Alan Ayckbourn: Actor

A Doll's House (1962)

Production Details

Play:
Author:

First performance:
Final performance:
Venue:
Staging:

Director:
A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen

15 January 1962
27 January 1962
Municipal Hall, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Round

Peter Cheeseman
Character
Torvald
Nora
Dr Rank
Christine
Krogstad
Actor
Alan Ayckbourn
Patricia England
Stanley Page
Rosamund Dickson
Richard Gill

Quotes & Notes

1962 marked a period of change for Alan Ayckbourn. For the first half of the year, he was based with the Studio Theatre Company in Scarborough, working predominantly as an actor (although he was now also writing and directing) at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre. At the end of the summer season, Studio Theatre Ltd - which had been based at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre since its founding in 1955 - moved to the UK's first permanent theatre-in-the-round venue at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent; Scarborough was home to the first theatre-in-the-round company. Alan moved with the company to Stoke-on-Trent and was employed as an actor, director and writer; whilst it has been suggested Alan was the Associate Director of the venue alongside the Artistic Director Peter Cheeseman, Alan has said this was never the case as far as he was aware! While Theatre in. The Round at the Library Theatre did continue in Scarborough, Alan would not return on a permanent basis until he took over as Artistic Director in 1972, although he would still work closely with the theatre during the interim years.

A Doll's House was staged by Studio Theatre Ltd as part of a winter season at the Municipal Hall, Newcastle-under-Lyme, between January and February 1962.

Review extract from The Stage (1 February 1962)
"Alan Ayckbourn, as Nora's husband, epitomised the middle-class 'morality and respectability at all costs' society of the late nineteenth century."

Review extract from The Guardian (16 January 1962)
"Alan Ayckbourn plays Torvald Helmer... but apart from speaking too quickly, he is convincing."
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.