The Complete Plays: Ring Of Roses (1958)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Ring of Roses
David Campton
Yes

Library Theatre
Concert Room, Scarborough Library
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
22 December 1958
22 December 1958
27 December 1958
Company Details
Director:

Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Stephen Joseph

Ann Hughesdon
Ann Summers
Character
Stacey
Fred
Mum
Eric
Brewster
Milkman
Actor
Faynia Jeffery
David Sutton
Dona Martyn
Alan Ayckbourn
Rodney Wood
Harold Goodwin
Why is this play significant?
Notorious might be a better word than significant! Ring of Roses was the play which inspired Alan Ayckbourn to complain about the quality of his roles to Stephen Joseph. He, in return, threw down the gauntlet for Alan to write a better play, which he would produce if it was of good enough quality. Alan wrote The Square Cat, which Stephen produced the next year.
Notes
○ Ring Of Roses is listed as a significant play not so much for its quality - which is debatable - but for its historical significance and what it led to…
○ For many years, Alan named the offending play he combined to Stephen Joseph as Bell, Book & Candle, so as not to offend his friend, David Campton. Paul Allen, Alan's biographer, was the first to note this was patently untrue given Bell, Book & Candle was the play which immediately preceded The Square Cat in the 1959 summer season.
○ Ring Of Roses was presented as part of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre's 1958 winter season which also included Martine and Squaring The Circle.
○ David Campton was Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre's first writer-in-residence and met Stephen Joseph as a participant in one of his playwriting courses held at the Central School Of Speech And Drama, London, prior to Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre opening in 1955.
○ Ring Of Roses was presented without an interval.
Links
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust