Just Between Ourselves: History
By 1975, Alan Ayckbourn had been the Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, for three years and although - artistically and financially - the theatre was proving a success, it was still a period of uncertainty for the company.In 1974, North Yorkshire County Libraries Committee had declined a request for a 40 week season at the Scarborough Library. Although later rescinded, the decision was accompanied by a statement from the committee that 1975 would be the company's final full year at the library. It was made it clear in no uncertain terms the company had no future at the venue whilst, meanwhile, the search for a new home for the company was proving frustrating and fruitless. Twenty years after the company had made its home in the town, its future was more uncertain then ever.
Behind The Scenes: Dark Origins
Notes and correspondence held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the University Of York indicate Just Between Ourselves was conceived as being even darker than the play which was eventually written; itself now considered one of the bleakest of all Ayckbourn plays. In the earliest existing handwritten notes for the play, the emphasis is more firmly set on Dennis, who is himself undergoing a meltdown and his actions are largely determined by depression and mood-swings. Further notes also suggest the character of Neil was equally as damaged, being a hypochondriac who attempts suicide during the play; this may have been dropped due to similarities with Alan's play Absurd Person Singular where Eva's attempts at suicide dominate the second act. As it is, only Dennis's cheerful disposition was retained from conception to finish, his depressive elements were dropped placing the emphasis far more firmly on Vera's distressed state of mind; as the playwright himself notes though even Dennis's cheery facade begins to crack by the end of the play.
Notes and correspondence held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the University Of York indicate Just Between Ourselves was conceived as being even darker than the play which was eventually written; itself now considered one of the bleakest of all Ayckbourn plays. In the earliest existing handwritten notes for the play, the emphasis is more firmly set on Dennis, who is himself undergoing a meltdown and his actions are largely determined by depression and mood-swings. Further notes also suggest the character of Neil was equally as damaged, being a hypochondriac who attempts suicide during the play; this may have been dropped due to similarities with Alan's play Absurd Person Singular where Eva's attempts at suicide dominate the second act. As it is, only Dennis's cheerful disposition was retained from conception to finish, his depressive elements were dropped placing the emphasis far more firmly on Vera's distressed state of mind; as the playwright himself notes though even Dennis's cheery facade begins to crack by the end of the play.
Over the years, Alan has frequently commented that what stands as one of his darkest ever plays was written against the background of a harsh winter on the east coast with the North Sea winds howling around the upper floors of the house where he lives in Scarborough. Certainly, the bleak Yorkshire winter appears to have influenced his writing and seeped through into the spirit of the play. Just Between Ourselves was written between Christmas and the New Year and apparently delivered to the actors at 4am on New Year’s Day 1976. This would be the first of three plays which Alan would term his ‘winter plays’ and it would mark a profound departure in tone for the playwright.
Prior to Just Between Ourselves, he had generally written his plays during spring for a summer production; however, it wasn’t just the change of writing pattern that would affect the play’s content. Ever since Stephen Joseph had commissioned Alan’s first play, The Square Cat, in 1959, Alan had been aware that he was writing for a summer audience that would in large part consist of tourists visiting Scarborough. Although he would not shy away from darker elements in his plays, he felt his job was to provide something which would entertain people and make them want to visit the theatre during their summer holidays (even when writing The Norman Conquests trilogy, he was aware his primary audience would probably not get the opportunity to see all three plays and thus they are entirely self-contained). Just Between Ourselves offered a new opportunity. He was not writing for the tourist season, but a winter season which would primarily attract local people and, presumably, people who were supportive of the theatre and Alan's work. It was an opportunity to take a risk and produce something with darker elements than anything he had written previously.
Behind The Scenes: Writing The Play
In an interview with the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette in May 1976, Alan Ayckbourn says he wrote the play in just two days and went straight into rehearsals: "I started Just Between Ourselves on the Thursday, finished it on the Friday, had it typed up on the Saturday, duplicated on the Sunday and into rehearsals on the Monday."
In an interview with the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette in May 1976, Alan Ayckbourn says he wrote the play in just two days and went straight into rehearsals: "I started Just Between Ourselves on the Thursday, finished it on the Friday, had it typed up on the Saturday, duplicated on the Sunday and into rehearsals on the Monday."
It was certainly a departure and even the playwright harboured uncertainties about the play; he would not even send a copy of the script to his agent, Margaret 'Peggy' Ramsay, until after the first read-through as he was prepared to apparently scrap the play and write another one had it not gone well. When she did eventually receive it, Peggy was very impressed and believed it to be one of his best plays.
Behind The Scenes: A Minor Problem
One of the key elements of Just Between Ourselves is the Morris Minor which features in the set. Not only did finding a car prove a challenge for the original production, but also getting the vehicle onto the first floor of Scarborough's public library was very problematic. In the end, the stage management team arranged to have the car dismantled before being taken piece by piece up to the first floor and then being reassembled within the performance space. Although the car used has traditionally been a Morris Minor, the playwright confirmed in 2020 that providing the car was true to the period of the 1970s, it could as easily be any 'small popular car' of the period as defined by the play's stage directions.
