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Frightening statistics Sir Alan Ayckbourn, now
71, has written 73 full length plays - Shakespeare is credited with a
mere 38 or so - with
Haunting Julia his 47th, a
play which has been sporadically scaring the wits out of audiences since
1994. Its inspiration was
The Woman in Black,
the play by Stephen Mallatratt which was adapted from Susan Hill's 1983
thriller novel. The Woman in Black was first revealed to
audiences in 1987 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-Round in
Scarborough where Ayckbourn had been artistic director since 1972 - a
position he held until the 2009-10 season. Mallatratt's stage version relies on little more than
actors feeding the imagination of the audience who in turn will then
scare the pants off themselves. The chilling tale is all in the mind of
those paying to frighten themselves. The idea must have appealed to Ayckbourn, who
incidentally was on a sabbatical at the National Theatre when the play
was first performed. He was particularly taken by the idea that terror
could be created without the need of elaborate special effects but with
just good acting and a suggestive storyline.
The result was Haunting Julia - a new play
which was set to open in new premises. In spring 1994 the Stephen Joseph Theatre in
Scarborough was expecting to move from its in-the- round Westwood site
in a former high school to new premises in a former Odeon cinema in the
seaside resort - its current home today. But delays and problems dogged the conversion and it
was to be 1996 before the new theatre was ready for its grand opening -
two years behind schedule. With Julia ready to haunt but with completion of the
Odeon hardly imminent the choice was simple; shelve Julia or go ahead at
the existing theatre-in-the-round. Ayckbourn had written the play as a proscenium
production but with no choice - and no proscenium - it premiered on 20
April 1994 in the round to mixed reviews - suffering the Marmite
syndrome. Reviewers either loved it or hated it. The play was a certainly a departure from
Ayckbourn's earlier work which often encompassed the marriage rituals of
the suburban middle classes with such comedies as The Norman
Conquests and Bedroom Farce. The reviewers seemed to fall into two camps. Those who
liked the more abstract storyline exploring more contemporary themes and
those who missed the Ayckbourn of old, of sophisticated comedies about
married couples such as Absurd Person Singular.
Change is not always accepted first time around. Later
revivals of the play however have attracted generally favourable notices There were plans for a move to the West End in 1995
but those fell through and Julia returned to the afterlife until a
revival in 1999, this time as an end-stage production in the Stephen
Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, the converted Odeon, five years after it
had first been due there. Again a move to the West End was mooted but
Julia remained rooted in Scarborough. The play was finally published in 2005 and a major
tour was planned but again nothing came of it and it was 27 May 2008
before Julia was again haunting the Stephen Joseph Theatre with that
production then touring to the New Victoria theatre,
Newcastle-under-Lyme, theatres linked by the late Stephen Joseph's The
Studio Theatre Company. Now Julia has finally made it to the Garrick ready to
chill to the marrow - you just need to listen to your imagination and
your mind will do the rest.
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