Dear Brutus: Play (Acting Edition) [Paperback]

J.M. Barrie, the author of the wonderful Peter Pan stories, wrote this play in 1917, and it clearly shows a much freer tone than those plays that I have read that were written during the previous Victorian era. In this play, a group of people, strangers for the most part, are invited to an unusual midsummer stay. Each person present has a secret regret, a path that they wished that they had taken. When, on Midsummer's Eve, a magical forest appears, each enters and get a chance to see the people they might have been had they taken that other path.

This "tragicomedy" is quite a wonderful story. I first picked it up with some trepidation, as some plays are rather too bare boned. However, Mr. Barrie included many notes and sidebars that make this play read just as easily as any prose story. It has quite an interesting lesson, and yet is very entertaining. I hope that I am able to find this play being performed somewhere, as I certainly enjoyed reading it. I think that you will enjoy reading it, too.

J.M. Barrie's play opened on Broadway at the Empire Theatre in December 1918. It ran for 184 performances through June 1919 with Helen Hayes in the role of Margaret. It is an ensemble piece with all of the characters contributing equally to the show and various plot lines. The play falls somewhere between a comedy of manners and a spooky tale. The play's title is a direct quote from Shakespeare's "Julius Ceasar." Barrie appears to also borrow from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" the idea of an enchanted wood where mysterious things can happen.

In "Dear Brutus" we encounter a strange little man who is the host. Lob is perhaps misshapen who behaves in a childish manner. He has invited several couples for "Midsummer Eve." The event is purported to have a legend where a mysterious wood suddenly appears and then disappears the next day, often taking those trapped in the wood with it, never to be seen again. Not only that, but the wood appears in different locations, tonight at the back of the garden just outside the house. Lob's butler is Matey, who is not the most honest of fellows. There are several nice scenes in the first act. One is with Mr. Dearth and his wife Alice. There is tension between the couple. She, in modern terms, is a high society party girl. The absence of children seems to be Mr. Dearth's great regret. Mr. and Mrs. Coade are an older couple for whom the romance has escaped, leaving a marriage that is more of a social construct than a fulfilling relationship. Mr. Purdie comes with his wife Mabel. However, Purdie is a womanizer who appears to be having an affair with Joanna Trout. Lady Caroline Laney has high society breeding that makes her pronounce her "r's" as if they were "w's," which apparently is the fashion rather than a speech impediment. Despite dire warnings from the butler Matey, all except Mrs. Coade are drawn into the wood, including Matey who Lob pushes.

The second act takes place in the wood where each's memory seems to be suspended. They now are able to have taken advantage of second chances. Mr. Dearth now has a daughter Margaret whose mother died many years ago. Alice arrives as a penniless waif begging food from the couple. Purdie and Joanna are together. High society Lady Caroline transforms into Caroliny, the wife of Matey, now a finance tycoon rather than a butler.

The third act brings us back in the house. Barrie leaves Lob asleep on a chair, having all sorts of interesting expressions, leaving the impression that he is dreaming all that is happening in the wood. By ones and twos they return. Each is totally unfamiliar with the room they just left in the first act and are attached to the relationships they developed in the wood. However, something seems to hit their head which begins to restore their memory and slowly the events of act two begin to fade. Perhaps the most touching is when Coade returns not knowing his wife Mabel. He has been a bachelor who has imagined her as his ideal woman. The romance between the older couple seems to rekindle. Lady Caroline is brought low when she realizes she thought she was the wife of a lowly butler. The relationships of the other couples also heals or continues. Lob disappears.

"Dear Brutus" was an interesting, imaginative play. It combines elements of the supernatural and spins around Cassius' line, "The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings." I think this show could well be revived 90 years later. It is an interesting provocative play. Enjoy!

Sir James Matthew Barrie, Bt., OM (May 9, 1860 - June 19, 1937), more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and dramatist. He is best known for creating the character Peter Pan, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn-Davies boys.

Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, the second youngest of ten children, and was educated at Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh University. He became a journalist at Nottingham, then London, and became a novelist. His first novels were set in Kirriemuir, disguised as "Thrums" (his father was a weaver). Barrie often wrote dialogue in Scots. He then wrote for the theater, including Quality Street, What Every Woman Knows, and The Admirable Crichton.

His 'Thrums' novels were hugely successful when they were published, starting with Auld Licht Idylls (1888). Next came A Window in Thrums (1889) and The Little Minister (1891). His two 'Tommy' novels, Sentimental Tommy and Tommy and Grizel came in 1896 and 1902 and dealt with themes much more explicitly related to what would become Peter Pan. The first appearance of Pan came in The Little White Bird (1901).

This book is also a very enjoyable read.