The Wicked World The Wicked World The Wicked World is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre on 1873 and ran for a successful 145 performances, closing on 1873. The play is an allegory loosely based on a short illustrated story of the same title by Gilbert, written in 1871 and published in Tom Hood's "Comic Annual", about how pure fairies cope with a sudden introduction to them of "mortal love." Set in "Fairy Land", the action occurs within the space of 24 hours. Gilbert envisioned the set as resembling John Martin's 1853
The Wicked World Mall Gazette", which had called "The Wicked World" indecent because of the references to "mortal love" in the script. Gilbert lost the case, but he had the satisfaction of having his play found inoffensive in a court of law. Like a number of Gilbert's blank-verse plays, "The Wicked World" treats the subject of the consequences that ensue when an all-female world is disrupted by men, and the romantic complications they bring. His plays "The Princess" (1870) and "Broken Hearts" (1875), and his operas "Iolanthe" (1882) and "Princess Ida" (1884), are all treatments of this basic idea. Stedman calls this a