Sugar Daddies (play)
Encyclopedia
Sugar Daddies is a 2003 play by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...

. It is about a student who forms a friendship with a rich man over three times her age, who has a sinister past, and maybe a sinister present too.

Background

Ayckbourn wrote Sugar Daddies in early 2003, shortly after concluding his family play The Jollies and shortly before starting rehearsals for Tim Firth
Tim Firth
Tim Firth is an English dramatist, screenwriter and songwriter.Tim Firth was born, and has lived all his life in, the North West of England on the border of Cheshire and Lancashire...

's The Safari Party. In some respects, it can be considered a follow-on from the Damsels in Distress
Damsels in Distress (plays)
Damsels in Distress is a trilogy of plays written in 2001 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The three plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, were originally performed as a set by the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company . The plays were written to be performed by the same seven actors using the same...

trilogy. It again features a young female leading character in some kind of danger, and shares the theme of East End
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

 crime that frequently arose throughout the trilogy. The original productions also shared Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter is an English actress who played the roles of stalker Sarah Cairns in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, also Mary Slessor in a 11-part television series of Mary Slessor, and the Nag's Head barmaid called Val in the BBC Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips.-Theatre:Pargeter was a...

 as one of the leading roles, but this had influence far beyond making Sugar Daddies a companion piece.

Prior to acting at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....

, Alison Pargeter had concentrated her career on playing children and teenagers. Indeed, her first role working with Ayckbourn was as a nine-year-old girl in his new family musical Whenever
Whenever (play)
Whenever is a 2000 children's musical play with words Alan Ayckbourn and music by Denis King, that was shown as the Stephen Joseph Theatre's Christmas production. It is loosely derived from The Wizard of Oz, and it is about a young Victorian girl named Emily to travels back and forth in time to...

in 2000. The following year, she played a 16-year-old in GamePlan
GamePlan (play)
GamePlan is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the first in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress The darkest of the three plays, it is about a teenage girl who tries to support herself and her mother through prostitution.-Background:See also: Background on Damsels in Distress...

, the older heroine in FlatSpin
FlatSpin (play)
FlatSpin is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the second in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress It is about an actress called Rosie Seymour who accepts a date with a mysterious Sam Berryman, who seems to have mistaken her for a Joanna Rupelford.-Background:See also:...

, and, finally, an ex-lapdancer in RolePlay
RolePlay (play)
RolePlay is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the third in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress...

- three roles that earned her Best Newcomer in the Critics' Circle Awards. Having seen her take on the different range of ages successfully, Ayckbourn chose to write a role specifically combining all of her traits into one character. Although Ayckbourn has previously written plays with a specific set of actors in mind (the most recent example being RolePlay, written during rehearsals for two of the Damsels in Distress plays), the practice of writing for a specific actor was very unusual, and this play is regarded as the closest Ayckbourn has come to creating a role for an individual.

The role chosen for Sasha, Alison Pargeter's character, concentrated heavily on the theme of self-delusion. Ayckbourn equated it to French dramatist Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...

's theme of innocence being gradually corrupted. To some extent, the same theme of deception and self-deception applies to the other four characters, particularly Val, the old man Sasha befriends, whose dark past he is unable to hide for long.

Characters

There are five characters in the play:
  • Sasha, friendly student, early twenties, studying catering
  • Val, former gangster and pimp, now in his seventies
  • Chloe, Sasha's half-sister, mid-thirties, TV researcher, personality opposite of Sasha
  • Ashley, former police officer and Val's nemesis, also now in his seventies
  • Charmaine, former "exotic", now a "designer", fifties/sixties.


Sasha is the central character. The other supporting characters make appearances throughout the play, apart from Charmaine who only appears for part of the second act.

Setting

The entire play takes place in Sasha and Chloe's flat. Although there is no change of location in the play, between the first and second act, the entire flat is refurbished to something expensive yet hideous, with little resemblance to the original set.

The play takes place over two acts. The first act takes place over a period of about two weeks. The second act takes place several weeks after the first, and takes place over a few days.

It was performed in the round
Theatre in the round
Theatre-in-the-round or arena theatre is any theatre space in which the audience surrounds the stage area...

 for its original production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....

, and adapted for the proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...

 for subsequent performances elsewhere.

