31st May 1897 Henry Irving does a reading of 'Becket' by Tennyson at Canterbury Cathedral

On the 31st of May 1897 Henry Irving made an appearance in the afternoon at Canterbury Cathedral to perform parts of 'Becket' by Lord Tennyson. Becket is a play about Thomas Becket a martyr who died in the middle ages for defying the then English King, the story has always fired up the imaginations of writers and historians but the play by Tennyson was not a huge success. In fact the plays that Tennyson wrote were generally received with little enthusiasm, of course the Becket story went on to become more famous when Anouilh wrote his version of the legend. I found a link to the theatrical production of Becket by Tennyson's souvenir programme which you can find... here.



30th May 1832 Charles Mayne Young retires from the stage

In 1832 the great Tragedian Charles Mayne Young retired from the stage after playing Hamlet for the last time at Covent Garden. Young had begun his career in Liverpool before moving through the provinces and into the London theatre scene. He worked hard and found his talent started to become recognised as he played numerous parts at the Haymarket and understudied the great John Philip Kemble. People started to compare Young to Kemble and it became known that Young was a better actor than Kemble but Young never gained the same sort of star power. Young was a humble performer who understood that there was always performers looking to move up to his level and by the time he retired he knew his time was up on the stage. He had recognised that it was the time for actors like Edmond Kean to become the stars and he felt that at the age of 55 his strength was going and his talent was fading. Out of respect for him the great actors Charles Mathews and William Macready played Polonius and the Ghost in Young's final performance. Young lived for another 20 years and passed away in 1856 living his final years as a man of society in Brighton.

Where would you like to perform?

(The Tempest performed by University of Brighton BA (Hons) Students, June 2007)



Many long time readers of this blog will know that I studied at the University of Brighton and gained my BA in Theatre Arts, in fact that fellow in the green with the shaggy hair above is me, with the initial aim of becoming a professional actor. For a multitude of reasons I have not gone down the route of finding an agent and slogged away like so many young promising talents, many of them my friends, but I still hold in my heart a desire to perform and some of the goals I wished to fulfill as a performer. For many years in this country it has been many performers wish to perform at the RSC, for me this was the same. At the age of 18 all I wanted from my professional life was a walk on part at the RSC, whether it was at the Barbican or in Stratford-Upon-Avon I did not care, it was all I dreamed of and hoped for. I never wanted to be top of the bill or a feted Shakespearian actor, I just wanted to be an ensemble player. Since leaving University my tastes have changed with age, initially I wanted to walk the stage at the National Theatre but now my dreams are of the Globe theatre in London. To perform on the Elizabethan stage there just once would mean more to me than all the lead roles, all the lines, all the good reviews I have recieved during my performing life. So for me the Globe is my goal... but I have to ask which venue would you wish to perform at?

'The Ticket of Leave Man' produced at the Olympic on the 26th of May 1863

The Olympic Theatre played host to the premiere of a melodrama named 'Ticket of Leave Man' on the 26th of May 1863. The play was written by Tom Taylor and was based on the French play 'Le Retour de Melun' by Eduard-Louis-Alexandre Brisebarre. The plot follows a man trying to clear his name after he is accused of being a serial killer. Over the next four acts the drama builds and builds until it reaches a face off in a churchyard! It was a popular enough melodrama for it to tour nationally and then to eventually be reused as a source for an early British film starring Tod Slaughter. The works of Tod Slaughter as an actor have generally been ignored and forgotten, however a happy side effect of this is that his films have generally fallen out of copyright due to nobody renewing it and therefore these films are available in the public domain. So if you want to see the 1937 film production of this title, you can find it on www.archive.org by clicking on this link... here.