''The Spoil'd Child'' (1787) is a late 18th-century British
farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...
that played on stages well into the 19th century. Its authorship is usually but doubtfully attributed to
Isaac Bickerstaffe
Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff (26 September 1733 – after 1808) was an Irish playwright and Librettist.
Early life
Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government posi ...
.
[Macmillan, Ehtel]
Isaac Bickerstaff: a Study of His Writings in Relation to the Drama of His Time
p. 187-91 (1923)
The first reported performance of the play is 16 October 1787 at the Theatre Ulverstone. However, more prominently noted in sources is its March 1790 London debut at
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster.
Notable landmarks ...
, with
Dorothea Jordan playing the lead role of Little Pickle for which the play was best known.
[Vey, Shauna]
Review: Bloody Tyrants and Little Pickles: Stage Roles of Anglo-American Girls in the Nineteenth Century By Marlis Schweitzer
''Theatre Survey'', Volume 63, Issue 1, January 2022, pp. 120 - 121
Bickerstaff scholar Peter Tasch notes that the play was "damned by nearly all the critics wherever it was performed, but stayed in the repertory at first because of the acting of Mrs. Jordan, and later, of other actresses who thought it fun to play Little Pickle. As late as 1873 in America ''The Spoil'd Child'' was being performed."
[Tasch, Peter A]
The dramatic cobbler; the life and works of Isaac Bickerstaff
p. 250-51 (1972)[Naedele, Walter F. (8 August 2010]
'' Philadelphia Inquirer'' (obituary of Tasch cited to confirm he was a Bickerstaff scholar)
References
External links
1792 Dublin printing of play
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spoil'd Child, The
1787 plays