Alan Ayckbourn facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE FRSA
Ayckbourn in 2010
Born	(1939-04-12) 12 April 1939 (age 86) Hampstead, London, England
Occupation	Playwright, director
Period	1959–present

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a famous British writer and director of plays. He was born on April 12, 1939. As of 2025, he has written and produced 90 full-length plays. Most of his plays first opened in Scarborough.

From 1972 to 2009, he was the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Many of his plays have also been shown in London's West End. His first big hit was Relatively Speaking in 1967.

Some of his most popular plays include Absurd Person Singular (1972) and The Norman Conquests (1973). His plays have won many awards, including seven London Evening Standard Awards. They have been translated into over 35 languages and performed all over the world.

About Alan Ayckbourn

His Early Life

Alan Ayckbourn was born in Hampstead, London. His mother, Irene Worley, was a writer of short stories. His father, Horace Ayckbourn, was a lead violinist for the London Symphony Orchestra. His parents separated after World War II.

Alan wrote his first play when he was about 10 years old. This was at his boarding school, Wisborough Lodge. He later attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College. While there, he traveled around Europe and America with his school's Shakespeare company.

Starting His Career

After school, Alan took several temporary jobs. He then started working at the Scarborough Library Theatre. There, he met the artistic director, Stephen Joseph. Joseph became a very important mentor to Alan.

Alan's career was briefly paused for National Service. He was quickly discharged for medical reasons. Even though he moved for work, he eventually settled in Scarborough. He bought a house that his mentor, Stephen Joseph, used to own.

In 1957, Alan married Christine Roland, an actress from the Library Theatre. They wrote his first two plays together under the name "Roland Allen." They had two sons, Steven and Philip. Alan later married Heather Stoney in 1997.

In 2006, Alan had a stroke. He recovered and returned to directing after six months. The next year, he announced he would step down as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre. However, he still writes and directs his own plays there.

How His Life Influenced His Plays

People often wonder if Alan Ayckbourn's plays are about his own life. He has said that he sees parts of himself in all his characters. For example, he felt he was like all four men in his play Bedroom Farce.

It is thought that his mother might be a character in some of his plays. For instance, the character Susan in Woman in Mind is sometimes compared to her. While his plays often show marriages having problems, it's not clear if this is directly from his own life. He also saw problems in his parents' relationships and those of his friends.

Alan Ayckbourn is known as a private person. It is unlikely he would put too much of his personal life directly into his plays. One writer said that if his plays told his life story, he "still hasn't started."

His Work in Theatre

Early Acting and Writing

Alan Ayckbourn's theatre career began right after school. He joined Sir Donald Wolfit on tour as an acting assistant stage manager. He performed in several plays.

In 1957, he started working for Stephen Joseph at the Library Theatre in Scarborough. He was an acting stage manager. In 1958, he got his first chance to write a play. He complained about a script, and Joseph challenged him to write a better one. This led to The Square Cat, his first play, performed in 1959. Alan himself acted in this play.

In 1962, Alan moved to Stoke-on-Trent to help start the Victoria Theatre. He acted in many more plays there. His last acting role in one of his own plays was in Christmas v Mastermind. He stopped acting in 1964 to focus on writing. His final stage role was in Two for the Seesaw. He decided acting was too much trouble after a problem during a performance.

Becoming a Playwright

Alan's first play, The Square Cat, was popular locally. But his next few plays didn't do as well. Christmas v Mastermind was considered his biggest failure.

His luck changed in 1963 with Mr. Whatnot. This was the first play he was truly happy with. It was even performed in the West End, but it didn't do well there. After this, Alan worked with comedians like Tommy Cooper and Ronnie Barker.

In 1965, back in Scarborough, Meet my Father was produced. It was later renamed Relatively Speaking. This play was a huge success in Scarborough and the West End. Even Noël Coward sent him a congratulatory message!

His next play, The Sparrow, only ran for three weeks. But then came How the Other Half Loves, which made him a very successful playwright.

His most commercially successful plays were in the 1970s. These included Absurd Person Singular (1972), The Norman Conquests trilogy (1973), and Bedroom Farce (1975). These plays often looked at middle-class marriages in Britain. The only setback was a musical called Jeeves in 1975, which he wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

From the 1980s, Alan started exploring other topics beyond marriage. For example, Woman in Mind is told from the view of a woman having a nervous breakdown. He also tried new ways of writing plays. Intimate Exchanges has one beginning but sixteen possible endings! In House & Garden, two plays happen at the same time on different stages. He also wrote plays for children, like Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays.

