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Wife Begins at Forty

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  2w, 4m

Ray Cooney, Earl Barret, Arne Sultan

George and Linda Harper's 17 year marriage has gone stale, but George doesn't seem to be aware of it. When confronted with the problem, he gets a vasectomy, which solves nothing, so he moves out. Linda rearranges her life by enrolling in self improvement courses. Trying for an amicable divorce, they…

Wife Begins at Forty

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 4m

Details

Summary
George and Linda Harper's 17 year marriage has gone stale, but George doesn't seem to be aware of it. When confronted with the problem, he gets a vasectomy, which solves nothing, so he moves out. Linda rearranges her life by enrolling in self improvement courses. Trying for an amicable divorce, they agree to use one lawyer and hire their closest friend. When this backfires, George attempts reconciliation by trying to seduce Linda on their living room couch. George botches the seduction due to the pressure of trying to perform well and due to the unexpected return of their son from a date. But it does result in their realizing they still care about each other...and that marriages need working at, need to be renewed and renegotiated from time to time and that their's is certainly worth a second chance. A success in London's West End.

Music

Song Samples

Ray Cooney's Interview for Dave's Gone By

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Ray Cooney

Ray Cooney began his theatrical career as a boy actor in Song of Norway at the Palace Theatre in 1946. He played in Dry Rot and Simple Spymen and then began a writing career which, to date, has sent 18 plays to the West End, including One for the Pot, Not Now Darling, Move Ov ...

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Earl Barret

Earl Barret was born in Canton, Ohio during the Great Depression and is known primarily as a television writer/producer although he has written both plays and screenplays. Eden Was On a Hollywood Hill is his first book. As a free-lance writer Earl wrote for some of TV's mo ...
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Author

Arne Sultan

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