Archivist uncovers Alan Ayckbourn's 'lost' first draft of his classic Absurd Person SIngular

A discovery of the long-thought-lost, original abandoned draft of Absurd Person Singular, alongside concept notes and the first hand-written first draft of the play, in the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute of Archives at the University of York offers a new perspective into one of the key works of late 20th century British theatre.

The discoveries are highlighted in a new website www.absurdpersonsingular.com, jointly launched by Alan Ayckbourn’s Archivist and the Borthwick Institute, offering an insight into this discovery and how it alters the story of how the play was created.

Previously the Scarborough-based playwright has spoken of how he abandoned his initial draft of the play after 10 pages moving the action from three living rooms to three kitchens and removing a fourth couple when he began re-writing it.

The new discovery found he had written 40 pages of the initial abandoned draft – consisting of a complete first act and half the second act. The script bears almost no similarity to the actual play with different dialogue, character relations and plot points. Even more astonishing is that the abandoned script and actual play were all written within the same week.

Simon Murgatroyd, Alan Ayckbourn’s archivist and the person responsible for the find, said it was a significant discovery, particularly in light of the play celebrating its world premiere 50 years ago at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, in 1972.

"This is the sort of find archivists dream of making and it was astonishing to read these hand-written pages and realise we had found Alan's long-believed lost abandoned draft of the play.