The Rivals

The Rivals

Blackbird Theatre
December 2015 – January 2016

“My valour is certainly going, it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out as it were, at the palms of my hands!”  (Bob Acres prepares for his duel)

This brilliant 18th-century comedy of manners follows the rollicking misadventures of Jack Absolute and Lydia Languish, a pair of young lovers whose courtship is beset by mistaken identities, rival suitors, overbearing matrons, and abundant misunderstandings.

“He is the very pine-apple of politeness!” (Mrs. Malaprop gives high praise to our hero)

In 1775, 23-year-old Richard Brinsley Sheridan was challenged to a duel by a romantic rival. He participated with reluctance, was stabbed in the abdomen, and nearly died. Afterward Sheridan found himself low on funds and decided to cash in on his temporary notoriety, writing The Rivals in a couple of months.  It’s a daring and irreverent comic masterpiece – and quite possibly the best first play ever written.

“Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!” (Mrs. Malaprop, talking about… we’re not sure what)

pictured above:  Emma Slipp; photo by David Cooper