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ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841-1901) |
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THEATRE REVIEWS 20. The Blue Bells of Scotland (1887)
The Blue Bells of Scotland (adapted from Buchanan’s novel, A Child of Nature). (Harriett Jay played the role of Lady Ethel Gordon.)
The Penny Illustrated Paper (3 September, 1887 - p.2) The Novelty being one of the few London playhouses demanding a low and moderate rent, I fancy the little theatre in Great Queen-street should now pay—with good management. Anyway, the clever and versatile new Directress has my best wishes for her success. To begin with, the lady has in Mr. Howard Paul secured a most genial and experienced Manager. As for Mr. Robert Buchanan’s new play, I hear, on trustworthy authority, that “Miss Harriett Jay, in casting ‘The Blue Bells of Scotland,’ has been particular in filling the smallest parts with the greatest care, so that a perfect ensemble may be obtained. Three weeks of incessant rehearsal, under the practised eye of the author and Mr. Henry Neville, ought to enable the drama to work well at the première, on Sept. 7. In act i. the action occurs in the Highlands; in act ii. there is a bustling fair scene. A tableau representing Shaftesbury-avenue by night occurs in the third act; a jungle in Burmah is given in the fourth; and the last scene of the play will be a marvel of scenic art representing a village by the sea. Mr. Henry Neville plays a young Highlander, Graham Macdonald; and Miss Fortescue enacts his sister, Mina, a part presenting great possibilities for emotional acting.” ___
The Era (3 September, 1887 - Issue 2554) THE attention to realism in modern stage productions may be illustrated by an incident which took place the other day at the Novelty Theatre. Miss Harriett Jay having given instructions that the military costumes for The Blue Bells of Scotland were to be accurately realised down to the smallest detail, the costumiers summoned an expert, in the person of a stalwart sergeant of Highlanders, and submitted the dresses to his criticism.”All right,” was his opinion; “but,” he added, “where’s the water-bottle?” It appeared that every Highland soldier on active service carries on his person a flask of water for drinking, a fact which had been overlooked. The omission was at once supplied, and the military critic of the management expressed his complete approval. In The Blue Bells of Scotland, the singing and musical gifts of Miss Fortescue will be called into frequent requisition, and at the opening of Act 2, she will sing the beautiful old Scottish ballad, “Doon the Burn, Davie.” ___
The Stage (9 September, 1887 - p.12) The Blue Bells of Scotland, Robert Buchanan’s new drama, which was to have been produced at the Novelty Theatre on Wednesday last, stands postponed till Monday to give time for more perfect rehearsal. Whilst the theatre has been closed it has undergone an almost entire renovation, been re-painted and re-gilded, fresh carpeted, and the foyer smoking-room re-decorated. In the latter are hung a number of oil-paintings, which give it the appearance of a picture gallery. ___
The Times (13 September, 1887 - p.9) NOVELTY THEATRE. The elegant and handsomely-appointed theatre which was erected a few years ago in Great Queen-street without sufficient regard, it would seem, to the fact that that is no thoroughfare for the playgoing public, has been put to various uses. For some time past it has been placed at the disposal of amateurs. It has now, however, reverted to its original condition as a public theatre, being reopened by Miss Harriett Jay with a new drama by Mr. Robert Buchanan called The Blue Bells of Scotland. That success will attend this experiment is by no means certain, for on the fall of the curtain last night the attitude of the house was hardly such as to inspire a belief in the capacity of the new play to attract the public to an unfamiliar neighbourhood. Mr. Robert Buchanan has broken fresh ground in laying the hardships of the crofter or fishing population of the Highlands under contribution for dramatic purposes, but this subject is treated rather in an incidental fashion, his main theme being the old, old story of the betrayal of a simple country maiden by a smooth-tongued aristocrat, who assumes a lowly station the better to serve his wicked ends. Lord Arranmore, the villain of the play, is an absentee Highland landlord, who allows a hard-hearted “factor” or agent to oppress the simple-minded population owning his sway. Evictions are the order of the day, although the poor people find a warm sympathizer in the next-of-kin to the noble lord, the Highland chieftain Graham Macdonald. In these circumstances it occurs to Lord Arranmore, who is young and unmarried, but engaged to Lady Ethel Gordon, a young English lady, to visit his Highland estates in disguise as an English