Truth Will Out: History
Truth Will Out is a full-length play written by Alan Ayckbourn during 2019. It was intended to premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, during summer 2020. However, with the worldwide disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the production was cancelled. The play was eventually performed as an exclusive rehearsed reading at the SJT during September 2023.Behind The Scenes: Small Mercy
Truth Will Out was not the play Alan originally wrote for the summer 2020 season at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Alan originally wrote Small Mercy in 2019 with the intention it would run in repertory with a revival of Just Between Ourselves - both plays sharing the same-sized cast. The play was submitted to the SJT and initially approved. However, alterations to the script were later requested by the SJT, which led to two further drafts of the play. At which point, Alan realised the play was unlikely to satisfy the SJT and he wrote an alternative, Truth Will Out. This was then commissioned in place of Small Mercy.
Truth Will Out was not the play Alan originally wrote for the summer 2020 season at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Alan originally wrote Small Mercy in 2019 with the intention it would run in repertory with a revival of Just Between Ourselves - both plays sharing the same-sized cast. The play was submitted to the SJT and initially approved. However, alterations to the script were later requested by the SJT, which led to two further drafts of the play. At which point, Alan realised the play was unlikely to satisfy the SJT and he wrote an alternative, Truth Will Out. This was then commissioned in place of Small Mercy.
However, when the Covid-19 pandemic swept the UK during 2020 and the country's theatres were ordered to close on 23 March 2020, both productions - along with the entire SJT summer season - were cancelled.
The play had already been announced to the public though in a major season launch event on 6 March 2023 at the SJT, which had seen Alan Ayckbourn discussing the play and tickets had gone on sale on 13 March to the general public.
With Truth Will Out cancelled and the SJT closed, Alan Ayckbourn pulled a previously unproduced play written during 2018, Anno Domino, from the shelf, made slight alterations and produced it as an audio stream as a fund-raiser for the SJT. As a result, there was still an Ayckbourn world premiere in 2020, just not the one initially advertised.
Truth Will Out is a satire on family, relationships, politics and the state of the nation and was promoted by the SJT as: "Everyone has secrets. Certainly former shop steward George, his right-wing MP daughter Janet, investigative journalist Peggy, and senior civil servant Sefton, do. And all it’s going to take is one tech-savvy teenager with a mind of his own and time on his hands to bring their worlds tumbling down - and maybe everyone else’s along with them. A storm is brewing…."
The idea of a virus - albeit a technological one of sorts - bringing the world to its knees was obviously quite prescient and led Alan too suggest that, as a result of actual events, it had probably missed its moment and was unlikely to ever be produced. This was despite the fact he admitted he was fond of the play and quite proud of it. He felt the play encompassed a scale he had not attempted before, exponentially spreading out with each scene from a teenage boy's bedroom in the opening scene to the halls of power at Westminster in the final scene.
It is also the most overtly political play Alan Ayckbourn has ever written, which the playwright admitted in an interview, saying it had come out of a place of anger for where the country was then and where it was heading. Arguably, when it did eventually see the light of day in 2023, it was even more relevant and prescient than the playwright had imagined in 2019.
Truth Will Out is a nine-hander - one of the largest casts for an Ayckbourn play in recent years - and features doubling up for several of the minor roles.
It was presumed Truth Will Out would never see the light of day and would go into the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives, where it would be available to read in the future. Rather surprisingly, when asked in 2022 for suggestions for a fund-raising weekend at the SJT, the playwright offered a rehearsed reading of Truth Will Out, finally giving the play a public airing. This rehearsed reading took place on 17 September 2023.
The cast included Alan Ayckbourn himself making a rare appearance on stage as well as Christopher Godwin, who originated the roles of Sidney in Absurd Person Singular and Norman in The Norman Conquests amongst others. The rest of the cast was drawn from the SJT's current production of Constant Companions alongside Ayckbourn veterans, John Branwell and Frances Marshall.
The event was an enormous success and was given a standing ovation; it also vindicated the playwright's desire to at least hear the play, confirming in his mind that this was as good a play as he hoped and believed it to be - at least judging by the audience's rapturous reaction.
Alan dedicated there reading and the play on the afternoon to the late actor, Russell Dixon, who died in 2023 and was intended by Alan to be in the world premiere production in 2020.
Despite the reading, it remains unlikely Truth Will Out will be staged as a full production, but given the unlikely course of events which have affected ted this play, who knows what the future holds. There is always the possibility, a company or venue may ask the playwright to direct and stage it professionally.
Although unlikely to be produced in the foreseeable future, Truth Will Out is now considered one of Alan Ayckbourn's 'grey plays'; works which have received limited performance but have never been published, are not available for production and are not included in the official canon of Ayckbourn plays.
Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.