All the Fun of the Show

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This play consists of what are practically two full acts and one short scene in addition. It is apparently a full evening's entertainments. It is better stuff than the ordinary revue, with more coherence and more fun. The business is all about a showman's booth in a Fair. Bill Binks, the showman, is in need of a Hamlet and an Ophelia for his show, and a runaway couple, wishing to hide, take the parts. There is a short scene of the play - a confused version of 'Hamlet' with interruptions and so on, quite funny in its way. Then, after an interlude in which the runaway couple take on other disguises, there is a representation of the bestowal of the famous Dunmow Flitch to the couple which has never quarrelled. Bill and his wife, who have been quarrelling all through the piece, enter for it, and having been awarded the prize start quarrelling again. Then the piece ends abruptly. I think the proper end must be missing, and perhaps it might be worth while to enquire. The dialogue is mostly harmless enough, though vulgar in places. I have marked a few passages, however. (1) In the song following p.29, the last lines are perhaps too suggestive. (2) p.58. The business of the girls tempting the Showman looks suspicious and should be noticed for a caution at least. (3) p.63 'You come with me', 'Anybody can have my job' & c. might easily be too suggestive. (4) A parson makes a speech about the Dunmow Flitch. There are many precedents for that, but when he talks - p.69 - about 'the unmarried mothers of the parish', it goes too far and that sentence should be cut out. Otherwise the piece is Recommended for Licence. G. S. Street. [The following is written in red ink below] p.58 Lines marked red should be deleted and changed and a caution also on p.69 and the Parson not be ridiculous [in black ink the following is added] Altered by W. Clayton. A further note is added separately in black ink and reads] After interview licence may issue, S.