tourist, and the scheme brings him into relations with Mina Macdonald, Graham’s sister, whose beauty stirs his worst passions into activity. Mina Macdonald is in reality his cousin, but that circumstance does not deter Lord Arranmore from boldly abducting her in his yacht and carrying her off to a gilded cage in St. John’s-wood, after appeasing her homely scruples by a mock marriage. All this is set forth in the first and second acts, and the remainder of the play is devoted to a scheme of retribution in which Graham Macdonald and Lord Arranmore’s fiancée take part. In this somewhat conventional development of the story the author has been at pains to couple his characters with an event so recent as the campaign in Burmah. Lord Arranmore is colonel of a Highland regiment, and on deserting his victim in London, goes on active service in Burmah, whither he is followed by his avenging clansman in the capacity of a private soldier. The hostile meeting between the men occurs in a Burmah jungle, but at the moment of its threatening to have a fatal issue for the seducer, the natives attack the English detachment, and the enemies subordinate their personal quarrel to the defence of the English flag. When next the thread of the story is taken up in England we learn that Lord Arranmore has died penitent on the homeward passage, and that Macdonald has returned with the Victoria Cross and prestige enough as a soldier to secure him the hand and heart of Lady Ethel Gordon, after which the now Lord of Arranmore betakes himself to his Highland home with his English bride to console the sorrowing Mina and end the career of the tyrannical “factor.” ___
The Daily News (13 September, 1887 - Issue 12926) RE-OPENING OF THE NOVELTY THEATRE. The leading incident in Mr. Robert Buchanan’s new play, “The Blue Bells of Scotland,” with which Miss Harriett Jay commenced her management of the Novelty Theatre last night, is stated to be “founded on fact,” and no doubt a forcible abduction of a pretty Highland lassie by a wicked Scottish nobleman, though a little out of date in a tale of these orderly and settled times, is a thing within the bounds of conceivability. But unfortunately—excepting some admirable incidental touches of characters—this cardinal incident is set forth in a style that reminded the experienced spectator too strongly of an old and exploded class of melodrama. The fault was certainly not that of Miss Fortescue, who has never yet exhibited so much of force and sincerity and judicious self-restraint as she displayed last night in the part of Mina Macdonald; nor would it be fair to lay it heavily to the charge of Mr. William Lang, though this gentleman’s impersonation of Lord Arranmore did not indicate in any marked degree the qualities that might be supposed to fascinate the proud and beautiful Highland girl. The play, though new to the stage, is understood to be one of the author’s early productions, and it is probable that the incidental sketches of character, which go a considerable way towards redeeming its defects, are later grafts upon the original stock. Starting under the disadvantages we have referred to the performance though relieved by many bright scenes and passages never quite recovered from the first check. Moreover, as commonly happens on such occasions, not a few ill-starred lines and incongruous incidents provoked mirth of an untimely sort, and on the whole the new play obviously failed to take a firm hold upon the spectators’ sympathies. This is the more to be regretted as much expense has been bestowed upon the mise-en-scène. Interweaving with the story of this Highland Olivia (for Mina’s scruples are finally soothed by a sham marriage) a far-reaching scheme of vengeance on the part of a brother, as well as one or two other love stories, Mr. Buchanan hurries us on to various parts of the habitable globe in the elaborate fashion of a Drury Lane drama, though unfortunately without the amplitude of stage which realistic representations of the Piccadilly end of Shaftesbury-avenue and military outposts of a Highland regiment in Burmah demand. Not content with this, he garnishes the last of his five acts with sombre and stirring details of evictions of the Crofters in Skye with the aid of a gunboat and a detachment of Marines. Mr. Henry Neville plays in his accustomed dashing style the part of Graham Macdonald, the avenging brother who lives to forgive his dying enemy, succeed to his estates, and marry the lady, Ethel Gordon, who had been unwillingly betrothed in early life to the wicked Lord Arranmore; and Miss Harriett Jay, though she is unfortunately compelled by the text to exhibit a “coming on disposition” of a rather unmaidenly sort, enacts the part of Lady Ethel with much vivacity and humour. A fresher interest, however, attaches to the more simple and truthful incidental sketches of a sprightly Highland peasant girl, admirably played by Miss Marie Stuart, and an Irish soldier enlisted in a Highland regiment, a part enacted by Mr. Eardley Turner with abundant humour and freshness. Mr. Buchanan on the fall of the curtain received the honour of a call, but was not, as it proved, destined to enjoy a wholly flattering reception. ___
