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Wednesday, May 07, 2008, 07:00
Now, the acclaimed playwright is looking forward to a suitably hair-raising end to a tenure noted for its acid humour.
“I had long felt that, along with making audiences laugh, it must be enormously satisfying to make them jump in their seats and occasionally even scream,” he said.
To this end, this May's The Things That Go Bump In the Night season is a cycle of three plays which begins with Haunting Julia.
Following a father's obsessional attempts to find out the truth about the death of his daughter, Julia, the play is punctuated with 'seat-ejector' moments as she makes some unexpected returns.
“I must confess to a great thrill when, on the opening night, as the ghostly Julia hammered suddenly and violently on the door, the whole audience did rise several inches off their seats in shock,” Ayckbourn said, as he recalled its 1994 debut.
Haunting Julia is followed by another revival, Snake in the Grass, which sees quarrelsome sisters Annabel and Miriam stalked by the ghost of their father as they clash over his will.
For the final part of the trilogy, Ayckbourn has written a new play Life and Beth – which explores the first Christmas alone for a newly widowed woman, Beth, whose house is invaded by her alcoholic sister-in-law, her accident prone son and a ghostly visitor.
As he considers the plays, which mark his last hurrah after 40 years as the theatre's artistic director, Ayckbourn can reflect on the similarities the trilogy offers to his previous work.
“Regular observers will note my obsessive tidying of loose ends, not to mention my fascination with the number three,” he said.
And in audience reaction at least, perhaps it will prove that these ghostly tales are not that far removed from Ayckbourn's normal stomping grounds of comedy.
“A ghost story is, after all, greatly akin to farce,” he said.
“Both require the onlooker to suspend their belief; to begin to believe first the unlikely and ultimately the incredible.”
The Things that Go Bump Season runs at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Westborough, Scarborough. Haunting Julia starts May 22 to August 22, 2.45pm, 7.45pm; Snake In The Grass starts June 5 to August 22, 2.45pm, 7.45pm; Life And Beth, starts July 17 to August 30, 2.45pm, 7.45pm. Tickets cost £9-18.50. Call (01723) 370541.
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