Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre: Alan Ayckbourn's Thoughts
This page contains quotes about Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, by Alan Ayckbourn."A season of unknown plays, by unknown writers performed by totally unknown, underpaid actors, all financed by a man who had to sell his motor-cycle to pay our salaries, hardly seemed all that promising. Even our venue, a room on the first floor of the public library - with its embossed wallpaper, polished parquet flooring and a single 15-amp plug, hardly seemed the ambience in which great drama could be made. Even today, while some recall theatre from the whiff of greasepaint, for me it has always been the smell of floor-wax, damp umbrellas and old library books. Audiences, naturally, were small and suspicious. Three and sixpence after all was a lot to pay for a theatre with no curtain and a disinclination to abide by tradition and play the National Anthem before every performance. We never performed to no-one but we were, at one sad matinee, reduced to an audience of two."
(Daily Telegraph, 1988)
"When Stephen Joseph thought of forming a company, London seemed hopeless economically and more by luck than judgment he heard about a building in this town on the east coast called Scarborough.
(Daily Telegraph, 1988)
Research by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.