Rope (play)

Rope is a 1929 British play by Patrick Hamilton. In formal terms, it is a well-made play with a three-act dramatic structure that adheres to the classical unities. Its action is continuous, punctuated only by the curtain fall at the end of each act. It may also be considered a thriller whose gruesome subject matter invites comparison to the Grand Guignol style of theatre.Samuel French published the play in 1929.

The play is set on the first floor of a house in Mayfair, London in 1929. The story, thought to be based loosely on the Leopold and Loeb murder case, concerns two young university students, Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo (whom Brandon calls "Granno"), who have murdered fellow student Ronald Kentley as an expression of their supposed intellectual superiority. At the beginning of the play they hide Kentley's body in a chest. They proceed to host a party for his friends and family at which the chest containing his corpse is used to serve a buffet.

Rope was first presented by The Repertory Players in a Sunday night try-out production at the Strand Theatre, London, on 3 March 1929. The following month the play opened in the West End at the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 April 1929. The production ran for six months. Retitled Rope's End, the first Broadway production opened at the John Golden Theatre (then called the Theatre Masque) on 13 September 1929. On 16 December 2009, a revival of Rope began at the Almeida Theatre in London, in a production directed by Roger Michell.

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