Season's Greetings: In Brief
Season's Greetings
Play Number: 26World Premiere: 25 September 1980
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: Television; Radio
Cast: 5m / 4f
Run Time: 2hr 30m
Synopsis: A family gathering at Christmas exposes family animosity, whilst a new guest arouses differing passions.
- Season's Greetings is Alan Ayckbourn's 26th play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 25 September, 1980.
- The London premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at The Round House on 13 October 1980. Although this is officially regarded as the London premiere of the play, the 1982 Greenwich Theatre production - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - which opened on 28 January 1982 and later transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End, is sometimes incorrectly identified as the London premiere.
- Season's Greetings was not actually the play Alan Ayckbourn intended to write. His new play was announced as the thriller Sight Unseen in 1980, however when Alan could not write it, he took several of the character names, the hallway setting and the Christmas period and then wrote an entirely new play called Season's Greetings in its place.
- The play was originally produced as three-act play before it was substantially edited and revised into a two act play by the playwright.
- Season's Greetings was originally promoted as Alan Ayckbourn's 25th play and the world premiere production featured a programme with a silver cover to mark this. It is actually his 26th full length play though, as when first produced in 1980, Alan did not include Jeeves in his official play canon.
- It is the first Ayckbourn play in which a character is shot - and if the inept character Doctor Longstaff had his way, it would be the first Ayckbourn play in which someone was murdered!
- The London production at The Round House marked the first time Alan had directed one of his plays in-the-round in London and the first time the original Scarborough company of an Ayckbourn play performed in London.
- Season's Greetings has been adapted for the radio twice by the BBC and also for television; the television adaptation is regarded as one of the best screen adaptations of Alan Ayckbourn's plays and is recognised by the British Film Institute as a significant example of the 'television play.'
- It was the first Ayckbourn play to be published as an ebook when Faber published it in 2010 to tie in with the National Theatre's revival of the play.
- The 2010 National Theatre revival of the play marked the first time the National Theatre had staged a revival of an Ayckbourn play rather than. the London premiere.
- Alarmingly, Alan Ayckbourn has noted the play draws on his own experiences of Christmas including his attempt to once stage a puppet-show for his children!
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, Season's Greetings has also been published by Faber.