Ayckbourn, Alan (Vol. 8) - Ayckbourn, Alan 1939–
Ayckbourn, Alan 1939–
A British playwright, actor, director, and producer, Ayckbourn is best known for Absurd Person Singular and Time and Time Again. (See also CLC, Vol. 5, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 21-24, rev. ed.)
The best kind of comedy, we know, has an underpainting of darkness; the comic mask resembles nothing so much as a grinning death's-head. Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular is well aware of this: a witty and resourceful comedy that imperceptibly darkens into a dance—not of death, but of death-in-life. It is, then, the best kind of comedy, yet fairly far from the best specimen of its kind. Still, as commercial theater goes (and it goes farther than some highbrows and avant-gardists would have it), this British comedy is not inconsiderable; with more such plays around, the theater would be undergoing not exactly a renaissance, but a good prodding into action. (p. 108)
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