Three Farces and a Comedy

Ben Travers

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781849434430
• eBook ISBN: 9781849437936
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

In a writing career of over 60 years, Ben Travers is regarded as the master of the 'Aldwych Farces'. This collection is being published at a time where farces are coming back into fashion following the smash hit of One Man Two Guvnors, and the success of The Magistrate both at the National Theatre, as well as the recent productions of Noises Off and What the Butler Saw. The four plays in this collection are representative of Travers' work at its best and most characteristic.The plays include the classic farces Rookery Nook (1926), Thark (1927), Plunder (1927) & The Bed Before Yesterday (1977).Several of these plays have enjoyed modern revivals, Plunder in 1977 at the National Theatre, and Rookery Nook in 2009 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

ROOKERY NOOK

Rookery Nook was produced on 30 June 1926 at the Aldwych Theatre, London, with the following cast:

GERTRUDE TWINE	Ethel Coleridge
MRS LEVERETT	Mary Brough
HAROLD TWINE	J. Robertson Hare
CLIVE POPKISS	Tom Walls
GERALD POPKISS	Ralph Lynn
RHODA MARLEY	Winifred Shotter
PUTZ	Griffith Humphreys
ADMIRAL JUDDY	Gordon James
POPPY DICKEY	Ena Mason
CLARA POPKISS	Stella Bonheur
MRS POSSETT	Vera Gerald

The action takes places in the lounge-hall of Rookery Nook, Chumpton-on-Sea, Somerset. It begins on a night in Summer.

Act One

The lounge-hall of ‘Rookery Nook’ is in darkness as it is late on a summer night. There is a trace of daylight left, and as the front door stands open facing the audience R. C. of the back wall, the shrubbery across the drive can be faintly seen. As the Act progresses the moon rises. From the hall the staircase runs up L. and the balcony for landing in each case is seen. On this balcony is a door L. (and, if the balance and appearance of the set requires a second opening, that which leads to the back stairs which are not shown). The balcony runs off the set R. and L. On the R. there are two doors which lead to other bedrooms. On the ground floor are two doors on each side of the hall. These, as explained later, lead R. to drawing-room and study, L. to kitchen quarters and dining-room. The electric light switches operating the hall lights are just inside the door, D. L. The hall is well furnished with a very fine hall table slightly R. of C., a Chesterfield sofa and hall chairs. A parquet floor with rugs: in the back wall are large windows.

GERTRUDE TWINE discovered C. above table.

GERTRUDE: Mrs Leverett! (Raps on table.) Mrs Leverett! (No answer. She is a woman in the thirties, a critical, suspicious type of seaside resident. She is in semi-evening dress with a wrap. Calls again.) Mrs Leverett!

MRS LEVERETT: (Heard off.) Oh, is that Mrs Twine? Very good; I’ll come.

GERTRUDE C. MRS LEVERETT enters from down left. She is a stout person wearing a striking tartan blouse, tweed skirt and no hat; leaves door open, through which a strong light shows.

GERTRUDE: Hasn’t he arrived? (Moves to MRS LEVERETT.)

MRS LEVERETT: (Querulously.) No, he has not, Mrs Twine, look at the time. I may say I was engaged by the day and not by the night.

GERTRUDE: (Freezingly.) All right, all right. ‘Has he arrived? – No.’ That’s all I wanted. No.

MRS LEVERETT: (Getting rattled.) I suppose there is no question he is coming to-night?

GERTRUDE: Of course he is. That’s why you’re waiting here.

MRS LEVERETT: Yes, but I should never have consented to wait had I known he was going to keep me here at improper hours. (Cross L., switch on lights.)

GERTRUDE: You must make allowances. In the ordinary way the whole party would have been here by this time.

MRS LEVERETT: H’m. I prefer to work for parties of regular habits.

Waves imaginary cat into kitchen and closes door.

This fires GERTRUDE. A breeze springs up.

GERTRUDE: My sister is a most considerate person. Was it her fault that my mother was taken ill at the last moment? (Crosses L. of table to front.)

MRS LEVERETT: I’m not saying – (Crosses to GERTRUDE L. C.)

GERTRUDE: And couldn’t be brought here?

MRS LEVERETT: I know, madam, but – I can’t worry about their troubles.

GERTRUDE: Don’t talk like that of your betters, please.

MRS LEVERETT: I’m not talking like that of my betters.

GERTRUDE: Yes, you are. (Slight pause as they glare at each other.) My sister did the only possible thing – stayed and looked after my mother. (Crosses to front of table.)

MRS LEVERETT: Madam! I am not making any complaint about your sister. But her husband was coming here alone –

GERTRUDE: It isn’t ‘he was coming’. He is coming.

MRS LEVERETT: When?

GERTRUDE: I only know he’s coming to-night. (This as if trying to drum home a thing for the twentieth time.)

MRS LEVERETT: Yes, but when to-night?

GERTRUDE: Oh, how can I tell? (Breaking off with a little ‘t’ck’ of annoyance, cross R. in front of table.) When a man gets left alone with a car, there’s always trouble. If the car doesn’t go wrong, the man does.

MRS LEVERETT: (Much more patiently.) Well, excuse me...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Rookery Nook
• Thark
• Plunder
• The Bed Before Yesterday