Confusions: History

Confusions capped a year of great success for Alan Ayckbourn. It was written in the autumn of 1974, the year in which The Norman Conquests trilogy opened in London to great acclaim, joining Absurd Person Singular which had opened the previous year to similar plaudits. In Scarborough, Alan had also premiered Absent Friends, an important transition play for the writer and to top it all, he wrote Confusions, a collection of five (very) loosely linked, one-act plays developed out of a necessity to produce a new Ayckbourn play to launch both a winter season and a small touring programme.

By 1974, Alan Ayckbourn had been the Artistic Director at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, for two years and had decided to expand the company’s work - which had been reduced to just a summer season since 1961 - to try and keep the acting company together. However, the company did not have a permanent home for the winter as Scarborough Library, home of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, was unavailable - a clear sign of the growing desire of the Libraries Committee for the theatre company to move elsewhere.

Behind The Scenes: Early Confusion
Surviving hand-written notes held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the University of York indicate Alan Ayckbourn originally intended Confusions would consist of six one act plays including Mother Figure and all loosely themed to marriage from wedding to parenthood to break-up. There is no evidence to suggest that anything originally connected the plays other than the broad over-arching theme of marriage. Alan would later change the structure to five loosely connected one act plays, which do not appear to bear any resemblance to his initial idea.

With it deemed important to have an Ayckbourn production during the proposed winter season, the easiest solution would have been to revive the summer production of Absent Friends. Unfortunately, this had already been sold to the producer Michael Codron whose intent to open it in London in early 1975 meant it was not available for Alan to revive. Not wanting to write another full length play so soon after the last and tasked with having to specifically write a play for a company of five actors which was also flexible enough to easily tour to a wide variety of venues, Alan’s solution was to create an evening of short one-act plays. This in itself was usual as, at this point in his career, Alan had little experience of writing one act plays; his only professionally produced one act play previous to Confusions was the short piece Countdown for the anthology show Mixed Doubles.

The first Confusions play was an existing piece called Mother Figure. This had been written the previous year for an entertainment entitled Mixed Blessings; an anthology of plays themed to parents and children by various writers which had been inspired by the success of a similar project Mixed Doubles in 1969. Mixed Blessings was performed for a week in Horsham, Sussex, apparently on a pre-West End tour, but was never seen again. Alan took Mother Figure back and built Confusions around it.

Having initially decided on six one act plays, Alan refined the structure to five one act plays with - initially - no common theme. A loose link from one play to the next was actually only clarified after a request from the producer Michael Codron; which would later turn out to be an ironic decision. By the time he came to write the play, Alan has said the over-riding impetus was to create an ensemble piece specifically for his company, which would not only show off their talents but also be an interesting challenge for them to perform.

Behind The Scenes: Service Not Included
Whilst Mother Figure was originally written for a revue entitled Mixed Blessings, the other four Confusions pieces, Drinking Companion, Between Mouthfuls, Gosforth’s Fête and A Talk In The Park were all original. Alan Ayckbourn has said in interviews though that the inspiration for Between Mouthfuls can be found in his only produced television screenplay Service Not Included. This was written for the BBC2 series Masquerade and shown only once on television. The idea of the piece was kept - a waiter moving in and out of overheard conversations - but the action substantially scaled down.

As a result, the five plays are intended as a showcase for five actors with 20 characters*; each actor comes to prominence in each of the different plays. They are written in very different styles and the plays build up to the crescendo of the fourth piece Gosforth’s Fête - which is by far the most famous and popular of the five plays - before concluding on a dying fall with a series of monologues called A Talk In The Park. This is one of the most contentious aspects of the play and it is not unknown for productions to drop the final play, determined as they are to end on the comic high of Gosforth’s Fête. To say this misunderstands the playwright’s original intent and does a great dis-service to both the playwright and the play is something of an understatement.

Confusions opened on the 30 September 1974 in the Large Lecture Room at The Library Theatre; the Concert Room where the company traditionally presented work was unavailable so the smaller lecture room had to be utilised which meant the play was produced three-sided in Scarborough. The production then relaunched the company's winter tours in October visiting the likes of Hull, Workington and Kendal. It then returned to Scarborough and embarked on a local tour that has become the stuff of legend within the Scarborough company. On Tuesdays, the play would visit Filey to be performed in-the-round; on Wednesdays and Thursdays it would visit Whitby to be performed in the proscenium arch. On Fridays and Saturdays, the company would return to Scarborough and perform it at The Library Theatre three-sided (Confusions was one of only two Ayckbourn plays to be performed in the theatre's Large Lecture Room, rather than the usual Concert Room). The tour was conceived as Scarborough Library was unwilling to extend Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre's playing season and thus only made available the Large Lecture Room for two days a week during the autumn season. Confusions was later successfully revived in 1975 as part of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre’s summer season, although this time it was performed in-the-round in Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre's normal space, the Concert Room, as opposed to three-sided in the Lecture Room.