One of the key elements of Just Between Ourselves is the Morris Minor which features in the set. Not only did finding a car prove a challenge for the original production, but also getting the vehicle onto the first floor of Scarborough's public library was very problematic. In the end, the stage management team arranged to have the car dismantled before being taken piece by piece up to the first floor and then being reassembled within the performance space. Although the car used has traditionally been a Morris Minor, the playwright confirmed in 2020 that providing the car was true to the period of the 1970s, it could as easily be any 'small popular car' of the period as defined by the play's stage directions.
The play featured Christopher Godwin as Dennis, again originating a classic Ayckbourn character, with Malcolm Hebden playing Neil. This was the first Ayckbourn play to feature the actor and would start a long relationship which eventually saw Malcolm become the theatre’s associate director. He would also play the same role 20 years on in Scarborough, noting he was too young to play the part originally and too old to play it for the revival!
Just Between Ourselves had just six performances in the winter season before going on tour with Stephen Mallatratt’s play An Englishman’s Home. It proved to be a great success at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre and provided a strong finish to the winter season. The critics were generally impressed - considering it was a departure for the playwright - and the play received a strong set of reviews.
Behind The Scenes: Television Exposure
There probably exists more behind-the-scenes recorded footage for Just Between Ourselves than the world premiere of any other Ayckbourn play. In 1976, Alan was the subject of two major television documentaries, both of which focused on Just Between Ourselves and between them broadcast footage of the first read-through, rehearsals and actual performance footage of the play. The play was featured in the culture series Arena as well as the documentary series The Playwrights, one of which focused on Alan Ayckbourn.
There probably exists more behind-the-scenes recorded footage for Just Between Ourselves than the world premiere of any other Ayckbourn play. In 1976, Alan was the subject of two major television documentaries, both of which focused on Just Between Ourselves and between them broadcast footage of the first read-through, rehearsals and actual performance footage of the play. The play was featured in the culture series Arena as well as the documentary series The Playwrights, one of which focused on Alan Ayckbourn.
Inevitably the play was picked up for the West End by the producer Michael Codron, although it was not the success hoped for nor anticipated. There is a strong case here that while Alan was developing as a playwright, his London audience was not moving with him and had pigeon-holed him strictly as a comedy writer / farceur rather than the tragicomic writer he had been ever since writing Time & Time Again in 1971. The West End transfer also almost opened simultaneously with Bedroom Farce at the National; a play for which the National Theatre received heavy criticism for it being too commercial and Alan too commercial a playwright. It was later pointed out that, ironically, the National received the commercial play (which would go on to phenomenal success) whilst the West End got the uncommercial and difficult play.
In hindsight, the reasons for the play’s lack of success were most likely down to the production itself and its reception, rather than the piece itself. On paper, the talent assembled was noteworthy with Alan Strachan as director, having already directed Confusions in the West End in 1975 and who went on to be consider a pre-eminent director of Alan's plays. It starred Colin Blakely as Dennis and Michael Gambon as Neil. Alan's regard for Gambon's interpretation of his work has long been noted and of Blakely, the playwright once noted he got Dennis 'very right'. However. Gambon himself subsequently said they were miscast and Blakely - both a fine actor and very capable Ayckbourn player as he again demonstrated in the West End transfer of A Chorus Of Disapproval - was not the ideal choice for Dennis. By the same token it is widely accepted the women in the play (Stephanie Turner, Rosemary Leach and Constance Chapman) were all excellent.
Behind The Scenes: All Change
The Arena documentary revealed that the entire set of the world premiere production had to be altered the day after rehearsals began. Due to the play opening in the smaller Lecture Room space at the Library Theatre, the initial plan to have the car face-on had to be abandoneds, leading to the car being placed side-on and the rebuilding of much of the under-construction set.
The Arena documentary revealed that the entire set of the world premiere production had to be altered the day after rehearsals began. Due to the play opening in the smaller Lecture Room space at the Library Theatre, the initial plan to have the car face-on had to be abandoneds, leading to the car being placed side-on and the rebuilding of much of the under-construction set.
Alan also felt this is the play where the critics began to realise that the Scarborough productions tended to be superior to the London ones. The need to cast star names in the West End was beginning to tell on the plays. The ensemble works created in the intimate in-the-round Scarborough venue were not being well-served by their transition to large proscenium arch theatres with star names on the hoardings; the rigid dependency of the West End on fame, for right or wrong, was having a negative impact on Alan's plays.
Behind The Scenes: Beginnings & Ends
Just Between Ourselves marked the debut in an Ayckbourn play at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, of the actor Malcolm Hebden - who would go on to find widespread fame as the character Norris in the television soap opera Coronation Street. His final acting role with the company - then at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round - was also as Neil in Just Between Ourselves, twenty years later. The actor noted he was too young for the role when he first played it and too old for the role when he returned to it!
