Sugar Daddies, Alan Ayckbourn’s 2003 take on the age-old, old-age cliché of a wealthy codger taking up with a much-younger girlfriend, is a co-production from Oldham Coliseum Theatre and Harrogate Theatre coming to Oldham from March 12 to 30.
This year also finds Ayckbourn himself reviving the play—for the US market. The stint at Seattle’s ACT this autumn marks the West Coast directorial debut for the multi award-winning 73-year-old, although the theatre has been an enthusiastic proponent of his work since 1976.
That Sugar Daddies can work on either side of the Atlantic is testament to its central and universal relationship between a rich old man and a woman many decades younger. As ever with Ayckbourn, expectations are subverted and this exploration of the loss of innocence and self-delusion delves into the dark side of human nature—albeit with lashings of wit.
Details: www.coliseum.org.uk