Alan Ayckbourn

Ayckbourn wrote his first play at prep school when he was about 10. At Haileybury, he toured Europe and America with the school Shakespeare. He left school at 17 to go straight into the theatre with an introduction to Sir Donald Wolfit by his French master, and joined him on tour as an assistant stage-manager and actor.

By 1957, Ayckbourn was acting with director Stephen Joseph at Scarborough. In 1959 he played Stanley, directed by Harold Pinter, in the second production of Pinter's The Birthday Party.

He has written and produced some sixty plays in Scarborough and London and is the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Almost all of his plays receive their first performance at this theatre. More than 25 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the RSC since his first hit Relatively Speaking[?] opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967.

Major successes include Absurd Person Singular[?], The Norman Conquests[?], Bedroom Farce[?], Just Between Ourselves[?], A Chorus Of Disapproval[?], Woman In Mind[?], A Small Family Business[?], Man Of The Moment[?] and House & Garden[?]. His plays have won numerous awards - including seven London Evening Standard Awards. They have been translated into over 30 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world.

Ayckbourn plays have also been filmed in French and English. Four of his plays have been seen on Broadway attracting two Tony nominations. In 1991, he received a Dramalogue Critics Award for his play Henceforward...[?].

Although his plays have received major West End productions almost from the beginning of his writing career, and hence have been reviewed in British newspapers, Ayckbourn's work was for years routinely dismissed as being too slight for serious study. Recently scholars have begun to view Ayckbourn as an important commentator on the lifestyles of the British suburban middle-class and as a stylistic innovator, experimenting with theatrical styles within the boundaries set by popular tastes.

Life

1956-57 Stage manager and actor, Donald Wolfit's company, in Edinburgh, Worthing, Leatherhead, Scarborough, and Oxford
1957-62 Actor and stage manager, Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-Round, Scarborough, Yorkshire
1962-64 Associate director, Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
1964-70 Drama producer, BBC Radio, Leeds
Since 1970 Artistic director, Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-Round
1986-88 Associate director, National Theatre, London
1991-2 Professor of contemporary theatre, Oxford University

Honours

Evening Standard award, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990
Olivier award, 1985
Plays and Players award, 1987
D.Litt.: University of Hull, Yorkshire, 1981
D.Litt.: University of Keele, Staffordshire, 1987
D.Litt.: University of Leeds, 1987
C.B.E. (Commander, Order of the British Empire), 1987

Works

1. The Square Cat 1959
2. Love After All 1959
3. Dad's Tale 1960
4. Standing Room Only 1961
5. Christmas V Mastermind 1962
6. Mr Whatnot 1963
7. Meet My Father * Relatively Speaking 1965
8. The Sparrow 1967
9. How The Other Half Loves 1969
10. The Story So Far... * Me Times Me Times Me * Family Circles 1970
11. Time And Time Again 1971
12. Absurd Person Singular 1972
13. Fancy Meeting You * Table Manners (Norman Conquests) 1973
14. Make Yourself At Home * Living Together (Norman Conquests) 1973
15. Round And Round The Garden (Norman Conquests) 1973
16. Absent Friends 1974
17. Jeeves Re-Written 1996 As By Jeeves 1975
18. Confusions 1974
19. Bedroom Farce 1975
20. Just Between Ourselves 1976
21. Ten Times Table 1977
22. Joking Apart 1978
23. Sisterly Feelings 1979
24. Taking Steps 1979
25. Suburban Strains 1980
26. Season's Greetings 1980
27. Way Upstream 1981
28. Making Tracks 1981
29. Intimate Exchanges Consisting Of 8 Plays 1982
30. It Could Be Any One Of Us 1983
31. A Chorus Of Disapproval 1984
32. Woman In Mind 1985
33. A Small Family Business 1987
34. Henceforward... 1987
35. Man Of The Moment 1988
36. Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays 1988
37. The Revengers' Comedies 1989
38. Invisible Friends 1989
39. Body Language 1990
40. This Is Where We Came In 1990
41. Callisto 5 Re-Written In 1999 As Callisto 7 1990
42. Wildest Dreams 1991
43. My Very Own Story 1991
44. Time Of My Life 1992
45. Dreams From A Summer House 1992
46. Communicating Doors 1994
47. Haunting Julia 1994
48. The Musical Jigsaw Play 1994
49. A Word From Our Sponsor 1995
50. The Champion Of Paribanou 1996
51. Things We Do For Love 1997
52. Comic Potential 1998
53. The Boy Who Fell Into A Book 1998
54. House (House & Garden) 1999
55. Garden (House & Garden) 1999
56. Virtual Reality 2000
57. Whenever 2000
58. Gameplan (Damsels In Distress) 2001
59. Flatspin (Damsels In Distress) 2001
60. Roleplay (Damsels In Distress) 2001
61. Snake In The Grass 2002

(*) retitled