Review: The School For Scandal

The School for Scandal is a play that never pretends to be more or less than it is, but for all it's shallow humour, it's a surprisingly deep dive into the human psyche.

The play was written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, an Anglo-Irish Playwrite and member of the House of Commons. Sheridan was notorious for his edits and re-writes, not merely while writing the play, but also afterward, once the play was being performed. The oldest extant copy is from 1827, and it's hard to know what was from the original script, and what was revisions from Sheridan and later directors.

First performed in 1777, The School for Scandal is billed as a 'Comedy of Manners', shining more in the satire than the comedy, though it might be more accurate to call it a scathing critique of superficiality and social values thinly veiled by 3 hours of biting wit.

The Characters themselves aren't subtle: Lady Sneerwell and her minion Snake, the Backbites, the Surface brothers Joseph and Charles...

Nor is the plot particularly deep. The characters confess their motivations instantly, and don't really develop over the course of the play. Sir Peter Teazel is an aging bachelor newly married to a pretty much younger wife and regretting it. Lady Sneerwell is a widow angling for a new husband in Charles, who is enamoured by another, and using gossip to drive a wedge between them.

Joseph Surface is too concerned with his reputation and the appearance of being a person of substance to be honest and ask for help, which comes back to bite him, while his younger brother Charles is a lightpurse who is only saved by some well-timed flattery and knowing when to admit he's in the deep end.

Despite this, the dialogue is genuinely entertaining, though being written in the style of the times, an audience not familiar with the language found in Bronte, Shakespeare or Austen may struggle somewhat in their first viewing. Anyone who actually read and understood their High School English texts will probably muddle through without too much trouble.

The limited cast keeps things simple, and several characters can be doubled up or gender-swapped without too much trouble if a community theatre troupe lacks a sufficient percentage of Y Chromosomes. Equally, the limited sets mean it can be performed as easily on West End with a massive costume and props department, as it can in a High School or Community Hall with only a few props the Costuming budget propped up by whatever the cast found in their closets or local dollar store to donate for repurposing.

The thing that, for me, makes it more a Satire than a Comedy is that the happy ending is almost certain to be temporary, and none of the problems are really resolved. At the same time, one is left with the impression that the most fitting punishment for them all would be to live long and healthy lives together.

The characters that least deserve it are punished or rewarded, while the rest simply vanish off stage until the curtain call. The messages are clear: malicious gossip achieves nothing good, least of all for the speaker, while repentance earns second chances.

If I had one major critique, it would be that the characters, while unique to themselves, all have the same 'voice'. There is no doubt that they're funny as heck, but the humour is all of the same kind, rather than each character having a complimentary style.

As a play, The School for Scandal is lighthearted, witty and enjoyable. I find it most interesting as a reflection of 18th century society and who it inspired.

Mrs Candour, for instance, bears a striking resemblance to certain other literary chatterboxes with a fancy for gossip made famous in Jane Austen's work years after that notable played the character in a private production.

The idea that all can be forgiven if you own up to your mistakes and do one good deed at a crucial moment was a popular one in the fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, and I wonder how much of that was due to writers inspired by this play.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd go to see the play multiple times, like some other performances, but it's definitely worth watching at least once.