This is a most funny and skilfully written American farce. It is relatively new but takes place in 1961.
The English ambassador in the UN, Sir Evelyn Carstairs has had a good night out on the town, dropping in on several bars with, the then General Secretary, Dag Hammarskjöld. In one of the bars, he meets the charming lady, Angie whom he gives a relatively chaste lift home. The car though, belongs to the ambassador’s kitchen chief, Chester.
And, as it turns out, Angie is married to no less than the very jealous Mafioso, Phil Paglese, known as ‘Philly the Exterminator’. He is now convinced that Angie is adulterous with Chester and so he sends out his ‘assistant’, Franky to sort things out. Franky is Sicilian and his English is therefore limited to the lines from ‘Casablanca’. Meanwhile, Carstairs is trying to resolve some crisis within the small state of San Martino and with its leader, Colonel Novarro. However, instead of sorting things out, he ends up banging the Colonel’s head with a spade, mistaking him for being ‘Philly the Exterminator’.
Additionally, Lady Carstairs has got the scent of the various irregularities at the embassy and so she attempts to calm things down by giving everybody a dose of sleeping pills. But alas to no avail. Nevertheless, everything is miraculously solved by aid of the five doors applied in all good farces.
