Alan Ayckbourn Encyclopaedia: I
I: One part of Alan Ayckbourn and Paul Todd's revue Me, Myself And I.If I Were You: Alan Ayckbourn's 71st play premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 17 October 2006. It was the first new Ayckbourn play to be premiered after the playwright's stoke in February 2006, although the actual play had been completed just prior to the stroke. Mal and Jill Rodale's marriage is on rocky grounds, but when an unexpected event puts them in each other's shoes, they begin to better appreciate and understand each other.
Imagine: On 16 November 2011, the BBC arts documentary series Imagine broadcast Alan Ayckbourn: Greetings From Scarborough, a 70 minute documentary looking at his career and popularity around the world.
Improbable Fiction: Alan Ayckbourn's 69th play premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 31 May 2005. It was written to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stephen Joseph Theatre. It features Pendon Writer's Circle and what happens when their combined imaginations are unleashed.
Incidental Music: A musical revue by Alan Ayckbourn and Paul Todd premiered in the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 12 January 1983. There is no running plot through the revue, although most of the songs have plots of their own.
Incommunicado: An unused title for a concept of a play which does not appear to have been developed into any existing Ayckbourn works.
In Future: A proposed title for a future-set play, elements of which were later developed for the play Surprises.
Innovation: Alan Ayckbourn has frequently been lauded for his innovative ideas in his plays and is regarded as the first mainstream playwright to tackle a number of ideas (although the playwright himself always suggests someone was probably there before him). Ideas such as simultaneous action in different locations and times on one stage (How The Other Half Loves); simultaneous and interconnected plays in two venues (House & Garden); multiple perspectives of the same event (The Norman Conquests); the use of random elements in scripted plays (Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays); multiple variations of a plot (Intimate Exchanges) are just some of the innovative ideas he has explored in his writing. He is also credited with being a leading proponent and developed of the tragic-comedy genre.
The Inside Outside Slide Show: A play for young people presented on Saturday mornings at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, premiered on 22 July 1989. A 'serious' slide projection on the Edwardians goes awry when the projectionist's assistant ends up falling into the slides in search of his true love.
Intimate Exchanges: Alan Ayckbourn's 29th play premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, on 3 June 1982 and opened at the Greenwich Theatre, London, on 11 June 1984. This epic cycle features two actors playing ten roles in a cycle of eight plays (each with two alternate final scenes) which share a common opening scene but a choice of two possibilities at every scene's climax. The play deals with the consequences of choice and how lives can take very different paths from the smallest to the biggest decisions.
Intimate Exchanges (film): Intimate Exchanges was adapted into two films Smoking / No Smoking by the acclaimed French film director Alain Resnais in 1994. The films star Sabine Azema and Pierre Arditi and were shot entirely in the studio, giving a theatrical feel to the movies. The films adapt six of the eight possible permutations of the play and conform to the same restrictions of two actors playing all the roles. It won a number of prestigious awards including César Awards for Best Film and Best Director.
Intimate Exchanges (radio): Several of the play's permutations (Events On A Hotel Terrace, A Pageant, A Game Of Golf, Love In The Mist) were adapted for radio by the BBC World Service and first broadcast from 12 July 1987. Robin Herford and Lavinia Bertram revived their original roles in a production directed by Gordon House. Notably, Alan wrote a short amount of dialogue for the otherwise largely silent opening scene.
Introduction for Frankie Howerd: A three page sketch written - but never performed - for the comedian Frankie Howerd circa. 1966. It was written under Alan's television pseudonym of Peter Caulfied and is held by the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
Invisible Friends: Alan Ayckbourn's 38th play premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, on 23 November 1989 and opened at the National Theatre, London, on 13 March 1991. The second of his family plays, it concerns Lucy whose imaginary friend, Zara, takes on an all too real life of her own with unforeseen consequences for Lucy and her family.
IOU: The original title for Alan Ayckbourn's 2015 play Roundelay. Although the concept of five plays whose order is randomly determined prior to each production remains, the plot outlines for IOU differed considerably with the plays named: The Nightclub, The Novelist, The Politician, The Star and The Teacher; in Roundelay, the five plays are The Agent, The Judge, The Novelist, The Politician and The Star.
'Ionescu' play: Alan has frequently noted he had written a number of plays before being commissioned to write his first play, The Square Cat. One of these plays, which was read by Stephen Joseph, was in the style of Ionescu, who Alan has said was an influence on him as a young writer. No copy of the play survives.
Isn't It Romantic: A proposed title for a future-set play, elements of which were later developed for the play Surprises.
It Could Be Any One Of Us (1983): Alan Ayckbourn's 30th play premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, on 5 October 1983. One of his chance plays, it is a whodunnit with the identity of the 'murderer' (no-one actually dies in the original play) being decided by a game of cards in the opening scene.
It Could Be Any One Of Us (1998): Alan Ayckbourn revised the play and revived it at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 20 August 1996. Although the structure, plot and majority of the text is unaltered, this authoritative version does feature an actual murder and retains the element of chance as to who the murderer is for each performance.
I To I: For a short period in early 2006, Alan Ayckbourn's play If I Were You has its title altered to I To I, before reverting back to If I Were You.
Original research for the The Alan Ayckbourn Encyclopaedia section is by Simon Murgatroyd and copyright of the author.