With over 70 plays, Alan Ayckbourn is one of England's most successful living playwrights. He has won many awards, including a Laurence Olivier Award. Despite his fame, he remains dedicated to local theatre. Almost all his plays first opened at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.

He was honored with the CBE in 1987 and became a knight in 1997. It is often said that he is the most performed living English playwright, second only to Shakespeare of all time.

Alan Ayckbourn continues to write new plays. Private Fears in Public Places was a big success and was even made into a film in 2006. After his stroke, people wondered if he could still write. But he continued, and his play Life and Beth premiered in 2008. He keeps writing for the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

He still experiments with how plays are performed. In Roundelay (2014), the audience picks the order of the five acts! In Arrivals and Departures (2013), the first half is from one character's view, and the second half shows the same events from another's.

Many of his plays have premiered in New York as part of the Brits Off Broadway Festival. In 2019, he published his first novel, The Divide. During the Covid lockdown, his plays Anno Domino (2020) and The Girl Next Door (2021) were adapted for radio and online streaming. In 2022, his play All Lies premiered outside Scarborough for the first time in about 60 years.

Directing Plays

Even though he is famous for writing, Alan Ayckbourn spends most of his time directing plays. He started directing at the Scarborough Library Theatre in 1961. He directed many plays there and at the Victoria Theatre.

At first, his directing and writing careers were separate. He didn't direct his own plays until 1963. He became the permanent artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1972.

In the mid-1980s, he worked as a visiting director at the Royal National Theatre in London. He formed his own company and directed several plays there. He shared his role at the Stephen Joseph Theatre during this time.

In 1999, he decided to focus on directing only his own plays. He made one exception in 2002 to direct The Safari Party.

In 2002, he criticized how the West End treated theatre, especially casting celebrities. He didn't direct there again until 2009.

After his stroke in 2006, he returned to work in September. His 70th play, If I Were You, premiered the next month. He retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2007. However, he continues to direct his own plays there.

In 2010, he directed a successful revival of his play Taking Steps. In 2014, he directed a musical version of The Boy Who Fell into A Book.

Awards and Honors

Alan Ayckbourn has received many awards for his plays and his work in theatre.

• 1973: Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, for Absurd Person Singular
• 1974: Evening Standard Award for Best Play, for The Norman Conquests
• 1977: Evening Standard Award for Best Play, for Just Between Ourselves
• 1985: Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, for A Chorus of Disapproval
• 1985: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy, for A Chorus of Disapproval
• 1986: Given the Freedom of the Borough of Scarborough.
• 1987: Evening Standard Award for Best Play, for A Small Family Business
• 1987: Became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
• 1989: Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, for Henceforward...
• 1990: Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, for Man of the Moment
• 1991: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
• 1997: Became a Knight Bachelor, meaning he is now called "Sir Alan."
• 2008: Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
• 2009: Laurence Olivier Special Award.
• 2009: The Critics' Circle annual award for Distinguished Service to the Arts.

He also has several honorary degrees from different universities. He is a patron of Next Stage Theatre Company, an amateur theatre group.

His Plays

Full-Length Plays

One-Act Plays

Alan Ayckbourn has also written eight shorter plays, called one-act plays. Five of these were written for his play Confusions (1974). These are Mother Figure, Drinking Companion, Between Mouthfuls, Gosforth's Fete, and Widows Might.

Other one-act plays include:

• Countdown (1962), which was part of a collection of short plays.
• Ernie's Incredible Illucinations (1969), written for schools to perform.
• A Cut in the Rates (1984), which was filmed for a BBC documentary.

Books Written by Alan Ayckbourn

• Ayckbourn, Alan (2019) The Divide.

Films Based on His Plays

Some of Alan Ayckbourn's plays have been made into movies:

• A Chorus of Disapproval (play) became the film A Chorus of Disapproval (1988).
• Intimate Exchanges became the film Smoking/No Smoking (1993).
• The Revengers' Comedies became the film The Revengers' Comedies (1998).
• Private Fears in Public Places became the film Cœurs (2006).
• Life of Riley became the film Life of Riley (2014).

See also

In Spanish: Alan Ayckbourn para niños