Things We Do for Love

A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Request licence

Get the Script

Concord Theatricals

Request licence

Get the Script

Cast Size

2w, 2m

Accolades

2003 Moliere for Best Comedy
1998 Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy

Details

Summary

An ingenious set greets the audience of this award winning play: the cross section of a Victorian house that has been divided into three flats. The owner, a fastidious, elegant executive named Barbara, contentedly occupies the ordered, male free ground floor visible in its entirety. The basement ceiling can be seen and this is were Gilbert, a boorish postman and handyman, is painting a nude study of his landlady. Barbara is letting Nikki, a schoolfriend, and her fiance use the upstairs flat even though she has taken an instant dislike to him. Ever life's victim, Nikki is destined to suffer yet again when Barbara succumbs to an unexpected and violent passion.

Media

"Handles a potentially tragic theme with a rueful comic zest.... This is a Private Lives for the nineties." - London Guardian

"It comes at you with a sense of new minted inspiration, and of wit and comedy, which is both bruising and healing. As with all of [Ayckbourn's] best work, the structure of the play and the structure of the set are expressions of the play's subject." - London Sunday Times

Videos

Alan Ayckbourn on Growing As a Dramatist
Alan Ayckbourn on Comparisons
Alan Ayckbourn on How to Approach His Plays
Alan Ayckbourn on Getting Started
Alan Ayckbourn on the Difference Between Then and Now
Alan Ayckbourn on Ideas
Alan Ayckbourn on Writing a Well Made Play

Licensing & Materials

Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
This title may have restrictions in place for London based productions. Please submit a licence request to confirm specific availability.
Mandatory Music/Media Fee: £10 per performance
Mandatory Music/Media Fee: £18 per performance

Scripts

Available Formats:

Get the Script

Authors

Alan Ayckbourn

A playwright and theatre director, to date Alan Ayckbourn has written 89 plays – Family Album attracted four-star reviews when it premiered in September 2022 at the Stephen Joseph, where nearly all his plays are first staged.

Things We Do for Love