Year: 1963
Location: Theatre Royal Haymarket
Part: Colenso Ridgeon
Story:
Sir Patrick Cullen, a doctor of the old school, calls on his friend,
Sir Colenso Ridgeon, to congratulate him on his recent knighthood,
granted for his new medical discoveries.
More
colleagues call to congratulate Sir Colenso, among them Dr. Blenkinsop,
a proverty stricken G.P.; Cutler Walpole and the pompous Sir Ralph
Bloomfield Bonnington.
Sir Colenso`s housekeeper succeeds at last in getting her master to see a young woman, who has been waiting for some time.
Sir Colenso meets Jennifer Dubedat.
Later at the Dubedats` Jennifer is horrified to learn about her husband`s widespread borrowing.
After
entertaining the Dubedats at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, the
doctors agree that Sir Colenso should accept Louis Dubedat as his
patient.
Consternation
reigns when it is discovered that Dubedat has borrowed considerable
sums from his hosts, including also poor Blenkinsop`s fare home.
The
doctors begin to arrive at Louis`studio, and the young artist is quite
unperturbed. However, Sir Colenso and his colleagues now realise that
that the young man, though a clever artist, is not the paragon they
thought, and that maybe the sick Blenkinsop`s life is much more worth
while saving.
Sir Colenso
has handed over the case to Bloomfield Bonnington, and
it is not long before Louis Dubedat lies on his deathbed. The doctors
pay another visit to the studio out of respect to Jennifer, who has
captured their hearts.
Louis makes full use of his opportunity, and stage a magnificient and moving end.
Jennifer,
who at Louis` bidding has refused to succumb to grief over her
husband`s death, is seen several months lather in a Bond Street picture
gallery, where she has arranged an exhibiton of her late husband`s
works. She examines a copy of the newly-arrived biography.
The
closing moments of the play, when Jennifer learns that Sir Colenso had
wanted to marry her, and to his amazement she tells him that she has
already remarried.
source: Theatre World July 1963
