THEATRE REVIEWS

33. The English Rose (1890) - continued

The Graphic (9 August, 1890 - Issue 1080)

     THE new romantic drama by Mr. George R. Sims and Mr. Robert Buchanan with which the ADELPHI has re-opened its doors, in defiance of the unfavourable influences of the seaside holiday season, is of the true Adelphi pattern. It is an Irish play with a story of the present time, wherein all those types of character which an Irish piece cannot safely dispense with are duly introduced and skilfully coloured to suit the tastes of the frequenters of that recognised home of robust melodrama. Need we say that The English Rose unfolds a tale of unjust accusation directed against a manly and high-minded hero, partly by the force of an extraordinary concurrence of fortuitous circumstances and partly through the wickedness of the villain of the piece. Need we add that the hero, Harry O’Mailley, represented by Mr. Leonard Boyne, is a dare-devil in the saddle, and a very prodigy of athleticism; that the heroine, played by Miss Olga Brandon, who was unfortunately suffering on Saturday from an infection of the throat, is a very model of tenderness and devotion; that the landlord’s agent, impersonated by Mr. Abingdon, is an unscrupulous ruffian; that Mr. Thalberg, as the priest, is full of charity and chivalrous sentiment; or that Miss Mary Rorke, as a much-tried and troubled maiden, appeals strongly to the feelings of those who can sympathise with beauty in distress. All the Adelphi company in fact find employment in the new piece, not forgetting Mr. Lionel Rignold, Mr. Shine, and Miss Clara Jecks as the comic personages, or Mr. Beveridge, Mr. Bassett Roe, Mr. Dalton, or that promising new recruit, Miss Essex Dane, in what are known as character parts. The steeplechase scene, wherein Mr. Boyne, mounted, as a cynical observer has said, upon “one of those cab horses who always win races on the stage,” performs many feats of what may be described as judicious equitation, gave manifest satisfaction to the first-night audience; though the scene was less startlingly picturesque than the moonlight murder of the unjust landlord, or the rescue of the gallant O’Mailley in the Court-house. The latter incident, it must be admitted, put no slight strain on the faith of the spectators, but nobody appeared to object to it on that account. The English Rose cannot be said to present any great originality, though there is an element of freshness in some of its scenes and character sketches; but it has on the other hand an abundance of the tried and approved conditions of popularity, and no doubt it will hold the Adelphi bill for many a month to come.

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Western Mail (Cardiff) (15 August, 1890 - Issue 6628)

EXCITING INCIDENT AT THE
ADELPHI THEATRE.
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     Leonard Boyne had a narrow squeak of his life at the Adelphi the other night. One of the most exciting incidents of “The English Rose” is a dashing piece of horsemanship, of which Mr. Boyne shares the credit with a fine specimen of the thoroughbred called “Tearaway.” The actor mounts the horse on the stage, has an exciting struggle on horseback with the villain, and then dashes off at full gallop into the wings on the way to the Devil’s Bridge, where there is murder doing. A very fair horseman, Mr. Boyne takes delight in showing off the mettle of his steed. On this night he used the snaffle with such effect as to make the horse rear, and then back up the stage on its hind legs. Unfortunately, a low raised platform was in the way, and the horse coming against this fell backwards over it. It seemed a certainty almost that the horse had fallen over on to his rider. If he had Mr. Boyne would not have been seen at the Adelphi for some time to come. But partly through luck and partly through expertness Mr. Boyne managed to fall just where the platform kept him clear of the horse. He was up again in a moment safe and sound, leaped again into the saddle, and after tearing round the stage went off as if he were riding for his life. Never was such a scene of excitement and enthusiasm. The other actors at the Adelphi look on in fear and wonder at Leonard Boyne’s daredevil horsemanship.

