An inventive, fast-paced comedy featuring P.G. Wodehouse's iconic double act. Winner of the 2014 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

When a country house weekend takes a turn for the worse, Bertie Wooster is unwittingly called on to play matchmaker - reconciling the affections of his host's drippy daughter Madeline Bassett with his newt-fancying acquaintance Gussie Fink-Nottle. If Bertie, ably assisted by the ever-dependable Jeeves, can't pull off the wedding of the season he'll be forced to abandon his cherished bachelor status and marry the ghastly girl himself! Based on P.G. Wodehouse's delightfully bonkers stories, especially The Code of the Woosters, the Goodale Brothers' dramatisation premiered at the Duke of York's Theatre, West End, in November 2013, prior to a UK tour. Written for a cast of three, who play multiple roles, this adaptation will suit any theatre company or drama group looking for a comic play to perform.

About the Author

Pelham ('Plum') Grenville Wodehouse was born in Guildford in 1881. After leaving school he spent two years as a banker, before switching careers to sports reporter and columnist at the Globe newspaper. Around this time he started writing short stories, mainly for boys' magazine The Captain, before discovering his talent for comic dialogue. By 1910 he was reaching millions of readers all over the world, and dividing his time between his homes in the US, France and Britain.

In his ninety-six years he wrote almost two hundred short stories, plays, articles, song lyrics - including working with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes - and novels. He began writing the Jeeves and Wooster novels, for which he is best known, with The Man with Two Left Feet in 1917, followed by others such as Right Ho, Jeeves (1934), The Code of the Woosters (1938) and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), and finally Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974.

His final years saw him constantly in and out of hospitals with a series of illnesses. He continued writing throughout, leaving his final work, Sunset at Blandings, unfinished. He died of a heart attack in a hospital in Southampton, Long Island, on Valentine's Day 1975.

Like many siblings growing up together, writers Robert and David Goodale enjoyed their own, very particular brand of humour. As children they created a range of ridiculous characters that seamlessly evolved into members of their extended family. It was only later that they discovered that P.G. Wodehouse had beaten them to it, in creating an entirely credible world full of even more deliciously bonkers characters.

As adults entering the real world, Robert became an actor, while David pursued a career as a documentary film-maker, but both remained committed to making people laugh. In 2010 they were encouraged to combine their comic talents to adapt P.G. Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters for the stage. They finally put pen to paper, and several drafts later, with the blessing of the Wodehouse Estate, Perfect Nonsense was born.

Reviews

'Razor-sharp ingenuity... comedy at its purest'

* Time Out *

'Wodehouse himself would have loved this... captures the dotty, sunlit innocence of his work with panache'

* Telegraph *

'Smart and crafty... [will] entertain those who have never been exposed to Wodehouse, and devotees will lap it up'

* Evening Standard *

'Inventive ...shimmers with just the right dose of silliness and self-mockery'

* Daily Mail *

'Furiously fast and funny... clever and inventive'

* Metro *

'Joyous... works beautifully well... so true to the creator's madcap spirit that you can imagine him wishing he'd thought of doing it like this'

* Daily Express *

'A joyous farce... side-splitting... deftly crafted and imbued with Wodehouse's spirit... a riotous evening that's guaranteed to chase the blues away... glorious'

* Broadway World *


Awards
Winner of Best New Comedy, Olivier Awards 2014.



Book Information
ISBN 9781848424142
Author The Goodale Brothers
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books