Come On, Jeeves

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Come On, Jeeves
Written by
Date premieredSummer 1954
Series Jeeves
Genre Comedy

Come On, Jeeves is a comedic play co-written by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The play was written in the summer of 1952, and toured the English provinces in the summer of 1954. Wodehouse adapted the play into the novel Ring for Jeeves , which was first published in April 1953, a year before the play reached production. [1] Come On, Jeeves is still occasionally produced and was presented as recently as December 2017. [2]

Contents

In the play, the young aristocrat Bill, Lord Towcester, cannot afford to maintain his large country house. He tries to solve his financial problems with the help of his resourceful butler, Jeeves. As with the novel adaptation Ring for Jeeves, Bertie Wooster does not appear in the play but is mentioned.

Plot

The plot of the play is largely the same as that of the novel Ring for Jeeves. Some notable differences are:

Characters

The characters in the play are, as listed in the script: [8]

Setting

All the action of the play occurs in the living room at Towcester Abbey, near the town of Towcester in Northamptonshire, England. There are three acts, set respectively in late afternoon in June, the same evening after dinner, and in the afternoon the following day. [9]

Background

Bolton and Wodehouse originally called the play Derby Day. When they learned that there was already a film with that title, they came up with a different title for the play, Come On, Jeeves. [1] Wodehouse wrote about the play and its subsequent novel adaptation in a letter to his friend William "Bill" Townend, dated 3 June 1952, stating that he and Bolton had just finished the play, and he had finished the first chapter of the novel. In the letter, Wodehouse praised Guy Bolton's work:

I began by writing Act 1 and gave it to him. He wrote a completely different, and infinitely better, Act 1. I then started Act 2 and had done a few pages, when we talked it over and decided to add another character – this meant alteration in Act 1, of course. So I took Act 1 (his) and typed it out, inserting a few lines for this character. While I was doing this, Guy wrote Act 2. I then typed out Act 2, while he wrote Act 3. So the whole damn thing is really his, and I shall get half the royalties just the same. The only consolation I have is that it can be turned into a novel very easily, so I shall do the whole of that job, and he will get half the proceeds. But the play is so good that practically all I have to do is put a few in-between bits in the dialogue. [10]

Though Wodehouse attributed much of the writing of the play to Bolton, correspondence from the period suggests that they collaborated equally in writing it. [11] Wodehouse also mentioned in the 1952 letter that it was Bolton who came up with "a very good idea" for explaining Bertie Wooster's absence in the story. [10] Shortly after the novel was first published in the UK, Wodehouse wrote in another letter to Townend, dated 25 June 1953, about using Jeeves without Bertie Wooster in the story:

I was very relieved that you liked Ring for Jeeves. But I think I made a bloomer in using Jeeves without Bertie. It's really Bertie whom people like. What happened was that when Guy and I were doing the play and had given Lord Rowcester a butler named Ponsonby, I got what I thought was an inspiration and said 'Why not make it Jeeves?'. But it would have been better without Jeeves. It's odd about those 'double acts'. You need the stooge. Sherlock Holmes wouldn't have been anything without Watson. [12]

While Bertie Wooster does not appear in the play, the situation created in the play and its subsequent novel adaptation does provide insight into the relationship of Bertie and Jeeves, according to Wodehouse scholar Kristin Thompson. At the time of writing the play, Wodehouse doubted whether his pre-war subject matter would still be acceptable to readers, and was experimenting with ways to make his stories more plausible in a post-war setting. [13] He may have realized that post-war events could affect Bertie's wealth and his employment of Jeeves. The play and its novelization affirm that even in a post-war setting, Jeeves will ultimately remain with Bertie. [14]

In both the play and novel, Bertie is away attending a school that teaches the aristocracy to fend for itself, in case his financial position is someday threatened by further societal changes, and Jeeves returns to Bertie at the end of the story, after he is expelled from the school. Jeeves announces Bertie's expulsion in the play: "In his letter he says that, should the revolution come, he will have no choice but to emigrate." This line may suggest that Wodehouse was considering placing Bertie and Jeeves in a plausible post-war situation in America. However, by the time Ring for Jeeves was finished, Wodehouse was in a stable publishing situation at Simon & Schuster, and may have been more confident about resuming his usual conventions for Jeeves stories. The line about emigrating is not present in the novel, where Jeeves simply says of Bertie's expulsion that "the scandal has affected him deeply. I feel that my place is at his side." [15]

Productions

The play toured the English provinces during the summer of 1954. [1]

A production of Come On, Jeeves opened on 28 November 1955 at the Royal Theatre in Northampton. [16]

