Comedy and Tragedy

Comedy and Tragedy is a one-act play by W. S. Gilbert, first presented at the Lyceum Theatre, London on 26 January 1884. Based on an earlier short story of the same title by Gilbert it was a vehicle for the actress Mary Anderson, calling on her to demonstrate a wide variety of theatrical skills ranging from seductive and conspiratorial to comic and then tragic. It was revived several times over the next three decades.

The play depicts the actress Clarice, leading lady of the Comédie-Française, pursued in her Paris house by the lecherous Regent of France who is trapped into fighting – and dying in – a duel with Clarice's husband in the garden, while to distract her other guests from what is happening outside she improvises a virtuoso series of dramatic vignettes for their entertainment.

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