A Trip To Scarborough (1982)

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Alan Ayckbourn
Yes

A Trip To Scarborough
R.B. Sheridan

Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round
Main house (Round)
Round

8 December 1982
8 December 1982
1 January 1983
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Alan Ayckbourn
Francis Lynch
Michael Holt
Paul Todd

Isobel Nimmo
Eric Lumsden
Character
Miss Hoyden / Holly / Mrs Holland
Pestle
Gander
Capt. Townly / Col. Townley / John Townly
Maj. Loveless / Mr Loveless / Mr Love
Amanda Courtney / Mrs Love / Amanda Loveless
Tim Farmer / Tom Fashion / Flt. Lt. Faversham
Bill Lorimer / Flt. Sgt. Lawkins / Lory
Sir George Tunberry / Wing Cmdr. Tunbry / Sir Tunbelly Clumsy
Muriel Tunberry / Mrs Coopland / Nurse
Lord Foppington / Len Foppington / Lance Foppington
Mel
Don
Ray
Actor
Gillian Bevan
Richard Garnett
Graeme Eton
John Peters
Russell Dixon
Ursula Mohan
Michael Cashman
Terence Booth
Randal Herley

Elizabeth Kelly
John Arthur
Paul Todd
Iain Hawkins
Dave Newton

Why is this play significant?

The clue's in the title! Although Alan Ayckbourn was not a great fan of Sheridan's play - which in itself had next to nothing to do with Scarborough - he was asked so often about the play, he decided to look at it and then adapt it. Jettisoning all but the basics of Sheridan's plot, he added two subplots during World War II and the present day, looking at how the idea of a hero has changed through the centuries.

Notes

○ A Trip To Scarborough was Alan Ayckbourn's first adaptation of an existing play - although it is a very loose adaptation! He took R.B. Sheridan's original play A Trip To Scarborough - itself an adaptation of an earlier play - and interwove two further plots set in Scarborough's Royal Hotel during World War II and the present day in addition to Sheridan's original period setting. The whole story can be found here.
◦ The adaptation was originally set in the foyer of the Royal Hotel, Scarborough; this was partly a nod to Tom Laughton: a hotelier, friend of Alan Ayckbourn and great supporter of theatre in the round in Scarborough. Tom had restored the Royal to become one of the most opulent and renowned hotels in Scarborough. When Alan came to revive the play in 2007 and updated the contemporary section of it, he announced it was no longer set specifically in the Royal Hotel as in the decades since Tom's death, it had become a shadow of its former self until eventually ending up controlled by Britannia Hotels - frequently reported in newspapers as the UK's 'worst hotel chain.'

Links

All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust