The Cottage
by Sandy Rustin

Name: The Cottage
Brand: Sandy Rustin
SKU: 9780822243687

Broadway

The Cottage Book Cover — The Cottage Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

120 mins 1920s Interior Set Period Costumes Comedy

Synopsis

Sylvia and Beau find themselves in an English countryside cottage for their yearly rendezvous, and Sylvia knows this time it will be the beginning of their new life together.

But when Beau demurs on a shared future, and their spouses arrive at the cottage, she realizes that this home-away-from-home is a refuge for determining a new path forward and decides to expose her love affair to her husband and her lover’s wife.

With a tip of the hat to Noël Coward and sex comedies of the past, The Cottage offers a perfect showcase for six actors with endless laughs, hilarious twists, daring physical comedy and a happy ending for lovers everywhere.

The true meaning of fate, identity and marriage are called into question as a surprising, hilarious web of secrets unravels in this ridiculous, potentially murderous, uncharacteristically feminist 1923 British tale of sex, betrayal and love.

Press Reviews

"Positively delightful… frothy and effervescent."
— TheaterMania

"A naughty romp… Amid the old-fashioned trappings, Rustin nestles a welcome modern sensibility to the plot’s skirmishes of the sexes."
— Time Out New York

"Sidesplitting screwball comedy… The Cottage is a fresh and fiercely fun play that’s firing on all cylinders with Rustin’s excellent script."
— Entertainment Weekly

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Beau Perhaps the best-looking man in Britain	—	—	Perhaps the best-looking man in Britain
Marjorie Eight months pregnant, pragmatic and a tad spicy	—	—	Eight months pregnant, pragmatic and a tad spicy
Clarke A distinguished gent with a lover’s spirit	—	—	A distinguished gent with a lover’s spirit
Dierdre An awfully pretty, sometimes wise nincompoop	—	—	An awfully pretty, sometimes wise nincompoop
Richard A murderous yet gentle soul Theatre companies should strive to support a cast and crew of diverse theatre workers. This diversity includes, but is not limited to, gender identities, ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, body types, ages and ability. The script maps out suggested physicality in some cases, but casts are encouraged to embrace the style and find their own moments of doors swinging, cigarette lighting and a general air of farce while maintaining a truthful intention throughout. Characters are often on separate wavelengths, experiencing the same moment in dramatically different ways. Discovering the abrupt beat changes is all part of the fun. Some are clearly marked, others are to be found as you go. Standard British dialect should be adhered to. Actresses playing Dierdre (Deer-drah) have the liberty of slowly descending into a lower-class dialect (Deer-dree).	female	—	A murderous yet gentle soul Theatre companies should strive to support a cast and crew of diverse theatre workers. This diversity includes, but is not limited to, gender identities, ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, body types, ages and ability. The script maps out suggested physicality in some cases, but casts are encouraged to embrace the style and find their own moments of doors swinging, cigarette lighting and a general air of farce while maintaining a truthful intention throughout. Characters are often on separate wavelengths, experiencing the same moment in dramatically different ways. Discovering the abrupt beat changes is all part of the fun. Some are clearly marked, others are to be found as you go. Standard British dialect should be adhered to. Actresses playing Dierdre (Deer-drah) have the liberty of slowly descending into a lower-class dialect (Deer-dree).
Sylvia A lovely and rash romantic	—	—	A lovely and rash romantic