''Milestones'' is a 1912 play by

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...

and

Edward Knoblock Edward Knoblock (born Edward Gustavus Knoblauch; 7 April 1874 – 19 July 1945) was a playwright and novelist, originally American and later a naturalised British citizen. He wrote numerous plays, often at the rate of two or three a year, of whic ...

(then known as ''Knoblauch''). It is a story of an upper-middle-class family's progress between 1860 and 1912.

First productions

The play opened at the

Royalty Theatre The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho. Established by the actress Frances Maria Kelly in 1840, it opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938.

, London, on 5 March 1912 and ran for 612 performances. In September 1912 it opened at the

Liberty Theatre The Liberty Theatre is a former Broadway theater at 234 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1904, the theater was designed by Herts & Tallant and built for Klaw and Erlanger, the partnersh ...

, New York, where it ran for 215 performances."Milestones"
Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 1 June 2020

Original cast

*John Rhead –

Dennis Eadie Dennis Eadie (14 January 1869 – 10 June 1928) was a British stage actor who also appeared in three films during the silent era. Eadie was a leading actor of the British theatre, appearing in plays by Edward Knoblauch and Louis N. Parker. In ...

*Samuel Sibley – Hubert Harben *Ned Pym – Stanley Logan *Arthur Preece –

Lionel Atwill Lionel Alfred William Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the Garrick Theatre. After coming to the U.S., he subsequently appeared in various Broadway plays and Hollywood f ...

*Lord Monkhurst –

Owen Nares Owen Ramsay Nares (11 August 1888 – 30 July 1943) was an English stage and film actor. Besides his acting career, he was the author of ''Myself, and Some Others'' (1925). Early life Educated at Reading School, Nares was encouraged by his mo ...

*Richard Sibley – Reginald Malcolm *Mrs Rhead – Mary Relph *Gertrude Rhead –

Haidee Wright Haidee Wright (13 January 1867 – 29 January 1943), born as Ada Wright, was a London born English character actress. She began acting in plays in 1878 when a small child. She came from a family of actors and had a long career in the United King ...

*Rose Sibley –

Mary Jerrold Mary Jerrold (4 December 1877 – 3 March 1955) was an English actress. She was married to actor Hubert Harben, and mother of actress Joan Harben and celebrity chef Philip Harben. She made her London stage debut as Prudence Dering in ''Mary Penn ...

*Emily Rhead – Evelyn Weeden *Nancy Sibley – Esmé Hubbard *Muriel Pym – Gladys Cooper The New York cast was headed by Leslie Faber as John Rhead.

Plot

The play depicts the generational clashes within a prosperous English family, all concerning the matrimonial wishes of the rising generation and their parents' opposition to it. Act I is set in 1860; Act 2 in 1885; Act 3 in 1912. The following is from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

s summary of the plot in its review of the first performance. :In 1860 John Rhead proposes marriage to Rose Sibley, and objections raised by the Sibley family. John Rhead is go-ahead and a believer in the new iron ships. What, say the Sibleys, is the matter with English oak? Dolts! cries Rhead. Faddists! retort the Sibleys. But the marriage, nevertheless, takes place. �� :In 1885 John Rhead is about to be made a baronet. His faith in iron has brought him a fortune. But his daughter Emily is now marriageable, and up comes the old difficulty. Papa wishes Emily to marry a peer; but Emily loves Arthur Preece, a young engineer. This young fellow has discovered a new process for making steel; but John Rhead, who believed in iron (at 25), does not (at 50) believe in steel. Anyhow, he bullies Emily into marrying the peer. :In 1912, Sir John sa doddering old grandfather; Lady Rhead, the sweetest of grandmothers; Emily, now the widowed Lady Monkhurst, and the smartest of matrons. Once more the eternal marriage question. Emily's daughter Muriel has engaged herself to young Dick Sibley, another young engineer; and Emily cannot bear it, because Dick is going to Canada, and she dreads separation from her daughter. But Muriel is quite a different sort of daughter from the daughters of the two previous generations. They were tearful, obedient, timid. She intends to have her own way as a mere matter of course. When opposed, she is quite prepared to argue it out – is, in fact, the contemporary young woman from head to foot. Fortunately she gets her way without inflicting pain on her elders after all. For Emily's old admirer, Arthur Preece (now M.P., head of the Labour Party, and already a little disillusioned with it and politics generally), reappears and claims Emily for his own. She no longer needs her daughter, who is free to marry Dick, and all ends happily with grandpapa and grandmamma having a cosy chat over the fire.

Film adaptations

The play was adapted into silent films on two occasions. A 1916 British film ''

Milestones A milestone is a marker of distance along roads. Milestone may also refer to: Measurements *Milestone (project management), metaphorically, markers of reaching an identifiable stage in any task or the project *Software release life cycle state, s ...

'' directed by

Thomas Bentley Thomas Bentley (23 February 1884 – 23 December 1966) was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, ''The Man in the Street'' (1926), '' ...

and starring

and a 1920 American film ''

'' directed by

Paul Scardon Paul Scardon (6 May 1874 – 17 January 1954) was an actor, a producer, and a director on both Australian and New York stages. When he was 15, Scardon debuted on stage as a contortionist in vaudeville. He progressed from that to pantomime and t ...

and starring

Lewis Stone Lewis Shepard Stone (November 15, 1879 – September 12, 1953) was an American film actor. He spent 29 years as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was best known for his portrayal of Judge James Hardy in the studio's popular ''Andy H ...

.Goble p.35

References

Sources

* Courtney, Richard. ''Outline History of British Drama''. Littlefield, Adams, 1982. * {{cite book, editor-last= Gaye, editor-first=Freda , year= 1967, title=Who's Who in the Theatre , edition=fourteenth, location=London , publisher=Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons , oclc=5997224 * Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. 1912 plays Plays by Edward Knoblock Works by Arnold Bennett West End plays British plays adapted into films Plays set in London Plays set in the 19th century