The Norman Conquests: A Trilogy Of Plays.

Humor & Entertainment

Alan Ayckbourn

Movies

Penguin Books, Harmondsworth

“ Your parents are scared you’re going to end up as screwed up as they are. It’s a factory conveyer belt and nobody can get off it. You think you’re the centre of the world, Jason,  entitled to  everything. But try and occasionally listen to your parents. They genuinely care about you. Which is amazing, given what a complete asshole you are.”   The year is 1996. Trevor and Linda have been struggling for a while to deal with the behaviour of their rebellious teenage son Jason. In a moment of madness, they hatch a plan to create his own funeral in their living room. The idea being that when Jason attends, he will be confronted by his own mortality, and the shock will enable him to start re-thinking his life. A life currently filled with midnight raves, suspicious friends, and ecstasy tablets.  Jason’s aunt and uncle, Angela and Derek, join in the charade but arrive loaded with their own baggage and very quickly the whole scenario descends into chaos. Voices are  raised, emotions are laid bare and secrets are revealed. Also, quite a bit of food is thrown, too much alcohol is drunk, too many pills are popped and the whole event whips up into a whirlwind of delinquency. It is left to the elderly neighbour Mary, armed with muffins and experience, to try and save the day.  Created by the two-time Olivier Award-nominated writer Peter Quilter, of the West End/Broadway hits Glorious! and End of the Rainbow. This play is full of eccentric characters and bursting with great one-liners. A sharp and addictive comedy that takes a wildly funny look at life in your typical dysfunctional family.

Relatively speaking;: A comedy (Evans drama library)

Evans Plays

'What is remarkable about Alan Ayckbourn's comedy is that it contrives to be simultaneously hilarious and harrowing. Literally, it is agonisingly funny' - "Daily Telegraph". In "Three Plays" Ayckbourn's perfectly pitched dialogue slices into the soul of suburbia. The settings are simple - a kitchen, a bedroom, a party - but the relationships between the husbands and wives are more complicated. Fraught relationships are exposed with humour, bathos and a sharp understanding of human nature.

Three Plays: Absurd Person Singular; Absent Friends; Bedroom Farce

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

GROVE PRESS

The Crafty Art of Playmaking

Faber&Faber

With over 60 plays written and staged, many playing in the West End or the Royal National Theatre, Alan Ayckbourn's expertise on writing and directing plays is unsurpassed. Here, he shares his tricks of the trade. From helpful hints on writing (Where has your play come from? Where is it going? How does it get there? What is comedy and how do you write it? What is tragedy and how does it work?) to tips on directing (working with actors and technicians, when to listen to the experts, how to cope with rehearsals), the book provides a complete primer for the tyro and a refresher for the more experienced.

My Sister Sadie

Faber and Faber

Season's Greetings

"The Revengers' Comedies": "A hugely entertaining pitch that recalls the old movies to which it frequently pays homage - "Strangers on a Train", "Rebecca", "Kind Hearts" and "Coronets" - and expands after intermission to reveal an immensely disturbing vision of contemporary middle-class England poisoned by the rise of economic ruthlessness and the collapse of ethics". ("New York Times"). "Things We Do for Love": The author of this title won Lloyds Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award. "One of his best, his most shockingly and uproariously funny: a cruel and hilarious masterpiece of tragic comedy and comic tragedy". (Sunday Times). "House &amp; Garden": "The triumph of his ingenuity lies in the fact that you have to see both plays ...A second time round, in whichever order you take them, characters will deepen, while those you know become the background. It is a superb Ayckbourn joke that a comedy about non-communication should depend on the sharpest communication skills". ("Sunday Times").

Alan Ayckbourn: Plays Four.

Arts & Photography

Performing Arts

This last volume contains five plays, all first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough: Snake in the Grass (2002); If I Were You (2006); Life and Beth (2008); My Wonderful Day (2009) and Ayckbourn's 74th play, Life of Riley (2010).

Alan Ayckbourn: Plays Five.

Love stories yet to happen, in a future filled with surprises.Who is the amorous stranger, Titus, who materialises in young Grace's bedroom? Can she believe he is who he says he is? For her parents, Franklin and Martha, does love everlasting still hold true if death is postponed indefinitely? Can lawyer Lorraine, who prides herself on her infallibility, have finally discovered the ideal partner, one who is also never wrong? Will lonely secretary Sylvia, after unhappy affairs with everyone from deep sea divers to space shuttle pilots, ever find her Mr Right?A comedy with its head in the future and its heart in the past, Alan Ayckbourn's Surprises premiered in July 2012 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre.

Surprises

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Alan Ayckbourn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Alan Ayckbourn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Alan Ayckbourn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Norman Conquests: A Trilogy Of Plays.

Relatively speaking;: A comedy (Evans drama library)

Three Plays: Absurd Person Singular; Absent Friends; Bedroom Farce

The Crafty Art of Playmaking

The Crafty Art of Playmaking

My Sister Sadie

Season's Greetings

Alan Ayckbourn: Plays Four.

Alan Ayckbourn: Plays Five.

Surprises