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.

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.

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.

Words of Advice

by Fay Weldon

Published January 1975

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

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!

I Love My Love

by Fay Weldon

Published 1 June 1984

Trendy magazine Femina offers two contrasting wives - country-bumpkin Anne and sophisticate Cat - GBP1000 to swap places for a week to compare lifestyles. Anne goes to London to run the chic apartment of Cat's advertising executive husband, while Cat journeys to deepest Devon to cook, clean and care for gentle, sexually-repressed, shopkeeper Derek. Violent snowstorms mean that Cat and Derek are cut off, and when the snow ploughs eventually arrive the life-swap has become a wife-swap.3 women, 2 men

Action Replay

by Fay Weldon

Published 1 October 1980

This is a study of the shifting inter-relationships between three young couples, following the developments with sympathy and a certain ironic humour, through a span of twenty-five years.3 women, 3 men

Reading Group

by Fay Weldon

Published 1 June 1999

A witty, astutely observed study of sexual politics in contemporary society which centres on an all-female reading group. Oriole wants to study contemporary authors, while Anne prefers well-known classics. Pondering the relative merits, the women reveal themselves, their personalities echoing the literary heroines. But not everyone is there for literature. Nefarious designs are uncovered and tensions rise to a dramatic climax.5 women, 2 men

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

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.

Mixed Doubles

by Alan Ayckbourn, George Melly, Fay Weldon, and Et Al

Published 4 June 1970

An entertainment on marriage by George Melly, Alan Ayckbourn, James Saunders, Harold Pinter, Alun Owen, Fay Weldon, David Campton, Lyndon Brook and John Bowen.1 woman, 1 man or flexible casting

Callisto 5

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 April 1995

Eight years of macaroni and cheese for breakfast, lunch and supper...It's enough to drive a boy crazy - until a new, unexpected, and rather dangerous creature arrives on Callisto 5.1 woman, 2 men

Revenger's Comedies

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 18 November 1991

Henry Bell has come to the Albert Bridge to throw himself off because he has lost his wife and his job. Instead, he saves Karen Knightly who has thrown herself off the bridge already and is dangling by her caught coat. They spend a long night driving. Henry learns that Karen has been jilted by a lover who has gone back to his wife. She suggests revenge as a way to heal their emotional wounds: she will fix Henry's dreadful former boss and Henry must ruin her ex lover's wife.-12 women, 11 men

Time and Time Again

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 7 April 2015

The suburban house of the Bakers' adjoins a recreation field, which is useful since football and cricket play a large part in the story. Peter, who works for Graham, brings his fiancee to the house and Graham, as usual, makes a bee-line for her. However, it is Mrs. Baker's brother, Leonard, to whom Joan strays. Leonard, poetic, a fumbler, who moons around holding conversations with the garden gnome, has always roused the bullying Graham's malice and scorn, who is horrified when he catches the younger man very much with Joan.-2 women, 3 men

The Arcadians

by Mark Ambient, etc., and Et Al

Published 1 March 1945

Who could tell, in the first decade of the twentieth century, what strange adventures might befall those who ventured to travel by the new-fangled aeroplane? A forced landing, perhaps, in some long-forgotten land where time has stood mercifully still. James Smith, of the well-known London catering concern, drops in on Arcadia, where no-one tells lies, or grows older, where money is unheard of and unemployment a permanent attraction. Far from impressed by what Smith tells them of the joys of life in London his hosts despatch him, with missionary zeal-and two agelessly beautiful Arcadian nymphs-to convert the wretched metropolis. Things do not always go as planned.11 women, 13 men

Dreams from a Summerhouse

by Alan Ayckbourn

Published 1 August 1997

The reigning king of English comedy strikes off in a new direction with this gleeful fantasy. A couple is preparing for an al fresco party while their hapless ex son in law is holed up in their summer house, drinking off his divorce while he completes illustrations for a new edition of Beauty and the Beast. When he conjures Belle to life and she appears in the garden unable to understand English unless it is sung, her fantastical presence wreaks havoc with the all too real lives around her.3 women, 5 men

Sketches from "High Spirits" and Other Revues

by David Climie, etc., and Et Al

Published December 1952