The Prime Minister and his cabinet have been assassinated and England's most treasured writers are being murdered one by one. Back at the university, a bachelor don anguishes over sex, marriage, anagrams and the meaning of life.

Written as a response to Moliere's The Misanthrope and first performed at the Royal Court in 1970, this biting 'bourgeois comedy' examines the empty, insular lives of college intellectuals.

The Philanthropist was revived at the Donmar Warehouse in September 2005.

'Intellectually stimulating, touchingly sympathetic and gloriously, gloriously funny.' Sunday Times

Original author: Moliere