Of significant interest was the fact Alan sold Confusions to the London producer Michael Codron - who was very enthusiastic about the play - before it had even had its first performance. In an article in The Stage in September 1974, Alan was quoted as saying he had never sold a play to London so quickly and that he expected it to open in the West End in January 1975; barely weeks after it would have closed in Scarborough. Confusions did not however reach London until May 1976 largely due to casting issues. It is also worth noting that Confusions was one of Margaret 'Peggy' Ramsay - Alan's agent - favourite Ayckbourn plays and having read it, immediately sent Alan a telegram declaring it contained some of his best writing.

Behind The Scenes: Pregnancy
In conversation about the West End production of Confusions, Alan Ayckbourn has noted that it was not necessarily Pauline Collin's pregnancy which precluded an extended run of the production, rather the fact they could not find someone as good in the role(s) to replace her. He recalls being impressed by Collins' performance in the play and that made it difficult to find someone to take over a part which involved playing four very different characters. This is backed up by a letter from his agent in archiver which states 'The producer tried to recast, but could not get the people who [sic] wanted, so is not going to continue with an inferior cast, or one which won't draw.'

Codron initially hoped that Eric Thompson would direct the London production having so successfully directed Absurd Person Singular and The Norman Conquests in the West End. His schedule, which included directing the West End productions of Jeeves and Absent Friends, as well as the Broadway productions of Absurd Person Singular and The Norman Conquests precluded this though and Alan Strachan was brought in as the director. This would be the first time he would work with Alan Ayckbourn, but it began a long relationship which led to Strachan subsequently directing the London premiere of Just Between Ourselves and overseeing the recast of several subsequent London Ayckbourn productions; Alan Strachan is now regarded as a pre-eminent director of Alan Ayckbourn's plays. The London production would star the husband and wife team of John Alderton and Pauline Collins.

The production and its preceding tour would be cursed with bad luck though. During the tour, Alderton broke his ankle and performed one performance in a wheelchair and a number of others with his leg in a cast. The actress Sheila Gish also fell ill during the tour and in a run of bad luck was also involved in a car accident which led to her missing six weeks from the run, whilst Derek Fowlds had to take a break during the London run due to contracting mumps. Once the play was settled in London, Pauline Collins also became pregnant which precluded an extended run for the production and led to extensive and frequent modifications of Collins' costumes to accommodate the pregnancy.

Behind The Scenes: An Altered Talk
Alan Ayckbourn is renowned for rarely altering his scripts once complete and produced, but during the pre-West End tour of Confusions, he did make a notable alteration. For her part in A Talk In The Park, Pauline Collins struggled to get a grip on the dialogue - apparently changing accents and performance every night to try and make it work. Eventually, Alan rewrote parts of the monologue to better suit her; it is not known whether the current script features the original or the revised West End speech.

Alan has always had an issue with the way the West End distorts his plays, particularly in the frequent need to attach star names to London productions for what are, essentially, ensemble plays. While there is no doubting John Alderton gave a well-received performance in Confusions, there is also no doubt the London production became a vehicle for both him and Pauline Collins; they became the stars of what was written as an ensemble production. No better proof of this can be given than the fact John Alderton played the main role in three of the acts (Harry in Drinking Companion, the Waiter in Between Mouthfuls and Gosforth in Gosforth's Fête), which not only went against the grain of the playwright's intentions but also lost the subtle linking thread between the plays; somewhat ironic given the tenuous links between the plays had only been added at the request of the London producer, Michael Codron. The role of the Waiter in Drinking Companion and Between Mouthfuls was, as written and originally performed, intended to be played by the same actor. By ignoring the author's intentions, this had an unforeseen impact given the abnormal precedence normally given to West End productions over the original productions. Several major publications on Alan Ayckbourn - wrongly taking the London production as definitive when it was not even directed by Alan Ayckbourn - incorrectly state it is not the same Waiter in the two acts of the play and, as a result, cannot with certainty say what links Drinking Companion and Between Mouthfuls. To clarify the author's intention, the Waiter is the same person in both plays.

Alan Ayckbourn recalls John Alderton later telling him that Confusions has been a very difficult piece and very tiring as an actor; Alan did not correct him by pointing out it was only exhausting as he had taken the lion's share of the roles which were intended to be spread over the company.

