King Patch and Mr. Simpkins

This play from England is filled with completely absurd, nonsense fantasy and peopled with unforgettable characters. An unemployed jester, down on his luck, recklessly releases a jinn from captivity, who grants him a wish. Against the advice of his companion, a distinguished English sheepdog named Mr. Simpkins, he wishes to be a king. But this proves complicated, as he first has to pass the Test, and he finds his kingdom impoverished and endangered and protected only by two bumbling baronets who are constantly on the verge of killing each other for love of the Lady Fenella. Bewitched unintentionally by Basil the Wuthering Beast, King Patch begins to turn into a rabbit, then falls into the clutches of Drusilla the Hag of the Crag, who needs a rabbit and a dog for the sinister supporters of her coat of arms. It takes the Yale, "an absurd figure with spots and serrated horns curving opposite ways, and inconsequential tufts of hair, like a goat gone wrong," to rescue King Patch and Mr. Simpkins, foil Drusilla, find Lady Fenella's true knight and restore the kingdom to prosperity.