Engaged (play) - Background

Background

The play is a burlesque of romantic drama and is written in the "topsy-turvy" satiric style of many of Gilbert's Bab Ballads and the Savoy Operas: one character pledges his love, in the most poetic and romantic language possible, to every single woman in the play; the innocent Scottish rustics are revealed to be making a living through throwing trains off the lines and then charging the passengers for services, and, in general, romance is gladly thrown over in favour of monetary gain. Gilbert, who directed his own plays (which was unusual for the time), instructed his cast as follows in a note that he provided with their copies of the script: "It is absolutely essential to the success of this piece that it should be played with the most perfect earnestness and gravity throughout. There should be no exaggeration in costume, make-up, or demeanour; and the characters, one and all, should appear to believe, throughout, in the perfect sincerity of their words and actions. Directly the actors show that they are conscious of the absurdity of the utterances the piece begins to drag."

A passage from Engaged, a speech by the character Cheviot Hill, reflects a Gilbertian notion of marriage:

"Marriage is a very risky thing; it's like Chancery, once in it you can't get out of it, and the costs are enormous. There you are – fixed. Fifty years hence, if we're both alive, there we shall both be – fixed. That's the devil of it. It's an unreasonably long time to be responsible for another person's expenses. I don't see the use of making it for as long as that. It seems greedy to take up half a century of another person's attention. Besides – one never knows – one might come across somebody else one liked better – that uncommonly nice girl I met in Scotland, for instance". (Engaged, Act II)

Engaged was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 3 October 1877 with success, running for about 110 performances. It starred Marion Terry, George Honey and Lucy Buckstone. American productions beginning in 1879 were also very successful, earning thousands of pounds for Gilbert. Productions of the play continue. A musical version of Engaged by George Rowell and Kenneth Mobbs (adapting music by Sullivan) was produced a number of times in the 1960s and 1970s by professional companies. The National Theatre of Great Britain produced Engaged in 1975 at the Old Vic. The cast included Cheryl Campbell, Pauline Collins, Peter Egan, Reginald Marsh and Jonathan Pryce.

Among the more recent professional productions are the following: Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond on Thames, produced the piece from November 2002 to January 2003. Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry, Scotland mounted a production from April to October 2004. In New York, it was seen off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 2004, and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company produced the play in July and August 2009. A production by Irish Classical Theatre Company is scheduled for 23 April to 23 May 2010 in Buffalo, New York It also continues to be produced by amateur companies and has recently been seen at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival among other venues.