''Stags and Hens'' is a play written by

Willy Russell William Russell (born 23 August 1946) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are ''Educating Rita'', ''Shirley Valentine'', '' Blood Brothers'' and ''Our Day Out''. Early life Russell was born in Whiston, Lancash ...

. Like most of Willy Russell's work, the play discusses working class society in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the 1970s. It makes comments about the working class' intellect, life, party habits and the exclusion of the different. It was originally written in 1978 for television and drama students of the then-

Manchester Polytechnic Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

, as an

in-house Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

television production. It was first published as a script in 1986 in a collection with ''

Educating Rita ''Educating Rita'' is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University tutor. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, ''Educating Rita'' premièred at The Wa ...

'' and '' Blood Brothers''.Stags and Hens – The Remix, Willy Russell, 2009 Russell adapted it for performance in 2008 as ''Stags and Hens – The Remix'' at The

Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool The Royal Court Theatre is a theatre located at 1 Roe Street in Liverpool, England. The current Royal Court Theatre was opened on 17 October 1938, after fire destroyed its predecessor. It was rebuilt in Art Deco style and soon became Liverpool's ...

. The play ran in February to March 2008, directed by Bob Eaton.High, Chris
" 'Stags and Hens' review at Royal Court Theatre Liverpool"
''The Stage'', 7 February 2008 Russell says that "I wanted the play to move at a kind of pace that was more in keeping with a theatrical tempo that has significantly increased in the thirty years since the play was first seen.", though he "vehemently disagrees" with the suggestion that he was "pandering to the needs of an audience" with a "limited attention span and who must increasingly be spoon-fed". It now numbers 90 pages. The play has become successful and is now popularly used in schools. Russell adapted the play into a TV movie called '' Dancin' Thru the Dark'', which was filmed in 1990.

Plot

The play is set in a trashy 1970s disco in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, 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 this causes an uproar between Linda and Dave's friends and when Linda's hen party get a say in all whats happening the two groups gang together to stop Linda taking up the offer of an escape with her ex Peter she is then forced with a difficult decision – to stay or to go.
Willy Russell Website

Characters

*Linda – ''The Bride'' *Dave – ''The Dickhead – The 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''

Reception

The work was received reasonably well. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' said that it "combines comedy with acrid truth in the style Willy Russell has made unmistakably his own... and hits on brilliantly the herd instinct driving both sexes onward and bedward". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called it a "bleakly funny and perceptive study of working class misogyny, Puritanism and waste." The ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' however described it as "firmly in the centre of the playwright's best achievements: lively, coarse, well-organised, truthful and very funny." ''The Stage'' wrote that the 2008 production had "...outstanding writing, superlative direction and fabulous performances all round, Stags and Hens is a play that remains a great deal of fun and is guaranteed to have audiences chuckling and empathising with everyone on stage."

References

{{reflist 1978 plays Plays by Willy Russell Liverpool in fiction Plays set in the 1970s Plays set in Liverpool