Ayesha Antoine returns to Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough (From York Press)

Ayesha Antoine returns to Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough

2:54pm Friday 18th May 2012 in Theatre

IF you enjoyed Ayesha Antoine’s remarkable performance in Alan Ayckbourn’s world premiere of My Wonderful Day in 2009 in Scarborough, you will be delighted that she is returning to the Stephen Joseph Theatre this summer.

Adult Ayesha played Winnie Barnstairs, nearly nine and off sick from the school for the day that she then spends recording everything around her for her essay entitled My Wonderful Day.

Wonderful day, wonderful play, it was graced by an award-winning turn from Ayesha, who won the Best Supporting Performance in a Play prize at the 2010 Theatrical Management Association Theatre Awards. When it toured New York as part of the Brits Off Broadway Festival, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award too.

Ayesha Antoine, Bill Champion, Laura Doddington, Sarah Parks, Ben Porter and Richard Stacey will perform in both productions written and directed by Ayckbourn this summer: Absurd Person Singular and Surprises.

Champion took on all the male roles in Ayckbourn’s sequence of eight plays, Intimate Exchanges, in 2007; Doddington and Porter both appeared in Communicating Doors and Life Of Riley; and Stacey starred in SJT productions of Haunting Julia and Life And Beth. Parks, who played Marlene Dietrich in Marlene in Scarborough last summer will make her Ayckbourn debut.

Absurd Person Singular will run in the summer repertory programme between June 8 and July 28 and September 14 to October 13, as Ayckbourn presents the 40th anniversary revival of his tale of three kitchens, Christmas catastrophes and calculated social climbing.

Surprises, a new comedy spun around amorous strangers, time travel and the quest for love everlasting, will be in the rep season from July 12 to 28 and September 11 to October 13.

Absurd Person Singular and Surprises will be part of the London 2012 Festival, a nationwide festival that will take place from June 21 to September 9 and will feature leading artists from around the world in the year of the London Olympic Games.

The two plays also will play at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester from August 8 to September 8 in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s 50th anniversary season, before returning home to Scarborough in September.

• Tickets for the SJT performances can be booked on 01723 370541 or online at sjt.uk.com