Farce and Contemporary Drama: I

Abstract

Farce for many people still remains synonymous with the Whitehall and post-Whitehall variety studied in Chapters 4 and 5. That variety, I’ve attempted to show, is well worth serious critical attention. But, since Orton, farce has become a much more available option to the so-called ‘serious’ dramatist, and the kind of compart-mentalisation represented by equating farce with one particular species of it seems less and less feasible.