Wednesday, August 14, 2024

SOMERSET MAUGHAM'S FOR SERVICES RENDERED

 

 

    For Services Rendered  premiered in London during November 1932, which was about twelve years 

    after the final peace treaties were signed that stripped Germany of all its military power.  This

   was also the time just after the rise of Fascism in Italy and Germany and it also closely followed 

   the Wall Street financial crash in the United States.  This serious, hard-hitting drama that shadowed

   many of the situations occurring in contemporary British homes provided no opportunity for an

   evening at the theatre to provide an entertaining escape.

 

   The plot and the characters in For Services Rendered did not lend this play to be a major success.

    Maugham created an upper middle class English family, named Ardsley, who lived in the small

    country town of Kent near the cathedral city of Stanbury.  This family is beset by problems 

    including a new one that is announced at the beginning of the play.  Mrs. Ardsley, wife and mother

    of the family, has just learned from her doctor that she has cancer and she does not have long to live.

 

    Sydney, Ardsley's son, had served as a soldier during World War One and he was blinded during 

    battle.  Sydney lives at home with the family and his youngest, unmarried sister Eva, who has been

    his devoted companion since he returned from the war.  Eva, who loves her brother, is beginning to

    grow angry about her restricted life of duty.   She realizes that being his companion as well as her

    brother's eyes is viewed by the family as her lifelong role.


    The other two daughters in this family are also living lives impacted by the war.   Ethel is married

    to Howard Bartlett who is from a social class significantly lower than the one to which her family

    belongs.   Although Howard was a British officer and a gentleman as well as a hero who looked

    marvelous in his uniform, their post war life on his small tenant farm is not a lifestyle she can

    abide.


    Lois, the other single adult daughter in the family, is beginning to receive gifts from a married

    man named Wilfred Cedar.   Wilfred and his wife Gwen are friends of Mr. and Mrs. Ardsley.

    The May/December relationship with Lois evolves during the action of the play and eventually the 

    pair plan to meet in London, but Lois confesses to her family that she has no desire to marry 

    Wilfred.  The play's story and the characters are bitter and gloomy.  They portray several of the

     significant problems that many British families were experiencing during the late 1920s and 

     early 1930s.   For Services Rendered also suggests that the lasting effects of the war illustrated

     by the members of the Ardsley family is not only being suffered in Great Britain, but in every

     country where the war was fought.  Maugham appears to be the only British playwright of his 

     era who refused to hide the damaging results of the war from his audiences and readers.

 

    When this play premiered in London in late 1932, the general British population did not want to

     hear the truth of the times.  Maugham's drama forced audiences to witness many of their

     present-day social issues and serious war related problems.


     For Services Rendered also has a powerful anti-war message.  The impact of World War One

     was imprinted on the younger generation as well as their parents.  Obviously, Maugham

     did not write this play to be entertainment.  He apparently wanted to rally a wake-up call 

     and begin the grim preparation for the next major conflict looming on the horizon.


    While this drama demonstrates many of the societal changes that affected life after the war,

     it also illustrates that life was becoming vastly different from the expectations and rules held 

     by the parental generation.  In Act III Sydney declares:

 

               I know that we were dupes of the incompetent fools who ruled the nations.

               I know that we were sacrificed to their vanity, their greed, and their stupidity.

               And the worst of it is that as far as I can tell they haven't learnt a thing.


     This full-scale pessimistic speech was not what audiences wanted to hear.  While

     Maugham  was declaring out with the old, he was implying that the younger generation

     needed to build a new vision of what the future may hold for them in a world beset by 

     rapid change.  No one appeared ready to move quickly in any direction, let alone one that

     would be more challenging.


     For Services Rendered opened on November 1, 1932 at the Globe Theatre in London's

     West End.  Cedric Hardwicke (1893-1964) played Sydney.  Eva, his devoted sister, was

      played by Flora Robson (1902-1984).  Collie Stratton, the elder lover, was played by Ralph 

     Richardson (1902-1983).  There were other notable actors in the cast when the play closed

     December 17, 1932.  Following the Christmas season, the production transferred to London's

     Queen's Theatre opening on January 2, 1933.  The entire initial run for this play was 

     seventy-eight performances.

     

     For Services Rendered opened in New York City on April 12, 1933.  It ran for twenty-one

      performances at the Booth Theatre before it closed.  Arthur Pollock wrote at the end of his

      review published on April 13, 1933 in the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle": "The play may add to 

      the sum total of your wisdom.  It will not make you gay."


     It was much later in the twentieth century when For Services Rendered began to be considered

     by critics and scholars as one of the best plays that discuss the lasting impact of World War One

     on domestic life.  I was surprised to find that the early criticism of the play did not stop it

     from being produced later in the twentieth century.  It had a spate of non-professional 

     productions throughout the British countryside during the 1930s and 1940s.  BBC-TV

     presented its production of this play on June 18, 1959.  Two of its female stars were Maggie 

     Smith (1934-  ) and Ursula Howells (1922-2005).   In 1979 the National Theatre Company 

     toured a production of For Services Rendered throughout England.


      Unfortunately, this play with its characters suffering long term results inflicted from

      World War One did not stop the world from engaging in another devastating world war.

       For Services Rendered continues to serve as a strong reminder of the type of wide-

       spread consequences that can result after an armistice is signed and everyday life

      strives to appear to return to peaceful times.



    

    




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