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The Penny Illustrated Paper (23 August, 1890 - p.114)

FACTS AND FACES.
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Mr. G. R. Sims,

the popular dramatist, is again to the fore, but he has changed his locality from sylvan England scenes and London streets to the Green Isle (in the company of Mr. Robert Buchanan). But we know what to expect from this genial, hearty writer, whether we meet him in St. Giles’s or Jerusalem. What we like in Mr. G. R. Sims is his manliness and freedom from cant. His pen is a keen lance that has pricked many a bubble reputation and exposed many a sham. But he is a poet as well as a satirist, and that teaches him to elevate the better side of life in Modern Babylon, and none can doubt his genuine sympathy for the poor. The mantle of Dickens has fallen upon “Dagonet”: but the hurried processes of journalism prevent his working out his dramatic and humorous ideas in the form of elaborate novels. It may almost be taken for granted, also, that the day for illustrations of actual life, in three-volume, circulating-library form, had gone by. The man who can sum up a theory in a sentence—who can demolish a fallacy in an  epigram—who can give the spirit of a noble deed in a couplet—is the man of the time. And that man is Mr. G. R. Sims. Some may say of his dramas that they have not the French constructive faculty. They could not have, according to his method of working out his scenes. French wit serves the “tough-and-go” art of the Parisian dramatist; but English humour is slower, requires more elaboration, and, moreover, appeals to playgoers who take their time to think about a character or a scene. Hence it is that so many dramas on our stage go infinitely better after a few days’ performance—those of Mr. George R. Sims among them. It is my impression that the drama which will raise Mr. Sims’s reputation to its greatest height on the stage is yet to come. But already he has done work of admirable quality; and, while he comprehends low life in London as well as Zola does that of Paris, there is never a hint of the unclean in the atmosphere surrounding Mr. G. R. Sims’s work for the stage or elsewhere. “The English Rose” he has combined with Mr. Robert Buchanan to produce smells sweet and fresh as the typical English flower should do, and will to a certainty bloom for many and many a month to come at the Adelphi. Mr. Sims is now busily engaged with Mr. Henry Pettitt in finishing the new “Carmen” burlesque for the Gaiety, and has run down to Scarborough to confer with the genial musical director, Herr Meyer Lütz, who provides the melodies for the coming Gaiety travestie.

Mr. Robert Buchanan.

     Mr. Robert Buchanan, who has worked so well with Mr. G. R. Sims in the new Adelphi drama, is one of the most industrious and versatile of modern authors; and one thing gives a distinction to his work which cannot be found in the productions of many writers for the stage—he is a poet. Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Buchanan when he used to visit the late George Henry Lewes, at The Priory, North Bank. Mr. Buchanan had written a volume of charming poems—“Undertones,” it was called. They were real poems, and often since he has written beautiful poems and capital novels. At first he had singular ill-luck on the stage—not because the work was bad, but it was not of the conventional stereotyped kind. Mr. Buchanan has “the courage of his opinions,” and very bold opinions they sometimes are. He has been attacked with the utmost vehemence, and sometimes with gross unfairness; but he is not the man to be knocked over by hard words. Few men are better capable of defending themselves; and gradually, thanks to the quantity and quality of the work he has done, Mr. Buchanan has become a popular and successful dramatic author. Many of his pieces are very good indeed, and when he adapts or translates it is the work of a literary artist and not a mere hack. When he gave a dramatic version of Ohnet’s “Iron Master,” I thought it one of the best pieces of the kind I had seen. Very clever also are his arrangements of old comedies. He has made Vanbrugh’s coarse comedy “The Relapse” an amusing and interesting piece as “Miss Tomboy,” and he has succeeded, where many have failed, with the novels of Fielding. There is a great deal of humanity in the writings of Mr. Buchanan, and when he has a chance he can write delightful poetry—as, for example, “The Bride of Love.” But the gods have not made us poetical in these days, and Mr. Buchanan finds it more profitable to deal with the prose of modern life; but he frequently does so in a poetical spirit, and some capital lines in “The English Rose” are from his pen.

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The Theatre (1 September, 1890)

“THE ENGLISH ROSE.”

New original drama, in four acts, by GEO. R. SIMS and ROBERT BUCHANAN.
First produced at the Adelphi Theatre, Saturday, August 2, 1890.

