A botched affair

Chen Jie

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-12 10:23

Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center will perform the famous English playwright Ray Cooney's comedy Out of Order at Beijing's Capital Theater until Sunday.

Written by Cooney in 1991, the drama ran for a long time at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London and won the Best Comedy of the Laurence Olivier Awards that year.

Like all of Cooney's writings, the play is basically a farce - the genre that he has developed a special aptitude for over the past 50 years.

A botched affair

Since he formed the Theatre of Comedy Company in 1983 and became its first Artistic Director, Cooney has penned more than 20 comedies, including Out of Order.

The storyline follows the conservative minister Richard Willey's attempt to have an affair with one of the secretaries of the opposition leader in a top London hotel.

But nothing goes as planned, thanks to a conniving waiter, a suspicious hotel manager, a wary private detective, an angry wife, a furious husband, a bungling secretary, an unconscious nurse and a dead body.

Willey and the woman find a dead body in the bedroom of the hotel. He knows the discovery of his affair would bring disgrace on the government and jeopardize his marriage. So he sets out to cover up the body.

Acclaimed Shanghai-born comedian Lu Liang plays the role of Willey. The actors speak Chinese on stage but perform according to an authentically British sense of humor.

7:30 pm, Sept 12, 13. 22 Wangfujing Dajie Street, Dongcheng district. 6525-0996, 6524-9847

首都剧场，东城区王府井大街22号

Chen Jie