The Skin Game (play)
Encyclopedia
The Skin Game is a play by the John Galsworthy
. It was first performed at the St Martins Theatre, London in 1920. It has been made into a film twice, in 1921
and in 1931. The latter adapatation was directed by Alfred Hitchcock
.
” Hornblowers, headed by the single-minded and rich industrialist Hornblower who throws old retainers the Jackmans out of their home (much to the Squire’s disgust), and who plans to surround the Hillcrist’s rural estate with factories.
Hillcrist wants to preserve the last piece of open land (The Sentry) which adjoins their property but he is (as he sees it) tricked out of the land in an auction. The Hillcrists plan to get even with the upstart Hornblower and fortuitously learn a dark secret about Mr. Hornblower's daughter-in-law Chloe who had once supported herself as the “other party” in divorce cases. When he is told the news, Mr. Hornblower agrees to sell the property to the Hillcrists for less than half the auction price on the condition that the family swears to keep the secret, but the news leaks out via the unprincipled Dawker, Hillcrist’s agent and Hornblower’s enemy.
Chloe Hornblower goes to the Hillcrists, begging them to help keep the secret from her husband, who is aware that something is going on, then hides behind a curtain when her husband storms into the Hillcrist home demanding to know the secret. Keeping his promise to Chloe, Mr. Hillcrist makes up a story, but the young Hornblower is not convinced and declares that he intends to end his marriage, even though Chloe is pregnant. Upon hearing this, Chloe runs to the lily pond outside the Hillcrist home and tries to drown herself. She is brought into the house and it is clear that she will live.
AMY .....................His Wife
JILL ....................His Daughter
DAWKER ..................His Agent
HORNBLOWER ..............A Man Newly-Rich
CHARLES .................His Elder Son
CHLOE ...................Wife to Charles
ROLF ....................His Younger Son
FELLOWS .................Hillcrist's Butler
ANNA ....................Chloe's Maid
THE JACKMANS ............Man and Wife
AN AUCTIONEER
A SOLICITOR
TWO STRANGERS
The Skin Game first appeared less than two years after the end of the First World War and although the war is not mentioned some see it as hanging over the drama. It was the aristocracy which created the war and the bungling of aristocratic Generals which caused loss of life on an unprecedented scale. The shambling Squire could be seen as a representative of this class and Hornblower as one who will not let the old style patrician class get them into such a mess again. But this is supposition – though supported by Hillcrist’s cry “Who knows where things end when once they begin?”
The attitudes of Hillcrist and his wife are Victorian and Galsworthy was deliberately pointing them out to be so. He was also signalling change in the depiction of the daughter Jill who is modern in her outlook and who, at the beginning of the play, argues for an accommodation rather than a standoff with the Hornblowers. The twenties were to be the age of the flapper
and of the final abandonment of Victorian/Edwardian formality and values. It was also to be the era of the rise of the middle class – here represented by the ambitious Dawker and the comically skilful auctioneer (the auction scene is an amusing piece of comic writing providing a pleasant counterpoint to the darker happenings which dominate). Galsworthy’s magnum opus known as The Forsyte Saga
was being completed at around the same time that he was writing The Skin Game and there are similar themes of social change and the breakdown of conventional class structures in both. The prescience of Galsworthy in foreseeing what was to come between the wars is remarkable.
So whilst the main characters are deliberate caricatures this allows an unequivocal conclusion that Galsworthy was not taking sides in the dispute – even wanting to put a plague on both their houses. The young people (Jill Hillcrist and Rolf Hornblower) are the most rationale and conciliatory characters and one feels comfortable that the future belongs to them not to their prejudiced parents. For some the 1920s might be seen as the last stand of the “Gentleman” before this notion was swept away by the forces that (for example) Evelyn Waugh
was to describe in Brideshead Revisited
. In Brideshead these forces are depicted by the uncouth Canadian Rex Mottram. Here it is the even rougher Hornblower who challenges the conventions of the past. “Here ye are” he says to Hillcrist, “quite content on what your fathers made for ye. Ye've no ambitions; and ye want other people to have none.”
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
. It was first performed at the St Martins Theatre, London in 1920. It has been made into a film twice, in 1921
The Skin Game (1921 film)
The Skin Game is a 1921 British-Dutch silent drama film directed by B. E. Doxat-Pratt.-Cast:* Edmund Gwenn - Hornblower* Mary Clare - Chloe Hornblower* Helen Haye - Mrs. Hillcrist* Dawson Millward - Mr...
and in 1931. The latter adapatation was directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
.
Plot
The plot tells the story of the interaction between two very different families in rural England just after the end of the First World War. Squire Hillcrist lives in the manor house where his family has lived for generations. He has a daughter, Jill, who is in her late teens and a wife Amy, as well as servants and retainers. He is “old money”, although his finances are at a bit of low ebb. The other family is the “nouveau richeNouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
” Hornblowers, headed by the single-minded and rich industrialist Hornblower who throws old retainers the Jackmans out of their home (much to the Squire’s disgust), and who plans to surround the Hillcrist’s rural estate with factories.
