Farce 3 Acts ( London 1927)
Sir Hector Benbow, a peer with a roving eye, picks up shop-assistant Cherry Buck and invites her to dinner at his Mayfair flat, but her arrival coincides with that of Mrs Frush and her son Lionel who have just bought the country house, Thark, from Sir Hector, who has sold it on behalf of his niece Kitty.
When Sir Hector's wife Lady Benbow also arrives, he coerces Ronny Gamble,
Kitty's fiancé, into taking Cherry off his hands for the evening
and also involves his long-suffering servants in his chicanery. Mrs Frush
has complaints about Thark, she thinks it is haunted, so the whole party
goes down to the country to investigate. A tangled web of romantic affairs
and mistaken identities ensues against a background of haunting, thunder
and lightning. Sir Hector bluffs his way through all this, with a shotgun
at the ready, while a sinister butler and a prying newspaper reporter
add to the general confusion which sorts itself out in the end with Kitty
in the arms
of Ronny and Cherry finding romance with Lionel.
Characters
Hook, the Benbows' butler
Warner, the maid
Cherry Buck
Lionel Frush
Mrs Frush
Sir Hector Benhow
Ronald Gamble (Ronny)
Lady Benhow
Kitty Stratton
Jones, Mrs Frush's butler
Whittle. a reporter