Starting from a premise that [Comedians] is novel and rich with antic possibility, the play manages to scuttle itself with perfunctory, self-righteous anger. Set in Manchester, Comedians begins with a group of young men who aspire to be nightclub comics, meeting in one of those dismal cubicles of adult education….

There is one student … who we perceive has a genuine and personal comic imagination, whose humor, at least in the classroom, goes much deeper than that of his fellow students. Among those who are simply looking for a better way to earn a living, he stands out as a real artist….

[We] wait for this prize pupil to perform in a manner that will send his provincial audience back to bingo and Comedians' audience into several levels of appreciative laughter.

While waiting, one is treated to a variety of ways in which a comedian can endure an...