Sunday, June 17, 2007

Ayckbourne back in the Big Apple

Sir Alan Ayckbourne, considered to be England's "comic poet of middle-class life" has a revival that opened this weekend Off Broadway. Or is it eight plays? Actually, I guess it's really 16.

The play is called Intimate Exchanges, and it's actually 8 shorts with two alternate endings each. Ayckbourne also directs (Fun Fact: Harold Pinter claims that Ayckbourne directed the defining production of his The Birthday Party) Fans of Coast of Utopia have already gotten a warm-up for spending that much time in the theater.

For those of you who can't hack the travel right now, TBPAC is still hosting an Ayckbourne play through June 24. Woman in Mind, as presented by Jobsite Theater. The show has drawn exceedingly good reviews and full house after full house. As with Intimate Exchanges, the play also deals with an English suburb, the roles people create for themselves or are forced into and the comedy often found in moment to moment human interaction.

(Disclosure: I am also the producing artistic director for Jobsite and the director of Woman in Mind.)

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