The Rivals: R.B. Sheridan [Paperback]

'After years of neglect, Sheridan's 1775 comic masterpiece is coming back into fashion.' Michael Billington, Guardian, 14.9.10 'delightful comedy' Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 14.9.10 'the real pleasure of this play is in the characters, none more so than Mrs Malaprop, whose glorious abuse of the language instantly passed into the English bloodstream.' Georgina Brown, Mail on Sunday, 19.9.10 'This is one of those great Irish comedies that make their home in the English theatre, sending up English life with affectionate relish.' John Peter, Sunday Times, 19.9.10 'Sheridan's play is about the gap between the need for maturity and the immaturity of people who feed their feelings with semi-romantic fantasies.' John Peter, Sunday Times, 19.9.10 'Wonderfully rich and elegant comedy is accompanied by sudden glimpses of deeper emotion' Daily Telegraph - Charles Spencer, 24.11.10 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Sheridan's gift for turning situations on their heads is at the foundation of this farcicial comedy of manners. In the word-play of the comic scenes and the sentimentality of the lovers, Sheridan was writing for an eighteenth-century audience which prided itself on its decorum, sensibility and love of language. The Rivals is still as successful today. David Garrick remarked on watching one of its first performances in 1775: 'I see this play will run,' and 'run' it has ever since.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.