Sir Alan Ayckbourn,Two Interviews by Stacey Morley..page3

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Two Interviews:Sir Alan Ayckbourn...page3

^{written by:} Stacey Morley

Interview of July 29, 1997:

A.A.continue-To start with - it was a company of about six, quite small, very few people but Peter had the dedication to stay there, he really believed in it and I left and I wrote a play and left to make my fortune in London, which I didn't, but I then joined the BBC in 1965 and was taken immediately North again, it was extraordinary because I was born in London. As soon as I got a job in those days ,it seemed to sort of send me North. I mean I joined the BBC to expect to work in Broadcasting House and the job was in Leeds so I was living in Leeds and getting dangerously close to Scarborough again which Stephen having really disowned Stoke, he had a major row, was beginning to try and restart Scarborough. He wrote to me asking me, in 1967/66, if I would write them a play for the Summer and I wrote a play which was later to become 'Relatively Speaking' which was my first real major West End hit. I sort of vowed, as I left Stoke with a play in '64, I left Stoke in '65, I left Stoke and in order to have my play put on in London, a play called 'Mr. Whatnot' which was a total disaster and I vowed that I wasn't going to write anymore - that's the end! I became a BBC Director just directing plays (maybe get back to the theatre sometime) and then Stephen asking me to write and rather grudgingly I agreed, if I hadn't had written that I probably wouldn't have written again.

S.M.- Did you feel unhappy about your plays because at one time you bounced from one to the other at one point going from Stoke back to Scarborough.

A.A.- Stoke, I was there for two years perhaps eighteen months and I really, yes as I say, I left to go to London because 'Mr. Whatnot' was going to be done and everyone was telling me this is it, you're away now and because it was an absolute disaster, it only ran for three weeks and closed to very hostile reviews so when the offer came up to join the Leeds BBC (a friend of mine Alfred Bradley was running the drama department there - we had become quite friendly over the years) I went there, I was there five years but it was when I was there first of all, Stephen asked me to write and then a year later he died and so then I found myself coming from Leeds to Scarborough literally. Alfred Bradley my Co-Director, Senior Drama Producer there, he and I ran a couple of seasons together and we used to drive over and were very rarely at the BBC and used to roar over in my Mini Cooper from Leeds to Scarborough often just to see the show. Then I'd take a few weeks and rehearse and zoom back, my secretary in Leeds used to fend all the calls off and re-route them to me in Scarborough - a bit box and coxy!!

S.M.- I would like to talk about your writings. I've read and seen numerous plays written by you and for me once I've read one I get something very different out of each one. Do you have certain reasons for writing a play, basically is it bums on seats or is it something personal to you or what is your inspiration?

A.A.- Well I don't really write, I mean I'm obviously aware that there's no point in writing a play unless hopefully somebody comes to see it. It's a very empty exercise writing a play and showing it to an empty auditorium so perhaps using my mind I think one of the reasons that ever happened was possibly the brief that Stephen gave me when he first asked me to write a play. He said, "Yea sure write one but remember if it's a complete and utter disaster it will probably close" which was a very daunting thing to say to a new writer but I knew then that I had to do two things. I had to satisfy me, I had to satisfy the people I was working with who were more than colleagues because we were a fixed Company so they had to play the stuff I was writing and you could really lose a lot of friends unless you were very careful. There's nothing an actor likes least is working on a role that is unrewarding so I tried to do that and I also tried to, that was the least difficult thing to do was fill the theatre because I naturally found I was writing comedies which is not as easy as one thinks. I mean I spend the rest of my life with people saying, "Don't you ever want to write something serious?" But the fact is each - the first play I think I was learning, you can write as many plays as you like in your study but until you are in the theatre and you've got the other ingredients added, primarily of course the actors and the audience, all the other ingredients as well, there is so much learning you can do. You know you can't go any further, once you've got that experience, your play up and running in front of an audience and I had the added friesone that I was in the first few, so I wasn't really able to observe them at first hand which was a little frightening. But then I was informed about future writings so I suppose I did consider the first two or three although they were quite successful though not particularly, up to about the time I wrote 'Relatively Speaking' they were learning experiences. They did their run and then finished 'The Sparrow' - and there were lots and lots that never got done.

S.M.- Is it the same now? Are you writing for the same reasons?

A.A.- You still learn, yes.

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