The Complete Plays: Gaslight (1961)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Gaslight
Patrick Hamilton
No

The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Concert Room
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
29 June 1961
29 June 1961
26 July 1961
Company Details
Director:

Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Alan Ayckbourn

Terry Lane
Philip Clifford
Character
Mrs Manningham
Mr Manningham
Rough
Nancy
Policeman
Actor
Hazel Burt
David Jarrett
Stanley Page
Rosamund Dickson
Philip Clifford
Why is this play significant?
Gaslight marked Alan Ayckbourn's professional debut as a director. From this point, he would become renowned as one of the foremost exponents of directing in-the-round and would go on to direct more than 400 professional productions. Indeed, for much of his life, Alan Ayckbourn said he considered himself a director first and foremost, rather than a writer, as he spent so much more time directing rather than writing.
Notes
○ Gaslight marked the directorial debut of Alan Ayckbourn; at the time predominantly an actor who had also had three of his own plays produced by the company. From this point forward, playwriting and directing would begin to dominate his career in theatre.
○ This is believed to be the first professional in-the-round production of Gaslight in the UK.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust