Theatre Royal, Adelphi Seasonal Digest for 1842-1843 Ed. Franklin & Mary Case

Theatre Royal, Adelphi Seasonal Digest for 1842-1843
Ed. Franklin & Mary Case

A major change occurred in the operation of the theatre this season. Thomas Gladstane was listed as the sole proprietor, Harry Beverley as the Stage manager, and O. Smith as the Melodramatic Director.

The season opener was a melodrama The Owl Sisters; or, The Haunted Abbey Ruins! billed as an "original melodramatic romance" in three acts with "spectacle" and a cast of thirty. From the character names (such as Hubert, Michael, Garland, Gypsy Dallan, The Spectre Earl, Lizzard, Bess of the Woods, and Sylvanella), the scenery descriptions (ranging from the "rustic dwelling of Bess of the Woods" and "the lovers' trysting tree" to "the witch's cottage at nightfall" and "the hostelrie of the Dragon"), and the songs ("A Young Maiden Came to a Bachelor's Well," "The Frightful, Spiteful, Old Bachelor," and "A Nice Little Husband to Love"), we get a good sense of the elements of the genre. The "spectacle" was the "dreadful doom of St. Mark--transformation of the Owl Sisters," which apparently was staged to include a "spectre dance." The music from this play was published separately by Cramer, Addison and Beale, Regent St. and therefore could be purchased and played for private entertainment in drawing rooms and parlors throughout the city.

An early piece, The Miser's Daughter, gained the approval of the reviewer for the Theatrical Observer. "The author in this drama has raised a beacon to warn the erring and guide the inexperienced, forcibly inculcating the great moral lesson that vice, however prosperous for a time, will sooner or later meet with punishment and disgrace while virtue, whatever its trials and temptations, will ultimately secure a lasting and just reward" (25 October 1842). The author, Edward Stirling, was forced to take the role of the Miser when Lyon became ill. He acquitted himself with credit and subsequently travelled to Liverpool to play the role and superintend a production of the piece there.

There are two clerks, Bramber (O. Smith) a cold-blooded villain, the other, Mapleton (Lyon) all amiability and honesty and enjoying the implicit confidence of the merchant (Maynard). Mapleton is entrusted with the care of ten thousand pounds by Harford for a few days while he is abroad on business, and the faithful clerk in his over- anxiety, in a state of somnambulism, takes the notes from a strong box and deposits them under the floor, and he forgets entirely the circumstance. Suspicion is immediately firmly fixed upon him, on which he becomes mad, but after a time, on being as an experiment, removed to the house of the merchant, while in his sleep, discloses the mystery.

A farce, Yankee Notes for English Circulation, set in a boarding house in Saratoga Springs, New York, provided a vehicle for Thomas D. Rice. The cast contained the usual humorous role descriptions implying a notable lack of sophistication in the New World: Major Dowbiggin of the United States Army; Silas Solomon Sprawl, Jr. "from the Banks of the Licking"; Julius Caesar Washington Hickory Dick, "a nigger help"; Miss Zip Coon, "a mulatto help"; and assorted "colonels, majors, niggers, and Down-Easters." The vocal music consisted entirely of "popular Negro melodies." Another piece also highlighted Rice, who had announced his intention to return to America and become a farmer. He had come to England to buy cattle, "but a tempting offer from the enterprising Adelphi manager induced [him] to reappear in sooty habiliments" (Theatrical Observer, 20 December 1842).

The pantomime, The Children of the Wood; or, Harlequin Nobody, possessed a "superabundant supply of all the requisite embellishments of beautiful scenery and artistic and mechanical display," according to the Theatrical Observer. Unfortunately, Harry Beverley did not please as Clown. "This gentleman is entirely unfit for this character; he has neither agility or humour, two great requisites for such parts" (28 December 1842). George took the role within a week's time.

The summer program commenced on 17 April 1843, with a performance of The Great Wizard of the North and continued nearly unabated with that singularly fascinating performance for the entire summer. There were three dark nights on 22 April, 4 and 5 May 1843, due to the death of Frederick Augustus, the Duke of Sussex. Otherwise, the Wizard performed his extraordinary feats of magic until 9 September 1843, just before the start of the new season.

