At This Evening`s Performance

Led by a hammy egomaniac - who has amorous designs on the company' ingenue - and his Amazonian wife (who is herself in panting pursuit of the group's handsome juvenile), the actors seem more concerned with romantic assignations than politics until they discover that their new stage manager is a Strevian spy

To make matters worse, it also develops that one of the lines in the play of the evening is a secret cue for subversive activity and that the speaker (a member of the underground) will be summarily disposed of by a gunman in the audience

All this reaches its climax in a wildly funny play - within - a - play in which the wrong man is shot, the right man is spared, and the Players of Dunsk decide to head for the border - and freedom in the West

" a backstage, police-stage romp with noises off that range from the crack of a thunder sheet to a pistol shot" - NY Times