Incidental Music (1983)

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World Premiere: 12 January 1983
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough

Description: Revue
Composer: Paul Todd

Published / Available to Stage: No

History

Incidental Music is Alan Ayckbourn's fifth collaboration on a revue with the composer Paul Todd. It was staged twice during 1983 in slightly different forms at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough.

The original production opened in January and was a full-length revue, which took place in evenings in-the-round at the venue running for two weeks. It was then revived for the summer season in a slightly abridged form as a late-night show in the end-stage Studio space. The revival ran from July to September and also featured a largely new cast.

In December of the same year, Incidental Music received its London premiere with a production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, to mixed reviews.

Incidental Music has rarely been produced since and its has been subsequently withdrawn from production. It has never been published and its most ambitious song, Petra And The Wolves, was incorporated into Alan's next revue, The 7 Deadly Virtues. There is no running plot through Incidental Music, although the majority of songs have a plot of their own.

"More experiments, this time with quite hefty narrative songs with a beginning, middle and end."
Alan Ayckbourn

The Songs

Opener: A light, numerical introduction to the singing company.
Trio: The story of a female backing-group's take-over bid from the main male singers.
Murder: A whodunit in five minutes flat.
Aunties: Different ages have different problems, but there's always an "agony-aunt" there to help.
Love-Cycle: A version of "La Ronde"
Round of Drinks: Individual parts of conversation at a "drinks party" are heard in isolation, before finally all joining together.*
Much Good: If things were perfect we'd all admire others' generous qualities. However ...
Voices: A love song.
School Friends: A reunion dinner of three lady school-friends that takes on a bitter taste and causes confusion for their three bewildered husbands.
Photocopy Love: A three part harmony song dealing with a doomed office love-affair.
Petra and the Wolves: A mini-operetta following the adventures of young hopeful, Petra, from her home in the forest to the bright lights of London. Her fame and happiness are soon destroyed by the sharks that surround her, and, destitute, she returns to the forest to find true-love with Tom the Woodcutter.
Closer: A light, numerical goodbye from the singing company.

For the Orange Tree's production of the piece, there were several alterations: Round Of Drinks was replaced by Drinking At Charley's; Fancy Meeting You was added and Closer was omitted.

* Round Of Drinks was cut from the summer 1983 revival of the revue at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.

World Premiere (1983)

First performance: 12 January 1983
World premiere: 12 January 1983
Final performance: 22 January 1983
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough
Staging: Round

Director: Alan Ayckbourn
Musical Director: Paul Todd
Design: Edward Lipscomb
Lighting: Francis Lynch
The Company
Lavinia Bertram
Gillian Bevan
Ruth Mayo
Michael Cashman
Russell Dixon
Graeme Eton
The Band
Isaac Guillory
Dave Newton
Paul Todd
For details of other significant productions, click here.

Further Reading

Incidental Music has not been published.

Manuscripts (research & reference)
An original manuscript for Incidental Music is held in the Ayckbourn Archive in the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. The manuscript is accessible onsite for research purposes.

Reviews (world premiere)
Ayckbourn's Incidental Music
John Barber, Daily Telegraph, 14 January 1983
Incidental Music
Robin Thornber, The Guardian, 13 January 1983
Love, Sex, Marriage - Ayckbourn Style
Scarborough Evening News, 13 January 1983
Incidental Music
Irving Wardle, The Times, 14 January 1983
Incidental Music
Desmond Pratt, Yorkshire Evening Press, 13 January 1983

Reviews (London premiere)
Charles Spencer Sees A New Ayckbourn
Charles Spencer, Evening Standard, 5 December 1983
Incidental Music
B.A. Young, Financial Times, 5 December 1983
Incidental Music
Michael Billington, The Guardian, 6 December 1983
Incidental Music
Morning Star, 14 December 1983
Incidental Music
Geoffrey Howard, 22 December 1983
Incidental Music
Time Out, 15 December 1983
All research and original material in this section of Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website is by Simon Murgatroyd M.A. and copyright of Haydonning Ltd. All other material is copyright of the named copyright holder. Please do not reproduce any material without permission of the copyright holder. For enquiries, email: archive@alanayckbourn.net