Black-Eyed Susan

The story concerns a heroic sailor, William, who has been away from England for three years fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.

Meanwhile, his wife, Susan, has fallen on hard times and is being harassed by her crooked landlord uncle.

[1] The play was Jerrold's first big success, premiering on 8 June 1829 at the Surrey Theatre[2] and running for a new record of over 150 performances.

Black-Eyed Susan consisted of various extreme stereotypes representing the forces of good, evil, the innocent and the corrupt, the poor and the rich, woven into a serious plot with comic sub-plots.

The piece played simultaneously at Covent Garden Theatre for part of the original run, and soon after it closed at the Surrey, it was revived at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for a total run of over 300 nights, which was extraordinarily successful for the time.