Trelawny of the "Wells" and Other Plays

by Arthur Wing Pinero, J. S. Bratton (Editor)

Pinero was a master of stagecraft, a playwright who forever changed the face of British theatre. Collected here are four of his greatest works including The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, a play acclaimed across Europe as the most remarkable English play of the late nineteenth century; The Magistrate, now recognized and the cornerstone of British comedy; Trelawny of the "Wells," a play which enjoyed a hugely successful revival in London recently; and The Schoolmistress. These plays represent a unique dramatic voice, stringent and incisive, and offer insights clothed in exuberant, energetic, and many-sided theatricality.

Genres: Plays, Classics, British Literature, 19th Century, Drama, Theatre

354 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1899

About the author

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.

Reviews

[Katie Lumsden]

What an utter delight this was.

[Doug]

2.5, rounded up.

Although Pinero was one of the most popular and influential playwrights of his age, I was never actually required to READ any of his plays in all my many years of drama studies. This, one of his most well-liked plays, was written/performed in 1898, but set in the 1860s. I came to it now, not only to fill in that gap in my theatrical education, but I have always been curious about the play, as the last major NY revival in 1975 offered the Broadway debuts of both Meryl Streep and Mandy Patinkin! I had always assumed Ms. Streep played the titular character - but that was assayed by Mary Beth Hurt, and Streep played the secondary role of Imogen; Patinkin played the male romantic lead of Arthur Gower. John Lithgow was also in the cast as Mr. Gadd.

Billed as a 'Comedietta in four acts' (whatever THAT is), it is a very slight and rather tedious tale of a once prominent actress, Rose Trelawny, NOT at, as I supposed, the famous Sadler's Well Theatre - as such wasn't built until the 1920's - but an earlier incarnation on the same spot. At the beginning of the play, she has decided to accept the marriage proposal of the upper crust Gower and goes to live with his dour and unpleased family on a trial basis, prior to the nuptials. There she is both bored and incensed at her shabby treatment, runs away and goes back to her profession, where in the final moments, she is reunited with Arther, who has inexplicably decided to join her on stage as a 'gypsy'.

There is nary a genuine laugh line in the entire thing, and a modicum of some labored physical comedy. There is a reason it hasn't seen a major revival in the last 50 years!

[Mariangel]

A pleasant play about a group of theatre actors, whose young lead lady leaves them to be engaged to a rich young man, but finds the life at his home insufferable. But on her return to the theatre, she finds that the experience has changed both her and her fiancé.

[Duncan Maccoll]

This is trully dreadful. Sadly, we watched the play all they way through. Our attitude may have been adversely affected by the appalling set, which had first a table then a chair directly in our line of sight with actors obscured behind. The first time in our experience that so many actors were upstaged by a table. The play is not seen often and deserves to be seen even less.

[Livinginthecastle]

I thought this would be funnier, but it was a bit boring in places.

[Keeko]

Wonderful, clever, and touching. My husband read them to me, and we enjoyed them very much.

[Highlyeccentric]

I made it to the last of wildeabandon's playreadings and I'm really glad I did. This was a whacky play, SIMULTANEOUSLY a 19th c melodrama and a late 19th c drawing room comedy, and if I was a 19th century-ist I would be putting it on undergrad syllabi at once. A++ work, Arthur Wing Pinero, whoever you were.

Would LOVE to be involved in a production, but as it would lose ALL its attractions if it had anything less than full 1860s dress, i doubt I ever will be.

[Brooks Gillespie]

tbh this was very funny

[T.J. Burns]

Audio Book:
https://librivox.org/trelawny-of-the-...

Cast list:
Tom Wrench: Tomas Peter
Ferdinand Gadd: Roger Melin
James Telfer: Patrick Wallace
Augustus Colpoys: alanmapstone
Rose Trelawny: Eva Davis
Avonia Bunn: Leanne Yau
Mrs Telfer (Miss Violet Sylvester): Susan Ferman
Imogen Parrott: Sonia
O'Dwyer: AidanVox
The Gentleman (Mr Denzil): Tom Shortland
The Lady (Miss Brewster): adr6090
Vice-Chancellor Sir William Gower, Kt: ToddHW
Arthur Gower, his grandchild: Nemo
Clara de Foenix, his grandchild: Sandra Schmit
Miss Trafalgar Gower: Foon
Captain de Foenix: Peter Musgrove
Mrs Mossop: TJ Burns
Mr Ablett: Treefairy
Charles: Peter Musgrove
Sarah: Availle
Stage Directions: Larry Wilson
Edited by: ToddHW