Comedy play written by Simon Gray about a university lecturer.

"Rapier-tongued lecturer Ben Butley is having a monumentally bad day. So bad, he's making sure everyone else has a worse one. His estranged wife has taken up with the most boring man in London. His beloved protege has found a new benefactor (one he is actually sleeping with, to boot). In an unprecedented act of betrayal even the English department's resident failure has a book deal."

The play won the 1971 Evening Standard award for Best play, before being translated to film by Harold Pinter in 1974.

The 2011 production features Dominic West (The Wire), Paul McGann and Penny Downie.