The Plays: Year-by-Year (1969)

This page contains productions details for all plays produced by Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, during 1969. All information on this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd M.A. from programmes, brochures and newspaper articles.

Summer 1969

All plays were performed in-the-round in the Concert Room at Scarborough Library. The season ran from 23 June to 13 September 1969.

The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon The Great

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Music:
Music:
Peter Hawkins
Yes

23 June 1969
23 June 1969
To be confirmed

Alan Ayckbourn
Peter Boden
Peter Hawkins & Trevor Holroyd
Character
Timothy Satupon
Miss Baron
Violet
Deidre
Mr Age
Mr Young
Mr Gray
Miss Prim
Old What's-His-Name
Actor
Alan Rothwell
Elisabeth Ashton
Stephanie Turner
Sharon Duce
Brian Miller
Robert Peck
Jeremy Franklin
Elisabeth Sladen
Colin Edwynn

A Little Stiff Built Chap

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Leonard Barras
Yes

3 July 1969
3 July 1969
To be confirmed

Alan Ayckbourn
Peter Boden
Character
Harriet Grantham
John Grantham
Moira, their daughter
Stan, their son
Leslie O'Neil
P.C. Edgar Voss
Actor
Stephanie Turner
Brian Miller
Elisabeth Sladen
Jeremy Franklin
Robert Peck
Colin Edwynn

Ask Me Tomorrow

Author:
Adaptation:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

DIrector:
Lighting:
Stan Barstow & Alfred Bradley
Stan Barstow's Ask Me Tomorrow
No

To be confirmed
To be confirmed
To be confirmed

Pamela Craig
Peter Boden
Character
Wilf
Marguerite
Mrs Poppy Swallow
Sylvia
Harry
Ronnie Betley
Actor
Jeremy Franklin
Elisabeth Sladen
Elizabeth Ashton
Stephanie Turner
Colin Edwynn
Brian Miller

How The Other Half Loves

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Alan Ayckbourn
Yes

31 July 1969
31 July 1969
13 September 1969

Alan Ayckbourn
Peter Boden
Character
Frank
Teresa
Fiona
Bob
William
Mary
Actor
Jeremy Franklin
Stephanie Turner
Elisabeth Sladen
Colin Edwynn
Brian Miller
Elizabeth Ashton

1969 Production Notes

○ No brochure for the summer 1969 season is held in archive and, as a result, no definitive dates are known for the season other than the opening and closing nights of the season and the opening nights of The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon the Great, A Little Stiff Built Chap and How The Other Half Loves.
○ The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon the Great was reported as featuring a ‘guest artiste’ in Alan Rothwell and he only appeared in this production during the 1969 summer season. Alan Rothwell was better known for his role as David Barlow in the television soap opera Coronation Street.
○ The director, Alan Ayckbourn, recalls that in the original script of A Little Stiff Built Chap, the daughter - played by Elisabeth Sladen - at one point entered the stage naked. Alan decided that Scarborough audiences were not quite ready for this and she instead wore underwear.
○ The subject of A Little Stiff Built Chap generated at least one letter of disgust to the Scarborough Evening News with an anonymous - obviously - writer taking aim at Alan Ayckbourn. A highlight of the correspondence - which includes a call to boycott the theatre - includes the following: “Many modern so-called playwrights appear to have minds which are little better than mental cesspools, and if the producer of this play, Mr Alan Ayckbourn, wishes to lower his reputation and standards to purveying their output, that is his concern. Perhaps he can find a market for it in a shady London ‘theatre club’.”
○ When the actor Jeremy Franklin slipped a disc during the first week of performances of How The Other Half Loves, Alan Ayckbourn stepped in for several performances, reading from the book. This impromptu appearance is considered the playwright's final professional on-stage acting performance.
○ The majority of productions in 1969 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).