A Cure for Wellness
Eminent doctors and notorious charlatans vied for sick patients to treat in the cut-throat medical marketplace of Georgian England.
Now celebrated as Richard Sheridan’s comic masterpiece, the first performance of The Rivals: Or a Trip to Bath was a farce in its own right. After a well-aimed apple hit the lead actor mid-speech, he turned to the audience and asked whether the problem lay with him or the play. Both, came the answer – but a fortnight later, a hastily rewritten version opened with a new cast and rapidly became a perennial favourite.
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