Just Between Ourselves marked the debut in an Ayckbourn play at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, of the actor Malcolm Hebden - who would go on to find widespread fame as the character Norris in the television soap opera Coronation Street. His final acting role with the company - then at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round - was also as Neil in Just Between Ourselves, twenty years later. The actor noted he was too young for the role when he first played it and too old for the role when he returned to it!
To be fair to the London production, Alan himself knew it would be a hard sell as it was a play that he deliberately felt pushed him in new directions and that might not necessarily sit well with some sections of his established audience. That it came away from London with the Best Play award and a largely sympathetic press, was something of a relief for the playwright: “With that play I knew I was taking a gamble. But the critics saw what I was doing and let me develop. I expected them to be more fierce.” At the time, Alan’s agent was concerned about the future of the play, given its short run in London and mixed notices and wondered whether the regional theatres would pick the play up. It’s genuinely hard to know whether these concerns were warranted given the wide exposure it was about to receive and which ensured it would be very much in demand in the aftermath of it closing in London.
Behind The Scenes: Accounting
The Ayckbourn Archive holds an interesting insight into how Alan's plays in the 1970s were received on their original production. Just Between Ourselves was the last Ayckbourn play to premiere at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, before the company moved to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round. The accounts for the production during that summer season are held in archive and show Just Between Ourselves earned £5,345.10 (approximately £37,792 adjusted for inflation in 2018) from 34 performances. The lowest earning performance was July 1 matinee with just £15 while the highest was the 15 July evening show with £197.90 (approx £1,392 adjusted). Of this, Alan received 7½% royalties which came to £371.18 (approx. £2,623 adjusted). The Library Theatre held 248 seats and, at the time, all seats were priced at £1 (approx. £7 adjusted) with concessions at 55p and all matinee seats priced at 50p.
The Ayckbourn Archive holds an interesting insight into how Alan's plays in the 1970s were received on their original production. Just Between Ourselves was the last Ayckbourn play to premiere at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, before the company moved to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round. The accounts for the production during that summer season are held in archive and show Just Between Ourselves earned £5,345.10 (approximately £37,792 adjusted for inflation in 2018) from 34 performances. The lowest earning performance was July 1 matinee with just £15 while the highest was the 15 July evening show with £197.90 (approx £1,392 adjusted). Of this, Alan received 7½% royalties which came to £371.18 (approx. £2,623 adjusted). The Library Theatre held 248 seats and, at the time, all seats were priced at £1 (approx. £7 adjusted) with concessions at 55p and all matinee seats priced at 50p.
Just Between Ourselves was quickly published with Samuel French picking up the acting edition in 1978 and the play was included in the mass market hardback, Joking Apart And Other Plays, which was published by Chatto & Windus in 1979. Penguin would reprint this in a softcover edition in 1982 which proved to be a very popular volume, reprinted numerous times. In 1986, the play was picked as one of the fourteen plays to be featured in the two volume Landmarks Of British Drama series, published by Methuen. Just Between Ourselves was collected alongside plays by Tom Stoppard, Peter Nichols, Simon Gray, Peter Shaffer, Caryl Churchill and Howard Brenton for the second volume which concentrated on the playwrights who came to prominence during the 1970s.
Twenty years after the play received its world premiere, Alan made the decision to revive it. Mirroring the events of two decades previously, the Scarborough company had outgrown what was originally intended as a temporary home at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round. In 1996, the company would move into its first permanent home in a state of the art conversion of the town’s former Odeon cinema. To mark the end of the company's tenure at its second home, Alan scheduled Just Between Ourselves to be the play which closed the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round as it had closed the Library Theatre. Due to his commitments with opening the new building, Alan decided not to direct the play and passed the reins over to Robin Herford. He had been the joint Artistic Director at the venue during the ‘80s while Alan was on sabbatical at the National Theatre, as well as a popular actor with the Scarborough company originating many major Ayckbourn roles during the 1980s. The play saw the theatre’s associate director, Malcolm Hebden reprise the role he created of Neil, marking his final performance with the company. The play was an enormous success and confirmed Herford’s talents as a gifted director of Alan's plays. The play also served as an interesting contrast with the light-hearted production of the Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical By Jeeves which opened the new venue, the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
In 2009, the play was revived in a very successful production by the Royal & Derngate Theatre, Northampton, as part of its Ayckbourn At 70 celebration. The play representing early Ayckbourn alongside revivals of Man Of The Moment (1988) and Private Fears In Public Places (2004). The decision to stage it in the major celebration of the 50th anniversary of Alan Ayckbourn’s first play, The Square Cat, re-affirming its position as one of the most notable and significant Ayckbourn plays of the 1970s.
During 2020, Alan Ayckbourn intended to revive Just Between Ourselves at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, for the summer season, but - like practically every production planned for the UK - it was cancelled when the UK's theatres were closed during March due to the Covid-19 pandemic which swept the world. This would have run in repertory with the also cancelled world premiere of his play Truth Will Out.
Just Between Ourselves remains one of the most significant of Alan Ayckbourn's plays considered a turning point both by observers of his work and also the playwright himself.
Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of copyright holder.