past 28 years, but this is recent play is a deserving addition. Another fine example of Ayckbourn experimenting with structure and preconceptions; it starts as one play (almost a farce) and becomes something else entirely before performing an audacious trick at the start of the second half by repeating what we've already seen but from a slightly different perspective. The play ends with what is nothing less than punch to the gut and is one of the saddest and affecting conclusions to a play yet written by Ayckbourn. That within two hours we can go from farce to tragedy without questioning it and come to know two characters who, sadly, never come to know each other despite spending the play together is a testament not only to a great play but a great writer constantly trying to push himself and his plays in new directions.

Honorable mentions must also go to: The Revengers' Comedies (1989); Wildest Dreams (1991); Things We Do For Love (1997); Comic Potential (1998); Orvin - Champion Of Champions (2003); The Champion Of Paribanou (2005); Intimate Exchanges (2006); How The Other Half Loves (2009); Dear Uncle (2011); Absurd Person Singular (2012).

For my list of non-Ayckbourn plays at the SJT, visit the Scarborough In The Round blog here.

Simon Murgatroyd is Alan Ayckbourn's Archivist and the creator and administrator of his official website www.alanayckbourn.net. He is also the Stephen Joseph Theatre's Archivist and runs the website Scarborough In The Round at www.theatre-in-the-round.co.uk.

Ask The Archivist: Confused About Confusions

Ask The Archivist is an occasional feature allowing you to put your Alan Ayckbourn related questions to the playwright's archivist Simon Murgatroyd.
If you have a question regarding any aspect of Alan's work, email it to: admin@alanayckbourn.net (labelled Ask The Archivist) and we'll publish any interesting questions.

Question: I'm confused about Alan Ayckbourn's play Confusions! I've read conflicting reports that all / some / none of the plays are linked. What is the answer?

Answer: The definitive answer - as provided by the playwright - is all the plays are loosely linked. If the play is staged as the author intended - i.e. as in the world premiere at Scarborough and not the London premiere - each play has a loose link to the next. So...

> In Mother Figure, it is mentioned Lucy's husband Harry has been trying to telephone her...
> Harry features in Drinking Companion, having just tried calling his wife. He is served by the hotel's waiter...
> Who is the same waiter who features in Between Mouthfuls, serving dinner to guests including Mr and Mrs Pearce...
> Mrs Pearce - or Councillor Mrs Pearce - also appears in Gosforth's Fete having been sent by the Mayor to open the fete. It is also mentioned Gosforth is a divorced landlord...
> Divorced from Doreen, who appears in A Talk In The Park, mentioning her former husband who is a landlord.

So there is the playwright's definitive answer. Each of the plays has a loose narrative link to the next.

In which case, you might wonder why there is confusion about whether the plays are linked. This essentially boils down to two reasons. The London premiere and the inaccurate assumption that London productions are definitive.
This particularly applies to the well-received London premiere of Confusions which was produced as a star vehicle for John Alderton and Pauline Collins. Rather than casting the play as the playwright intended as an ensemble piece intended to give each actor their moment to shine, John Alderton took the 'lead' part in Drinking Companion, Between Mouthfuls and Gosforth's Fete, unbalancing the play. The main result was that the waiter in Drinking Companion - who has a minor role - then comes to prominence in Between Mouthfuls. As Alderton played Harry in Drinking Companion and the Waiter in Between Mouthfuls, that link was lost. Several publications subsequently made the inappropriate assumption that the London production - which was not even directed by Alan Ayckbourn - reflected the author's intentions and incorrectly noted there only some of the plays were linked.
When studying Alan's plays, it should always be remembered that the definitive production should essentially always be the world premiere, staged in-the-round, featuring an ensemble cast and from the 7th play onwards, directed by Alan Ayckbourn.

Hopefully, that clears up the confusion about Confusions.

Confusions, directed by Alan Ayckbourn, can be seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, this summer between 9 July and 26 September. Further details can be found at www.sjt.uk.com.

To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: admin@alanayckbourn.net labelled Ask The Archivist.