"I will have a title, and a name, that's resolved; a name that shall fill the mouth."
Mrs Rich. ACT 1

"He should be genteel, yet not a bean; witty, yet no debauchee; susceptible of love, yet abhorring lewd women..... mightily in love with me, and not so much as know I am worth the clothes I wear."
Lady Landsworth. ACT 1

Everyone is on the make in Mary Pix's comedy, The Beau Defeated. A biting satire on the social aspiration, the play follows two women in their search for respectable husbands. The unfortunate Mrs Rich makes a desperate attempt to land herself an aristocratic husband. For witty Lady Landsworth, the problem is to discover whether the man she loves is quite as good as he looks. From the nobles to the servants, no-one is what they appear to be. Imposters are unmasked, confidences betrayed and a great deal of money changes hands as the story careers towards its disasterous conclusion.

As popular in her day as male playwrights like Congreve, Mary Pix's play has not been produced for over a century. Second year students from the Drama Department have taken some liberties in their version of this light-hearted social critique.