Alan Ayckbourn

Alan Ayckbourn was born in London in 1939 to a violinist father and a mother who was a writer. He left school at seventeen with two 'A' levels and went straight into the theatre. Two years in regional theatre as an actor and stage manager led in 1959 to the writing of his first play, The Square Cat, for Scarborough's Theatre in the Round at the instigation of his then employer and subsequent mentor, Stephen Joseph. Some 75 plays later, his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards. There have been English and French screen adaptations, the most notable being Alain Resnais' fine film of Private Fears in Public Places. Major successes include Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Norman Conquests, A Small Family Business, Henceforward . . ., Comic Potential, Things We Do For Love, and, most recently, Life of Riley. In 2009, he retired as Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be first staged, after 37 years in the post. He received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the first British play wright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

Books by Alan Ayckbourn

Love stories yet to happen, in a future filled with surprises.

Who is the amorous stranger, Titus, who materialises in young Grace's bedroom? Can she believe he is who ...

This fourth collection of Alan Ayckbourn's plays includes The Revengers' Comedies , Things We Do for Love , and House & Garden .

The Revengers’ Comedies
'A hugely entertaining pitch that recalls the ...

This fifth collection of Alan Ayckbourn's plays includes Snake in the Grass , If I Were You , Life and Beth , My Wonderful Day and Life of Riley .

Snake in the ...

Now we don’t want to start Christmas like this, do we?

Cheating at snakes and ladders, fighting over comic books, a bungled infidelity beneath the tree. Christmas has arrived ...

This third volume of Alan Ayckbourn plays includes Haunting Julia, Sugar Daddies, Drowning on Dry Land and Private Fears in Public Places, with an introduction by the author. Haunting Julia ...

With over sixty plays written and premièred at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough before going on to play in the West End or the Royal National Theatre, London, or ...

Luke and his mother Avril eke out their existence tending to their run-down, isolated farm in a remote part of England. They both miss Luke's sister June so much ...

The chorus of gods set out to relate the tale of the Great Ulmar, legendary warrior and champion of Sollistis. But their narrative suffers a major technical hitch when Orvin ...

'I mean, what do you do when you suddenly find you’ve got a mother who's younger than you are? And a kid brother who turns out to be ...

This is a trilogy of plays by the most performed playwright in the world, all set in a flat in Docklands. Lynette's teenage daughter comes up with a surprising way ...

A gloriously inventive play for children by Alan Ayckbourn, Britain's most popular and most frequently performed playwright.

'Something to savour. A historical-futuristic-farcical-grown-up-romantic musical adventure. Far too good to be ...

Tankred Dorst, Alan Ayckbourn and Ursula Ehler

Ben Mason has been paralysed with fear after witnessing a fatal shooting. Help is at hand by means of a cutting-edge technological device until the 'gizmo' falls into the wrong ...

Rockfist Slim's enemies have just plunged him into yet another desperate situation when Kevin has to close his detective book and go to sleep. But his own adventure is ...

Comic Potential is a comedy set in the foreseeable future when everything has changed except human nature . . .

Alan Ayckbourn's fifty-third full-length play was first presented at the Stephen Joseph ...

A treat to read and a joy to perform, this second collection of Alan Ayckbourn's work is a cornucopia of some of his wonderfully inventive children's plays. From ...

How Ms Poopay Dayseer, a twenty-first century Specialist Sexual Consultant, whilst peddling her 'services' to an elderly hotel room client unexpectedly finds herself running for her life. How her flight ...

The first volume of Alan Ayckbourn's collected work contains his morality plays from the 1980s. It includes the plays A Chorus of Disapproval , A Small Family Business , Henceforward . . . , and ...

Stanley, Hazel, Warren and Rick make the weekly escape from their real life nightmares into a role-playing board game peopled by dragons and monsters. A safe world where the dangers ...

Alan Ayckbourn's play is about a very ordinary teenager called Lucy. With her father glued to the cowboys on the telly, her mother preoccupied with neighbourly gossip and her ...

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