     There is a picturesque aspect of Irish life that lends itself readily to the production of an interesting play, and though the work by Messrs. Sims and Buchanan bears an English title, the scene and all the incidents are Irish. We have threats of eviction, an Irish steeplechase, an assassination by moonlighters, and a rescue of a prisoner by an Irish mob from the Irish constabulary. Add to these, the hated English landlord and his agent, a real Irish jaunting car, and the typical “gossoon,” so that we have a fair picture of Irish life as known to readers of Lever’s works. The collaborators have made use of all these to weave around a persecuted hero, and of a murder, without which an Adelphi drama would be incomplete, have thrown in a song or two for their comic characters, and have given us far brighter dialogue than we have hitherto had in this class of play. All this combined has resulted in a most successful whole. The enthusiasm was very great on the first night, and crowded houses since then have proved that the applause was genuine. Sir Philip Kingston, an Englishman, has foreclosed on the Knight of Ballyveeney’s estates. Though but a poor gentleman, his son Harry has found favour in the eyes of Ethel Kingston, but her uncle forbids her to see him. Heroines, however, are not so submissive, and her meeting with her lover brings on him a blow from Sir Philip, which Harry for her sake does not return, but uses some threatening words. These are quoted against him as showing a motive for the murder of Sir Philip, who is shot down as he is driving home, and of which murder Harry is accused. The real assassin is one O’Mara, a moonlighter, who, fearing eviction, commits the deed at the instigation of’the agent, Captain Macdonell, who is anxious that Sir Philip should’be disposed of before his (the agent’s) accounts are gone into. O’Mara confesses his crime to Father Michael O’Mailley, whose lips are sealed by his priestly office, and he the while knowing the real culprit, dares not speak and so clear his own brother Harry. The hero is found guilty, mostly on the evidence of Ethel, who at first looked upon him as the murderer, but now convinced of his innocence, establishes it by collateral evidence, confirmed by the tardy death-bed confession of O’Mara. In unfolding the story, there are some exciting scenes and some strong situations. The steeplechase, in which Harry defeats his rival Macdonell, followed by Harry’s furious ride in his endeavour to save Sir Philip’s life, the murder at the Devil’s Bridge, the rescue of Harry by the mob after his conviction, and the search for him by the soldiers when he has taken refuge in his brother’s chapel, are all worked up with great spirit. The acting is excellent. Mr. Leonard Boyne is a gallant fellow, a bold rider, and artistic in expressing his affection and his agony when accused. Miss Olga Brandon, though still weak and hoarse, became a favourite at once by her truth to nature. Mr. Lionel Rignold has a part that just suits him, and in which he is very droll as a particularly sharp but thoroughly dishonest horsey individual. Mr. Shine, as a merry, good-hearted sergeant of police, makes love to Miss Clara Jecks, a London lady’s maid, who finds herself much out of her element in the wilds of the Emerald Isle. Miss Kate James is the liveliest of “gossoons,” and sings a pretty song. Mr. Abingdon is a thorough-faced villain, and is most properly handcuffed at last. Mr. Bassett Roe fitly represents a well-meaning but irascible English gentleman; and Mr. J. D. Beveridge is cheery and warm-hearted as the good old Knight of Ballyveeney. Mr. Charles Dalton displays great power as the half-mad O’Mara; and Miss Mary Rorke is tender and sweet as the true-hearted Bridget O’Mara, a victim to unrequited love. The scenery is beautifully painted, and the stage management of the very best.

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The Boston Daily Globe (2 September, 1890 - p.10)

“THE ENGLISH ROSE,”
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.....

