We chat to playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn
JEFFREY DAVIES chats to the iconic Sir Alan Ayckbourn about his newest play, and his writing process
SIR Alan Ayckbourn is one of the greatest living playwrights. The prolific author of 85 full-length plays, his most recent play, The Girl Next Door, received its world premiere in Scarborough this summer.
Sir Alan’s works have won countless national and international awards. His plays have been translated in to more than 35 languages and have been performed on stage and television all over the world.
The year 2019 marked the 60th anniversary of the Londonborn playwright’s professional playwriting debut.
Sir Alan became the first British playwright to receive Special Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards, and he was knighted in 1997 for services to theatre.
As well as Absurd Person Singular (his play which is currently running at the Theatre Royal Bath) his numerous hit plays include A Chorus of Disapproval, Time and Time Again, Just Between Ourselves, A Small Family Business, and his first major West End success Relatively Speaking.
More than half of Sir Alan’s plays have been performed in the West End or at the National Theatre, with ten of his plays being staged on Broadway. His debut novel, The Divide, was published two years ago.
In short, Sir Alan Aychbourn, aged 82, is a very impressive and prolific writer.
So why does Sir Alan believe his plays are so extraordinarily successful and so well-loved by audiences?
“If there is a secret, it’s to do with the subject matter I choose to write about. Personal relationships: men, women, wives, husbands, parents, children. People are everywhere. Now if I chose to write about the state of local roads and their pothole problems, that would probably narrow it down a bit, globally speaking,” he said.
Where do his ideas for a play come from?
“I wish I knew! They always come from somewhere different. As I said to a young writer who once asked me that same question, even if I knew I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”
Sir Alan’s characters are wonderfully well-drawn. Are they based on people he knows or has met during his life?
“Most of them are based on aspects of me. The rest are invented - or rather they are processed from people I have observed. Sometimes subconsciously.”
To say Sir Alan is prolific is something of an understatement. Can I assume therefore that the whole process of writing comes easily to him?
“No. The more you write, the harder it gets. The easiest one is always the very first. If that’s a success, then you’re destined to spend the rest of your life competing with yourself. If it’s a failure, you might as well give up there and then,” he replied.
Before putting pen to paper, does Sir Alan spend much time on background research and character development?
“None at all. I occasionally look things up while I’m actually writing, but since I rarely deal with actual events, if I’m not sure of something I probably invent it. I recall though with my latest play The Girl Next Door - part of which is set in 1942 - I did look up a lot of facts, but only when they arose as part of the action. For example, were there electric kettles in 1942? Answer: Yes. Thank God, or else I’d have to have written in a working gas stove and the stage management would have loved me for that!”
So what was the catalyst for Sir Alan becoming a playwright? After all, he began his professional career as an actor and manager. Did he always have a desire to write or was it there in the family DNA?
“My mother was a novelist/ short story writer, and I fell in love with theatre at an early age. The two fused,” he said.
Many playwrights have a carefully honed routine for writing; a kind of masterplan for starting and getting a ‘project’ finished. Does Sir Alan?
“Not really. In the very early days I’d write them out in pencil in longhand. Then I’d dictate them to a typist. Then I typed them myself with two fingers. Then, following my stroke, I typed them with one finger. Now that finger’s finally worn out, I dictate straight to the laptop from rough notes, usually in pencil. Full circle, in other words,” he said.
Has Sir Alan ever begun and then abandoned writing a play?
“Constantly. If I’d finished all the plays I’d actually started I’d have written twice as many!”
So does he do much editing and re-editing of a draft before being satisfied with the end result?
“I’ll probably pass through it a couple of times, but with a computer there’s a terrible temptation to fiddle needlessly. Trust your first instinct, I say,” he answered.
What for Sir Alan is the hardest part of being a playwright?
“Having to sit through a production by some inept director and their lacklustre cast who completely misunderstand the play or its intentions, and bore the audience rigid, and who consequently blame the author,” he answered.
And the best bit of being a playwright?
“Sitting through a production by an inspired and an exciting group of actors who, together, lift your play, the audience, and ultimately yourself to a new height. They have also incidentally and brilliantly concealed the glaring errors in the play’s construction and consequently assign you, the author, full credit!”
Does Sir Alan ever go to see productions of his plays? And if he does, can he detach himself from being the writer of it when he is watching it as an ordinary member of the public in the audience?
“Only when the production is recommended by a trusted friend. And no, I can’t detach myself. I’m 60 per cent director after all,” he reminded me.
So whose plays does Sir Alan enjoy watching?
“Plays by people I admire and have influenced me,” he said, adding immediately that he answered that particular question somewhat ‘craftily’.
Absurd Person Singular is currently playing the Theatre Royal Bath. Why is the play so-called?
“I made the title up long before I wrote the play. It has nothing to do with the play to which it’s attached; it could have been one of several. This one just happened to be the next in line,” he said matter-of-factly.
And what prompted him to write the comic masterpiece?
“Scarborough needed a play that year. I had six actors available. And the leaflets were already printed. Same old reasons as ever,” the man who has been dubbed ‘a genius’ said.
As well as writing many full length plays, ‘the master of comic ingenuity’ has also written one-act plays, short plays, plays for children and young people, revues and adaptations.
Said to be the most performed playwright in the world, Sir Alan began his career as an actor, performing 70 or so different roles between 1956 and 1964.
The father of two, who admits to ‘tinkering’ with a career in journalism at one point, is also a most distinguished and highly acclaimed director who has worked extensively in the West End and at the National Theatre.
Absurd Person Singular continues to play the Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday (September 4). Book tickets on 01225 448844 or online at www. theatreroyal.org.uk