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Kinsey Peile
Frederick Kinsey Oman Peile (20 December 1861 –13 April 1934), known professionally as F.KinseyPeile or Kinsey Peile, was a British actor and playwright. During a forty-year stage career he created roles in plays by Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward, starred in others by Henrik Ibsen and W. Somerset Maugham, Somerset Maugham, wrote ten plays for the West End theatre, West End and appeared in several films. Life and career Early years Peile was born in Allahabad, India on 20 December 1862, the second son of a British army officer, General Frederick Weston Peile (1828–1902), and his wife Sarah, ''née'' Oman (1829–1912). He was educated in Wimbledon, London and was commissioned as a lieutenant, first in the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) and then in the Welch Regiment. In 1886 he married Marion Kerr. They had one daughter. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succession of managements over the next forty years also failed to make it a commercial success, and the St James's acquired a reputation as an unlucky theatre. It was not until 1879–1888, under the management of the actors John Hare and Madge and W. H. Kendal that the theatre began to prosper. The Hare-Kendal management was succeeded, after brief and disastrous attempts by other lessees, by that of the actor-manager George Alexander, who was in charge from 1891 until his death in 1918. Under Alexander the house gained a reputation for programming that was adventurous without going too far for the tastes of London society. Among the plays he presented were Oscar Wilde's ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' (1892) and ''The Importance of Being Earn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Moon And Sixpence
''The Moon and Sixpence'' is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, first published on 15 April 1919. It is told in episodic form by a first-person narrator providing a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker, who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist. The story is, in part, based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin. Plot summary The book is written largely from the point of view of the narrator, a young, aspiring writer and playwright in London. Certain chapters entirely comprise accounts of events by other characters, which the narrator recalls from memory, selectively editing or elaborating on certain aspects of dialogue, particularly Strickland's, because Strickland is said by the narrator to have a very poor ability to express himself in words. The narrator first develops an acquaintance with Strickland's wife at literary parties and later meets Strickl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operette (musical)
''Operette'' is a musical in two acts composed, written and produced by Noël Coward. The show is a period piece, set in the year 1906 at the fictional "Jubilee" theatre. The story concerns an ageing Viennese operetta star, who warns the young ingenue not to marry a nobleman. The piece premiered in 1938. Coward's attempt to follow up the mittel-European nostalgia of his hit operetta '' Bitter Sweet'' (1929) was not a success and ran for only 132 performances. It nevertheless contained songs that endured, in Coward's cabaret act and elsewhere, such as "The Stately Homes of England". Production ''Operette'' was first performed at the Manchester Opera House, from 17 February 1938 to 12 March 1938. It then transferred to His Majesty's Theatre in London on 16 March 1938, closing on 9 July 1938."The Theatres: Mr. Noel Coward's Operette''", ''The Times'', 3 March 1938, p. 12 There are 35 speaking parts in the musical, and in the original production there was a company of 80. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irene Vanbrugh
Dame Irene Vanbrugh DBE ( Barnes; 2 December 1872 – 30 November 1949) was an English actress. The daughter of a clergyman, Vanbrugh followed her elder sister Violet into the theatrical profession and sustained a career for more than 50 years. In her early days as a leading lady she was particularly associated with the plays of Arthur Wing Pinero and later had parts written for her by J. M. Barrie, Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham, A. A. Milne and Noël Coward. More famous for comic rather than dramatic roles, Vanbrugh nevertheless played a number of the latter in both modern works and the classics. Her stage debut was in Shakespeare, but she seldom acted in his works later in her career; exceptions were her Queen Gertrude in ''Hamlet'' in 1931 and her Meg Page in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', opposite her sister Violet as Alice Ford, in 1937. Vanbrugh appeared frequently in fundraising shows for various charities. She was active over many years in the support of the Royal Ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Vortex
''The Vortex'' is a play in three acts by the English writer and actor Noël Coward. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the First World War. The son's cocaine habit is seen by many critics as a metaphor for homosexuality, then taboo in Britain. Despite, or because of, its scandalous content for the time, the play was Coward's first great commercial success. The play premiered in November 1924 in London and played in three theatres until June 1925, followed by a British tour and a New York production in 1925–26. It has enjoyed several revivals and a film adaptation. Background In the years after the First World War, pairings in England of older, upper class women and younger men were common. The idea for the play was put in Coward's mind by an incident at a nightclub. Grace Forster, the elegant mother of his friend Stewart Forster, was talking to a young a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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