The Curtain Falls

It is 1897. Edmund Jeffers is Actor-Manager at the Colosseum, the foremost theatre in London. He is a man of immense personal charm, who moves in exalted circles and is highly respected. Shortly he will be honoured with a knighthood. But he has a secret. Despite his status and the fact that he is married, he regularly trawls the back streets of Southwark in search of male company.


His little ‘weakness’ comes to the attention of the morally dubious, Clive Potter, a theatre critic who despises Edmund and uses this information to blackmail him into putting on a play he has written. But before this can happen, Clive Potter is murdered and during the subsequent police investigation details of Edmund’s homosexuality surface. They soon become public property. His wife distances herself from him, audiences fall away and Edmund loses control of his beloved theatre.


In an effort to redeem himself, Edmund joins the City Imperial Volunteers and goes to fight in the South African War. However, he is headstrong and ill-equipped for army life so he comes into conflict with Captain Peters, his Commanding Officer.


While stationed at Bloemfontein, Edmund reconnects with Lewis Davenport, a young, homosexual man of startling honesty, whom he knew in London. Soon they become lovers but are separated by the demands of war