''Out of Order'' is a 1990 farce written by English playwright
Ray Cooney. It had a long run at the
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. Opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, it was the last theatre to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue.
History
The theatre was ...
starring
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor.
Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including ''The Cruel Sea (195 ...
and
Michael Williams.
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
Christian Jean-Marie Clavier (; born 6 May 1952) is a French actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. He became widely popular after starring in two hit comedy series: Patrice Leconte's ''Les Bronzés'' and ''Les Visiteurs'' directed by J ...
and
Gérard Lartigau
Gérard ( French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constit ...
.
In 1997 the play was made into a successful Hungarian movie
A Miniszter Félrelép. The 2019 Italian comedy film ''
Natale a cinque stelle
''Natale a cinque stelle'' () is a 2018 Italian comedy film directed by Marco Risi, starring Andrea Osvárt, Martina Stella and Björn Freiberg.
It was released worldwide by Netflix on 7 December 2018.
Plot
An Italian political delegation is on ...
'' 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. Other recent productions have been at the Moscow Art Theatre in Moscow, Russia under the name "№ 13D", in Beijing, China, and in a Hindi adaptation as "Sweet Suite" in Delhi, India.
[https://www.facebook.com/dreamingstages/ ]
Further reading
*
References
West End plays
1990 plays
Comedy plays
Plays by Ray Cooney
Laurence Olivier Award-winning plays
Plays set in London
{{1990s-play-stub