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Shady Business

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  2w, 5m

Robin Hawdon

“Packed with high-energy and mad comedy that rarely takes a breath until its side-splitting conclusion.” - Door County Advocate

Shady Business

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 5m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Farce

Details

Summary

Mandy and Tania are sexy but struggling nightclub dancers living in the heart of London's Soho nightlife, and they face a crisis. Will possessive club owner Big Mack find out about Mandy's affair with Gerry and Tania's affair with Terry, and set his sidekicks on them? Will he discover that he is owed money that was borrowed from his club's till, then gambled and lost on the club's roulette table, and then stolen back from the club's takings? Will Gerry be discovered hiding in Mandy's bathroom? Will Terry be rumbled delivering the dinner? Will Terry reveal that he is really Gerry and that Gerry is Terry? Will anyone figure out what the hell is going on, and will they all survive until the curtain comes down? The action doesn't slow down from beginning to end in this classic farce which has already played in many theatres in Europe and America.

The Paris production at the Theatre Michodiere saw the play relocated to the Pigale area of Paris and ran for five months. The production was televised for French TV.

History
Shady Business premiered at Wisconsin's Peninsular Players in the US, at The Mill at Sonning Dinner Theatre in the UK, and at Theatre Michodiere in Paris.
Keywords
MANDY – a night-club dancer
GERRY – her boyfriend
TANIA – another dancer
TERRY – a lad-about-town
BIG MACK – a gang boss
DOZER – his sidekick
HARRY THE HAMMER – a loan shark
  • Setting The living room of a smart London studio apartment. (Can be relocated to a different country/city).

Media

“The comic twists and turns are side-splitting.” – Oxford Times

“Packed with high-energy and mad comedy that rarely takes a breath until its side-splitting conclusion.” – Door County Advocate

“Produces big surprises that delight and astonish. It is Sopranos with laughing gas.” – Green Bay Press Wisconsin

“Robin Hawdon’s comedy of mistaken identities, mobster men and numerous love triangles is a blissfully chaotic play where everything that could go wrong does!” – ActOne (Brisbane, Australia)

“Robin Hawdon’s farce is filled with all of the things that farce lovers could wish for: false identities, people who are not what they first appear to be, people pretending to be other people, people hiding from others, confusion, mayhem and a huge bundle of laughs. A roller coaster of crazy events and mistaken identities that don't stop until the last side-splitting conclusion.” – Adelaide Review

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Robin Hawdon

Robin Hawdon
Robin Hawdon is a British playwright especially known for the popularity of his comedies. Mr. Hawdon’s plays are amongst the most frequently produced around the world – his name is as well known abroad as in his native Great Britain. Many of his plays are published by Samue ...
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