Show & Tell: Interviews
These pages contains interviews with Alan Ayckbourn about his play Show & Tell. For other interviews about the play, click on the links in the right hand column below.The interviews below with Alan Ayckbourn were conducted with Bek Homer for the BBC and broadcast on Look North on 6 May 2024 and on BBC Sounds on 20 September 2024
Show & Tell: Look North Interview
Alan Ayckbourn: Show & Tell is a look back on theatre. Obviously I've seen theatre through several decades, from the very early days of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, when it was just one room in the library with a makeshift set, parquet floor and flock wallpaper, and no budget or £5 budget for the show.
And we were a little scratch company doing an extraordinary show, it was in the round, and everyone said, "We're saving up for you to buy you a curtain, then you'll be in proper theatre.” We said, "No, that's not the point really."
And we've survived and we've developed obviously, and we're now quite a big theatre actually, just down the road there in the new Stephen Joseph Theatre.
And it's a look back on those early days, when it was all improvised and a bit of makeshift. "Can we borrow your sofa please?” And halfway through the run the bloke came and said, "Can we have my sofa back please?” We had to re-block the show and have a different sofa. So, you know, and there was something rather nice about the audience recognising the furniture, rather than the actors. And so it was fun.
But nonetheless you have to move on, and the production standards have got a bit better. We don't borrow our audience's furniture anymore, in case they come and snatch it back in the middle of the run.
The principles are the same. We want to do live shows in front of live audiences, and that's the sort of magic that remains in theatre.
People say, "Well, why don't you do television?” I mean, you can't see your audience in television, that's the point. You can only read the audience figures and you think, "Well, I hope those two and a half million actually quite enjoyed it.” But I would like to have heard them clapping.
BBC Sounds
This interview with Bek Homer was streamed on BBC Sounds from 20 September 2024.Bek Homer: The 90th play, Show and Tell, it's here. Can you tell me what it's about?
Alan Ayckbourn: Well, it's about theatre. I mean, I decided to write a play since it was going to be number 90. I thought, what do I most love in the world? That's inanimate [Laughs] I mean, ignoring the people I love. And it was theatre, really.
And I've lived with theatre since I was a boy, 17, 16, when I first joined the professional theatre. And I thought, well, I'll write about that. And I began looking back on my life in theatre.
And quite a lot of the play refers back to the early days of my time with the Stephen Joseph, or the library theatre, as it was back then and joining Stephen's company, Stephen Joseph's company, when I was but a teenager.
So it's your 90th play, but is this something that you've maybe thought about in the past, but it's never come to fruition? Do you get ideas as you go along and think, I'll save that for another play?
No, I never anticipate that far ahead. There is a sort of miraculous moment when you finish one play and you've actually emptied the attic of ideas. And then you wait, hopefully, and another idea crops up. And you go, oh, thank goodness, we're still running. And that process for me has mercifully happened all my life.
The only time it faltered was in 2006 when I had my stroke. And I woke up in the hospital bed completely devoid of ideas. And I saw a moment of panic. And I thought, pull yourself together. Now you've got a sizeable back catalogue, you've got 60-plus plays written. And I can live off my back numbers. We don't need new plays.
But a few weeks later, I was in there for eight weeks, and the idea suddenly arrived. And I think, oh, thank God, I've not forgotten. Because the ideas, of course, for new plays are the one thing you cannot cater for. Everything else is technique and experience.
But the one thing you can't allow for is just that initial germ of an idea, which you can which you can then nurture and develop and help grow into a proper play.
You must have been so relieved. That must have been really scary for you.
Really scary, really scary. But, you know, it's like I woke up without a friend. Because I've always, always, always carried at least one idea in my head. Never more than two. I can't cope with that, but one idea. So I've written - I'm ahead of myself now. I've written number 91. That's done.
And I'm just about to circle an exciting idea I've had for number 92. So with luck, I'll keep going a little longer.
Well, I hope so. I just think people must think, 'oh, after all these years, you can't have any more ideas'.
I think the important thing is to have new ideas, partly because that keeps you fresh, but also it keeps you nervous. And I was sitting there last week just before this play opened, before the first audience had arrived. I thought, I've never been more terrified. And I really didn't know how it was going to go.
And somebody asked me afterwards, when we had a very nice first preview audience - and somebody asked me afterwards, after the show, how did I feel? because they were a lovely, warm audience, are you pleased?
And I said, no, I'm just relieved. And the cast knew just how screwed up I was, because I was going, 'arghhh'. And so my hopes and fears were pinned on that performance.
Because as somebody says in the play, live theatre is just two elements, basically. It's the actors and the audience. And until those two meet, you have absolutely no idea how the play is going to work. And nor do you have any idea how it's going to work the following night, or the following night.
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