PODCAST · arts

Will and No Will or a Bone for the Lawyers

by LibriVox

This "Afterpiece" - a short play to follow a main production - was first produced in 1746. It was based on Regnard's five-act comedy le Legetaire Universel (1707), which is itself a composite of Italian comedy with echoes of Molière, moving from scene to scene with little effort at logical consistency or structure but treating each scene autonomously for its own comic value. The rather long Prologue to A WILL AND NO WILL (11 pages of manuscript) makes fun of the convention of the eighteenth century prologues by the familiar dodge of having actors chatting as though they were in the Pit waiting for the actors in the preceding main play to dress for the afterpiece. - Summary from Introduction Cast list: Prolog Rattle: Beth Thomas Smart: Larry Wilson Dullman: Newgatenovelist Irishman: alanmapstone Snarlewit: TriciaG Acts 1 & 2 SIR ISAAC SKINFLINT: Larry Wilson BELLAIR and SERVANT: ToddHW DOCTOR LEATHERHEAD: Beth Thomas COUNCELLOUR CORMORANT: alanmapstone MR. LITTLEWIT: Zames Curran MONSIE