Behind The Scenes: Inspirations
Whilst Alan Ayckbourn has never specifically discussed the origin of Gosforth's Fête, an interview in the April 1975 edition of Vogue suggests the inspiration may have been close to home and his attendance at Scarborough civic events: "I love things when they're set up and go wrong; there’s something very funny about human dignity. Civic occasions are wonderful in small towns, too, because they don't quite have the Lord Chancellor to organise them. So vases of flowers fall over. Every summer in Scarborough I always go to the Mayor’s tent. It always rains, and the Mayor and Mayoress sit there and nobody turns up. There’s a great pile of sandwiches, the band’s playing, the cricketers are cursing, and everything’s a washout."

Confusions opened at the Apollo Theatre on 19 May 1976 and had an eight month run, receiving some very positive reviews - although the Evening Standard’s then influential critic Milton Shulman was insistent that A Talk In The Park should not end the play, somehow entirely missing the point of the final play and Alan's desire to end on a dying fall. The production was a success, but not to the extent of the recent clutch of Ayckbourn plays which had taken the West End by storm. The reason for this was probably due to the nature of it being a series of one-act plays, rather than any particular fault with the evening itself.

Confusions closed in London in January 1977 and was immediately in demand from the regional repertory theatres, proving to be a popular and successful play. It is also the only Ayckbourn play to have an illegal production on record! In November 1978, a newspaper article came to Alan's attention noting the success of Ashford Theatre Workshop in the Spelthorne drama festival with a production of Mother Figure - despite the fact that although published, it had not yet been released for amateur production. This led to an article in Amateur Stage magazine in which Samuel French Ltd warned amateur companies against producing restricted or unreleased plays and that legal action was being considered relating to the unauthorised production of Mother Figure. Confusions has also become a favourite and frequent production of schools and colleges with Alsager's Comprehensive School in Cheshire performing the first school production in 1979. Indeed, the publishers Samuel French have it as the most performed Ayckbourn play by amateur companies between 1996 and 2013.

In 1979, BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first of several different versions of Confusions with a production of Mother Figure starring Maureen Lipman, Ray Brooks and Diane Bull; Alan noted at the time it was one of the few radio productions of his plays which he liked. Several more productions have also been broadcast, the BBC World Service produced Mother Figure, Between Mouthfuls and Gosforth's Fête in 1985 and BBC Radio 4 produced a version for schools (omitting Between Mouthfuls) in 1987. In 1988, Gosforth's Fête was recorded again (the third version in four years!) for a one off broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Behind The Scenes: Linking The Plays
It has long been argued that there are either no links between the five plays in Confusions or not all of them are linked. Both arguments are wrong according to the playwright. The suggestion there are no links is largely down to the miscasting of the West End production in which roles were not assigned as the playwright intended. Whilst the view only four of the plays are linked is largely down to missing the subtle final link between Gosforth's Fête and A Talk In The Park. In 2015, the playwright confirmed all five plays were linked in the following way: the unseen husband, Harry, from Mother Figure appears in Drinking Companion. The waiter who appears in Drinking Companion is the waiter who is the focus of Between Mouthfuls. The diner Mrs Pearce in Between Mouthfuls returns in Gosforth's Fête. Finally, Gosforth's ex-wife who is mentioned in Gosforth's Fete is Doreen in A Talk In The Park).

In 1985, Confusions became the first Ayckbourn play to be included as part of the National Curriculum in the United Kingdom as part of the 'O' Level syllabus and subsequently became a set text for GCSE examinations. This has led to it being published by several companies and is the only Ayckbourn play for which there has been a student edition in print since 1983. In 2015, the programme for Alan Ayckbourn's revival - tying in with the Stephen Joseph Theatre's 60th anniversary - was a programme / play script, published by Bloomsbury.

In 1991, it would be revived in Scarborough with a production directed by Malcolm Hebden at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round. In 2015, Alan Ayckbourn directed the play for the first time since its 1974 world premiere at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, with a revival as part of the Stephen Joseph Theatre's 60th anniversary. The opening night of the play coinciding with the birthday of the theatre on 14 July. This production also marked the play's New York premiere with it touring to the Brits Off Broadway festival at the 59E59 Theaters in 2016.

The 2015 revival also put the play in a new context as, by this time, Alan had become fond of writing one act plays and it offered a chance to compare how Alan wrote one acts early in his career and then far later with plays such as Farcicals and Roundelay.

Confusions has remained a perennial Ayckbourn favourite ever since the 1980s for professional, amateur and school companies and is particularly popular with amateur companies where the different acts are often performed in drama festivals or in various combinations.

* Although there are 22 roles in the play, strictly speaking there are only 20 characters as the Waiter and Mrs Pearce both appear in two of the plays.

Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.