Anno Domino
Stephen Joseph Theatre Online
www.sjt.uk.com

Sir Alan Ayckbourn specialises in setting and solving theatrical problems – two interlocking plays acted simultaneously in adjoining theatres in House & Garden, or several floors of a house represented on a flat stage in Taking Steps.

But, after 83 full-length plays in his 81 years, Ayckbourn faced a logistical difficulty daunting even for him – the closure of all UK stages, including his home base, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, because of a virus.
He could have written monologues for online performance by isolating actors, but other dramatists have already done that, so Ayckbourn’s response is characteristically more complex. Having started as a stage actor and being married to another, Heather Stoney, Ayckbourn recorded, in his Scarborough house, a two-hour “audio drama” with husband and wife sharing eight roles.