SEEING one play by Scarborough’s own Sir Alan Ayckbourn in an evening is a treat. Seeing six in one night… some might say that’s a bit of an indulgence.

That’s exactly what theatre-goers in York are being offered over the next two nights, however. And better still, the chances are that even the most diehard of Ayckbourn fans won’t have seen any of the plays before.

They are all part of the archive of the Scarborough-based playwright’s work that was bought by the University of York last year, with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

And they’ll all be performed over a single evening tonight and tomorrow on the stunning main stage at the university’s Department of Film, Theatre and Television.

Many of the plays were written for a special occasion – to showcase the National Theatre’s sound and lighting capabilities, or as a tribute to the actor Colin Blakeley, for example – and most have only ever been performed once before.

They make for a wonderful mixed bunch, admits Tom Wright, the award-winning theatre and opera director who has been recruited by the university as its ‘comedy outreach officer’, and who will direct the show.

Some, such as 1962s Countdown, in which a long-married couple confide their inner monologues to an audience as they share a pot of tea after supper, are typical Ayckbourn pieces in miniature.

Others, such as 1975’s Dracula and Boardgame from 1958-1961, are wonderfully bonkers, says Tom. In the never-before-performed Boardgame, the Top Hat from Monopoly makes a bid for freedom via the games Cluedo and Escape From Colditz, whereas in Dracula, the vampire count and his hunch-backed henchman Squelch invade a country cottage to find that the beautiful young woman who lives there is not all she seems.

They work amazingly well together as an evening of theatre, however, Tom stresses.

“There is a very pleasing contrast. You get this very heartfelt stuff about a married couple who is really in trouble, which is very moving. And you go from that to Count Dracula trying to seduce a young daughter, which is just ridiculous!”

And they all have Ayckbourn’s trademark wit. “There is some fantastic wordplay.”

Each play runs for between 10 to 20 minutes, and the entire evening will consist of two halves of 45 minutes each, separated by an interval.

A single set is used throughout, though adapted for each play. And one play in particular – Ron and Julie – provides a real chance to make full use of the main theatre’s sound and lighting capabilities.

Written in 1991 to allow the National Theatre to showcase its technical capabilities to students, it is effectively a comic updating of Romeo and Juliet. It features a love affair between sound technician Ron and lighting technician Julie. And predictable chaos – not to mention pyrotechnics – occurs when special effects man Raymond appears on the scene. “He’s the third man in a love triangle competing for the affections of the lighting designer,” says Tom.

Performed entirely by students, but aimed very much at York’s theatre-going public who want to see Ayckbourn as he may never have been seen before, this sounds like an evening not to be missed.

• Ayckbourn Shorts, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow night, main theatre, Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York. Tickets: £4 students, £6 non-students from the York Theatre Royal Box Office (01904 623568) or online at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk