5/5 1883 Fedora opens at the Haymarket

(Mrs Bernard Beere as Fedora)

Fedora is a play by French author Victorien Sardou who originally wrote it for the legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt. I was unable to find the plot of the play, if anyone knows please let me know! It opened in France in 1882 and within a year an English translation by H. Merivale was ready to be staged in London starring both Mr and Mrs Bancroft the actor-managers of the Haymarket theatre. Mrs Bernard Beere starred as Fedora. Mrs Beere had made her debut on the stage in 1877 and moved from company to company until signing up with the Bancrofts in 1883. By the 1890s Beere had joined Wyndham's company of actors and played in many productions including Wildes' 'A Woman of No Importance' opposite Herbert Tree. Beere passed away in 1915 at the age of 59.

I found the photo above in the V&A's Theatre collection, you can read about the photo and a little about the history of theatrical photographs by clicking on this link... here.

There is online at www.abebooks.co.uk a programme for sale of the 1883 production of Fedora at the Haymarket... imagine that, a piece of Theatrical Ephemera from 129 years ago... so if you're interested in the item please click here.

Of course reading this you are probably wondering 'Does Fedora the play have anything to do with the hat?'. The answer would be yes. Sarah Bernhardt was such a trendsetter that when she wore the Fedora hat onstage, at the time the Fedora was a feminine style hat, it wasn't until the very late 1800s that it became more of a men's style. 

Can you remember the first time the theatre took you on a magical trip?

So today I was reading the novel 'Captain Alatriste' by Arturo Perez-Reverte and in it the narrator of the story describes how as a boy he attended his first play. The play is written by the great Spanish writer Felix Lope de Vega and his use of verse greatly affects the boy. I found this part of this wonderful book very true to life, at least it is true to my experience, and would like to share the passage with you:

'Everything around me vanished; I was completely absorbed in the words coming from the mouths of the actors. Within minutes I was transported to El Arenal, madly in love with Laura, and wishing I had the gallantry of Captains Fajardo and Castellanos, and that I were the one crossing swords with the bailiffs and catchpoles before sailing off in the king's Armada...'

Now I do not know about you but I understand where the boy is coming from. For me the first time theatre took me on a truly magical ride when I watched it was when I was ten years old. I had seen several pantomimes by then and had already taken up amateur dramatics as a hobby and found it all to be a bit fun and to me that's all the theatre could be, a bit of fun. Then for my tenth birthday my Father spoilt me rotten, as he is one to do with me and my sister, and bought me tickets to see Starlight Express at the Victoria Apollo London. He had seen the original production with my Mother during the 80s and knew that the train theme and rolling skating would get me all excited... he was right. Many people look down their noses at Starlight Express but the ten year old in me remembers the melodies I heard that night, the sound of the wheels on the stage, the passion the performers gave and I was hooked. I lost all sense of reality and for two hours I was a train or a coach or a box car cheering Rusty on in his quest to find the Starlight Express and win both the race and the heart of the pretty Pearl. Even today I lose myself when I watch a good show, I become a part of the action in my mind, something I never have when watching television or film, but the first time was with Starlight Express. I guess my question to all of you out there reading this is:

Which show first caught your imagination at the theatre?

Please leave your comments and answers below.

To purchase 'Captain Alatriste' please click here.

To see Vigo Mortensen playing 'Captain Alatriste' please click here.

To see what all the fuss is about to ten year old me in regards to Starlight Express please click here and then to see the highlights from the German show click here.

Have fun and thanks for reading.

Xtofer

Today in Theatrical History: 4th May

On the 4th of May 1894 'A Story of Waterloo' by Arthur Conan Doyle opened at the Lyceum Theatre, London. Written before Conan Doyle's career exploded with the success of his well known character Sherlock Holmes, this play, based upon his short story from 1891, 'A Straggler of '15', was deemed good enough for Henry Irving who as manager of the Lyceum bought the rights to the play in an instant.  The play is about the last remaining soldier, Corporal Gregory Brewster, from the 3rd Guard who fought at Hougoumont during the Battle of Waterloo. It sees  Brewster being visited in his very old age by soldiers who wish to meet a hero of Waterloo. The piece was deemed by Irving to be, 'written for him' and he was determined to produce it with all his melodramatic flair. All who had been given the script to read beforehand and those who saw the rehearsals attested to the piece being a tear jerker and a great play for Irving to act. It was of course a piece that only served Irving for it is essentially 45 minutes of him acting while 3 other characters support his performance with minimal importance.

