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Alan Ayckbourn
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…
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Features such plays as: Snake in the Grass ; If I Were You p; Life and Beth ; My Wonderful Day ; and, Life of Riley .
Michael Holt
This book explores the range of Ayckbourn’s work, covering light comedy, farce, theatrical cartoon, musicals and plays for children. It defines the early influences and the developing themes, concentrating on…
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Paul Allen
One of Britain’s most popular playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn is also the most private. This book is a portrait of the man who - from Relatively Speaking in 1965 to his…
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Includes the plays Absurd Person Singular , Absent Friends , and Bedroom Farce .
‘What is remarkable about Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy is that it contrives to be simultaneously hilarious and harrowing. The settings are simple - a kitchen, a bedroom, a party - but…
A collection of Alan Ayckbourn’s plays for children, including Mr A.‘s Amazing Maze Plays , Invisible Friends , My Very Own Story , and This Is Where We Came in…
This volume is part of the New Longman Literature series of modern and classic novels, short stories and plays. Each book in the series provides the complete, original text; a…
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Melanie believes she has foreseen the future. But has she really? Or is it all in her mind? True or false, she has seen events which threaten the life of…
A gloriously inventive play for children by Alan Ayckbourn, Britain’s most popular and most frequently performed playwright.‘Something to savour.
There are no less than eight intimate exchanges in this ingenious tour de farce and each has two different endings; you can see Intimate Exchanges sixteen times and not see…
House and Garden are two plays with the same characters running simultaneously in adjacent auditoria. In House Teddy Platt, whose marriage is on the rocks, is visited by the creepy…
Miriam has cared for her father in the family home during his vituperative last years with the help of a creepily polite nurse, Alice. On Father’s death, Miriam’s older sister…
Alan Ayckbourn’s play is about a very ordinary teenager called Lucy. The moral of this cautionary tale is carefully spelt out - that when you get what you want it’s…
Part of a series of GCSE literature texts, with notes and pre-reading activities. This comedy features three couples who meet at Christmas in each other’s houses three years in succession…
In the second battle of Ayckbourns celebrated triology The Norman Conquests, we rejoin the family weekend, this time hearing the events in the living room, where Norman gets drunk on…
The third battle of Ayckbourns celebrated triology The Norman Conquests, returns us to the same weekend in the country, but this time to the setting of Mothers overgrown English country…
Well, that’s one down, isn’t it. Nine to go. Next! Thou shalt not kill. What about that then? Let’s have a crack at that one next, shall we?
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A thunderstorm. A windswept country house. A family of failures - a detective who has never solved a case, a writer, an artist, a composer, and a dysfunctional teenager -…
A convicted thief endears himself to the British public. He becomes a media pundit, living in luxury, tended by managers and courted by TV directors. Then a meeting is arranged…
Henry Bell has come to the Albert Bridge to throw himself off because he has lost his wife and his job. Instead, he saves Karen Knightly who has thrown herself…
Ayckbourn’s 52nd full-length play is a tragicomedy in which people on all three levels of a house have fantasies and deep-seated misconceptions about each other and themselves.
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. Loveable, understanding, sympathetic Marcie - destined…
Benjamin Cooper provides comfort and satisfaction to his wealthy patients, by improving their good looks with the aid of surgery. One of his patients is Angie Dell, a model at…
Suzy’s father took off in a balloon one day and has not come down since. When Neville, her dog, loses his bark, she is sure the mysterious Mr Acousticus has…
Fred sits next to a sign which reads Stories told here today . The storyplayers arrive, followed by the ageing storytellers, who create the characters and plots for the storyplayers…
Eight years of macaroni and cheese for breakfast, lunch and supper…It’s enough to drive a boy crazy - until a new, unexpected, and rather dangerous creature arrives on Callisto 5.1…
Murganah loves Ahmed, the Sultan’s youngest son, but feeling herself rejected, she invokes the help of dark supernatural forces to regain him. When she finally loses him to another she…
A musical which provides roles for eight actors/singers, combining the work of Alan Ayckbourn with John Pattison’s fully integrated score (published separately) that ranges from the operatic to pop.
Trevor and Susannah, whose marraige is on the rocks, inflict their miseries on their nearest and dearest: three couples whose own relationships are tenuous at best. Taking place sequentially in…
A play set in the foreseeable future when everything has changed except human nature; a future where TV daytime soaps are performed by android actors emotionally programmed by the control…
The Rodales seem like an ordinary family, but beneath the surface things are beginning to crack. Jill and Mal have lost the spark in their marriage, their son Sam resents…
Another marvelous portrait of middle class, middle aged life by this skillful portrayer of manners and morals. Charming, naturally successful in everything, Anthea and Richard almost unconsciously but ruthlessly dominate…
The first of Ayckbourns darkly comic masterpieces involves a relentlessly cheerful handyman in a disastrously fractured marriage. Two couples develop an unlikely friendship in this painfully funny portrait of British…
Though he’s lauded in the media as a military hero, Murray is remembered less fondly by many in his old village. He left amidst rumours of arson, unplanned pregnancy and…
It’s Christmas, and Beth Timms is mourning the recent death of her health and safety officer husband, Gordon. Beth’s sister-in-law Connie and son Martin have come to stay, but between…
Charlie Conrad is a celebrity. His talent? He hasn’t got one; the nation took him to their hearts for very publicly being unable to do anything competently. On a fateful…
Mr Whatnot is Mint, a piano tuner, summoned to the stately home of Lord and Lady Slingsby-Craddock. Once there he falls in love with their daughter, Amanda, elopes with her…
Six aspiring authors meet on a winter’s evening to discuss their work. The chairman, Arnold, attempts to get the rest of the group out of a rut by suggesting that…
The year is 1996. Trevor and Linda have been struggling for a while to deal with the behaviour of their rebellious teenage son Jason. In a moment of madness, they…
A terrorist code-named Cerastes is on the loose, and an undercover anti-terrorist squad have planned a sting to capture him as he steps off a train at a London station.
…
Chloe With Love - Teddy’s marriage to Lottie is going through a difficult period. Does he still love Lottie? Does Lottie still love him? Cue next door neighbours Penny and…
The text of this play is accompanied by editorial introductions, notes and questions which aim to provide GCSE and A level students with the opportunity to explore the characters, ideas…
Roland, a hard drinking tycoon, is considering buying an old Victorian house, once a brothel. His solicitor and the vendor, a builder, arrive to complete the deal. Also in the…
What could be more pleasant than cruising through the picturesque English countryside? This voyage combines the comedy touches that make Ayckbourn one of the world’s best loved playwrights with a…
The trilogy comprises FlatSpin, GamePlan and RolePlay and was first seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough and later at the Duchess Theatre, London. Each is self contained, the common…
