The Libertine (NHB Modern Plays) [Paperback]

Bubbles and fizzes like champagne... and the dialogue drips with wonderful witticisms. --Financial Times

Bold, startling, fascinating, raunchy. --nytheatre.com

Stephen Jeffreys' The Libertine was first seen at the Royal Court in 1994 in a production by Max Stafford-Clark's Out of Joint. It was later filmed by John Malkovich, starring Johnny Depp as John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, friend and confidant of Charles II and the most notorious and licentious rake of his age. Centering on the moment when Rochester falls in love with the actress Elizabeth Barry, The Libertine is thoroughly modern in its sensibility and in its attitude to Rochester's endless sexual indulgence. Gloriously irreverent, The Libertine is both a thrillingly convincing accurate portrait of the period and a very funny comedy of manners.

Stephen Jeffreys' plays include Valued Friends about property values, for which he won the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award, A Going Concern, The Clink and I Just Stopped by to See the Man. All are published by NHB.