''The Twin Rivals'' is a 1702

comedy play Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...

by the Irish writer

George Farquhar George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux’ Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes ...

. It was one of the author's least successful plays.Bond & Sherburn p.777 A younger son schemes to cheat his elder brother out of the family estate. The original Drury Lane cast featured

Robert Wilks Robert Wilks (''c.'' 1665 – 27 September 1732) was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the ...

as Elder Woudbee,

Colley Cibber Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling ...

as younger Woudbee,

Benjamin Husband Benjamin Husband was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century. His surname is sometimes written as Husbands. Reportedly born in Pembrokeshire in 1672, he was a member of the Lincolns Inn Fields and Drury Lane companies during the 1700s ...

as Richemore,

John Mills Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...

as Trueman,

William Pinkethman William Pinkethman(also Penkethman, Pinkeman, Pinkerman, etc.; nicknamed Pinkey) (c.1660–1725) was an English comic actor, a low comedian with a droll style, and theatre manager. He was considered an imitator of Anthony Leigh. Starting in th ...

as Subtleman, Benjamin Johnson as Balderdash, William Bowen as Teague, Jane Rogers as Constance, Mary Hook as Aurelia, William Bullock as Mandrake and

Henrietta Moore Dame Henrietta Louise Moore, (born 18 May 1957) is a British social anthropologist. She is the director of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College, London (UCL), part of the Bartlett, UCL's Faculty of the Built Environment. ...

as Steward's wife. The prologue was written by

Peter Anthony Motteux Peter Anthony Motteux (born Pierre Antoine Motteux ; 25 February 1663 – 18 February 1718) was a French-born English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the ...

. In 1981 it was revived by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

References

Bibliography

* Donald F. Bond & G. Sherburn. ''The Literary History of England: Vol 3: The Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1660-1789)''. Routledge, 2003.

External links

* 1702 plays Plays by George Farquhar West End plays Restoration comedy {{1700s-play-stub