THEATRE REVIEWS

41. The Lights of Home (1892)

The Lights of Home
by Robert Buchanan and George R. Sims.
London: Adelphi Theatre. 30 July to 17 December, 1892.
Plymouth: Theatre Royal. 22 February, 1893. First provincial performance.

Film: The Lights of Home, directed by Fred Paul, 1920.

The Times (1 August, 1892 - p.6)

THE THEATRES.

ADELPHI.

     The era of historical drama at the Adelphi has been shorter than some would have desired to see. In The Lights of Home, which, like the recent Cromwellian play, is the work of Messrs. Sims and Buchanan, an undisguised return is made to the kind of play with which these authors are principally associated, and, considering the frantic applause bestowed upon their efforts on Saturday night, and chiefly upon a great mechanical sensation in the shape of a shipwreck, Adelphi melodrama of the familiar type may be said to have taken a new lease of life. To be sure, The Lights of Home is an excellent sample of this class of entertainment. The story of the distressed lovers, which it seems so hard to break away from, is here told anew with considerable freshness of incident and with scenic effects which no one will deny to be startling and, in their way, impressive. Like an ever-popular dish, the story is served sometimes with one sauce, sometimes with another. Messrs. Sims and Buchanan have elected in the present instance to give it a nautical flavouring, choosing as the hero an officer in the merchant service, whence an opportunity for representing one of the most formidable catastrophes with which the stage can deal, to say nothing of a lifeboat rescue and such incidental attractions as views of the sea in calm and storm, of towering cliffs, and flashing lighthouses, together with a picturesque personnel of fisher-folk and coastguardsmen. Although the nautical drama is less seen now than in the days of T. P. Cooke, there is no evidence that it has lost its hold upon the popular imagination. The stage sailor no longer dances a hornpipe or “shivers his timbers,” but he is still good for a song with a stirring chorus, and for unsurpassed feats of gallantry in love and war. As a hero of melodrama accordingly he comes only to conquer. This was the lesson of Harbour Lights, probably the most successful nautical play produced since Black-Eye’d Susan, and, judging by it reception on Saturday evening, The Lights of Home will, in the course of the next few months, tell a similar tale. After all, who shall say that novelty of plot is more indispensable to melodrama than it is to pantomime? Having a favourite set of characters, what more natural than that the public should have their favourite set of sentiments and situations?
     Yet the refashioning of the old story which each successive play demands is, perhaps, like the breaking of the egg by Columbus, less easy than it looks. The authors of The Lights of Home have handled their material with a deftness and a skill which it is easier to criticize than to imitate. In the present instance, they appear to have borrowed a hint or two from no less venerable a source than Romeo and Juliet. Otherwise, whence comes their family feud between the Garfields and the Carringtons, the feud about to be healed by the attachment which has sprung up between a son and a daughter of the rival houses? The lady, moreover, has a hot-headed brother, Edgar, who corresponds as closely to Tybalt as her cousin Arthur Tredgold does to the County Paris. There is also an elopement and a marriage of the lovers, not in the Friar’s cell, but in distant Baltimore, whither the devoted Philip has carried off the trusting Sybil in his vessel. Romeo, it is true, was not “falsely accused,” but this being the inevitable fate of the modern hero, Messrs. Sims and Buchanan have wisely given their romance the necessary twist in this direction. In carrying off his sweetheart to his lugger in the offing, Philip has a smart encounter with his rival which leads to nothing; but the latter is almost immediately seized by the avenging father of a village maiden whom this villain has betrayed, and is thrown over the cliffs to his death; so that the hero sails for America with a suspicion of murder attaching to his fair name. That he comes back manfully to face the charge need not be said; this and his happy restoration to the arms of his bride, from whom he has meanwhile been parted, are the necessary features of the fifth act.
     It is on his passage back to England, and, by a happy coincidence, on the very part of the coast adjoining his ancestral home and his bride’s, that the wreck of the vessel takes place—an event which is, indeed, a triumph of sensationalism. The steamer lies athwart the stage, and, being supposed to strike upon a rock during a terrific storm, sinks into the raging billows under the eyes of an awe-struck and breathless house, while the hero, unaccountably left behind by the rescuing party of coastguardsmen, swims for his life, holding in his arms meanwhile the betrayed village maiden who has vainly come to his assistance in her father’s boat. If this is not the dernier mot of the stage carpenter, then marvels are, indeed, in store for us. Mr. Kyrle Bellew succeeds Mr. Leonard Boyne as the leader of the Adelphi company, and in this exacting part of Philip Carrington exerts himself to no small purpose. As a mere physical achievement his performance is remarkable. His faithful bride is Miss Millard, a young actress of some power, but a little too prone to over-elaboration of gesture and accent. The pathetic part of the betrayed maiden falls to Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who contrives to touch the true note, and her avenging father finds a striking representative in M. W. A. Elliott. The reception of the play, we have only to add, was boisterously enthusiastic.

