Time Of My Life: In Brief
Time Of My Life
Play Number: 44World Premiere: 21 April 1992
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: No
Cast: 4m / 3f
Run Time: 2hr 20m
Synopsis: The play runs in three time-streams originating and ending at a family birthday party in a restaurant which has a tragic conclusion. The real-time events of the party are interwoven with the events leading up to the night (played out backwards over the course of weeks) and subsequent events (played out forwards over months).
- Time Of My Life is Alan Ayckbourn's 44th play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 21 April, 1992.
- The London premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Vaudeville Theatre on 3 August 1993.
- The New York premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the 59E59 Theaters on 29 May 2014; practically 22 years to the week after its first production.
- The original London production in 1993 marked the first time (excluding the West End production of Intimate Exchanges - although that only had two actors) that a West End production featured the majority of the cast from the world premiere production in Scarborough. Only the two lead roles were recast and that purely to have recognised 'named actors' on the billboards.
- The play was inspired by Alan's experiences observing people at other tables in restaurants and also by J.B. Priestley's 'time' plays.
- The play has three strands to it: the first moves forward in two hours of real time from the play's opening scene; the second moves backwards two months; the third moves forward over two years. This puts the audience in a privileged position of knowing information about the characters they do not yet know.
- It is one of Alan Ayckbourn's rare plays which is identifiably set in the north of England. Other northern plays include Haunting Julia and A Chorus Of Disapproval (despite the latter being set in the normally Southern fictional town of Pendon).
- Although not specifically written for the round (unlike Taking Steps), Alan Ayckbourn believes it is very difficult to successful produce in the end-stage due to the static nature of the play and the restaurant setting.
- Time Of My Life is deliberately written so that one actor plays the restauranteur Calvinu as well as his four sons. It reflects Alan Ayckbourn's earlier play A Small Family Business in which one actor played all the Rivetti Brothers.
- Calvinu's sons (and presumably another of his restaurants) return in Consuming Passions (2016) with the first act set in the Ristorante Calvinu with the two waiters, Aggi and Dinka.
- Time Of My Life is one of a number of Alan Ayckbourn plays to have been directed in New York by the playwright himself. The other plays are Arrivals & Departures, Bedroom Farce (co-directed with Peter Hall), A Brief History of Women, By Jeeves, Confusions, Hero's Welcome, Intimate Exchanges, My Wonderful Day, Neighbourhood Watch and Private Fears In Public Places.
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, Time Of My Life has also been published by Faber as a single play text and in the collection Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 6.