Saturday, November 16, 2019

When was Justice first performed?

Justice was first performed in the UK at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on February 21st, 1910. It could have been earlier if Galsworthy had not fought so hard to keep the play's final line "he's safe with gentle Jesus!"
Due to its controversial subject matter, the first performances were attended by many influential people, including the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill. Churchill would late cite Justice as one of the major influences in the subsequent reforms of the British penal system.
The original cast included Sydney Valentine as James How, Charles Maude as Walter How, Edmund Gwen as Cokeson and Dennis Eadie as Falder.
The play was first performed on Broadway at the Candler Theatre in New York on April 3. 1916. According to the Broadway Database (please see link below) John Barrymore played Falder, Charlie Francis played Walter How, O. P Hogge played Cokeson, and Henry Stephenson played James How.


Justice was first performed on February 21st, 1910 in London. The play was so extraordinary that Winston Churchill himself attended one of the showings.
Justice is a crime play by John Galsworthy that was absolutely revolutionary for its time. It tells the story of a young man named William Falder, and office clerk who alters a check in order to secure the funds to emancipate the woman he loves from a life of abuse. He is, of course, caught in the act, and has to serve his time in jail leaving his lover in her terrible predicament. Justice is a brutal look at the many flaws of the criminal justice system. In the story, it contorts an otherwise promising young man to a life of ever-increasing miserable circumstances until it is finally too much to bear.


Justice is a play by John Galsworthy (1867-1933), a well-educated English playwright from a wealthy family who himself trained as a barrister. It was first performed at the Duke of York Theatre in London on 21 February 1910 and first published slightly later in 1910 in both British and American editions. The play is widely available in print and etexts (or in ebook format), including at two major public domain archives:
https://archive.org/details/justiceatragedy00galsgoog
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2911

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