Alan Ayckbourn

Alan Ayckbourn is an English playwright and former artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, one of the most prolific and performed dramatists in the world. His dozens of plays, from Absurd Person Singular to The Norman Conquests, brilliantly turn middle-class anxiety into comedy of almost mechanical precision.

Since 1959 Ayckbourn has premiered nearly ninety full-length plays, winning international prizes and a reputation as a master of stagecraft. His damp suburban pessimism with perfectly engineered dilemmas has dazzled audiences for decades, often premiering off-London before conquering the West End.