Forty years ago in 1983, the calendar Ayckbourn’s Scarborough was published with Alan Ayckbourn’s satirical captions accompanying photos by Michael Stead. To celebrate its discovery in the Ayckbourn Archive and 40th anniversary, the photographs and captions are being reproduced each month on this blog.

May

Whitby Beach

I have mixed memories of Whitby having once attempted to mount a season of plays there in the harshest of winters in the emptiest of Spa Theatres.

Most of the inhabitants appear to be related (but none so far as I can gather to Bram Stoker). They regard anyone living south of Robin Hood’s Bay with deepest suspicion.

The picture is, of course, their famous Abbey at low tide.

Words by Alan Ayckbourn; photograph by Michael Stead.

Ayckbourn’s Scarborough Calendar is part of the Ayckbourn Archive and was published in 1982 by Rosedale Publications Limited. It featured captions by Alan Ayckbourn alongside photographs by Michael Stead with the calendar designed by Bernard Stead FRSA. It was published by the Scarborough firm Pindar Print Ltd. It has been reproduced with permission from Alan Ayckbourn.