     Opening night at the Boston Museum has an interest all its own. Whatever the play may be, the house is sure to be filled, and filled by an audience of exceptionally noteworthy character. Yesterday marked the opening of the 50th dramatic season at this historic theatre—a season of much promise, and one that should give abundant illustration of the worth and scope of one of the very few stock companies on the American stage.
     There were pleasant welcomes to favorites. Round after round of applause marked the appearance of Charles Barron, again associated with the house whore he has gained so many honors. For Miss Sheridan and Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Mason (greeted with especial cordiality on his return after a long illness), with Miss O’Leary, Mr. Boniface, Mr. Davenport and others there were warm receptions. Miss Agnes Acres and Forrest Robinson, the new members of the company who appeared, were made at once to feel at home; indeed, the friendly regard shown by the audience in front towards the players beyond the footlights made the occasion one to be often and pleasantly recalled. The “floral” tribute episodes, however, were very unskilfully managed.
     A new play from over the sea was the attraction chosen for the evening. Three successes in modern melodrama on the London stage have now found in successive seasons their first production to an American audience on the boards of the Boston Museum—“The Bells of Haslemere” first, then “Hands Across the Sea,” and for the opening of the 50th dramatic season at this house yesterday evening, “The English Rose.”
     It would be foolish to claim much originality in plot or character for the play. Equally foolish would it be to deny to “The English Rose” the characteristic of genuine interest. If there is too much talk in the opening, there is plenty of strong action later on; and a certain delicacy of management in scenes of quietly pathetic power shows that the collaboration of Robert Buchanan and George R. Sims has been of a decided advantage to the play.
     All the members of the Museum cast will appear to better advantage as “The English Rose” becomes more familiar. There was much to like yesterday in Mr. Mason’s characteristically manly and forceful personation of the hero. Mr. Barron plays the chief villain with care and good success, and Mr. Forrest Robinson enacts Randal with such genuine power as to make the character one of the most impressive in the play.
     For the rest it may be said that Davenport makes not a little out of the role of the priest and will improve his personation; that Miss Campbell, although not equal to Ethel’s strongest scenes, gives a graceful, unaffected, earnest performance that will assuredly gain her new friends; and that Miss Sheridan, as usual in emotional roles, was too “intense,” yet Bridget O'Mara, is by no means her least acceptable personation. Mr. Boniface’s Knight of Ballyveeney was not satisfactory yesterday. It may improve upon acquaintance, however.
     Miss O’Leary again illustrated her skill in making a good deal out of an unpromising part by her work as a “changeling” groom, Larry McNulty. But even she could not make the character seem quite reasonable. George Wilson’s characteristic Sergeant, and Abbe’s cockney rascal, with Miss Acres as the British maid, enlivened many a scene
     “The English Rose” is beautifully staged. La Moss’ scene of the Connemara waterfall, in particular, has never been excelled on this stage. The gallant steed who won the steeplechase loomed up on the stage “any number” of hands high, but Mr. Mason gallantly mounted him despite his restiveness, and rode away to the landlord’s rescue amid a storm of applause. Several of the scenes will be more effective tonight. But the first representation of the play was undeniably successful; and after one of the strongest acts all the actors were summoned before the curtain with real enthusiasm.

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Time (October, 1890)

     At the Adelphi, by Geo. R. Sims. After that, is there anything to be said? Any one with a little knowledge of stagecraft and of past Adelphi dramas could write such a burlesque as this, always provided that he brings to the task absolutely no literary qualifications whatever. And any one who held the same fortunate position as Geo. R. Sims could get the travesty of art and human nature accepted by the Brothers Gatti. The sorry thing is to see Mr. Robert Buchanan’s name mixed up with the business. He has certainly done dramatic work in the past too good for him to be punished by having his name printed cheek by jowl with Geo. R. Sims as one of the authors of “The English Rose.”
     The keynote of the play is, its usual, money, money, money. Even the virtuous hero is only able to hold up his head for his family generally when there is a millionaire in it. Mechanical use is made of the position of things in Ireland, but all the dummies that move through the play are our old friends and enemies for the thousandth time. Indeed, one cannot but think that the economical Messrs. Gatti, if they have heard about the phonograph, might, for the future utilise that instrument. Let the characters at any Adelphi drama by Geo. R. Sims speak their lines once for all into a phonograph, and thereafter have Italian Marionettes to do the acting, whilst the phonographs stuck inside them do the talking.
     It is a sorry sight to see really big artists thrown away upon a play in every sense so degrading as this. The last time we saw Miss Olga Brandon was in “Judah;” the last time we saw Mr. Leonard Boyne was in “Theodora;” and Messrs. Bassett Roe and Thalberg in “The Bride of Love.” And with these two last plays Mr. Robert Buchanan had something to do.
     Messrs. Beveridge, Abingdon, Rignold, and Shine appear to be fixtures at the Adelphi - more’s the pity. And so does Mary Rorke - most is the pity. The Adelphi would not be the Adelphi without Miss Clara Jecks, an actress entirely wasted in the hopelessly stupid comic parts - not yet phonographed. And there is one actor comparatively new to us, who, let us hope, will soon be free from the artistic miasma of the “English Rose,” and Geo. R. Sims - that is Mr. Charles Dalton. If he doesn’t become spoilt by breathing the mephitic air of the Adelphi, Mr. Dalton ought to take very high rank indeed amongst our romantic actors. Not even the commonplace play, and the commonplace writing were able to keep this actor down to their dead level. The part is not a big one in the ordinary sense, but by Mr. Dalton’s acting it was lifted a head and shoulders above all the others. It was a fine piece of work upon scanty and well-worn materials.

