First edition cover ( Faber and Faber) ''The Confidential Clerk'' is a comic verse play by T. S. Eliot.

Synopsis

Sir Claude Mulhammer, a wealthy entrepreneur, decides to smuggle his illegitimate son Colby into the household by employing him as his confidential clerk. He hopes that his eccentric wife, Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer, will take a liking to the boy and allow him to live as her adopted son. She in fact becomes convinced that Colby is actually her own son. Meanwhile, Lucasta Angel wants to marry B. Kaghan, but neither seems to have any parents at all. A drama of mistaken identity and confusion ensues. The "confidential clerk" of the title refers both to Colby, in his new job, and Eggerson, Sir Claude's old clerk who is seen retiring at the start of the play but returns in the final act to resolve the situation.

Characters and original cast

:Source: Play text.Eliot (1967), p. 6

Productions

T. S. Eliot's penultimate play premiered at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

in 1953, before transferring to the West End with the same cast."Lyric Theatre", ''The Times'', 17 September 1953, p. 2; and "Theatres", ''The Times'', 14 April 1954, p. 2 It played from September 1953 to April 1954 at the Lyric Theatre before embarking on a UK Tour. It was produced by Henry Sherek and directed by E. Martin Browne. After this, the only known professional production occurred at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham in the 1970s.

Primavera Productions Primavera Productions is a professional theatre company founded in 2003 by Tom Littler, who is also the Artistic Director. It is based in London, UK. Primavera is particularly noted for its revivals of rarely performed plays, although this does n ...

produced the play as part of the 'rediscoveries season 2007' at the

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world pr ...

, directed by

Tom Littler Tom Littler is a British theatre director and the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London. He was the founder of theatre company Primavera Productions, a former Associate Director of Theatre503 formerly Artistic Director ...

. The play was first published as a book by Faber and Faber Ltd, London, in 1954.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Confidential Clerk Plays by T. S. Eliot 1953 plays Faber and Faber books