The Echo (13 September, 1887 - p.1) NOVELTY THEATRE. Last night at the Novelty Theatre, after having been postponed from Wednesday last, in order, as Miss Harriet Jay informed the Press and the public, to secure a complete ensemble, was produced a new comedy-drama by Robert Buchanan, entitled, The Blue Bells of Scotland. Although the new piece cannot be said to be a complete success, or to have met with an unanimously favourable reception, the whole was undoubtedly well mounted, the principal parts were acted with spirit and made the most of by their several impersonators. A somewhat complicated tale, about a certain Lord Arranmore, who possessed large estates in Scotland, which had been brought into the family illegally by his forefathers, is the basis of the play. The lands really belong to a young Highlander (Graham Macdonald), who, however, appears to be unable to regain them unless Lord Arranmore should die while he was yet young and unmarried. The young lord himself knows not but what the lands are legally his own. At the opening of the story he is supposed to be abroad, serving in his capacity of captain of a Highland regiment, but hearing that his tenants were in trouble, and were being evicted from their homesteads by his steward Peter Dalston, and not having yet even been to Scotland, he obtains leave of absence, and comes to the “village by the sea” under the assumed name of Mr. Lawrence, in order to discover for himself whether the tales told about his steward were true. While in the Highlands his life is saved in a storm by Mina Macdonald, sister of Graham, and Arranmore, not knowing who she is, falls in love with her, and when he finds that she will not marry him without her brother’s consent, he takes the matter into his own hands, and runs off with her, and induces her to believe that they are married, whereas the man who conducted the ceremony was a sham. Graham, when he finds who it really is who has robbed him of his sister, follows them to London, and there comes across Mina in the arms of Peter Dalston, who also had often proffered his love to her, in Shaftesbury-avenue, just before the Pavilion. While in London, Mina had been shown her real position by another affianced lover, a Lady Ethel, and Lord Arranmore, after having been obliged to reveal his identity, and state that his marriage was illegal, bolts to Burmah to join his regiment, leaving her in the charge of Peter Dalston. She escapes, however, and comes across Graham, as before mentioned, in Shaftesbury-avenue. Graham, thirsting for blood, enlists in Lord Arranmore’s own regiment, and goes to Burmah, and after a fight with the Dacoits, in which the English get defeated, meets his enemy, with another officer, in the jungle alone; and the duel which follows is brought to an abrupt conclusion by their being surrounded by Dacoits, whom they hold at bay till they are rescued, Lord Arranmore receiving a fatal wound, leaving Macdonald master of his estates. Mr. Henry Neville played the part of Graham Macdonald exceedingly well, while that of Lord Arranmore was ably taken by Mr. Arthur Elwood. Mr. G. Canninge was good as Peter Dalston; and Mr. Scott Buist, as the Hon. Sam Gowan, with Mr Turner, as Sergeant Milligan, helped to enliven the story. Miss Fortescue won applause by her rendering of Mina Macdonald, and Miss Harriet Jay was fairly successful as Lady Ethel Gordon. Other members of the cast were:—Messrs. Hilton, Calhaem, Green, Land, Misses Marie Stuart, and Wingfield. The Blue Bells of Scotland will hardly have a long run. ___
The Stage (16 September, 1887 - p.16) NOVELTY On Monday, September 12, 1887, was produced here a new and original comedy-drama, in five acts, by Robert Buchanan, entitled:— The Blue Bells of Scotland. Graham Macdonald ... ... ... Mr. Henry Neville Miss Harriet Jay commenced her management of the above theatre with a play which the author informs the public is indebted for some of its characters and situations to a prose romance of his, “A Child of Nature,” and he also quotes recent history as to the incident of the Royal Marines refusing to assist the civil power in the eviction of the crofters of Skye. The plot runs thus:—Lord Arranmore has long been an absentee landlord from his Scotch estates, but, visiting them in his yacht, the vessel is likely to be lost, when Mina Macdonald puts off in her boat, and pilots it to safe anchorage. She is sister to Graham, a cousin of the present owner of the lands, of which he is supposed to have been dispossessed by fraud. Struck by Mina’s beauty Lord Arranmore determines to possess her and gains her affections, but as she refuses to leave