Agnes Colander [Paperback]

We should all have been taught more of life and less good manners

It is three years since Agnes, an artist, left her unfaithful husband Henry. Now he writes to her in her Kensington studio begging to reunite, but Agnes married young; her innocence has gone and her ambition and independence is growing. As she travels from London to France, Agnes finds herself torn between Otho, a worldly Danish artist and Alec, an infatuated younger suitor, between a longing to paint and be an independent woman and a yearning to be loved.

This witty and compelling exploration of love, sexual attraction and independence was written in 1900 and unearthed among Granville Barker's papers in the British Library a century later. Revised by playwright and librettist Richard Nelson this edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Theatre Royal Bath in Spring 2018.

Harley Granville Barker (1877-1946) was the most brilliant British director of the first quarter of the twentieth century. His best known plays, includingWaste(banned by the Lord Chamberlain), were written as contributions to his Company's repertoire of provocative modern drama for a subsidised national theatre, a cause he championed in his bookA National Theatre: Scheme and Estimates.Wastewas first presented by the Stage Society in 1907, before being revised and produced at the Westminster Theatre in 1936. Other plays includeThe Madras House, first produced at Duke of York's Theatre, 1910;The Secret Life; andHis Majesty, which received its first production at the Edinburgh International Festival by Orange Tree Theatre Company in 1992.