198:
allows
Wicksteed to remain, provided he resumes his long-neglected conjugal duties. Shanks comes round from the tranquilliser administered by Shorter and denounces Muriel as a sex-maniac. Wicksteed tells her that it is now she who must leave the family home. Lady Rumpers arrives to remove Felicity, who has returned to find Dennis. It emerges that Felicity has just had sex with Dennis. She finds him repulsive, and has agreed to marry him only because she is already pregnant, wants an official father for her child, and has been led to believe that Dennis has a fatal illness that will soon leave her as a widow. Lady Rumpers is aghast and reveals that history is repeating itself: she was seduced when young and made a marriage of convenience to give Felicity a legal father. Shorter makes a casual comment that leads to the discovery that he was the seducer and is Felicity's father. Wicksteed, having the upper hand, forces Shorter to back down over his disciplinary threat. It emerges that Dennis's imagined fatal illness is real, and Felicity agrees to go ahead with the marriage. Shanks comes across Connie adjusting her padded breasts and they run off together. Throbbing is again left frustrated, and Wicksteed is left alone to reflect on the transience of human life and the importance of seizing sexual opportunities whenever possible: "He whose lust lasts, lasts longest". The stage goes dark; a spotlight plays on Wicksteed, who "dances alone in the spotlight until he can dance no more."
194:
Dennis and they go off together. Mr Shanks, the fitter from the false-breast manufacturer, arrives and mistaking Muriel for his client rhapsodises about and handles her substantial bust, until realising his mistake. Muriel, aroused to a predatory frenzy, pursues Shanks until interrupted by the arrival of
Shorter, who misreading the situation injects Shanks with a powerful tranquilliser. Connie has put on her padded breasts, which make her feel suddenly attractive and confident to the point of brazenness. She mistakes Shorter for the fitter, and invites him to handle her bust. He is aroused and is discovered trouserless by Canon Throbbing, whom he attempts to tranquillise, pursuing him offstage with a hypodermic. Dennis and Felicity declare their intention to marry, but he is sent away by Wicksteed, who then attempts to seduce Felicity. Shorter catches him in the act and threatens to have him disciplined and barred from medical practice. Muriel joins in the denunciation and the uproar is increased by a suicide attempt by Wicksteed's patient Mr Purdue, who is trying to hang himself as Lady Rumpers enters.
246:, which he felt slowed down the action. The London production had been on a bare stage with only three chairs; Bennett thought this the only way of staging the work: "There is just enough text to carry the performers on and off, provided they don't dawdle. If they have to negotiate doors or stairs or potted plants or get anywhere except into the wings, then they will be stranded halfway across the stage, with no line left with which to haul themselves off".
193:
Meeting
Felicity for the first time, Wicksteed is instantly consumed with lust for her, and attempts to arrange a tête-à-tête. Muriel finds her old feelings for Shorter rekindled and she too plots a rendezvous. A parcel arrives for Connie: it contains a pair of false breasts. Felicity makes a pass at
197:
Act Two continues the action from the same point. Lady
Rumpers removes Felicity, Muriel tells Wicksteed to leave the family home, Throbbing and Shorter argue about which of them is to marry Connie until she enters without her prominent false bust, at which Shorter renounces her. Muriel relents and
185:
Mrs Swabb, who combines the functions of cleaner and all-knowing Fate, introduces the main characters. Wicksteed is 53, has an eye for the ladies and lacks ambition; his wife, Muriel, is a more assertive figure; their son, Dennis, is a wimpish hypochondriac, frustrated at his lack of a girlfriend;
190:, was once Muriel's sweetheart and he bears a grudge against Wicksteed for cutting him out; Lady Rumpers is a returning expatriate, concerned for the purity of her beautiful daughter Felicity; Canon Throbbing is anxious to abandon his celibate state, which he finds a strain to keep up.
388:
Although the play is farcical for most of its length, the ending is equivocal, and some have seen
Wicksteed's solitary, spotlit dance as a dance of death. Billington emphasises the farcical side of the piece, whereas the critic
334:
commented that the author "tries too hard to do too much", although he predicted a long run for the play. When the play opened on
Broadway, hostile notices outweighed the favourable.
319:
thought that
Bennett had difficulty in inventing a full-length play that would "sustain his wry, oblique talent", although this play was "his most successful experiment so far". In
375:. O'Mealy finds echoes of Wilde's Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen in Lady Rumpers and Felicity, and of Wilde's linguistic absurdities in some of Bennett's dialogue. He identifies
85:
as "two elegiac comedies about the decline of
England". In the new play Bennett's comedy became farcical: Billington called it "a gorgeously vulgar but densely plotted farce".
40:
production that followed was less successful, running for less than three months. The play has been revived several times since then, in London and elsewhere.
325:, Billington's praise was less guarded, although he found "the diagrammatic neatness of the plotting ultimately becomes slightly oppressive". In
536:
238:. The author attributed the comparative failure of the production – a run of 95 performances – to the heavily naturalistic staging by
43:
The action revolves around the (generally) thwarted libidos of the principal characters. The title of the play is an old legal term
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commented more approvingly, observing, "farce is an enterprise whose esthetics are not always appreciated by the undiscerning".
