A Word from Our Sponsor

A Word from Our Sponsor
Written by Alan Ayckbourn
Characters Harry
Janice
Gussie
Francis
Nonie
Rache
Earl
Valda
Valder
Date premiered 20 April 1995
Place premiered Stephen Joseph Theatre (Westwood site), Scarborough
Original language English
Subject Temptation
Official site
Ayckbourn chronology
The Musical Jigsaw Play
(1994)
The Champion of Paribanou
(1996)

A Word from Our Sponsor is a 1995 musical by Alan Ayckbourn and John Pattison. It was the final Ayckbourn play to be premièred at the Stephen Joseph Theatre's old Westwood site. It is about a vicar, who is tempted by the devil (Valda/Valder) offering a sponsorship deal for dubious return favours.

This play was one of Ayckbourn's less successful works, but the production was marred most of all by the death of a member of the cast, Sophie Winter, who collapsed the afternoon before the final Scarborough performance and died the day. As a respected member of the company, a memorial was made to her in the theatre, and a trust in her name was set up to sponsor new plays at the Stephen Joseph Theatre between 1996 and 2008.

It is also the name of a short-story written by Fredric Brown in 1951.


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