Better Off Dead: In Brief
Better Off Dead
Play Number: 82World Premiere: 11 September 2018
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: No
Cast: 4m / 3f
Run Time: 2hr 20m
Synopsis: A reluctant interview with a prolific crime novelist leads to an unexpected obituary, whilst the allegedly dead writer struggles with his final work as fiction and reality unexpectedly begin to cross over.
- Better Off Dead is Alan Ayckbourn's 82nd play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held on 11 September 2018 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.
- It is the first time an Ayckbourn play has featured a central character who is a writer; the playwright denies that despite apparent similarities he is based on himself.
- The play features a character called Jason Ratcliffe, however this is not the same Jason Ratcliffe who appears in the play Drowning On Dry Land. Alan liked the name and hadn't even realised he had used it previously, but upon realising it was a repeat, he still decided to keep the name for Better Off Dead despite it being a completely different character.
- The original production featured the actor Christopher Godwin as Algy. Christopher was - during the 1970s - a key member of Alan's company at the Library Theatre and the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round. He originated the roles of Norman in The Norman Conquests, Dennis in Just Between Ourselves, Leonard in Time And Time Again, Colin in Absent Friends and Trevor in Bedroom Farce amongst others. Better Off Dead marked the first time he had worked with Alan Ayckbourn since 1978 and his first Ayckbourn world premiere since 1977.
- It is one of the few Ayckbourn plays to be set in Yorkshire and identifiably set in the Esk Valley near Whitby. Other Yorkshire set plays include Haunting Julia and A Chorus Of Disapproval.
- The programme for the world premiere production included an extract from Algy's fictional DCI Middlebrass book Final Fanfare - written by Alan Ayckbourn himself.