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Bedroom Farce

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  4w, 4m

In this gleeful comedy set in three bedrooms, four couples struggle hilariously with the ups and downs of their rocky relationships.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 4m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Farce
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Nominee: Five 1979 Tony Awards, including Best Play
    Nominee: 1977 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy

Details

Summary

Alan Ayckbourn’s high-energy comedy was a long-running hit in London and New York. Trevor and Susannah, whose marriage is on the rocks, inflict their miseries on their nearest and dearest: three couples whose own relationships are tenuous at best. Taking place sequentially in the three beleaguered couples’ bedrooms during one endless Saturday night of co-dependence and dysfunction, Bedroom Farce ruffles beds, tempers and domestic order, leading all the players to a hilariously touching epiphany.

In this raucous 1975 comedy, Ayckbourn brilliant combines elements of farce and claustrophobia, distilling the drama into three bedrooms over the course of one endless Saturday night. Cleverly manipulating time and space, Ayckbourn explores the ups and downs of four marriages: older Delia and Ernest, their son Trevor and his wife Susannah, young Malcolm and Kate, and Trevor’s ex-girlfriend Jan and her husband Nick. Gleefully contrasting the younger and older generations, Ayckbourn keeps adding complications and revelations that only seem to further damage the characters’ relationships. Yet somehow, the characters progress, develop and resolve their issues in their own way and pace.

History
Bedroom Farce was first produced at the Library Theatre, Scarborough in June 1975 and subsequently at the National Theatre, London in March 1977. Directed by Alan Ayckboum and Peter Hall, the production featured Michael Gough, Joan Hickson, Michael Kitchen, Polly Adams, Derek Newark, Susan Littler, Stephen Moore and Maria Atken. On March 29, 1979, the play premiered on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Again directed by Ayckbourn and Hall, the production featured a similar cast, with Michael Stroud and Delia Lindsay replacing Kitchen and Atken.

ERNEST
DELIA
NICK
JAN
MALCOLM
KATE
TREVOR
SUSANNAH

  • Time Period Contemporary, 1970s
  • Setting Three bedrooms. Saturday evening through Sunday morning.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)

Media

“An enormously funny evening.” – Observer

“As funny as anything he has written.” – London Times

“Hilarious... The stuff of gleeful recognition.” – Evening Standard

“With deft skill, Ayckbourn shows marriage as an institution sustained more by ingrained habit than mutual excitement.” – The Guardian

ON BREAKING CHARACTER

Alan Ayckbourn in Five Plays
8 April 2024

Videos

  • Alan Ayckbourn on Growing As a Dramatist youtube thumbnail

    Alan Ayckbourn on Growing As a Dramatist

  • Alan Ayckbourn on Comparisons youtube thumbnail

    Alan Ayckbourn on Comparisons

  • AlanAyckbourn on How to Approach His Plays youtube thumbnail

    AlanAyckbourn on How to Approach His Plays

  • AlanAyckbourn on Getting Started youtube thumbnail

    AlanAyckbourn on Getting Started

  • Alan Ayckbourn on the Difference Between Then and Now youtube thumbnail

    Alan Ayckbourn on the Difference Between Then and Now

  • Alan Ayckbourn on Ideas youtube thumbnail

    Alan Ayckbourn on Ideas

  • AlanAyckbourn on Writing a Well Made Play youtube thumbnail

    AlanAyckbourn on Writing a Well Made Play

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Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Alan Ayckbourn

A playwright and theatre director, to date Alan Ayckbourn has written 89 plays – Family Album attracted four-star reviews when it premiered in September 2022 at the Stephen Joseph, where nearly all his plays are first staged.

However, this year he will stage his 88th play Welc ...

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