Part 1 (1/2)

Dandy d.i.c.k.

by Arthur Pinero.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

”Dandy d.i.c.k” was the third of the farces which Mr. Pinero wrote for the old Court Theatre--a 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 d.i.c.k,” for this play was, as it were, the swan-song of the old theatre and of the Clayton and Cecil partners.h.i.+p; and it was the piece in which Mr. Clayton was acting when death overtook him, to the general grief.

The production of ”Dandy d.i.c.k” 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. Clayton's 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 idea. But time was pressing, and a successor to ”The Schoolmistress”

was an immediate necessity. However, Mr. Pinero's 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.

”Dandy d.i.c.k” was produced at the Court Theatre on January 27th, 1887, and, meeting with a most favorable initial reception, it settled down immediately into a complete success. The following is a copy of the first-night programme:--

ROYAL COURT THEATRE,

SLOANE SQUARE, S.W.

_Lessees and Managers:_

Mr. John Clayton and Mr. Arthur Cecil.

Programme

THIS EVENING, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, _At_ 8.30 _punctually_,

DANDY d.i.c.k.

AN ORIGINAL FARCE, IN THREE ACTS,

BY

A. W. PINERO.

THE VERY REV. AUGUSTIN JEDD, D.D. MR. JOHN CLAYTON.

(Dean of St. Marvell's)

SIR TRISTRAM MARDON, Bart MR. EDMUND MAURICE.

--th Hussars, MAJOR TARVER { quartered at } MR. F. KERR.

MR. DARBEY { Durnstone, near } MR. H. EVERSFIELD.

St. Marvell's

BLORE (Butler at the Deanery) MR. ARTHUR CECIL.

NOAH TOPPING (Constable at MR. W. H. DENNY.

St. Marvell's)

HATCHAM (Sir Tristram's groom) MR. W. LUGG.