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5 December 2024 - 11 January 2025 - Southwark Playhouse

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary

By John Nicholson

Emma Bovary is bored. She’s bored with her boring doctor husband, bored with her boring provincial village and bored with her role as a dutiful wife in (boring) nineteenth-century France. But Emma reads novels. Lots of novels. And in novels, life is much more fun… Now, four actors battle hilarious mishaps and misbehaving props to tell the (massively) tragic story of Madame Bovary.

Laugh and cry in equal measure as Emma Bovary chooses the wrong husband. Lose yourself in mesmeric love scenes featuring a stupendous collection of devastatingly handsome men. Question the impotence of women in a patriarchal, Victorian society (if you want). There will be vermin, visual absurdity, wild animals and a nun.

Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary was published in 1856, prosecuted for obscenity and hailed as the greatest novel ever written. 

Flaubert’s complex novel is given a refreshing shake up in this irreverent, irrepressible and irresistible play.

Running Time: 2 hours (Not including Interval)

Suitable for ages 12+ 

Co-Production between

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 Production gallery 

Reviews

"A brilliant, very, very funny production, with a stellar cast of four playing multiple roles... It doesn't come better than this."

The Cornishman

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary | Trailer
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