Beerbohm Tree and “The New Drama”

BEERBOHM TREE AND "THE NEW DRAMA" IGretchen Paulus Nineteen fifty-six was an important anniversary year in the history of the modern theatre. Not only was it the year of Shaw's centennial, but it also marked the half-century which has elapsed since the death of Ibsen. We are accustomed to think of Ibsen and Shaw together. In 1891 Shaw officially proclaimed himself the quintessential Ibsenite, and by 1892 had begun his own career as playwright. During this same decade, he and William Archer were leading the great fight to establish Ibsen's plays on the English stage. The word "new" became a catchword of the time: Archer, dramatic critic for the World, was the leading representative of the socalled "new criticism"; Shaw became a conspicuous practitioner of "the new drama"; Ibsen was generally regarded as the patron, if not the originator. of "the new woman" and "the new morality."l The most resolute opponent of this left-wing movement in the London theatre was Henry Irving. Irving's services to Shakespearean drama were to win him a knighthood in 1895. But apart from Shakespeare's plays, Lyceum theatre-goers could enjoy established Irvingite successes such as Becket, Olivia, and, of course, The Bells. Irving's great refusal to have anything to do with Ibsenite drama helped to determine the character of English Ibsenism. Barred from the gas-lit splendours of the Lyceum, Ibsen's plays were driven into dark corners and bleak halls for their production. The great parts he created fell to a race of young unknowns, who often brought to them real sensitivity of interpretation, but not the prestige and publicity which were the pressing needs of the moment. Only one of London's popular actor-managers loomed as a possible rival to the great Irving. This was Herbert Beerbohm Tree, manager of the Haymarket Theatre from 1887 to 1897, then of Her Majesty's, which modified its name appropriately with the accession of Edward. Like Irving, who was nearly fifteen years his senior, Tree carried on the 103 104 GRETCHEN PAULUS great tradition of the English stage by using his highest personal talents and the fullest resources of his theatre for elaborate productions of Shakespeare's plays. Unlike Irving, however, he was hospitable to the new drama of Ibsen, and made the role of Dr. Stockmann in A n Enemy of the People distinctively his owri. Towards the end of his career, he was to create for English audiences the part of Henry Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion. Tree was a theatre man trying to occupy two worlds: the old world of the omnipotent actor-manager, who shamelessly adapted his dramatic material so as to enhance his own stage personality, and the new world of the playwright, who claimed dominance over the individual performer. More at home in the old world than the new, Tree still persisted in making generous gestures towards the important modern plays which came his way. Before we study Tree as a highbrow pioneer in the theatrical world of the nineties, it is necessary to understand that he was first of all a popular favourite. Universally acclaimed as a master of the art of makeup , he won his greatest successes in grotesque character parts. Fagin, Svengali, Falstaff, Caliban, Shylock, Nero: these are the roles by which Tree is best remembered in i11ustrated histories of the VictorianEdwardian stage. The spirit of Tree's Shakespearean productions is not one most congenial to modern taste. We hear of real rabbits leaping about the wood near Athens in A Midsummer-Night's Dream; horses and Irish wolfhounds restively adorning scenes from Richard Il. The opening scene of The Tempest, which Tree produced in 1904, presented a tossing ship with such graphic accuracy that it induced feelings of seasickness among some spectators. When Tree played Hamlet, the fiights of angels which sing the Danish prince to his rest were translated into an actual, audible heavenly chorus? The two trips to Hollywood which he took during the last years of his life must have come as a real fulfilment . He starred in a movie of Macbeth, and paid tribute to the genius of D. W. Griffith, whom...