The Great Adventure

The Great Adventure is a play by Arnold Bennett. It was first produced in London in March 1913 and ran for 674 performances. A Broadway production later in 1926 ran for 52 performances. The play depicts the complications that ensue when a famous artist adopts the persona of his dead valet to escape his unwelcome celebrity. Background Arnold Bennett, best known as a novelist, was strongly drawn to the theatre, and had written several plays between 1899 and 1912. Only one of them, Milestones, co-written with Edward Knoblock, had made any great impact, running for 612 performances from March 1912. Bennett had published a novel called Buried Alive in 1908, which he adapted for the theatre as The Great Adventure: A Play of Fancy in Four Acts. It opened at the Kingsway Theatre, London on 25 March 1913. A Broadway production opened at the Booth Theatre on 16 October 1913. The London production ran for 674 performances, closing in November 1914; the New York production ran for 52 performances, from 16 October to 6 December 1913. Original casts