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The Morning Post (1 August, 1892 - p.2)

ADELPHI THEATRE.
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     Messrs. G. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan in their late play at the Adelphi dipped into the pages of Sir Walter Scott, and introduced Cavaliers and Roundheads to their patrons. The experiment was fairly successful, but as a rule melodrama in its simple and conventional forms pleases better than the poetic or historical drama. Scenes of everyday life set forth in homely incidents and characters “up to date” are more to the liking of Adelphi audiences. Therefore, in the new play, “The Lights of Home,” the auditor is not surprised to have the catch-word heard at the street corners before entering the theatre. The characters belong to the present time, and some of them echo the most recent jokes and allusions of Modern Babylon. In constructing the drama the authors have had in view such rural scenes as Messrs. Gatti would present with all possible effect, and lovely coast scenery with a storm at sea and other sensational effects bring into prominence all the mechanical resources of the theatre. The story is a simple but sympathetic one, the humour direct and effective, and the pathos and sentiment are such as commend themselves to the audience. The incidents are sufficiently exciting to give the “real old Adelphi thrill,” which hushes pit and gallery for a moment, only to break forth into vehement applause when the breathless suspense of the situation is over. In regard to the title, “The Lights of Home,” dramatists who have once made a great hit are fond of repeating their successes, and in this play there is the echo of “The Lights of London,” which made Mr. Sims famous, also of “The Harbour Lights.” There is no particular reason why the new Adelphi drama should be called “The Lights of Home,” but it answers its purpose, and the “play’s the thing” after all. It opens in a fishing village where Philip Carrington, first mate of the steamer Northern Star, has returned home after a voyage which had been taken owing to unrequited love. During his absence another has taken his place and has paid attentions to the heroine, Sybil, daughter of a wealthy landowner. The rival, Tredgold, is not a worthy suitor, for her has betrayed the daughter of a fisherman, Dave Purvis, but this fact has yet to be revealed, as we may be sure that so innocent and pure-minded a maiden as the heroine would not tolerate such a lover if she knew of his misdeeds. Sybil also has been led to believe that Carrington is dead. She is therefore greatly astonished to meet her old lover in the village. Like young Lochinvar in Sir Walter Scott’s ballad, Philip does not intend to have his sweetheart taken from him by a wealthier man. He appears at a party given at the young lady’s house, Cliff Hall, and without stopping for travelling costume carries the heroine off in her ball dress to the ship. Dave Purvis, the fisherman, in revenge for the betrayal of his daughter, tosses the rival Tredgold over the cliff. The story now pushes along briskly, for in the third act we find Philip and Sybil are married, “and living happily ever after” at Baltimore, U.S.A. But in the midst of their felicity the young husband learns from an English journal that he is suspected of the murder of his rival, Tredgold. Brave and fearless, the hero determines to face the charge, and disprove it. In the fourth act there is a storm at sea, threatening with shipwreck the steamer in which the hero has returned to England. There is all the rush and roar, the fury and excitement which on the Adelphi stage never fails to evoke the enthusiastic plaudits of a well-pleased audience. Nobody inquires particularly why Philip is left alone on the storm-beaten vessel, or why Tress Purvis, the fisherman’s daughter, pulls out to sea in an open boat, like another Grace Darling, to save him. It is enough for all practical purposes that he is saved, and that when the coastguard men take charge of the hero in anticipation of the inquiry about the murder, Dave Purvis, the fisherman, confesses to having thrown the rival lover over the cliff, and promises to appear when Justice requires him. Philip embraces his wife, and, making pleasant references to “The Lights of Home,” the drama ends to the satisfaction of everybody. The acting was excellent all round. Mr. Kyrle Bellew played the young nautical hero, and if he lacks the physical force of Mr. Terriss, he is quite as impassioned and earnest, and made the hero very attractive. Miss Evelyn Millard represented the heroine gracefully, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell had a part that suited her extremely well—that of the fisherman’s daughter. It is a conventional character, but Mrs. Campbell played it with much fervour and intensity. Mrs. H. Leigh was excellent as the fisherman’s wife, and Miss Clara Jecks in the little part of Martha Widgeon employed her genuine humour to good purpose. A drama of this kind must of course have a comic cockney to relieve the sentiment. The authors have in Jim Chowne a “private inquiry agent,” fitted Mr. Lionel Rignold with a part “of the street streety,” and he revels in it, keeping pit and gallery in a perpetual state of hilarity. The private inquiry agent has always got “a lidey in the case,” and he tells us that “when a lidey’s in the case” profit is the certain result. Mr. Lionel Rignold’s delivery of Mr. Sims’s Cockneyisms was quite droll enough to justify the incessant laughter of the audience. Mr. Charles Dalton and Mr. G. W. Cockburn played well, as did Mr. Willie Drew, Mr. Howard Russell, and others. The sentiment of “The Lights of Home,” with its alternately pathetic and humorous dialogue, its effective and exciting scenes and excellent acting, proved so entirely to the taste of the audience that it may be pronounced a most successful drama. Authors, actors, and managers have again shown their competence to cater for an Adelphi audience, and to deserve the enthusiastic applause that was heard when the curtain fell.

