RolePlay: In Brief
RolePlay
Play Number: 60World Premiere: 4 September 2001
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: Television; Radio
Cast: 3m / 3f
Run Time: 1hr 50m
Synopsis: A feisty young woman literally drops in on an engaged couple, whose parents are about to meet for the first time at a dinner party. A clash of cultures and families follows.
Note: RolePlay is part of the Damsels In Distress trilogy.
- RolePlay is Alan Ayckbourn's 60th play play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 4 September 2001.
- The London premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Duchess Theatre on 7 September 2002.
- Damsels In Distress is one of only two trilogies written by Alan Ayckbourn; the other being The Norman Conquests (1973). It is occasionally incorrectly stated that Alan Ayckbourn's three supernatural plays (Haunting Julia, Snake In The Grass and Life & Beth) also comprise a trilogy, but the playwright himself does not consider them to be a trilogy.
- The plays are set in riverside apartments in London's Docklands, where Alan Ayckbourn himself owns an apartment.
- GamePlan and FlatSpin were conceived as a duology to be played in repertory. The plays only became a trilogy when during rehearsals for FlatSpin, Alan Ayckbourn announced to the company he had had an idea for a third play for the company, which became RolePlay.
- The plays were written to be performed by the same cast of seven (three male / four females) on the same set; although the set does represent three different apartments and there is no narrative link or recurring characters in the three plays.
- The trilogy marked the final time - as of writing - that Alan Ayckbourn has allowed his latest play to transfer directly to London's West End. Since 2002, no plays written after the Damsels In Distress trilogy have been performed in the West End due to Alan's anger at the treatment of the trilogy in the West End. There have been revivals of earlier work though since 2007.
- RolePlay was described by Alan Ayckbourn as a 'dark farce' and is the first Ayckbourn play to feature a lap dance!
- The actress Alison Pargeter won the Best Newcomer in the 2003 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for her roles in the trilogy.
- The correct title for the play is RolePlay - one word with the 'R and 'P' capitalised. It is not correct to market them either as Role Play or Roleplay.
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, RolePlay was also published in the collection Damsels in Distress (Faber).