Absurd Person Singular: In Brief

Absurd Person Singular

Play Number: 12
World Premiere: 26 June 1972
Venue: Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough

Premiere Staging: In-the-round

Published: Samuel French, Vintage Classics
Other Media: Television; Radio

Cast: 3m / 3f
Run Time: 2hr 10m

Synopsis: Set in three kitchens over three Christmases, the play charts the relentless rise of the socially aspiring Hopcrofts at the expense of two other couples.

Note: Absurd Person Singular is a three act play; one of only two written by Alan Ayckbourn alongside Surprises.

Absurd Person Singular is Alan Ayckbourn's 12th play.
The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, on 26 June 1972.
It was written over four consecutive nights and finished on the night before rehearsals for the play began.
It was initially conceived as being set in the living rooms of the three couples, but after he completed approximately half of the script, Alan abandoned it and rewrote the play set in three kitchens. The original abandoned draft was discovered in 2022 and its story can be found here.
It is regarded as not only his first 'off-stage' play - set in what would traditionally be regarded as an off-stage location away from the apparent action - but also his first to significantly feature off-stage characters with Dick and Lottie Potter playing a significant, if unseen, role.
The playwright considers Absurd Person Singular as his earliest successful use of dramatic counterpoint. "Using a deeply serious action against a background of comic events (or is it the other way around?) Both serving to strengthen the other but hopefully neither selling the other short. Jane is just as serious about cleaning her oven as Eva is to commit suicide. It's all a question of priorities."
Following the opening performance in Scarborough, Alan Ayckbourn cut approximately 20 minutes from the play. This original version of the play has only been performed once.
The London premiere - directed by Eric Thompson - opened on 14 July 1973 at the Criterion Theatre, London.
Absurd Person Singular ran for two-and-a-half years in London. It is the longest running Ayckbourn production to have been staged in the West End.
During its West End run, it contributed to Alan Ayckbourn breaking the record for the most plays running simultaneously with five plays: Absent Friends, Absurd Person Singular and The Norman Conquests trilogy.
It has been produced more times in the West End than any other Ayckbourn play with three productions in 1973, 1990 and 2007.
It won Alan his first award, the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy in 1973.
The New York premiere - directed by Eric Thompson - opened on 8 October 1974 at the Music Box Theatre, New York.
Unhappy with the play structure, the New York producers offered Alan Ayckbourn $250,000 to swap Acts II & III so the play ended on a comic high rather than a dying fall. Alan refused.
Absurd Person Singular ran for 17 Months in New York and is the longest running Ayckbourn production to have been staged on Broadway.
It has been produced twice on Broadway in 1974 and 2005, more than any other Ayckbourn play.
It was first published in 1974 by Samuel French and was subsequently published in the collection Three Plays (Penguin, later Vintage Classics). It has been reprinted in more volumes than any other Ayckbourn play.
It has been adapted for both the radio (1977) and television (1985) by the BBC with the latter regarded by the playwright as one of the stronger TV adaptations of his plays.
Absurd Person Singular has been translated into more than 20 languages and performed around the world.
It is one of only two plays that Alan Ayckbourn has directed in all three Scarborough venues (Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round and the Stephen Joseph Theatre).
In 2018, it was named by The Times as one of the 50 greatest plays and it has featured in numerous lists, articles and books of significant plays of the 20th century and British theatre.
Absurd Person Singular is unique in the Ayckbourn canon in that Alan wrote half a play before abandoning it and rewriting it as a completely different work. Uniquely for the Ayckbourn Archive, this easily draft alongside original notes, revised and performance drafts have all survived and available to research at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. The full story of the discovery and significance of the early drafts can be found here.