How to Settle Accounts with your Laundress: An Original Farce, in One Act — Edition Insights

Disguise and Double Identity

From the outset, disguise drives the plot. Widgetts, the tailor, hides from his laundress by swapping his blue coat for an old black one and fashioning whiskers from chair stuffing. He claims the hair can “whisker a regiment of Turks.” Meanwhile, Mary White, the laundress, enters dressed as a young man, drying her hands with a towel. She tells Widgetts she is a detective police officer, and he immediately fears “the dreadful deed’s discovered.” The farce thrives on these layered deceptions: each character adopts a false identity, and the audience is in on every switch.

Physical Comedy and Stage Business

Coyne’s farce relies heavily on physical gags and prop comedy. Widgetts cuts open a chair seat to extract hair for his whiskers. Later, as a supposed waiter, he is forced to lay the table for his own supper, muttering “D—n the table” under his breath. The stage directions call for precise movements: Mary White “lays her hand on Widgetts’ shoulder, who starts,” and Widgetts “polishes a plate, furiously.” These small actions amplify the humor of his helplessness. The dummy figure and the cheval glass also serve as silent witnesses to the chaos.

Social Satire Through Character Types

The characters are recognizable comic types from Victorian theatre. Widgetts is the flustered tradesman trying to maintain respectability; Mary White is the clever servant who outwits her master; Mademoiselle Cheri Bounce is the fashionable opera dancer, described as wearing a “blue satin visite, trimmed with lace.” Coyne uses their exaggerated costumes and speech to poke fun at social pretensions. When Cheri calls Widgetts “stupid,” and Mary replies “Hang Widgetts,” the dialogue underscores the reversal of power: the laundress and the dancer now control the tailor’s fate.

Pacing and the One-Act Structure

The play is designed for a performance time of fifty minutes, and the excerpts show how Coyne packs incident into a single act. The opening scene establishes the setting and conflict within a few lines. The middle excerpt accelerates the action with a supper scene where Widgetts, disguised as a waiter, must serve his own guests. The dialogue is rapid, with short lines and frequent interruptions. Coyne’s use of asides—Widgetts’ muttered curses—keeps the audience aligned with his predicament. The one-act form demands economy, and Coyne delivers it through brisk entrances and exits.

Readers should pay attention to the stage directions, which are as much a part of the comedy as the dialogue. Coyne’s detailed descriptions of costume changes and prop use reward a careful reading. The farce’s humor depends on timing and visual gags, so imagining the physical action on stage enhances the experience. The title’s promise of “settling accounts” is fulfilled not through payment but through a series of comic reversals that leave the tailor thoroughly unsettled.