The Rehearsal

Rehearsal, The

    Author: George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and others

    Date Written: 1665

    First Performance: 1671, London

    Published: 1672; rev. 1675

    Genre: Burlesque in 5 acts; prose and rhyming couplets

    Setting: Drury Lane Theatre, London and Brentford, Restoration period

    Cast: 26m, 7f

The author Bayes invites two gentlemen to attend the rehearsal of his latest play, The Two Kings of Brentford. After some difficulty getting started, a series of scenes follow in which the conventions of heroic tragedy are satirized: the Physician, having plotted inaudibly with the Gentleman Usher, now overthrows the government, and a civil war fought by eight men takes place. After more scenes making fun of specific contemporary dramas, Prince Volscius falls in love with a young...

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