Dandy Dick: A Play in Three Acts

Dandy Dick: A Play in Three Acts

Dandy Dick was the third of the farces which Mr. Pinero wrote for the old Court Theatrea series of plays which, besides giving playgoers a fresh source of laughter, and the English stage a new order of comic play, brought plentiful prosperity to the joint management of Mr. Arthur Cecil and the late Mr. John Clayton. But a kind of melancholy interest attaches to Dandy Dick, for this play was, as it were, the swan-song of the old theatre and of the Clayton and Cecil partnership; and it was the piece in which Mr. Clayton was acting when death overtook him, to the general grief. The production of Dandy Dick may be considered as something of a tour de force in its way. The Schoolmistress was at the end of its successful run, and Mr. Pinero was under contract to supply its successor by a certain date, when Mr. Clayton one day went down to Brighton, where the dramatist was then at work, to hear him read the two completed acts of the new play. To Mr. Claytons consternation, however, Mr. Pinero announced that he was dissatisfied with his work, and proposed to begin an entirely new play, as he had a more promising[Pg 6] idea. But time was pressing, and a successor to The Schoolmistress was an immediate necessity. However, Mr. Pineros idea of writing a play round a dean, who, while being a paragon of dignity and decorum, should be driven by an indiscreet act into a most undignified dilemma, appealed to Mr. Clayton, and hastening back to London with the sketches for the requisite scenes, he left Mr. Pinero to set to work at once upon the new scheme. And within a few weeks, indeed by the time the scenery was ready, the new play was completed, the rural constable of a village adjacent to Brighton having suggested the character of Noah Topping. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 40700
Author: Pinero, Arthur Wing
Release Date: Sep 7, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English