AustLit

On the life of James Abbot McNeill Whistler; a play in three acts.

The play opens on a dinner party in the home of the brilliant painter Mr Whistler, whose uninhibited wit is the inspiration of Oscar Wilde himself and who leaves a trail of controversy wherever he goes. There Whistler meets the beautiful Felicity, niece of Lady Meed, and is quickly won by her warmness and soft charm. Lady Meed, however, becomes strongly opposed to the attachment when she learns that Whistler is currently engaged in suing a renowned art critic for libel.

Come the day of the court case, the prospects look grim but Whistler is typically high-spirited. While a concerned Felicity entreats him to be serious, he propounds his ideals of the sufficiency of her love and the high aim of art to outweigh all worldly rejection. Lady Meed, meanwhile, demands that Felicity must leave him if he does not win the case. Felicity cannot bring herself to tell him, and even Lady Meed struggles to dampen the incorrigible Whistler. Whistler succeeds in winning the case by raucously shaming the attorney, but leaves as a debtor and a public disgrace. On exiting the court he meets the sympathetic Beatrice.

In the company of bailiffs, Whistler throws one last celebratory dinner before his every possession is put up for auction. That night, alone with him and his portrait of her, Felicity cuts through the ideals he has painted her in and announces that she is altogether too different to him for their relationship to work. Months later a defeated and brokenhearted Whistler listens to the sounds of his life's work being sold off. He is left with one last friend in a retinue of enemies, the steadfast Beatrice. Whistler is still trapped by the memory of Felicity until he learns that it is Beatrice, not Felicity, who has bought his best paintings – with all of her money and all for his sake. They resolve to marry the next day and leave for London together.

Characters

LADY MEED

FELICITY ECKS – her niece

DIBBS – Whistler's man

OSCAR WILDE

THOMAS WOODBEE

EDWARD COPPIE – pupil of Whistler

FREDERICK COPPIE – pupil of Whistler

JAMES ABBOT MCNEILL WHISTLER

GEORGE DU MAURIER

COUNT RUDELLO

A PRECIOUS YOUNG MAN

BEATRICE GODWIN

BARTHE – an art dealer

SIR JOHN HOLKER – attorney general

OFFICER OF THE COURT

2 BAILIFFS

AUCTIONEER

BUYERS