''Balmoral'' (aka ''Liberty Hall'') is a 1987 farcical play by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen (play), Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy (play), Democracy''. Frayn's novel ...

. It is set in an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

1937 Britain, which experienced a communist revolution in 1917. The royal residence at

Balmoral Castle Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen. The estate and its original castle were bought ...

hosts a commune of writers in poor living conditions, who are thrown into conflict when a Russian capitalist journalist visits to interview an author who has gone missing. Frayn rewrote ''Balmoral'' several times to try to make the play's fanciful premise believable enough to support a farce. The play was re-staged in 2009, starring

Rik Mayall Richard Michael Mayall (; 7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Adrian Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University, and was a pioneer of alternative come ...

and directed by Alan Strachan.

References

Plays by Michael Frayn 1987 plays Plays set in Scotland Methuen Publishing books British comedy plays Plays set in the 1930s {{1980s-play-stub

Further reading

References