Habeas Corpus

Written by British satirist Alan Bennett and first produced in 1973, Habeas Corpus teases the sexual pretension and inhibitions of middle-class Brits.

Alan Bennett’s theatrical range extends well beyond the dour, domestic ‘Talking Heads’ monologues that have become his 90s trademark. ‘Habeas Corpus’ is a sharp, eloquent and intermittently hilarious celebration of the English obsession with class, sex and death. In his script, the conventions of farce are stretched to the point where the shedding of male trousers and an obsession with female cleavage are signs of lustful life in the face of mortality.

Habeas Corpus exudes fun and excitement. This play will have audiences on the edge of their seats anticipating the next fast entrance of one of the many zany, wild characters. This play, written by Alan Bennett, takes place in the late 60s.

In this satirical merry-go-round we meet the Wicksteed family and its friends and acquaintances, for whom the determination to put sex and the satisfactions of the body (or corpus) before everything else is the ruling passion of their lives. The permissive society is taken to task in a farcical comedy in which the characters, move in and our through a maze of mistaken identities and sexual encounters. As Wicksteed says, at the close, ‘he whose lust lasts, lasts longest’.