'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.

February the 2nd in Theatrical History

(Nell Gwynn by Peter Lely)

On the 2nd of February 1651 Nell Gwyn was born. Due to her lowly background records which go into much depth about her family and early life are few and far between although rumour and accounts from the day suggest her mother may have run a brothel. What we can be certain of is that Nell was born in the parish St-Martin-In-The-Field in London in 1651 in what is now the heart of the West End or as many call it Theatre Land. Nell began her career in Drury Lane as an orange girl selling oranges and perhaps her own sexual favours. When she turned fourteen the theatres in England began to allow women to grace the stage and Nell trained as one of the first female actors. Despite being illiterate she by all accounts was a very smart and witty woman who learnt lines quickly by recitation. Nell would take London by storm as one of the originators of the Restoration Comedy scene, her performances spread the popularity of these works. Nell moved into the fashionable set in London mixing with the aristocracy and becoming great friends with the writer Aphra Behn. In 1668 Nell began her notorious affair with King Charles the II which led to her becoming an even bigger box office attraction and having playwrights writing special parts for her. Eventually Nell became pregnant and bore the King a son Charles who would become the Earl of Burford, a title still alive today, and a predecessor of the title the Duchy of St Albans. Despite having a child and being the Kings main mistress Nell still returned to the stage in 1670 for a Dryden play. However 1671 would be the last year she trod the boards. Nell retired to become a lady of the town but her influence on the theatre reaches out across the centuries, numerous productions have been created about her with at least 4 plays and two musicals centred around her life. Nell Gwyn has also had numerous books written about her life and is still a popular figure of scandal and intrigue even 300 years after her death. Nell still has a part to play in the theatre today especially for theatres along the Strand where if you turn off into the quiet and unassuming Bull Inn Court you will find the Nell Gwynne tavern a small pub which has been described as old worldly. Some people have blamed Nell for the idea that perpetuated the stage for years that women actors were prostitutes and adulteresses but I think her legacy has been more about breaking down doors and showing that women can provide more entertainment than men and in many circumstances are better actors than men.

In 1714 on the 2nd of February 'Jane Shore' by Nicholas Rowe was first produced at Drury Lane. Jane Shore was the mistress of King Edward the IV and had been referenced in Shakespeare's Richard the III and had a play written about her in 1600 by Thomas Heywood. The play by Heywood probably heavily influenced the work of Nicholas Rowe whose version was a Tragedy and ran for nineteen nights. Rowe is probably best known for being the editor of the first modern edition of the plays of William Shakespeare.

February the 1st in Theatrical History

(John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons in Macbeth as painted by Thomas Beach)

On the first of February 1757 John Philip Kemble was born. The son of Roger Kemble (b 1721 d 1802) and Sarah Ward (b 1735 d 1807) he was part of the theatrical dynasty the Kemble Family. John Kemble had several siblings being one of twelve children, out of whom 5 others became actors including the most famous female actor of the age Sarah Siddons. The family has its beginnings in the famous 'Ward Company of Comedians' run by John's grandfather John Ward and the union of Roger Kemble to John Ward's daughter Sarah solidified the legacy of the Kemble family. John Philip Kemble learnt his trade touring with his grandfathers company and ended up having great success on the London scene after debuting at Drury Lane in Hamlet. In 1803 Kemble left Drury Lane and joined George Frederick Cooke at the Covent Garden company with his sister Mrs Siddons joining him soon after. Tragedy struck five years later when Covent Garden was destroyed by a fire. Both Mrs Siddons and Kemble lost their vast wardrobes to the fire and chose to build a new theatre designed by the architect Robert Smirke, his most recognisable work is the facade of the British Museum, costing one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in 1809 which is the equivalent of nine million pounds today. This of course led to increases in the price of attendance which brought about the darkest part of Kemble's career when on opening night of the new theatre at Covent Garden the audience cried out for the old prices and continued until the police and military had to be called. For two months riots and disruptions continued under his regime at Covent Garden until he finally agreed to reduce prices to the old rates. Kemble would retire in 1817 leaving his share in Covent Garden to his brother Charles but by now the shine on the Kemble family had long been overshadowed by a new star Edmund Kean.



Ulysses is produced at Her Majesty's theatre in 1902. This play is a poetry play based on the ancient Greek tale and was written by Stephen Phillips. It was produced by the theatre company of Beerbohm-Tree and is speculated to have been part of the inspiration for James Joyce's later novel of the same name.

January the 28th in Theatrical History

In 1891 'The Stranger' by Wilson Barrett was revived at the New Olympic theatre. Barrett (1846-1904) was a playwright specialising in Victorian melodrama, he managed the Grand Theatre Leeds, The Old Court Theatre, The Princess's Theatre London and the aforementioned New Olympic.

The circumstances in which The Stranger was staged proved to be at the end of the melodrama craze that had swept Victorian theatre. It would be one of Barretts last successes in the UK and he would have to tour America in the years before his death until he came upon his next production. His next production would become his legacy 'The Sign of the Cross' which was a huge success on Broadway and back in the UK. It continues to be his legacy as it was eventually turned into the third part of Cecil B. DeMilles trilogy which also includes The Ten Commandments and The King of Kings under the same title Sign of the Cross. It helped lead the way in Epic film and greatly influenced many future films including Ben Hur and Spartacus.

January the 27th in Theatrical History

(portraint by Jean-Francois Gilles Colson)

On this date in 1720 Samuel Foote was born in Cornwall. Foote would become both a playwright and an actor eventually running the Haymarket Theatre. Foote was known as a great wit and in 1748 he wrote the play 'An Auction of Pictures' which was a satire based on the infamous satirist Henry Fielding, this led to a famous war of words and wit. However when Foote began a quarrell with another actor it led to a riot at the Haymarket Theatre. There are a few missing Foote plays but the latest one to have been published was Piety in Patterns which was finally published in 1973 which should show us all that there is hope for those supposed 'lost plays' that they maybe locked away in some private collection or library somewhere.

In 1845 'The Green Bushes' was produced at the Adelphi theatre by John Baldwin Buckstone. The play included two stanzas of the popular English folk song Green Bushes. Buckstone wrote over 150 plays and rose to be the lessee of the Haymarket Theatre and he is now said to be haunting that same theatre appearing in the wings watching something that he finds particularly good or amusing. Sightings of his ghost have even been reported by actors including Patrick Stewart.



arthurlloyd.co.uk a wonderful site on Theatre and Music Hall

arthurlloyd.co.uk is a website that I have been using more frequently in recent months as I have been researching various venues across the nation. It is a wonderful website full of magnificent information with over 2000 pages of information and 5000 images of Music Halls and Theatres from years past. Created by a descendant of Arthur Lloyd, a Music Hall Entertainer who wrote songs such as 'Married to a Mermaid', this site is part biographical evidence of Arthur Lloyds life and career and part information of theatres and music halls from all around the country. It is a fantastic resource with plenty of information to keep you glued to the site for hours on end. This is the type of rare resource that helps us all keep in touch with our theatrical heritage and remind us of the unfortuanate losses the theatre world has had in the past 50s as well as chronicling of its glorious past. I would highly reccomend anyone this site and its helpful forum.

So please go to:

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/

and enjoy!

Xtofer