The Farce of Sodom is Donald Friend’s interpretation of the seventeenth-century play attributed to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Set in the imaginary kingdom of Sodom, the play follows the increasingly absurd consequences of a ruler who overturns conventional morality and encourages sexual licence throughout the realm. Government, religion and social order rapidly descend into chaos as every appetite is indulged and every authority mocked. Although notorious for its explicit language and sexual content, the play is equally a political satire, ridiculing corruption, hypocrisy and arbitrary power in Restoration England.
The play consists of five acts in rhyming couplets. There are two prologues, two epilogues and a short final speech. The play begins with Bolloximion, King of Sodom, authorising same-sex sodomy as an acceptable sexual practice within the realm. General Buggeranthus reports that this policy is welcomed by the soldiers, who spend less on prostitutes as a consequence, but has deleterious effects on the women of the kingdom, who have to resort to dildoes and dogs. Prince Pricket and Princess Swivia commit incest with one another. With the court and country reduced to erotic madness, the court physician counsels ‘Fuck women, and let Bugg’ry be no more’. The king himself, however is unconvinced, while the queen dies of venereal disease. Amid the appearance of demons, fire, and brimstone, Bolloximion declares his intention to retire to a cavern and die in the act of sodomising his favourite, Pockenello.
The cast, worthy of any list of possible baby names for erotically-minded parents, is as follows:
Bolloximion, King of Sodom
Cuntigratia, his Queen
Pricket, a young Prince
Swivia, a young Princess
Buggeranthus, General of the Army
Pockenello, Prince and favourite of the King
Borastus, Buggermaster-General
Pene and Tooly, Pimps of Honour
Officina, Maid of Honour
Fuckadilla, Maid of Honour
Cunticulla, Maid of Honour
Clitoris, Maid of Honour
Flux, Physician to the King
Virtuoso, Dildo and Merkin-Maker for the Court
Rather than producing a conventional illustrated edition, Donald Friend approached the project as if preparing a theatrical production, providing title pages, costume studies, character portraits and illustrations that echo the spirit of seventeenth-century stage design while remaining unmistakably his own. Many of the drawings resemble costume designs or rehearsal studies rather than finished narrative illustrations. Friend delighted in historical dress, theatrical staging and caricature; his figures are intentionally stylised, with exaggerated features and lively poses.
As far as is known, the play has only been performed twice, in 1986 at the Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, and in 2011 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by the Movement Theatre Company. The text can be found online here.
Like Bumbooziana a year earlier, The Farce of Sodom was produced as a finely printed limited edition by Gryphon Books. Gryphon produced 250 signed and numbered copies, 240 of which were for commercial sale, while the remaining ten were reserved as ultra-deluxe artist’s copies bound in ornate full leather.
