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: Why does the website suggest Alan Ayckbourn's new one act plays (Chloë With Love and The Kidderminster Affair) are his first one acts to be 'specifically written for their own sakes'?
Answer: Alan Ayckbourn has rarely strayed into the territory of one act plays. Despite having written for more than five decades, officially he has only written four one act plays (with the proviso below). It's not a form he turns to often - and generally there's a reason why he does.
The two new one act plays (promoted as the Farcicals) represent the first time he has written one act plays that weren't commissioned as part of a wider project. So Alan Ayckbourn's first one act play, Countdown, was commissioned as just one part of Mixed Doubles, a showcase of playwrights writing about relationships. His second one act play was A Cut In The Rates, again written to fulfil a specific criteria of a short play which would form the climax of a television programme about the process of bring a play from page to stage. It was written specifically for the BBC series The English Files and would not have been written otherwise.
Chloë With Love and The Kidderminster Affair were not written because of any outside factor (other than, like most of Alan's plays, they were commissioned by the Stephen Joseph Theatre). They are two distinct one act plays which feature the same characters, but which do not depend on seeing both to be enjoyed. Essentially, they are the first one act plays Alan Ayckbourn has written with no ulterior purpsoe (and the first one acts which have what would be considered a normal running time for one acts, as both Countdown and A Cut In The Rates run at less than 15 minutes each).
And before anyone mentions Confusions (which always come up in discussions of Alan's one act plays!) that is considered a full length play. Whilst the five one act plays within it are often performed singularly, they were intended to be performed as one complete evening of entertainment (hence the links between the first four plays and the way it ends on a dying fall highlighting the actors as individuals with A Talk In The Park). Confusions was written as a showcase for five actors and is intended, ideally, to be seen as a whole. The Farcicals can be enjoyed together (and there is the opportunity to see them either singularly or together), but were not written with the intention they needed to both seen at the same time.
Chloë With Love and The Kidderminster Affair receive their world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 30 August. They can be seen on various dates singularly at lunchtimes or together on evenings until 4 October. Visit www.sjt.uk.com for more details.
To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: admin@alanayckbourn.net labelled Ask The Archivist.
