Alan Ayckbourn tells Charles Hutchinson about going to the dark side.

IT'S time again for Time And Time Again, Alan Ayckbourn's "comedy for all seasons", at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

"I wrote this play in 1971 when society, certainly the trimmings, mobile phones, computers, social morals, sexual attitudes were rather different," Alan says. "Sexual attitudes have changed, certainly for women, who have gone extreme and then come back again!

"What doesn't seem to have changed at all are the attitudes of men and women. They still want the same things. They still go to equal lengths to get them; and they still go to even greater lengths, occasionally, to prevent others from getting them. To that extent, nothing's changed. I think there's still plenty we can recognise of ourselves in Time And Time Again."

Ayckbourn's revival of his 11th play - his next one will be his 70th - forms part of the Stephen Joseph Theatre's 50th anniversary summer season, and this will be its third Scarborough incarnation. "We did it in July 1971 at The Library theatre and again in the 'middle building', the Westwood, in 1986, and it's one of the plays in the canon that's not done as much as the others, although it was very popular when it was first done," Alan says.

"I thought it would be a nice contrast to my latest play, Improbable Fiction, and it's also probably new to a lot of the audience, and some of the cast were not born when it was written!"

In Time And Time Again businessman Graham strongly disapproves of his brother-in-law, Leonard, who sits in his back garden talking to a garden gnome. Graham wants him off the premises, but life seldom runs so smoothly in a play that features cricket and Ayckbourn's first flirtation with water on stage.

"You need a pond in it, and we managed to flood the Reading Room at The Library the first time we did it, which made me rather unpopular," he says.

"I'm doing this new production in period, simply because of those changes of attitude that might seem a little strange now. Not only mobile phones but also Leonard going into bat in cricket boots with studs; they don't have them now...

"I remember when we first did it, the Chappell brothers, Ian and Greg were the anchor of the Australian team and they both came to see it," recalls Alan, veering off into reminiscence. "I was really pleased that the cream of the Aussies watched it!"

Ayckbourn was 33 when he wrote Time And Time Again, and the play has seemingly turned darker through ageing. "People are saying to me it's much darker than they remember it being, when they thought of me as the jolly comedy king. Now they're looking for deeper things in my work, and as long as it doesn't lose its laughs, that's fine.

"The scheming girl, the guy who opts out, the lecherous man, it all seems a bit sleazy now but that gives this play another life."

Then again, maybe there was always darkness lurking in the play. "It was probably the third play of mine that went into the West End, and when it was offered to Tom Courtenay by director Eric Thompson, he expressed grave doubts, saying it wasn't as funny as the other two. I remember his nervous reaction that he might have bled all the humour out of it as he was known as a serious actor at the time, and I said, 'No, no, it's just a different play'.

"Though it was darker than my earlier plays, it was by no means as dark as I was to become...it was medium dark, but I knew I was writing something that was a departure for me. I thought, 'I hope this is going to work', as it starts with a funeral, and that's not normally high comedy."

Time And Time Again, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on various dates from tonight until September 17. Box office: 01723 370541.

Updated: 16:37 Thursday, July 28, 2005