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| By John Thaxter (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons |
It's the Scarborough connection. Ayckbourn was born in London but was the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough for 37 years. Nearly 80 full length plays, and seven one act pieces.
I must have been to Scarborough many times, but I can only remember two occasions clearly. Once, walking along the beach at night with my family on my mum's 40th birthday, and on another family outing, eating fish & chips on the seafront and my Aunty H wearing a tshirt that said "High on Life". Sitting on the sand with my mum, watching donkeys plod back and forth along the same stretch with child-size burdens. Slight peeling paint and fading seaside glamour, salted air and a bright sunshine not-quite-off-season day. Buckets and spades clustered round doorways. The time we were there at night, myself and Uncle K walked as far as we could in bare feet, until the threat of broken glass made putting shoes back on important. I was disappointed to have to do so. But we'd gone from the dark out to sky sea to the bright Saturday lights and club queues, and needed to dress appropriately.
Tom did one of my jobs before I did, and has an accent that is more like mine than either of those belonging to the cities we live in. He makes fire breathing dragons with a frequency that others may find unusual, and is good at negotiating council licensing departments. Handy person to have around. He writes eloquently angry posts about politics on Facebook, and plays guitar. I thought of him for the card because he worked in Scarborough.
Ayckbourn's picture is oil on canvas, by Allan Ramsay, 1989. It's one of these explorations of Caucasian skin tones in patches that shouldn't make sense, but does, of course.
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