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: With Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking now back in the West End, how many of his other plays have had West End revivals?
Answer: Surprising few, particularly when you consider more than 35 of Alan Ayckbourn's plays have transferred to the West End since 1967.
The first Ayckbourn play to have a West End revival was How The Other Half Loves in 1988. This had originally been staged in 1970 at the Lyric and in 1988, the Greenwich Theatre's production of the play transferred to the Duke Of York's Theatre marking the first West End revival of an Ayckbourn play.
Since then Absurd Person Singular has been revived twice (1990 at the Whitehall and 2007 at the Garrick) and Bedroom Farce has also been revived twice (2002 at the Aldwych and 2007 at the Duke Of York's).
In 2008, The Norman Conquests trilogy was famously revived at the Old Vic and the following year Woman In Mind was revived at the Vaudeville Theatre; the same venue where the original London production was held in 1986. Season's Greetings was notably revived at the National Theatre in 2010.
Last year (2012) saw two further revivals with Absent Friends and A Chorus Of Disapproval both revived at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
Which brings us to 2013 and the current revival of Relatively Speaking at Wyndham's Theatre. This means 11 of Alan Ayckbourn's plays have had West End revivals.
To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: admin@alanayckbourn.net labelled Ask The Archivist.
