Out of Order (play)

1990 farce by Ray Cooney

Out of Order

Written by| Ray Cooney
Date premiered| 1990
Place premiered| Leatherhead
Surrey
Original language| English
Genre| Comedy

Out of Order is a 1990 farce written by English playwright Ray Cooney. It had a long run at the Shaftesbury Theatre starring Donald Sinden and Michael Williams.[1]

As with many other Ray Cooney plays, it features a lead actor (in this case a junior UK minister) who has to lie his way out of an embarrassing situation (in this case a planned adultery with a secretary) with the help of an innocent side-kick (in this case the minister's personal private secretary), who gets more and more embroiled in the increasingly tangled tale improvised by the lead character as events unfold. The action takes place in a suite in a posh London hotel and revolves around accidents caused by a defective sash window.

In 1996, the play was adapted in France as Panique au Plazza, starring Christian Clavier and Gérard Lartigau. In 1997 the play was made into a successful Hungarian movie A Miniszter Félrelép. The 2019 Italian comedy film Natale a cinque stelle is based on the plot.

The play has also been staged internationally in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in April 2012, by the British Theatre Playhouse.[2] Other recent productions have been made in Poland as "Okno na parlament" (Komedia and Och theatres in Warsaw; theatres in Kraków, Wrocław, Gdynia, Szczecin, and Słupsk), at the Moscow Art Theatre in Moscow, Russia under the name "№ 13D",[3] elsewhere in Russia under the name "Two in the Room, Not Counting...",[4] in Beijing, China,[5] and in a Hindi adaptation as "Sweet Suite" in Delhi, India.[6]

In 2023, the Mill at Sonning premiered an adaptation by Michael Barfoot, It's Her Turn Now, which changed the lead character into a female MP.[7]

## Further reading

[edit]

* Cooney, Ray (1991). Out of Order: A Comedy (First ed.). London: Samuel French. ISBN 0-573-01858-8.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "About Us".
2. ^ "British Theatre Playhouse - Past Productions - at BTP, we pride ourselves on high standards equivalent to London's West End and offer UK casts comprising prominent stage, television and film actors. Every one of BTP shows has featured stars from London's West End. - SISTIC". Archived from the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
3. ^ "МХТ им. А. П. Чехова: № 13D".
4. ^ "Спектакль "Двое в номере, не считая…"".
5. ^ "Out of Order - 话剧 (豆瓣)".
6. ^ Sweet Suite - Hindi Comedy Play
7. ^ ""High Society" and "It's Her Turn Now" among shows confirmed in new Mill at Sonning season". 6 January 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.

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Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play

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* Privates on Parade (1977)
* Filumena (1978)
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* Educating Rita (1980)
* Steaming (1981)
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* A Chorus of Disapproval (1985)
* When We Are Married (1986)
* Three Men on a Horse (1987)
* Shirley Valentine (1988)
* Single Spies (1989/1990)
* Out of Order (1991)
* La Bête (1992)
* The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (1993)
* Hysteria (1994)
* My Night with Reg (1995)
* Mojo (1996)
* 'Art' (1997)
* Popcorn (1998)
* Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick (1999)
* The Memory of Water (2000)
* Stones in His Pockets (2001)
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* The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2003)
* Heroes (2006)
* The 39 Steps (2007)
* Rafta, Rafta... (2008)
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* Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (2014)
* The Play That Goes Wrong (2015)
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* Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (2017)
* Labour of Love (2018)
* Home, I'm Darling (2019)
* Emilia (2020)
* No Ceremony (2021)
* Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) (2022)
* My Neighbour Totoro (2023)
* Stranger Things: The First Shadow (2024)

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