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A knight at the theatre Alan Ayckbourn is renowned for his acute observations of Middle England but, he insists, 'I don't write about real people'. The inspiration, he says, comes from childhood rows and his mendacious mother
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On Tuesday last, after the Queen Mother's state funeral, I went to
the Aldwych Theatre off the Strand and had a good laugh. Queen
Elizabeth would have approved. The play was a revival of Bedroom
Farce, starring two of Her Majesty's favourite comic actors (Richard
Briers and June Whitfield) and written by the Queen Mother's
favourite living playwright, Sir Alan Ayckbourn. "Well, yes," says
Sir Alan, beaming at me like a benevolent gargoyle, "she did come to
a lot of my plays and, of course, sh...
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
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A knight at the theatre Alan Ayckbourn is renowned for his acute observations of Middle England but, he insists, 'I don't write about real people'. The inspiration, he says, comes from childhood rows and his mendacious mother
The Sunday Telegraph London
; On Tuesday last, after the Queen Mother's state funeral, I went to the Aldwych Theatre off the Strand and had a good laugh. Queen Elizabeth would have approved. The play was a revival of Bedroom Farce, starring two of Her Majesty's favourite comic actors (Richard Briers and June Whitfield) and
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55 ways of making us laugh Profile: Alan Ayckbourn Humour is a serious business to a man whose plays carry uncanny echoes of his personal life.
The Independent - London
; The number of plays he's written doesn't quite match his age, but give him time. This Wednesday Sir Alan Ayckbourn's 53rd play, Comic Potential, will have its West End premiere; his 55th, House and Garden, has already been seen at his Scarborough theatre earlier this year. And there is no sign that
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Theatre: The man who knew too much No one would call Alan Ayckbourn a feminist but actresses love his writing. What's the secret behind his succession of women's roles?
The Independent - London
; In 1986, a West End play had audiences weeping in their seats. It detailed the emotional neglect of a vicar's wife at the hands of her smug husband and showed how she gradually unravels into a nervous breakdown. The author was hailed as a feminist dramatist. The play was Woman in Mind and it
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`Woman' puts Ayckbourn in public's mind
Chicago Sun-Times
; English playwright Alan Ayckbourn has been called the most prolific dramatist in the world, the Shakespeare of London's South Bank, the finest feminist writer in England. He has been compared favorably to such disparate people as the Marx Brothers and Anton Chekhov. But his name is not on the lips
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Sex and Love and the Whole Damn Thing; Men and Women Battle It Out in Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd and Biting Plays
The Washington Post
; Before he won his Oscars for "Schindler's List," Steven Spielberg, who was in a position to know, aphorized, "Everybody loves a winner, but nobody loves a winner." Perhaps this is the reason Alan Ayckbourn's play-writing genius has never been widely recognized. Oh, he gets good reviews. Critics
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Book review: The foreman of Scarborough's laughter factory Alan Ayckbourn: grinning at the edge by Paul Allen (Methuen, pounds 19.99)
The Independent - London
; WRITING A biography of Britain's most prolific living playwright must be like unravelling an infinitely long ball of string. Though Paul Allen assesses 60 plays by Ayckbourn - from Square Cat, his rock'n'roll debut in 1959, to the duo House and Garden, which simultaneously packed the Olivier and
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Take two Ayckbourn plays fit comfortably at Goodman
Chicago Sun-Times
; `House' & `Garden' Opens Monday, to March 4 Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn Tickets, $16-$45 (312) 443-3800 When playwright Alan Ayckbourn penned his dual plays "House" and "Garden," he knew there would be few theaters in the world that would have the facilities to produce them. The new Goodman
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Alan Ayckbourn interview: At home with the human heart Alan Ayckbourn, 60 today, doesn't do much for critics. The public know s better.
The Independent - London
; Alan Ayckbourn will be surprised if he enjoys his birthday today: "I'm not a sort of Woody Allen, a man who takes rain personally," he says. "But I do have a feeling that you must not celebrate too much. I always prefer giving parties for other people." He is actually Sir Alan, the first playwright
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 "Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA)")
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AYCKBOURN SLYLY SLIPS HIS POLITICS INTO PLAYS.(What's Happening)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA)
; According to London Times types, playwright Alan Ayckbourn is not political enough. According to New York Times types, Ayckbourn is too political. ``Oh, well, London and New York says Seattle actor/director Jeff Steitzer. ``People in such places tend to take themselves very seriously. And they make
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MR A'S AMAZING RECOVERY First, Alan Ayckbourn lost all feeling in his left leg. Then his arm. His reaction? 'I don't need all this. I have a play to rehearse.' He talks to Alan Strachan about his stroke and its aftermath
The Sunday Telegraph London
; MEMBERS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION SEEM an especially dim lot among the crowded gallery of characters in Alan Ayckbourn's plays. Take the sad GP Uncle Bernard in that jet-black scrutiny of a family Christmas, Season's Greetings, who manages to pronounce a visitor dead only for the 'corpse' to groan
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