Alan Ayckbourn

Alan Ayckbourn spent two years in regional theatre as an actor and stage manager before, in 1959, writing his first play, The Square Cat, for Scarborough's Theatre in the Round at the instigation of Stephen Joseph. Some 75 plays later, his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards. Knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre, he received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards.