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
John Baldwin Buckstone Palace of Truth" (1870), "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871) and "The Wicked World" (1873). Buckstone also produced Gilbert's dramas, "Charity" (1874) and "Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith" (1876), as well as his 1877 farce "Engaged". In 1873 Buckstone introduced the innovation of matinées starting at 2.00 pm. By the mid-1870s, however, Buckstone's company was disbanding, and in 1877, ill and bankrupt after sustaining heavy losses, he gave up management of the theatre. Buckstone was first married in 1828 to Anne Maria Honeyman, with whom he had at least five children before she died in 1844. For many years, Buckstone was closely associated with