The Right Honourable Gentleman

About the show

The Right Honourable Gentleman is a dramatization of the rather complicated real-life Crawford scandal of Victorian England. Sir Charles Dilke, an important Liberal member of Parliament, is seen as a possible successor to Gladstone as Prime Minister. The circumstances leading to his destruction, his private affairs as contrasted with those of the Empire, form the crux of the play. The play introduce Dilke in his finest hour, an obvious choice for the new cabinet. But a certain Mr. Crawford sues his wife for divorce, naming Sir Charles as an involved party, based on his wife's confession that she had been having an affair with Sir Charles for some time. Mrs. Crawford provides dates and facts and is quite credible, while Sir Charles offers avowals of complete innocence, not just publicly but solemnly sworn to in private to his fiancee. And in fact Mrs. Crawford is lying, and instead is madly in love and carrying on with a certain Captain Foster, which may have been a reason for inventing her charges against the unfortunate Sir Charles. But Sir Charles had been conducting a long-term affair with Mrs. Crawford's mother, which, when it comes out, destroys his reputation and career.