The Sparrow: In Brief
The Sparrow
Play Number: 8World Premiere: 13 July 1967
Venue: Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: No
Other Media: No
Cast: 2m / 2f
Synopsis: Ed brings home a rain-sodden Evie, who he has just met and is attracted to, only for his flatmate Tony to employ her in a non-existent business as a means of taking revenge on Ed for having a one night stand with his wife, Julie.
Note: The Sparrow has never been published, nor is it available to produce. Original manuscripts are held in the British Library and the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
- The Sparrow is Alan Ayckbourn's 8th play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, on 13 July 1967.
- It marked the first time Alan Ayckbourn directed one of his own plays in Scarborough.
- The Sparrow is the last of Alan Ayckbourn's early plays to have been withdrawn.
- The play has only been performed professionally once. A single amateur rehearsed reading by Dick & Lottie theatre company also took place in 2014.
- The Sparrow was optioned by the producer Peter Bridge with a view to taking the play to London. This production never occurred.
- The Sparrow marks the beginning of an unbroken run to the present day in which Alan Ayckbourn has directed the world premieres of his plays.
- The play was in a season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre which marked the professional acting debut of John Nettles.
- It also starred Robert Powell, who had previously worked with Alan at the BBC.
- One of the reasons given to Alan Ayckbourn by Peter Bridge that the play could not be produced in London was its similarity to the Ann Jellicoe's hit play The Knack. As Alan has subsequently pointed out, the only similarity both plays have in common is a strong female lead - admittedly a rarity at the time, but hardly a major similarity.
- The Sparrow has never been published, nor is it available to produce. Original manuscripts are held in the British Library and the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.