Significant Events: Alan Ayckbourn's First Season

This article was published in the SJT Circular in 2017.

Alan Ayckbourn's First Season

by Simon Murgatroyd

In the late 1950s, an aspiring actor visited Scarborough for the first time. He had no connection with the town and apparently had only the vaguest idea where it was. In no uncertain terms, this trip changed his life and would also come to have a huge impact on the town itself.

The actor was Alan Ayckbourn and the year was 1957.

Just 17 years old and working at the Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead, Alan was asked by the stage manager, Rodney Wood, if he’d like a job in Scarborough for the summer. Alan had never heard of the two year old Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, but intrigued by the mention of theatre in the round, he attended a production by the Scarborough company of Sartre's Huis Clos at the Mahatma Gandhi Assembly Hall in Fitzroy Square, London, during Spring 1957.

It had a profound effect.

"[It] sticks out still in my mind as one of the most exciting things I'd ever seen in the theatre.... It was an absolute knockout. It was a pretty racy play, for its time, you know. And I thought, 'This is terrific.' I also liked it because theatre-in-the-round had no scenery and that meant less work."

Alan joined the company and spent two weeks in London in rehearsals for the season’s four plays. Alan was predominantly a stage manager, but also had small acting roles in J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls and Catherine Prynne's The Ornamental Hermit.

The company then moved to Scarborough with Alan having no idea where it was other than the vague direction of turn right at York. Little did he know how important a part this seaside town was going to play in his life.

"I remember I got off the train packed with holidaymakers and this bracing air and smell of chips. I said, 'Wow!' Because I was an inland child living in north Sussex, one of the great treats as a child was a trip to the seaside - so, dear reader, I bought the sweet shop. I came to the seaside and stayed. I thought, 'This can't get better’.”

Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre itself was like nothing he had previously encountered. Based in the Concert Room on the first floor of the public library, the theatre was a temporary affair re-assembled for each summer and winter season.

The seating was built onto portable rostra designed by Stephen Joseph with the stage space accessible by just two entrances - one of which was the public entrance. There was a cramped shared dressing room and a single toilet for both the company and the audience.

Despite its limitations, it obviously had an attraction for the aspiring actor.

“The auditorium was a makeshift affair; borrowed seats on rickety rostra in a small airless room of the public library. On the hot evenings, senior citizens would be supported from the theatre gasping for fresh sea air. Small children would, when carried away by the action, occasionally slip through the gaps in the seating and require rescuing. The stage floor was parquet and treacherously polished; the walls covered in untouchable, light green flock wallpaper. All in all an unpromising venue to present - as we saw it at the time - new work in new ways to new audiences.”

The work was the driving force, pioneered by Stephen Joseph, who Alan had yet to meet. This was soon to change in the most unexpected circumstance.

“I was on the lighting, working this dimmer board, which was very rudimentary and had these vicious slider dimmers that sparked and often gave you quite nasty shocks! I was doing a blackout with my arm across the top of them, trying to pull all seven down in sync - so that there was a blackout on stage. And I was suddenly aware of this huge man standing behind me, staring. And I said, ‘Excuse me, sir. I’m sorry this is a restricted area. Professional people working here.’ And he said, ‘There’s a good way to do that you know?’ I said, ‘eh?’ ‘A better way than you’re doing it,’ he said, ‘You’re going to miss a dimmer one day.’ I said, ‘oh, yes...’ and he said, ‘look, let me show you.’ I said ‘Just excuse me, I’m just about to start the first scene’ and I brought the lights all up again and he said, ‘no, no, what you need is a piece of wood,’ and he handed me a piece of wood and he said, “now lay it across the top of the dimmers and now we pull it down and there you have it. Instant blackout.’ And I said, ‘You’ve just blacked out the scene!’ And I could hear the actors blundering around in the dark and I whipped the lights up again and then they all came out through the curtains afterwards and they, ‘What the hell went on there!? My great speech!’ And I said, ‘this great big man came and did all the...’ - I was like Stan Laurel and he said, ‘Oh, that’ll be Stephen.’ And that was my introduction to Stephen Joseph.”

Following the summer season, Alan took a job at the Oxford Playhouse for the winter. Although he enjoyed this and was offered the chance to stay, Stephen contacted him with the offer of more acting opportunities during the summer 1958 season.

The rest is history, Alan returned to Scarborough and that winter - after complaining about his acting roles to Stephen - he was commissioned to write his first professional play, The Square Cat, which premiered at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre on 30 July 1959.

Two years laters, again with Stephen's encouragement, he made his professional directing debut with a production of Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight.

So began a sixty year association with Scarborough and a theatre he has become synonymous with the world over, all of which stemmed from nothing more than a fortuitous job offer.

"The first question everybody asks me is 'what am I doing here?' My answer is always the same - it was a happy accident that I came here and I am happy I chose to stay. I have stayed here longer than most Scarborians, since 1957!”

Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.