Curtain up on world premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's 87th play at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre

Elizabeth Boag, Georgia Burnell, Tanya-Loretta Dee, Antony Eden and Frances Marshall are directed by the author in this new play which tenderly chronicles the trials, tribulations and temptations of three generations of one family across 70 years in the same home.

The play is divided into: a moving-in day, 1952; a birthday party, 1992 and a moving-out day, 2022.

Join housewife Peggy, Georgia Burnell, and RAF veteran John, Antony Eden, as they proudly move into the first home they can really call their own.

Then, meet up with daughter Sandra, Frances Marshall, frantically negotiating the challenges of a 10-year-old’s birthday party without her AWOL husband.

Finally, see granddaughter Alison, Elizabeth Boag, and her partner Jess, Tanya-Loretta Dee, finally escaping the house she has somewhat unwillingly inherited.

Alan Ayckbourn said: “My inspiration for Family Album was a programme on BBC4 called A House Through Time, a fascinating piece of social history.

"I thought, I could do this on a smaller scale – I didn’t want to go back centuries, so I started within my lifetime, in the 1950s.

“So we have three time periods layered on top of each other happening simultaneously in the same house, following a family from the grandparents in 1952, to the children in 1992 and then the grandchildren today.

“For me it’s new: I’ve used time so much – I’ve run it backwards and forwards, and I’ve run it sideways, and I’ve occasionally run it forwards and backwards simultaneously and at different speeds, but never in this way.”

Family Album is written, directed and sound designed by Alan Ayckbourn, and designed by Kevin Jenkins with lighting design by Jason Taylor.

The Associate sound designer is Paul Stear. Casting is by Sarah Hughes.

Family Album can be seen in the Round at the Stephen Joseph from Friday September 2 to Saturday October 1

It will then be performed at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, from Tuesday October 11 to Saturday October 22 and at the Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness, from Tuesday November 1 to Saturday November 5.

Tickets for the show at the Stephen Joseph, priced from £10, are available from the box office on 01723 370541 and online at www.sjt.uk.com

The next play in the repertoire will be Constellations by Nick Payne, directed by Paul Robinson, which runs at the Stephen Joseph from Friday October 28 to Saturday November 12.

In the quantum universe, every choice, every decision you have ever and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universe. Imagine rolling a dice six thousand times.

When beekeeper Roland meets astrophysicist Marianne, anything could happen. Nick Payne’s dazzling play is romantic and revealing about the many possibilities that can result from a single meeting.

With echoes of the movie Sliding Doors and Kate Atkinson’s novel Life After Life, Constellations will leave you wondering: what if?

Nick Payne has not just written a love story: he’s written all of them.

The Christmas show will be Stephen Joseph Theatre favourite Nick Lane’s take on Cinderella with music and lyrics by Simon Slater.

It runs from Friday December 2 to Saturday December 31.