her home with him, he carries her off by force with the aid of Peter Dalston, his rascally grinding factor, who has also wished to marry her. In London we find Mina under the impression that she is a lawful wife, but Lady Ethel Gordon, who has been engaged to Lord Arranmore, undeceives her. Arranmore’s regiment is ordered on active service, and he leaves Mina distraught at the villainy that has been practised on her, when Dalston, to whose care she has been confided, appears on the scene and urges his detested suit upon her, even in the face of all that has happened. Mina escapes from the house and is rescued whilst wandering in London, by her brother, who has left the “Isles” in search of her, and who longs to avenge her wrongs. Finding that Lord Arranmore has sailed for Burmah, Graham, to follow him, enlists in his regiment, the 72nd Highlanders, and there they meet after an engagement in which the British troops have been beaten back by the Dacoits. Separated from the rest of the soldiers, Graham forces his officer to combat by striking him, and has just succeeded in disarming him, and holds him at his mercy, when some of the enemy approach. Graham forgets his private wrongs in a nobler sense of duty, and back to back he and his late foe defend themselves and are rescued by a detachment, but not before Lord Arranmore has been mortally wounded. On the voyage home on his death bed he admits that he was legally married to Mina, and Graham Macdonald returns to England. Having gained the Victoria Cross and otherwise greatly distinguished himself he calls to thank Lady Ethel for her kindness to his sister. From the time of Lady Ethel’s visit to his island home he has always loved her and even asked her to become his wife should he win a position in the world, and she on her part has fallen in love with him, but her engagement prevented her owning it. Now however, as he from diffidence makes no sign, she claims the privilege of Leap Year and proposes to him—(in a little scene that was charmingly acted by Miss Jay). A fresh surprise is in store; for Graham returning to the “Isles,” finds that Dalston is evicting the crofters and having them shipped off to America, among them Mina and her fosterfather, Koll Nicolson. Here it is that, having called in the aid of the marines to support the civil powers, the gallant fellows refuse to aid him in his tyranny, and his evil doings are put a stop to by the announcement that in consequence of Lord Arranmore’s death, Graham Macdonald being the next heir, all the property comes to him, and the curtain falls on the promise of future happiness for all, amidst the “Blue Bells of Scotland.” The play, which is supposed to be one of Mr. Buchanan’s earlier works, still bears evidence of youthful defects, which are not altogether compensated by the stirring incidents that are introduced, the improbabilities of some of which mar their introduction; and there is also much “fustian stuff” that could well be dispensed with, though as a whole it would in all likelihood prove thoroughly acceptable to provincial and suburban audiences. Mr. Henry Neville has lost none of his old fire, and made a gallant hero of Graham Macdonald. Miss Harriett Jay acted naturally and gracefully as Lady Ethel Gordon. Miss Fortescue looked winsome, but struck us as being cold and artificial. Mr. Arthur Elwood gave a fair picture of the libertine, yet half repentant, Lord Arranmore; and Mr. G. Canninge was sufficiently powerful as the hard-hearted Scotch factor. Miss Marie Stuart made the hit of the evening by her brightness and vivacity as a Scotch lassie, Jessie Macfarlan, and was frequently applauded. Mr. Scott Buist was very successful as the Hon. Sam Gordon, a rollicking, fun-loving young fellow with rather vulgar tastes, and Mr. Eardley Turner gave a very humorous sketch of an Irish-Highland sergeant. Mr. T. Calhaem and Mr. Hilton also lent efficient aid. The actors certainly did their best, and the scenery was all that could be desired, the village by the sea (Calcott), Shaftesbury Avenue by night (Yarnold), and the Jungle, Burmah (W. Perkins), all being artistic triumphs, but their beauty and the fair scene, the crowds and the skirmish, well managed as they were, were cramped by want of space, and did not give a fair chance to a class of play that certainly required a larger stage. ___
