Mrs Gardner or Sarah Cheney (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1763–1795) was a British comedic actress and playwright.
Life
Sarah Cheney first came to notice when she appeared at the
Drury Lane Theatre
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drur ...
in October 1763 in a play by
William Congreve. She worked regularly, commanding two pounds a week, and, in 1765, she appeared in the first performance of
Samuel Foote
Samuel Foote (January 1720 – 21 October 1777) was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager. He was known for his comedic acting and writing, and for turning the loss of a leg in a riding accident in 1766 to comedic opportunity.
Early l ...
's play, ''The Commissary'', at the
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote ...
.
[ That year, she met the actor William Gardner and they were married. The new couple took up roles in Foote's ''Company of Comedians''.][
In the eleven years from 1766 to 1777, she appeared in comic roles for Foote but she had her best success in summer roles at the Haymarket, including ]The Nabob
''The Nabob'' is a comedy play by the English writer Samuel Foote. It was first performed at the Haymarket Theatre on 29 June 1772. The first interpretation of the role of ''Mrs Matchem'' was made by Mrs Gardner.
A wealthy nabob Sir Matthew Mit ...
. It was said that her acting skills were less apparent after Foote died in 1777, and it was then that Gardner turned to playwriting. She wrote and appeared in ''The Advertisement'', or, ''A Bold Stroke for a Husband'' at The Haymarket, but this was not acclaimed.[Alison Oddey, ‘Gardner , Sarah (fl. 1763–1795)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 22 Dec 2014
/ref> In the same year, she separated from her husband and gained custody of their children. William Gardner went to work in numerous secondary roles and died in 1790 whilst his wife was abroad.[
Gardner went to the Caribbean for four years and returned to act again in London before taking up work in Dublin. It was said that she arranged her own death and funeral to avoid paying debts. In 1789, she was appearing in New York having travelled there via Jamaica. In 1795, there was a benefit for her at The Haymarket after she had appeared there in her own play entitled ''Mrs Doggrell in her Attitudes'', or, ''The Effects of a West India Ramble''. Her death is unknown.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Mrs Sarah
British women dramatists and playwrights
British stage actresses
18th-century British actresses
18th-century English actresses
18th-century British dramatists and playwrights