Alec Nelson (pseudonym of Edward Aveling)

[This review appears on the Marxist Internet Archive in the Eleanor Marx Dramatic Notes section.]

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The Stage (3 October, 1890 - p.13)

“THE ENGLISH ROSE.”

     On Monday, September 29, 1890, there was produced for the first time in the provinces, at the Court, Liverpool, the drama in four acts, written by Geo. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan, entitled:—

The English Rose.

Sir Philip Kingston     ...     ...     Mr. A. Alexander
The Knight of Ballyveeney ...     Mr. Stephen Caffrey
Harry O’Mailley        ...     ...     Mr. W. R. Sutherland
Father Michael O’Mailley  ...     Mr. Henry Pagden
Captain McDonnell    ...     ...     Mr. Charles K. Chute
Nicodemus Dickenson       ...     Mr. Frank Wood
Randal O’Mara         ...     ...     Mr. John S. Chamberlain
Sergeant O’Reilly      ...     ...     Mr. Edward Lewis
Patsie Blake              ...     ...     Miss Mary Glover
Shaun                        ...     ...     Mr. H. Williamson
Larry MacNulty         ...     ...     Mr. Mr. A. Stanley
Cassidy                     ...     ...     Mr. A. Moulder
O’Brien                     ...     ...     Mr. T. Manson
Farmer Flanagan        ...     ...     Mr. R. Wakefield
O’Shea                      ...     ...     Mr. W. Leary
Ethel Kingston            ...     ...     Miss Gracie Warner
Bridget O’Mara         ...     ...     Miss Gwynne Herberte
Louisa Ann Fergusson        ...     Miss Ada Rogers
Judy                           ...     ...     Miss F. Wright
Biddy                         ...     ...     Miss O’Shea
Norah                         ...     ...     Miss Fanny Ellington
Mary                          ...     ...     Miss Marie Temple

     There is no occasion for us to traverse the ground of this latest of Irish dramas upon this its first appearance out of London. Its original production in London is of so recent a date that its motive and action must still be fresh in the minds of our readers. There was a large audience to greet the new work on Monday, and honours were rightly and judiciously bestowed in the end. The acting halted a little here and there, but, taken altogether, the performance was thoroughly enjoyable, and the performers worked with great zeal to place the piece before the favourable notice of the audience, and in this they succeeded admirably. Mr. W. R. Sutherland, as the hero, Harry O’Mailley, particularly distinguished himself for the spirit and earnestness with which he played. He acted with a franker manliness than he has recently displayed in his “hero” work, and his brightness and freshness, and the richer warmth of his emotional acting observable on this occasion, indicated his intention to “lift” both his own powers and those of the piece into deserved prominence. Mr. Henry Pagden is in a somewhat equivocal position. So much fierce light has lately been thrown upon the stage priest that an exponent of such a character has to stand the steady concentration of critical observation. Mr. Pagden came through his ordeal exceedingly well, and his Father O’Mailley will soon ripen into a sterling exhibition of sound artistic work. Mr. Alexander gives weight and dignity as Sir Philip. Mr. C. K. Chute plays Captain McDonnell with distinction. Mr. John S. Chamberlain’s Randal O’Mara stood well on the picture, and he gave the part the benefit of strong emotional and passionate force, which made its impression upon the house. Mr. Edward Lewis as Sergeant O’Reilly was keenly enjoyed, and the racy deliveries told upon all occasions. The jovial knight and honest Irish gentleman was brightly and tellingly hit off by Mr. Stephen Caffrey; and Miss Mary Glover came in for rewards for her bright and clever performance as Patsie Blake. The two ladies prominent in the cast, Ethel Kingston and Bridget O’Mara, were faithfully rendered by Miss Gracie Warner and Miss Gwynne Herberte, though a little added force and directness would improve the interpretation in each case. Other parts in the long cast lost nothing in the telling. The play was magnificently staged.

