About the Play:

Absent Friends has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Female Scenes.

Absent Friends is a full-length dramatic comedy by Alan Ayckbourn. Diana and Paul invite a few friends over to comfort Colin, an old friend who is recently bereaved. During the impossibly funny madness and havoc that ensues, Alan Ayckbourn places a magnifying glass over the trials and tribulations of married life.

Absent Friends transforms the humble tea party into a romping comedy through Alan Ayckbourn's notoriously dark-humoured lens. Colin must be comforted in his grief over the death of his fiancée who drowned two months earlier, so wealthy, unfulfilled housewife Diane arranges a tea party gathering of old friends who never met the girl. Understandably they are on edge wondering what to say, but there is more to their unease. Diane and Paul, John and Evelyn, and Marge and her husband is perpetually out of circulation with trivial illnesses are all kept together by a mixture of business and cross marital emotional ties. Diane's bullying, self-absorbed husband Paul has recently had a dalliance with Evelyn, the glamorous wife of his friend and incompetent business associate, John. The party is completed by long-suffering Marge, who has left Gordon, her hypochondriac spouse, ailing at home. Preparations for the party spark tensions and open old wounds. As lingering resentments and deep-rooted jealousies surface, an unexpectedly cheerful Colin strolls arrives for tea, their tenseness contrasts dramatically with his air of cheerful relaxation. He is the only happy one among them and his happiness and insensitive analyses of their troubles causes each of them to break down. Acerbic and painfully funny, Absent Friends explores friendship, marriage and what it ultimately means to be happy. In one of his finest plays, Alan Ayckbourn's craftsmanship and acute social observation have never been sharper or more biting.

Absent Friends premiered in 1974 at the Library Theatre in Scarborough, North Yorkshire and opened in the West End of London in 1975 at the Garrick Theatre. The American premiere was in 1977 at Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Mr. Ayckbourne's finest play. If it is the saddest and most moving thing he has written, it is also the most clear-sighted and the funniest." — The Sunday Times (UK)

"It's not just the number of laughs that impresses in Absent Friends, it's the length of them." — Variety

"Absent Friends makes grief funny – a rare feat." — The Standard (UK)

"There are times when you are caught between laughter and tears in a way that makes comparisons with Chekhov seem far from fanciful." — The Guardian (UK)

About the Playwright:

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is an Olivier and Tony Award winning English playwright and a highly regarded theatre director. One of the most widely performed living English language playwright, his works, mostly comedies, deal with middle-class manners and conflicts. He is a Tony, Olivier, and Moliere Award winning writer who has written more than 75 full length plays, more than half of which have been produced in London's West End as well as around the world. His contribution to theatre has been recognized with both a Special Tony Award and the Olivier's Special Award.