A Bill of Divorcement: A Play in Three Acts

A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
NOVELS :
REGIMENT OF WOMEN FIRST THE BLADE LEGEND
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
A PLAY IN THREE ACTS BY CLEMENCE DANE
Copyright: London, William Heinemann, 1921.
This play was produced on Monday, March 14th, 1921, at the St. Martin’s Theatre, with the following cast:
In the order of their appearance.
Margaret Fairfield. Miss Hester Fairfield. Sydney Fairfield. Bassett. Gray Meredith. Kit Pumphrey. Hilary Fairfield. Dr. Alliot. The Christopher.
Scene.— A small house in the country. The action passes on Christmas Day, 1933. The audience is asked to imagine that the recommendations of the Majority Report of the Royal Commission on Divorce v. Matrimonial Causes have become the law of the land .
The curtain rises on the hall, obviously used as the common-room of a country house. On the right (of the audience) is the outer door and a staircase that runs down from an upper landing towards the middle of the room, half hiding what has once been a separate smaller room with a baize door at the back. In the corner a French window opens on to a snowbound garden. On the left, facing the entrance, a log fire is blazing. Staircase, pictures, grandfather clock, etc., are wreathed with holly and mistletoe. At the breakfast table, which is laid for three and littered with paper and string, sit Miss Hester Fairfield and Margaret Fairfield, her niece by marriage. The third chair has two or three parcels piled up on it.