Casting announced for Alan Ayckbourn’s latest play Family Album at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre

Sir Alan Ayckbourn has written and will direct Family Album

A moving-in day, 1952. A birthday party, 1992. A moving-out day, 2022.Join housewife Peggy, Georgia Burnell, and RAF veteran John, Antony Ede, as they proudly move into the first home they can really call their own; daughter Sandra, Frances Marshall, frantically negotiating the challenges of a 10-year-old’s birthday party without her AWOL husband; and grandaughter Alison, Elizabeth Boag, and her partner Jess, Tanya-Loretta Dee, finally escaping the house she has somewhat unwillingly inherited.

Alan Ayckbourn said: “My inspiration for Family Album was a programme on BBC4 called A House Through Time, a fascinating piece of social history. I thought, I could do this on a smaller scale – I didn’t want to go back centuries, so I started within my lifetime, in the 1950s.

“So we have three time periods layered on top of each other happening simultaneously in the same house, following a family from the grandparents in 1952, to the children in 1992 and then the grandchildren today.

“For me it’s new: I’ve used time so much – I’ve run it backwards and forwards, and I’ve run it sideways, and I’ve occasionally run it forwards and backwards simultaneously and at different speeds, but never in this way.”

Family Album is designed by Kevin Jenkins with lighting design by Jason Taylor. The Associate Sound Designer is Paul Stear. Casting is by Sarah Hughes.

Family Album can be seen in the Round at the SJT on from Friday September 2 to Saturday October 1. It will then be performed at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, from Tuesday October 11 to Saturday October 22, and at The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness, from Tuesday November 1 to Saturday November 5.

Tickets for the show at the Stephen Joseph, priced from £10, are available from the box office on 01723 370541 and online at www.sjt.uk.com