Conrad himself produced a stage version of The Secret Agent in 1919-1920, hoping perhaps to gain some new revenue from an old novel. Unfortunately, Conrad's creative powers were now in decline, and his experience of writing for the theater was very limited. Nevertheless, the play was accepted for performance and presented in November 1922.

Although Conrad followed rehearsals closely and was fairly pleased with the performance, the work was strongly rejected by the newspaper reviewers and treated with indifference by the public.

Although at first Conrad professed indifference about the play, he was very disappointed by the outcome of its staging, and he eventually began to blame the reviewers rather than the director and the actors.

Since he turned to stage adaptations of his work late in his career, Conrad's work as a dramatist was not distinguished by commercial success or praise from critics.

But motion picture adaptations of...