Hero's Welcome: In Brief
Hero's Welcome
Play Number: 79World Premiere: 8 September 2015
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: No
Cast: 3m / 3f
Run Time: 2hr
Synopsis: A war hero returns to the town he fled 17 years ago which threatens to stir up old rivalries and resentments.
- Hero's Welcome is Alan Ayckbourn's 79th play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 8 September 2015.
- The New York premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the 59E59 Theaters on 26 May 2016.
- The play is set in the fictional northern town of Hadforth, a play first referenced by Alan Ayckbourn in his 1974 play Confusions.
- The character of Baba was inspired by Alan Ayckbourn's first meeting with his future daughter-in-law, who at the time spoke very little English.
- The male protagonist, Murray, is an Ayckbourn character who has been in the army following the likes of Dan in Private Fears In Public Places (2004) and Ez in Arrivals & Departures (2012); although Ez is the only active member of the services at the time of the play.
- The play features a composite set - several locations featured on the same single set - which Alan Ayckbourn has also used in plays such as How The Other Half Loves, Wildest Dreams, If I Were You and Life Of Riley.
- Although Hero's Welcome makes reference to Murray being involved in a military conflict, the actual location and conflict is kept deliberately vague and un-named; even the full name of Baba - who is from the area - is ambiguous enough to suggest it could be anywhere from eastern Europe or the middle-east or possibly even further afield.
- BBC Look North presenters Harry Gration and Amy Garcia were recorded as the voices of the interviewers at the opening of the world premiere of the play.
- Hero's Welcome is one of a number of Alan Ayckbourn plays to have been directed in New York by the playwright himself. The other plays are Arrivals & Departures, Bedroom Farce (co-directed with Peter Hall), A Brief History of Women, By Jeeves, Confusions, Intimate Exchanges, My Wonderful Day, Neighbourhood Watch, Private Fears In Public Places and Time Of My Life.
- Spoiler: Hero's Welcome is one of only a handful of Ayckbourn's plays where on-stage characters die off-stage during the course of the action (other examples of this are A Small Family Business, The Revengers' Comedies and Neighbourhood Watch).
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, Hero's Welcome was also published in the collection Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 6 (Faber).