Absent Friends (1974)

Author:
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Alan Ayckbourn
Yes

There in the Round at the Library Theatre
Concert Room, Scarborough Library
Round

17 June 1974
17 June 1974
28 September 1974

Alan Ayckbourn
Christine Welch
Stage Manager:
Deputy Stage Manager:
Asst. Stage Manager:
Asst. Stage Manager:
David Millard
Trevor John-Smith
Helga Wood
Kevin Wood
Character
Paul
Diana
John
Evelyn
Colin
Marge
Actor
Ronald Herdman
Heather Stoney
Stephen Mallatratt
Eileen O'Brien
Christopher Godwin
Janet Dale

Why is this play significant?

Diametrically opposed to The Norman Conquests in scale, Absent Friends is Alan Ayckbourn's first real time' play and chronicles an afternoon tea party in the wake of the death of a fiancée. The playwright considers it a major step forward for his writing not only structurally but in its subject of death and the death of love. The theatre board were apparently nervous about a play which featured loss so prominently, but after the play had successfully opened, Alan realised the average age of the Scarborough audience was a benefit, famously noting: "I realised the one section of people guaranteed to laugh at death are the old. They are the ones who have to come to terms with it."

Notes

○ Absent Friends is a play staged in real time; one moment of real time equates to one moment of time of stage. The play's action takes place over an hour and a half in a single location.
○ Absent Friends was initially scheduled to close on 14 September 1974, but its popularity led to it being extended into the autumn season from 23 to 28 September.
○ The play was written as a direct response to Alan Ayckbourn's previous piece, The Norman Conquests. Having written a complex trilogy the previous year, he wrote a small 'chamber piece' which was inspired by one of the quieter scenes in The Norman Conquests.

Links

All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.