Habeas Corpus

by Alan Bennett

The antics at the Wicksteed home are a satirical merry-go-round. Family, friends and the sexual satisfaction of the "corpus" (body) are the ruling passions in this farcical comedy of ill-manners. Through a dance of mistaken identities and carnal encounters, one motto holds fast: "He whose lust lasts, lasts longest."

"A parade of wit." - The New York Times

"A marvelous freaky farce...rowdy and ribald." - NBC

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Humor, Comedy

60 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1974

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.

Reviews

[[ J o ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

habeas corpus, mass noun.
A writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.

A ridiculous farce that isn't quite a farce, as it seems to be a farce about farces. We get every element that farces generally contain, which includes lewd behaviour, leering old men (with bad intent) and the falling of trousers.

I feel incredibly unable to write a sufficient synopsis for this play, other than it's set in a at-home doctors surgery, concerns a doctor and his wife, their son who is convinced he has three months to live (but they don't care), an ex-pat recently returned to England with her daughter, a busy-body who acts as a kind of narrator/one-woman-chorus and some other men and women, whereat everyone falls in love with the daughter and no-one wants to stay married. That about sums it up.

The humour is forced, but that's farces for you. It's not as strong as his other works that I've read, but the writing itself is still utterly sublime and wonderful. There are hints of satire that farces don't tend to incorporate and I would have given anything to have been able to see Alec Guinness in this on stage. Alas, it cannot be and I must satisfy myself with re-watching The Lavender Hill Mob instead.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat hopelessly dated fifty years on, and strongly reminiscent of the superior What the Butler Saw - but it still has some very clever and witty lines and would probably play OK even now.

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any play that contains the line "He only went into the Army in order to put his moustache to good purpose" is almost certainly worth reading.

Habeas Corpus is an enormously funny farce. It was written in the early 1970s, which places it midway between Joe Orton's politically motivated deconstruction of the genre in the Sixties and Michael Frayn's liberating reconstruction of it with Noises Off in 1982. While Orton and Frayn get revived regularly, Bennett's piece, which had just a brief run in New York its first time around, has been unjustly forgotten.

A maid (who else?) is our guide into the play's cockeyed world; a lusty doctor who is all bark and no bite personifies the play's point of view, and even sums it up in a Restoration comedy-type epilogue:

So this is my prescription
Grab any chance you get
Because if you take it or you leave it
You end up with regret.

Sharing the stage with doctor and maid are an oversized sex-hungry matron and her undersized would-be paramour, a slow-witted young hypochondriac and a flat-chested spinster with a brand new set of falsies, and a bombastic military widow and her blonde bombshell daughter. And oh, yes: there're also a falsies' salesman, a peeping-tom vicar, and a suicidal young man with a noose. These characters occupy themselves for two acts by alternately groping and misunderstanding each other until a Perfectly Reasonable Explanation is offered for everything that's transpired. Every bit of it is rendered with the driest wit possible: the gags sneak up on you and then reduce you to helpless giggles.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny play, as to be expected with Alan Bennett. Funny mistaken identity, witty play on words and a wonderful intermingling of storylines to create humour. Mr Wicksteed, a doctor, and his wife have a son who is a hypochondriac. Mr Wicksteed also has a sister, Connie, who is desperate to have a bigger bust. There is a well-to-do lady and her daughter, a prosthetic breast salesman, a pervy vicar, a suicidal patient, and a long lost love. It all comes together really well, however I think the (trigger warning) hanging scene is unnecessary. It's obviously of its time, and it is a little problematic in 2024, but a good comedy nonetheless.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was probably the weakest of the plays in the collection that I read it in, at least in my opinion. It just didn’t feel as though much was happening, although there were some cracking bits of dialogue scattered throughout it. I wouldn’t say that it’s worth going out of your way for it.

[Nori Fitchett · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Very raunchy and farcical which it does well, it just isn’t for me

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

uses the format of farce to make pertinent, and sometimes moving, points about the body, love and familes.

[Cave Empter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, with a messy structure. Lacking clear notation — a style thing, probably. Still makes for a tougher read.

[Steve Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love all Alan Bennetts work and this is a delight. Such a great observer of human ways and manners

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that sure was a play. I suspect it would be very fun to stage.

This is only my second encounter with Alan Bennet, but I have a question: do *all* his plays incorporate what in contemporary UK parlance would be called "safeguarding failures"? Abuses of position by authority figures (here, doctors; History Boys, teachers)? Is that just his Thing?

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2012, my thoughts were "A bit of something about nothing, plain old farce... but probably fun enough to watch or to act."
In 2023, my thoughts are less generous. It feels terribly outdated, and deeply sexist and sad.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a moving saucy seaside postcard...not the usual Bennett territory. Remember seeing it with Alec Guinness of all people playing a randy doctor.

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plenty of amusing moments, but structurally it's a bog-standard farce. With its jokes about Heath and Wilson and about morals in the 1960s, this is starting to look very dated.