Alan's Day

I've read all of Neil Simon's plays, so maybe I should start reading Alan Ayckbourn's. Just turned 80 this year, he's often been called the Neil Simon of England. It's true both are highly prolific playwrights who specialize in comedy, but their styles are quite different. For one thing, Simon is a master of the wisecrack, while Ayckbourn rarely has funny lines, getting his laughs from the situation.  Also, Simon specializes in Americans, especially New Yorkers (generally Jewish), while Ayckbourn explores the British mindset.

Ayckbourn has completed over 70 works for the stage.  However, he's rarely performed in America.  Some of his earlier work, particularly The Norman Conquests, Absurd Person Singular and Bedroom Farce, have been seen a fair amount, but not the stuff he's written since the 1980s.  Maybe it's considered too British to be commercial.

His plays are often structured like puzzles.  For instance, The Norman Conquests mentioned above is three plays with the same six characters that takes place over the same general time period but in different parts of a house.  Intimate Exchanges is a play with eight separate stories all starting with the same opening, and each one of which can go in two different directions.  And in House & Garden he goes all the way with The Norman Conquests concept, with two plays meant to be staged simultaneously on two stages with the same cast performing in both.

I'm fairly familiar with his early stuff, but only know a handful of the titles he's written over the past 40 years. (Partly because it's hard to find his work, on stage or in the library.) I did just read a play he produced in 2009, when he was 70.  It's called My Wonderful Day--a full length piece in one act.

It's about a nine-year old girl who doesn't feel well enough to go to school, so her cleaning-lady mom takes her to work.  The girl has to create a composition for class the next day--"My Wonderful Day."  So she writes about the goings-on in the household, which get crazier as the play moves forward.

We follow the story from the nine-year-old's point of view, as she deals with the adult world and they try to deal with her. (Part of the plot has her speaking French a lot, though it's basic enough French that anyone could understand it.) I can see how it would be pretty funny, though, this being an Ayckbourn play, a lot of the humor depends on the staging.  Ayckbourn directs most of his plays, so I'm sure the original production gave him what he wanted.