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The Worst Episodes of Performance

Every episode of Performance ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Performance!

The Worst Episodes of Performance

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

Seasons7

  1. Background image for Roots
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #1 - Roots

    S2:E3

    Beatie returns to her family home in Norfolk, having been "educated" in cultural and political matters by Ronnie, the boyfriend she lived with in London. Through trying to pass on the things she's learnt to her uninterested family, she discovers her own voice and views—which are no longer just an echo of Ronnie's.

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    Director:Simon Curtis
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Suddenly Last Summer
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #2 - Suddenly Last Summer

    S3:E1

    Mrs Venable's grief at the loss of her beloved poet son Sebastian turns to rage against her niece Catharine, his last companion and witness of his gruesome death. Determined to erase the memory of Sebastian's loss, she tries to persuade her pet doctor to perform a lobotomy on Catharine.

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  3. Background image for Landscape
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Landscape

    S5:E3

    Beth sits in an armchair to the left of the table, and Duff in a chair at the opposite end. Duff refers normally to Beth but does not appear to hear her voice. Beth never looks at Duff and does not appear to hear his voice.

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  4. Background image for Company
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Company

    S6:E1

    At his 35th birthday party Bobby's friends are all wondering: Why isn't he married? Why can't he find the right woman and settle down?

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    Director:Sam Mendes
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for My Night with Reg
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #5 - My Night with Reg

    S6:E2

    A group of English gay men get together to reminisce. They are all coming from a wake for one of their circle who's died of AIDS. It's that terrifying time between the outbreak of AIDS and the development of an AIDS test and as the conversation unfolds it becomes apparent that each man there has had unprotected sex with the deceased.

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    Director:Roger Michell
  6. Background image for Richard II
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Richard II

    S6:E3

    The incompetent Richard II is deposed by Henry Bolingbroke and undergoes a crisis of identity once he is no longer king.

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    Writer:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Broken Glass
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Broken Glass

    S6:E4

    A Jewish housewife in 1938 Brooklyn loses the use of her legs after reading about Kristallnacht.

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    Director:David Thacker
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Macbeth on the Estate
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #8 - Macbeth on the Estate

    S6:E5

    Shakespeare's play updated to the present day. On a council estate where people survive by dealing drugs and shoplifting, Duncan is the Godfather. Urged by Mrs Macbeth, Macbeth kills Duncan.

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    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for Bed
    5.2/10(9 votes)

    #9 - Bed

    S5:E4

    Surreal drama about seven old people living in the same bed.

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  11. Background image for The Changeling
    6.3/10(68 votes)

    #10 - The Changeling

    S3:E5

    Just days before her wedding, Beatrice-Joanna has a chance encounter with Alsemero, and realizes that she has met her one true love. To marry the man she loves, she persuades the love-struck henchman De Flores to murder her fiancé, but does not anticipate the tragic consequences of her actions.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for The Deep Blue Sea
    6.8/10(120 votes)

    #11 - The Deep Blue Sea

    S4:E3

    A woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

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    Director:Karel Reisz
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd
    6.8/10(103 votes)

    #12 - The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd

    S5:E2

    Mrs Holroyd is married to a loutish miner. When a gentlemanly neighbour makes romantic advances to her, she wishes her husband dead. Sooner than she hoped, her wish comes true.

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    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for The Entertainer
    6.9/10(11 votes)

    #13 - The Entertainer

    S3:E4

    The play uses the metaphor of the dying music hall tradition, specifically fictional music hall star Archie Rice, to comment on the moribund state of the British Empire in the 1950s.

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  15. Background image for After Miss Julie
    7.0/10(41 votes)

    #14 - After Miss Julie

    S5:E6

    An updated version of Strindberg's play examining class and social differences. Julie, the daughter of an MP, seduces her father's chauffeur, despite his being engaged to the maid.

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  16. Background image for Top Girls
    7.1/10(21 votes)

    #15 - Top Girls

    S1:E5

    Marlene celebrates her new position as MD of Top Girls Appointment Agency by giving a dinner party for five oddly assorted women from centuries past.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for Absolute Hell
    7.2/10(185 votes)

    #16 - Absolute Hell

    S1:E1

    Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after WW2. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, lesbians, party-girls, drunks, and drag queens.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for After the Dance
    7.3/10(27 votes)

    #17 - After the Dance

    S2:E4

    David and Joan's life has been one continuous party, but their marriage is loveless. Suddenly a young girl appears in their world and announces that she's in love with David and wants to change his life for ever. Critics called it Terence Rattigan's most serious and truthful play, but it has not been seen for 50 years.

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    Director:Stuart Burge
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for Six Characters in Search of an Author
    7.3/10(72 votes)

    #18 - Six Characters in Search of an Author

    S2:E5

    Originally set in a theatre, this new version of Luigi Pirandello's classic play takes place in a film studio in 1950 and is recorded in black and white. A family carrying a great personal tragedy of shame and despair have come to the studio to find somebody who can describe their experiences and explain what they've done to each other.

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    Director:Bill Bryden
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for The Maitlands
    7.3/10(46 votes)

    #19 - The Maitlands

    S3:E2

    It is early summer in the secluded seaside village of Betworthy. But there is a strained atmosphere in the once-prosperous Maitland household, because the family has fallen on hard times. Performance presents the first production for 60 years of the witty and tragic family drama by Ronald Mackenzie.

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  21. Background image for Henry IV
    7.3/10(30 votes)

    #20 - Henry IV

    S5:E5

    Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed 'Hotspur'). Henry's son Hal, the Prince of Wales, has thrown over life at court in favour of heavy drinking and petty theft in the company of a debauched elderly knight, Sir John Falstaff. Hal must extricate himself from some legal problems, regain his father's good opinions and help suppress the uprising.

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    Director:John Caird
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Measure for Measure
    7.4/10(35 votes)

    #21 - Measure for Measure

    S4:E2

    Modern dress version of Shakespeare's "problem comedy" emphasizing the darker elements of the play and eliminating most of the humor, as Claudio is dragged to the police station on charges of fornication, and given a rectal exam in front of a window.

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    Director:David Thacker
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for Summer Day's Dream
    7.4/10(33 votes)

    #22 - Summer Day's Dream

    S4:E4

    In 1975, after a nuclear war, the nations have combined to set up a World Government. An old man who lives quietly in the country finds his peace threatened by a visit from three World Government figures.

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  24. Background image for Uncle Vanya
    7.5/10(109 votes)

    #23 - Uncle Vanya

    S1:E2

    When Vanya's brother-in-law declares his intention to sell the family's house, polite facades begin to crumble and long repressed feelings start to emerge with devastating consequences.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for A Doll's House
    7.5/10(147 votes)

    #24 - A Doll's House

    S2:E2

    Years ago, Nora Helmer committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed, and lives in fear of her husband finding out.

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    Director:David Thacker
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for King Lear
    7.5/10(287 votes)

    #25 - King Lear

    S7:E1

    King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

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    Director:Richard Eyre
    Writer:Unknown

Worst Episodes Summary

"Roots" is the worst rated episode of "Performance". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Simon Curtis and written by Unknown, it aired on 11/28/1992. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Suddenly Last Summer".