A Chorus of Disapproval: In Brief
A Chorus of Disapproval
Play Number: 31World Premiere: 2 May 1984
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: Film
Cast: 7m / 6f
Run Time: 2hrs 15mins
Synopsis: A widower, Guy Jones, joins Pendon Amateur Light Operatic Society (PALOS) and rises through the company ranks purely by his inability to say no and what other people read into him. The play is juxtaposed with scenes and music from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.
- A Chorus Of Disapproval is Alan Ayckbourn's 31st play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 2 May 1984. This was despite the fact the play was originally commissioned by the National Theatre.
- The London premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held in The Olivier at the National Theatre on 1 August 1985. It was also revived in the West End in 2012, directed by Trevor Nunn.
- The play is centred around Pendon Amateur Light Operatic Society (PALOS) staging John Gay's The Beggar's Opera - scenes of which are performed within A Chorus Of Disapproval.
- Alan originally intended to use scenes from Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King, but his estate would not give Alan permission to use the play.
- It was the first play Alan Ayckbourn wrote on a word-processor. The Ayckbourn Archive in the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York possesses the first act of the play, hand-written in pencil on foolscap paper (as he had always written) but the second act was written on his new word-processor marking the end of Alan writing his scripts by hand.
- The play is one of the few Ayckbourn plays definably set in Yorkshire - this is despite the fact the play is based in Pendon, which Alan has traditionally located in the London commuter belt, probably near Reading. However, the playwright notes Pendon is a unique town that occasionally can switch geographic locations(!) and that for A Chorus Of Disapproval, it moved to the north of England.
- It is one of several plays set in Alan's fictional town of Pendon. Other notable plays set in Pendon include Relatively Speaking, Ten Times Table, Sisterly Feelings and Improbable Fiction.
- The play was conceived not only for performance in-the-round but on a stage with a double revolve. As of writing, only the world premiere production was staged as it was conceived.
- The London production won Alan Ayckbourn his only Olivier for a play with the 1985 Best Comedy Award, it also won the Evening Standard and DRAMA awards for Best Comedy.
- The success of the National Theatre production led to it transferring into the West End into the Lyric Theatre in 1986.
- A Chorus Of Disapproval is the only Ayckbourn play to have a 'sequel' featuring some of the characters from the original play. Following the tragic death of Colin Blakely (who played Dafydd in the West End transfer of the National Theatre's production), a memorial evening was organised. Alan contributed a one act play An Evening With PALOS which featured a number of the company from the National Theatre's production with David Jason playing Dafydd.
- As well as being published as a play text by Samuel French, A Chorus of Disapproval was also published in the collection Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 1 (Faber). Notably it was also the first Ayckbourn play text to be published in a single play edition by Faber.
- A Chorus Of Disapproval became the first Ayckbourn play to be adapted into a film. Michael Winner directed the movie which cut half of Alan Ayckbourn's original script, reduced the running time by more than 45 minutes and reinterpreted it as a farcical British sex-comedy. Needless to say, Alan Ayckbourn wasn't impressed by it nor does it accurately reflect the original play.