Alan Ayckbourn

Playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn is to stand down as Artistic Director of Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre. Ayckbourn will quit the post next year, having occupied it since 1970.

As previously reported, Ayckbourn suffered a stroke in February 2006, but returned to work at the SJT after a six month recovery period. He has necessarily been obliged to reduce his workload since then, and will continue to do so prior to his retirement from the post.

Ayckbourn is among Britain’s best loved and most prolific playwrights. His first West End success came with 1967’s Relatively Speaking, followed by a consistent run of hits including The Norman Conquests, the Olivier Award winning Comic Potential and most recently Improbable Fiction and If I Were You. As well as numerous theatre awards, he received the CBE in 1987 and was made a Knight Bachelor in 1997.

Ayckbourn’s association with the SJT is a major part of his story, and over 70 of his works have premiered there. He was initially encouraged to write and was mentored by Stephen Joseph, the theatrical pioneer who introduced theatre in the round to Britain. Joseph opened a tiny theatre in Scarborough in 1955, which has evolved through various incarnations into the present, rather more illustrious venue which was renamed the Stephen Joseph Theatre by Ayckbourn in 1988. It remains a major force in regional theatre.

[AD]A statement issued by the SJT’s chairman Sue Trufitt said: “Over the last couple of years, Alan Ayckbourn's day-to-day involvement in the running of the Stephen Joseph Theatre has been decreasing, although his directing work has continued as normal. In the forthcoming season, he will be directing Relatively Speaking and A Trip to Scarborough and he is planning for the 2008/09 season. This decrease in his workload will lead to the appointment of a new artistic director in the summer of 2008, to plan the 2009/10 season. Alan intends to continue to direct revivals of his plays at the theatre as well as premiering any of his new work there.”