Show & Tell: Articles
This section contains articles about Alan Ayckbourn's play Show & Tell. This article by his Archivist, Simon Murgatroyd, was published in the programme for the world premiere production of the play in 2024.Looking Back
Sixty-five years ago, a young actor wrote his first play for an innovative and pioneering theatre company on the north-east coast.
Ninety plays later and having built a reputation as one of the UK’s most successful living playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn is looking back with his new play Show & Tell.
To an extent, it’s a nostalgic piece which tells the tale of HomeLight Theatre - founded as The Front Room Company in 1962 - which draws on Alan’s own memories and experiences of being in a similar, small and financially-stretched company.
It’s a subject rarely explored with regard to Alan, but what was it like to be part of the Scarborough company back in its formative years?
Let’s head back 65 years and have a look at what Alan would have experienced as a 20 year old actor in the UK’s first professional theatre in the round company.
In 1955, theatrical pioneer Stephen Joseph brought the recently formed Studio Theatre Ltd company to Scarborough and founded Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre.
Two years later, Alan Ayckbourn - then 18 - joined the company as a stage manager with ambitions of becoming an actor.
By 1959, he had achieved this and was both an actor and a prospective playwright, having been commissioned to write his first play by Stephen.
For that summer season, the company consisted of a core of five actors - Alan, David Campton, William Elmhirst, Faynia Jeffery and Dona Martyn. They would be supplemented on stage occasionally by stage managers and even the Artistic Director, when Stephen notably took on the uncredited role of the creature in an adaptation of Frankenstein.
There were two directors for the season, Stephen and Rodney Wood - a former stage manager who had both introduced Alan to theatre in the round and employed him in 1957. Rodney was also the company manager, assisted by Ann Summers.
The stage manager was Ann Hughesdon and she had two assistants, Rosemary Green and Don Brown. That was the entire Studio Theatre Ltd company in 1959 - 11 employees. Take a look at the back of this programme and you’ll note the company - now Scarborough Theatre Trust - has slightly expanded over the intervening decades!
All other staff were voluntary and organised by Scarborough Theatre Guild, led by Ken and Margaret Boden, frequently drawing on the help of staff at Scarborough Library.
Alan, who had recently got married to Christine Roland, was paid £15 a week; ordinarily it would have been £10 but Stephen paid married actors slightly more. These wages were above those recommended by the acting union Equity as Stephen was keen to attract talented actors to Scarborough, whilst aware many would have to keep homes back in London.
The summer season consisted of six plays in five productions and ran from 17 June to 12 September. It was preceded by a week of rehearsals with each play rehearsed for just one week before going into rep.
The opening week coincided with the popular annual Dutch Week Festival where Stephen saw an opportunity for publicity. He opened with John Van Druten’s Bell, Book & Candle - obviously lost for an actual Dutch playwright given Van Druten was English of Dutch descent. The Londesborough Cinema had the same idea and showed the movie of the play the same week, coincidentally starring Stephen’s mother, Hermione Gingold.
The first night saw civic dignitaries from both Scarborough and the Dutch Festival invited to attend the premiere of Bell, Book & Candle, drawing favourable publicity for the Library Theatre from the local media.
The rest of the season consisted of a double bill of Alas, Poor Fred by James Saunders and Halfway to Heaven by Hilda Valentine, Easter by August Strindberg, The Square Cat by Roland Allen (better known to us as Alan Ayckbourn) and David Campton’s adaptation of Frankenstein.
Sixty-five years on, the season is still notable for the debut of the youngest and oldest playwrights within the same season. The youngest was Alan at 20 and the eldest was Hilda Valentine at 81. Stephen apparently said he saw promising futures for both writers. One presumably slightly more promising than the other.
The company performed six nights a week, Mondays to Saturdays, at 8pm with a Wednesday matinee at 2.30pm. Performances took place in the Concert Room on the first floor of Scarborough Library, looking much the same today as it did then.
Facilities were limited. The adjoining lecture room to the Concert Room was dressing room, wardrobe and administrative area with a toilet shared, during performances, with the audience.
One of the quirks of the space during its early years was stage managers had to run the show from the corridor separating these two rooms. Closed off by a curtain, they couldn’t see the stage so all the sound and lighting cues were triggered by dialogue, counting or educated guesswork.
Budgets were extremely tight. Alan recalls two years later - for his directorial debut - he was given a budget of £5 to stage a Victoria costume drama! For contemporary plays, actors would largely provide their own costumes with the company providing period pieces, normally hired from Leeds.
On-stage, it wasn’t much better and productions often had the bare minimum - Stephen was notoriously keen on two plain boxes being all he needed for his productions! Most props were on loan, either from people Ken Boden knew from his work as an insurance agent or from local businesses, such as John Moore on Huntress Row and Henry Dell China on Victoria Road.
