I first read Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus a couple of years ago, when a member of the Carlton remarked on how funny and enjoyable it was. I read the play on my journey to and from work on the tube and could immediately tell this was an amusing play, as I found myself constantly laughing out loud and attracting several weird and inquisitive glances from my fellow travellers.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to put this play forward and have it accepted as Carlton's Spring / Summer production. First performed at the Lyric Theatre on 10th May 1973 and starring Alec Guinness, this play was presented on an open stage furnished with three chairs, with all props handed in from the wings. As you will see from this simplistic set, this is something i have tried to re-create.
I have had immense fun whilst directing this production, and I hope that you will leave this theatre, feeling that you have had immense fun watching.
Mrs Swab comforts Constance Wicksteed as she laments her lacking romance...and vital statistics
Lady Rumpus begins monologing about her past- a subject she's more than happy to revisit over and over again
Canon Throbbing confesses his penchant for looking up ladies skirts...
...and the canon is only too willing to let Dr Arthur Wicksteed investigate matters more closely
Muriel Wicksteed discovers that although the flesh is still just as willing, the reflection is not what it was
Hypochondriac Dennis Wicksteed discovers yet another disease he can enjoy being afflicted with
The answer to Connie's prayers pops up in an unusual place
The Canon is keen to engage with Connie in the more biblical sense... she's not so thrilled
Finding herself up the duff, Felicity Rumpus searches for a solution to her impending single motherhood...
...and finds it in the shape of the hapless Dennis
Meanwhile the solution to Connie's problems arrives in the post
Mr Shanks the appendage fitter mistakes Muriel's assets for his produce. Aroused by his attention things get heated, much to Mr Shanks' alarm and Sir Percy Shorter's (Muriel's sometime lover) surprise
Thankfully Sir Percy has ways and means of calming things down- and administers a sedative
Mistaken identity abound - Connie shows off her new assets to Sir Percy believing him to be Mr Shanks. Overcome with desire by the site of the well rounded form Sir Percy whisks her off her feet and immediately proposes
Connie is delighted...
...but Throbbing is devastated and challenges Sir Percy to a fight for her honour and his right to get his end away
Felicity puts her plan to seduce Dennis into action and shocks him by putting her tongue in his mouth
Arthur is only to willing to help out by examining Felicity further?
...only to be caught out by Muriel...
...who runs into the arms of her former lover
Proceedings are interrupted by the incompetently suicidal Mr Purdue who seems determined to end it all in the Wicksteed home...
...only to give up due to lack of interest
Sir Percy tries in vain to protest his innocence
Cannon questions Sir Percy and forces him to confess to his seduction of Connie
Having removed her assets, a much flatter Connie is eager to tell everyone of her dalliances, much to the horror of Cannon Throbbing - and Sir Percy
Sir Percy has to do some fast talking to convince Muriel that Connie is delusional...
...while Connie desperately tries to convince Throbbing that he must be repulsed by her whoring, only to find that the whole affair just gets him more and more aroused
A traumatised Mr Shanks puts Dr Wicksteed in the picture about his wife's predatory exploits
Can the Wicksteed marriage survive both of their wondering ways?
Even Lady Rumpus has some skeletons in the closet as she reveals all about her war time activities with a certain 'short' doctor
Having finally found out about Cannon Throbbing's perving, Connie at last finds happiness in the shape of Denzil Shanks (and her copious new boobs)
And at the wedding of Dennis and Felicity (where all dreams are coming true due to Dennis actually being right for once about his imminent death), the Wicksteeds finally realise that they are made for each other...for now
Director Jeff wonders how many more times he can get his cast to slap each other round the face. At least 16 as it turned out
