Confusions (1974)

Author:
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Alan Ayckbourn
Yes

Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre
Lecture Room, Scarborough Library
Three-sided

30 September 1974
30 September 1974
30 November 1974
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Asst. Stage Manager:
Alan Ayckbourn
Helga Wood
Christine Welch

David Millard
Kevin Wood
Character
Terry / Waiter / Stewart / Arthur
Harry / Martin / Vicar / Ernest
Lucy / Bernice / Mrs Pearce / Beryl
Rosemary / Paula / Polly/ Milly / Doreen
Mr Pearce / Gosforth / Charles
Actor
Stephen Mallatratt
Christopher Godwin
Janet Dale
Eileen O’Brien
Stanley Page

Why is this play significant?

Pretty much every Ayckbourn play from 1972 to 1976 is significant in some way and helped establish Alan as the most successful playwright of the period. Confusions is significant for other reasons though. AFter a 12 year hiatus, it was the production which marked the return of touring from Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre. It went on both a local tour and a nationwide tour. Famously the local tour of Scarborough, Whitby and Filey saw it produced three-sided in Scarborough, end-stage in Whitby and three-sided in Filey each week; a confusing time for the actors! The play was also written as a celebration of the Scarborough repertoire company offering the chance for five actors to take on several very different roles during the same evening.

Notes

○ Confusions marked the reintroduction of a winter season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, for the first time since 1961. It was also the first winter season to be programmed by Alan Ayckbourn. The play actually opened shortly after the end of the summer season before embarking on a short regional tour alongside On Approval and But Fred, Freud Is Dead to Filey Sun Lounge, Whitby's Spa Theatre and Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
○ Confusions consists of five short one-act plays: Mother Figure, Drinking Companion, Between Mouthfuls, Gosforth's Fete and A Talk In The Park.
○ During the 1974 and 1975 winter seasons at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, the Library Committee did not make the venue's Concert Room available; this room being where the Library Theatre had been based since 1955. In its place, a smaller room on the same floor - the Lecture Room - was offered but which could not incorporate theatre-in-the-round with productions performed three-sided (thrust).

Links

All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.