The Plot
General Braggadocio is in no doubt that everyone adores him – especially the local women of Rome, where he lives when he’s not at war. His servants, Feclus, Omnivorus and the savvy Dexter, are at his mercy and either flatter or fear him.
But the truth is, Braggadocio lives up to his name – he is an absolute windbag! Unable to bear life enslaved by such a man, Dexter has a plan. She and her former mistress, the resourceful Grecian beauty, Voluptua (recently kidnapped by Braggadocio) have managed to get word to Voluptua’s true love Valentin who has moved in next door as the guest of Braggadocio’s neighbour, the aged lawyer Philoproximus. Still with us?!
Dexter has re-engineered the attic skylights to open so Valentin and Voluptua can meet secretly. However, suspicions arise that Voluptua is cheating on Braggadocio when she is spotted by Feclus sneaking across the roof to see Valentin. Feclus summons Braggadocio back from an important vote at the Forum and it looks as if Voluptua is in serious trouble.
Philoproximus gamely joins in to help her, while Dexter invents a fake identical twin called Drusila to cover their tracks. Meanwhile Terrence, the General’s monkey, escapes and wreaks havoc while Feclus narrowly avoids death at the sword of his master. Nearly there…
The following week, Dexter begins to put her escape plan into action. She plans to convince Braggadocio that a new love interest is in town, persuade him to release Voluptua and then set sail home with Voluptua and Valentin. Philoproximus offers to find a willing young woman to get the plan moving, but Braggadocio stubbornly resists her advances. An encounter is engineered with Voluptua’s ‘identical twin’ Drusila and the General is drawn into the ever-tightening net of Dexter’s plan… Simple, really!
(or The Decline and Fall of General Braggadocio at the Hands of His Canny Servant Dexter and Terence the Monkey)
Vice Versa
(or The Decline and Fall of General Braggadocio at the Hands of His Canny Servant Dexter and Terence the Monkey)
There were piles of physical fun in this side-splitting 2017 comedy romp, written by Phil Porter and lovingly ripped off from the Roman comedies of Plautus.
A side-splitting comedy romp, lovingly ripped off from the Roman comedies of Plautus by Phil Porter (The Christmas Truce, 2014; A Mad World My Masters, 2013). Vice Versa premiered on the Swan stage in 2017.
A wily servant and a pair of wronged young lovers team up to bamboozle a pompous general in this riotous farce. Dodgy disguises, comic capers and a monkey create pandemonium as the tricksters try to save the girl, free the servant and live to tell the tale!
Director Janice Honeyman (who directed Antony Sher in the Baxter Theatre’s 2009 production of The Tempest in association with the RSC) piled on the physical fun in this world premiere production.