 The decision that Irving would debut the piece in a nationwide tour is odd, after all the Lyceum, whilst not producing its best work in 1894, was still a highly respected theatre and a play by the most popular crime author of the day would be incredibly well received by the London audience. It did, however, gain almost rave reviews throughout the provinces with many reviewers feeling lucky to have brought a play before the London audience. Although the play is a good example of Victorian melodrama it was chosen because, as Bram Stoker who worked for Irving at the Lyceum declared, it is an 'acting play'. So the play was a regional success and many people declared it a wonderful piece, so why is it that there is so little information out there about the production?

W. Davis King's book 'Henry Irving's Waterloo', from which I learnt much about this production, blames the reviews of George Bernard Shaw. In volume one of Shaw's 'Our Theatres In The Nineties' we find his review of the production. The review begins with a very strong attack on Irving as an actor declaring that Henry Irving is a ridiculous actor on the stage who acts absurd because of his restrained character off the stage. Then follows two pages of dressing down Irving's various performances before we even get to 'A Story of Waterloo'. Shaw begins on the subject of the play by saying the reason it is perceived so well is due to the writing skills and tricks of Conan Doyle. Shaw admits it is an acting play but then says that all that means is that it is a play which does not require the actors to do much. Shaw makes an argument that once an audience knows the age of the main character, the setting and the other characters half the battle has been won in convincing them of the world they are about to see on stage. He then goes on to break down the play bit by bit pointing out how pretty much any person could be given Irving's role and be a success. Shaw then supposes that Irving knew that hardly any acting was required and had planned to hoodwink the audience into believing more of his hype that he was the greatest actor of the day. Once finished with Irving, Shaw decides to dress down Conan Doyle by describing how he 'exploited' the audience, Shaw does give Doyle credit by saying it is ingenious, and compared the Battle of Waterloo to a, 'stand-up street fight between an Englishman and a Frenchman'. Shaw finishes the article by freely admitting that he wants to 'drive sketches such as A Story of Waterloo... away to the music hall' and given that when researching for this piece I found minimal information on the play it seems he succeeded.

 I do not know if the play is really any good, I have not read it, but I have read the short story it is based on 'A Straggler of '15' and I found it moving even by today's standards. Melodramatic? Yes, but it is a good, little, sad story and I can see from reading it why Conan Doyle turned it into a play. If anyone has  seen a copy of this play or has seen a production of it please let me know as I am interested in learning more about it.

Today in Theatrical History: May the 3rd

(Stephen Kemble as Falstaff)

George Stephen Kemble was born in 1758 to Robert Kemble of the famous acting family the Kembles. His siblings included such legends of the stage as Charles Kemble and Sarah Siddons. Stephen is probably best known for his management of provincial theatres such as the Theatre Royal in Newcastle which he ran from 1791 until 1806. During the summer season, Stephen would get great stars of the day to perform in his theatres, changing peoples perception that performing in the provinces was for apprentices or no talents. As an actor, Stephen was lauded and it was noted that it was a great shame that he had so many obligations in the provinces that he did not appear very often on the London stage. In 1806 Stephen effectively retired from the stage but still made rare appearances, especially in Durham, where in 1822, just two weeks after his last stage performance ,he died at the age of 64. Stephen Kemble bucked the trend, his parents had wanted him to become a pharmacist and instead he ran off with a travelling theatre company. He could have made a lot of money and been a major force on the London stage but he was happier in the provinces and his dedication to his theatres on the provincial circuit influenced how theatre would evolve over the coming centuries in the UK.

 

On this date in 1829 'Masaniello or The Dumb Girl of Portici' was presented in a double bill with 'My Wife! What Wife?' at Drury Lane in London. 'Masaniello' is based on the story of a Neapolitan fisherman, pictured above, who led a revolt against the Austrians ruling Naples in the 1640s. It is seen as one of the first 'Grand Operas' and it greatly influenced the people of Belgium who apparently rose up and began the Belgian revolution after hearing a patriotic and revolutionary duet during the show. I was unfortunate in that I could not find any information on the author of 'My Wife! What Wife?' but there is a programme in the University of Kent's special collection from the week of 15.5.1829 for the double bill. You can see more information on this programme and this double bill, including listings for the players and orchestra, at the link by clicking... here.

