The Admirable Crichton was first performed at the Duke of York’s Theatre in November 1902 and is Barrie’s most politically pointed play — a social comedy that uses the device of a desert island to strip away the conventions of Edwardian class society and examine what lies beneath. Lord Loam, a progressive aristocrat who believes in equality (one day a month he invites his servants to tea), is shipwrecked with his family and household on an uninhabited island. In the state of nature, the butler Crichton — the most competent, intelligent, and practical member of the group — naturally assumes leadership.
The play’s first two acts establish the comedy of class reversal: the aristocrats are helpless without their privileges (they cannot cook, build, or organize), while Crichton’s practical abilities make him indispensable and then dominant. By Act Three, he has become the unquestioned ruler of the island community, and Lady Mary — Lord Loam’s daughter — has fallen in love with him. But rescue arrives, and Act Four returns everyone to England, where the old order reasserts itself: Crichton becomes a butler again, Lady Mary marries an aristocrat, and the island experience is collectively repressed.
Barrie’s satire cuts in multiple directions: he mocks the aristocrats’ incompetence, but he also mocks Lord Loam’s sentimental egalitarianism (which is easy to profess when one’s privilege is secure). The play suggests that social hierarchy is artificial (Crichton is naturally superior to his employers) while also suggesting that it is inescapable (the return to England makes hierarchy permanent again). The play was enormously successful and has been frequently revived.
Collecting The Admirable Crichton
First edition (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1914 — Barrie delayed publication): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition: $75–$200
- First American edition (Scribner): $40–$100