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Revengers' Comedies, The

  • Alan Ayckbourn
  • Full Length Play, Comedy
  • 11M, 12F
  • ISBN: 9780573018817

"Gloriously funny."

Sunday Express

"Great gags and splendid deaths proliferate."

Time Out

  • Full Length Play
  • Comedy

  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
Henry Bell has come to the Albert Bridge to throw himself off because he has lost his wife and his job. Instead, he saves Karen Knightly who has thrown herself off the bridge already and is dangling by her caught coat.

They spend a long night driving. Henry learns that Karen has been jilted by a lover who has gone back to his wife. She suggests revenge as a way to heal their emotional wounds: she will fix Henry's dreadful former boss and Henry must ruin her ex-lover's wife.

Karen executes her part of the bargain with brilliance, but Henry falls in love with the wife. As he is drawn deeper and deeper into Karen's world he realizes that she is quite mad. Somehow he must escape from her and win the long suffering Imogen from her cad of a husband.

A play in two parts/segments. The Revengers' Comedies is usually performed on two successive evenings since each segment is over two hours long.

REVIEWS:

"Gloriously funny."

 Sunday Express

"Great gags and splendid deaths proliferate."

 Time Out

"Shows Ayckbourn's rare gift for combining moral fevour with the ability to wring from us tears of helpless laughter."

 The Guardian

Premiere Production:

The Revengers' Comedies was first performed in Scarborough at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round on 13th June, 1989.
It was subsequently performed at the Strand Theatre, London, on 16th October (Part I) and 17th October (Part II), 1991.

  • Casting: 11M, 12F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible)

  • HENRY BELL - forty-two
    KAREN KNIGHTLY - twenty-five
    LORRY DRIVER - forties
    WINNIE - a servant, sixty
    NORMA - a servant, sixteen
    OLIVER KNIGHTLY - Karen's brother, early twenties
    LADY GANTON - sixty
    COLONEL MARCUS LIPSCOTT - sixty
    PERCY CUTTING - forty-five
    COUNCILLOR DAPHNE TEALE - forty-four
    ANTHONY SAXTON-BILLING - thirty-eight
    IMOGEN SAXTON-BILLING - thirty-seven
    LYDIA LUCAS - Mrs Bulley's assistant, late thirties
    TRACEY WILLINGFORTH - a secretary, early twenties
    MRS BULLEY - fifties (voice only)
    BRUCE TICK - an executive, thirty-five
    HILARY TICK - his wife, thirty-five
    GRAHAM SEEDS - fifty (voice only)
    VERONICA WEBB - Mr Pride's assistant, forty eight
    JEREMY PRIDE - an executive, fifty-five
    FIREMAN
    EUGENE CHASE - an executive, thirty-five
    MOTOR-CYCLIST
  • Name Price
    Revengers' Comedies, The Script Order Now

    Henry Bell has come to the Albert Bridge to throw himself off because he has lost his wife and his job. Instead, he saves Karen Knightly who has thrown herself off the bridge already and is dangling by her caught coat.

    They spend a long night driving. Henry learns that Karen has been jilted by a lover who has gone back to his wife. She suggests revenge as a way to heal their emotional wounds: she will fix Henry's dreadful former boss and Henry must ruin her ex-lover's wife.

    Karen executes her part of the bargain with brilliance, but Henry falls in love with the wife. As he is drawn deeper and deeper into Karen's world he realizes that she is quite mad. Somehow he must escape from her and win the long suffering Imogen from her cad of a husband.

    A play in two parts/segments. The Revengers' Comedies is usually performed on two successive evenings since each segment is over two hours long.

    "Gloriously funny." - Sunday Express

    "Great gags and splendid deaths proliferate." - Time Out

    "Shows Ayckbourn's rare gift for combining moral fevour with the ability to wring from us tears of helpless laughter." - The Guardian

    $24.95