A Small Family Business has been described by writers such as Mark Ravenhill and Michael Billington as one of the most significant plays of the 1980s, do you think it’s still relevant?
Definitely. How many of us today steal films and music without a second thought? All those movies people put so much effort - and money - into creating and it now seems to be perfectly acceptable to just download them. All we seemingly need to do is to create a mythical ‘them’ to justify it - ‘they’ won’t notice and ‘they’ won’t ever know.
With A Small Family Business, I started with a bottle of stolen cheap shampoo and extrapolated from there. I took the play to the worst crimes I could think of - one of them was peddling drugs to underage children and the other was murder - both of which I included. The protagonist, Jack, justifies his behaviour as being the next logical step, but remains intensely moral throughout.
Do you think this the right time for the National Theatre’s revival?
What was your experience like with the original production?
A Small Family Business was the third play during my season at the National Theatre between 1986 and 1988. All the actors had, at some stage in the season, been working together. So we hit the play running with a company that was up for it and very comfortable with each other.
It was very strange as it was the first time I’d ever written a play quite so far ahead. I gave it to the National's Artistic Director, Peter Hall, long before I even started working on my first play of the season, Tons of Money. By the time we’d finished Tons Of Money, had a small break and then did Miller's A View From The Bridge, it was almost a year since I’d written A Small Family Business.
I remember picking up the script for rehearsals - with these 6 different rooms on two floors, which fortunately the National had the facilities to give us a plywood mock up of - and going through it and blocking it in just two days and saying “Oh, the playwright knew what he was doing!”
Are there any particular challenges in staging A Small Family Business?
You are watching action in two or three different houses at once on a single set, so it is quite complicated. It remains a huge object lesson in getting a play on its feet as soon as you start because the physicality of the play is everything; I think A Small Family Business has had - since its original production - some less satisfactory productions, to put it politely.
When directing it, you have to remember it's a narrative driven play; it’s really important you keep the audience with you at all times and don’t get sucked into big moral issues. Essentially, this remains a play about an honourable man slowly going to the bad; but - at least in his mind - he remains honourable despite all he does.
You've previously spoken about your unfulfilled plan to direct A Small Family Business at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2012, would you still consider reviving it?
Maybe I’d revive it at Scarborough - I certainly don’t rule it out. Let's see how the National does! This production has got a good cast and the director, Adam Penford, has formed a company of good actors to tackle it. I suspect it’s a company that you'll want to accept as a family and, that's important, because it is all about the family.
A Small Family Business can be seen at the National Theatre from 1 April. Click here for further information and booking details.
You can hear more of Alan Ayckbourn's thoughts on the play A Small Family Business at his platform talk at the National Theatre at 6pm on Thursday 10 April. Click here for details.
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