THE American news magazine Time has named Scarborough playwright Alan Ayckbourn's Arrivals & Departures in its Top Ten Plays and Musicals of 2014.

"Alan Ayckbourn’s latest work — which had its world (sic) premiere at New York’s 59E59 Theaters last summer — is another demonstration of the British master’s knack for pushing stage boundaries while probing the sad drama of ordinary lives," wrote Time.

"We’re in an airport, where an anti-terrorism unit is preparing an operation to nab an arriving terror suspect. Each of the two acts replays the same events from a different perspective: first, that of a female Army sergeant assigned to the detail, and then of the witness she’s there to protect, an oblivious traffic warden from the provinces. Ayckbourn’s own direction, as usual, never pushes for laughs or tears, but earns them both.”

The world premiere was in fact at Ayckbourn's usual starting point, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, in August last year, when it was staged in a season of three Ayckbourn works with the overlapping frivolous short plays Farcicals and a revival of 1992's Time Of My Life.

After touring to ten theatres across the UK, the plays, collectively known as the Ayckbourn Ensemble, were performed at 59E59 Theatesr in New York throughout June in this summer's Brits Off Broadway festival.

It marked the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s fifth tour to New York since 2005, during which time the Scarborough company has been nominated for six Drama Desk Awards.

“Over the years we've had wonderful receptions for the work in New York from public and press alike, which makes me very proud," says Ayckbourn. "It proves that our work at the SJT can stand up with the best of them, worldwide.”

Elizabeth Boag in Arrivals & Departures at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and onwards to New York.