The Fanatics: A Comedy in Three Acts

1924. The Freeman dining room. A father watches his son abandon a respectable career for the uncertain pleasures of writing and music, and wonders where he went wrong. What follows is a sharp, humane comedy about the things we demand of those we love, and the things we owe ourselves. John Freeman is engaged to the practical Frankie, who might be the only one who truly sees him, while his father Mr. Freeman looks on in bewildered horror as his heir pursues exactly the kind of life he fought to give his children the freedom to avoid. Malleson wrote this in the jittery aftermath of the Great War, when an entire generation was asking whether duty and respectability still meant anything at all. The answer, delivered through sparkling dialogue and characters who are never quite as simple as they seem, is both funnier and sadder than you'd expect. A comedy, yes, but one that knows how much laughter can cost.