Ayckbourn A Small Family Business

Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-31571-0
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 96 Seiten

Well, that's one down, isn't it. Nine to go. Next! Thou shalt not kill. What about that then? Let's have a crack at that one next, shall we? Jack McCracken: a man of principle in a corrupt world. But not for long. Moments after taking over his father-in-law's business he's approached by a private detective armed with some compromising information. Jack's integrity fades away as he discovers his extended family to be thieves and adulterers, looting the business from their suburban homes. Rampant self-interest takes over and comic hysteria builds to a macabre climax. A riotous exposure of entrepreneurial greed, Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business, premiered at the National Theatre in 1987 and returned there in April 2014.

Alan Ayckbourn was born in London in 1939 to a violinist father and a mother who was a writer. He left school at seventeen with two 'A' levels and went straight into the theatre. Two years in regional theatre as an actor and stage manager led in 1959 to the writing of his first play, The Square Cat, for Scarborough's Theatre in the Round at the instigation of his then employer and subsequent mentor, Stephen Joseph. Some 75 plays later, his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards. There have been English and French screen adaptations, the most notable being Alain Resnais' fine film of Private Fears in Public Places. Major successes include Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Norman Conquests, A Small Family Business, Henceforward . . ., Comic Potential, Things We Do For Love, and Life of Riley. Surprises was first presented at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and subsequently at the the Minerva Theatre, Chichester in 2012. In 2009, he retired as Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be first staged, after 37 years in the post. Knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre, he received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ayckbourn, Alan

Leseproben

Act One

Poppy Shhh! Everyone! He’s here.

Jack’s here. His car’s just turned into the road. Can we turn the lights out, please?

Ken What’s happening now?

Yvonne Jack’s here, Mr Ayres. He’s just arrived.

Ken Jack who?

Poppy Everyone! Quiet as you can, please. I’ll try and get him to come straight in here.

Anita () It’s very dark.

Others Shhh!

Poppy () Quiet as you can. He’ll come in from the garage.

Anita () Oooh!

All Shhh!

Anita Who did that? Who was it did that?

Cliff Be quiet.

Anita No, that really hurt, that did. Who did that??

All Shhh!

Tina Quiet! He’s here.

Jack I’m back.

Poppy () How did it go, then?

Jack All right. You know. Fond farewells. Usual thing. We shall miss you for ever thank God he’s gone at last …

Poppy () They never said that.

Jack They were thinking it. Cheering me through the gates, they were. Goodbye, you old bugger, goodbye. () I’m not that late, am I?

Poppy Only a little.

Jack () You’re all dressed up, aren’t you?

Poppy No, I’ve had this for ages.

Jack () We’re not meant to be going out?

Poppy No, no.

Jack Thank God for that. I don’t want to see anyone else. Not today.

Anita () Oh, dear, what a shame.

Tina Shhh!

Poppy Make us both a drink, will you?

Jack () I drove back past the factory this evening …

Poppy What’s that?

Jack On my way home just now I drove back past my new office. Do you know, I suddenly felt very excited.

Poppy I’m glad.

Jack We’re going to the stars with this one, darling, we really are. This is going to be the one.

Poppy It will be if you have anything to do with it …

Jack () No, no. Not me. Us. You and me.

Poppy () Yes.

Jack Come on, what are you dressed up for, then?

Poppy No reason. I just felt like it.

Jack Trying to take my mind off my work, were you? Eh?

Poppy () Don’t be silly.

Jack Sammy upstairs?

Poppy No, she’s out...