Drowning On Dry Land, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until September 11

THE timing could not be better for a wry look at our media-driven society and the cult of celebrity, yet Alan Ayckbourn admits the timing is a happy coincidence for his 66th play, Drowning On Dry Land.

"When I wrote the play, it was all fairly quiet. The celebrity hype scene seemed to have quietened down, and now suddenly it has picked up again," says Ayckbourn, whose world premiere opens this week at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

"People have been asking me 'Did you know that David Beckham was going to have an affair', as if I had been sitting down and reading the tabloids, which I certainly don't."

Indeed not. Ayckbourn's scepticism about the media was previously addressed in his 1988 play Man Of The Moment, in which he passed scornful comment on television's relationship with truth, celebrity and fame and noted how it made rogues seem charming and decent types look dullards.

He returns to the theme in Drowning On Dry Land's story of Charlie, an A-list celebrity with a gorgeous wife, wonderful children, boundless wealth, a magnificent house and one elusive quality. Why precisely is he so famous; has he ever done anything; and in the distorted world of celebrity, does anyone care? Charlie is that modern media phenomenon: famous for being famous, but is there a chink in his armour?

"At least Beckham is a good footballer but there are others who are famous just for standing in a bucket of weevils," says Ayckbourn. "I was talking to Matthew Kelly the other day and he suggested it all came down to a feeling of anonymity; he said people didn't have a role to play any more where once we all had a place, as a bank manager or a butcher or a teacher, or whatever.

"Certainly my 'hero' in Drowning On Dry Land does doubt his place; he was a sporting failure who became a national hero for breaking down and being like Eddie the Eagle, and essentially he's a guy with a sweet personality but what else?"

Does Alan agree with Matthew Kelly's sentiment?

"I think there is truth is what he says. There is a feeling that we can all be famous, which is an awful bind alley. Like Erika Roe streaking across Twickenham; that was a sort of fame, but she's not as famous as the players were, though we don't remember what the match was," he says.

Drowning On Dry Land mirrors the harsh treatment of celebrities meted out by the tabloids. "There is a ruthlessness in the play that reflects how we're happy to chuck people, going back to the days of poor old Simon Dee the Sixties DJ. The public memory goes so fast," Alan says.

"I know this because I'm not known much in the world of film and television, and among young people who come to the Stephen Joseph Theatre I'm known only for the last couple of plays. You have to keep writing or the book closes."

The appetite for celebrity grows apace. "It is a disposable culture; there will be a day not long ahead when everyone has their own website with pictures that say 'here's me in my bath'. That's just what we want at breakfast," he says.

Ayckbourn notes one irony.

"Theatre is the ultimate disposable format. If you miss it, you miss it, you can't video it. There is immediacy to it, where everyone is gathered that night in a specific ceremony, giving matters their due time," he says. "Theatre doesn't have to worry about a build-up to a commercial break; it has respect for its own format, and it works in real time."

Alan says he does not usually write plays with such a topical theme. "Normally I reflect on contemporary issues at a distance, but then Drowning On Dry Land is not a David Hare-style reflection on celebrity so much as a play about being touched by celebrity," he says. "It is a humorous play but there are moments of sadness when fame walks away from you."

Alan Ayckbourn, or rather Sir Alan Ayckbourn, has had long-standing success rather than the flicker of brief celebrity. "If you are raw, celebrity can hit you like an express train and it can be hard to cope but I was lucky, it came gradually and theatre is not the movies. It doesn't have that madness," he says.

"You'll see actors with that long-lens look worrying about the paparazzi around the corner, but people don't know writers like they know actors, and I say thank God for that."

Having turned 65 on April 12, Ayckbourn says he will "just collect my pensioner's card and carry on". "Two years ago I took the decision to stop directing other playwrights' work, and I've found myself writing even more since then.

"I'm enjoying that, and I'm now happily immersed in one of my greatest pleasures: working on a new play with actors in a rehearsal room."

Personal fame could not be further from his thoughts.

Drowning On Dry Land, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, running until September 11 on various dates in the summer season. Box office: 01723 370541.

Updated: 08:46 Friday, April 30, 2004