''The Recruiting Officer'' is a 1706 play by the Irish writer

George Farquhar George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux’ Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes ...

, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fr ...

, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

(the town where Farquhar himself was posted in this capacity) to recruit soldiers. The characters of the play are generally

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

, in keeping with the

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...

of Restoration comedy.

Characters

Plot

The play opens with the recruiter, Captain Plume's Sergeant Kite, recruiting in the town of

. Plume arrives, in love with Sylvia, closely followed by Worthy, a local gentleman who is in love with Sylvia's cousin Melinda. Worthy asked Melinda to become his mistress a year previously, as he believed her to be of inadequate fortune to marry. But he changes his mind after she comes into an inheritance of £20,000. Melinda accepts an invitation from Captain Brazen, another recruiter, to annoy Worthy, as she was offended by Worthy's previous offer. However, her maid Lucy meets Brazen, pretending to be Melinda, hoping to marry him herself. Melinda and Sylvia argue after Melinda says that the money she has inherited makes her more desirable. Sylvia, who is more down to earth, is infuriated by Melinda's newly haughty behaviour. Sylvia leaves her father's house to mourn her brother Owen's death. She tells her father Balance that she is going to the Welsh countryside but in fact goes into Shrewsbury dressed as a man, under the name 'Jack Wilful'. There Brazen and Plume compete to recruit 'Wilful', unaware of 'his' real identity. Kite abducts 'him' for Plume while Plume duels with Brazen. Still disguised as Wilful, Sylvia goes on to spend the night in bed with Rose, a local wench previously courted by Plume to get Rose's brother Bullock to join up. An action is brought against 'Wilful' for sexually assaulting Rose and 'he' finds 'himself' on trial before Sylvia's father Balance and his two fellow magistrates Scruple and Scale. The three magistrates also look into Kite's dubious recruiting practices but finally acquit him and force Wilful to swear to the Articles of War. Meanwhile, Melinda continues to discourage Worthy, until going to a fortune teller (in fact Kite in disguise), where she is convinced to relent and accept his courtship. She is also tricked by being given a sample of her handwriting by the 'fortune teller', who takes it from a 'devil' he has conjured up under the table (in fact Plume). Kite is then visited by Brazen, who gives him a love letter from, as he thinks, Melinda. However, by comparing the handwriting sample, Worthy discovers that the letter is in fact from Melinda's maid Lucy, who hopes to ensnare Brazen as a husband. Worthy then goes to visit Melinda but, on going to tell Plume the good news, finds out that Melinda seems to be eloping with Brazen after all. Worthy intercepts Brazen and a disguised woman whom he takes to be Melinda, and challenges Brazen to a duel. The duel is prevented when the woman drops her disguise and reveals herself to be Lucy. Sylvia also drops her disguise. Plume agrees to leave the army and marry her, Melinda relents towards Worthy and agrees to marry him, and Plume transfers his twenty recruits to Brazen to compensate him for the loss of a rich marriage with Melinda.

Production history

''The Recruiting Officer'' opened at Drury Lane in 1706. It was an immediate hit and went on to become one of the most frequently performed plays of the 18th century. The part of the foppish Brazen proved a significant role for the actor-manager Colley Cibber. The rest of the cast included Robert Wilks as Plume,

Theophilus Keene Theophilus Keene (1680-1718) was an Anglo-Irish stage actor and theatre manager. Keene was from a Presbyterian background. He originally began acting at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin. Having arrived in London from Ireland in 1704, he appe ...

as Ballance, Thomas Kent as Scale, Joseph Williams as Worthy,

Richard Estcourt Richard Estcourt (1668–1712) was an English actor, who began by playing comedy parts in Dublin. His first London appearance was in 1704 as Dominick, in Dryden's ''Spanish Friar'', and he continued to take important parts at Drury Lane, being ...

