Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. Appealing to a fairly narrow audience of aristocrats in the recently reopened theatres, Restoration comedy relied upon sophisticated repartee, sexual explicitness, bustling plots, topical writing, and comic physicality (lots of entrances and exits). The plots were largely being based on the complex intrigues of the marriage‐market. Playgoers were attracted to the comedies for the above reasons as well as the introduction of the first professional actresses, and the rise of the first celebrity actors. The plays expressed the sense of libertinism, secularism, cynicism and freedom of the time period.
Simon Callow on Acting in Restoration Comedy
William Wycherly's The Country Wife excerpt
from from BBC 1977 Play of the Month
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