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The Morning Post (2 August, 1892)

BANK HOLIDAY AMUSEMENTS.
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ADELPHI THEATRE.
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     At the Adelphi Theatre the good old school of melodrama flourishes in Messrs. G. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan’s genial play, “The Lights of Home,” which was produced last Saturday night with every promise of lasting success. Last night the Adelphi piece attracted a host of playgoers to applaud the brilliant effects and to follow the fortunes of the sympathetic hero and heroine, so well played by Mr. Kyrle Bellew and Miss Evelyn Millard, while the Cockney drollery of Mr. Lionel Rignold, the earnestness of Mr. Dalton, Mr. Cockburn, and Mr. Howard Russell, the pathos of Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and the cheerful humour of Miss Clara Jecks and Mrs. H. Leigh gained the fullest appreciation of a crowded house. Messrs. Sims and Buchanan have produced a play that will prove very attractive, and Messrs. Gatti have placed it upon the stage with even more than ordinary brilliancy. All the best traditions of a real Adelphi drama are embodied in “The Lights of Home.”

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The Graphic (6 August, 1892 - Issue 1184)

“The Lights of Home,” at the Adelphi

BY W. MOY THOMAS

     A NAUTICAL drama is a widely different thing in these times from what it was in the glorious days of Mr. T. P. Cooke. That renowned impersonator of the British sailor had served his King and country afloat in the early years of the present century, when the songs of Dibdin, with their numberless references to “winds that blow” and “wooden walls,” went home to the national heart. Accordingly, in the T. P. Cookeian drama the hero was almost always a man-o’-war’s man of the grog-drinking, tobacco-chewing, wide-trousered, hornpipe-dancing type; and its principal scenes were certain to take place aboard a British man-of-war. What the nautical drama has now become may be seen in the new romantic play, in five acts, by Messrs. G. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan with which the management of the Adelphi have just commenced an unusually early, yet very promising, autumn season. Originality in the elements of the story the authors have not sought for, as will be seen in the fact that the whole plot turns upon a charge of murder brought against the noble, high-spirited Philip Carrington, first mate of the steamship Northern Star, who, though he is unlucky enough to be the victim of circumstantial evidence apparently pointing to his guilt, is, it need hardly be said, wholly innocent of the charge of slaying his rival in love, the detestable Arthur Tredgold. The untoward business is in this wise. Philip doats upon Miss Sybil Garfield, of the Cliff Hall, and Miss Sybil Garfield much prefers him to the sinister suitor whom her saturnine brother Edgar, prompted by personal feelings and the family feud between the Carringtons and the Garfields, insists upon her marrying. When one day the long-absent Philip comes ashore from his ship in the bay and discovers that Sybil loves him still, he persuades her to slip away one summer evening from a dinner-party at the Hall and trust her destiny to him. But as the lovers are hastening along the cliff they are met by the detestable Tredgold, and there is a struggle in which the latter is sent staggering into the arms of Dave Purvis, a fisherman who has come to demand at the hands of this scoundrel reparation for his cruel betrayal and desertion of the fisherman’s beloved daughter, Tress Purvis. Hence a second struggle, in the course of which Tredgold is hurled over the cliff. Of this tragic sequel, however, the lovers, who have now descended to the shore and embarked in a skiff for the steamship Northern Star, know nothing; till, while spending their honeymoon blissfully in a charming cottage and garden near Baltimore, U.S.A., their dream is disturbed, first, by a paragraph in an English paper, announcing that Philip Carrington is wanted on a charge of murder, and next by the arrival of the stern, avenging brother. That the manly Philip at once determines to return and meet the charge, and is finally cleared by the old fisherman’s confession, who that has any experience of the ways of Adelphi drama will need to be told.
     If there is nothing that is very new in all this, it must be confessed that the authors have told their story in a way that interests, and have garnished it with many pleasing incidents and amusing episodes. They are fortunate, moreover, in the cast. Mr. Kyrle Bellew’s Philip may be given to excess in the matter of picturesque poses; but he is, on the whole, a fervent lover, and he battles with adverse fate in a manly fashion. Miss Evelyn Millard makes a decidedly winning heroine, though her part does not afford the opportunities which fall to the share of Mrs. Patrick Campbell, whose Tress Purvis is a very moving performance. Mr. Charles Dalton appears as the implacable Edgar, Mr. G. W. Cockburn as his cousin Tredgold, and some less prominent parts are assigned to Mrs. H. Leigh, Mr. Willie Drew, Mr. W. A. Elliott, and Mr. Howard Russell. The comic element is not on this occasion so prominent as is customary in romantic dramas on the Adelphi stage; but the popular Mr. Lionel Rignold gets, nevertheless, some fun out of the part of a humourous London “private enquiry agent,” whom strange chance has brought to this secluded neighbourhood of fisherfolk; and Miss Clara Jecks, whose popularity with Adelphi audiences is boundless, wins great favour in the lively part of Mrs. Widgeon, widow and landlady of the Lobster Smack Inn. More than ordinary care has been bestowed upon the scenery. Mr. Perkins’s fishing village, in which the story opens, and Mr. Bruce-Smith’s views of the Gap and the Coastguard Station, in which it comes to a close, deserve especial praise. The cottage and garden on the shores of Chesapeake Bay afford a pleasing contrast after scenes so thoroughly English; but surely the towering endogens and luxuriant cactuses indicate rather a tropical or sub-tropical latitude. The great scene of the wreck and foundering of the Northern Star in the fourth act missed its effect on the first night partly through the darkness of the stage, but more from the bewildering confusion of details. I am told that it is now in excellent working order.

