The Dresser

Dresser, The

    Author: Ronald Harwood

    First Performance: 1980, Manchester

    Published: 1980

    Genre: Tragicom. in 2 acts

    Setting: Dressing room and backstage of a provincial theatre, England, 1942

    Cast: 8m, 3f

Norman, for 16 years Sir's loyal dresser, has had to take the elderly actor to hospital, because he discovered him ranting and throwing away his clothes in the market just after an air raid. Now he is worried because Sir is due to perform King Lear that night. Just as his common-law wife (‘Her Ladyship’) and the stage manager Madge are about to cancel the performance, Sir walks in, still weeping but determined to go on. Coaxed by the patient Norman, Sir makes himself up for the performance, which suffers from a lack of good actors, since many have been called up into the army, and one has been arrested for...

[The entire page is 323 words long]

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