Staging Sex in the City of London: From Country Wives to Fleabags

This course charts a dominant motif of British stage comedy from the Restoration -- when all hell broke loose with the return of the monarchy in 1660, the introduction of the actress, and the emergence of professional women playwrights -- until the present day. We'll look at work by men and women celebrated for their always witty but often controversial representations of the sexual/romantic escapades of their contemporaries. Prepare to be disturbed as well as amused. One issue we'll want to consider: Why did men's work become canonical while their female colleagues, equally successful in their own day, were disappeared from the story?