Word: ayckbourn
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...Just Between Ourselves (1976) Ayckbourn turned his domestic comedy several notches darker in this account of a couple's disintegrating marriage - and a husband so oblivious that he doesn't notice (or realize he's causing) his wife's emotional breakdown. One of his most daring and frightening plays...
...Joking Apart (1978) In a four scenes spanning a 12-year period, Ayckbourn charts the fortunes of a "perfect" married couple and their circle of friends whom they inadvertently cause nothing but misery. One of the best examples of Ayckbourn's ability to milk the bleakness of ordinary lives for extraordinary humor...
...Upstream (1981) Two unhappily married couples take a boat trip, which turns into a nightmare after a sinister hitchhiker takes command. A rare Ayckbourn play that got panned by the critics, and I have never seen it onstage (not surprising, since it requires the stage to be filled with water). But it's a thrilling read, and a rare Ayckbourn attempt at political allegory...
...Chorus of Disapproval (1983) After the death of his wife, a man joins an amateur theater company performing The Beggar's Opera, and unwittingly turns everyone's life upside down. A big play (unusually long for Ayckbourn) with a large cast, but one of his most entertaining - though you couldn't tell it from the botched 1988 movie version starring Anthony Hopkins...
...Woman in Mind (1984) A woman's fantasies of a "perfect" domestic life turn into the symptoms of her gradual descent into madness. One of Ayckbourn's most brilliant combinations of laughter and pain - and, happily, one of of the few plays from his great period that have not been totally ignored in the U.S.; Stockard Channing starred in a good off-Broadway production some years back...