Alan Ayckbourn: Actor

The Jew Of Malta (1964)

Production Details

Play:
Author:

First performance:
Venue:
Staging:

Director:
Costumes:
The Jew Of Malta
Christopher Marlowe

10 March 1964
Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent
Round

Peter Cheeseman
RSC / Priscilla Bart
Character
Barabas
Ferneze
Selim Calymath
Callapine
Abigail
Father Jacomo
Father Barnadine
Lodowick
Mathias
Martin del Bosco
Ithamore
Katharine
Bellamira
Pilia-Borza
Actor
Bernard Gallagher
Stanley Page
Peter King
David Valla
Wanda Moore
Gordon Reid
Anthony Haygarth
Peter King
David Valla
Alan Ayckbourn
Peter Mason
Jennifer Hales
Jean Robinson
Michael Higgins

Quotes & Notes

During 1964, Alan retired from professional acting to concentrate on writing and directing. With his play Mr Whatnot optioned for a West End transfer, Alan believed this was the opportunity to concentrate on writing and to leave the acting profession acting.

Unfortunately Mr Whatnot was a flop in London and Alan subsequently took a job at the BBC as a radio drama producer, where he would work from 1965 until 1970; although during this period he would write four plays for Scarborough's Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre. His professional acting career, began in 1956, had come to a close.

The Jew Of Malta was Alan Ayckbourn's final performance at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. The prologue to the play was spoken by Alan Ayckbourn in the role of Machiavelli, author of The Prince, a book banned in England when The Jew Of Malta was written.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.