Alan has spent his life in theatre, rarely if ever tempted by television or film, which perhaps explains why he continues to be so prolific. To date he has written 80 plays and his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards.

Major successes include: RELATIVELY SPEAKING, HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES, ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR, BEDROOM FARCE, A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS. Recently, there have been revivals of SEASON’S GREETINGS and A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS at the National Theatre and in the West End productions of ABSENT FRIENDS, A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL, RELATIVELY SPEAKING and HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES.

In 2009, he retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be rst staged. In June of 2014 an extremely successful visit of the SJT Ayckbourn Ensemble company to the Brits-off-Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters, New York staging his two new 2013 plays ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES and FARCICALS, and a revival of his 1992 play TIME OF MY LIFE attracted uniformly excellent reviews; ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES being included in Time Magazine’s Top Ten Productions of the Year whilst also receiving an enthusiastic salute from the New York Times.

In 2016, he returned to the festival with HERO’S WELCOME and a revival of CONFUSIONS, both productions receiving equally wholehearted plaudits. He received the 2016 Oxford Literary Festival’s Honorary Fellowship and in recent years, he has been inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the rst British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards.

He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.