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Connie is a flat-chested spinster who secretly longs to be sexually alluring; Sir Percy
Shorter, President of the
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succeeded
Guinness as Dr Wicksteed, and the author took over the role of Mrs Swabb.
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production opened in November 1975 and ran until February 1976. It starred
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in the central role. It ran, with cast changes, until 10 August 1974. The
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Sir Percy Shorter, a leading light in the medical profession –
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The action takes place in and around the Wicksteeds' house in
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Having made his reputation as a co-writer of and performer in
365:, which was staged a year later, was strongly influenced by
49:, which translates from Latin as "you shall have the body".
179:
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The play has divided critical opinion from the outset. In
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Billington, Michael. "Alan Bennett's 'Habeas Corpus'",
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views it as "rather more a wake than a celebration".
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is a stage comedy in two acts by the English author
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351:The literary scholar Joseph O'Mealy writes that
63:, Bennett turned to writing full-length plays.
625:Kretzmer, Herbert. "What the doctor ordered",
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249:Later revivals have included productions by
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572:, Octagon Theatre, retrieved 14 August 2016
112:Constance Wicksteed, the doctor's sister –
94:Arthur Wicksteed, a General Practitioner –
81:(1971), which were described by the critic
344:pronounced the piece "slight and boring";
537:"Habeas Corpus, Donmar Warehouse, London"
735:
658:
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162:, designed by Derek Cousins; music by
716:Alan Bennett: A Critical Introduction
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442:
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214:as Wicksteed, with a cast including
154:Mr Purdue, a sick man – Mike Carnell
142:Mr Shanks, a sales representative –
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67:was his third to be staged in the
14:
759:
612:Wardle, Irving. "Habeas Corpus",
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182:, on the south coast of England.
136:Felicity Rumpers, her daughter –
16:1973 play written by Alan Bennett
583:"Akbar, Arifa, "Habeas Corpus",
130:Lady Rumpers, a white settler –
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28:. It was first performed at the
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372:The Importance of Being Earnest
32:in London on 10 May 1973, with
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124:Canon Throbbing, a celibate –
106:Dennis Wicksteed, their son –
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118:Mrs Swabb, a cleaning lady –
100:Muriel Wicksteed, his wife –
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7:
697:Broadway Plays and Musicals
680:. London: Faber and Faber.
429:, retrieved 14 August 2016
201:
188:British Medical Association
10:
764:
669:
554:"Habeas Corpus/Miss Julie"
427:Oxford English Dictionary
714:O'Mealy, Joseph (2013).
699:. Jefferson: McFarland.
299:Menier Chocolate Factory
431:(subscription required)
413:, 10 August 1974, p. 10
173:
676:Bennett, Alan (1973).
385:as another influence.
743:Plays by Alan Bennett
718:. London: Routledge.
552:Billington, Michael.
472:, 3 March 1974, p. 33
629:, 11 May 1973, p. 10
616:, 11 May 1973, p. 11
450:, 11 May 1973, p. 10
301:, London, 2021–22).
587:, 14 December 2021"
382:What the Butler Saw
271:Theatre Royal, Bath
166:. In February 1974
508:Bennett, pp. 45–75
499:Bennett, pp. 17–44
341:The New York Times
305:Critical reception
102:Margaret Courtenay
83:Michael Billington
725:978-1-135-69762-4
706:978-0-7864-5309-2
695:Hischak, Thomas.
687:978-0-571-10509-0
650:O'Mealy pp. 13–14
641:in O'Mealy, p. 13
627:The Daily Express
490:Bennett pp. 11–16
328:The Daily Express
261:, London, 1996),
126:Roddy Maude-Roxby
60:Beyond the Fringe
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74:Forty Years On
71:. It followed
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65:Habeas Corpus
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46:habeas corpus
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30:Lyric Theatre
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21:Habeas Corpus
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468:"Briefing",
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409:"Theatres",
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336:Clive Barnes
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322:The Guardian
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240:Frank Dunlop
236:Richard Gere
220:Celeste Holm
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168:Robert Hardy
158:Directed by
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144:Andrew Sachs
114:Phyllida Law
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26:Alan Bennett
20:
19:
18:
367:Oscar Wilde
279:Rob Edwards
267:James Fleet
228:Ian Trigger
160:Ronald Eyre
77:(1968) and
748:1973 plays
737:Categories
598:14 January
397:References
362:Travesties
263:Peter Hall
251:Sam Mendes
224:Jean Marsh
216:June Havoc
164:Carl Davis
79:Getting On
53:Background
614:The Times
411:The Times
377:Joe Orton
312:The Times
273:, 2006);
244:Carl Toms
150:John Bird
208:Broadway
202:Revivals
69:West End
38:Broadway
670:Sources
355:, like
293:, with
283:Octagon
277:, with
265:, with
253:, with
722:
703:
684:
639:Quoted
287:Bolton
259:Donmar
720:ISBN
701:ISBN
682:ISBN
600:2021
242:and
234:and
180:Hove
174:Plot
369:'s
359:'s
338:of
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