The Mayor Of Troy

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

I do not know if this is an adaptation by Mr Quiller Counch of one of his stories ‘Troy Town’. In any case it is an amusing, and in the end a touching, comedy. The first act is at the time of the Napoleonic wars, when England was agog with fears of invasion. Major Toogood, the mayor of Troy, is a pompous and self-satisfied fellow, but with some force of character. He and a friend range one of those little smuggling ventures common at the time. A lugger, supposed to contain brandy, is standing in to the harbour: they arrange that at the end of a complimentary ceremony of unveiling Toogood’s bust, he shall announce the coming of the enemy, put off in a boat in the confusion and get the brandy. But it is really an armed French ship: the boat is sunk and the crew rescued-all but Toogood. Ten years pass and peace has been signed. The supposedly dead Toogood is a local hero with a hospital in his honour and so forth. He returns, battered and lame, having been a prisoner in France. Then we have the comedy of the man who comes and is not wanted by the people who are always praising his memory but have profited by his decease. Poor Toogood is miserable at first, but his character has been purified by suffering, he disdains the flattery of the past and refuses to take back his money from young people who want it. That is a bare outline of the plot. The play is enriched by numerous characters, delightfully observed, who play their different parts in the scheme. It is characteristically ‘Q’. Recommended for license. G. S. Street