Plays 5: Snake in the Grass / If I Were You / Life and Beth / My Wonderful Day / Life of Riley

by Alan Ayckbourn

This last volume contains five plays, all first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, 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).

Genres: Plays

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a popular and prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967. Major successes include Absurd Person Singular (1975), The Norman Conquests trilogy (1973), Bedroom Farce (1975), Just Between Ourselves (1976), A Chorus of Disapproval (1984), Woman in Mind (1985), A Small Family Business (1987), Man Of The Moment (1988), House & Garden (1999) and Private Fears in Public Places (2004). His plays have won numerous awards, including seven London Evening Standard Awards. They have been translated into over 35 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world. Ten of his plays have been staged on Broadway, attracting two Tony nominations, and one Tony award.

Reviews

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found some plays to be slightly tedious. Ayckbourn, although he hasn't lost his wit, he has lost some sense of originality in plot. For example, I found Life and Beth and If I Were You to have slightly banal plots. Nevertheless, these plays make reasonably entertaining reading.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five comedies which deal with domestic abuse, gender incompatability, stultifying marriages, the childish behaviour of adults and human selfishness. Only from the pen of Alan Ayckbourn. They may no be the best work he's done but that's still pretty damn good!