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And now the play……

 

This is a famously funny, fast feast of a frolic.

 

Habeas Corpus was first presented at the Lyric Theatre, in 1973, starring Alec Guinness, Phyllida Law, Patricia Hayes and Andrew Sachs. Directed by Ronald Eyre.

 

To quote from the play copy:

‘The stage, bare except for three chairs, represents the interior and surroundings of the Wicksteed’s house in Hove. There, in a satirical merry-go-round, we meet a family and its friends and acquaintances for whom the determination to put sex and the satisfactions of the body (corpus) before everything else is the ruling passion of their lives. The permissive society is taken to task in a farcical comedy in which the characters move in and out through a maze of mistaken identities and sexual encounters. As Wicksteed says at the close of the play, “He whose lust lasts, lasts longest”.’

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