Sir Michael and Sir George: A Comedy of the New Elizabethans by J. B. Priestley. Short summary

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Sir George and Sir Michael were the bosses of two competing organizations. One day Sir George was forced to hire a former employee who had also worked for his competitor.

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Sir George and Sir Michael were the heads of two culture-related organizations, Discus and Comsy. The enterprises were in competition with each other. Neither the bosses nor their subordinates understood their jobs.

Sir George’s organization was entirely public, and Sir Michael’s was half-private. Because of this, the second was considered more modern and advanced. Sir George was married and Sir Michael was single. At the beginning of the piece, while Sir George is solving problems in art, Sir Michael is courting his wife. He had no particular passion for her, and was only doing it for sport.

One day a previously fired employee, Mr. Kemp, takes a job at Discus. The man had worked at Comsy for a while. Mr. Kemp drank heavily, but despite this, he was an indispensable employee. The directors did not want the former employee to work for them, but Sir George had to take him on because he was told to do so from above.