Editing Arthur Wing Pinero (section)

===Serious plays===
Plays in a similar vein to ''Sweet Lavender'' – ''The Weaker Sex'' (1888) and ''Lady Bountiful'' (1891) – did not match its success,<ref name=dnb/> running for 61 and 65 performances respectively.<ref name=list/> Nonetheless Pinero's attention continued to turn more to serious than to farcical topics. Wearing comments that Pinero began to write "problem plays", considering "the double standard of morality, applied unequally to men and women". His first was ''The Profligate'' (1889), in which past misdeeds come to haunt a seemingly respectable man. It was chosen to inaugurate the new [[Garrick Theatre]], but the lessee, John Hare, persuaded a reluctant Pinero to tone down the ending to avoid alienating his respectable society audience: in the final version the protagonist does not kill himself, as Pinero had written, but is forgiven by his wife.<ref>Dawick, p. 159</ref> The play ran for 129 performances.<ref name=list/>
[[File:Punch-cartoon-The-Second-Mrs-Tanqueray-1893.png|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=cartoon showing a young woman in Victorian evening dress leaping over a hurdle on which the word "convention" is painted; she is followed by one man in evening dress and watched by another, who is mopping his brow in relief|''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon showing Pinero's relief as the second Mrs Tanqueray ([[Mrs Patrick Campbell]]) successfully leaps over a hurdle marked "Convention", followed by [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]] as Tanqueray]]
When his next such drama came to be produced Pinero remained firm: the play would, and did, end in tragedy. This was his best-known serious work, ''[[The Second Mrs Tanqueray]]'' (1893). While he was planning it, several plays of [[Henrik Ibsen]] were presented in London for the first time, regarded by much of polite society as ''avant garde'', blunt and shocking.{{refn|Ibsen's ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'', ''[[Rosmersholm]]'', ''[[The Lady from the Sea]]'' and ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'' were all given in London for the first time during 1891 and 1892, mostly at special matinées.<ref name=d169>Dawick, pp. 169 and 173–175</ref>|group= n}} Seeing ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'' led Pinero to reconsider his approach to playwriting, which now seemed old-fashioned by comparison. He was far from uncritical of Ibsen's plays, but recognised that if he was to be a serious dramatist he must treat social problems and human misconduct frankly.<ref name=d169/>

''The Second Mrs Tanqueray'' centred on "a woman with a past". Hare declined to present it, and [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]], the actor-manager running the [[St James's Theatre]], to whom Pinero then offered the play, said, "Sorry, I daren't do it".<ref>Dawick, p. 181</ref> He had second thoughts, and accepted it. The production was scheduled to replace [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]'', which also focused on a woman with a far from respectable past. Unlike Pinero's play, Wilde's ended happily, and was seen by the respectable habitués of the St James's as mildly shocking but acceptable.<ref>Pearson, p. 74</ref> In Pinero's play Paula Tanqueray kills herself. In Wearing's words, "although not as avant-garde as Ibsen's plays, Tanqueray confronted its fashionable St James's audiences with as forceful a social message as they could stomach".<ref name=dnb/> Both Pinero and Alexander were apprehensive about the public reception of the piece, but it was a sensational success at its opening in May 1893, made a profit of more than £10,000,{{refn|According to the Measuring Worth website this equates to £4,300,000 in 2017 values in terms of average earnings.<ref>[https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/result.php?year_source=1893&amount=10000&year_result=2017 "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound Amount, 1270 to Present"], Measuring Worth. Retrieved 17 February 2019</ref>|group=n}} and was still playing to full houses when Alexander, who disliked acting in long runs, closed the production in April 1894 after 225 performances.<ref>Dawick, p. 200</ref>

Wearing comments that the public's appetite for similar Pinero plays varied. ''[[The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith]]'' (1895) managed a run of 88 performances, ''The Benefit of the Doubt'' (1895) ran for 74, ''The Thunderbolt'' (1908) and ''Mid-Channel'' (1909) both ran for 58.<ref name=list/>