The Penny Illustrated Paper (17 September, 1887 - p.186) There was at the commencement every promise that Mr. Robert Buchanan’s new Highland drama, “The Blue Bells of Scotland,” would be the very play that was needed to reopen the Novelty with success on Monday night. There was a welcome freshness about the Highland village by the sea, where Miss Fortescue, as a wilful and pretty Highland lassie, first pilots the yacht of Lord Arranmore in safety to shore, and then excites in his breast such passionate admiration for her beauty that he boldly abducts her, and goes through a Langworthy marriage with her. Public sympathy was with the poetical dramatist against the ignoble factor who evicted the Crofters, and sought the hand of fair Mina Macdonald. But the play stumbled on transpontine lines when Lord Arranmore casts Mina adrift in a St. John’s Wood villa, and when all the principal characters last seen at the Highland villa chance by a remarkable series of coincidences to meet near the Pavilion Music-Hall. There Mina’s revengeful brother rescues his despairing sister from the grasp of the factor. Thence Graham Macdonald follows Lord Arranmore to Burmah as a private soldier; and is about to dispatch his Lordship in a duel when he is driven to use his sword against the enemy. Next-of-kin to Lord Arranmore, Graham Macdonald succeeds to the title; returns home with the V.C. to wed Lady Ethel Gordon (Miss Harriet Jay), and to arrest the wholesale evictions being carried out by Peter Dalston, the scheming factor (Mr. G. Canninge). Miss Fortescue was very charming in the Highland scenes as Mina Macdonald. Miss Harriett Jay acted in a charming light comedy vein as Lady Ethel Gordon. Brightest and most winsome lassie of all was Miss Marie Stuart (a decided acquisition to the London stage) as bonnie Jessie Macfarlane. Mr. Henry Neville was duly dignified and manly as Graham Macdonald; Mr. S. Calhaem’s Angus-of-the-Dogs was capital; and so was Mr. Hilton’s realistic old Highland fisherman, Koll Nicolson. Fresh and jolly was Mr. Scott Buist as the Hon. Sam Gordon. And Mr. Eardley Turner’s Sergeant Mulligan, the Irish Highlander, was an amusingly natural bit of humorous characterisation. With a revision of the London scenes, “The Blue Bells of Scotland” should yet do well. Mr. Howard Paul has made the house very comfortable in front, but should see to the further stall exit, which is rather circuitous. ___
The Era (17 September, 1887 - Issue 2556) THE NOVELTY. Graham Macdonald ... ... ... Mr HENRY NEVILLE The Novelty Theatre has been lately the home of amateurs, and has almost entirely lost its prestige as a regular place of amusement; and a piece produced there runs the risk of meeting with but scant justice from critics and public. It was certainly not the influence of the genius of the place which made us think Mr Robt. Buchanan’s comedy-drama The Blue Bells of Scotland, which was first played at the Novelty on Monday night last, one of the most earnest, wholesome, and interesting dramas which have been produced in London for some time past. That it espouses the cause of the Highland crofters, and attacks incidentally the greed of the “factor” and the indifference of the absentee landlord, will be no objection to it in the eyes of humane individuals; and that its scenes are for the most part laid in the little-known locality of the Scottish Highlands gives freshness to the stage-pictures we are shown and to the personages to whom we are introduced. Chief of these are Mina Macdonald, sister to Graham Macdonald, a young Scotchman whose family have been dispossessed of the estate of Corryveolan by some legal fraud or quibble which is not explained, and who is almost as poor as the peasantry of the little Scotch fishing village where the action commences. Graham has fallen in love with Lady Ethel Gordon, the daughter of the Earl of Sedley, but, on proposing to her, discovers that she is already engaged to the Earl of Arranmore, the absentee proprietor of the estate on which Graham is living, and the employer of Peter Dalston, a villainous agent who grinds the faces of the poor tenants, rack-rents the property, and pays his loathed attentions to Mina Macdonald. A yacht is seen in difficulties off the shore on which the village stands, and Mina, who is rowing in the bay, and knows its dangers, pilots the little vessel safely to shore, thus saving the life and assisting the arrival of Lord Arranmore, who visits Corryveolan incognito as “Mr Lawrence,” and falls in love with Mina, if the sacred name of love can be given to his libertine passion. Lady Ethel recognises her betrothed, but promises to keep the secret of his identity, and Lord Arranmore, failing to persuade Mina to elope with him, gets her by force on board his yacht, and carries her off to London after going through a sham marriage with her in Scotland. To the villa in Regent’s-park, where the deluded Mina is placed by his lordship, comes Lady Ethel, who soon disabuses the poor girl of her mistake as to the legal connection between herself and Lord Arranmore, who, being about to start for Burmah with his regiment, is not sorry to get rid of his “encumbrance.” With jackal-like servility, Dalston, who has come to London to warn Lord Arranmore that Graham Macdonald is on his track, offers to “make an honest woman” of Mina; but his proposal is rejected both by his master and by the girl herself, to whom he makes it after Lord Arranmore’s departure. Dalston is mean enough to resort to