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Society (play)
''Society'' was an 1865 comedy drama by Thomas William Robertson regarded as a milestone in Victorian drama because of its realism in sets, costume, acting and dialogue. Unusually for that time, Robertson both wrote and directed the play, and his innovative writing and stage direction inspired George Bernard Shaw and W. S. Gilbert. Origins The play originally ran at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool, under the management of Mr A. Henderson, opening on 8 May 1865. It was recommended to Effie Wilton, the manager of the Prince of Wales's Theatre in London's West End, by H. J. Byron, where it ran from 11 November 1865 to 4 May 1866 Robertson found fame with his new comedy, which included a scene that fictionalized the ''Fun'' gang, who frequented the Arundel Club, the Savage Club, and especially Evans's café, where they had a table in competition with the ''Punch'' 'Round table'. The play marked the London debut of Squire Bancroft, who went on to marry Effie Wilton in 186 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas William Robertson
Thomas William Robertson (9 January 1829 – 3 February 1871) was an English dramatist and stage director. Born to a theatrical family, Robertson began as an actor, but he was not a success and gave up acting in his late 20s. After earning a modest living writing articles for the press, translating and adapting foreign plays and writing several of his own plays he achieved success in 1865 with his play ''Society (play), Society'', which the actor-manager Marie Wilton presented at a small London theatre, the Scala Theatre, Prince of Wales's. Over the next five years Robertson wrote five more plays for the Prince of Wales's. Their naturalistic style and treatment of contemporary social issues was in strong contrast to the melodramas and exaggerated theatricality to which the public had been accustomed, and Robertson's plays were box-office and critical successes. Robertson supervised their productions and was a pioneer of modern stage directing. Among later theatrical figures inf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caste (play)
''Caste'' is a comedy drama by Thomas William Robertson, first seen in 1867. The play was the third of several successes by Robertson produced in London's West End by Squire Bancroft and his wife Marie Wilton. As its name suggests, ''Caste'' concerns distinctions of class and rank. The son of a French nobleman marries a ballet dancer and then goes to war. When word arrives that he has been killed in action, his mother tries to wrest the child from his penniless widow. History and early productions ''Caste'' is based on the short story "The Poor Rate Unfolds a Tale", written by Thomas William Robertson in 1866 for ''Rates and Taxes'', a Christmas publication edited by Tom Hood.Full text of ''Society'' and ''Caste'' edited by T. Edgar Pembe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Edgar Pemberton
Thomas Edgar Pemberton (1 July 1849 – 28 September 1905) was an English novelist, playwright and theatrical historian. Early career Born on 1 July 1849, he was the eldest son of Thomas Pemberton, the head of an old-established firm of brass founders in Livery Street, Birmingham. A brother was the novelist Max Pemberton. (The earlier actor and lecturer Charles Reece Pemberton was of the same family.) After education at schools in Edgbaston, Pemberton at nineteen entered his father's firm, and in due course gained control of the business, with which he was connected until 1900. Pemberton married on 11 March 1873, in the Old Meeting House, Birmingham, Mary Elizabeth, second daughter of Edward Richard Patie Townley of Edgbaston. Of literary taste from youth, Pemberton long divided his time between commerce and varied literary endeavours. His novels ''Charles Lysaght: a Novel devoid of Novelty'' (1873) and ''Under Pressure'' (1874) were less well regarded than his later novel ''A Ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and south-west of Warwick. The town is the southernmost point of the Arden area on the edge of the Cotswolds. In the 2021 census Stratford had a population of 30,495; an increase from 27,894 in the 2011 census and 22,338 in the 2001 Census. Stratford was originally inhabited by Britons before Anglo-Saxons and remained a village before the lord of the manor, John of Coutances, set out plans to develop it into a town in 1196. In that same year, Stratford was granted a charter from King Richard I to hold a weekly market in the town, giving it its status as a market town. As a result, Stratford experienced an increase in trade and commerce as well as urban expansion. Stratford is a popular touris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakespeare Memorial Library
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preservation as a national memorial.Supporting the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Retrieved 29 October 2012 It can also lay claim to be the oldest conservation society in Britain. Receiving no government funding or public subsidies, it is totally dependent upon the public for support, and relies on donations and the income generated from visitors. The SBT is considered the most significant Shakespeare charity in the world, and endeavours to internationally promote the appreciation and study of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include ''any'' written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, music notation, explanatory figures, or illustrations. Terminology The study of the writing in surviving manuscripts, the "hand", is termed palaeography (or paleography). The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS., ms or ms. for singular, and MSS., mss or ms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sophie Larkin
