The Blue Comet

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Steve Noll

Cast members of "The Blue Comet."

Cast members of "The Blue Comet," Madison Shakespeare Company, 2024.

This forgotten comedy by Eden Phillpotts was performed in England in the 1920s, but never produced in the United States. A sci-fi comedy of manners, The Blue Comet centers on an English country family who is grappling with two potential catastrophes: the arrival of the comet — and a relative from Australia. This Madison Shakespeare Company production shows at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 1-2 and 7-8, 2 p.m. on Nov. 3, and 5 p.m. on Nov. 9.

media release: The Blue Comet will be Madison Shakespeare Company’s first presentation as a resident company of Madison’s Bartell Theatre, with performances November 1-9 on the Drury stage. Set in outer London of the 1920s in the home of the pleasantly artistic Bedale family, the story opens in the middle of a three-pronged crisis. Expenditures on books, paints, and exotic hens far exceed the family income. A giant rogue comet is on a collision course with Earth. And a long-lost Australian relative is coming to visit. Faith and scientific convictions are challenged by the impending end of the world, and the gravitational pull of cousin Christopher disrupts the order of things long before the comet’s arrival. The comedy by prolific author Eden Phillpotts was performed extensively in England in 1926-1927 but has never before been fully staged on American soil.