The Cabinet Minister: A Farce In Four Acts...

by Arthur Wing Pinero (Creator)

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The Cabinet A Farce In Four Acts

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

W.H. Baker, 1901

Genres: Plays

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

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

Reviews

[T.J. Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free Audio Play of Cabinet Minister by Arthur Wing Pinero to download or listen to online:
https://librivox.org/the-cabinet-mini...

[Felix · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a piece of dramaturgy it's not bad, but I could not get over the blatant antisemitism.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Zoom play group read this and found it an unexpected delight - Pinero is very funny, not quite as sharp as Oscar Wilde but we were frequently in stitches, giggling as we did our cold reading. I expect we'll be reading more Pinero plays in the future - we read from the Project Gutenberg version, online.

[Ms Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as I'm on the way to see an adaptation of the play. It's amusing in places in the way that it pokes fun at the attitudes of the wealthy in nineteenth century Britain. I don't know how it'll tackle the blatant antisemitism though...

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for Victober 2019
3.5/5

Lucy's challenge: Read an underrated Victorian book from the same year as your favourite Victorian classic.

"The Cabinet Minister" by Arthur Wing Pinero was published in 1890, the same year as my favourite Victorian book, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde.

This farce in four acts (Debt, Difficulties, Disaster, Dancing) that satrises society had a misfortune of being read after "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Wilde.

This is a play about Sir Julian Twombley, Secretary of State for the ---Department and his family. We find out in the first act that both his son and his wife have been living the life of luxury and are, consequently, in debt. They are desperatly trying to hide this fact from pater familias, whose career is declinig. The whole family is preocupied with finding a suitable match for their daughter Imogen to marry before the father looses his position. Mrs. Gaylustre (a dressmaker in the morning, and lady in the afternoon) finds out about family debts and starts blackmailing Mrs Twombley in hope to climb the social ladder.

Soon we are introduced to plethora of characters, who I had a hard time keeping track of in the beginnig. There were some genuinely funny situations, e.g. when Earl of Drumdurris and his wife are arguing about their future son's career, even though he's only three years old. The situation escalates when they come to Sir Twombley to make the decision for them because they have to give their son appropriate toys which will steer him into his future career before it's too late.
Lady Macphail and her spineless son Colin, who can't go anywhere or do anything without his mother, also gave me a few good chuckles.

All things considered, I enjoyed this play, yet couldn't help but compare it to Oscar Wilde's plays (especially "A Woman of No Importance", which I prefer over this one).