FC/MC

Theatre Royal, Adelphi Seasonal Digest for 1843-1844

Ed. Franklin & Mary Case

The New York Morning Herald bade farewell to English drama in this year. "It is evident that the English drama on both sides of the Atlantic is on its last legs. And it is also very clear that this state of decrepitude has been the result as much, if not more, from the want of machinery to keep it up, as from the change in public taste" (Theatrical Observer, 3 January 1844).

In England, adaptations of Charles Dickens' novels continued unabated. A Christmas Carol was dramatized at four theatres, and Edward Stirling's version proved as popular as his Barnaby Rudge of the penultimate season did.

A review from the Times is indicative of the high acclaim accorded A Christmas Carol.

In it, the whole comic strength of the house is engaged, and all play their parts well. The spectral appearance of the defunct partner of the old miser is admirably managed--a better ghost was never put upon the stage. He renders night not only hideous but also ludicrous, and many of the more unsophisticated part of the audience scarcely know whether to be frightened or to shake with laughter. Mr. O. Smith, Mr. Wright, Mr. Forman, Mr. Sanders, and Mrs. F. Matthews played their parts well. The house rewarded their exertions by long, loud, and rapturous applause.

Other papers were equally positive in their reviews. the Morning Chronicle, the Examiner, Morning Post, Sunday Times, Bell's Life in London, and Weekly Dispatch all gave excellent, favorable reviews:

A burlesque version of Richard III was performed in February. The same piece was being occasionally played at Drury Lane, somewhat incongruously yoked with Harlequin and King Pepin. Charles Kean was playing the evil Richard. The Adelphi piece was highly ludicrous, and "Wright greatly added to the humour of the burlesque by imitating Charles Kean, and in the last scene where he fights with Richmond, he convulsed the house with laughter" (Theatrical Observer, 14 February 1844).

In March, a new melodrama appeared titled Ulrica; or, The Prisoner of State, it commanded a large cast, new scenery, and splendid effects. The plot gives some idea of the piece. Ernest de Frideburg (Lyon) is falsely charged with treason to his king, Frederick II, of Prussia (Braid). His daughter, Ulrica (Mrs. Yates), grows up in ignorance of her true parentage. She learns by chance of her father's imprisonment and goes to seek him, sinking exhausted at the mountain pass near her father's prison. Here she meets Herman, a dumb boy (Wieland) who is to be her father's gaoler. He bears a letter of recommendation from de Frideburg's enemy, the Count D'Osborn (Maynard). The dumb boy attempts Ulrica's life for a gold cross she wears. A sudden storm fortuitously precipitates Herman to his ruin over the cliff edge. Ulrica has his letter and becomes her father's gaoler in disguise. Count D’Osborn, who has forced Ulrica's true mother to marry him, apprehends the father and daughter attempting to escape. He determines to kill de Frideburg, but the honest Burl (O. Smith) saves him. The King learns what has occurred and condemns the villainous D'Osborn to death. Phelim O’Tug (Hamilton) makes successful suit to Christine (Miss Chaplin) in a subplot. This Gothic melodrama failed to please, despite the efforts of the company, and had to be withdrawn after a dozen performances.

29 March was the last night of the regular season and was Wright's benefit, supported by Paul J. Bedford and James P. Wilkinson.

On this night, Wright and Miss Woolgar performed the dance from Antony and Cleopatra Married and Settled; it was the "gitanacachucacracoviennebolerotarantella." The night's performance culminated with fireworks. As the bill put it, "Mr. W. H. Darby, Artist to the Royal Gardens, Vauxhall, and the Theatres Royal, will, at the termination of the Performance, exhibit a Superb Display of Fire-Works! In representation of the Finale to a General Pyrotechnic Display, as exhibited in the Gardens of Versailles. This Beautiful Tableaux will encompass the entire stage."

The post seasonal entertainment saw the ever-popular Henry Anderson, The Great Wizard of the North, returning to the Adelphi. Malone Raymond-- “the clever representative of Hibernian characters” assisted him. Raymond had successfully given his dramatic and musical monopolologues in Liverpool and other provincial towns.

FC/MC