The Countess

The Countess is a play written by the American playwright and novelist Gregory Murphy. It recounts the break-up of the marriage of John Ruskin and Effie Gray, one of the greatest scandals of the Victorian era in Britain. Written in 1995, Murphy's two-act drama premiered in New York in 1999, and transferred twice to ever-larger Off-Broadway venues. It later had a successful run in London's West End, and has since been performed worldwide. Characters John Ruskin Effie Ruskin Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake John Everett Millais Mrs Ruskin Mr. Ruskin Crawley Plot Based on one of the most notorious affairs of the Victorian Age, The Countess is a play about the idealization and oppression of women. In 1853, the preeminent author and art critic John Ruskin, his wife, Effie Gray, and his friend and protégé, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter John Everett Millais, depart in high spirits for the Scottish Highlands. When they return to London four months later, Millais' hatred for Ruskin is only exceeded by his passion for the beautiful, young Mrs. Ruskin. What Millais did not know was the truth at the core of the Ruskin marriage, a secret, which when revealed through the persistence of Effie Ruskin's friend Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, renowned writer of the period, would rock London society and change forever the lives of Millais and the Ruskins.