Some of you may be wondering why the Alan Ayckbourn Facebook page suddenly vanished this week.

You’re not alone.

I am too.

Earlier in the week, our ‘benevolent’ digital overlords decided that the page had broken ‘Community Standards’.

If you’re familiar with stories such as this, you know how it goes. No specific reasons are given for the suspension and you have one appeal – but can’t address what happened (if you knew what it was anyway) or offer to rectify whatever it is you’ve done wrong. This is followed by an anonymous and – essentially, as there is nothing to suggest otherwise – arbitrary ruling, which you are not privy to, which then closes your page account.

Astonishing. Or perhaps not.

This was despite the fact there was nothing posted that day and if something was objectively wrong, I can’t imagine it compares much to the truly big and important issues Facebook and the other social media are happy to either ignore or just profit from (or mostly both).

So there is no longer – nor will there ever be again – an official Ayckbourn Facebook page. Over the past year I’ve realised – like many others, I suspect – there are very few benefits to having a presence on the site and most of those are outweighed by the drawbacks.

Facebook doesn’t contribute meaningfully to any of the work I do, so the Ayckbourn page is now closed. If you see an ‘official Ayckbourn page’ from now on Facebook, it’s fake.

My main social media interactions will remain here – on WordPress – and occasionally on Instagram (Ayckbourn_Playwright), but I’ll be decreasing that too over the coming months. On Facebook itself, my personal page – will be highlighting my own work and upcoming Ayckbourn and theatre events which I’m involved with.

It does mean though, this blog is more important than ever and does need your support. Please keep reading it and recommending it

In the meantime, you can also find news and what’s on – as always – on Alan Ayckbourn’s Official Website www.alanayckbourn.net.

Thanks, as ever, for your support of the blog and for reading.

Simon Murgatroyd (16/08/25)