Of course, relying on loans was not without its hazards. Alan remembers mid-run someone once asked for their sofa back and this might account for the mystery of why photos for Alan’s debut play, The Square Cat, feature a garden bench instead of a sofa in the middle of the living room set!
Companies did get publicity in exchange for the loans with Kayser Bondor possibly securing the best publicity deal ever with a credit in every programme for the first ten years for providing nylon stockings.
For the actors, it was a notoriously intensive season. Not only did each production have just a week’s rehearsal, but there were also no intervals.
This was due to a contractual stipulation that the company had to be out of the library by 10pm. Given the performances began at 8pm, this meant time was of the essence. Alan recalls it not being unusual for the caretaker to wander into the auditorium and start rattling his keys during climatic moments of late-running performances. As a result, Stephen cut intervals and often large chunks of dialogue to make sure the plays finished in good time!
Post-show, Stephen had a policy of meeting the public - if there was time - for tea and cakes, baked by his housekeeper P.B. (Veronica Pemberton Billing). The company was also expected to meet the audience.
However, with a fire exit in the Concert Room and tea and cakes in the foyer, Alan recalls it was possible to sneak out via the fire door in order to get to the pub quicker.
The 1959 season was largely a success with sell-out runs of Bell, Book & Candle and The Square Cat. Indeed Alan’s debut was so successful that it was scheduled for an extra week, replacing Frankenstein’s final week as this had not proved as popular as was anticipated.
At the end of the season, the entire theatre would be dismantled. The seating was arranged on an ingenious set of folding rostra designed by Stephen Joseph, who with the stage management team and volunteers, would take it down in less than a day. Alan, having been a stage manager, often helped given his previous experience.
Fourteen weeks after they had begun rehearsing, the entire operation closed with the Concert Room returned to its original state. Some of the company would return for the three week Scarborough winter season and subsequent tour and Alan anticipated this as Stephen had immediately commissioned a second play from him for December. However, his call-up for National Service meant he was able to rejoin the company that year.
Otherwise, for the actors, it was on to other companies and the possibility of a return to Scarborough the following summer, providing Stephen had enough money.
And, like HomeLight Theatre in Show & Tell, that was never a certainty. Stephen was notorious for taking on jobs such as coal rounds and tedious administrative work in order to finance his beloved theatre projects.
He could never have imagined that, more than six decades on, this innovative and revolutionary company would have become a permanent theatre in the round and an essential part of Scarborough’s cultural heritage.
And certainly still not struggling like HomeLight Theatre, but they too have interesting tales to tell, as you’re about to discover…
Simon Murgatroyd
Copyright of Simon Murgatroyd 2024. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.
Ninety plays later and having built a reputation as one of the UK’s most successful living playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn is looking back with his new play Show & Tell.
To an extent, it’s a nostalgic piece which tells the tale of HomeLight Theatre - founded as The Front Room Company in 1962 - which draws on Alan’s own memories and experiences of being in a similar, small and financially-stretched company.
It’s a subject rarely explored with regard to Alan, but what was it like to be part of the Scarborough company back in its formative years?
Let’s head back 65 years and have a look at what Alan would have experienced as a 20 year old actor in the UK’s first professional theatre in the round company.
In 1955, theatrical pioneer Stephen Joseph brought the recently formed Studio Theatre Ltd company to Scarborough and founded Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre.
Two years later, Alan Ayckbourn - then 18 - joined the company as a stage manager with ambitions of becoming an actor.
By 1959, he had achieved this and was both an actor and a prospective playwright, having been commissioned to write his first play by Stephen.
For that summer season, the company consisted of a core of five actors - Alan, David Campton, William Elmhirst, Faynia Jeffery and Dona Martyn. They would be supplemented on stage occasionally by stage managers and even the Artistic Director, when Stephen notably took on the uncredited role of the creature in an adaptation of Frankenstein.
There were two directors for the season, Stephen and Rodney Wood - a former stage manager who had both introduced Alan to theatre in the round and employed him in 1957. Rodney was also the company manager, assisted by Ann Summers.
The stage manager was Ann Hughesdon and she had two assistants, Rosemary Green and Don Brown. That was the entire Studio Theatre Ltd company in 1959 - 11 employees. Take a look at the back of this programme and you’ll note the company - now Scarborough Theatre Trust - has slightly expanded over the intervening decades!
All other staff were voluntary and organised by Scarborough Theatre Guild, led by Ken and Margaret Boden, frequently drawing on the help of staff at Scarborough Library.
Alan, who had recently got married to Christine Roland, was paid £15 a week; ordinarily it would have been £10 but Stephen paid married actors slightly more. These wages were above those recommended by the acting union Equity as Stephen was keen to attract talented actors to Scarborough, whilst aware many would have to keep homes back in London.
The summer season consisted of six plays in five productions and ran from 17 June to 12 September. It was preceded by a week of rehearsals with each play rehearsed for just one week before going into rep.
