A Merry Death

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

A whimsical but grim fantasy, half expounded and half acted by Pierrot over the death of his friend Harlequin, the lover of his wife, Columbine. Pierrot first puts on the clock to hurry his rival's death, and then calls in a Doctor for a consultation at the death-bed. There follows some quaintly satirical chaff of the Doctor by the dying clown, who next orders the half-repentant Pierrot to lay a third place at supper, and this turns out to be for the faithless Columbine. Harlequin, bantering to the last, even when Death is added to the dramatis personae, goes on chaffing Pierrot and Columbine till at length he breathes his last, when Pierrot moralizes the situation for the instruction of the audience. Quite clever in its deliberately morbid humour: and the grim jest, though painful in its shrewd philosophy of life, has no offence in its playful sting. Recommended for Licence. Ernest A. Bendall.

Researcher's Summary:

A programme for the Pioneer Players' performance at the Royal Court on 6 February 1916 noted that this piece would be performed in March as part of the Pioneer Players' season.