Once again it's time to reprint the most reprinted article on this blog with the most frequently asked question about Alan Ayckbourn. In today's BBC interview with Sir Alan, it says: 'There is an oft-quoted fact that Sir Alan Ayckbourn is second only to William Shakespeare in the league of the UK's most-performed playwrights.' Is this true?
Not as far as Alan Ayckbourn or I am aware. And it's certainly not a fact.
It is actually just a quote perpetually propagated in the press from one publication to the next without anyone actually checking to see whether it's accurate and where the source of this information comes from.
So if anyone asks is Alan Ayckbourn the second moist performed playwright in the UK?
I've no idea.
And despite what you may have read, no matter what the quality of the publication, neither does anyone else.
No-one can say with any degree of certainty where in the UK (or world) theatrical pop charts Shakespeare, Alan Ayckbourn, Alan Bennett, John Godber or any other playwright stands.
We can take an educated guess (Shakespeare as number 1...), but that's about it as no-one has done any definitive research into this for years and even that dated research (which is, in all likelihood, where all this stems from) is somewhat flawed given it was only about a specific facet of British theatre at a very specific time.
So where does this oft-repeated but unsubstantiated fact come from?
And, no, it doesn't come from Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website www.alanayckbourn.net!
As far as I've been able to discover, this fatuous quote originates in statistics published in 1990 - but to put these figures into context, we need to go back a few years.
In 1983, the Arts Council of Great Britain (as it was known), published for the first time statistics about regional theatres in the UK subsidised by the Arts Council (keep that in mind...). Compiled over a two year period, it reported on the most performed play (Cider With Rosie apparently), audience figures and, amongst other facts, the most popular playwrights.
Between 1981 and 1983, more people went to see an Ayckbourn play than a Shakespeare play - although there were slightly more productions of Shakespeare than Ayckbourn. This was promptly reported in the media that Alan Ayckbourn was the UK's most popular playwright and it would often be repeated without any kind of context.
For it's important before we get to 1990 to put these figures into a context.
They are pertinent only to regional theatres subsidised by the Arts Council. They do not include regional commerical theatres, West End theatres or amateur productions.
It's an interesting but somewhat limited view of British Theatre during a very specific period between 1981 and 1983.
These reports from the Arts Council continued to be published, again restricted to the same criteria, fairly regularly with Alan and Shakespeare battling it out for the top spot and swapping places fairly regularly.
In 1990, the Arts Council published its Cultural Trends report which included the statistic that Alan Ayckbourn was the second most popular playwright after Shakespeare. In context, this was limited to the previous 12 months and was again limited to regional subsidised theatres.
The Arts Council eventually stopped publishing such specific figures about plays and playwrights and I'm unaware of any major media story on the popularity of Alan Ayckbourn (or any other playwright), validated by actual facts and statistics, since the mid 1990s. The Arts Council statistics from 1990 appear to have been the last to have been widely reported.
So when I rhetorically ask myself where did the 'fact' Alan is the second most performed playwright come from, my answer is: probably an Arts Council report in 1990 that has been regurgitated and repeated ad nauseum without anyone questioning where the statistic came from or, more importantly, whether its accurate or can be substantiated.
Let's emphasise, there is no doubt Alan Ayckbourn is an extremely popular playwright - had the reports included amateur, commerical tours and West End productions during the '70s and '80s into the '90s, I have absolutely no doubt he would have had the highest attendance of any living playwright in the country during that period. But no-one can specifically say how popular he was then or now.
Or any other playwright for that matter.
Today, Alan's plays are still a staple of subsidised theatres in the UK as well as amateur companies. Generally there's at least one major tour of an Ayckbourn play going on at any one time in the UK (currently Bath Theatre Royal's excellent revival of Things We Do For Love) and since 2008, there has been at least one play in the West End every year (currently A Small Family Business at the National Theatre).
I've little doubt that were someone able to pull all the statistics together, Alan would today still be in the top five performed playwrights in the UK. But the problem is no single organisation is keeping track of all those statistics for all the plays and productions staged in the UK by popular playwrights.
So if you see anyone definitely state Alan Ayckbourn (or any other playwright) is the first, second, third or twenty-third most performed playwright in the UK, take it with a pinch of salt or, better still, write and ask where they got the statistic from. It'd be fascinating to know (and if they say Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website, you know they're fibbing...).
All we can say with any certainty is the line oft-repeated on his website, that Alan Ayckbourn is one of the country's most performed living playwrights.
Saying all that though, if someone were to ask me who the most performed playwright in the UK was. Well, I'd take a shot. I may be Alan Ayckbourn's Archivist, but I wouldn't bet against Mr Shakespeare. He's got pretty good form....
You can find out more about this subject on Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website here and read the original Arts Council press release from 1983 here.
If you have any Ayckbourn-related questions you'd like to ask Sir Alan's Archivist, emails them to admin@alanayckbourn.net.
