Restoration comedy

Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1700. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a rebirth of English drama. Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660-1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. Socially diverse audiences were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn.

List of notable Restoration comedies

• Charles Sedley, The Mulberry-garden (1668)
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1671)
• John Dryden, Marriage-A-la-Mode (1672)
• William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1675), The Plain-Dealer (1676)
• George Etherege, Love in a Tub (1664), The Man of Mode (1676)
• Aphra Behn, The Rover (1677), The Roundheads (1681), The Rover, Part II (1681), The Lucky Chance (1686)
• Thomas Shadwell, Bury Fair (1689)
• Thomas Southerne, Sir Anthony Love (1690), The Wives Excuse (1691)
• William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693), Love For Love (1695), The Way of the World (1700)
• John Vanbrugh, The Relapse (1696), The Provoked Wife (1697)
• George Farquhar, Love and a Bottle (1698), The Constant Couple (1699), Sir Harry Wildair (1701), The Recruiting Officer (1706), The Beaux' Stratagem (1707)
• Susannah Centlivre, The Perjured Husband (1700), The Basset-Table, (1705), The Busie Body (1709)