The world's second most performed playwrite, after Shakespeare, has been chosen to open the North-East's newest venue. Viv Hardwick talks to Sir Alan Ayckbourn.

A QUEST indeed. Damsels In Distress and a knight in shining armour have entered the lists to launch Durham's £14m Gala Theatre next week. The Damsels are Sir Alan Ayckbourn's highly-rated trio of plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, which saw Scarborough's world-famous playwright/director reach the 60 mark in terms of writing output.

He rivals Shakespeare in the measure-for-measure of annual stage productions and is already working on number 61, a thriller called Snake In The Grass.

Somehow, the 62-year-old man of theatrical marvels has found time to re-write his current trio from "in the round" to suit Durham's "audience facing" stage, and create a tour for Damsels which ends at the West End's aptly-titled Duchess theatre. Then it's a small matter of directing a Tim Firth play called The Safari Party and launching the three-hander, all-female, Snake In the Grass in May this year.

"I've certainly closed a few theatres in my time. So I suppose I am the man you need for falling over brick walls," he says, laughing uproariously.

He did just that, in 1996, when turning Scarborough's old Odeon cinema into the beautiful Stephen Joseph Theatre, where he leads from the front as artistic director.

"At Durham we are just the guests where the foyer is full of men with drills and the bar area is still a long, flat surface on the floor. There's not a bottle or a bar optic in sight... so I'm living in hope of getting a drink.

"At Scarborough, I was there every day in hard hat and wellies to keep a check on work in progress. It was quite fortuitous, because at one point they started building a brick wall across the main access, until I pointed it out."

He feels his "battle-hardened" cast, who switch roles for the three plays, are undaunted by a venue where the lighting remains untested and the fire alarm inflamed the eardrums within minutes of the first day's rehearsal. "Then there was a burst of loud music and when I said 'excuse me, do you mind', I was told that they thought it was a better way of testing the fire alarm speakers. So things have been a little Fred Karno's Army."

But Sir Alan is already in love with the Gala's acoustics and sight lines which ensure that 510 theatre-goers at a time can enjoy his latest works.

"I'm not envious because this is very like the third theatre we opened in Scarborough. I think this is a venue that will work, but I am always a little suspicious of a performance space that has been constructed to be all things to all people," he says of the air-powered wagons that can turn the seating area into all-standing space for 600 or a banqueting hall for 350.

Sir Alan is a theatre-in-the-round man through and through. His new supernatural thriller - slightly inspired by The Haunting, a 1963 invisible spooks chiller starring Richard Johnson, Claire Bloom and Julie Harris - leans on the Jacobean tradition of creating screams from an audience unsure exactly where something evil will appear next.

"It could be behind them, but you still need humour. If there is too much tension the audience starts laughing at the scary parts to relieve the suspense. But I do like to send the customers home a little frightened of the shadows," reveals the writer who created the "quite sinister" Haunting Julia for three male actors.

Sir Alan seems no longer haunted by his troubled childhood, where his single-parent, journalist mother Lolly entered into a marriage described as "appallingly unhappy". After boarding school, aged 18, the budding thespian found a safe haven in Scarborough by joining Stephen Joseph's theatre company.

The playwright freely admits that most of his plays include events based on his own life and that his gift for creating "well-rounded" female characters stems from spending several years as his mother's main companion.

'UNTIL she re-married, I spent my formative years waiting patiently in hairdressers, the Women's Press Club or outside an editor's office. My world was full of nine-foot-tall women who didn't seem to mind what they said in front of me. I make it a habit now not to reveal too much about myself in front of children. They take in far more than you think," he says.

Recently the subject of Paul Allen's biography Grinning At The Edge, Sir Alan now gives stage conversations about his career and answers questions from the public - the latest takes place at the Gala on Saturday, January 19.

"The most-asked question is: 'Where do you get your ideas from?' and I usually reply 'I have no idea and, if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Some people ask things that become so intellectual and convoluted that I really ought to say 'what the hell are you talking about?', but I try to reply because I know the question means a lot to them.

"That reminds me of a BBC interviewer who tried to ask Artur Rubinstein, the famous pianist, an all-important question and ended up saying 'Artur Rubinstein, how do you PLAY the piano?' He replied: 'With my fingers'."

Questions about Sir Alan's own playing meet with the customary: "I am aware that I've done an awful lot and been allowed to work on much longer than I ever expected. I will be upset if I never have an idea (for a play) circulating in my head."

These ideas, however, don't often extend to enjoying other people's interpretations of his work. The Aldwych was named on Wednesday as the venue for the West End revival of his 1977 hit Bedroom Farce. Two of Britain's best-loved actors, Richard Briers and June Whitfield, will head the cast for the comedy, which is due to open on April 8, following a brief run at the Richmond Theatre.

Will Sir Alan be casting an eye over the efforts of director Loveday Ingram? "I'll try not to unless I have it recommended by at least three friends I trust. I never like to see a play of mine misdirected... it's a lot like seeing someone drawing a moustache on your baby."

* GamePlan opens the Gala Theatre, Durham City, on Tuesday. FlatSpin runs from Friday and RolePlay can be seen from January 22. All three will run from 11am on Saturday, February 2. The Northern Echo has ten pairs of tickets to give away for the performance of RolePlay on Saturday, January 26, at 7.30pm. To enter, simply send your name, address and daytime phone number to Ayckbourn Tickets, Features, Northern Echo, Darlington, DL1 1NF, by 5pm on Friday, January 18.

* Next week, The Northern Echo will be giving two lucky readers the chance to meet Westlife, who will be performing at Gala's official opening, on Sunday, January 20. Look out for next week's Echo for your chance to win, plus other competitions to be part of Gala's opening season.