The idea for The Most Deserving came straight from IHOP.
Let me explain.
Every year my school competes in a drama festival. Our brother school had written a play that suited its actors so well, and after the end of the festival around 11:00pm whilst I was eating recovery cheesecake pancakes at IHOP, my friend suggested I write a play for our school to perform.
I agreed, and immediately got to work.
The next day we had a call, and I talked to her about various ideas. I liked the idea of something set in a historical period, like the Cold War, and we talked about a few other concepts.
I eventually settled on my first (and favorite) idea: writing about the Victorian mourning period.
I have always been fascinated by everything from the Victorian era, from fashion to social customs. My Dad is from the UK, so I naturally developed an interest in British history over time. I even own some small Whitby Jet pieces (Victorians couldn’t get enough of Whitby Jet)!
The subject was something I genuinely wanted to explore, and the inheritance plot developed naturally from the question of what happens to someone’s possessions when they die.
For this play, I wanted to write something that would work for Drama Fest while allowing me to experiment with a different kind of storytelling.
Many of our previous Drama Fest productions were rather…dark. An Irish famine play, where everyone died. A Holocaust play, where everyone died. A World War II based play where everyone died. It was a bit of a theme.
So I wanted to try something that could still explore some uncomfortable themes but approach them via a more comedic route.
“The Most Deserving” became a dark comedy that combines a ridiculous situation with witty dialogue and some undertones of genuine grief. I was particularly inspired by Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde, whose writing often explores social expectations, manners, and the absurdity of society. I wanted to bring that spirit into my own work, allowing the characters to take themselves completely seriously even when we the audience see their behavior as increasingly ridiculous. So my goal was really to have the audience laugh whilst still recognizing the grief and humanity under the absurdity.
At the heart of the play is the question: what makes someone the most deserving? A majority of the characters believe that they are the most deserving of the Duke’s inheritance, but that doesn’t mean any of them truly deserve it. The irony is that Agnes, the maid, is arguably the most deserving as she genuinely cared for the Duke and remained by his side until the end. However, her social position means that she isn’t considered an equal to any of the family members. Agnes, unlike the others, doesn’t spend the play trying to prove herself worthy or win; instead, she watches the family’s increasingly ridiculous arguments until she eventually reaches her limit.
Through this contrast, I wanted to explore the possibility that being the most deserving doesn’t require constantly proving your worth to other people. Sometimes, simply being genuine and caring for someone is the more meaningful action.
