Absurd Person Singular - A Play

by Alan Ayckbourn

Meet three couples in their three kitchens on the Christmas Eves of three successive years. The "lower class" but very much up and coming Hopcrofts are in their bright new, gadget filled kitchen anxiously giving a little party for their bank manager and his wife and an architect neighbor. Next there are the architect and his wife in their neglected, untidy flat. Then the bank manager and his wife are in their large, slightly modernized, old Victorian style kitchen. Running like a dark thread through the wild comedy of behind the scenes disasters at Christmas parties is the story of the advance of the Hopcrofts to material prosperity and independence and the decline of the others. In the final stages the little man is well and truly on top, with the others, literally and unnervingly, dancing to his tune.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Classics, Fiction, Literature, British Literature

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

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

[Marnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rather enjoyed this! I will write a full review soon, as I think it'll help with my school work based on this play.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Bedroom Farce by Ayckbourn earlier this week because the local theater company is putting it on next season. I was underwhelmed. But I wanted to try more Ayckbourn because I've always heard good things. So I went on to this play.

It concerns three couples (well four, but the fourth couple is never scene). The action takes place in their respective kitchens during brief get togethers on Christmas Eve over three years. The first couple is a social climber and his neat freak wife. The second are a suicidally unhappy woman and her lecherous husband, a failed architect. The final couple are an alcoholic society dame and her banker husband.

In the first act we meet the characters and the neat freak wife is locked out of the house in the rain when she goes to get extra alcohol so her glad-handing husband's party won't be ruined. The second act is the gem: when the architect announces that he is going to leave her, depressive Eva spends the whole act trying to kill herself in various ways, but the others, without ever understanding what they are doing, keep thwarting her efforts. It's a piece of genius dark humor. The third act is a bit anticlimactic, mostly involving the alcoholic wife's shenanigans and ending with a symbolically absurd dance game.

I don't know why my local theater company picked Bedroom Farce, which uses a similar conceit in bedrooms but just isn't as funny or as powerful. I guess finding three sets of kitchen equipment might make this a bit harder to stage. Or maybe it's been done in the area recently. Or maybe it was deemed too dark for our local audience. Anyway, too bad: this is a gem of a play. I'm going to try The Norman Conquests before I end my Ayckbourn kick.

[Emily Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this play for school, and I loved it! I haven't read many plays, only Shakespeare's classics, and this was beautiful.

My favourite characters were Jane and Eva, both facing inner conflict in different ways. They were both fleshed out, developed, and gave the story it's obscure and dark humour.

[Jason Zheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

What this play lacks in plot, it makes up for in character development. This play seems like it will be very interesting to study.

Note: there is one suicidal character.

[Zain Bhally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Period piece character study using caricaturist humour to depict the inner struggles of various couples in the post WW2 era. Interesting to read and analyse, although the full effect would definitely be given only with a performance. The choice of showing three 'windows' into each year also gives the narrative an interesting sense of time and allows for almost sudden character development, while allowing the reader to juxtapose character behaviour between acts.

[Giorgi Komakhidze · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best post-modern plays of all time!
Especially for the Christmas days!

[La Bruja de la Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a clever way of depicting marital life behind closed doors and the diminishing of a person's individuality as they become even more submissive to their spouse.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow

[Jojo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: This play centers around three couples over the span of three Christmases. First act we were at the home of Sidney and Jane getting ready for company. Jane is obsessive over the cleanliness of the house. When they run out of tonic, she goes out to get more but since it's raining she gets drenched and apparently it's just such an embarrassment that she's soaking wet when she returns. Can't possibly let their guests see her this way so her husband doesn't even let her back in until they've left.
The second act is at Geoffrey and Eva's. Eva is pretty much catatonic, planning her suicide. The guests arrive while Geoff goes to fetch the doctor. Eva continuously tries to kill herself in various ways while the others just blow it off and make jokes? That is what happens but like what on earth is with these people?
Final act is Ronald and Marion. Marion seems to be on bed rest for some reason though it's also suggested she's an alcoholic. Eva has been there helping out. Geoff arrives to pick her up but they stay for a drink. Marion comes down to join them. Then Sidney and Jane arrive. The others don't really want to see them so they unsuccessfully try to hide from them but they enter the house anyway. They all wind up playing some random dancing game.
Review: Yeah not really sure what to make of this one. It's alright. Didn't really find it amusing...I mean is it meant to be humorous that one woman is trying to kill herself? I don't know. It just wasn't really my thing.
Grade: D+

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basic Plot: 3 scenes, in the kitchens of 3 couples, on three different Christmases.

