Ayckbourn, Alan - Alan Ayckbourn (essay date 1987)

Alan Ayckbourn (essay date 1987)

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 concerns about the future of the commercial play.]

Most of my talks start off with different titles and end up roughly the same—a sort of history of me. Anyway, this time I wanted at least to start differently, even if I end up in the same place. I want to draw your attention to what I consider to be an endangered species; it’s called the good commercial play. There are still a few of us practising it out there, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to develop. There are several reasons why.

The first is down to the fact that a lot of work is being done by community or group theatres—splendid work too, except that what’s happening is that these plays are what I call Event Theatre—plays that are often developed and done in...

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