
In a breezy Edwardian garden, a flamboyant hairdresser‑perfumer and his jovial companion drift between flirtations and frivolous wagers, their banter punctuated by waltzes and the clink of champagne glasses. Their light‑hearted world is interrupted when a mysterious, veiled statue—later revealed as the living embodiment of Venus—steps from myth into the park, drawing curious eyes and setting the stage for a comic clash of the ordinary with the divine.
The play unfolds in two acts, each stitched together by vivid tableaux that shift from drunken revelry to sudden robbery, from dreamlike encounters with the goddess to chaotic attempts at theft. As Venus claims the unsuspecting hairdresser for herself, the characters scramble through misunderstandings, flirtations, and farcical schemes, all while the audience watches a delightful tableau of Victorian life colliding with ancient legend. The result is a witty, fast‑paced romp that balances slapstick humor with a whimsical touch of the supernatural.
Language
en
Duration
~47 minutes (45K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Paul Haxo with special thanks to Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers.
Release date
2014-07-07
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

A late-19th-century lyricist and composer, he is remembered for lively stage songs written for the music-hall and musical-theatre world. Although biographical details are scarce, surviving catalogs and theatre records show that his work was active in the 1890s and reached both British and Broadway contexts.
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