These Charming People

About the show

This synopsis was compiled from contemporaneous newspaper reviews. Scenes: Act I (Sir George's House in Chester Square.) Act II (The same. The next morning.) Act III (Sitting room of Bat and Ball Hotel at Guilford. The same day.) Sir George, long a sponge on friends and acquaintances, has become an MP by the influence of his son-in-law James Berridge, and obtained a large loan from him, secured by his London townhouse. When Berridge comes to tell Sir George of his daughter Julia's rumored adultery, Sir George is alarmed. Berridge is in line for a peerage, and cannot afford any hint of scandal. He threatens to evict Sir George, for he knows how the two daughters dote on their parasite of a father and will listen to him. Desperate to avoid losing his home and even worse his source of easy loans, Sir George starts a campaign to stop Julia's infidelity. But Julia finds her husband insufferably dull, while she dreads the thought of the attention a peerage will focus on their daily life. She is attracted to Geoffrey Allen, who has an engaging mind. Younger sister Pamela, however, prefers her man to be seen and not heard, which Miles Winter fulfills in his dunderheaded way to Sir George's annoyance. As Julia prepares to take the fatal step, she discovers an unpleasant fact: Geoffrey is the son of a cleaning woman and her father's butler Minx. Even more appalling, Minx is firmly against the illicit romance, not wishing his son to be allied with such disreputable nobs. Julia decides to meet with her husband and make a deal; if he will turn down the peerage, she will return to him. He agrees, and the play ends with Sir George hitting up both Berridge and Winter for loans.