Bullingdon Club Satire Features in New Season at Questors
January programme also includes sixties comedy made famous by Bette Davis
Laura Wilde's play looks at thedarker side of privilege and classism in Britain. Picture: Robert Vass
December 19, 2024
The traditionally miserable month of January could be brightened up by two comedy productions at the Questors.
Laura Wilde’s satire on the infamous Bullingdon Club, ‘Posh’ is being performed along with The Anniversary by Bill MacIlwraith, a play best known through the film featuring Bette Davis.
Fans of horror comedy and witty put-downs should relish The Anniversary. First performed in 1966, the play enjoyed a long run in the West End and was famously adapted into a film in 1968 with Bette Davis in the central role. The Anniversary received a West End revival in 2005 with Sheila Hancock who played the daughter-in-law in the film starring as the lead character of Mum.
The play is set in London in the 60s, and Mum has summoned the family to celebrate her wedding anniversary, as she does every year despite Dad being long-since dead. The sharp-tongued matriarch is used to calling the shots as the head of the family business and regularly tugs on the apron strings to get her own way. It's supposed to be her day, but her sons arrive with surprise revelations that threaten to ruin it and challenge her dominance – if they are brave enough to face down her caustic wit.
Playwright Bill MacIlwraith wrote, “The central character in The Anniversary is dear old Mum, a woman whose possessiveness is a killer. She is thoroughly evil and glories in destroying anything that is good and kind and pure. And yet, like the Devil, Mum has an undeniable charm.”
The matriarch in The Anniversary. Picture: Jane Arnold Forster
Director Russell Fleet adds, “In The Anniversary the family members fight for dominance with sarcasm, thinly-veiled insults and sharp criticisms. This makes for a hilarious comedy farce, and yet through the laughter the audience can identify universal truths of family life.”
Described as ‘enjoyably creepy’ by the Daily Telegraph and ‘like watching at tag-wrestling bout, in which increasingly unlikely characters deploy ever more improbable manoeuvres to manipulate and abuse one another" by the Guardian, The Anniversary runs at the Questors from 17-25 January.
Tickets for The Anniversary are available on this link and from the Box office on 0208 567 5184 or at boxoffice@questors.org.uk.
All performances are at 7:30pm except on Sunday 19 January when it is at 2:30pm. There is no performance on Monday 20 January.
Posh is a scathing look at privilege, classism, and the notorious clique of privileged young men at Oxford University. The story follows the group preparing for a decadent night with their secret society, the Riot Club. What begins as an extravagant celebration quickly spirals into a reckless display of arrogance, entitlement, and an insatiable appetite for chaos.
Director, Gary Reid said, "Posh is a play full of contrasts—tradition versus rebellion, opulence versus destruction, control versus chaos. It isn’t just a brilliantly written satire; it’s an experience that confronts audiences with the darker side of privilege and classism in Britain and the consequences that follow it."
Time Out described the play as ‘savagely funny’ and The Stage said it was “A satirical, humorous and finally chilling view of the upper classes - and a really fine metaphor for our times.”
This is the first play by award-winning British playwright Laura Wade to be staged at The Questors Theatre. Wade’s recent play Home, I’m Darling received good reviews at the National Theatre and won the 2019 Olivier award for Best New Comedy. She is currently Writer and Executive Producer on the TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals for Disney+.
The show runs from 24 January to 1 February and tickets are available on this link or from the Box office on 0208 567 5184 or at boxoffice@questors.org.uk.
All performances are at 7:45pm expect on Sunday 26 January when the play begins at 2:30pm. There is no performance on Monday 27 January.
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