A Small Family Business is a play by Alan Ayckbourn about the eponymous business and dealing with the Thatcherism of the time. It premiered at the Olivier stage of the Royal National Theatre on 20 May 1987, where it won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play for that year. Its Broadway premiere occurred on 27 April 1992.
Radio adaptation
A radio adaptation directed by Martin Jarvis was broadcast at 8 p.m. on Sunday 12 April 2009 on BBC Radio 3 as part of the celebrations of its author's 70th birthday that day. Its cast included:
Jack McCraken – Alfred Molina
Benedict – Adam Godley
Poppy – Rosalind Ayres
Anita – Joanne Whalley
Cliff – Kenneth Danziger
Ken – Roy Dotrice
Yvonne – Millicent Martin
Harriet – Jill Gascoine
Desmond – Julian Sands
Roy – Darren Richardson
Tina – Moira Quirk
Samantha – Fuchsia Sumner
The five Rivetti brothers – Matthew Wolf
Reception
In 2000, The Telegraph's Charles Spencer praised A Small Family Business as one of the "finest British plays of recent years" along with Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (1993).