Acting Edition S. Series

This volume is part of a new series of novels, plays and stories at GCSE/Key Stage 4 level, designed to meet the needs of the National Curriculum syllabus. Each text includes an introduction, pre-reading activities, notes and coursework activities. Also provided is a section on the process of writing, often compiled by the author. In this comedy, three couples meet at Christmas in each other's homes three years in succession. Ayckbourn examines the changes that have taken place in their lives over the years. He also exposes the tensions, the desperation and the loneliness that lurk behind the festive laughter.

Just Between Ourselves

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 May 1978

Dennis spends his spare time messing about in his untidy garage, indifferent to the fact that his wife is being driven to distraction and beyond by his possessive mother. The hidden tension and antagonisms under an apparently normal surface build up to a climax of bizarre violence and madness.3 women, 2 men

Confusions

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 February 1977

A student edition of five one-act plays by Britain's most popular playwright. Ayckbourn's series of plays for 4-5 actors typify his black comedies of human behaviour. The plays are alternately naturalistic, stylised and farcical, but underlying each is the problem of loneliness. The Mother Figure shows a mother unable to escape from baby talk; in The Drinking Companion an absentee husband attempts seduction without success; in Between Mouthfuls, a waiter oversees a fraught dinner encounter. A garden party gets out of hand in Gosforth's Fete whilst A Talk in the Park is a revue style curtain call piece for the five actors. Whether the comedies concern marital conflict, infidelity or motherhood and take place on a park bench or at a village fete, the characters are familiar and their cries for help instantly recognisable. "Principally he is respected as a radical re-inventor of form" Dominic Dromgoole

Family Circles

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 May 1997

Looking at Edward Gray's three daughters and their unsuitable husbands, it is difficult to disagree with his pronouncement that we all marry the wrong person. It is also impossible not to laugh at the results hilariously portrayed in this early play by the master of English comedy that is being published for the first time.-4 women, 4 men

Sisterly Feelings

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 March 1981

This ingenious comedy is about two sisters and the choices they make (or have made for them) over a few months. There are four versions that can be done on different evenings, each stemming from one random and one deliberate choice. The story starts with a funeral at which Dorcas, Abigail and Simon solve a dilemma by tossing a coin: either Dorcas or Abigail wins the toss and goes with Simon. Later, at a picnic, Dorcas opts for either a camping adventure for Abigail or a day of sports for herself. The inevitable end of either choice is a wedding.4 women, 8 men

Woman in Mind

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 22 September 1986

The central character of Alan Ayckbourn's new play is Susan, a parson's wife, 'one of the most moving and devastating that he has created...'
Robin Thornber reviewing the first production in Scarborough in the Guardian.

A Small Family Business

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 20 July 1987

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?

Jack McCracken: a man of principle in a corrupt world. But not for long. Moments after taking over his father-in-law's business he's approached by a private detective armed with some compromising information.

Jack's integrity fades away as he discovers his extended family to be thieves and adulterers, looting the business from their suburban homes. Rampant self-interest takes over and comic hysteria builds to a macabre climax.

A riotous exposure of entrepreneurial greed, Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business, premiered at the National Theatre in 1987 and returned there in April 2014.

Bedroom Farce

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 May 1978

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 the three beleaguered couples' bedrooms during one endless Saturday night of co-dependence and dysfunction, beds, tempers, and domestic order are ruffled, leading all the players to a hilariously touching epiphany.

Mr. A's Amazing Maze Plays

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 20 November 1989

Fans of his Ernie's Incredible Illucinations are sure to enjoy this story. Suzy lives in a cottage with her mother and her dog, Neville. Suave but sinister Mr. Accousticus moves into the big house across the street and Neville suddenly loses his bark. Suzy is certain the new neighbor is responsible so she and Neville search his house. What happens next? It's up to the audience in this imaginative tale.-8 women or men

Taking Steps

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 18 March 1981

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 house are his wife, a frustrated dancer who is always considering leaving him, her brother and later the brother's fianc , who is uncertain whether or not to run away. In the course of one hectic night and morning, with continual running up and downstairs and in and out of rooms, these characters, each immersed in a personal problem, try to sort themselves out.-2 women, 4 men

Time of My Life

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 28 June 1993

In this book , Alan Ayckbourn charts the decline of a large family business. The Strattons are big in transport and leisure centres; but they have spawned two hopeless sons, and family and then the recession hits them. Gerry Stratton has arranged a party at the family's favourite restaurant to celebrate his wife's 54th birthday; roving son Glyn has patched up his failing marriage with Stephanie to please his parents, and home-boy Adam has brought along his new girl, Maureen. The rest of the play is set around different tables in this same Mediterranean retreat.

