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Synopsis:
(An interlude in T.S. Eliot's The Rock)
The Legend of Dick Whittington is based upon an historical personage who lived during the late
fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It is the instructive tale of a poor young man who rose to become Lord
Mayor of London. He was also a generous benefactor of the city who gave gold to the deprived and neglected. According
to the old story, well known to London children, Whittington went to London to work as a kitchen scullion in the
house of a merchant, Mr. Fitzwarren. He was so badly beaten by the cook’s maid that he ran away, but as he escaped,
he heard the bells of London tolling, "Turn again Whittington … Lord Mayor of London.” With renewed courage,
the brave boy returned to the merchant’s home, where his master’s daughter, Alice Fitzwarren, befriended him. Whittington
owned a cat, which he sent as a venture on a ship, and he became a rich man when the cat received enormous sums
of money from the King of Barbary for ridding the ships of rats and mice. Despite the fairy tale quality of this
legend, it may not all be fable. This is the period of the plague in Europe when cats were a valuable defense against
the rodents that spread the dread disease that killed one-third of Europe’s population. And so, because of his
wonderful cat, Whittington succeeded in becoming Lord Mayor of London. Of course, he married Alice.
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| Choreography |
| Antony Tudor |
| Music / Composer |
| Martin Shaw |
| First Performance |
London
Sadler’s Wells Theatre
May 28, 1934 |
| Scenery |
| Eric Newton |
| Costumes |
| Stella Mary Pearce |
| Cast First Performance |
| Patricia Shaw Page, Joan Birdwood-Taylor, Reymonde Seton, Gladys Scott, Eileen Harris, Phyllis
Bull, Betty Percheron |
| Notated |
| NA |
| Number of Dancers |
| NA |
| Average Length |
| NA |
| Costumes |
| NA |
| Scenery |
| Eric Newton |
| Licensing Information |
| NA |
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