New York Idea

I find it very hard to classify "The New York Idea" under any of the established rubrics. It is rather too extravagant to rank as a comedy; it is much too serious in its purport, too searching in its character-delineation and too thoughtful in its wit, to be treated as a mere farce. Its title—not, perhaps, a very happy one—is explained in this saying of one of the characters: "Marry for whim and leave the rest to the divorce court—that's the New York idea of marriage."

Like all the plays, from Sardou's "Divorçons" onward, which deal with a too facile system of divorce, this one shows a discontented woman, who has broken up her home for a caprice, suffering agonies of jealousy when her ex-husband proposes to make use of the freedom she has given him, and returning to him at last with the admission that their divorce was at least "premature." In this central conception there is nothing particularly original. It is the wealth of humourous invention displayed in the details both of character and situation that renders the play remarkable. (Summary from Project Gutenberg)

Cast

Philip Phillimore: Mark F. Smith

Grace Phillimore: Diana Majlinger

Mrs. Phillimore: Margaret Espaillat

Miss Heneage: rashada

Matthew Phillimore: Roger Melin

William Sudley: om123

Mrs. Vida Phillimore: Elizabeth Klett

Sir Wilfrid Cates-Darby: Equilibrium33

John Karslake: mb

Mrs. Cynthia Karslake: Arielle Lipshaw

Brooks: Equilibrium33

Tim Fiddler: Equilibrium33

Nogam: moonpiles

Thomas: David Muncaster

Benson: Lucy Perry

Narrator: Margaret Espaillat

Audio edited by: Arielle Lipshaw