The Complete Plays: 1965 Overview
This page contains details about the 1965 season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough. For details about individual plays, click on the play titles below.All information on this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd M.A. from programmes, brochures and newspaper articles.
Summer 1965
All plays were performed in-the-round in the Concert Room on the first floor of Scarborough Library. The season ran from 5 July to 18 September 1965. The plays were performed in rep with a change of programme on Thursdays.Advertised / Actual Programme
○ Granite
○ Meet My Father
○ The March of Time
○ Granite
○ Cock and Bull Story
○ Meet My Father
○ Out of Thin Air
○ Bitter Harvest
○ Cock and Bull Story
○ The Play of Mata Hari
○ Meet My Father
○ The March of Time
○ Granite
○ Cock and Bull Story
○ Meet My Father
○ Out of Thin Air
○ Bitter Harvest
○ Cock and Bull Story
○ The Play of Mata Hari
5 - 7 July
8 - 14 July
15 - 21 July
22 - 28 July
29 July - 4 August
5 - 11 August
12 - 25 August
26 August - 1 September
2 - 8 September
9 - 18 September
8 - 14 July
15 - 21 July
22 - 28 July
29 July - 4 August
5 - 11 August
12 - 25 August
26 August - 1 September
2 - 8 September
9 - 18 September
Brochure Notes
○ March of Time was initially advertised as The March of Time before being altered for production. The schedule (left) retains the title of how it was initially advertised.○ Out of Thin Air was a triple-bill consisting of See The Pretty Lights, The Governor's Lady and The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon.
Creatives
Stephen Joseph (Artistic Director)Alfred Bradley (Director)
George Taylor (Director)
Graham Woodruff (Director)
Alan Ayckbourn (Writer)
David Campton (Writer)
Denys Ives (Writer)
Alan Plater (Writer)
Mike Stott (Writer)
Domy Reiter (Choreographer)
Actors
Pamela CraigEileen Derbyshire
David Jarrett
Peter Ellis Jones
Peter King
Henry Livings
Actors
Dona MartynCatherine Naish
Christine Robinson
George Taylor
Joanna Tope
Terence Wilton
Other Staff
Ken Boden (House Manager)Graham Woodruff (Company Manager)
Valerie Fletcher (Stage Manager)
Clive Goodhead (Lighting)
Michael Stott (Box Office Manager)
Veronica Pemberton-Billing (Catering)
1965 Production Notes
○ Meet My Father was the original title for Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking; the playwright's first major West End hit. The title was altered for the West End production in 1967 as the producer Peter Bridge felt Meet My Father was "too provincial."
○ Meet My Father was the final play to be directed unassisted by Stephen Joseph before his death in October 1967 (he did also direct Cock & Bull Story in 1965 but with the help of an assistant director, George Taylor). Stephen lived long enough to see his protégé enjoy his first West End success with the same play, which set Alan Ayckbourn on the path to take over as Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre in 1972.
○ March Of Time was initially advertised as The March of Time, but the title was altered by the time of the production.
○ Cock & Bull Story was actually set in Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where the play was first performed! It is the only play in the history of the company to be specifically set in the company's home.
○ See The Pretty Lights - part of the Out of Thin Air triple bill - marked the first premier of a play by the famed northern playwright, Alan Plater, at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
○ The Governor's Lady and The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon featured a special guest appearance by Eileen Derbyshire - better known as Emily Bishop (nee Nugent) in the long-running British television soap opera Coronation Street. By the time she performed in Scarborough, she had already been in the television show for five years; a rare case of star casting in the company!
○ See The Pretty Lights , due to its star casting, was not performed in rep but, unusually, for a single two-week run.
○ There is some confusion as to where the world premiere of The Play Of Mata Hari took place. The Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (now the New Vic), credits it as a world premiere under the title Mata Hari. However, this production's opening date is listed as 23 November 1965, more than two months subsequent to the production staged at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where it was - in all likelihood - actually premiered.
○ The Play of Mata Hari marked the professional playwriting debut of Mike Stott (1944 - 2009), a prolific writer from Rochdale who would go on to a successful writing career on stage, television and radio. Immediately after working in Scarborough, he worked with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is probably best known for his 1973 play Funny Peculiar.
○ The majority of productions in 1965 were performed without an interval.
○ Meet My Father was the final play to be directed unassisted by Stephen Joseph before his death in October 1967 (he did also direct Cock & Bull Story in 1965 but with the help of an assistant director, George Taylor). Stephen lived long enough to see his protégé enjoy his first West End success with the same play, which set Alan Ayckbourn on the path to take over as Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre in 1972.
○ March Of Time was initially advertised as The March of Time, but the title was altered by the time of the production.
○ Cock & Bull Story was actually set in Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where the play was first performed! It is the only play in the history of the company to be specifically set in the company's home.
○ See The Pretty Lights - part of the Out of Thin Air triple bill - marked the first premier of a play by the famed northern playwright, Alan Plater, at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
○ The Governor's Lady and The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon featured a special guest appearance by Eileen Derbyshire - better known as Emily Bishop (nee Nugent) in the long-running British television soap opera Coronation Street. By the time she performed in Scarborough, she had already been in the television show for five years; a rare case of star casting in the company!
○ See The Pretty Lights , due to its star casting, was not performed in rep but, unusually, for a single two-week run.
○ There is some confusion as to where the world premiere of The Play Of Mata Hari took place. The Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (now the New Vic), credits it as a world premiere under the title Mata Hari. However, this production's opening date is listed as 23 November 1965, more than two months subsequent to the production staged at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where it was - in all likelihood - actually premiered.
○ The Play of Mata Hari marked the professional playwriting debut of Mike Stott (1944 - 2009), a prolific writer from Rochdale who would go on to a successful writing career on stage, television and radio. Immediately after working in Scarborough, he worked with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is probably best known for his 1973 play Funny Peculiar.
○ The majority of productions in 1965 were performed without an interval.
All information for this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd and should not be reproduced without permission. Any approved reproduction of information from this page should always credit 'A Round Town (www.theatre-in-the-round.co.uk).