Making Promises: St. John Hankin’s Drama

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay surveys criticism and drama by the little-studied Edwardian playwright St. John Hankin. A leading figure in the Edwardian “New Drama” movement, Hankin sought to develop the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century comedy to subversively depict the period’s social problems. He revised the “well-made play”, a dramatic form that emphasised climactic narrative resolutions, by rethinking the way that its structure emphasised climactic and conclusive endings. He theorised that plays with indeterminate endings could imitate complex, ongoing social issues related to marriage, gender, and money. In his plays, he structures the characters’ dialogue around promises that are never quite conclusive. Instead of resolving any problems, these promises linger and become ongoing expressions of the issues that affect the characters. As the essay demonstrates, Hankin’s work is a distinctive alteration of the “well-made play” that infuses the form with a sense of irresolution.