Alan Ayckbourn: Actor

Hamlet (1962)

Production Details

Play:
Author:

First performance:
Final performance:
Venue:
Staging:

Director:
Hamlet
William Shakespeare

29 January 1962
10 February 1962
Municipal Hall, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Round

Stephen Joseph
Character
Hamlet
Claudius
Ophelia
Queen Gertrude
Laertes
Polonius
Actor
David Jarrett
Alan Ayckbourn
Patricia England
Rosamund Dixon
Peter King
David Campton
No other company details known

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.

Hamlet was staged by Studio Theatre Ltd as part of a winter season at the Municipal Hall, Newcastle-under-Lyme, between January and February 1962. It marked the first time the company had tackled a Shakespeare play.

Alan Ayckbourn recalls the play was performed uncut without an interval, running for more than four hours!
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.