The Comedy of Babi Babbett (photo: Glenn Overington).

The Comedy of Babi Babbett

In August the players of The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company bring their seventeenth summer of outdoor theatre, comedy, mayhem and live music to St Leonards. Set in Islington in 1793, The Comedy of Babi Babbett is an out-and-out farce in the classic commedia dell’arte style and, according to The Rudes’ spokesperson, “is probably the funniest of all our plays”.

The Comedy of Babi Babbett (photo: Glenn Overington).

“Rich men are very attractive. There’s nothing so romantic as the creak in the moonlight of a chequebook opening.”

Miserly widower and gold merchant, Sydney Lean, receives some sausages by mistake from Philomila Taureaumerde, the wife of a hard-up doctor, who with Philomila frequently comes to Lean’s house for cards. In his foolishness, he assumes them to be a proclamation of her affection, so he writes her a love poem. He leaves the task of delivering it to his incompetent servant, Babi, who, of course, fails to give it to her. In the meantime the charlatan Captain Guarderobe, an apparent hero of the French Revolution, is attempting to seduce both Philomila and Lean’s daughter, Isabella. Taureaumerde finds out and all roads lead to The Golden Cockerel Chocolate House, where Fosca, in the guise of a French assassin, who has been menacingly stalking the stage with a bomb in his bag, is waiting.

“Side-splitting hilarity leading to a shocking and explosive ending” – The Independent on Sunday

The Comedy of Babi Babbett (photo: Glenn Overington).

The Comedy of Babi Babbett

St Leonards Gardens, St Leonards-on-Sea, Saturday 8 August at 7.30pm.

Open for picnics from 6pm.

Tickets available from St Leonards Central shop, 11 Marine Court, St Leonards-on-Sea TN38 0DX, or online at www.therudemechanicaltheatre.co.uk.

Adults £13, seniors £12, students £10, children (7-17) £7, families £33. For the special large group rate (10 or more people come together for £11 each) contact the Central Box Office on 01323 501260 or therudes@btinternet.com.

Further information from the company on 01323 501260.

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