A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Perfect Timing

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  4w, 4m

Kristi Kane

"A laugh filled riot, bubbling with witty repartee, confused identities and sexual game playing....One of the most delightful evenings you can spend in a theatre." - Entertainment Magazine

Perfect Timing

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 4m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Farce, Period, Romantic Comedy
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Teen (Age 14 - 18)

Details

Summary

Effervescent would be the best adjective to describe this contemporary British drawing room comedy, written by a contemporary non British author. Set in the mad cap household of glamorous and neurotic art critic Cornelia Thorndike, her German maid and her splendidly sane secretary, the comedy bubbles along with a delicious assortment of intruders, passers by, droppers in and long and short term lovers, all of whom invariably bump into each other in the wrong place at the wrong time.

History

 Perfect Timing premiered at the West End Playhouse in June 1984.  Produced by Michael Bell.


Theater 40 - November 2015  David Hunt Stafford, Artistic Director

Keywords
Performing Groups

ROBIN - 43 – A handsome and debonaire  man–an acerbic wit with a 1940's charm.  He had a great go of it, but has matured and fallen for Alex's steadfastness and adoration.
ALEX – 57 – Successful and non-confrontative –a monogamous, bi-sexual man.  He loves the person, not the gender.  He dated women in his younger years, and is currently in love with the erudite, rib-tickling Robin.   
MELANIE –  29– She left the countryside for the big city – smart, sassy, and deliberatley sane.  She adores Robin and loves her job.
GERRARD – 34 – Beautiful and dense – a sexual conquistador with his eyes on Robin. 
LOUIS –  38 – Born to wealth.  A lover of all things pretty, aesthetic, and expensive.
JOSEPH DINGHAM – 30 – Northern country mama's boy.  Socially awkward who saved his virginity until after his mother died.
JOSEPH FOXSWORTH  - 50 – Works in diplomatic services.  Anavid art collector.
LAURA O’HARA – 18¾ - From Virginia.   A troublesome, self-absorbed, teenager whose parents are anxious for her to get married so they can lay her off on somebody else.

The cast could be any generation as long as the age differences are somewhat in tact.

The cast could be mixed ethnicities  depending on choice of location for play.

  • Time Period 1930s, 1920s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s / WWII
  • Setting

    London, England. (Could be set in any other big city.)

  • Features Period Costumes
  • Additional Features Local Celebrity Cameo, No intermission, Physical Comedy, Drag Performance
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

REVIEWS

"A laugh filled riot, bubbling with witty repartee, confused identities and sexual game playing....One of the most delightful evenings you can spend in a theatre." - Entertainment Magazine

"The writing is delightful...a cross between high brow romantic comedy and French farce." - Drama-Logue

"The play is a sparkling, carbonated, bubbly two hours of madcap mayhem with so many twist and turns that you need to stay on your toes to keep all that is happening–sane–if that is possible with this laugh riot." - Broadwayonline.com

"Perfect Timing is comical, amusic, charming and perhaps the best English comedy written by an American playwright!"  - Hollywood Times

"Suffice it to say that playwright Kristi Kane makes sure that each and every one of the aforementioned octet shows up for Perfect Timing's perfectly delicious climactic scene, one whose final coupling may not be quite the one you are expecting." - Stage Scene LA  

"Perfect Timing is farcical, amusing, charming, and perhaps the best English comedy written by an American playwright!" - Broadway Online

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Author

Kristi Kane

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