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Time Of My Life is a play by Alan Ayckbourn. It premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough on 21 April 1992 then in the West End on 3 August 1993.
It was revived by the author in the summer of 2013.
The play is set in three different periods of time in a small Italian restaurant in Northern England.
When Gerry Stratton plans a family meal out with his two grown up sons to celebrate his wife, Laura’s 54th birthday and proposes an almost prophetic toast to ‘happy times’, he has no idea of the events that will unfold over the course of that evening. Their elder son, Glyn (played by John Pickard), is now back together with his long-suffering wife Stephanie, and their younger son, Adam has brought along his new girlfriend, an outrageous hairdresser, to meet the Stratton family for the first time.
Family skeletons intrude on cheerful domesticity as we get a glimpse of Glyn and Stephanie’s story unfolding in the future scenes. Meanwhile at another table in the same restaurant, Adam and Maureen’s story is played out in reverse chronology, with Gerry and Laura remaining in the present time unpicking their marriage and recalling first love.
The original London production ran at The Vaudeville for twelve weeks in 1993 after its premier in Scarborough and received these excellent reviews: “Immensely subtle; ingenious” - The Guardian “Funny, very funny, and not at all funny; quintessentially Ayckbourn” - The Times
It was revived last year under Ayckbourn’s direction at regional theatres but despite an Off-Broadway production, it never had a London run. However it will be revived in March 2015 at The Tabard Theatre in London. Law Ballard directs the cast featuring John Pickard as Glyn (known for his role as Dominic Reilly in Hollyoaks and David Porter in BBC Sitcom; 2point4 Children).
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Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2021, more than eighty 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 1969.
Hannah Elizabeth Waterman is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Laura Beale in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2000–2004).
Way Upstream is a play by Alan Ayckbourn. It was first performed, under Ayckbourn's direction, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK, "in the round" at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, on 2 October 1981. Although realistic in style, with a setting of a hired cabin cruiser on an English river, some journalists read it as an allegory of the political state of England at the time, with the violent resolution of the usurping captain's tyrannical regime taking place at "Armageddon Bridge", and crew members "Alistair" and "Emma" making a new start at the end. Ayckbourn, however, always maintained he was an apolitical writer and is on frequent record for his lack of interest in party politics; his website makes it clear that the play is not about the political state of the nation.
Absurd Person Singular is a 1972 play by Alan Ayckbourn. Divided into three acts, it documents the changing fortunes of three married couples. Each act takes place at a Christmas celebration at one of the couples' homes on successive Christmas Eves.
Woman in Mind is the 32nd play by English playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, in 1985. Despite pedestrian reviews by many critics, strong audience reaction resulted in a transfer to London's West End. The play received its London opening at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1986 where it received predominantly excellent reviews.
Comic Potential by Alan Ayckbourn is a romantic sci-fi comedy play. It is set in a TV studio in the foreseeable future, when low-cost androids have largely replaced actors.
House and Garden are a diptych of plays written by the English playwright Alan Ayckbourn, first performed in 1999. They are designed to be staged simultaneously, with the same cast in adjacent auditoria, and were published together as House & Garden. House takes place in the drawing room, and Garden in the grounds, of a large country house. Each play is self-contained, and they may be attended in either order. As is typical of his work, Ayckbourn portrays the mostly bittersweet relationships between more or less unhappy, upper-middle-class people. The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the magazine House & Garden, in which country houses and gardens are often portrayed as idyllic, peaceful places.
Relatively Speaking is a play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, originally titled Meet My Father, his first major success.
Bedroom Farce is a 1975 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It had a London production at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1978.
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Don Juan in Soho is a play by the British playwright Patrick Marber after Molière.
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The Revengers' Comedies is a play by Alan Ayckbourn. Its title references that of The Revenger's Tragedy. The play is an epic piece running more than five hours and was designed to be presented in two parts. It was inspired by the playwright's love of films and references many notable movies, particularly the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train.
A Trip to Scarborough is an 18th-century play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), first performed on 24 February 1777. Sheridan based his work on John Vanbrugh's The Relapse (1696), removing much of the bawdy content.
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Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories. In 2008, it was presented as the first play of Things That Go Bump.
A Chorus of Disapproval is a 1984 play written by English playwright Alan Ayckbourn.
Life and Beth is a 2008 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was written as a third part of a trilogy named Things That Go Bump, uniting the cast of the first two plays: Haunting Julia (1994) and Snake in the Grass (2002). It is about a recently bereaved widow, Beth, troubled by her family's misguided support and a late husband who won't leave her alone.
Jeffrey Richard Shankley is a British actor, singer and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company who has had a long career as a television and stage actor particularly in the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber for whom he originated several roles including Munkustrap in the original London production of Cats at the New London Theatre in London in 1981 and Greaseball in Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 1984.