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The Times (28 November, 1890 - p.7)

     The English Rose having passed its 100th performance before a crowded and enthusiastic house, now takes rank as one of the most remarkable Adelphi successes of recent years. Very skilful from the literary point of view is the captivating air of romance which Messrs. Sims and Buchanan have contrived to throw over the prosaic difficulties of the Irish land question, and a curious proof of the evenhandedness of their treatment of the subject is the fact that the two most popular characters of the play should prove to be the young Irish squire represented by Mr. Leonard Boyne and the English renegade of Mr. Lionel Rignold. The ardour and spontaneity of Mr. Boyne’s performance appears to be unaffected by repetition; Mr. Rignold’s is one of the most searching and at the same time most humorous studies of Cockney rascality that the modern stage has seen.

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Reynolds’s Newspaper (1 February, 1891 - Issue 2112)

     “The English Rose,” at the Adelphi Theatre, was played for the 150th time to a crowded and enthusiastic house on the 15th instant. The drama, which has already been played in Boston, is to be produced in New York in September next.

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The New York Times (10 March, 1892)

AMUSEMENTS.

PROCTOR’S THEATRE.

     Mr. Charles Frohman and his excellent company having retired from Proctor’s Theatre, “The Lost Paradise” was succeeded there last night by “The English Rose,” a British melodrama put together by G. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan. The scene of this is Ireland; the heroine is an English girl, the hero an Irish boy of the long-familiar stage pattern, with a sound, warm heart, a reckless temperament, and an abundance of animal spirits. “The English Rose” is not a new play in any sense. It had a long run in London, and was also performed in Boston. Moreover, its plot and incidents are very old. The piece might have been written by Edmund Falconer.
     One of its least familiar episodes is a scene between a sentimental priest and a girl who has been crossed in love. To encourage the young woman to bear her burden of sorrow bravely, the priest tells her that he, too, has a blighted heart; that he took to the priesthood in order to forget his own sorrow in caring for the sorrows of others. The same episode served in “The Broken Seal,” lately seen at Palmer’s Theatre, and that drama, under another title, was produced in London before “The English Rose” was written.
     There are other points of resemblance between this play and “The Broken Seal.” For instance, the priest hears the confession of a murderer, for whose crime his own brother is on trial. But he does not, like Mr. Grundy’s Abbe, break his vow, and reveal the secret of the confessional.
     There was a great crowd at Proctor’s last night, and the throng in the gallery was noisy, hilarious, and apparently pleased with the play.
     Harry O’Malley, the horsey young Irishman, who defied the deadly villain so bravely, made love to the English maiden so fervently, and bore his shame, when accused of murdering the heroine’s ill-tempered uncle, so manfully, was just the sort of hero for them. Perhaps if he had been impersonated by Mr. John Glendenning, a competent actor subordinated to the rôle of the villain’s sentimental and besotted accomplice, he would have pleased them more. Mr. Aubrey Boucicault has nothing of his famous father’s equipment but the small, glittering, restless black eyes. He is a slender, boyish actor, with a dry and uninspiring manner.
     But it matters very little how such a piece is acted if the players only know their parts and their “business.” The ensemble is everything. No fault can reasonably be found with the manner in which “The English Rose” is performed.
     The pictures are good enough of their kind. The scenery is all new. The steeplechase is an exciting episode. The representation of the murder near the Devil’s Bridge by moonlight, with a cascade of real water in the background, is picturesque and thrilling. Two well-trained horses have important parts to play. The names of all the other actors in this piece have already been printed in THE TIMES. They all go through their parts with vim.

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New-York Daily Tribune (10 March, 1892 - p.7)

