Ayckbourn Directs Tommy Cooper Show???

Alan Ayckbourn has been preparing a play about the late comedian Tommy Cooper. Although it was rumoured to be opening this Autumn, it now appears to have been put on hold until probably next year. The Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, Ayckbourn's artistic home, holds the rights to the production which seems to have stalled over negotiations with a leading name to portray Cooper. The SJT is playing things cagily at present, but seems hopeful enough that the situation will be resolved. Ayckbourn's hugely writing successful career has embraced such works as Absurd Person Singular, A Chorus of Disapproval and Bedroom Farce. He is expected to direct the Cooper play, based on a script by John Fisher. The comic actor Tommy Cooper died on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1984 of a heart attack. His act combined hammy comedy with a classic sense of timing. This enabled him to rehash old jokes, and to make a mess of magic tricks with exquisite humour whilst wearing his trademark fez hat.

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