Another Pinero play. Biting satire this time, ironic comedy - not a farce. The Big Drum, a novel being written by Phil, one of the main characters, is "an attempt to portray the struggle for notoriety—for self-advertisement—we see going on around us to-day." "Oh, I believe any world would content me that's totally different from the world I've lived in so long; any world that isn't flat and stale and stifling; that isn't made up of shams, and petty aims and appetites; any world that—well, such a world as you used to picture, Phil, when you preached your gospel to a selfish, common girl under the chestnuts in the Allée de Longchamp and the Champs-Elysées! ... I've been waiting—waiting for you—in my dreams—for ten years! " - Summary by ToddHW
NOTE: There is an Author's Preface. Because it contains spoilers, it has been put at the end of the Act 4 file.
Cast list:
Philip Mackworth:Nemo [https://librivox.org/reader/11535]
Sir Randle Filson, Knight:ToddHW [https://librivox.org/reader/6754]
Bertram Filson (his son):Tomas Peter [https://librivox.org/reader/10789]
Sir Timothy Barradell, Baronett:alanmapstone [https://librivox.org/reader/7170]
Robert Roope:Adrian Stephens [https://librivox.org/reader/13577]
Collingham Green:Larry Wilson [https://librivox.org/reader/8425]
Leonard Westrip (Sir Randle's secretary):Shashank Jakhmola [https://librivox.org/reader/13652]
Alfred Dunning (of Sillitoe and Dunning's Private Detective Agency):Son of the Exiles [https://librivox.org/reader/8879]
Noyes (Mr. Roope's servant):Steven Fellows [https://librivox.org/reader/13563]
Underwood (servant at Sir Randle's):KevinS [https://librivox.org/reader/13278]
John (Mr. Mackworth's servant):Devorah Allen [https://librivox.org/reader/11084]
Ottoline de Chaumié, Comtesse de Chaumié, née Filson:Eva Davis [https://librivox.org/reader/11417]
Lady Filson:Sonia [https://librivox.org/reader/10179]
Honourable Mrs. Godfrey Anslow:Leanne Yau [https://librivox.org/reader/10614]
Mrs. Walter Quebec:TJ Burns [https://librivox.org/reader/11790]
Miss Tracer (Lady Filson's secretary):Availle [https://librivox.org/reader/4174]
Stage Directions:MichaelMaggs [https://librivox.org/reader/12075]
Edited By:ToddHW [https://librivox.org/reader/6754]