A Perfect Gentleman

INTERVIEW WITH HERBERT APPLEMAN

Q: How did you, an American, happen to write a play about Lord Chesterfield?

A: I first came across Lord Chesterfield as an undergraduate. I was taking a course in English Lit and we were assigned The Letters to His Son. I read them and was horrified. Oh, my God. I thought, what a selfish and unfeeling old man, to put such terrible pressure on his son. Then, years later, after I'd married and had a son of my own, I had occasion to read "The Letters" again. Lo and behold, I now found myself sympathizing with Lord Chesterfield. He was obviously a good man who loved his son very much. It immediately struck me that since I could now identify equally with both father and son, this was a perfect subject for me to write about."

Q: But if you wanted to write a father-son play, why didn't you update things? Why did you stick to the 18th century background?

A: I was tired of the conventional modern play in which dialogue is usually reduced to grunts and curses, costumes range from blue jeans to no jeans, and the set is as dingy as possible. I wanted to write dialogue -- or at least try, to the best of my ability -- that was articulate and witty, for characters who could be dressed elegantly and presented in a setting -- such as Chesterfield House -- that was unashamedly beautiful. Before the advent of The Angry Young Men, the theater had, no doubt, prettified life too much; but in recent years the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. I wanted to swing it back somewhat, to restore a balance, to remind the audience of certain civilized values that were now being neglected: not only the pleasures of good talk, lovely women, and beautiful things, but the virtue of compromise, the inevitability of imperfection, the possibility of conflict that doesn't destroy affection and end in estrangement.

Q: How much of the play is quotation and how much has been invented by you?

A: For better or worse, 99 percent of A Perfect Gentleman is mine.