This Is Where We Came In: Quotes by Alan Ayckbourn
"Some of my other plays are pretty frightening. The witch in This is Where We Came In is really frightening because she never touches anybody. She exerts her power from a distance. There's one bit where she appears to grab hold of the girl's hair, she doesn't touch her, she just goes whooo... [he moves his arms upwards] and the girl goes 'Ahh...' and gets pulled up by her hair. Scary!"(Personal correspondence, 1999)
"I like This Is Where We Came In very much. It's all about story telling. It works quite well, and is quite scary especially when Aunt Repetitus kicks in with her stories. It seemed to go particularly well with the children."
(Personal correspondence, 1999)
"I think I write from the adult's perspective. I don’t try to become a child. I try and imagine what I as a child would have enjoyed and what my children would have enjoyed. I think initially I did write consciously for children but I hardly do that now, providing I feel the theme is right for them. I obviously make certain adjustments. I don't write things that I think would not interest them, like sexual politics - particularly for the young ones, you know, that's just baffling. On the whole, I've discovered that children have the same needs from theatre as adults. You just have to be careful how you deal with them. They like to be frightened; they like to be excited, they don't just want to laugh, any more than adults just want to laugh. I think these days I write entirely from my own perspective but just bring out the child in me - it's difficult to explain. The worst thing I could do, which I'm very afraid of, would be to patronise children.... lower myself to them. I think that it is better to write above them than below them, so that they have to reach a little. I think they will do that."
(Personal correspondence, 1999)
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