Actors, audiences and Ayckbourn – a weekend in Scarborough

It’s now 70 years since theatre visionary Stephen Joseph launched the UK’s first theatre-in-the-round company in Scarborough. Famously, the company subsequently became the spiritual (and literal) home of Alan Ayckbourn, originally an aspiring actor with no thoughts of writing plays but encouraged into it by his mentor Joseph.

Marking the anniversary, the theatre – now named after its founder and in its “new” home since 1996 – celebrated with a weekend of activities dedicated to the prolific playwright and the audiences and actors who love him.

That sense of adoration is apparent the moment you step inside the door of the former Odeon cinema, now known as the SJT. Even without the great man himself on the premises – he’s now aged 86 and not enjoying the greatest mobility – he pervades the building of which he was artistic director for an unbroken stretch from 1972 to 2009.

An impassioned talk by Ayckbourn’s longstanding archivist and friend Simon Murgatroyd kicks things off, revealing the fascinating story behind the playwright’s first big hit, Relatively Speaking, which coincidentally marks its 60th anniversary this year. Then half a dozen actors who have worked extensively with him share tales from behind the scenes, including the unique way in which, with his directing hat on, he delivers notes to his actors – a process they describe as “notes by anecdote”. Instead of simply telling his casts how to perform his scripts, his method is to embark on little real-life stories that initially seem tangential to the rehearsal but in fact end up illustrating perfectly the kind of emotion he’d like the scene to evoke, and often the details of how to achieve it.

At the heart of the weekend is Earth Angel, Ayckbourn’s 91st play (yes, you read that right), an emotional rollercoaster-cum-comedy-mystery in which a strange young man appears at the wake of Gerald’s wife, only to set off a chain of suspicion and conspiracy theories among Gerald’s well-meaning family and friends. Russell Richardson and Iskandar Eaton play the odd couple to perfection, Ayckbourn’s acute observations on everything from grief to social media as sharp and barbed as ever, and there’s a truly moving conclusion after a whirlwind of misunderstandings and mistrust.

And finally, there’s a script-in-hand performance of that first big hit, Relatively Speaking, with Richardson teaming up with Earth Angel co-stars Liza Goddard and Hayden Wood, plus Georgia Burnell, for an inspired table reading directed by Antony Eden that neatly bookends a weekend of celebration of, and admiration for, a talent that has broken record after record across a long (and continuing) career.

But there’s a final surprise in store. As the weekend rolls to a satisfied conclusion, one last Q&A is announced… and there is Sir Alan himself, in a wheelchair but as bright and entertaining as ever, for a twinkling and irreverent chat with Eden, as well as to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Association of British Theatre Technicians.

No contemporary writer has even come close to his accomplishments, and it’s hard to imagine that anyone ever will. Actors love him, audiences love him, and the Stephen Joseph Theatre almost certainly wouldn’t exist without him. Which of those accolades would tickle him the most is a question only Ayckbourn can answer.