Synopsis

The play begins with Sasha helping into her flat an old man, Val, dressed as Father Christmas. He was hit by a car near a children's hospital where he was doing his good deed for the year. Sasha came from Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 two months ago to study catering, with the hope of running a restaurant she sings in. For now, however, she washes dishes at the Dorchester Hotel
Dorchester Hotel
The Dorchester is a luxury hotel in London, opened on 18 April 1931. It is situated on Park Lane in Mayfair, overlooking Hyde Park.The Dorchester was created by the famous builder Sir Robert McAlpine and the managing director of Gordon Hotels Ltd, Sir Frances Towle, who shared a vision of creating...

. Val, meanwhile, claims to be the serious crime squad. But the paranoia he has over who ran him over, and tone of a phone call to his nephew, Frankie, suggests that he is more of a gangster.

When Chloe, Sasha's older half-sister, arrives home, she is horrified that Sasha let a stranger into her house. Before and after Val leaves, Chloe shows stress through her job as a TV researcher, the imminently rising rent, and her boyfriend who calls off dates by text message. Then a beautiful bunch of flowers arrive at the door. But they are not to Chloe from Zack, but instead to Sasha from "Uncle Val".

In scene two, two weeks later, Sasha enjoys a beautiful new dress, a ride in a Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (car)
This a list of Rolls-Royce motor cars and includes vehicles produced by:*Rolls-Royce Limited *Rolls-Royce Motors , which was owned by Vickers between 1980 and 1998, and after that by Volkswagen...

, tickets to the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

 with Val to see The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...

- all supposedly obtained cheaply through people Val knows. Also, the rent is mysteriously not rising after all. Chloe is starting to wonder, but right now is preparing for a candlelit dinner with Zack. However, shortly after Sasha and Val leave, Chloe receives the text message she feared.

Later that night, in scene 3, Sasha returns to find Chloe drunk and unconscious. Fearing she is dead, she shouts for help, and a man with an eye patch arrives. He is Ashley, the new neighbour downstairs. After helping Sasha get Chloe to bed, Ashley assumes (owing to a misunderstanding of the phrase "working girls") they are both prostitutes. He also claims to be retired from the serious crime squad, and blames the loss of his eye on a car chase, and before leaving tells Sasha he is looking out for her.

In the next scene, two days later, Sasha is further spoiled more gifts bought cheaply through Val's "contacts" - mostly women who (in Sasha's eyes) Val took care of. She also looks set to get a job in a nightclub. Ashley then calls with the news that Zack is in hospital, having fallen victim to muggers who stuck his mobile phone up his bottom (to some embarrassment when Chloe rang him). With Sasha out of the room, the two men confront each other. Ashley is, in fact, on a lifelong quest to put Val behind bars. Val was no policeman but instead a pimp, and the women who Val set up are the ones who survived. Ashley warns Val not to harm her. Val muses that the flat could do with some new furniture.

At the start of Act Two, several weeks later, the flat is transformed into something expensive yet devoid of character. Sasha, too, is becoming something expensive and without character. Ashley helps Sasha move in the final few things, and tries again to warn her about Val, but Sasha is adamant she won't permit them to say nasty things about each other.

When Chloe returns (having spent a holiday with Zack in Majorca to recover from the accident), she exclaims that the place has been turned into a brothel. Snapping, she calls Val a dirty old man, tells Sasha she will pay for her “gifts” eventually and declares she will live in a hotel until the furniture is gone. Sasha retorts by highlighting Chloe's unreciprocated devotion to Zack, calls her a failure, and throws Chloe's present (a cheap Majorcan pot) after her as she leaves.

In the next scene, Sasha prepare a dinner party for Val, Ashley and the “designer” Sasha used, Charmaine (one of Val's "proteges"). Ashley and Val have agreed a truce for the evening, but Val still privately reminds Val that he really lost his eye in a drunken darts match, and that his obsession with Val cost him his marriage. After Charmaine arrives, Sasha mentions she is considering dropping out of catering college and running a nightclub instead, or some other higher ambition. She says it's all thanks to Val, who shows signs that he is truly growing fond of her.

