Stags and Hens

Stags and Hens is a play written by Willy Russell. It was originally written in 1978 for television and drama students of the then-Manchester Polytechnic, as an in-house television production. Russell adapted it for performance in 2008 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Plot

The play is set in a trashy 70s disco in Liverpool, England. The action is mainly in the gents and women's toilets of the disco where both Linda (The Bride) and Dave (The Groom) have decided to hold their stags and hens nights, not knowing that their other half is at the same place. When Linda's ex-boyfriend, Peter, arrives and offers her an escape she is forced with a difficult decision - to stay or to go.

Implications

Like most of Willy Russell's work, the play discusses working class society in England in the 1970s. It makes comments about their intellect, life, party habits and exclusion of the different.

Characters

*Linda - "The Bride"
*Dave - "The Drunken Groom"
*Eddy - "The Violent Best-Man"
*Robbie - "The Ladies Man"
*Billy - "The Oddball"
*Kav - "The Piss Artist"
*Peter - "The Musician"
*Frances - "The Best Friend"
*Carol - "The Work Colleague"
*Bernadette - "The Dictator"
*Maureen - "The Drunken Cry-Baby"
*Roadie - "The Work Obsessed Southerner"

The play was made into an unsuccessful movie called Dancin' Thru The Dark. The movie gained little recognition and received very poor reviews. The movie was a rewrite of the play, but was also written by Willy Russell. The play however has become very successful and is now popularly used in schools.