Everything you need to understand or teach
Alan Ayckbourn.
Products may contain comprehensive summaries, analysis, notes, articles, essays,
lesson plans and more. See below for details on what is included.
Alan Ayckbourn (born 1939), a prolific author of comedy plays about middle-class life in England, is considered one of the world's pre-eminent dramatists.English playwright Alan Ayckbourn is a master ...
Read more
Alan Ayckbourn, one of Britain's most prolific playwrights, is assuredly its most successful in terms of financial return. His plays, translated into twenty-six languages, earn him more than £100...
Read more
Alan Ayckbourn is the most performed of contemporary British dramatists; his plays are a staple of repertory theaters, frequently translated, and usually highly successful. Their very success--and the...
Read more
Critical Essay by Alan Ayckbourn
A lecture delivered on October 21, 1987, in Drama, No. 167, 1988, pp. 5–7.
The following excerpt highlights a talk given by Ayckbourn, in which he voices his co...
Read more
In the following essay, Ayckbourn discusses Invisible Friends, a work he considers to be a morality play.
“I may not have a lot of things, but I do have technique.” I suppose it comes fr...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Taylor examines the works of Ayckbourn, David Cregan, and Simon Gray—playwrights who, in Taylor's opinion, are re-examining traditional theatrical genres.
We te...
Read more
In the following excerpt, the authors discuss trends and review plays in London theater.
Time to sober up, to return to the straight, though luckily not the strait, and still less narrow, theatre. In ...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Taylor discusses whether the New Drama loses its ideals in an effort to be commercially successful, pointing out that Ayckbourn has maintained the ideal while achieving succe...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Blistein praises Ayckbourn's comedies, focusing on his use of setting and time.
As The Comedy of Errors unties all its knots, as it finally reaches a moment of repose ...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Page discusses how Ayckbourn's work deals with the many serious aspects of being human.
The comedies of Alan Ayckbourn have featured prominently in the British theatre...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Cave examines how Ayckbourn's focus on character development has blurred the dividing lines between the different styles of comedy.
If Nichol's and Frayn'...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Disch attributes Broadway's future to plays written by Ayckbourn, Neil Simon and others.
The good news from Broadway comes in the familiar form of comedies by Neil Sim...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Weales compares and contrasts Ayckbourn and Neil Simon in reviewing Lost in Yonkers, Taking Steps and Absent Friends.
One of the commonplaces of casual criticism is to sugges...
Read more
In the following essay, Hornby praises Ayckbourn's plays.
The plays of Alan Ayckbourn have the reputation in New York of being box office poison. Fabulously successful in the rest of the world,...
Read more
In the following essay, Rorrison compares and contrasts Botho Strauss of Germany and Ayckbourn of Britain, concluding that while both are successful in their own theatrical cultures, it may be difficu...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Kauffman favorably reviews Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular, pointing out that the play should be categorized as film slapstick rather than comedy or farce.
Alan Ayc...
Read more
In the following essay, A Small Family Business and its supporters are given a harsh review.
Those who feel that subsidized theater ought to do more than subsidize Broadway have a great new case study...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Kanfer reviews Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business.
Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business, a British import, can be enjoyed on two levels: The action takes p...
Read more
In the following review, Morris unfavorably reviews The Revengers' Comedies, focusing on the play's weak plot and unbelievable characters.
Every character in this play is wound up, place...
Read more
In the following review, O’Connor describes Ayckbourn's Time of My Life as a horror story filled with symbolism.
Alan Ayckbourn's forty-fourth play, Time of My Life, is a horror s...
Read more
Critical Essay by Guido Almansi
Ayckbourn's points of departure are most unprepossessing. Not for him the seedy ferment of an angry terraced house, but rather the sleepy atmosphere of a semi-de...
Read more
Critical Essay by Eric Shorter
Alan Ayckbourn's comedies have become such money-spinners and he himself has won such general critical acclaim that it is difficult to think of him as an experime...
Read more
Critical Essay by Harold Clurman
Ayckbourn both celebrates and joshes the flat silliness and dim amiability of a stale middle-class England. His plays are presumed to have a special satiric bite but I...
Read more
Critical Essay by Benedict Nightingale
'If only' is one of the most pointless but least resistable phrases in the language…. Sisterly Feelings attempts in a small way to put some ...
Read more
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Critical Essay by Alan Ayckbourn
