Absurd Person Singular

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Comedy closed 22 March 2008

The Garrick Theatre Charing Cross Road, London

A major revival of Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Absurd Person Singular in London starring Jane Horrocks, Jenny Seagrove and John Gordon Sinclair with David Bamber, David Horovitch and Lia Williams.

Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Absurd Person Singular follows the fortunes of three couples who turn up in each other's kitchens over three successive Christmase Eve gatherings... It's Christmas-time at the Hopcrofts and the only present they want is to succeed in scaling the social ladder. Havoc ensues at the festive drinks party they hold to impress their high-powered friends - but that's nothing compared to what happens at the next two Christmases when the friends return their hospitality! A classic comedy with outrageous characters - this is Ayckbourn at his best.

A classic comedy with outrageous characters - Let the festivities begin!

Absurd Person Singular is set in the early 1970s over three Christmas Eves - last Christmas at Sidney and Jane's, this Christmas at Geoffrey and Eva's and next Christmas at Ronald and Marion's.

The cast for this revival of Absurd Person Singular in London features Jane Horrocks as 'Jane', David Bamber as 'Sidney', Lia Williams as 'Eva', John Gordon Sinclair as 'Geoffrey', Jenny Seagrove as 'Marion' and David Horovitch as 'Ronald'. Casting subject to change. The production is directed by Alan Strachan with designs by Michael Pavelka, lighting by Jason Taylor, sound by Ian Horrocks-Taylor and costumes by Brigid Guy.

Probably one of the nation's most performed living playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn has written 70 plays, almost all receiving their first performance in Scarborough. Among his successes are plays such as: How the Other Half Loves, The Norman Conquests, Bedroom Farce, Just Between Ourselves, A Chorus of Disapproval, Woman in Mind, A Small Family Business and Comic Potential. More than 25 have been produced in the West End or at the National Theatre since his first hit, Relatively Speaking, opened at the Duke of York's in 1967. Alan Ayckbourn's plays have been translated into some 35 languages, have won numerous national and international awards and are performed on stage and television throughout the world. They have also been filmed in English and French.

Alan Ayckbourn on his play Absurd Person Singular: "Absurd Person Singular — the title was originally intended for a play I didn't write and subsequently, because I rather cared for it, given to the play I did write — was first produced in Scarborough in 1972. At that time, I remember, I was becoming increasingly fascinated by the dramatic possibilities of offstage action. Not a new device, granted, but one with plenty of comic potential still waiting to be tapped... The offstage character hinted at but never seen can be dramatically as significant and telling as his onstage counterparts... Thus, when I came to write Absurd Person Singular and started by setting the action in Jane and Sidney Hopcroft's sitting room, I was halfway through the act before I realised that I was viewing the evening from totally the wrong perspective. Dick and Lottie were indeed monstrously overwhelming, hearty and ultimately very boring, and far better heard occasionally but not seen. By a simple switch of setting to the kitchen, the problem was all but solved, adding incidentally far greater comic possibilities than the sitting room ever held. For in this particular case, the obvious offstage action was far more relevant than its onstage counterpart. Absurd Person Singular, then, could be described as my first offstage action play. It is also, some critics have observed, a rather weighty comedy. Its last scene darkens considerably. I make no apologies for this."