Alan Ayckbourn: Actor

Standing Room Only (1961)

Production Details

Play:
Author:

First performance:
Venue:

Staging:

Director:
Costumes:
Standing Room Only
Roland Allen (Alan Ayckbourn)

13 July 1961
Theatre in the Round at the the Library Theatre, Scarborough
Round

Stephen Joseph
Christine Roland
Character
Neeta
Nemo
Cora
Pa
John
Actor
Rosamund Dickson
David Jarrett
Hazel Burt
Stanley Page
Alan Ayckbourn

Quotes & Notes

1961 saw Alan Ayckbourn's professional career began to move away from acting to what he is most well-known for. Although still predominantly an actor with Studio Theatre Ltd at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, he was also writing and directing for the company. 1961 saw the premiere of his fourth play and his debut as a director with a production of Gaslight.

Standing Room Only was originally presented under Alan Ayckbourn's pseudonym Roland Allen. When it was revised and revived in 1963 at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, it was attributed to Alan Ayckbourn and is now considered the first play to be credited to Alan Ayckbourn rather than Roland Allen.

Review extract from The Stage (July 1961)
"Stanley Page as the cockney driver sighing for the corned beef of yesteryear; David Jarrett as the mysterious outsider; and Alan Ayckbourn as the meticulous, humourless public servant, come together to make a brilliant trio of Expectant Fatherdom."

Review extract from an unknown publication (14 July 1961)
"Stanley Page, as the driver, finds a part ideally suited to his warm style of comedy, and Alan Ayckbourn makes him an excellent foil as the law-abiding young man who suddenly finds he has broken the law."
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.