The next YSCP playreading is at 7pm on Monday 8 December upstairs at The Royal Oak. We are going to read the smash hit play from 1972 by the most prolific living British playwright. There are three Acts each a year apart, taking place in 3 kitchens, at 3 Christmases. Let Maurice know if you’d like to come along: maurice.crichton@ntlworld.com
Free for members of YSCP. £2 for guest readers. Scripts (12 from Leeds Library) to be collected by Matthew Page. Thank you, Matthew!
The play is Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn. It opened in Scarborough in June 1972 then played in the West End for over 900 performances and on Broadway for nearly 600. Ayckbourn came up with the title quite by accident in a lift. He describes the writing as ‘a step in the direction of a darker me.’
‘Few plays expose the pressures of the festive season to such devastating effect: it’s as if all your worst Christmases have arrived at once.’ ‘A mordant masterpiece.’
The Borthwick Institute at the University of York holds an extensive Ayckbourn archive including plenty material about this play. As is his wont, Ayckbourn only began writing the play at the last minute on 30 May 1972. A first draft of 40 pages was abandoned after two nights. The rewrite began the next night, 1 June, and was completed over 3 nights. It was typed up into a rehearsal draft on 4 June and went into rehearsal the day after. Yes, the day after! It opened on 26 June at the Library Theatre, less than 4 weeks after Ayckbourn began the writing of it! After the first night Ayckbourn cut 30 minutes for the second night. The Borthwick has the evidence for all these stages of development: the abandoned draft, the manuscript, the typed rehearsal copy, Christopher Godwin’s copy of the rehearsal script – he played Ronald – showing the cuts made for the second night, and, a stage manager’s copy from the West End transfer. All are right here in York.
6 Characters, 3 couples
Sidney: socially awkward ambitious property developer
& Jane: eager to please, happiest when cleaning
Geoffrey: trendy architect and philanderer
& Eva: addicted to anti-depressants, whimsical
Ronald: conservative, wry, sardonic, a banker
& Marion: charming, snobbish, eccentric, likes a drink