Miss Yesterday: In Brief
Miss Yesterday
Play Number: 68World Premiere: 4 December 2004
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: No
Cast: 3m / 4f
Run Time: 1hr 40m
Synopsis: After a tragic accident, teenager Tamara is given the opportunity to alter time, but with unforeseen consequences. With the fate of the world in her hands, Tamara must make the hardest decision of her life.
- Miss Yesterday is Alan Ayckbourn's 68th play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 4 December 2004.
- One of the significant influences for Miss Yesterday was the time-travel short story A Sound Of Thunder by Ray Bradbury.
- It is one of his 'family' plays; these plays are written with a family audience in mind, but are considered by the playwright to be part of his full-length play canon and as significant in his canon as any of the other plays. Alan Ayckbourn's first family play is considered to be Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays in 1988.
- The family plays are frequently thematically linked to one of Alan Ayckbourn's 'adult' plays. Miss Yesterday is most frequently associated with Communicating Doors, another play in which someone is offered the opportunity to alter time and is able to transform their own life. Notably in Miss Yesterday, it is not the ability to alter time which enables the protagonist Tammy to fulfil her potential.
- Miss Yesterday is only the second of Alan Ayckbourn's family plays to feature a teenage protagonist, following My Sister Sadie. The playwright noted by shifting the age of his characters upwards, he felt he had a 'larger emotional base' to work from.
- It is one of several plays by Alan Ayckbourn to feature time-travel as a significant element. Alan Ayckbourn's other time-travel plays include Communicating Doors, Whenever and Surprises.
- It is only the fourth of Alan Ayckbourn's plays to feature a main character who steps out of the narrative to address the audience. Previously he had used this technique in Dad's Tale, Invisible Friends and The Jollies.
- As of writing, it is one of only two plays by Alan Ayckbourn that has not yet been published (or being prepared for publication), that is available for production by professional and amateur companies (reading scripts are available from the agents Casarotto Ramsay for companies looking to produce the play). The other play is Making Tracks.
- As of writing, it is the most recent family play to have been written by Alan Ayckbourn.