Acting Edition S. Series

Stanley, Hazel, Warren and Rick make the weekly escape from their real life nightmares into a role-playing board game peopled by dragons and monsters. A safe world where the dangers are of their own imagining; where they are free to become heroes of their own devising. But how clear is the dividing line between what they choose to be and what they really are? What would it take for them to lose sight of it altogether? All it requires is Marcie. Loveable, understanding, sympathetic Marcie - destined to become the new demon to haunt their wildest dreams.

A Chorus of Disapproval

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 December 1985

A Word from Our Sponsor

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 January 1998

This futuristic musical is set in a small-town railway station, sometime all too soon. Harry Wooller, a vicar, is looking for sponsorship for his group's musical Mystery play. His call is intercepted by a dubious but immensely powerful source - Valda/Valder who alternates between male and female forms. Artistry is soon compromised; this drastic interference forces the group to reveal their past deeds, and recognize the need for change.5 women, 4 men

A Cut in the Rates

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 October 1991

When Miss Pickhart visits the illusionist Ratchet on official Town Hall business, she discovers a sinister secret. Alone in the cellar after Ratchet is called away, she confronts the ghost of Rosalinda who met an untimely death during the saw the woman in half trick. 2 women, 1 man

Ten Times Table

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 January 1979

The leading lights of the village have decided to hold a pageant of local history based on a somewhat vague event, "The Massacre of the Pendon Twelve". But there's a young left wing teacher on the committee who decides to turn it into a rally for proletarian revolution. Committee meetings become symbolic battlefields for conflicting views - the right wing faction being led by the Chairman's conservative wife. The event turns into a violent confrontation between the two extremes, with cataclysmic results. Police intervention brings matters to a relatively quiet conclusion, but already another pageant - Romans versus Britons - seems an attractive possibility.

Mr. Whatnot

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 June 1992

Mr Whatnot is Mint, a piano tuner, summoned to the stately home of Lord and Lady Slingsby-Craddock. Once there he falls in love with their daughter, Amanda, elopes with her, fails to save her from marriage to Cecil but wins through in the end. With plenty of mime and sound effects Mr Whatnot offers great opportunities to an imaginative director for a highly entertaining and unusual production.4 women, 7 men

Way Upstream

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 November 1983

What could be more pleasant than cruising through the picturesque English countryside? This voyage combines the comedy touches that make Ayckbourn one of the world's best loved playwrights with a darker thread of menace.-4 women, 3 men

Ernie's Incredible Illucinations

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 November 1976

This is a bright comedy by the famous English comic playwright about the extraordinary powers of Ernie Fraser, a dreamer with a difference. Ernie has a vivid imagination; and his thoughts have the disconcerting habit of turning into reality....

How the Other Half Loves

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published January 1973

There are three couples in this play, the men all working for the same firm. One of the younger men is having an affair with the wife of the oldest, and when each returns home suspiciously late one night or early one morning they invent a story about having to spend some time smoothing domestic matters in the home of the third couple. Both living rooms are shown in the single set, and both share a common dining room which takes on a character of its own as it serves two dinners simultaneously on two different nights. Of course, the third couple have to show up to put the fat in the fire, but that complication only adds to the fun of this famous farce.

Things We Do for Love

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 2 March 1998

A cruel and hilarious masterpiece of tragic comedy and comic tragedy . . . On all three levels of the house, people have fantasies and deep-seated misconceptions about each other and themselves, and Ayckbourn pierces through their carapace with the precision of a brain surgeon, releasing hideous pain and grateful, aching, embarrassed laughter in equal proportions. He is the only playwright I know who can combine ribald humour with the cruelty of Seneca.' Sunday Times

Things We Do for Love won the 1997 Lloyds Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award.

Suburban Strains

by Alan Ayckbourn and Paul Todd

Published 1 December 1982

Caroline marries an unemployed actor, Kevin, whom she supports while he flirts with women and spoils her flat with his oafish behaviour. Eventually he seduces one of her pupils and Caroline throws him out. Miserably isolated, she goes to dinner with Jilly and Ivor and meets Matthew who appears eminently suitable. But their ensuing affair is doomed by Matthew's persistent, precision fault-finding and Caroline realizes she can cope better with the slovenly, but kind-hearted, Kevin sprawling on her sofa. The plot is evolved in clever time-splitting sequences between the present and three years past.3 women, 4 men, 8 women or men

My Very Own Story

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 March 1995

Due to an unfortunate triple booking, three storytellers, Peter, Paul and Percy, arrive simultaneously each to tell his own story. After some acrimony, Percy wins out and is soon telling his story - a Victorian yarn featuring, to his dismay, Paul who has hijacked the leading role. Soon Peter in turn is continuing Percy's unresolved fable only to find Percy appearing in this. In due course, Peter appears in Paul's gothic story (an extension of Peter's forties tales) and together they reach a surprisingly happy conclusion.8 women, 9 men