The Complete Plays: 1969 Overview
This page contains details about the 1969 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 1969
All plays were performed in-the-round in the Concert Room on the first floor of Scarborough Library. The season ran from 23 June to 13 September 1969. The plays were performed in rep with a change of programme on Thursdays.○ The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon The Great
○ Ask Me Tomorrow
○ A Little Stiff Built Chap
○ The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon The Great
○ Ask Me Tomorrow
○ A Little Stiff Built Chap
○ How The Other Half Loves
○ Ask Me Tomorrow
○ The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon The Great
○ How The Other Half Loves
○ A Little Stiff Built Chap
○ How The Other Half Loves
○ Ask Me Tomorrow
○ A Little Stiff Built Chap
○ The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon The Great
○ Ask Me Tomorrow
○ A Little Stiff Built Chap
○ How The Other Half Loves
○ Ask Me Tomorrow
○ The Dynamic Death-Defying Leap of Timothy Satupon The Great
○ How The Other Half Loves
○ A Little Stiff Built Chap
○ How The Other Half Loves
23 - 25 June
26 June - 2 July
3 - 9 July
10 - 16 July
17 - 23 July
24 - 30 July
31 July - 6 August
7 - 13 August
14 - 20 August
21 - 27 August
28 August - 3 September
4 - 13 September
26 June - 2 July
3 - 9 July
10 - 16 July
17 - 23 July
24 - 30 July
31 July - 6 August
7 - 13 August
14 - 20 August
21 - 27 August
28 August - 3 September
4 - 13 September
Note: This schedule has been reconstructed by Simon Murgatroyd after extensive research as details of it are not held in archive. If reproducing this article, please credit Simon Murgatroyd.
Creatives
Alan Ayckbourn (Director of Productions / Writer)Pamela Craig (Director)
Leonard Barras (Writer)
Peter Hawkins (Writer / Music)
Trevor Holroyd (Music)
Actors
Elisabeth AshtonSharon Duce
Colin Edwynn
Jeremy Franklin
Brian Miller
Robert Peck
Alan Rothwell
Elisabeth Sladen
Stephanie Turner
Other Staff
Ken Boden (General Manager)Robin Holmes (Stage Manager)
Lesli Tomson (DSM)
Charles Boyle (ASM)
Sharon Duce (ASM)
Peter Boden (Lighting)
Veronica Pemberton-Billing (Catering Manager)
Wilfred Houghton (FoH Assistant Manager)
Connie Garlick (Box Office)
Hubert Ruff (Box Office)
1969 Production Notes
○ No brochure for the summer 1969 season is held in archive and, as a result, the season schedule has been reconstructed by Simon Murgatroyd through research into newspaper articles - particularly The Stages 'On Next Week' column and by extrapolating from the structure of previous years' schedules. It is believed to be as accurate as possible. If this schedule is reproduced, please credit Simon Murgatroyd.
○ The season was initially advertised as consisting of five plays, three of which would be world premieres. However, despite being mentioned in several newspaper articles, A Legendary Man by David Bramley was dropped from the schedule and not produced. It is not known why the play was dropped. Bramley had previously written A Boat in the Backyard for the previous season.
○ 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 season was initially advertised as consisting of five plays, three of which would be world premieres. However, despite being mentioned in several newspaper articles, A Legendary Man by David Bramley was dropped from the schedule and not produced. It is not known why the play was dropped. Bramley had previously written A Boat in the Backyard for the previous season.
○ 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.
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).