16:30, Thu 23rd – Fri 24th June 2011 at Cloister Court, Queens' College
14:00, Sat 25th June 2011 at Cloister Court, Queens' College
Easter May Week

‘What, would you restrain the freedom of speech? I vow I have no malice against the people I abuse. When I say an ill-natured thing, ‘tis out of pure good humour; and I take it for granted they deal exactly in the same manner with me.’

Speech may be unrestrained, but slander is wielded as a weapon of social control in Sheridan’s finely-tuned, witty masterpiece of restoration comedy (from the director of CUOS’s The Marriage of Figaro, February 2011). Bitchy and self-conscious, perfectly-timed and delicious, this play wears too much rouge and leers like your great uncle.

Join Lady Sneerwell, Sir Benjamin Backbite, Mrs Candour and their school for scandal as they construct plot out of rumour, rumour out of plot. With comic scenes to rival Malvolio's letter-reading in Twelfth Night, this bitchy restoration drama of manners is comedy at its best.

'perhaps the most finished and faultless comedy which we have' (William Hazlitt)