ALAN AYCKBOURN MARKS 85TH YEAR WITH 90TH PLAY SHOW AND TELL

5th September 2024

One of the UK’s most successful and prolific playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn presents Show and Tell at the New Vic in the year the writer turned 85. Taking to the New Vic’s stage from Tuesday 15 to Saturday 26 October, and directed by the author, it is a delightfully dark farce lifting the lid on the performances we act out on a daily basis.

Playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s 90^th play Show and Tell is a ‘celebration of theatre’ that draws upon his experience of working in the country’s first in-the-round theatre company.

Jack’s planning a big party for his wife’s birthday. He’s pulling out all the stops and has booked a touring theatre company to perform in the main hall of the family home. The only problem is that Jack is getting a bit forgetful in his old age and can’t remember all the details of the booking…

Meanwhile, the Homelight Theatre Company is on its knees. They desperately need a well-paid gig and Jack’s booking is very well paid. But pinning him down on the details has been tricky and something doesn’t feel quite right.

Ayckbourn wrote his first play 65 years ago. The Homelight Theatre Company in Show and Tell draws upon his own experiences of being in the Studio Theatre Company, the first in the country to work professionally in-the-round, based at the Library Theatre in Scarborough and touring to places including Newcastle-under-Lyme, before the Victoria Theatre was created.

The cast of this special production includes Bill Champion (The Girl Next Door, Season’s Greetings, Stephen Joseph Theatre and tour) as retired MD Jack Bothridge; Paul Kemp (Brassic, Sky One, Ghost Stories, Arts Theatre West End) as his former colleague Ben Wilkes; Frances Marshall (Family Album, Season’s Greetings, Stephen Joseph Theatre and tour) as actor Harriet ‘Harry’ Golding; Richard Stacey (Constant Companions, Joking Apart, Stephen Joseph Theatre and tour) as actor Peter Reeder; and Guildford School of Acting graduate Olivia Woolhouse making her professional debut as actor Steph Tate.

Writer and Director Alan Ayckbourn said: “Show & Tell is about something which has preoccupied me for the last 60 years and probably more – theatre. It’s a love letter to theatre.”

Show and Tell takes to the stage at the New Vic from Tuesday 15 to Saturday 26 October 2024. Tickets are on sale now, priced from £10.00. For more information and to book call the Box Office on 01782 717962 or head here.