English theatres will finally be able to reopen their doors from next week after the Government today confirmed the next stage of its post lockdown roadmap will begin on 17 May 2021.
‘A ghostly tale which delivers so much more than its initial premise’: HAUNTING JULIA – Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough (Online review)
It is sometimes possible to get a better perspective on a play through experiencing it as a piece of audio drama rather than seeing it live on stage and I found this to be the case with Haunting Julia by Alan Ayckbourn.
‘It has all of the hallmarks of classic Ayckbourn’: ANNO DOMINO – Stephen Joseph Theatre ★★★★ (Online review)
Perfectly pitched: Anno Domino has all of the hallmarks of classic Ayckbourn – razor-sharp observation, subtle skewering of preconceptions, and exploration of murky hidden depths.
NEWS: Alan Ayckbourn premieres 84th play Anna Domino, directs & performs in online release
The Stephen Joseph Theatre will present the world premiere of a new play by Alan Ayckbourn, Anno Domino, which will be available as an audio recording free online for one month.
‘Streaks of compassionate melancholy under the sparkles of hilarity’: BIRTHDAYS PAST, BIRTHDAYS PRESENT – Scarborough ★★★★★
Underneath Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present beats Ayckbourn’s sorrowful, understanding heart, showing us that comedy is just tragedy on its way to happening.
‘This is a great story brilliantly told’: CATERPILLAR – Theatre503
Alison Carr’s Caterpillar, a finalist in the Theatre 503’s Playwriting Award, gets an excellent staging and will later tour to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
KARAOKE THEATRE COMPANY – Scarborough
There’s tennis without a ball (audience requested to do plock-plock sound effects on drums), a mini-farce, thriller and horror story also supported by audience playing birdsong, creaks and sirens. Oh well.
Alan Ayckbourn: “Take the work seriously, but never yourself”
How is Alan Ayckbourn viewed across the pond? New York blogger Howard Sherman reports… Since 2005, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, the British playwright and director, has been bringing plays – often two or even three at a time – to 59E59 Theaters in New York from his home base at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, England, where he was artistic …
Diary of a Theatre Addict: Starring with a cast of 500 Supporting Actors, and Two Trips to Yorkshire (with a day in London inbetween)
You Me Bum Bum Train isn’t exactly a train journey, but it provided the ride of my life; I also made two separate train journeys to Yorkshire that provided musical and comic diversions of their own.