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#1

Great Farce plays

I'm looking for a great farce play to read for my Acting class. If it happens to have a good female monologue in it, even better! Thanks for any help!
#2

re: Great Farce plays

Start will all Georges Feydeaux, the source of the term "Fedeaux farce". [I am almost certain I have spelled his surname incorrectly.]

Hotel Paradiso is a splendid one with which to begin.

Farces aren't known for monologues since the humor is dependent upon action as opposed to words.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher
#3

re: Great Farce plays

A Flea in Her Ear
Don't Dress for Dinner
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#5

re: Great Farce plays

I'm a little pedestrian in my taste in farce...I love British sex farce, and that general genre. So:

No Sex Please, We're British
Boeing-Boeing (LOVED the recent revival)
The Ritz (also loved the revival a couple of years ago...not a whole lot of good female roles in this one, though...)

Just a thought...would The Matchmaker be considered a farce? Lots of physical humor in that one, but a lot of word play as well...and a GREAT female monologue for Dolly Levi...
"Are you calling me a procrastibator?" Hunter, [title of show] "Guess who's gonna get blamed for the war in Europe?" Eugene, Brighton Beach Memoirs
#6

re: Great Farce plays

believe Aresenic and Old Lace would qualify.
"... so brother married her"
#8

re: Great Farce plays

Definitely seconding Noises Off.
"You mean what was the best picture of the year or what did they pick as the best picture of the year?" - California Suite
#11

re: Great Farce plays

MARY, MARY by Jean Kerr
My Avatar is the amazing young singer, James Anest
#12

re: Great Farce plays

WHAT THE BUTLER SAW by Joe Orton
#13

re: Great Farce plays

Run for your wife, and Noises Off, come to mind.
#14

re: Great Farce plays

The Bush Years... Best farce written in a number of years.
#17

re: Great Farce plays

Lend me a tenor
Attend the tale of Bovine Boy His party threads we all enjoy But does he have Mad Cow Disease? He doesn't eat beef - but cows skating? - oh please!!! With cocoa!?! And lemonade!?! The heifer-mad poster of Broadway (World)
#18

re: Great Farce plays

oh, the Lend Me a Tenor post reminded me...Moon over Buffalo
"Are you calling me a procrastibator?" Hunter, [title of show] "Guess who's gonna get blamed for the war in Europe?" Eugene, Brighton Beach Memoirs
#20

re: Great Farce plays

Charley's Aunt.
(And seconds to What the Butler Saw, Noises Off and Lend Me A Tenor)
(And Noises Off does start with a female monologue - but it's not funny in and of itself)
#21

re: Great Farce plays

def. agree with Noises Off and Is He Dead.

but Georges Feydeaux's A Little Hotel On the Side is hysterical! I saw it done perfectly this past summer where it had non-stop laughter from beginning to end.
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.

-Dre-
You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~

There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~

It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
#22

re: Great Farce plays

Run for your wives (Ray Conney)
Caught on the Net (Ray conney)

Cash on Delivery (Michael Cooney)

#24

re: Great Farce plays

On the Razzle- Tom Stoppard (which is actually based on the same play that inspired The Matchmaker, but doesn't have The Matchmaker in it).
#25

re: Great Farce plays

LEADING LADIES by Ken Ludwig

Its a wonderfully funny play that deserves a commercial run somewhere.

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