Life Of Riley: Timeline

The Timeline offers a chronological view of significant events in the history of the play Life Of Riley.

Circa 2008 (possibly earlier)
Alan writes an initial concept for a play called Life Of Riley. The concept includes an 11 year old character called Winnie Barnstairs, who will become the lead character in Alan's 73rd play My Wonderful Day premiered in 2009.

October 2009
Alan Ayckbourn begins writing Life Of Riley.

11 December 2009
Alan Ayckbourn completes the first draft of Life Of Riley.

26 January 2010
Life Of Riley is publicly confirmed as the title of Alan Ayckbourn's 74th play in an interview in Elmbridge Lifestyle magazine.

11 May 2010
Alan offers his first insights into the play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre's summer season launch, describing it as akin to Absent Friends and that the title character, George Riley, does not appear in the play.

18 June 2010
Casting publicly confirmed for Life Of Riley.

21 September 2010
Life Of Riley world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, directed by Alan Ayckbourn.

26 January 2010
End-stage tour of Life Of Riley, directed by Alan Ayckbourn, begins at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford.

30 April 2011
American premiere of Life Of Riley at The Old Globe, San Diego.

October 2011
Life Of Riley published by Faber & Faber as part of the Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 5 collection.

16 May 2012
A film version of Life Of Riley, to be directed by Alain Resnais, is announced at the Cannes Fill Festival titled Aimer, Boire et Chanter.

Early 2013
Filming on Aimer, Boire et Chanter begins.

5 February 2014
Life Of Riley is produced in repertory with Relatively Speaking for the first time by Dick & Lottie, a then amateur company dedicated to the plays of Alan Ayckbourn; Relatively Speaking is featured in Life Of Riley and the plays were cross-cast to reflect this.

10 February 2014
World premiere of Aimer, Boire et Chanter at the Berlin Film Festival where it wins the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize.

1 March 2014
Alain Resnais, director of Aimer, Boire et Chanter, dies.

26 March 2014
Aimer, Boire et Chanter released in France.

18 May 2014
Variety reports Life Of Riley (Aimer, Boire et Chanter) has been picked up for the North American theatrical and home-video distribution.

6 March 2015
Life Of Riley (Aimer, Boire et Chanter) released in UK cinemas.

10 March 2015
North American home-video and digital platforms release of Life Of Riley (Aimer, Boire et Chanter).

25 May 2015
Life Of Riley (Aimer, Boire et Chanter) released on Blu-Ray / DVD in the UK.

Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.