| | In 1987, Alan Ayckbourn took a two-year sabbatical from the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, to form his own company at the National Theatre at the invitation of Peter Hall. It was, Alan later said, probably the only offer he would accept to move away from Scarborough for any length of time.
Alan was asked to direct three plays, including a new one of his own, and had to use all three theatre spaces. Alan wrote A Small Family Business for the largest – and most challenging – auditorium, the Olivier. It provided him with the opportunity to create a play that he could never conceivably produce or stage at his home theatre in Scarborough.
The play was also unusual in that it was the first Alan had not written for Scarborough since Mr Whatnot in 1963 and it was completed a year ahead of production. A very different pattern for Alan who, at the time, was still finishing his plays at the last minute for the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.
In interviews, Alan has said the idea of the play came when one of his sons was discussing the accounting ‘tricks’ he had come across whilst studying catering. Alan was shocked and it started him wondering about morality in the modern world and how even an honest man could very easily take the wrong path without ever believing he was compromising his own morals.
In residence at the National Theatre, Alan created – with the obvious exception of Way Upstream – the most ambitious staging for any of his plays. The play is set in a two storey house, which not only offered the opportunity for him to present a play as he had never presented one before but it also filled the vast Olivier space successfully and without compromise. Ingeniously, the set represents numerous houses – and at one memorable moment has events running concurrently on stage in two different homes. Alan’s solution to the unchanging furniture being the family run a furniture business and all have the latest, identical designs from the factory.
Alan’s acting company, which had several regular Scarborough actors, also included Michael Gambon - who Alan believes paid him a great compliment by signing his contract before he even read the script of A Small Family Business. The inclusion of the actor was a coup for Alan, but there was a near disaster when during previews Michael Gambon tripped over a cable and injured his foot. Previews were put back, but from there the play went on to become a phenomenal critical and commercial success for the National Theatre. The production went on to win the Evening Standard Best Play of the Year award.
As noted by the critic and writer Michael Billington about Alan’s previous play, Woman In Mind, it was now very obvious Alan was no longer the simple farceur many had labelled him early in his career. Billington argues A Small Family Business sees Alan continue his exploration of far larger social issues affecting ordinary people: Way Upstream tackling the issue of evil; Woman In Mind the fallibility of religion; A Small Family Business tackling morality and the perils of capitalism.
The impact of the play is hard to measure – unfortunately, despite its accomplishment and impact, the scale of the piece has led to few revivals – but the influential ‘90s playwright Mark Ravenhill has stated A Small Family Business was the political play of the ‘80s and had been an inspiration to him as a writer.
The success of A Small Family Business and Alan’s hugely acclaimed production of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge, led many to believe Alan would not return to Scarborough. A view mischievously given credence in an spurious article by the critic Michael Coveney. However, once his tenure at the National was over, Alan returned to Scarborough and moved straight into production of his play Man Of The Moment.
This work would complete a remarkable series of four plays, any one of which could rightly be regarded as a classic. Much as he had written five plays in succession in the ‘70s which defined his writing of that period with Absurd Person Singular, The Norman Conquests and Absent Friends; so the successive plays of Woman In Mind, A Small Family Business, Henceforward… and Man Of The Moment redefined him for the ‘80s. Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd 2006 Synopsis
Jack McCraken arrives home to discover a surprise party, thrown by his wife Poppy, to celebrate him taking over the running of the family furniture business, Ayres and Graces, founded by his father-in-law, Ken. Jack makes an inspirational speech about the need for total honesty and incorruptibility in the business.
The party is disturbed when Benedict Hough, a private detective, arrives to announce he has caught Jack’s daughter Samantha shoplifting (to the value of £1.87). Hough threatens prosecution unless he gets a job with the family firm. Jack shows him the door. Scorned by his wife and other daughter Tina, for not standing up for Samantha, the women admit they have both committed minor indiscretions in the past.
The next day, Ken confides to Jack that the firm’s furniture is being copied by an Italian firm and believes there to be a spy in their firm. Jack contacts Hough and hires him; Hough drops the prosecution threat against Samantha and Jack becomes tainted by the very thing he despises. Hough discovers a firm called Rivetti is receiving the information. Jack realises the Rivettis are a contact of his brother, Cliff and goes to confront him. Unaware he is out, Jack discovers Cliff’s wife is having an affair with – it appears – most of the Rivetti brothers.
Cliff admits to buying their own furniture at cost and selling it on to the Rivettis. A family meeting reveals practically everyone knows about the deal and benefits from it in some way. It transpires Ken’s son Desmond is the true villain, investing money in a restaurant in Minorca in a bid to leave his wife, Harriet.
With the family and business in danger of being torn apart, Jack realises Hough is also aware of this information. He asks him round and offers to pay him off, Hough says he wants more than he is being offered or he will blackmail the family. Telling him to wait, Jack leaves to consult with the others and to raise more money; the family, though, decide they should hire one of the Rivettis to kill the detective. Hough, meanwhile, attempts to find the money originally offered, but encounters Polly, Tina and Samantha. They fight over the money and in a scuffle in the bathroom, Hough is killed.
Coming together for a birthday party for Ken, Jack finds the Rivetti’s price for disposing of Hough’s body is to use the family firm for drug distribution. Jack reluctantly agrees, while attempting to morally justify his actions. As he re-affirms his original speech, Jack is unaware Samantha is in the bathroom, addicted to the same drugs. Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd 2006 |
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