Comedians

Comedians by Trevor Griffiths is one of the most important plays of the 1970s, a savagely funny investigation into the politics of comedy. Comedy is medicine. Not coloured sweeties to rot their teeth with. On a wet Friday night in Manchester, a group of men attend their final evening comedy class, run by a retired vaudevillian. They perform their acts at a working men's club in front of an agent's scout; and finally discover whether they can be said to have 'succeeded' or 'failed'. In Comedians, Trevor Griffiths interrogates the ethics of humour with radical daring and furious wit. The play opened at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1975. It transferred to the National Theatre at the Old Vic, London, later that year. In 1979, the television adaptation was broadcast in the BBC's Play for Today series. 'Telling jokes for money offers an escape from the building site or the milk round. But the humour is a deadly serious business that also involves anger, pain and truth.' Financial Times 'Trevor Griffiths's play is a bold and daring work. It doesn't just analyse comedy. It presents it in its raw state, while obliquely commenting on class, race, gender and the condition of Britain . . . Even if comedy has changed, the piece itself remains an extraordinary mix of wordplay and state-of-the-nation drama.' Guardian