Perfect Wedding by Robin Hawdon

perfect wedding play by robin hawdon

Perfect Wedding is perhaps Robin Hawdon’s most popular play, with several hundred productions worldwide. A ‘perfect wedding’ day goes disastrously wrong, causing chaos to all concerned.

(However – if your theatre has already done Perfect Wedding, take a look at Stage Fright ( In USA – Diamonds and Divas). New comedy with even more laughs.)

An appalling situation. A bridegroom wakes on his wedding morning in his own bridal suite, with his bride-to-be about to arrive any moment, and finds a strange girl in bed beside him.  What’s more an extremely attractive girl whom, in the depths of his post stag-night hangover, he can’t remotely remember even having been introduced to.  Worse – during the ensuing panic to get the stranger dressed and out of the way, the bride arrives, the girl is trapped in the bathroom, the best man has to pretend the hidden girl is his girl-friend, his real girl-friend has to be kept ignorant of the fact, and the hotel chamber-maid gets mistaken for everybody’s girl-friend!

By the time the bride’s parents and half the hotel staff get in on the act, the chaos reaches nuclear proportions. It is that rare combination – a riotous comedy and a touching love story at the same time.

(There is also a screenplay of this comedy titled ‘The Big Day’ – see under Films)

Cast

  • RACHEL (The Bride)
  • BILL (The Groom)
  • TOM (The Best Man)
  • JUDY (A Girl)
  • JULIE (A Chamber-maid)
  • DAPHNE (The Bride’s Mother)

Setting

The honeymoon suite of a romantic honeymoon hotel set anywhere in the world. Stage left the reception room. A large bow window in the left hand wall gives a glimpse of a church. Centre stage a token ‘wall’ with a connecting door in the upstage portion which leads to the bedroom with an ornate double bed.

Reviews

“Laughs abound in the American premiere… It all works out in the end, but not before playgoers have aching sides.” – USA – Wisconsin Advocate

“… The audience is left aching with laughter… It makes for a crazy, wonderful evening.” – Germany – Bonn Schaufenster

“This fast-moving and hugely entertaining comedy…. produces an endless series of excuses, games of hide-and-seek, lies, confusions and false confessions… every cue is spot on, every joke a winner – right up to the unexpected happy end.” – Cologne Express

“…a splendid evening in the theatre…. met with lengthy applause and shouts of approval.” – Austria – Vienna Donnerstag

“The play moves at the speed of light, with a riot a minute that leaves the audience crying with laughter…. the perfect medicine for all those thinking about getting married.” – UK – Daily Mail

“In Russia nobody writes plays like this. It’s a pity because when such texts are well-translated and staged they are very popular… The audience laughed continuously for two hours, and then gave long applause. An excellent sitcom – the first of its kind at the Stage Molot Theatre. Hopefully not the last.” – Senat Perm