Alan Ayckbourn: Miscellaneous Writing
Given the longevity of Alan Ayckbourn's professional writing career, it would be surprising if he had not produced a substantial quantity of material which does not easily fit into the established categories of his writing (i.e. full, length plays, revues, one act plays, Grey plays, screenplays etc).The majority of this miscellaneous material has never been published or performed, but is now publicly held in the Ayckbourn Archive held in the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University Of York. As a result of this, whilst the pieces below are generally not considered part of the official Ayckbourn canon and are not significant Ayckbourn works, it is necessary to acknowledge their existence and providence - if only to assert there are no lost Ayckbourn plays or works to be uncovered within the archive!
Further details about these plays can also be found in Simon Murgatroyd's book Unseen Ayckbourn.
Short Plays / Sketches
○ Bedside Manners (circa 1960s): A short play similar in concept to Countdown in which a husband and wife verbalise their thoughts in bed.○ Board Game (circa early 1960s): A sketch in which Monopoly's Top Hat finds himself moving through other famous board games. This received its performance premiere in June 2012 in the show Ayckbourn Shorts, directed by Tom Wright, at the University Of York.
○ Introduction for Frankie Howerd: A three-page sketch written - but never performed - for the comedian Frankie Howerd circa 1966. The sketch is held in the Frankie Howerd Collection at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
○ Jennings (circa 1950): Alan Ayckbourn's first play, based on the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge, written as a schoolboy circa 1950 and now lost.
○ Millennium 1993): Alan Ayckbourn wrote several short scripts for the Scarborough tourist attraction which opened in May 1993 and told the history of the town. The Millennium attraction originally featured actors playing characters from the town's past with scripts written by Alan Ayckbourn. However, these characters were phased out over time due to the financial costs and the attraction closed in 2002.
○ Modern Love (circa mid 1960s): A short unproduced sketch by Alan Ayckbourn.
Poetry
○ The Old House (1948): Alan Ayckbourn's first published piece of writing is a poem for the Wisborough Lodge school magazine, The Lodgean.○ Dawn (1954): Alan Ayckbourn's first work to be published in a professional publication was a poem for the Young Elizabethan magazine in December 1954.
○ Epilogue: Cinderella's Star Night (1982): A poem, read by Ian McKellen, which closed a charity fund-raising evening - Cinderella's Star Night - in 1982.
○ Seven Fragments (1986): Seven short poems published in the book Occasional Poets in 1986.
Songs
○ The Ghost of 'Enry Albert (1975): A narrative song written for the revue What The Devil! first produced at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, during 1975.Alan Ayckbourn has actually written hundreds of songs during his career, most of which are part of established revues or plays and details of which can be found in relevant part of the Plays section.
All research in this section is by Simon Murgatroyd and should be credited if reproduced.