Articles

1. Wallpaper from the Georgian Theatre at Tenterden, Kent

   Alan Stockwell

   In advertisements and press reports of Georgian and Regency theatres we often read of the house being “completely re-decorated”. Occasionally we are given a full description of the decor, but more often merely some passing remarks on the paintings on the ceiling, or the wallpaper lining the boxes. However, though the buildings have long gone some occasional artfacts remain and as a result of discoveries concerning the Georgian Theatre at Tenterden in Kent, made by your author in 2010, it appears that there may be extant some actual fragments of late eighteenth-century wallpaper that once lined the boxes of that theatre 200 years ago.

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2. Mrs Grundy at the Theatre

   Jeremy Newton

   When the celebrated actress Mrs Davenport retired from the stage in May 1830, her farewell speech to the audience at the Covent Garden Theatre incorporated enduring lines from two of her famous roles:

   LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – Could anything alleviate the oppression I feel at this trying moment, it would be the gratification of beholding this numerous assemblage of my kind friends and patrons who, by their presence, have honoured the last hour of my public life. You have kindly borne with my infirmities when, with more of truth than good acting, I have cried “How my poor bones ache.” But did I trespass longer on your indulgence, “What would Mrs Grundy say?” I thank you for this, your last smile, and, under its cheering influence, am enabled to bid you a grateful and an affectionate – farewell. (“The Theatres: Covent Garden”)

   The first of these quotations is from Romeo and Juliet: the line belongs to Juliet’s nurse, a role that Mrs Davenport had played at Covent Garden since the 1790s, and one that she reprised at this very performance. The second is less familiar today. “What would Mrs Grundy say?” belongs to Dame Ashfield, one of the main characters in Thomas Morton’s Speed the Plough (written in 1798 and produced at Covent Garden in 1800), and a role that Mrs Davenport herself had created. It is striking that the line was still so recognisable, thirty years […]

3. The League of Coloured People’s London Production of Una Marson’s At What A Price (1934)

   Rebecca Cameron

   On 15 January 1934, the League of Coloured Peoples mounted a production of At What a Price, a play by the black Jamaican writer Una Marson, at the Scala Theatre in London. A romantic comedy set in Jamaica, At What a Price centres on a young, middle-class Black woman, Ruth Maitland, who moves from her rural community to the city for a job and becomes involved in a brief affair with her English employer that results in a pregnancy. In recent years, several scholars have recognised the groundbreaking importance of this production as the “first black colonial production in the West End” (Emery 124, Evans 165, Innes 211, Osborne 70, Tomlinson 63, Umoren 25). Few scholars, however, provide more than a passing discussion of the production as they acknowledge its importance to Black British theatre history. Colin Chambers is a notable exception for devoting several pages to this production in his book Black and Asian Theatre in Britain and in an article in Key Words; this essay expands upon his valuable work. A more detailed examination of the circumstances and reception of this production—including its role in the League of Coloured Peoples’ mission, the casting, the venue, the licensing process, the publicity and reviews, and the financial fallout—enables […]

4. “A Joyous and Memorable Occasion”: Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane at “The Cradle of the Stars”

   Robert V Kenny

   Some years ago, while researching the lives and films of the variety artistes Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane, I acquired a hitherto unknown photograph (Figure 1) showing the couple in a theatre, in costume and onstage. The photograph’s curious features are the dangling microphone and the presence in an onstage box of sound recording engineers, one of whom is wearing earphones as if a recording session is taking place. Intrigued, I began to look for evidence of the date and location of my photograph. One clue came from the words printed on the reverse: REPRO-PHOTO LTD. 26 CHARING CROSS RD, LONDON W C 2 (OVER THE ALHAMBRA). This was the address of the photographer’s studio, reached through the alternative/rear entrance to the vast Alhambra theatre whose Moorish main facade overlooked Leicester Square. The photograph could therefore not be dated later than 1936, when the Alhambra and associated buildings were demolished to make way for the Odeon Leicester Square (Lloyd, ‘Demolition’). My knowledge of the whereabouts of Lucan and McShane in this period, combined with the presence of the sound engineers, enabled me to determine not only the location of the theatre in the photograph but also the date: a day of celebration, and one of importance for the history both of the theatre and of radio broadcasting.

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