Welcome to the Family: In Brief
Welcome to the Family
Play Number: 88World Premiere: 16 May 2023
Venue: The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: No
Other Media: No
Cast: 3 male / 2 female
Run Time: 1hr 40m
Synopsis: Josh is keen to introduce his fiancée Sara to his parents – Lord and Lady Meizner; but as they are deceased, this should have posed a problem…. Enter Josh’s wicked Uncle Lance who has gifted him a state-of-the-art “Capture” visit to the past enabling him to revisit his family home whenever he likes. Celebratory champagne flows but family secrets are also about to be spilled.
- Welcome to the Family is Alan Ayckbourn's 88th play.The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, on 16 May 2023.
- It was his second play to premiere at the Lake District venue following All Lies in 2022.
- Welcome to the Family was written during lockdown in 2021 and was initially intended for production by the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. However, unhappy with the original draft, Alan wrote another play for Scarborough, Family Album, before extensively revising Welcome to the Family for 2023 at The Old Laundry Theatre.
- Welcome To The Family is set in a near future where memories can be recorded and interacted with as holographic projections. It is considered one of his speculative fiction works which began in 1987 with Henceforward….
- The play was one of two Ayckbourn world premieres in 2023 alongside Constant Companions at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.