The Complete Plays: An Englishman's Home (1975)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
An Englishman's Home
Stephen Mallatratt
Yes

The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Large Lecture Room
Three-sided
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
15 October 1975
15 October 1975
17 January 1976
Company Details
Director:
Design:

Stage Manager:
Deputy Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Alan Ayckbourn
Helga Wood

David Millard
Kevin Wood
Wendy Murray
Character
Mandy, Brian's wife
Cecile, Trevor's wife
Julie, Robbie's girlfriend
Brian, Cecile's brother
Trevor, Cecile's husband
Robbie, Mandy's brother
Actor
Janet Dale
Polly Warren
Alison Skilbeck
Malcolm Hebden
Bob Eaton
Christopher Godwin
Why is this play significant?
This was the professional playwriting debut of the actor Stephen Mallatratt who would, most famously, go on to pen the adaptation of Susan Hill's novella The Woman in Black in 1987. Alan Ayckbourn described An Englishman's Home as an almost 'perfect' debut play.
Notes
○ An Englishman's Home marked the debut of the actor Stephen Mallatratt as a playwright with his first full-length commissioned work. He would go on to become a renowned playwright and screenwriter - notably working on the popular British television soap opera Coronation Street. He is perhaps most famous for his adaptation of Susan Hill's novella The Woman In Black in 1987 and which became the second longest running play in the West End after The Moustrap.
○ During the 1974 and 1975 winter seasons at The Library Theatre, Scarborough, the Library Committee did not make the venue's Concert Room available; this room being where The Library Theatre had been based since 1955. In its place, a smaller room on the same floor - the Large Lecture Room - was offered but which could not incorporate theatre-in-the-round with productions performed three-sided.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust