Following its premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, Alan Ayckbourn’s latest play Family Album arrives at the New Vic next month.
Performed at the New Vic from Tuesday 11 October to Saturday 22 October, Family Album chronicles the trials, tribulations and temptations of three generations of one family across 70 years in the same home.
Join housewife Peggy and RAF veteran John as they proudly move into the first home they can really call their own; daughter Sandra, frantically negotiating the challenges of a 10-year-old’s birthday party without her AWOL husband; and granddaughter Alison and her partner Jess finally escaping the house she has somewhat unwillingly inherited.
The cast of five including Elizabeth Boag, Georgia Burnell, Tanya-Loretta Dee, Antony Eden and Frances Marshall are directed by the author Alan Ayckbourn himself, who has also designed the sound for the production.
Alan Ayckbourn said: “My inspiration for Family Album was a programme on BBC4 called A House Through Time, a fascinating piece of social history. I thought, I could do this on a smaller scale – I didn’t want to go back centuries, so I started within my lifetime, in the 1950s. So we have three time periods layered on top of each other happening simultaneously in the same house, following a family from the grandparents in 1952, to the children in 1992 and then the grandchildren today. For me it’s new: I’ve used time so much – I’ve run it backwards and forwards, and I’ve run it sideways, and I’ve occasionally run it forwards and backwards simultaneously and at different speeds, but never in this way.”
Family Album takes to the stage at the New Vic from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 22 October 2022. Tickets are on sale now, priced from £18.50 – £27.50. For more details and to book, call the Box Office on 01782 717 962 or visit newvictheatre.org.uk.