force; but Mina escapes out of his hands and betakes herself from Regent’s Park to Shaftesbury-avenue, where she is about to be “run in” by a member of the police force, when she faints. Dalston, turning up, takes charge of her, and is on the point of carrying her off in a cab when Graham Macdonald arrives and knocks him down. In the next act we are in Burmah, whither, as a private in the ranks, Graham Macdonald has followed Lord Arranmore. The British are repulsed by the Burmese, and Graham confronts Arranmore in the jungle, strikes him, and forces him to fight. Just as the young Scotchman beats down the seducer’s guard, the enemy approaches, and Graham, relinquishing for the present his revenge, joins with his adversary in repulsing the attacking force. In the last act Macdonald comes home with the Victoria Cross and the acknowledgment by Lord Arranmore, who has since died of his wounds, of Mina as his lawful wife, to hear the welcome news that he (Graham) has come into the inheritance of his forefathers; and Lady Ethel, taking advantage of Leap Year, proposes to her former suitor, and is accepted. ___
Reynolds’s Newspaper (18 September, 1887 - Issue 1936) NOVELTY THEATRE. Let the author’s note, which appears upon the playbill of “The Blue Bells of Scotland”—the new comedy-drama with which Miss Harriett Jay commenced her management of this house on Monday night—tell its own story, or rather as much of the old hackneyed story on which its incidents are loosely strung together, as is worth the telling. It says, “Some of the characters and situations in ‘The Blue Bells of Scotland’ have been already utilized in the author’s prose romance, ‘A Child of Nature.’ The leading incident of the earlier acts, that of the abduction of a Highland girl by an English nobleman yachting in the North, is founded, to a certain extent, on facts. So far as the play may seem to have a political bearing, it is written in the interest of no party, for Liberals and Conservatives alike are agreed in execrating many of the Highland evictions; perhaps the strongest protests on the subject having been uttered by staunch Tories like Professor Blackie. The ruthless depopulation of the Highlands is a theme which appeals to humanity in general, apart altogether from political bias.” If, like other mistaken dramatists who have gone before him, Mr. Buchanan’s intention was to point a moral rather than adorn a tale, long before his play was over he must have discovered that his audience cared not a jot for what he put before them if it failed to amuse, and his high-flown periods—his penny plain and two-penny coloured delineation of character—moved only to laughter and ridicule. On the other hand, so long as the author kept within the limits of comedy, all went well, for his dialogue was bright, amusing, and natural, and was fortunate in its delivery by those to whom it was chiefly entrusted—to wit, Miss Marie Stuart, a bonnie Scotch lassie, with a pretty musical voice, who we believe to be a novice on the London boards; Mr. Scott Buist, a young and clever actor; and Mr. Eardley Turner, whose sergeant in a Highland regiment was as good in its way as was his Touchstone, of which we made favourable mention in our record of last Saturday’s theatricals. As the hero of the story, Mr. Henry Neville, who, in spite of Old Time, remains at the head of our romantic jeunes premiers, raised the part of Graham Macdonald, the brother of the abducted Mina, from the depths of that bathos into which Mr. Buchanan’s ponderous phraseology now and again threatened to smother it, making it a human and interesting impersonation. His best bit of work was given in a scene representing a jungle in Burmah, where, after challenging Lord Arranmore, his sister’s abductor, to mortal combat, he defends him from the attacks of dacoits, a repeat of an incident in the Drury Lane drama, “Human Nature.” Mr. Neville’s natural representation of chivalrous courtesy was also of good service in his love-making scene of the last act, wherein the object of his affections rewards all his gallant and virtuous deeds of the four preceding ones with the gift of her hand. The role—viz., that of Lady Ethel Gordon—was pleasantly and unobtrusively represented by Miss Harriett Jay, who, in Act 2, was upholstered in a wadded scarlet petticoat, and draped in the skin of some white-coated animal, for all the world like an item in an expensive drawing-room suite. Like Mr. Neville’s, one of her best scenes was that of the love-making in Act 5. Miss Fortescue, acting as the heroine, Mina, was not remarkable, but her singing, à la Marguerite, at her spinning-wheel, decidedly was, and here the “Blue Bells” became decidedly “Jangled, out of tune, and harsh.” There may be differences of opinion as to the lady’s beauty and as to her acting talent. Anent her vocalism, none. Mr. George Canninge, handicapped with the most absurd lines of the play, nevertheless