Sugar Daddies: In Brief
Sugar Daddies
Play Number: 63World Premiere: 22 July 2003
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: No
Cast: 2m / 3f
Run Time: 2hr 20m
Synopsis: A young woman is rescued from a near miss by 'Father Christmas', a shady father figure who is not all he seems. But can Sasha see him for what he is or is she blinded by the gifts and attention he lavishes on her?
- Sugar Daddies is Alan Ayckbourn's 63rd play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 22 July 2003.
- Alan Ayckbourn actually wrote Sugar Daddies after completing Orvin - Champion Of Champions, but as Sugar Daddies was produced prior to Orvin, it is considered the earlier play in the canon (Orvin is Alan Ayckbourn's 64th play).
- Sugar Daddies is often considered as an extension of the Damsels In Distress trilogy dealing as it does with similar themes; although it lacks the London Docklands setting of the trilogy.
- It is one of the few Ayckbourn plays to be specifically set in London. Other London-set plays include Virtual Reality, GamePlan, FlatSpin, RolePlay and Private Fears In Public Places.
- Sugar Daddies is one of Alan Ayckbourn's 'Christmas' plays being set during the Christmas period. Other 'Christmas' plays include Dad's Tale, Christmas V Mastermind, Absurd Person Singular, Joking Apart (act II, scene I), Season's Greetings and Life & Beth.
- One of the play's major themes (alongside the corruption of innocence) is how people pretend to be something else for other people - although we can rarely maintain our new personas before returning to who we really are.
- Mobile phones are a relative rarity in Alan Ayckbourn's plays, but Sugar Daddies undoubtedly has his most memorable use of one when a mobile phone is - off-stage - inserted into a character only to ring when doctors are attempting to remove it!
- Sugar Daddies marked the point when Alan Ayckbourn had written as many plays as his age (he was 64 in 2003). From this point onwards, the number of his plays has always outstripped his years!
- This is a rare instance where Alan Ayckbourn has subsequently altered a play following its original production. When he revived and directed the play at ACT, Seattle, in 2013 he altered the climax of the play to better reflect Sasha's experiences through the play. The altered scene can be found here.
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, Sugar Daddies was also published in the collection Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 3 (Faber).