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The Era (6 August, 1892 - Issue 2811)

THE LONDON THEATRES.
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ADELPHI.
On Saturday, July 30th, for the First Time,
a New and Original Drama, in Five Acts,
by Geo. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan, entitled
“THE LIGHTS OF HOME.”

Philip Carrington     ...    Mr KYRLE BELLEW
Edgar Garfield        ...    Mr CHARLES DALTON
Arthur Tredgold      ...    Mr G. W. COCKBURN
Jack Stebbing         ...    Mr WILLIE DREW
Joe Pendred           ...    Mr J. NORTHCOTE
Ned Parsons          ...    Mr W. NORTHCOTE
Jim Atkins              ...    Mr HARWOOD COOPER
Dave Purvis            ...    Mr W. A. ELLIOTT
Jim Chowne            ...    Mr LIONEL RIGNOLD
Captain Petherick    ...    Mr HOWARD RUSSELL
Lieut. Williamson, R.N.   Mr THOMAS KINGSTON
Sybil Garfield           ...    Miss EVELYN MILLARD
Tress Purvis             ...    Mrs PATRICK CAMPBELL
Mrs. Purvis               ...    Mrs H. LEIGH
Mrs. Petherick          ...    Miss ETHEL HOPE
Martha Widgeon       ...    Miss CLARA JECKS

