First Course: Background

First Course is Alan Ayckbourn's second musical revue with the composer Paul Todd and preceded their first full-length collaboration in the same year, Suburban Strains. The revue was written as a lunchtime entertainment which was performed alternately with a second, unrelated lunchtime revue Second Helping at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round during the summer of 1980 in the venue's Studio Theatre.

There is no plot to the piece, presenting as it does a perspective of 10 decades through 10 songs as seen through the eyes of the writer and composer. The revue has never been published, but is available for production.

Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.