Ayckbourn in distress as he threatens to snub West End

Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Britain's most prolific playwright, has threatened to withdraw from London's West End in protest at what he says is its obsession with celebrity.

The dramatist is "furious" that producers in search of new audiences are hiring cinema, pop and television stars at the expense of accomplished stage actors.

Sir Alan criticised Madonna's "inaudible" starring role in David Williamson's Up for Grabs, which he said was so bad she should have been regarded as a silent exhibit rather than an actor.

Speaking at an Orange Word lecture at the Apollo theatre, Sir Alan said: "You might as well have put her on stage eating a plate of spaghetti and put a rope round her chair instead of putting her in a theatre where she wasn't at home and was struggling." The writer, who is based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, complained that London's theatre was "ossified, lethargic and incapable of producing new work". As a result he said he would consider only putting his plays on at the subsidised National Theatre or at a fringe venue.

Sir Alan, who has written 62 plays, was speaking after the bitter experience of struggling to stage his latest work, the three-part Damsels in Distress in the West End. Despite winning critical acclaim, the trilogy's commercial producer, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Theatres, has decided to stage only the first part of the trilogy, Role Play, during the week. The complete work, lasting 7 hours 15 minutes, will be performed on Saturdays only.

Sir Alan said: "I am furious and very disappointed. We have got a wonderful cast of unknowns who have done so well and they got wonderful reviews and then these producers say: 'Oh, it's difficult to sell a trilogy in the West End now.' It's all a waste."

Sir Alan predicted a backlash against the hiring of star names such as Nicole Kidman, Martine McCutcheon, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Because such "names" had mostly screen experience, he said, they were liable to succumb easily to the rigours of stage acting and be replaced by a "proper" understudy.