contrived to make a good character part of relentless crofter hater, persistent love-maker of the heroine, and steward and toady to the reigning Lord of Arranmore. As the seducer of female beauty and aristocratic cad of the play, Mr. Arthur Elwood cannot be complimented; but other parts were effectively filled, and two young ladies, Miss Nelly Mordecai and Miss Rosie Hall, won a deserved encore for their “Highland sword dance.” A gentleman who, as Mrs. Brown would say, “seemed to play entire by his ears,” obliged with the bagpipes, and the scenery was far more ambitious than the Novelty Theatre has before attempted, representing amongst its scenes a village by the sea, a fair in the Scottish Highlands, the Shaftesbury-avenue, with a view of the illuminated Pavilion Music Hall—which, by the way, Mr. Buchanan tells us is but five minutes’ walk from the Regent’s-park—and a military outpost in Burmah. Both the sun and the moon, however, which figure in these scenes, like the play itself, want cutting. At the close of the performance, a large portion of the audience indulged in the sport of author-baiting. Miss Jay has redecorated and made the Novelty a very pretty and comfortable house; but we are afraid that Mr. Buchanan’s new comedy-drama is scarcely likely to prove more attractive than the majority of ventures hitherto tried at this ill-starred house. As for the comedy-drama’s title, it might as appropriately have been styled “The Bells of Corneville,” “The Bells of Haslemere,” or “The Bells that go Ringing for Sarah.” ___
The Stage (30 September, 1887 - p.13) Mr. Robert Buchanan, in addition to his many gifts, has apparently acquired that of divination. He has discovered that the critics who did not like his earnest play, The Blue Bells of Scotland, “pooh-poohed” it with an effort because of political bias. So he has hired some Scotch crofters to act as supers, and has secured a syndicate to stump the play on political grounds. Most sensible people think that the less the stage has to do with politics the better. Perhaps the syndicate will discover this, also, in due time, and the critics may be left to themselves until they next meet Robert Buchanan at the Haymarket, when they will be invited by the management to pooh-pooh the new play, Partners, or to praise it. I trust the latter! ___
The Theatre (1 October, 1887) “THE BLUE BELLS OF SCOTLAND.” A new and original Comedy-Drama, in Five Acts, by ROBERT BUCHANAN. |
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With fresh upholstery and regilding, the handsome foyer adorned by some good pictures, and a new act-drop by Mr. A. Calcott, Miss Harriett Jay, the manageress of the pretty little theatre in Great Queen Street, has many of the surroundings that should lead to success. But it is very questionable whether on such a small stage as she has at her command it was wise to produce such an elaborate play as the one under notice, and also whether it is fitted for a house which, from its size, appears to be the home for light comedietta and vaudeville. “The Blue Bells of Scotland” is a melodrama of the old pattern, containing incidents and situations which lend themselves to display on a large scale, and which do not bear cramping. Hence, in a great measure, it was not so acceptable as under other circumstances it might have been. Besides this, the wrongs of the crofters and their sufferings appear overdrawn—some of the dialogue is bombastic, and is evidently what was written by Mr. Buchanan when he was a young man. Much of the plot, the author owns, is taken from his prose romance, “A Child of Nature,” and follows the fortunes of Mina Macdonald, a lovely girl of good but decayed family, who lives with her foster-father, Koll Nicolson, in the Scottish Highlands. Her brother, Graham, is the next heir to the Arranmore estates, now held by an absentee landlord, who deputes his power to a griping factor, Peter Dalston. Lord Arranmore at length comes North for the shooting, sees Mina, who falls in love with him; but as she will not leave her home he carries her off by force to London. On the journey he goes through the ceremony of what he fancies is a mock marriage, and, under this idea, he tells her she is no wife when they have lived together some time, and, being ordered on foreign service, leaves her to the tender mercies of Dalston. To escape his odious proposals, for he is also madly in love with her, Mina rushes from the house, and is found straying, homeless, in Piccadilly at night by her brother, who is in search of her and her betrayer. In pursuit of the latter, Graham follows him to Burmah, having enlisted in his regiment. There, regardless of discipline, he forces his officer to fight with him, but as they are attacked by the enemy, he forgets his sister’s wrongs, and back to back they defend themselves from their assailants. Lord Arranmore dies of his wounds, but not before he has admitted that Mina is really his wife, and Graham Macdonald returns home with a V.C., and to find himself in possession of the Arranmore estates, at which he arrives in time to stay the evictions that are being ruthlessly enforced by Peter Dalston; and engaged to Lady Ethel Gordon, who, it being Leap Year, has proposed to him, fearing that as she has once refused him he will not renew his suit. CECIL HOWARD. |
