The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith

Venice, Easter 1895

In the cafes around St Marks Square, all the gossip among the English ex-pat community is about two mysterious arrivals in the city

Agnes Ebbsmith is a young widow with a scandalous past

Travelling with her is Lucas Cleeve, an up-and-coming Tory MP who has abandoned his wife in London

Defying convention, Agnes and Lucas are refusing to marry, and living in a 'compact' together

But before long their peace is shattered by the arrival of Lucas's aristocratic family from London

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith is a dramatic, entertaining,and utterly enthralling play by one of the greatest Victorian dramatists

This playtext, slightly adapted from the original, was prepared for its first ever revival, presented by Primavera at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2014

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith was last performed by Mrs Patrick Campbell in the West End in 1895

With an introduction to the play and its historical context by Dr Sos Eltis