This is Where We Came in

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 May 1995

Fred sits, somewhere or other, next to a sign which reads "Stories told here today". He's been waiting a long time - or at least he thinks he has. A group of actors, the storyplayers arrive. They are followed by the ageing storytellers, who create the characters and the plots for the storyplayers to act out. What the storyplayers would really like is to make up their own stories and they enlist Fred's help to free them. But are the storyplayers acting independently or taking part in another story created by the storytellers? And is Fred really an outsider or another of their inventions? Reality and fiction mix in this play for young people which combines theatre and storytelling, music, and a host of sound effects into a piece of theatrical magic.

Absent Friends

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 December 1975

Colin must be comforted in his grief over the death of his fiancee so his friends, who never met the girl, arrange a tea party for him. Understandably they are on edge wondering what to say, but there is more to their unease: Diane and Paul, John and Evelyn, and Marge and her husband are perpetually out of circulation with trivial illnesses are all kept together by a mixture of business and cross-marital emotional ties. By the time Colin arrives for tea, their tenseness contrasts dramatically with his air of cheerful relaxation. He is the only happy one among them and his happiness and insensitive analyses of their troubles causes each of them to break down.

Intimate Exchanges

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 December 1985

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 the same play twice! And one actor and one actress play all 10 characters. This is Ayckbourn's most unusual look yet at the foibles of middle class living.-1 woman, 1 man

Table Manners

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 February 1975

In this play, Annie has arranged to spend an illicit weekend with her sister Ruth's husband Norman, and for this reason, suitably disguised, has asked her elder brother Reg and his wife Sarah to look after their widowed mother and the house. As it happens the seduction, thought or planned, by each of the six characters never takes place either. Table Manners is part of The Norman Conquests trilogy.

Man of the Moment

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 19 February 1990

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 after 14 years between this ex-thug and the bank clerk who "had a go". Ayckbourn's previous plays include "Way Upstream".

Round and Round the Garden

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 February 1975

In this play, Sarah's desperate attempts to have a nice, civilized week end culminate, not surprisingly, in disaster. Ruth, Norman's wife, is summoned but Norman still contrives to cause havoc involving, finally, all three women. Matters are not helped by such events as the slow thinking Tom mistaking Ruth's intentions during a conversation they have together. Eventually the horrific week end draws to a close.3 women, 3 men

Living Together

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 February 1975

Annie, the Cinderella of the family, lives in the shabby Victorian vicarage type house where the family was brought up. Reg, her brother, and his wife Sarah come to stay for a week end so that she may go away for a "rest". The general idea is that Annie ought to pair off with Tom. But for this weekend it is Norman, the raffish assistant librarian husband of Annie's sister Ruth, with whom she planned to go. They were to meet secretly but Norman turns up early. When Annie calls the whole thing off Norman decides to stay on at the house and gets roaring drunk.3 women, 3 men

It Could be Any One of Us

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 February 1998

Comedy

Alan Ayckbourn

Characters: 3 male, 3 female

Interior

A thunderstorm. In a windswept country house a family of failures wrangles over a will: a detective who has never solved a case; a writer, an artist and a composer whose works have never been published, shown or performed, and a dysfunctional teenager. Here are the prime ingredients for a murder mystery, but this diversion is by Alan Ayckbourne and it has a number of surprises. The victim is not who it should be, the murder's identity changes overnight and the thrills are leavened with tongue in cheek humor and ironic comment.

Henceforward

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 10 October 1988

England's comic master is in a black comic mode in this West End hit about our fascination with technology. It is sometime quite soon in a steel shuttered, slovenly flat in a no go area of North London where punks rule deserted streets. Here, a lonely composer sits surrounded by high tech equipment. His only company is a robot nanny, and she's on the blink. He desperately wants to reclaim his teenage daughter and enlists an out of work actress to implement a cunning plan he's evolved to impress his estranged wife and a wired for sound child welfare officer. When things don't work out, Jerome has to improvise... It's amazing what can be done with a few micro chips and a screwdriver!