London quality at the seaside

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (189) explores some theatrical productions seen by the resort’s audiences during the 1880s and their producers. The information relates to notices and reviews published in The Era. They appeared during February and March, August and September, for the 1880s. In order of frequency came comedies, then dramas and melodramas, with operettas third.

Victorian Bournemouth (189): plays

Comedies

The comedies, often farces, touched on different aspects of social behaviour. One of these concerned money. The productions of Money, The Private Secretary, and The Two Roses, all relate the effect of wealth on people and their relationships to each other. Bulwer-Lytton questioned the extent to which couples need money to live in happiness. In The Two Roses, a leading character’s sudden acquisition of wealth changes him into a pompous and imperious monster. The Private Secretary made fun of people who lent money. Other plays depicted life below stairs. The Belles of the Kitchen involved the Vokes family members playing such below-stairs characters as a lady’s maid ‘with airs and graces’, a housemaid of ‘aristocratic inclinations’, and to relieve the social tension, a kitchen-maid, ‘the incarnation of fun’. Thus the audiences, for the most part, respectable types, perhaps laughed and squirmed as they watched comedies puncturing their lifestyles and aspirations.

Melodramas

Melodramas, traditional and modern, plunged Bournemouth’s audience into stories involving deception and death. Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet all delivered infidelity, suicide, deception, and murder. Plays by contemporary authors visited similar terrain. In East Lynne, a very popular play, the audience witnessed several plot twists involving scandal, double identity, infidelity, seduction, murder, and the dismal death of its heroine. Hands Across The Sea saw a villain frame a young husband of murder in order to steal his wife. In the end, the prisoner, sent to a French penal colony on New Caledonia, achieves rescue. The Cloven Foot, a sensational melodrama, wove together a will having unusual conditions, two cases of bigamy, murder, love, set in both England and France. Lies, broken relationships, a terrible marriage to a brutal drunken husband, and a shady factory clerk in concert made The Wages of Sin a “vigorous and successful melodrama”. 

Music

Popular musical entertainments at Bournemouth during the 1880s consisted of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas or a range of variety shows. The former blended Gilbert’s social commentary on contemporary affairs with Sullivan’s scores and songs. Mistaken identity, resolved, surmounted by marriages amongst various characters connected The Mikado, The Gondoliers, and Yeomen of the Guard. Princess Ida involved commentary about the development of women’s rights. Harry Nash also arranged for the German Reed family to continue their connection with Bournemouth. They performed A Peculiar Case, A Pretty Bequest, and Cards of Invitation, amongst other shows. Fun on the Bristol, Mirth and Music, My Sweetheart, and Queen of Hearts bore indicative titles. David Sydenham, another entertainment agent active in Bournemouth, appeared to specialise in arranging for classical musicians to attend the resort. For a while, Carl Ratsch brought musical productions to the Winter Garden, but he advertised the lease for sale in 1886.

Victorian Bournemouth (189): people

Shakespearian producers

Sir Ben Greet (1857-1936), carried his reputation of ‘actor, pioneer, and producer’ into his obituary’s headline: ‘actor, pioneer, and producer’. His Shakespearean speciality later extended to making the plays accessible to school children and university students. In 1888, he brought his new company to Bournemouth’s Theatre Royal. They acted School for Scandal, while, the following year, he presented A Midsummer’s Night Dream. By instinct a comedian, Greet ‘would put much dignity into Shylock’. Sir Frank Benson (1858-1939) ‘had a passionate belief in the necessity of Shakespeare ‘. He saw it as a ‘pillar of Empire’. The Shakespearian Festival at Stratford flourished under his stewardship. In true dramatic style, he received his knighthood from George V while kneeling in the Royal Box at Drury Lane, still wearing Julius Caesar’s bloodstained toga. He brought his company several times to Bournemouth, presenting Shakespeare as well as the staples written by Goldsmith and Sheridan.

J.L. Toole

John Lawrence Toole (1830-1906), comic actor, brought several plays to Bournemouth during the 1880s, including Paul Pry, a favourite. Good friend of Sir Henry Irving, godfather to the latter’s son, Toole took a lease on the Charing Cross theatre in London. Although unfortunate in his family life, Toole’s fortunes prospered, so that he left an estate worth £80,000. He had appeared in almost all the London and provincial theatres, including Bournemouth. His passing attracted a fulsome obituary. It described him as ‘ … one of the most joyous, most mirth-moving, and most popular of the many fine comedians which the latter half of the nineteenth century produced …’. The notice observed that he ‘ … always attracted enthusiastic audiences …’. In America, audiences needed time to master his Cockney approach. He had well-honed acting skills, ‘ … equally powerful in compelling tears and in moving to laughter …’.

Corney Grain

Corney Grain (1844-1895) and Alfred Reed, both mainstays in the latter’s family production company died within a week of each other. Both had visited Bournemouth many times, from the 1870s onwards. Grain was ‘a most amusing variety and sketch actor’, according to a newspaper notice. Trained as a lawyer, he went on the stage. ‘One could always make sure of having a good deal of amusing nonsense and enjoying a hearty laugh at this entertainment.’ He also gave entertainments at private parties, a valuable source of income for him. He wrote many comic sketches and songs, which he accompanied on the piano. Influenza cut short his life and successful career, his estate worth almost £20,000. He visited the Theatre Royal, Bournemouth, several times in the 1880s, performing in variety shows with the German Reed company as well as giving humorous readings, entitled ‘Election Notes’ and ‘Henley Regatta’.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (189) has extended its exploration about theatrical performances brought to the resort by Harry Nash. Audiences had the opportunity to laugh and cry at plays, as well as experiencing the fashionable music of Gilbert and Sullivan. Many plays well-known on the provincial circuit arrived, as did exciting works new to the stage. Several established members in the industry visited Bournemouth, including Ben Greet, Frank Benson, J. L. Toole, and Corney Grain. Thus, audiences could experience theatre of London’s quality while visiting Bournemouth.

References

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