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''Harlequin and the Fairy's Dilemma'', retitled ''The Fairy's Dilemma'' shortly after the play opened, is a play in two acts by W. S. Gilbert that parodies the harlequinade that concluded 19th-century pantomimes. It was produced at the Garrick Theatre by Arthur Bourchier, lessee of the theatre, on 3 May 1904 and ran for 90 performances, closing on 22 July 1904. The work was Gilbert's last full-length play. ==Background== ''The Fairy's Dilemma'', "an original domestic pantomime in two acts",〔''The Times'', 21 April 1904, p. 11〕 was W. S. Gilbert's first play produced since ''The Fortune Hunter'' in 1897. He had announced a retirement from the theatre after the poor reception of that play. In 1900, he wrote a story called "The Fairy's Dilemma", published in the Christmas number of ''The Graphic'' magazine that year. In 1904, he emerged from his seven-year "retirement" to adapt the story into a play, which he directed himself, as he usually did with his plays.〔Stedman, p. 325〕 ''The Fairy's Dilemma'' was Gilbert's only play premiered at the Garrick Theatre, which he had built in 1889.〔Crowther, p. 710〕 Incidental music for the piece was arranged by Edmond Rickett,〔 consisting of popular songs of the 1860s and 1870s, such as "Champagne Charlie".〔''The Manchester Guardian'', 5 May 1904〕 ''The Fairy's Dilemma'' was Gilbert's last full-length non-musical play.〔("Gilbert's Plays", ) ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive''〕 Arthur Bourchier had leased the Garrick in 1900, and he and his wife Violet Vanbrugh starred in numerous plays there over the next six years often producing new works, including ''The Fairy's Dilemma''.〔Gillan, Don. (Vanbrugh biography ) at the ''Stage Beauty'' website〕 The piece garnered enthusiastic opening-night reviews in London on 3 May 1904. According to ''The New York Times'', the play "met with distinct success. It is brilliantly nonsensical".〔("Gilbert's New Play; ''The Fairy's Dilemma'' Is Brilliantly Nonsensical", ) ''The New York Times'', 15 May 1904, p. 4〕 ''The Telegraph'' called it "a new sensation".〔 ''The Manchester Guardian'' wrote, "The piece kept the whole house laughing almost without intermission during the two short hours of its duration.... It restores Mr. Gilbert to the stage in his most irresistibly whimsical vein, and deserves to rank among the brightest and most exhilarating of his productions."〔 ''The Observer'' noted its "immense superiority", "fresh dramatic wit" and the audience's "sensation of delight not less keen than rare", while opining that "age cannot wither" Gilbert's "finish and precision... his mordant wit" and his "brilliant fun".〔''The Observer'', 8 May 1904〕 Max Beerbohm, writing in ''The Saturday Review'', however, criticised the show for being more appropriate to the 1870s.〔Beerbohm, Max. ''The Saturday Review'', 14 May 1904, p. 621〕 ''The Fairy's Dilemma'' is a parody of the conventional harlequinade and of melodrama.〔 However, the play was written decades after the heyday of the harlequinade. Houses were good at first, but despite its initial success and good reviews, the audience dwindled, and it lasted only 90 performances and was withdrawn on 22 July 1904.〔Ainger, p. 399〕 Violet Vanbrugh speculated that too few theatregoers remembered the old harlequinade well enough to enjoy the parody. Nevertheless, the piece was sent on a brief tour.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Fairy's Dilemma」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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