A clever, highly original musical which combines the comic expertise of Alan Ayckbourn with John Pattison's fully integrated score that ranges from operatic to pop.

Grayson, a successful businessman, and his formidable wife Chrissie are hosting a garden party at their Leatherhead home. Robert, an artist formerly married to their eldest daughter Amanda, has borrowed the garden summer house to work on illustrations of Beauty and the Beast for a children's book, but Robert is not so much painting as drinking and berating womankind in general, and Amanda in particular. So it's an uphill struggle for Amanda's younger sister, Mel, who nurtures an unrequited love for Robert. As the summer evening progresses and Robert becomes ever more cynical, the subject of his painting, Belle, suddenly materialises before him, closely followed by an irate Amanda, her cowering husband Sinclair and Baldemar, a beast, come in search of Belle. Matters are further complicated by the fact that Belle and Baldemar can only communicate in song. When Baldemar kidnaps Amanda and takes her back to his grim, fairytale castle he discovers he has met his match ...

Dreams from a Summer House was first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough in 1992. Recent productions have toured the United states and Japan (in Japanese). The production at the Lubecker Theater is it's German premiere.

If you have RealAudio you will hear part of the love theme "I am dreaming". Music from many other Ayckbourn plays can be heard on the CD 'Ayckbourn Music'. Click here for more information.