Sir Alan Ayckbourn,Two Interviews by Stacey Morley..page6

home

Two Interviews:Sir Alan Ayckbourn...page6

^{written by:} Stacey Morley

Interview of July 29, 1997:

A.A.- I hope the theatre will - it'll have a job but I hope it will. I suppose the cynic in me says that there might be a lot more support for me after I'm gone than there is when I'm around. There's more pubs open called Charles Laughton since he left than when he was a kid but I mean belatedly they've seen (but that's by and the by) but the writing I really don't know. There's a lot of object lessons to be learnt. There are very famous writers from various periods none of whom we've ever heard of again, it would be very hard to say. I should think it would be unlikely that a lot of the work would last, I'd hope one or two did, I think Peter Hall summed it up when he said, "A good writer reflects their time" so in a sense a good writer has both qualities. 'She Stoops To Conquer' there is still enough in that play that is relevant to us in terms of sexual games and politics even though our own perception (how we play them off) has changed. Nonetheless we understand how it works and it also tells us quite a bit about the whole area and I suppose it's when you write about the externals that's the right field. If you're writing a fierce piece about the Malton-by-pass it tends to die with the project I guess. I hope so - it would be nice to think people would carry on doing them.

S.M.- You write pieces for our time. The great writers mentioned earlier did the same for that era.

A.A.- They've lasted yes. I don't think Chekov really worried his head too much about that. The fact is he wrote so beautifully about people that:

a) actors love them

and

b) we love to watch them and those things never change, the social externals. We still get jealous, we still fall in love, we still get disappointed, there is always something in any of the plays when we say, well that's me or that's someone I know. I suppose it's that recognition quality, it's the people. I think its very important that theatre in the end, however many technical jinx you put into it, is really about the human being, about the people and I think cinema sometimes isn't - its about technology and its great, its tameless but well sometimes, and even telly isn't quite, but theatre is. Yes it's nice to put the lighting in and nice to have sound, it's nice to have a bit of the set but in the end its how interested are you in the people on stage that really keep people here and its the only live experience and the only time in terms of drama that you are in the same room as the performer, performing simultaneously with you, matching heartbeats as it were and knowing, as anyone in theatre would know, is how, even if it's very subtle, is how unique each performance is - that house is that, therefore we were this.

S.M.- Is theatre a dying art form?

A.A.- They've been saying that since I started. There's always something coming along to replace it. This century of course there's been radio, silent movies, movies, television, virtual reality, videos, there is always something else on the horizon. I suspect the theatre has its ups and downs and it has to be; it doesn't need to be complacent, it could disappear. I think there are two things that will stop it - one if it always re-examines what its centre is - that human thing, the other is of course that human beings need other human beings. I think the current trend is that sort of fragmentation, I think things like computers, the internet - it won't be long before everyone works from home linked in with bits of wire, something which is quite nice but on the other hand it could get damn lonely out there, you know , just you on the end of a terminal. I think the need for places to meet, just things other than commerce or business will always be there, like a secular church but it's like when you sit in an auditorium with three or four hundred people/strangers witnessing something, laughing and crying with strangers, it helps to reaffirm your humanity. You say, we are part of the same team, we're different in that we probably will leave the theatre, many of us not speaking to each other but at that moment we'd shared something together which was like a common ground and I think we need to do that. It's reassuring as well as occasionally illuminating.

[back]|[page7]