 

This day in Theatre History: May the 2nd

On May the 2nd 1838 Robert Reece was born. Reece was born in the West Indies, his Father was a barrister who worked at the Inner Temple. Reece trained for the law courts but ended up never being called to the Bar, instead he took a succession of different jobs that allowed him to pursue his writing. In 1865 his first professionally performed piece debuted at the Royalty Theatre, it was the libretto to the operetta Castle Grim. Following this he had works debut at many theatres including the Globe Theatre, The Gaiety, The Olympic and eventually The Folly Theatre which saw his greatest success with Les cloches de Corneville which ran for 700 performances over 2 years. Despite his success Reece still fell on hard times, he died in 1891 at the age of 53.

Violet Melnotte was born in 1856 in Birmingham. Melnotte made her first professional performance at the Theatre Royal Hull in Pantomime. She made her London debut in 1876 at the Folly Theatre and a few months later joined the D'Oyly Carte company for their 1877 production of Happy Hamstead. It is as a theatrical manager that we remember Melnotte, in 1892 she built the Duke of Yorks Theatre London alongside her husband Frank Wyatt. Melnotte ran the Duke of Yorks up until her death in 1935. The Duke of Yorks theatre changed the West End by shifting many theatres to the St Martins Lane district creating what is now the epicentre of Theatreland UK. Not only content with building a theatre Wyatt and Melnotte built what is currently believed to be the longest continuous Cinema in the UK the Duke of Yorks picture house in Brighton which she ran until 1918.

Violet Melnotte may be gone but it seems that she has left something of herself behind in the Duke of Yorks Theatre, it is said that where she used to sit in the auditorium to watch dress rehearsals and first nights there can be heard sounds during rehearsals even today.

Clyde Fitch was  born in 1865. He would go on to be the first American playwright to get published and was the most popular playwright of his day. Fitch's annual earnings are reported to have been approx $250000 which would translate to around 5 million dollars today. He was incredibly popular and his works were a staple of early cinema produced in Hollywood. In 1915 alone 8 of his plays were adapted for the cinema. What Fitch represents is a move away from the European drama's dominance of the American stage and really the first step in the USA's move to producing popular works by American authors, without Fitch there would have been no Odets, no Miller and no Albee.



In 1944 The Crime of Margaret Foley was presented at the Q Theatre. It was written by Percy Robinson and Terrence de Marney. It starred Arthur Sinclair, Peter Cushing and Ian Fleming. You can read a small review of the production from the Catholic Herald at this link here.

You may note that the programme pictured above is from the production at the Comedy Theatre London, this was presented in 1947. The pictured programme is for sale at star-dot-star.net which specialises in Theatrical items be they books, recordings or ephemera. To see more on this programme and the website please click this link here.

Today in Theatrical History: May 1st

Joseph Addison born May the 1st 1672.

Joseph Addison was born in 1672 to Lancelot Addison a dean at Lichfield. Joseph went to several schools growing up but ended up attending Oxford, first at Queens College before becoming a fellow at Magdalen College. Addison is probably best known for starting the famous 18th and 19th century newspaper 'The Spectator' (not to be confused with the current paper of the same name) alongside his great friend Richard Steele with whom he had previously collaborated on Tatler magazine.

Addison only wrote three theatrical pieces which are:

Rosamond: An Opera (1707) which apparently bombed at the theatre, he did only write the libretto.

Cato: A Tragedy (1713) which was a complete triumph

The Drummer: A comedy (1716)

Addison eventually became an MP, first in a Rotten borough then made his way to Secretary of State, and was still an MP at the time of his death at the age of 48.

Charles Macklin was born in 1690, or 1699 dependant on who you ask, in Ireland. He was a great actor acclaimed for his performance as Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice' but it was his revolutionary views on acting that still resonates in the theatre world today. Macklin is arguably the Father of realistic acting in the UK, he worked on the idea that simply reciting the lines was not enough and that although the actors of the English stage had mastered how to say the words they had not grasped the concept of performing them or making them seem spontaneous. So Macklin would break down his students and  teach teach them spontenaity. This idea of breaking a student down and building them back up again is something that has permeated through to todays training and some of the exercises he advocated over 200 years ago are still used today to loosen up would be performers to allow them to be more naturalistic.

Macklin had a long career on the stage and for his time in history an incredibly long life, by his own guess he was born in 1699 which made him 97 years of age when he passed away, although some say he was born in 1690 and therefore was over 107 when he died. This seems improbable now but his memorial does state his age at death as 107.

Macklin still commands respect all around the world, not least in his home town of Culdaff where each year the 'Charles Macklin Autumn School' is run in October as a festival to celebrate his life and influence on the Arts in Ireland.

For more information on Charles Macklin please follow this link here. Or to read a biography of his please follow this link here.