The Complete Plays: Just Between Ourselves (1976)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Just Between Ourselves
Alan Ayckbourn
Yes

The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Large Lecture Room
Three-sided
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
28 January 1976
28 January 1976
31 January 1976
Company Details
Director:
Design:

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

Richard Roscoe
Peter Chadwick
Stephen Lowe
Wendy Murray
Christopher J. Gray
Character
Dennis
Vera, his wife
Neil
Marjorie, Dennis's mother
Pam
Actor
Christopher Godwin
Polly Warren
Malcolm Hebden
Janet Dale
Alison Skilbeck
Why is this play significant?
The final play to be produced at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre (as it was also the final play for the company's second home, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round). Alan notoriously tells the story that this proved to be the final straw for Scarborough Library when the Director of Libraries came into work one morning to find a Morris Minor outside his office on the first floor; a good story, but untrue as the company knew they would be leaving the library by the time the shell of the car was taken apart to get into the library and then reassembled within.
Notes
○ Just Between Ourselves was premiered at the end of the 1975 / 1976 winter season at The Library Theatre with just six performances (which sold out as soon as they were put on sale). This was intended as a taster for the 1976 summer season when the play was scheduled for a normal run in the repertory.
○ Although Just Between Ourselves was written with the intention of it being staged in-the-round, the original production was staged three-sided (thrust) due to the limitations of the performance space (see note below). When the play was revived during the 1976 summer season in the larger space, Alan Ayckbourn decided to keep it in the thrust configuration for ease and the play was not performed in-the-round in Scarborough until 1996 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.
○ 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.
Links
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust