10 - Theatre of the 1890s

Summary

Anyone skimming the columns of the Pall Mall Gazette in the 1890s might assume that English drama was flourishing, and that theatrical topics were on everyone's lips. New plays and productions are given long reviews; actor-managers' plans for future offerings and seasons are trailed in some detail; and a European dimension is assured by the frequent references to Ibsen and the close attention paid to the visits of the Comédie-Française, or of Eleanora Duse. On 17 February 1893, for example, there is an article by Henry James on The Master Builder, with Elizabeth Robins as Hilda Wangel, followed four days later by an edition of the Gazette that includes both an interview with George Moore on his forthcoming The Strike at Arlingford, and another review - a hostile one - of The Master Builder. At the end of February, Wilde's Salomé, published in French, is savaged, but the reviewer at least discusses it in a theatrical context. In March comes a revival of A Doll's House, in April, the premiere of Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, in May the enthusiastic reception of Pinero's The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, in June reviews of performances of Rosmersholm at the Opéra Comique, of Duse as Nora Helmer, and of the publication of Shaw's Widowers' Houses. These are all names or works that retain their resonance a century or more later. Theatre, and theatrical form, was alive.