About the Play:

The Odd Couple was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

The Odd Couple has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues, Male/Male Scenes and Three-Person Scenes.

The Odd Couple is a full-length comedy by Neil Simon. Two suddenly single pals – fastidious Felix and chaotic Oscar – strain their friendship by turning roommates and unconsciously repeating the same mistakes they made in the marriages they just left. Arguably the funniest comedy ever written, this Neil Simon classic is a delicious romp for all.

The Odd Couple is the classic story of a sloppy sportswriter and a fastidious news writer, who are thrown together and go through the frustrations of friendship, middle-age insecurities and the collision of opposites. It opens as a group of the guys assembled for the regular poker game in the apartment Oscar Madison, a carefree, positively unkempt, divorcé. And if the mess is any indication, it's no wonder that his wife left him. But where's Felix Unger? He's never late. A call to his wife reveals that she and Felix have split up and he's taken it pretty hard. When he finally arrives, in shock, distraught, with thoughts to end it all, Oscar makes a proposal. Why not move in here with him? While it would seem bunking together would be a last resort for these two, the decision to do so mixes slob with neat-freak, leading to total madness for them, and laugh-out-load comedy for the audience.

The Odd Couple premiered in 1965 at the Plymouth Theatre and ran for more than two years on Broadway. It won five Tony nominations and four Tony Awards and lived on in film and a legendary TV series for many years. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, middle school, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 6 male

What people say:

"His skill is not only great but constantly growing…. There is scarcely a moment that is not hilarious." — New York Times

"A socko comedy success." New York Journal American

"Fresh, richly hilarious and remarkably original. Wildly, irresistibly, incredibly and continuously funny." — New York Daily News

Neil Simon (1927-2018) was America's most prolific playwright. He had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He was showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer, and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. His plays have been produced in dozens of languages, and in 1983 became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre, named in his honour. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.