Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a British playwright and theatre director. He has been extremely prolific, writing and producing 89 plays as of the start of 2024, with many produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Works by Alan Ayckbourn with their own trope pages:
- How the Other Half Loves (1969)
- The Norman Conquests (1973; a cycle of three plays: Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden)
- By Jeeves (1996; collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber)
- The Revengers' Comedies (1998; screenplay; based on Ayckbourn's own 1989 play of the same name)
Other works by Alan Ayckbourn contain examples of the following tropes:
- All Just a Dream: The entire play Woman in Mind (1985) runs on this trope.
- Brick Joke: In a masterclass on playwriting, Ayckbourn mentions this trope specifically, calling it "The Plant". Early on, one of his two demonstration actors mentions that he has an urge to sneeze when sexually aroused. Then at the very end:Actress: Do you think we could become more than friends?Actor: Aaaachoo!
- Interrupted Suicide: In Absurd Person Singular, Eva spends the entirety of the second act attempting to kill herself in various ways, only to get interrupted each time. Hilarity Ensues.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Most of the conversations in the play Relatively Speaking (1965).
