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East of Suez
A play in five scenes by W. Somerset Maugham. Opened at His Majesty's Theatre, London, September 2, 1922. After 209 performances the play closed on March 3, 1923. Staged by William Abingdon; produced by Basil Dean.
Cast of characters
| Harold Knox | Henry Kendall |
| Wu | Ivor Barnard |
| Henry Anderson | Malcolm Keen |
| Amah | Marie Ault |
| George Conway | Basil Rathbone |
| Daisy |
Meggie Albanesi/ Nora Robinson |
| Lee Tai Cheng | C.V. France |
| Sylvia Knox | Ursula Millard |
| Extras | Matthew Forsyth, Hugh Dempster, Laurence Ireland, Osborn Adair, Sholto Douglas, Nora Robinson, Mercia Swinburne, Marion Lind, Miss Yorke Stephens, Rita Page, Hilda Moss, Kitty Marshall, Dorothy Wordsworth, Maureen Dillon, Kitty McCoy, May Warde, Kathleen MacVeagh |
| Scene 1 — | A small verandah on an upper story of the British-American tobacco company's premises, Peking, China |
| Scene 2 — | The Temple of Fidelity and Virtuous Inclination |
| Scene 3 — | The Sitting Room in the Andersons' Part of the Temple |
| Scene 4 — | The Courtyard in the Andersons' Part of the Temple |
| Scene 5 — | The Sitting Room in the Andersons' Part of the Temple |
"George Conway, attached to the British legation in Peking, discovers that
his best friend, Henry Anderson, has became engaged to marry Daisy, a beautiful
Eurasian whose English father had had her educated in England. Conway had known
Daisy years before, and been deeply in love with her, but had not married her,
both because she was a half-caste and because he knew that she had had other
lovers. Realizing it is too late to save his friend, Conway makes the best of
the situation. After the wedding he tries to see as little as possible of Daisy,
but is gradually fascinated by her anew. When he can no longer bear the
humiliation of his treachery to his friend, he kills himself."
[from The Best Plays of 1922-23, ed. by Burns Mantle (Dodd, Mead and
Co., 1923), page 459.]
