The Divide is a satire of the sexes set in a post-catastrophe UK where men and women are segregated by the Divide. Told through documents and diaries, the piece brings to mind authors as diverse as Margaret Attwood and George Orwell with a touch of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Of course this isn’t the first time Alan Ayckbourn has ventured into the future in his writing and his interest in it stems from a young love of the golden age of science-fiction writers.
“I began to love the allegorical stories they told, when they were using science-fiction as an allegory of, if we continue thus, then we will finish up here. This particular realm of science-fantasy wrote about the present day from a future stand-point, which - of course - is a very strong part of science-fiction. Reflecting the present day or extending the trends of the present day to its logical conclusion.”
The influence of such writers can be seen throughout Alan Ayckbourn's career from plays as diverse as Henceforward... to Communicating Doors, Comic Potential to Body Language.
And as his latest work is about to be unveiled, it's interesting to note that this genre - from an archivist's perspective - is where it also all begins.
What is believed to be the earliest surviving manuscript written by Alan Ayckbourn is called The Season and is held by The Borthwick Institute at the University Of York.
Written no later than 1958, The Season is a rare surviving example of Alan's writing prior to his first professional commission. It is a strange love story set over four scenes and four seasons, which moves from Edwardian England into a post-apocalyptic landscape.
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| An extract from the first page of Alan Ayckbourn's The Season Copyright; Alan Ayckbourn |
Described on its frontispiece as a "drama in four scenes", The Season begins in Spring in Medieval times, before moving through the seasons and time into Edwardian England and then the future.
It follows two characters, The Traveller and The Girl and the relationship which develops between them until the third act when The Girl, now The Woman, is close to death and the world apparently about to be engulfed by an apocalypse.
The final scene sees The Traveller meeting with The Girl, but apparently for the first time, venturing forth into a winter wasteland which has apparently been unseen since the catastrophe. The pair agree to explore the world together and set off into the snow.
Of course, the final scene could all be a pretentious metaphor for death from a 17 year old writer - and the scene alludes to death being like winter - but as the play mentions emerging from vaults into the world, it seems more likely to be a vision of a future after a catastrophe.
What's interesting about the final scene is - from today's perspective - the presumption would be this is a nuclear winter, but when Alan wrote the play, the term had not even been invented and there had been relatively little research into the after-effects of a nuclear war. Science-fiction writers - possibly read by Alan himself - had though explored this territory.
The Season is a fascinating oddity, although it offers no indication of the writer Alan Ayckbourn will become aside from the imagination of the piece. It is of historical significance though not only for being the earliest Ayckbourn play, but also one which shows an interest in a genre which will permeate his work from Standing Room Only (1961) through to The Divide (2015).
Just as The Season finishes post-catastrophe in a strange new world, so his latest work, The Divide, begins post-catastrophe in a world where the sexes are segregated and the world is no longer as it was.
But to discover more about this strange new world, you'll need to see The Divide.
The exclusive semi-staged reading of The Divide takes place at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Sunday 27 September from 3pm - 9.30pm (with three intervals and a supper break). It will feature Alan Ayckbourn's company at the SJT plus special guests. Tickets are priced at £60 (including picnic supper), £30 and £15 and can be booked via www.sjt.uk.com or by calling 01723 370541.