“THE ENGLISH ROSE.”
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     Another English melodrama is to be recorded. It is called “The English Rose.” The first performance of it here began at Proctor’s Theatre last evening at a quarter before 9 o’clock, and it is probably over by the time this paper is read. The first half of the play did not show that it differed in any essential respect from other English melodramas. This great class of theatrical entertainments includes two subdivisions—those which have racing scenes and those which have not racing scenes. This one has a racing scene and a well-trained horse, which jumps about the stage while two men fight over it, does not trample anybody down and does not fall over the footlights. If everybody connected with the production had done his share as well as the horse, the house would have been closed earlier.
     “The English Rose” tells the same story which a play of its kind always tells, the old story that the gallery loves. As its scene is laid in Ireland, the hero is naturally a poor boy with the most delicate of brogues, the heroine the daughter of a rich Englishman, and the villain the false agent of the trusting landlord, whose suspicions of the man he employs can scarcely be awakened even when everybody in the play who looks at all trustworthy has told him exactly what he is. The Irish scene also gives opportunities for pictures, well carried out in this case, of romantic ruins, rocks, streams and bridges.
     There are twenty-one characters in the play, and the most of them are ably presented in the conventional ways prescribed for them by long custom, for the people in these plays are as like as the plays themselves. A few of the actors should, no doubt, be mentioned. Miss Bertha Creighton and Miss Ffolliott Paget were the most important among the women, and both satisfied the eye and were correct in their acting, though both have done worthier things before. Mervyn Dallas is an actor of much profundity of voice and gravity of manner, who performed his task with the dignity that would be expected. Stanislaus Strange had the faultless dress, the laugh and the sneer which betoken a villain. The leading part was played by Aubrey Boucicault, whose performance was naturally looked upon with curiosity. It had a grace and earnestness which may be improved and developed into something worthy and commendable. He cannot as yet in any sense dominate the play or enforce his personality as the centre of interest in it.

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The Era (23 July, 1898 - Issue 3122)

ELEPHANT AND CASTLE.
On Monday, July 18th, the Drama, in Four Acts,
by George R. Sims and Robert Buchanan, entitled
“THE ENGLISH ROSE.”

     An appeal on the part of the dramatist to the sporting tastes of an average English audience is seldom misplaced. They have a great regard for all sorts and conditions of the article in question, but, perhaps, the warmest corner is reserved for a good horse—it is an instinct with us that the advent of that buzzing abomination the motor car has decidedly not lessened. Apart from this element there is much in Sims and Buchanan’s work to admire and interest. The stir and bustle of the steeplechase course, with its accompanying crowd of “sports” of all grades, from the enterprising tipster to the aristocratic owner, is a picture full of life and animation, containing many a little incident familiar to the followers of the “sport of kings,” and recognised and applauded in the most appreciative of fashions. Mr Sidney Herberte-Basing’s scenery is altogether too good to be passed without eulogium. It is always in keeping, and frequently attains a very high level. We would particularly commend the Devil’s Bridge at Connemara and the Twelve Pins of Galway for their picturesque beauty. Mrs Elwyn Eaton’s company, under the experienced direction of Mr Charles Howitt, has been carefully chosen—in fact, seldom have we seen characters more discriminately distributed. Mr Howitt himself undertakes the hero’s responsibilities, and they are many, acquitting himself admirably throughout. He sits his mount as to the manner born, and there is not a fault to be found with his “hands,” a compliment not always to be paid to stage equestrianism. Manliness is the keynote of his performance, and this, with a sufficient touch of tenderness in the love passages, makes him a general favourite. Too much praise can hardly be awarded to Mr Percy Rhodes for his Father Michael O’Mailly. The asceticism of appearance is admirably combined with the gentleness of manner befitting his calling, and in the scene of the confession of O’Mara he rises to great heights. Mr Adam Alexander presents a good picture of the English gentleman, Sir Philip Kingston, and Randal O’Mara gets full justice from the playing of Mr J. P. Kennedy. Lovable, easy-going, yet quietly-dignified, are the characteristics of the Knight of Ballyveeney, and these qualities, combined with his great affection for his two boys, are splendidly brought out by Mr Frank Woodville. The cool, deliberate villainy of Captain Macdonnell loses nothing of its hatefulness in the care it receives from Mr Weldon Atherstone; very popular is the Sergeant O’Reilly of Mr Cecil Morand; Mr Harold Rignold hits off the peculiarities of Nickodemus Dickenson in happy fashion; and other male characters are well placed. The English rose, Ethel Kingston, is endowed with all the characteristics of the best of English womanhood by Miss Ethel Kay, her acting being marked by much sweetness and charm. Bridget O’Mara is tinged with just the touch of sadness required in this somewhat trying rôle by Miss Nellie Brash; a lively colleen is made of Louisa Ann Ferguson by Miss Beatrice Annersley, her business with Sergeant O’Reilly being the signal for mirth of the most pronounced order. Miss Mabel Rosamon, Miss Emily Cranen, Miss Phœbe Walker, and Miss Mabel Mason are all associated in small parts, and their careful treatment materially tends to the all-round success attained. While the management go on engaging companies of this description good business will of necessity ensue, and they may safely defy even the most tropical of weather.