The opening week coincided with the popular annual Dutch Week Festival where Stephen saw an opportunity for publicity. He opened with John Van Druten’s Bell, Book & Candle - obviously lost for an actual Dutch playwright given Van Druten was English of Dutch descent. The Londesborough Cinema had the same idea and showed the movie of the play the same week, coincidentally starring Stephen’s mother, Hermione Gingold.
The first night saw civic dignitaries from both Scarborough and the Dutch Festival invited to attend the premiere of Bell, Book & Candle, drawing favourable publicity for the Library Theatre from the local media.
The rest of the season consisted of a double bill of Alas, Poor Fred by James Saunders and Halfway to Heaven by Hilda Valentine, Easter by August Strindberg, The Square Cat by Roland Allen (better known to us as Alan Ayckbourn) and David Campton’s adaptation of Frankenstein.
Sixty-five years on, the season is still notable for the debut of the youngest and oldest playwrights within the same season. The youngest was Alan at 20 and the eldest was Hilda Valentine at 81. Stephen apparently said he saw promising futures for both writers. One presumably slightly more promising than the other.
The company performed six nights a week, Mondays to Saturdays, at 8pm with a Wednesday matinee at 2.30pm. Performances took place in the Concert Room on the first floor of Scarborough Library, looking much the same today as it did then.
Facilities were limited. The adjoining lecture room to the Concert Room was dressing room, wardrobe and administrative area with a toilet shared, during performances, with the audience.
One of the quirks of the space during its early years was stage managers had to run the show from the corridor separating these two rooms. Closed off by a curtain, they couldn’t see the stage so all the sound and lighting cues were triggered by dialogue, counting or educated guesswork.
Budgets were extremely tight. Alan recalls two years later - for his directorial debut - he was given a budget of £5 to stage a Victoria costume drama! For contemporary plays, actors would largely provide their own costumes with the company providing period pieces, normally hired from Leeds.
On-stage, it wasn’t much better and productions often had the bare minimum - Stephen was notoriously keen on two plain boxes being all he needed for his productions! Most props were on loan, either from people Ken Boden knew from his work as an insurance agent or from local businesses, such as John Moore on Huntress Row and Henry Dell China on Victoria Road.
Of course, relying on loans was not without its hazards. Alan remembers mid-run someone once asked for their sofa back and this might account for the mystery of why photos for Alan’s debut play, The Square Cat, feature a garden bench instead of a sofa in the middle of the living room set!
Companies did get publicity in exchange for the loans with Kayser Bondor possibly securing the best publicity deal ever with a credit in every programme for the first ten years for providing nylon stockings.
For the actors, it was a notoriously intensive season. Not only did each production have just a week’s rehearsal, but there were also no intervals.
This was due to a contractual stipulation that the company had to be out of the library by 10pm. Given the performances began at 8pm, this meant time was of the essence. Alan recalls it not being unusual for the caretaker to wander into the auditorium and start rattling his keys during climatic moments of late-running performances. As a result, Stephen cut intervals and often large chunks of dialogue to make sure the plays finished in good time!
Post-show, Stephen had a policy of meeting the public - if there was time - for tea and cakes, baked by his housekeeper P.B. (Veronica Pemberton Billing). The company was also expected to meet the audience.
However, with a fire exit in the Concert Room and tea and cakes in the foyer, Alan recalls it was possible to sneak out via the fire door in order to get to the pub quicker.
The 1959 season was largely a success with sell-out runs of Bell, Book & Candle and The Square Cat. Indeed Alan’s debut was so successful that it was scheduled for an extra week, replacing Frankenstein’s final week as this had not proved as popular as was anticipated.
At the end of the season, the entire theatre would be dismantled. The seating was arranged on an ingenious set of folding rostra designed by Stephen Joseph, who with the stage management team and volunteers, would take it down in less than a day. Alan, having been a stage manager, often helped given his previous experience.
Fourteen weeks after they had begun rehearsing, the entire operation closed with the Concert Room returned to its original state. Some of the company would return for the three week Scarborough winter season and subsequent tour and Alan anticipated this as Stephen had immediately commissioned a second play from him for December. However, his call-up for National Service meant he was able to rejoin the company that year.
Otherwise, for the actors, it was on to other companies and the possibility of a return to Scarborough the following summer, providing Stephen had enough money.
And, like HomeLight Theatre in Show & Tell, that was never a certainty. Stephen was notorious for taking on jobs such as coal rounds and tedious administrative work in order to finance his beloved theatre projects.
He could never have imagined that, more than six decades on, this innovative and revolutionary company would have become a permanent theatre in the round and an essential part of Scarborough’s cultural heritage.
And certainly still not struggling like HomeLight Theatre, but they too have interesting tales to tell, as you’re about to discover…
Simon Murgatroyd
Copyright of Simon Murgatroyd 2024. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.