Ayckbourn's Scarborough farewell

BY David Sillito
Arts correspondent, BBC News

Ayckbourn's plays include Absurd Person Singular and Women in Mind

Veteran playwright Alan Ayckbourn speaks about ending his 51-year run with theatre in Scarborough, as London celebrates its most successful theatrical year on record.

Had you suggested it to him in his youth, Alan Ayckbourn would have scoffed at the idea that he would adopt Scarborough as his second home.

"I'm a Londoner," says the playwright. "I had no idea where Yorkshire was."

But as he began his career in theatre, Ayckbourn was lured to the coastal town by Stephen Joseph - a theatrical impresario and evangelist for the more intimate and democratic in-the-round style of theatre.

Working first as a stage manager, then an actor and writer, Ayckbourn's association with Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre (and, formerly, the Library Theatre) now spans 50 years.

2008, however, marks his final season.

"I think it will be strange, having thought of this as my theatre, to come and have it be someone else's," the playwright muses.

His 36 years in charge as artistic director have given the town a worldwide reputation for high quality theatre - alongside the beer and bingo of the seafront.

First love

Ayckbourn became the Theatre's artistic director in 1972

The Stephen Joseph Theatre began above the town's library and has now settled at what used to be the Odeon Cinema. Over the years it has hosted more than 60 Ayckbourn opening nights.

At one time he had five plays running in London's West End but his first love was always running his little seaside theatre. Because, more often than not, it is the best place to see his productions.

The reason? It is simply the shape of the place. With the stage set in the middle of the auditorium, the actors are surrounded by the audience.

It is personal and intimate. All of the 404 seats have an equally good view and the plays are written for this special environment.

"I guess people now come to see this place having possibly seen a play and realised this is where they come from," says Ayckbourn.

"We get Americans and Japanese popping in, it's quite nice."

This is where they first flooded the stage for Way Upstream and had two simultaneous plays on two stages, called House and Garden, with one set of actors running between.

I thought I'd go out with a bang Alan Ayckbourn on his last season as Scarborough's artistic director

Locals, known as Scarborians, also came night after night to see the different endings of Intimate Exchanges.

But beyond Ayckbourn's plays, it is also the theatre that took on a young Harold Pinter and proved that The Birthday Party was a masterpiece after its opening run had been panned in London.

One week, the Art Deco building plays host to Shakespeare, the next it could be Tom Stoppard - but there will always be a little Ayckbourn and this final season is no exception.

"I've rather over-egged the pudding as I've realised it's my last year," he says, "so there's an awful lot of my stuff in the rep.

"But I thought I'd go out with a bang."

And, in his 36th year as artistic director, he has a lot to choose from - alongside his latest play Life and Beth, there are dozens of other messy farces and bleak comedies.

He began writing when, as a young actor, he complained about a script and was challenged by Stephen Joseph to write something better.

Scarborough gave him the chance to develop his skills and now he has finished his 72nd play.

Ayckbourn transferred House and Garden from Scarborough to the National Theatre

But, famously, he doesn't like writing, keeping it down to only a few weeks each year.

He prefers the life of the theatre and working with actors and, while this is his final season in Scarborough, his works will continue to be seen all over Britain, including Kevin Spacey's revival of The Norman Conquests trilogy at the Old Vic this autumn.

Ayckbourn's appetite for the West End, however, has dimmed.

"They tend to cast the poster and then the play - if they coincide then you're dead lucky," he deadpans.

The 69-year-old is also not as fit as he once was, walking with a stick since recovering from a stroke two years ago.

These final weeks in Scarborough will mark the end of an era, one which put a small North Sea coastal town on the map as the home of the man who used comedy to look at the hidden darkness of everyday British suburban life.