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On a summer's day in 1804, in a Dorset garden, the Bellboys family awaits the Napoleonic invasion. An aristocratic family, whose eccentricity verges on lunacy, they make their own preparations for war. Hallam Matthews, an elegant and reactionary dilettante, has come to stay and into the family's midst walks Edward Sterne, a radical, whose mission is to stop the war. Their debate is galvanised into action when the prospect of a real invasion looms. As danger grows, so does farce, as characters descend down wells and ascend in hot air balloons. A delicate, mystical and visionary play, A Penny for a Song is a classic English comedy. Mixing the plot of Ben Jonson with the characters of Sheridan, the wit of Wilde and the warmth of Goldsmith, the play was first staged in 1951 directed by Peter Brook.

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Author: John Whiting