* A separate, revised edition of this play comes with the book.

These plays of different length have a domestic function, and may be read or staged separately. Guests arrive for a meal. Before they eat, they may perform one of three antipasti: ‘Danish with Icing’, a satire on modern global business; ‘Buttered Parsnips’, a dark comedy on a singing lesson with roots in Beaumarchais and Ionesco; and ‘O Happy Country’ a collection of vignettes on English society derived from the Restoration dramatist Thomas Shadwell. During the meal they may choose one or all of three short duologues that require no stagecraft: ‘Dagda is my God’, ‘Dangling Participle’ and ‘Centauresse’. After they have eaten, they may select one of two digestifs: ‘Dancing in the Round’, a wry fantasy about the modern editorial handling of Ovid; or ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’, a much loved and partly updated episode from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. An Appendix includes the author’s newly translated version of’ the entertaining one-act foray into group hypnotism, The Show of Marvels by Miguel de Cervantes.