The play was presented by the Guildford Theatre Company at Guildford Theatre, opening on 20 June 1956. The cast included Allan Barnes as the Earl of Towcester (Bill), Henry Manning as Jeeves, Brenda Peters as Jill Wyvern, Robert Sewell as Sir Roderick Carmoyle, Annette Kerr as Lady Monica Carmoyle, Lala Lloyd as Mrs Spottsworth, David Raven as Captain Biggar, Oriel Taylor as Ellen, and Denys Graham as Colonel Meredith [sic]. The play was directed by Roger Winton. [17]

It opened on 30 September 1958 at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. Presented by Peter Hoar and directed by Geoffrey Edwards, the play featured Richard Hart as the Earl of Towcester, John Gill as Jeeves, Judy Tathani as Jill Wyvern, Pauline Murch as Lady Carmoyle, Cavan Malone as Lord Carmoyle, Vanessa Redgrave as Mrs Spottsworth, Gawn Grainger as Captain Biggar, Angela Holder as Helen [sic], and Gordon Thomson as Colonel Blagden. [18]

The play was presented in May 1990 and June 2023 at the People's Theatre (UK). [19]

A 2008 UK tour of the play visited multiple theatres, including the Wyvern Theatre in April [20] and the Grand Theatre in June. [21] The tour finished on 19 July, [22] at the Devonshire Park Theatre. [23] The cast featured James Cawood as Bill, Richard Pocock as Jeeves, Myfanwy Waring as Jill Wyvern, Judy Buxton as Lady Carmoyle, Derren Nesbitt as Lord Carmoyle, Anita Harris as Mrs Spottsworth, Victor Spinetti as Captain Biggar, Pamela Flanagan as Ellen, and Nicholas Pound as Colonel Blagden. [24] Also in 2008, the play was produced with a different cast at the Erith Playhouse (UK) in June. [25]

Publication history

The play was published in print in script form, subtitled "A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts", by Evans Brothers in 1956. The script is preceded by an author's note by Wodehouse, in which he conveys his esteem for Guy Bolton. [26] [27] The play, including the author's note, was also published by Methuen London in 1983 as part of a collection of Wodehouse's plays titled Four Plays, which also features the other three plays The Play's the Thing , Good Morning, Bill , and Leave It to Psmith . [28]

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"Clustering Round Young Bingo" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in the Saturday Evening Post in the United States in February 1925, and in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in April 1925. The story was also included in the 1925 collection Carry On, Jeeves.

"Jeeves and the Impending Doom" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in December 1926, and in Liberty in the United States in January 1927. The story was also included as the first story in the 1930 collection Very Good, Jeeves.

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"The Ordeal of Young Tuppy" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in April 1930, and in Cosmopolitan in the United States that same month, both as "Tuppy Changes His Mind". The story was also included as the eleventh story in the 1930 collection Very Good, Jeeves.

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 Wodehouse (1983), p. xvi. "Introduction" by David A. Jasen.
  2. ↑ "Come On, Jeeves!". nnbtheatre.com. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  3. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 245.
  4. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 40.
  5. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 276.
  6. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), pp. 292, 293. 295.
  7. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 313.
  8. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 237.
  9. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 238.
  10. 1 2 McIlvaine (1990), p. 420, N56.182.
  11. ↑ Thompson (1992), p. 268.
  12. ↑ Wodehouse (2013), pp. 458–459.
  13. ↑ Thompson (1992), p. 47–49.
  14. ↑ Thompson (1992), pp. 259–260.
  15. ↑ Thompson (1992), p. 257.
  16. ↑ Riley, Kathleen (2004). Nigel Hawthorne on Stage. Hatfield, Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. p. 315. ISBN   9781902806310.
  17. ↑ The Stage Year Book 1956. London: Carson & Comerford Ltd. 1956. p. 57.
  18. ↑ The Stage Year Book 1958. London: Carson & Comerford Ltd. 1958. p. 55.
  19. ↑ "Last 100 years". People's Theatre. 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  20. ↑ "Come On, Jeeves!". Wiltshire Times. 23 April 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  21. ↑ "By Jeeves, it's just the ticket". Blackpool Gazette. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  22. ↑ "It's been a right Carry on for evergreen star Anita Harris". Evening Standard. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  23. ↑ "Latest 7 Magazine: Issue 379". Issuu. 30 June 2008. p. 23. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  24. ↑ "Come On, Jeeves". P G Wodehouse Society (UK). Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  25. ↑ "Come on, Jeeves". Erith Playhouse. 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  26. ↑ McIlvaine, p. 139, C11.
  27. ↑ Wodehouse (1983), p. 235–236.
  28. ↑ McIlvaine, p. 127, B27.
Bibliography
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