First Plays

First Plays [with accents]

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Title: First Plays
Author: A. A. Milne
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7805] [This file was first posted on
May 18, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FIRST
PLAYS ***

FIRST PLAYS
by A. A. Milne

TO MY MOTHER
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION WURZEL-FLUMMERY THE LUCKY ONE THE
BOY COMES HOME BELINDA THE RED FEATHERS
INTRODUCTION
These five plays were written, in the order in which they appear now,
during the years 1916 and 1917. They would hardly have been written
had it not been for the war, although only one of them is concerned
with that subject. To his other responsibilities the Kaiser now adds this
volume.
For these plays were not the work of a professional writer, but the
recreation of a (temporary) professional soldier. Play-writing is a
luxury to a journalist, as insidious as golf and much more expensive in
time and money. When an article is written, the financial reward (and
we may as well live as not) is a matter of certainty. A novelist, too,
even if he is not in "the front rank"-- but I never heard of one who
wasn't--can at least be sure of publication. But when a play is written,
there is no certainty of anything save disillusionment.
To write a play, then, while I was a journalist seemed to me a depraved
proceeding, almost as bad as going to Lord's in the morning. I thought I
could write one (we all think we can), but I could not afford so
unpromising a gamble. But once in the Army the case was altered. No
duty now urged me to write. My job was soldiering, and my spare time
was my own affair. Other subalterns played bridge and golf; that was
one way of amusing oneself. Another way was--why not?--to write
plays.
So we began with Wurzel-Flummery. I say "we," because another is
mixed up in this business even more seriously than the Kaiser. She

wrote; I dictated. And if a particularly fine evening drew us out for a
walk along the byways--where there was no saluting, and one could
smoke a pipe without shocking the Duke of Cambridge--then it was to
discuss the last scene and to wonder what would happen in the next.
We did not estimate the money or publicity which might come from
this new venture; there has never been any serious thought of making
money by my bridge-playing, nor desire for publicity when I am trying
to play golf. But secretly, of course, we hoped. It was that which made
it so much more exciting than any other game.
Our hopes were realized to the following extent:
Wurzel-Flummery was produced by Mr. Dion Boucicault at the New
Theatre in April, 1917. It was originally written in three acts, in which
form it was shown to one or two managers. At the beginning of 1917 I
was offered the chance of production in a triple bill if I cut it down into
a two-act play. To cut even a line is painful, but to cut thirty pages of
one's first comedy, slaughtering whole characters on the way, has at
least a certain morbid fascination. It appeared, therefore, in two acts;
and one kindly critic embarrassed us by saying that a lesser artist would
have written it in three acts, and most of the other critics annoyed us by
saying that a greater artist would have written it in one act. However, I
amused myself some months later by slaying another character--the
office-boy, no less--thereby getting it down to one act, and was
surprised to find that the one-act version was, after all, the best... At
least I think it is. ... At any rate, that is the version I am printing here;
but, as can be imagined, I am rather