The Revengers' Comedies: In Brief
The Revengers' Comedies
Play Number: 37World Premiere: 13 June 1989
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: Film; Radio
Cast: 7m / 7f
Run Time: 2hr 15m per part
Synopsis: A play in two parts (considered to be a single play) about two suicidal strangers, Karen and Henry, who meet on London's Albert Bridge where they agree to swap revenges. Karen proves psychotically efficient at taking 'her' revenge, whilst Henry falls in love with the object of 'his' revenge, much to Karen's chagrin who insists they have a deal to keep no matter the cost….
Note: The Revengers' Comedies is a play in two parts and generally staged over two nights or a matinee and evening performance.
- The Revengers' Comedies is Alan Ayckbourn's 37th play.
- The play is in two distinct parts intended to be performed separately, but telling a single story
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 13 June 1989.
- The London premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Strand Theatre on 16 & 17 October 1991.
- The Revengers' Comedies was inspired by the movie Strangers On A Train as well as Alan's experiences working on the John Ford's play 'Tis Pity She's A Whore at the National Theatre in 1998. It is neither inspired by nor connected to the Jacobean drama The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton.
- The play was adapted for BBC Radio in 1996 by Gordon House and featured John Strickland (Henry in the world premiere production) and Lia Williams (Karen in the London premiere production) in a two part production.
- It was adapted into a film in 1998 by Malcolm Mowbray (named Sweet Revenge in North America) starring Sam Neill and Helena Bonham Carter (as a co-production with the BBC, it is frequently mistaken for a television production). The play's four-and-a-half hour running time was reduced to a mere 82 minutes.
- The original production of the play marked the first time the designer Roger Glossop and lighting designer Mick Hughes worked together on the world premiere of an Ayckbourn play; they would subsequently regularly work with the playwright in Scarborough and the West End.
- Alan Ayckbourn hoped the play would transfer to the National Theatre, but the Artistic Director Richard Eyre wanted Alan to reduce the running time of each play so both would fit into a single evening, which he refused to do.
- It is the first Ayckbourn play to feature an on-stage death by gun-shot; although Season's Greetings does feature someone being shot and mistakenly pronounced dead!
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, The Revengers' Comedies was also published by Faber in both a single edition and as part of the collection Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 4.