Out of Order (play)
Out of Order | |
---|---|
Written by | Ray Cooney |
Date premiered | 1990 |
Place premiered |
Leatherhead Surrey |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
Out of Order is a 1990 farce written by English playwright Ray Cooney. It had a long run at the Shaftesbury Theatre starring Donald Sinden and Michael Williams.[1]
As with many other Ray Cooney plays, it features a lead actor (in this case a junior UK minister) who has to lie his way out of an embarrassing situation (in this case a planned adultery with a secretary) with the help of an innocent side-kick (in this case the minister's personal private secretary), who gets more and more embroiled in the increasingly tangled tale improvised by the lead character as events unfold. The action takes place in a suite in a posh London hotel and revolves around accidents caused by a defective sash window.
The play is also often performed under the alternative title Whose Wife is it Anyway?[2]
In 1996, the play was adapted in France as Panique au Plazza, starring Christian Clavier and Gérard Lartigau. In 1997 the play was made into a successful Hungarian movie A Miniszter Félrelép.
The play has also been staged internationally in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in April 2012, by the British Theatre Playhouse.[3]
Further reading
- Cooney, Ray (1991). Out of Order: A Comedy (First ed.). London: Samuel French. ISBN 0-573-01858-8.