[From The Essex County Standard West Suffolk Gazette (4 March, 1899 - p.8)]

The Stage (27 April, 1899 - p.17)

THE PAVILION.

     The excellent Pavilion company, reinforced by the return of Mr. Albert Marsh, and by three newcomers specially engaged—Mr. Edmund Gurney, Mr. Coventry Davies, and Miss Edyth Olive—are appearing in a revival of The English Rose, that seemed to be highly acceptable to the very large and enthusiastic audience on Monday. George R. Sims and Robert Buchanan’s successful Adelphi drama possesses several of the elements of enduring popularity, and its representation at the Pavilion, though slightly unequal on Monday, is in the main thoroughly sound and effective, while the scenery and general mounting are up to the exalted standard always expected where Mr. Isaac Cohen is managing director. Mr. Ashley Page, of course, is an immense favourite for his trenchant and direct style as that intrepid and outspoken young Irish horseman, Harry O’Mailley, and he performs commendably the equestrian feats executed so finely at the Adelphi by Mr. Leonard Boyne. Once more associated with Mr. Ashley Page is Miss Marion Denvil, who makes Ethel Kingston, the English Rose of the title, a heroine of high spirits, but full, too, of womanly tenderness. Miss Denvil’s characteristic winsomeness of manner and nervous energy find an effective contrast in the tearful and plaintive performance of Bridget O’Mara by Miss Edyth Olive, whose work seems pitched for the most part in a minor key. Bridget’s bold and desperately reckless brother Randall receives a strong and vigorous interpretation from Mr. Frank Harding, while the unscrupulous Captain Macdonell is played in forcible but studiously gentlemanly fashion by that accomplished exponent of melodramatic villainy Mr. Oscar Adye. Mr. Charles Cecil is sufficiently stiff, martial, and unbending as Sir Philip Kingston, and at the opposite pole is the genial and truly Hibernian Knight of Ballyveeney of Mr. Edmund Gurney. Mr. Albert Marsh was warmly greeted on his reappearance in the Mile End Road, in a rôle quite of his usual line, as Father Michael O’Mailley, and he is to be complimented on the success with which he assumes the priestly utterance and benign manner. Mr. Coventry Davies makes Sergeant O’Reilly a much more cheery and amiable personage than many members of the Royal Irish Constabulary used to be considered to be, and Mr. Lennox Pawle, the popular Pavilion comedian, lays stress upon the droller traits of that nondescript Cockney, ex-forger, horse-coper, Welsher, and Nicodemus Dickenson. The third of the comic trio, the sprightly Louisa Ann Ferguson, is played smartly enough by Miss Eva Levens. Miss Lucy Beaumont acts with point and success as the lad Patsie Blake, and other parts are filled suitably by Misses K. Gladding, Rose Winter, Mr. F. Boustead, Mr. A Edmunds, and so forth. The fateful ambush in the picturesque set of the Devil’s Bridge is only one of the many telling and exciting scenes in this capital Sims-Buchanan drama.

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Birmingham Daily Post (20 February, 1900 - Issue 13008)

THE QUEEN’S THEATRE.
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     Mr. Page Moore’s Company are appearing at the Queen’s Theatre this week in Messrs. Sims and Buchanan’s drama, “The English Rose.” Well staged and admirably played, this interesting and exciting piece should command a fair measure of success in Birmingham, as it undoubtedly will if one may judge from the enthusiastic reception accorded it by a capital audience last evening. The racing scene, in which the thoroughbred “Tarangue” is introduced, and the sensational struggle on horseback at the Devil’s Bridge, Connemara, are incidents which would of themselves ensure the popularity of the play, which, however, abounds with other items calculated to interest and excite. Miss Ellen Snow appears as Ethel Kingston, the heroine, and plays the part in a very satisfactory manner; whilst Mr. S. Herbert Humber’s presentation of Harry O’Mailley leaves nothing to be desired. A word of praise is due to Mr. Melville Bickford for his acting as Sergeant O’Reilly, and the whole of the other parts are creditably sustained by the various members of the company. Several capital songs are introduced into the performance with considerable success. The piece will be repeated each evening during the week.

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