What the hell did I even just read? I mean, seriously. It's labeled as a comedy, but is NOT FUNNY. At all. The bits that I can see are clearly intended to be played for laughs all surround mental illness in some way, and are generally all at the expense of the female characters. The men are "normal" guys doing their breadwinner, man-of-the-house routine and the women all have problems. One is an alcoholic, one is suicidally depressed, and the other is obsessive-compulsive. I can't even believe that this was once considered funny. It has NOT aged well.

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Ayckbourn is known as the British Neil Simon, and with good reason. I picked this play up as a fall play for my theatrical students to perform and fell in love with the comedy and complicated emotional weight of the piece. It is a funny, sad, touching, and shocking couple drama that occurs over three Christmas Eve years as couples navigate their relationship and social standing with one another. While I loved the play – a bittersweet play of funny missed communications and lopsided preparations - we didn’t end up performing this piece because we had significantly more students try out than we expected and chose a large-cast American Zolidis piece that was funny and well-received.

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok,it’s dated but very funny.I guess you could find it has serious themes (what used to be called the battle of the sexes) but enjoy it for its humour.Would it be staged today?I doubt it but that’s our loss.

[archive ☄ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the british dramatic canon is just *chef's kiss*!

[Evelyn Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this play a lot! It was very fun to read and though it didn't have a ton of plot, the dialogue was very interesting. I think I liked Act 2 the best.

[JMJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending of this play fizzles into nothing and spoils the promise of the rest of an acutely imagined domestic drama.

[Aditya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, interesting play - three scenes set in three separate kitchens. A little 70s in its attitudes but not too bad. Still accessible.

[Gillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelming.

[Brian McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved loved this play. Why don’t more theaters do it around Christmas??

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

British Christmas comedy. What could be better?

[Linny Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️

[Nick Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few years ago I read two or three Alan Ayckbourn plays, but I didn’t get much out of them. They weren’t even that funny. I presume they perform better than they read. Absurd Person Singular is a 1970s work, earlier than the other plays I read. There are six characters, three married couples, and each of the three acts takes place on successive Christmas Eves. The major narrative developments occur between the scenes, during the years between the get togethers. My problem is that I found the actual scenes operated like sitcoms: there are the six characters and the repeated situations…although things have changed because of the changing circumstances of the characters. There are a lot of jokes, but I’m unconvinced the humour has that much to do with the character development. Ayckbourn is often referred to as a chronicler of 1980s England, of Margaret Thatcher’s England, satirising the shifts in the English middle classes, the new thrusting and confident moneyed classes and the uncertain old establishment. Interestingly, although dating from the early 1970s, Absurd Person Singular fits in with this. The women are wives, the husbands bring in the income. Two are figures from the comfortable middle class establishment, Geoffrey is an architect, Ronald a banker (and older than the other two men). Sidney, however, is a building contractor and treated with a certain condescension by the other two in the first act…but by the third act, Sidney, the entrepreneur, has become the successful one while the other two are in crisis. But I’m not sure that my attempt to see it as a proto-Thatcherite play really works. The Sidney-Geoffrey relationship can be seen in this way, the professional on the way down, the entrepreneur on the way up – and Geoffrey’s middle class professional confidence begins to collapse, while Sidney, who at first was unconfidently but good-naturedly trying to fit in with the more established middle classes, is now more at ease. But, by this scheme, there is no reason why Ronald should be in crisis – Britain was just about to be transformed into a nation dominated by finance. Maybe the contrasting rise and fall is just a structure to allow the comic scenes. The wives are slightly in their husbands’ shadows. Jane, Sidney’s wife, is a manically happy housewife, always taking on cleaning duties: this makes her a little one dimensional, but we can see her manic housewifery and lack of notice of everything that goes on around her as a sort of defence mechanism…or maybe it is just a sitcom type joke. Geoffrey’s wife Eva undergoes the greatest development: we first see her unhappy, then suicidal, but finally she has turned her life around and is in control of it – she gains self-respect as Geoffrey loses his…but the interesting development occurs between scenes, the comedy is in the difference. Maybe I’m trying too hard to take Absurd Person Singular ‘seriously’, maybe it should just be judged by its success at amusing an audience…unfortunately I didn’t find it that amusing As I said, I imagine Ayckbourn works better in production that on the page.

[Maddy Walock · Rating 5 out of 5]

True rating: 4.5

I really loved the energy of this play. It’s chaotic, joyful, and inherently very sad. Very well balances all of that. I enjoy the type of humor and sadness it displays.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uproariously funny in areas- a great read- would love to see it on stage