The Man of Mode (Drama Classics)

This is a new addition to the popular "Drama Classics" published alongside major revival at National Theatre directed by Nicholas Hytner. "The Man of Mode" - first staged in 1676 - is perhaps the most typical 'Restoration Comedy', containing as it does all the classic ingredients: adultery, intrigue, gossip - and the first and greatest of the Restoration fops, Sir Fopling Flutter, a part still guaranteed to bring the house down. This new "Drama Classics" edition, prepared by Trevor Griffiths of the University of North London, is published alongside a high-profile revival of "The Man of Mode" at the National Theatre, staged by the Artisitic Director, Nicholas Hytner, in February 2007. Casting, yet to be announced, is bound to be stellar...

Sir George Etherege (1636-92) was born in Maidenhead, went to Cambridge, possibly had a child by the actress Elizabeth Barry, wrote the first Restoration Comedy (The Comical Revenge, 1664), became a career diplomat, was knighted in 1679 and died in Paris. Playwriting was very much merely a hobby.