     From a practical playwright’s point of view, Messrs Geo. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan’s drama The Lights of Home, which was produced at the Adelphi Theatre on Saturday last with every symptom of success, is not as workmanlike and ingenious as some of Mr Sims’s previous achievements. As the murder of which the hero is accused has really been committed by a good and conscientious man in a moment of intense aggravation, it is obvious that the innocent will not be allowed to suffer for the guilty. On the other hand, there are freshness and novelty in the treatment, we have fewer of the well-worn melodramatic types, and the story is told in a series of interesting tableaux, each of which gives excuse for a very effective “set.” Authors, actors, and scenic artists equally share in the success which we confidently expect for The Lights of Home.
     A sketch of the plot will justify some of the above remarks. The hero of the play is Philip Carrington, a generous young gentleman, who has run through his patrimony and become first mate of an ocean steamer. It is only natural that the beautiful Sybil Garfield should prefer this fine young fellow to the calculating and selfish Arthur Tredgold, though the latter is the intimate friend of Sybil’s brother Edgar. No less natural is it that Edgar should object to Philip as a suitor, so Carrington resolves to carry off his ladylove by force. Now Tredgold has seduced Tress Purvis, the daughter of honest Dave Purvis, a fisherman, and she is likely in consequence to become a mother. Purvis overhears a confession of her shame which is made by Tress to Philip, and goes to find the betrayer of his child, whom he meets on the edge of a high cliff just after Carrington has carried off Sybil to a boat. There is a struggle, and Tredgold goes over the edge of the precipice, Purvis nearly sharing the same fate. Garfield comes out to Baltimore, where the young couple are spending their honeymoon, and accuses Philip of the murder. Carrington gives an indignant denial to the accusation, and agrees to return home with Garfield to be tried. The steamer in which they cross the Atlantic strikes on a rock in sight of the lights of home; and Philip, after the escape of the captain and passengers in a lifeboat, is left to meet his fate on the forecastle. Tress rows out to the wreck à la Grace Darling; but her boat is swamped by the waves, and Philip has to save both her and himself by swimming. He succeeds in safely reaching land; Purvis confesses to the manslaughter—it hardly amounts to more—of Tredgold, and everyone, except Tress and the disagreeable brother, is made happy. A comic detective named Chowne pops in and out at intervals; but as Purvis’s confession is entirely voluntary, the services of the private enquiry agent are not utilised. He is, however, a most amusing personage, with his irrepressible impudence and his Cockneyfied conceit; and a bright, fresh character is that of Martha Widgeon, the landlady of the Lobster Smack Inn on the seacoast. Much of the success of The Lights of Home has been secured by the experienced style in which the authors have fitted each artist of the company. Everyone in the cast has an opportunity of appearing at his or her best; and there is neither a bad part in the piece nor a weak place in the well-balanced and judiciously selected company.
