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A Will and No Will or a Bone for the Lawyers

Charles Macklin (1699 - 1797)

This "Afterpiece" - a short play to follow a main production - was first produced in 1746. It was based on Regnard's five-act comedy le Legetaire Universel (1707), which is itself a composite of Italian comedy with echoes of Molière, moving from scene to scene with little effort at logical consistency or structure but treating each scene autonomously for its own comic value.

The rather long Prologue to A WILL AND NO WILL (11 pages of manuscript) makes fun of the convention of the eighteenth century prologues by the familiar dodge of having actors chatting as though they were in the Pit waiting for the actors in the preceding main play to dress for the afterpiece. - Summary from Introduction

Cast list:
Prolog
Rattle: Beth Thomas
Smart: Larry Wilson
Dullman: Newgatenovelist
Irishman: alanmapstone
Snarlewit: TriciaG
Acts 1 & 2
SIR ISAAC SKINFLINT: Larry Wilson
BELLAIR and SERVANT: ToddHW
DOCTOR LEATHERHEAD: Beth Thomas
COUNCELLOUR CORMORANT: alanmapstone
MR. LITTLEWIT: Zames Curran
MONSIEUR DU MAIGRE: Carol Eades King
MR. DEATH: alanmapstone
SHARK: Kristin Gjerløw
LADY LOVEWEALTH: Availle
HARRIET: Elizabeth Klett
LUCY: TriciaG

Stage Directions By: MaryAnn

Edited and Coordinated By: ToddHW

Genre(s): Plays, Satire

Language: English