Constance Collier and Herbert Beerbohm Tree in Oliver Twist, His Majesty’s Theatre, London, 1905

Constance Collier (1878-1955), English actress, and Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852-1917), English actor manager, as they appeared as Nancy and Fagin in Tree’s production of Oliver Twist, adapted from Charles Dickens’s novel by Comyns Carr and first presented at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, on 10 July 1905.
(photo: F.W. Burford, London, 1905; postcard no. 354.G published by J. Beagles & Co, London, 1905)

‘HIS MAJESTY’S : OLIVER TWIST
‘Mr. Tree has been as good as his word. Saying good-bye for the summer on July 10 [1905], he expressed his satisfaction with the launch of Oliver Twist, and promised a prolonged revival for September 4. On that evening the favourable verdict of the former first-night tribunal was not only confirmed, but it is said that the reception beats all records of His Majesty’s Theatre. In our issue of July 16 the artistic merits of the case have been fully discussed, and while due praise was given to the adapter for his skill, a note of protest was sounded against the very painful and over-emphasised scene of Nancy’s murder and the prominence given to the character of Fagin. I see that in other papers some critics and some voices from the public have joined chorus in the objection to the murder episode, and it is to be hoped that something will be done to tone down the gruesome effect. Whether Oliver Twist be a good play or not, it is bound to attract all who have read and still love their Dickens, and for this reason in particular it would be desirable not to dwell upon the gruesome side of the story. Under all circumstances there is enough of the sensational in the play, and some consideration should be shown to the nerves of the weaker sex. With Mr. Tree in his versatile performance of Fagin, and the remarkable impersonations of Miss Constance Collier as Nancy and Mr. Lyn Harding as Bill Sykes, the acting alone is well worth a visit to the theatre… .
(J.T. Grein, Sunday Times, London, Sunday, 10 September 1905, p. 2c)

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A.E. Matthews and Irene Vanburgh in Alice Sit-by-the-Fire

This real photograph postcard, no. 588 H, published in 1905 in London by J. Beagles & Co, features a scene from J.M. Barrie’s play, Alice Sit-by-the-Fire: A Page from a Daughter’s Diary, with A.E. Matthews as Cosmo Grey and Irene Vanbrugh as Amy Grey, which was produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, on 5 April 1905. (photo: Alfred Ellis & Walery, London, 1905)

‘London, April 8 [1905]. ‘Barrie’s new play, produced at the Duke of York’s last Wednesday, drew a most distinguished audience, which included many prominent and respected American citizens. The play was called by another of Barrie’s peculiar titles – namely, Alice, Sit by the Fire. This time the title was the least inappropriate that the brilliant little native of Thrums has yet vouchsafed. Alice is a middle-aged, but still merry and charming mother, who until the play opens has had to live in India with her colonel-husband, and to send all her babies, one by one, home to England to be reared. The family thus brought up thousands of miles away from her includes a daughter just on the verge of young womanhood; a son, some years younger, but fancying himself too much a man to suffer any kind of parental care, and a baby who is only old enough, when seeing a friendly hand, to “wrestle with it,” as the Luck of Roaring Camp did in dear old Bret Harte’s memorable and lovable story.

‘When Momma Alice arrives in England with her martial but sympathetic husband, she is staggered to find that her gown-up “chicks” regard her with mixed feelings. They have never seen her since they could “take notice,” as fond mammas say. The son shuns her, because of her demonstrative affection to him “before people.” The growing daughter, with her silly head full of five consecutive nights play going, and seeing her mother display some feeling and affection to a young Anglo-Indian male friend of her husband, jumps to the conclusion that the said mother is “in the power” of this young man, as wives so often are in modern plays.

‘The girl, therefore, egged on by a girl friend, who is even more sentimentally silly, goes alone to the young man’s rooms in order to demand the return of the “incriminating letters” which she feels sure her mother must have written “as they always do in plays.” The daughter’s secret visit, of course, involves herself in the supposed mystery. The mother arriving at the “man’s rooms,” presently with her husband detects that her daughter is hiding in a cupboard, and adopts all sort of subterfuges in order to smuggle the girl away before her father is driven to the supposition that his daughter is keeping an “assignation” with the male friend.

‘Confusion becomes still worse confounded before the quaint mystery is cleared up and the curtain finally falls on Mommer Alice resolving to give up all globe-trotting and giddiness and to sit by the fire at home for evermore.

‘The one fault in this otherwise charming and delightful play – at least on the first night – was that Barrie has put in too much dialogue, bright and crisp as that dialogue was. Ellen Terry, whose performance of the perplexed mother was too perfect for words, had such a lot to say after the play had virtually finished that an anticlimax set in. But the piece is (as it deserves to be) a great success. In addition to Ellen Terry’s glorious performance, splendid acting was put in by Irene Vanbrugh as the foolish daughter and Aubrey Smith as the common sense husband.’ (Gawain, The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Saturday, 22 April 1905, p.7a/b)

Julia Mackay

a J. Beagles & Co postcard photograph of Julia Mackay (otherwise Julie Mackay) (fl. late 19th/early 20^th Century), American vaudeville/music hall singer and entertainer (photo: Durham’s Ltd, probably UK, circa 1900)

The Grand Theatre, Bolton, England, week beginning, Monday, 27 March 1899. ‘An extraordinarily attractive programme is presented here this week, including Miss Julia Mackay, an American artist with a pleasing voice and manner, who, on Monday last, took the house by storm, and had again and again to respond to the calls of the audience for encores. Other turns are Pat Rafferty, Irish comedian; Joe Wesley, burlesque Negro comedian and dancer; the Two Florettas (Gertrude and Willie), acrobatic performers; the Sisters Giannini, operatic vocalists; Fred Tryon, character comedian; Sibb and Sibb, double trapeze artists; Arthur Gleno, actor-vocalist; Miss Edith St. Clare, serio[-comic]; and Harland and Rollison, musical grotesques.’ (The Era, London, Saturday, 1 April, 1899, p. 21c)