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[Notice from The Times (8 October, 1887 - p.8)]
The Daily News (10 October, 1887 - Issue 12949) From a remarkable official announcement it would appear that the destinies of the new play entitled “The Blue Bells of Scotland” are in the hands of a “syndicate formed by Highland gentlemen and members of Parliament,” and that in accordance with a wish expressed by these irresistible persons, “that popular drama” is temporarily withdrawn previous to its reproduction in a larger theatre. Withdrawals equally premature of dramas equally popular are not wholly unknown to the annals of the stage; but this is, if we mistake not, the first time that such reasons as these have been officially given. The immediate result has been the rather sudden closing of the Novelty Theatre. ___
The Era (15 October, 1887 - Issue 2560) WITHIN a few hours after the falling of the curtain Miss Harriett Jay and Mr Buchanan received half a dozen distinct offers for the country rights of Fascination, and accepted the most favourable, that made by Messrs Miller and Elliston. Miss Jay will play in the comedy during its London run, and afterwards tour with it in the chief provincial towns, previous to which, however, she will appear at the Grand Theatre, Islington, with Mr Henry Neville, in The Blue Bells of Scotland. ___
The Stage (28 October, 1887 - p.13) The company playing The Blue Bells of Scotland at the Grand this week are substantially the same as when the play was produced at the Novelty last month, with the exception that Miss Marie Stuart is now replaced in the part of Jessie Macfarlan by Miss Minnie Bell, who plays the sprightly Scotch lassie with brightness and animation. ___
The Era (29 October, 1887 - Issue 2562) MR. W. H. PENNINGTON’S MATINEE. It was quite in accordance with the eternal fitness of things that Mr Pennington, an able actor, and one of the surviving heroes of the famous Balaclava Charge, should have a complimentary benefit on Tuesday, the anniversary of the said charge; but it was quite out of accord with any fitness at all that the public announcement should have given two o’clock as the time of commencement, while the programmes put it at a quarter past that hour. Time nowadays is precious, and he who is led by misrepresentation into wasting fifteen minutes has some reason to grumble. The theatre had been kindly lent for the occasion by Mr J. F. Sheridan, and there was a fair attendance. After an overture by the orchestra, directed by Herr Meyer Lutz, there was presented the Burmah Act from Mr Robert Buchanan’s drama The Blue Bells of Scotland. Mr Henry Neville most distinguished himself as Graham Macdonald, the determined brother, who in the jungle gets the opportunity he has so longed for, and makes such poor use of it when he comes face to face with the man who has so cruelly wronged his sister. Mr Neville’s supporters were Mr Scott Buist as the Hon. Sam Gordon, Mr Eardley Turner as Sergeant Milligan, and Mr A. Elwood as Lord Arranmore. Mr James Fernandez subsequently gave his admirable and now familiar recital of “The Pride of Battery B,” and was followed by Miss Millward, who displayed unlooked-for power, and fairly electrified the house by a magnificent rendering of “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” We do only bare justice to the clever young actress when we say that we have never heard the Poet Laureate’s world-famous lines given more effectively. Mr Leo Stormont’s fine voice was heard to much advantage in Pinsuti’s song “Queen of the Earth.” “The Pennington March,” specially composed for the occasion by Mr H. Duggan, having been played, there was performed Shakespeare’s diverting comedy “TAMING OF THE SHREW.” ... In the concluding part of the programme Mr Hayden Coffin sang “Queen of my Heart,” and was encored. Mr Charles Collette provoked laughter with some jaw-graphical patter; Miss Harriett Jay gave with much feeling, but hardly sufficient force, Mr Robert Buchanan’s touching poem called “Nell;” Miss Letty Lind won enthusiastic applause for her clever rendering of the well-known “polyglot Love” song and of “En Revenant de la Revue;” and Mr E. J. Lonnen obliged with his funny interpretation of Mr Robert Martin’s funny song from Miss Esmeralda, “Killaloe.” Miss Marion Hood, Mr J. L. Shine, and the Two Macs were announced, but did not appear. _____
Next: Partners (1888)
Back to the Bibliography or the Plays or Harriett Jay Theatre Reviews
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