Love Undertaken: History
Love Undertaken is classified as one of Alan Ayckbourn's Grey Plays. These are plays which are acknowledged miscellaneous minor pieces by Alan Ayckbourn, which have received limited performance but have never been published, are not available for production and are not included in the official canon of Ayckbourn plays.Alan Ayckbourn received his first professional commission as a playwright in 1959, whilst working at the Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough. Between then and his departure to the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-On-Trent in 1962, Alan wrote not only plays for the professional Studio Theatre company at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, but also several plays for amateur dramatic societies in the town; some of which were produced, some not.
Of these plays, only three are known to have definitely been produced: Double Hitch, Follow The Lover and Love Undertaken. The former two plays have been on record for many years as having been written by Alan and produced, but details concerning Love Undertaken only came to light in 2008. Alan Ayckbourn tended not to keep copies of his early plays and puts little weight on them today. With the exception of plays professionally produced prior to 1962, details of his early writing has generally been lost, is very scarce or, in the case of Love Undertaken, the entire play forgotten.
No record of Love Undertaken - either as a manuscript or a production - existed in the Ayckbourn Archive or The Bob Watson Archive at the Stephen Joseph Theatre prior to 2008. In the wake of the publicity surrounding the discovery of Alan Ayckbourn's second full length play, Love After All, in 2007, a copy of Love Undertaken was brought to the attention of Alan Ayckbourn's Archivist by someone who had performed in - possibly - the first production of the play in September 1961. Although the manuscript was not complete, the playwright was able to authenticate the manuscript as one of his one act plays originally written for Scarborough Theatre Guild.
As a result of this discovery, research was subsequently carried out at the British Library for any record of public performances of the play (until 1968, the Lord Chamberlain's office had to approve any new play for public performance). The card catalogue at the British Library confirmed details of a license being issued for a production of the play in Scarborough in 1961 and that a complete copy of the manuscript was held by the British Library. However, it didn't clear up the mystery as it appears the play was performed without license prior to October 1961.
The history of the play - as can be reconstructed - appears to be that it was written, in all probability, in the latter half of 1961. It was commissioned and produced by Scarborough Theatre Guild. The play - according to a contemporary news report - was first performed by Scarborough Theatre Guild for the President's Evening opening of the Hull Garret Players' 1961 season. It was performed on 21 September at the Church Institute, Albion Road, Kingston-upon-Hull. It was written under Alan's then writing pseudonym of Roland Allen and probably included Colin Scott, Fred Bishop and Jane Young amongst the cast.
Strangely, a license for performance was not granted by the Lord Chamberlain's Office until 4 October 1961 and this appears to be for an entirely separate second performance. Again it is credited to Scarborough Theatre Guild and was performed at St Mary's Parish House, Scarborough. This production was directed by Ken Boden, theatre manager at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, and Alan Ayckbourn recalls he played the lead role of Henry. No other production details are known.
Where it becomes slightly confusing is the manuscript which came to light in 2008 was apparently from the world premiere of the production in Hull, but the owner insisted the performing company was Cresta Players not Scarborough Theatre Guild and the Cresta Players should be credited with first performing it. Unfortunately, there is no surviving programme to verify this and the only written evidence suggests Scarborough Theatre Guild performed it, albeit - and again strangely - with two different casts,
The actual manuscript is credited to Roland Allen - the pseudonym Alan Ayckbourn wrote under between 1959 and 1961 - and there is believed to be only one complete manuscript in existence, which is held by the British Library. The play is a one act comedy for five people (two male / three female) and centres on a clandestine relationship taking place in an undertaker's parlour.
Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.