table (in fact Plume). Kite is then visited by Brazen, who gives him a love letter from, as he thinks, Melinda. However, by comparing the handwriting sample, Worthy discovers that the letter is in fact from Melinda's maid Lucy, who hopes to ensnare Brazen as a husband. Worthy then goes to visit Melinda but, on going to tell Plume the good news, finds out that Melinda seems to be eloping with Brazen after all. Worthy intercepts Brazen and a disguised woman whom he takes to be Melinda, and challenges Brazen to a duel. The duel is prevented when the woman drops her disguise and reveals herself to be Lucy. Sylvia also drops her disguise. Plume agrees to leave the army and marry her, Melinda relents towards Worthy and agrees to marry him, and Plume transfers his twenty recruits to Brazen to compensate him for the loss of a rich marriage with Melinda. Production history The Recruiting Officer opened at Drury Lane in 1706. It was an immediate hit and went on to become one of the most frequently performed plays of the 18th century. The part of the foppish Brazen proved a significant role for the actor-manager Colley Cibber. The rest of the cast included Robert Wilks as Plume, Theophilus Keene as Ballance, Thomas Kent as Scale, Joseph Williams as Worthy, Richard Estcourt as Kite, William Bullock as Bullock, Henry Norris as Costar Pearmain, Jane Rogers as Melinda, Anne Oldfield as Silvia and Susanna Mountfort as Rose. The Recruiting Officer was the first play to be staged in New York City, at the Theatre on Nassau Street on 6 December 1732. It was also the first play to be staged in the Colony of New South Wales, which is now Australia, by the convicts of the First Fleet in 1789 under the governance of Captain Arthur Phillip RN (also Commodore of the First Fleet). It was the first performance of the original Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1736. The best remembered modern revival was staged at the National Theatre Company Theatre (while based at the Old Vic) in 1963 – its inaugural season. Directed by William Gaskill, its cast which included Laurence Olivier as Brazen, Robert Stephens as Plume, Colin Blakely as Kite, Derek Jacobi as Worthy, Maggie Smith as Silvia and Mary Miller as Melinda. The National Theatre staged the play again in 1991 with Desmond