Play name
The Double Act
By Mark Jagasia
Director
Pauline Armour
Playing dates
Wednesday 17th February to Sunday 21st February (matinee Saturday 20th February)
Get-in and Strike
14th February; 22nd February, 2027
Venue
In the Bar
Audition
4:00pm Sunday October11th 2026
About the play
Once upon a time, Biddle and Bash were the country’s best-loved comedy partnership. Now, years after their spectacular falling out, fate brings them back together for one final reunion. As they begin to reminisce, old jokes reopen old wounds, long-buried resentments bubble to the surface and memories of happier times prove impossible to ignore.
Mark Jagasia’s touching comedy-drama looks beyond the spotlight to explore the friendships that survive success, failure and the passing of time. Balancing laugh-out-loud humour with moments of real tenderness, it’s a wonderfully observed play about growing older, making peace with the past and discovering that some partnerships never quite leave us.
‘Jagasia has crammed comedy into every nook and cranny of the script.’ London Pub Theatres
‘As thematically rich as it is darkly funny.’ The Telegraph
Time
The present day
Location
A shabby sitting room in Saltmouth, a fictional run-down northern seaside resort.
Genre/Style
Very dark comedy, described by the author as ‘Part revenge tragedy, part nightmare farce.’
Characters
BILLY BASH: Male. Playing age late 60’s. Former half of the Biddle and Bash double act; now a successful politically incorrect stand-up comedian. Strong comic actor with considerable stage presence; needs to be convincing as an established professional comedian.
CLIFF BIDDLE: Male. Playing age late 60’s. Billy’s former partner; now a troubled, isolated recluse. Very strong character actor; must handle comedy, eccentricity, vulnerability and darker material.
GULLIVER: Male. Playing age mid 30’s -40s. Cliff’s much younger lodger/carer/companion, with increasingly sinister motives. Highly versatile actor; physical comedy, charm and menace, an intriguing role.
There will be a small number of rehearsals before Christmas followed by an intensive period throughout January and February.
Audition pieces
Billy and Gulliver: Page 1 Gulliver (Off) ‘Cliff? Yoo-hoo Cliff? I’ve brought Billy’ to Page 6 Billy ‘It’s exactly the kind of snidey undermining nasty bollocks he would say.’
Billy and Cliff: Page 14 Billy ’I’m riding high’ to Page 18 Cliff ‘I don’t know anymore’
Billy and Gulliver: Page 52 Billy ‘ Where’s my phone?’ to Page 56 Gulliver ‘Far too sordid to be believable’
Billy and Cliff: Page 60 Cliff ‘Do you worry you’ll end up in Hell, Billy?’ to Page 62 Cliff ‘The really bad stuff. The bad stuff’
Billy and Cliff: Page 65 Billy ‘The punters at my shows are everyday people.’ To Page 66 Billy ‘ All coming from one man. Me’
Billy, Cliff, Gulliver: Page 77 Cliff ‘I think I’ve decided. I am going to do the show. Yes
sir, I’m going to do it. Sorry Billy.’ to Page 79 Gulliver ‘Incorrect! Guess again.’