as Kite, William Bullock as Bullock, Henry Norris as Costar Pearmain, Jane Rogers as Melinda,

Anne Oldfield Anne Oldfield (168323 October 1730) was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time. Early life and discovery She was born in London in 1683. Her father was a soldier, James Oldfield. Her mother was either Anne or Eliz ...

as Silvia and

Susanna Mountfort Susanna Mountfort (1690-1720) was a British stage actress. She was the daughter of the actors William Mountfort and his wife Susanna Mountfort. In 1692 her father was killed in a duel and her mother remarried and became known as Susanna Verbrug ...

as Rose. ''The Recruiting Officer'' was the first play to be staged in New York City, at the Theatre on Nassau Street on 6 December 1732. It was also the first play to be staged in the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of ...

, which is now Australia, by the convicts of the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command o ...

in 1789 under the governance of Captain Arthur Phillip RN (also Commodore of the

).,Hughes, Robert (1987) ''The Fatal Shore'', Collins. as well as the first performance of the original Dock Street Theatre in Historic downtown Charleston, SC in 1736. The best remembered modern revival was staged at the National Theatre Company Theatre (while based at the Old Vic) in 1963 – its inaugural season. Directed by William Gaskill, its cast which included

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage ...

as Brazen,

Robert Stephens Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the nat ...

as Plume, Colin Blakely as Kite,

Derek Jacobi Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as '' Hamlet'', '' Much Ado About Nothing'', '' Macbeth'', '' Twelfth Night'', '' The Tempest'', ' ...

as Worthy,

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...

as Silvia and Mary Miller as Melinda. The National Theatre staged the play again in 1991 with Desmond Barrit as Brazen, Alex Jennings as Plume and Ken Stott as Kite. It was directed by

Nicholas Hytner Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner (; born 7 May 1956) is an English theatre director, film director, and film producer. He was previously the Artistic Director of London's National Theatre. His major successes as director include '' Miss Saigon'', ''T ...

. In 2012

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...

staged a revival starring Tobias Menzies as Captain Plume,

Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series '' Doctor Who'', '' Sherlock'', and '' Dracula''. Together with ...

as Brazen and Mackenzie Crook as Kite. American Players Theatre included The Recruiting Officer in its 2018 repertory season with Nate Burger as Plume, Marcus Truschinski as Brazen, Jefferson A. Russell as Kite and directed by William Brown.

TV Adaptations

There have been two television adaptations of the play. The first for Australian television in 1965, the second a BBC '' Play of the Month'' (1973). The latter, of which only fragments are believed to survive,Missing or incomplete episodes for programme ''Play of the Month''
lostshows.com was directed by David Giles, starred

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

as Plume,

Prunella Ransome Prunella Jane Ransome (18 January 1943 – 4 March 2002) was an English actress, primarily active on television and films. Early life Ransome was born in Croydon, Surrey. She later lived in Fareham, England where her father, Jimmy Ransome, was ...

as his sweetheart Sylvia,

Jane Asher Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...

as Melinda, John Moffatt as Brazen, and

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed (; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor, presenter, writer and mountaineer. Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars'', Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of '' I, Claudius'', King Richard I ...

as Sergeant Kite.

Adaptations

The German dramatist

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

adapted ''The Recruiting Officer'' as the play '' Trumpets and Drums'' in 1955. It was the first play performed in Australia.

Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his non-fiction novel '' Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, ...

wrote a novel, ''The Playmaker'', based on a staging of the play in Sydney by those who came ashore from the

. That novel was adapted into a play, ''

Our Country's Good ''Our Country's Good'' is a 1988 play written by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from the Thomas Keneally novel ''The Playmaker''. The story concerns a group of Royal Marines and convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales ...

'', in 1988, by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Both works deal with the nature and merits of punishment, rehabilitation and theatre.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Recruiting Officer, The 1706 plays Plays by George Farquhar Restoration comedy Plays set in the 18th century Shropshire in fiction