To mark the anniversary, the blog presents an extract from the book Unseen Ayckbourn, by Alan Ayckbourn's archivist Simon Murgatroyd, looking at the story behind the play.
The Square Cat
The Square Cat was Alan Ayckbourn’s first professional play, commissioned by his mentor Stephen Joseph and premiered at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, on 30 July 1959.
The genesis of the play has often been repeated in interviews over the years, but what should not be forgotten is Alan never had any grand intentions to be a playwright; at the time of his first commission he was just an actor at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
“I have never made any decisions; they have always been made for me. I could look back on my life and say I planned it that way, but I didn't plan to be an actor, nor a director, nor a writer. They ran out of writers!”
“Stephen had the complete, some would say lunatic, disregard in allowing me to write for him. The story goes that I came off stage one night and said that I could write much better than what I had just acted in and he told me to get on with it then."
The offending play was David Campton’s Ring Of Roses, although for many years Alan mentioned it was John Van Druten’s Bell, Book And Candle, as he did not want to upset Campton, a friend and contemporary at the Library Theatre.
Stephen Joseph was always keen to encourage new writers, although this also had other benefits for the company as Alan recalls there was funding to encourage new writing.
“The Arts Council gave us £300, more than I’d ever seen in one place before. I thought, this is money for old rope.”
Stephen’s writing challenge was made during the winter season at the Library Theatre in 1958, when Alan was also in rehearsals for the company’s brief winter tour. The play he was rehearsing was by and being directed by a relatively unknown writer who had just suffered his first West End flop. Harold Pinter had been invited to Scarborough to direct The Birthday Party following its critical mauling in London. This would only be the second time it had been professionally staged and featured Alan in the role of Stanley. The play may not have directly influenced The Square Cat, but its author certainly inspired Alan.
“I got fascinated by his [Pinter’s] use of dialogue, his use of words, the structure of sentences. You can see even now what’s actually rubbed off on me from him.”
The Square Cat was written during the tour, but it was not a sole effort. Alan’s partner and soon to be wife, Christine Roland, worked together with him offering advice on the play.
“I stomped off home and, with the help of my then wife, who was a very judicious editor, wrote a play under a joint pseudonym, Roland Allen. This was the time of skiffle and coffee bars and the play was an unashamed launch for my own acting career.”
The pseudonym Roland Allen (Christine Roland / Alan Ayckbourn) was used by Alan for his first four plays, although Christine was only involved in helping The Square Cat and Love After All.
The Square Cat was a showcase for him both as a playwright and actor with Alan playing two roles; it has never really been emphasised Alan spent the play quick-changing between the rock ‘n’ roll star Jerry Wattis and the mild-mannered Arthur Brummage.
“I came on in act one and stayed on, with all the best lines, until the end, and I danced and sang and played the guitar - none of which I was very good at. It was an immensely practical way to start. I learned a great deal from seeing the same bits die every night."
It opened at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, on 30 July 1959 and was a big hit with the summer audiences. The surprise success and demand for tickets led Stephen Joseph to cancel a week’s performance of David Campton’s adaptation of Frankenstein (which had not been well received) and scheduled a second week for The Square Cat’s second repertory run the following month; the first time a play in repertory had run for two consecutive weeks at the venue.
For Alan, the over-riding memory was the pay-cheque.
“It made me forty-seven quid, I remember, more than I earned in several weeks. It proved very popular because it was what it was - a farce, with no pretensions to anything else - and it did give people quite a laugh.”
Financial accounts for the 1959 season record that 3,440 people saw the play during its three weeks of performance and it made £695 with a number of the performances booked to capacity; in comparison the most successful show of the season was John Van Druten's Bell, Book & Candle which was seen by nine more people and took an equivalent amount of money.
Conventional wisdom has it The Square Cat was never performed again, but it was produced once more during the company’s 1959 winter tour. Alan was unavailable to reprise his role, having received his National Service call-up (deftly avoided by being signed out after just three days) and Barry Boys took on the role for the play’s swansong.
It has never been performed since then and the script has never been published. Although Alan suggested for many years all copies had been destroyed, it is surprisingly profligate. Originals of the play are held by The University Of York, The University Of Manchester and the British Library.
The only other public glimpses of The Square Cat have been in 2005 when on the anniversary of the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s 50th anniversary, Alan agreed to let the first scene of the play be read as part of the theatre’s celebration event 50 Years New. He also agreed to a reading of this scene as part of the Royal And Derngate Theatre’s Ayckbourn At 70 celebration in 2009 and for an Ayckbourn themed weekend in Scarborough in 2010.
“We read The Square Cat [at 50 Years New] and I would say to anyone that heard it: “Take heart, if you are writing plays it can only get better than this.” They [the early plays] are not producible pieces, they are nothing more than my early jottings. My early plays are an object lesson in someone having confidence in someone - I was just delighted that someone would put my plays on.”
Unseen Ayckbourn is available from amazon.co.uk here and amazon.com here. You can find out more about the book by clicking here.
Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.
