The Caltech Playreaders

2016-2017: The 66th Season

All of our readings will be held at 7:30 pm
at the Caltech Athenaeum in the Hall of Associates.

Please note our earlier start time of 7:30 p.m. The doors will open at 7:15.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

The Cassilis Engagement by St. John Hankin

Directed by Lynne McGrath


In a 1907 comedy of British upper-crust manners combining the wit of Oscar Wilde and the social satire of Bernard Shaw, an aristocratic widow's only son is bent on making a marital misalliance. His beloved is admittedly working class, albeit with a finishing school education, and in due course the young woman and her uneducated, ambitious mother are invited to the family estate. The visit has unpredictable and highly entertaining results. St. John Hankin did not like conventional endings, so instead begins the play's action where most such works end, with the couple's engagement. Ah, but where does it go from there?

Setting: Deynham Abbey, Leicestershire, England.

Cast of Characters:

Mrs. CassilisAn aristocratic widow
The Countess of Remenham
Lady Marchmont Mrs. Cassilis' sister
Geoffrey CassilisMrs. Cassilis' son
Ethel BorridgeGeoffrey's fiance
Mrs. BorridgeEthel's mother
Lady Mabel Venning the Countess' daughter
Mr. Herries the Rector
Mrs. Herries the Rector's wife
Major Warringtonthe Countess's brother
WatsonButler at Deynham
Dorset Mrs. Cassilis' maid