Sophie Larkin (1833–1903) was an English actress of the late Victorian era. She created roles in plays by T. W. Robertson and in the long-running play ''Our Boys'' by H. J. Byron. Life Larkin's London debut was in 1865 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in ''Naval Engagements''. At the same theatre she subsequently appeared in leading roles in the original productions of plays by T. W. Robertson: in November 1865 as Lady Ptarmigant in ''Society''; in September 1866 as Lady Shendryn in ''Ours''; and in April 1867 as the Marquise de Saint-Maur in '' Caste''."Larkin, Sophie". Charles E Pascoe, editor. ''The Dramatic List: a record of the performances of living actors and actresses of the British stage''. 1880. Robertson in these plays wrote the parts to suit the resident actors and actresses. In January 1868 at St James's Theatre she created the part of Mrs Erskine Meek in ''The Needful'', a comedy by H. T. Craven, and in the following month appeared in a revival of Craven's ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hare (actor)
Sir John Hare (16 May 1844 – 28 December 1921), born John Joseph Fairs, was an English actor and theatre manager of the later 19th– and early 20th centuries. Born and brought up in London, with frequent visits to the West End, Hare had a passion for the theatre from his childhood. After acting as an amateur as a young man he joined a professional company in Liverpool, before making his London debut in 1865 at the age of 21 with Marie Wilton's company. Wilton was a pioneer of naturalistic theatre, with which Hare was greatly in sympathy, and he quickly gained a reputation in character roles, particularly in comedies. Within a decade Hare was well enough established to go into management. He was in partnership with the actor W. H. Kendal at the Court Theatre from 1875 to 1879, and from 1879 to 1888 at the St James's Theatre with Kendal and the latter's wife, Madge. They presented, mostly successfully, a succession of new British plays, adaptations of French works, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Askew Sothern
Edward Askew Sothern (1 April 182620 January 1881) was an English actor known for his comic roles in Britain and America, particularly Lord Dundreary in ''Our American Cousin''. He was also known for his many practical jokes. Life and career Early years Sothern was born in Liverpool, the son of a merchant. He began studying medicine, and his parents hoped that he would become a minister,''The Times'' obituary, 22 January 1881, p. 9, col. F but he decided against pursuing those professions. He worked as a clerk in the late 1840s and married Frances Emily "Fannie" Stewart (died 1882). He began acting as an amateur in 1848 under the stage name of Douglas Stewart.Holder, Heidi J"Sothern, Edward Askew (1826–1881)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 7 November 2008. In 1849 he appeared in his first professional engagement at Saint Helier in Jersey, as Claude Melnotte in Bulwer Lytton's ''The Lady of Lyons''. In the early 1850 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedy was a form of British musical theatre that extended beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions, beginning in the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following the First World War. Between '' In Town'' in 1892 and ''The Maid of the Mountains'', premiering in 1917, this new style of musical theatre became dominant on the musical stage in Britain and the rest of the English-speaking world. The popularity of ''In Town'' and ''A Gaiety Girl'' (1893), led to an astonishing number of hits over the next three decades, the most successful of which included '' The Shop Girl'' (1894), '' The Geisha'' (1896), ''Florodora'' (1899), '' A Chinese Honeymoon'' (1901), '' The Earl and the Girl'' (1903), '' The Arcadians'' (1909), ''Our Miss Gibbs'' (1909), ''The Quaker Girl'' (1910), ''Betty'' (1914), ''Chu Chin Chow'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Burlesque
Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as travesty or extravaganza, is a genre of theatrical entertainment that was popular in Victorian era, Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid-19th century. It is a form of parody music, parody in which a well-known opera or piece of classical theatre or ballet is adapted into a broad comic play, usually a musical play, usually risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and styles of the original work, and often quoting or pastiche, pastiching text or music from the original work. Victorian burlesque is one of several forms of burlesque. Like ballad opera, burlesques featured musical scores drawing on a wide range of music, from popular contemporary songs to operatic arias, although later burlesques, from the 1880s, sometimes featured original scores. Dance played an important part, and great attention was paid to the staging, costumes and other spectacular elements of stagecraft, as many of the pieces we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tube station lies just beyond the southern end of the road. Historically a market street, it became known for selling electronics and white goods in the 20th century. The street takes its name from the manor (estate) of ''Tottenham Court'', whose lands lay toward the north and west of the road, in the parish of St Pancras. ''Tottenham Court'' was not directly connected to the district of Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey. Geography Tottenham Court Road runs from Euston Road in the north, to St Giles Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) at its southern end. The road lies almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden near its boundary with the City of Westminster, a distance of about three-quarters of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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