But in the next scene, after the dinner, Sasha feels excluded as Val, Ashley and Charmaine, none of whom liked her cooking that much, reminisce with stories of old times. Sensing this, Val persuades Sasha to sing. She manages a good classical rendition of Nobody's Heart Belongs to Me, which moves Val and Ashley. Charmaine, however, has treated Sasha like a trainee prostitute all evening, and belittles her for being unsexy. Val loses his temper, and showing a frightening side not seen before, orders her out. With Sasha out of the room, the truce breaks down and Val and Ashley fight, only to do more damage to themselves than each other. Then Sasha takes a phone call, and hears that Chloe fell in front of a train.

In the final scene, Sasha clears up with a sedated Chloe in her bedroom. Ashley calls first to say that he and Val reached an agreement to find different planets to live on. Then Val calls, and even though Chloe's fall was clearly an accident, Val still denies involvement. Sasha tells Val they have to stop this, saying that although she enjoyed it, she really knew all along the side she didn't want to see. Finally, Chloe emerges, tired of small hotel rooms and warming to some of the less ghastly furniture. The fact that Zack did not visit her in hospital finally persuades her this, too, must end. So when flowers arrive at the door, without checking who they are for, they both refuse them.

Productions

The original production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....

 had its first performance on 17 July 2003, and an opening night on 23 July 2003, featuring the following cast:
  • Sasha - Alison Pargeter
    Alison Pargeter
    Alison Pargeter is an English actress who played the roles of stalker Sarah Cairns in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, also Mary Slessor in a 11-part television series of Mary Slessor, and the Nag's Head barmaid called Val in the BBC Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips.-Theatre:Pargeter was a...

  • Val - Rex Garner
  • Chloe - Anna Brecon
    Anna Brecon
    Anna Brecon is an English actress, known for portraying Lady Tara Thornfield in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.-Background:...

  • Ashley - Terence Booth
  • Charmaine - Eliza Hunt


The production team were:
  • Director - Alan Ayckbourn
    Alan Ayckbourn
    Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...

  • Design - Roger Glossop
  • Lighting - Mick Hughes
  • Costumes - Christine Wall


Between September 2003 and February 2004, the production toured to eight venues in England. This was the first Ayckbourn production to begin touring after the debacle over the Duchess Theatre
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....

's handling of the Damsels in Distress
Damsels in Distress (plays)
Damsels in Distress is a trilogy of plays written in 2001 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The three plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, were originally performed as a set by the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company . The plays were written to be performed by the same seven actors using the same...

trilogy which led to Ayckbourn's threat of a West End "boycott". Shortly before touring, Ayckbourn was reported to say that he would consider returning to the West End on condition that he kept control over the production, and this led to speculation that Sugar Daddies would be shown in the West End. But this did not happen, and the closest performance to London was at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey presents in-house productions which often tour and transfer to London's West End. Other performances include opera, ballet and pantomime. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, the company has two performance venues, a main theatre and the smaller Mill...

 in Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, the Stephen Joseph Theatre preferring to set up partnerships with regional theatres on Ayckbourn's own terms.

There has been one further professional production since the tour, at The Mill in Sonning
Sonning
Sonning, occasionally called Sonning-on-Thames is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham in the English county of Berkshire, a few miles east of Reading. The village is situated on the River Thames and was described by Jerome K...

, Berkshire.

Critical reviews

The reviews of Sugar Daddies were broadly positive. Michael Billington
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...

 of The Guardian wrote: "... the real fascination lies in watching Ayckbourn's transformation from social observer to impassioned moralist, alarmed at our declining sense of self and loss of personal identity", although he felt the ending was a little too sugary. Dominic Cavendish of The Daily Telegraph saw some of the moments in Sasha and Val's relationship as decidedly Pinteresque
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...

.

Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter is an English actress who played the roles of stalker Sarah Cairns in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, also Mary Slessor in a 11-part television series of Mary Slessor, and the Nag's Head barmaid called Val in the BBC Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips.-Theatre:Pargeter was a...

 received all-round compliments for her performance as Sasha. Jeremy Kingston of The Times wrote of her performance: "Her response to compliments becomes tarty. She not only waits for them, she poses in readiness. There is much of the child to her, but she also has the child's straight perception." The following year, she landed a major adult role as "Stalker" Sarah Cairns in EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

.

External links

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