Ask The Archivist is a regular 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: In the most recent This Week In History feature, it mentions Alan Ayckbourn threatening to leave Scarborough in 1974. Why was this?
Answer: These isn't a short answer to this unfortunately! But the basic background was at the time Alan Ayckbourn was two years into his tenure as Artistic Director of the Library Theatre, Scarborough, which in the wake of Stephen Joseph's death in 1967 was now a summer-season based company.
Alan wished to make it a permanent repertory theatre in the town and despite the limitations of being based in the Concert Room at Scarborough's Public Library, applied to the North Yorkshire Libraries Committee for an extension of the theatre's performance season to 40 weeks.
Despite support from Scarborough Council, this request was denied and Alan threatened to quit the town in an extensive open letter.
Embroiled amongst this was also a plan to restore Scarborough's Royal Opera House theatre - which had been dividing opinion on the council and is another story for another day!
Although the season extension was eventually agreed, it was in large part a motivating factor in the company leaving the Library Theatre in 1976 for a new home and finally becoming the permanent company in Scarborough which Alan had wanted.
This letter (excerpts reprinted below) also led to an offer by Hull Arts Association in 1974 to offer Alan Ayckbourn and the Library Theatre company a new home in Hull. It is fascinating to think what might have been!
As a real rarity from the Ayckbourn Archive, here are some notable excerpts from Alan Ayckbourn's extensive public response to news that the Library Theatre extension had been denied, which was published in the Scarborough Evening News on 27 November 1974.
"As Artistic Director of the Scarborough Library Theatre in the Round, I do feel bound to comment upon the recent decision by the North Yorkshire County Libraries Committee to reject our application for the use of two of the rooms on the first floor of the Scarborough Public Library. It has been planned, had permission been granted, to extend our season beyond our normal mid-September closing date and to play six performances, four days a week, until the end of January 1976.
I believe that, as a result of the decision, there wlll be several repercussions. First, Scarborough has been denied, unless other premises can be found for us, any chance of havlng its own permanent repertory company based in the town. Secondly, and again this depends on whether the company can find some alternative way of enlarging its activities, it will mean, regretfully, my own departure from Scarborough....
...What we were attempting to do when we applied for extended use of the Library was not, as some would have you believe, to force all the smaller socities of Scarborough out of the Library, but rather to add to what was already there. We were attempting to become a part of Scarborough life and a little more than a three-month sideshow for visitors. It ls something I would dearly love to establish after so many years associated with the town, and before finally quitting I shall assist in a search for alternative sem-permanent accommodation.
But lf we are to operate next year as we originally planned, we have only weeks, and not months, to find and convert somewhere, Revenue grants, as I have said, are made up long ln advance.
People often ask me what is there in it for you - presumably meaning the company and myself. The answer is that, financially, frankly nothing. I know that altruism is extraordinarily unfashionable these days, but what we really hope to get out of it is the chance to continue and develop our work in Scarborough amongst Scarborough people, both of whom we happen to like. It would be nice to hear that, in spite of the views of Councillor Lahteela and the North Yorkshire County Libraries Committee, Scarborough likes us enough to want us to stay.
To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: admin@alanayckbourn.net labelled Ask The Archivist.