Hillcrist wants to preserve the last piece of open land (The Sentry) which adjoins their property but he is (as he sees it) tricked out of the land in an auction. The Hillcrists plan to get even with the upstart Hornblower and fortuitously learn a dark secret about Mr. Hornblower's daughter-in-law Chloe who had once supported herself as the “other party” in divorce cases. When he is told the news, Mr. Hornblower agrees to sell the property to the Hillcrists for less than half the auction price on the condition that the family swears to keep the secret, but the news leaks out via the unprincipled Dawker, Hillcrist’s agent and Hornblower’s enemy.
Chloe Hornblower goes to the Hillcrists, begging them to help keep the secret from her husband, who is aware that something is going on, then hides behind a curtain when her husband storms into the Hillcrist home demanding to know the secret. Keeping his promise to Chloe, Mr. Hillcrist makes up a story, but the young Hornblower is not convinced and declares that he intends to end his marriage, even though Chloe is pregnant. Upon hearing this, Chloe runs to the lily pond outside the Hillcrist home and tries to drown herself. She is brought into the house and it is clear that she will live.
Quotations
- “When we began this fight, we had clean hands--are they clean' now? What's gentility worth if it can't stand fire?” (Hillcrist)
- ”In old days we only knew their Christian names from their tombstones”. (Hillcrist)
- ” Look here, Hillcrist, ye've not had occasion to understand men like me. I've got the guts, and I've got the money; and I don't sit still on it. I'm going ahead because I believe in meself. I've no use for sentiment and that sort of thing.” (Hornblower)
- ”There is no reason why the ladies of your family or of mine should be involved in our quarrel. For Heaven's sake, let's fight like gentlemen.” (Hillcrist)
- ” I told ye I was a bad man to be up against. Perhaps ye'll believe me now.” (Hornblower)
- ”I know we are better people than these Hornblowers. Here we are going to stay, and they--are not. (Mrs Hillcrist)
- ”When I deceived him, I'd have deceived God Himself--I was so desperate. You've never been right down in the mud. You can't understand what I've been through.” (Chloe)
- ”What is it that gets loose when you begin a fight, and makes you what you think you're not? What blinding evil! Begin as you may, it ends in this --skin game! Skin game!” (Hillcrist)
List of characters
HILLCRIST ...............A Country GentlemanAMY .....................His Wife
JILL ....................His Daughter
DAWKER ..................His Agent
HORNBLOWER ..............A Man Newly-Rich
CHARLES .................His Elder Son
CHLOE ...................Wife to Charles
ROLF ....................His Younger Son
FELLOWS .................Hillcrist's Butler
ANNA ....................Chloe's Maid
THE JACKMANS ............Man and Wife
AN AUCTIONEER
A SOLICITOR
TWO STRANGERS
Theme
- "Who touches pitch shall be defiled"
The Skin Game first appeared less than two years after the end of the First World War and although the war is not mentioned some see it as hanging over the drama. It was the aristocracy which created the war and the bungling of aristocratic Generals which caused loss of life on an unprecedented scale. The shambling Squire could be seen as a representative of this class and Hornblower as one who will not let the old style patrician class get them into such a mess again. But this is supposition – though supported by Hillcrist’s cry “Who knows where things end when once they begin?”
The attitudes of Hillcrist and his wife are Victorian and Galsworthy was deliberately pointing them out to be so. He was also signalling change in the depiction of the daughter Jill who is modern in her outlook and who, at the beginning of the play, argues for an accommodation rather than a standoff with the Hornblowers. The twenties were to be the age of the flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
and of the final abandonment of Victorian/Edwardian formality and values. It was also to be the era of the rise of the middle class – here represented by the ambitious Dawker and the comically skilful auctioneer (the auction scene is an amusing piece of comic writing providing a pleasant counterpoint to the darker happenings which dominate). Galsworthy’s magnum opus known as The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family, similar to Galsworthy's own...
was being completed at around the same time that he was writing The Skin Game and there are similar themes of social change and the breakdown of conventional class structures in both. The prescience of Galsworthy in foreseeing what was to come between the wars is remarkable.
So whilst the main characters are deliberate caricatures this allows an unequivocal conclusion that Galsworthy was not taking sides in the dispute – even wanting to put a plague on both their houses. The young people (Jill Hillcrist and Rolf Hornblower) are the most rationale and conciliatory characters and one feels comfortable that the future belongs to them not to their prejudiced parents. For some the 1920s might be seen as the last stand of the “Gentleman” before this notion was swept away by the forces that (for example) Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
was to describe in Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
. In Brideshead these forces are depicted by the uncouth Canadian Rex Mottram. Here it is the even rougher Hornblower who challenges the conventions of the past. “Here ye are” he says to Hillcrist, “quite content on what your fathers made for ye. Ye've no ambitions; and ye want other people to have none.”
Selected production history
- 1965 - "The Skin Game" was broadcast on BBC radio, "Home" on 25 September 1965 with Wilfred PicklesWilfred PicklesWilfred Pickles OBE was an English actor and radio presenter.Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Pickles was a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service...
and Leo GennLeo Genn- Early life :He was born at 144 Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, England to a Jewish family. His father, Woolfe Genn, was a jewellery salesman and the maiden name of his mother, Rachel, was Asserson....
Some recent productions
- 2007 Orange Tree TheatreOrange Tree TheatreThe Orange Tree Theatre is a 172-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south west London, built specifically as a theatre in the round....
Richmond revival by Sam Walters http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/16330/the-skin-game