Love After All: Facts

Love After All

Play Number: 2
World Premiere: 21 December 1959
Venue: Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough

Premiere Staging: In-the-round

Published: No
Other Media: No

Cast: 3m / 2f

Synopsis: A farce about a man's attempts to woo a miser's daughter through a variety of disguises - eventually being outwitted by and ending up with the maid instead.

Note: Love After All has never been published, nor is it available to produce. An original manuscript is held in the British Library whilst a copy of this is also held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
  • Love After All is Alan Ayckbourn's second play.
  • The world premiere - directed by Clifford Williams - was held at the Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, on 21 December, 1959.
  • Love After All is credited to Roland Allen; a pseudonym used by Alan Ayckbourn for his earliest plays.
  • Alan was 20 years old when he wrote the play in Autumn 1959.
  • It has only been produced three times: the original production followed by a repertory tour in early 1960 before a revival with an amended script with a different director and cast during the summer of 1960 at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
  • The original production was directed by Clifford Williams and the 1960 revival by Julian Herington.
  • Alan Ayckbourn apparently 'borrowed' the plot for Love After All from The Barber Of Seville. His mentor Stephen Joseph had told him his second play would be more difficult to write than his first, but Alan found it easier having an existing plot to work with.
  • Love After All was - like The Square Cat before it - written as a showcase for Alan Ayckbourn's own acting abilities. Unfortunately, subsequent to writing the play Alan was called up for National Service and could not appear in the world premiere production.
  • So successful was the play in the winter 1959 season, that Love After All was revived for the summer 1960 season; this was the shortest period of time between revivals for a play at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre and only the second time a play had been revived.
  • For the 1960 revival, the director Julian Herington demanded the play be updated from the Edwardian period to the present day, alterations be made to the script and character names changed.
  • Love After All is a farce. It is one of only three pure full-length farces written by Alan Ayckbourn, of which only Taking Steps is available to produce. Although Alan feels there are some farcical elements in several other plays, he only considers The Square Cat, Love After All and Taking Steps to be true farces.
  • For many years, Alan Ayckbourn noted he had tried to destroy all surviving copies of the play and it was believed lost. In 2007, his archivist, Simon Murgatroyd - working alongside the British Library - discovered a copy in the Lord Chamberlain's Plays collection at the British Library. It is believed this is the only extant surviving manuscript and its discovery led to the Ayckbourn play canon being restored for the first time since the play had been last performed in 1960.
  • Love After All has never been published, nor is it available to produce. An original manuscript is held in the British Library whilst a copy of this is also held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
Article by Simon Murgatroyd and copyright of Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.