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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zoeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 It 76-24,559 BERRY, Douglas Matthew, 1948- SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE AT HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE, 1897 - 1914: THE EDWARDIAN THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1976 Theater Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 PLEASE NOTE: Page 217 is lacking in number only. No text is missing. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS. SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE AT HIS MAJESTY1 S THEATRE, 1897 - 191^: THE EDWARDIAIT THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University ' By Douglas M. Berry 3 B. A.a M. A. )fc a|c sf: ste sfc The Ohio State University 1976 Reading Committees Approved By Dr* Alan Woods Dr* John A. Walker Dr* A. R. H Ichols ^jl^ljAAnrA^ A dvisor Department of Theatre For Iiady Jane* Who lived with the work* P a t l e n t l y a Through its completion. i i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are a number of people and institutions whom I should like to thank for their help in this-work? A lan Vfoods, who in s p ire d and advised th e work, and whose erudition and enthusiasm -were of great benefit; my Heading Committee 3 whose members helped to sharpen the work; the Ohio State University Department of Theatre, for a grant enabling me to travel and study at the Folger Library; the staff of the Shields Library of the University of Cal ifornia at Davis, for allowing me to use microfilm copies of material from their Herbert Beerbohm Tree Collection; Mr* George Nash of th e V ic to ria and A lb e rt Museum, fo r h is suggestions, and for providing me with a handlist of the Tree Estate (which had been part of the Enthoven Collec tion); Miss Anne Brooke Barnett, Keeper of the Theatre Col lection, University of Bristol, for her invitation to study their definitive collection of Beerbohm Tree material; Mr. Michael J. Berry, for providing some of the illustrations used in the study; and to my parents, Douglas and Katherine Berry, for their help and support in carrying out my re search*, i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................... i i i LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................. v C hapter I . INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. 1 I I . HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE': THE PLAYHOUSE STRUCTURE......................................................... 17 I I I . THE THEATRICAL EVENT AT HIS MAJESTY'S T H EA T R E ............................................................... 67 IV. THE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE AT HIS MAJESTY'S T H E A T R E ..................................................... 112 V. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................. 190 SOURCES CONSULTED................................................................................... 203 APPENDIX A* CALENDAR OF PERFORMANCES AT HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE 1897 - 1 9 1 ^ ..................................... 213 B. SPECIAL EVENTS AT HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE, A REPRESENTATIVE L I S T ................................ 22? lv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Facade* His Majesty's Theatre ..................................... 21 Figure 2. Auditorium* His Majesty's Theatre • ••••• 26 Figure 3* Grand Vestibule and Box office* His Majesty's Theatre . 29 Figure Proscenium arch, His Majesty's T h e a t r e........................................... ...............................32 Figure 5. Longitudinal Section* His Majesty's T h e a tre 0. ......................... 51 F ig u re 6 , Ground Plan* His Majesty's T h e a t r e.............................................................................................52 Figure 7* Reconstructive Drawing* His Majesty's Theatre ............................................... • • • • 53 F ig u re 8 . Box office* Front View* His Majesty's Theatre • • • • • ................................................. 51** Figure 9- Julia Neilson as Constance* in King John- His M ajesty's Theatre* 1899 ............................. 77 Figure 10. D. G. Rossetti* La Pia De Toleraei . • • . • 78 Figure 11. Herbert Beerbohm Tree in False Gods. His Majesty's Theatre, 1909 ........ 82 Figure 12. Playbill, His Majesty's Theatre* 191* + ........................................................................................... 1^6 Figure 13. Program, His Majesty's Theatre ......................... 153 Figure l*u Program* His Majesty's Theatre Figure 15• Production Booklets* His Majesty's T h e a t r e.......................................................................... 157 Figure 16. Souvenir Program* His Majesty's T h e a tre • ••••.•••••••••••• 162 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In the late l890's 3 as Henry Irving's star vas beginning to fade 3 '‘like a bright exhalation in the eve ning^* **• another was on the ascendency. In 1897a Diamond Jubilee Year for Queen Victoria, Herbert Beerbohm Tree opened his "beautiful theatre" (so he always called it) in the Hayraarket. In honor of the Queen it was named Her Maj esty's Theatre. For the next twenty years Her Majesty's, which became His Majesty's in 1902 upon the accession of King Edward (and will be referred to as such throughout most of the present study )3 was managed by Tree in such a fashion that it became the major theatre in the kingdom. Tree in herited the mantle of the head of the profession from Henry Irving; it was passed to him by popular acclaim upon the death of the latter actor and remained in Tree's possession until his death in 1917* Under Tree's management, His Majesty's became the official home for Shakespeare in London. Other managers did of course produce the Bard 3 but as Tree's record 1 J. C. Trewin, The Theatre Since 1900 (London: Dakers Ltd., 1951), p. 7JI supports, no one did so as consistently or for as long a tim e. 2 Hesketh Pearson, Tree's biographer, calls Tree's productions "the major theatrical events of the period," 3 a statement that may be supported by some attendance fig ures quoted by Tree himselfI between the years 1898 and 1901 2^-2,000 people attended Julius Caesar. 170,000 saw King John, and 220,000 w itnessed A Midsummer N ig h t's Dream. ^ In effect His Majesty's was a national theatrej that it never became so officially was to be one of Tree's major disappointments. In addition to Shakespeare, the re pertoire at His Majesty's was a curious (to modern taste) combination of spectacular melodrama and costume drama, Pineroesque society drama, innovative verse drama (Tree was instrumental in the attempt to create a modern British blank verse drama with the poet Stephen Phillips), adapt ations of novels (Tolstoy, Dickens, and others), even an Ibsen (An Enemy of the People) and a Shaw (the premier of Pygmalion). Tree was an actor manager in the nineteenth cen tury tradition of Kean and Irving. He represented the tradition at its height, in the Edwardian era, just before 2 H. B. T ree, Times (London), October 1913* p . 10. 3 The Last of the Actor Managers (London: Meth uen, 1950)* P* 21. ** Tree, "Living Shakespeare ,11 Thoughts and After thoughts. ed. Tree (London: Cassel & Co., 1v13)Y P* w . the cataclysm of the First World War. He was* however* an actor manager -with a difference: he was not a throw back to the Victorian era who had somehow survived well into the twentieth century (as he is often characterized* a viewpoint I shall attempt to demonstrate to be inaccur ate), In a recent article Rosenfeld points out that Tree was an experimentor, in the same twentieth-century trad ition that is represented by Granville Barker* introducing new and untried authors to the West End. ** He also orig inated (in 1905) and produced (until 191*f) the London Shakespeare Festival. The Festival was an unprecedented endeavor to introduce classic theatre in true repertory to the West End* and was quite successful. 6 Tree was a pioneer in the use of film as an artistic medium* prod ucing several Shakespearean films* beginning with Scenes from King John, as e a rly as 1899* The Academy ( la te r Royal) of Dramatic Art was also Tree's idea* and was found ed by him in 190*+.