     Mr Kyrle Bellew is undoubtedly a valuable acquisition to the Adelphi. His appearance is prepossessing, he has got rid of certain minor mannerisms which at one time were to be observed, and his style has a refinement not always found in the representatives of heroes of melodrama. He played Philip Carrington with manly energy and earnestness, and from first to last with complete success. The tattoo marks upon Mr Bellew’s arms still attest to his intimate acquaintance with the “briny,” and he had, therefore, only to revive recollections of his sea-faring adventures to supply him with ample suggestions for his impersonation of the first mate of the Northern Star. In the powerful scene in which Philip Carrington carries off his bride in spite of the resistance of her malignant relative, Mr Bellew acted with great power and vigour, moral and physical. His repudiation, later on, of the accusation of murder was a fine outburst, and his exertions during and after the wreck were extremely active. Mr Bellew did not spare himself on Saturday, and had his reward in the hearty applause which he evoked, and in the enthusiasm which was created by his picturesque, sincere style, his spirited acting, and his thoroughly effective delivery. Mr G. W. Cockburn as the seducer, who meets his terrible fate in the second act of the piece, was sufficiently cool and cynical, and made the most of his opportunities during his somewhat brief dramatic existence. Mr Willie Drew, who is fast becoming a very useful and efficient comedian, played Jack Stebbing, a sailor lad, with humour and vivacity. Mr W. A. Elliott’s Dave Purvis was a very powerful and picturesque performance. The wild agony of a father whose child has been seduced was depicted by Mr Elliott with poignant intensity; and with the aid of a clever make-up this able actor indicated with depth and decision the remorseful sufferings of a humane man with murder on his soul. Mr Lionel Rignold scored one of the greatest hits of the evening by his remarkably droll representation of the private enquiry agent, Jim Chowne. His extraordinary facility of facial expression, the quaint oddity of his general demeanour, and the unflagging briskness of his acting combined to make his embodiment strikingly clever and complete. Mr Howard Russell was bluff and hearty as Captain Petherick, and Mr Thomas Kingston was smart and sailor-like as Lieut. Williamson, R.N. Miss Evelyn Millard played Sybil Garfield with grace, tenderness, and with the needed occasional outbursts of strong feeling. Miss Millard is an actress of much charm, and has a refined and pleasing style which is greatly in her favour. Mrs Patrick Campbell as Tress Purvis had a difficult task. The part is all in the same minor key of remorseful despondency, and Mrs Campbell proved her tact and ability by the inflexions with which she varied the monotony of the rôle, her bursts of grief being natural and deeply touching. That old favourite Mrs H. Leigh was as brisk and humorous as ever as Mrs Purvis, and Miss Ethel Hope was a comely and agreeable representative of Mrs Petherick. Miss Clara Jecks, who looked very bright and pretty as the generally-admired landlady, Mrs Widgeon, acted with her wonted liveliness and with the usual spice of roguish fun.
     Special attention is deserved by the scenery, which was very fine even for the Adelphi, where scenic marvels are expected. The purely pictorial part of the work was of the very finest; and the first scene—the “Fishing Village”—proved how much more effective is first-rate brush work than a superfluity of “building up.” It was exquisite in its brightness and reality. The change from the top of the cliff outside the Hall to the foot of the precipice, with the body of Arthur Tredgold lying amongst the rocks was very illusive and effective. Most talked about,, however, will be the shipwreck of the Northern Star in the fourth act. It evoked thunders of applause on Saturday, and, by this time, has doubtless been brought, by repetition, to a still greater pitch of perfection. The method employed to create the illusion is a concentration of light on the quarter deck, leaving the rest of the ship in shade. The necessary darkness and the confusion—which was a little overdone on the first night—robbed the scene of some of its dramatic significance, and the human agency by which the waves were worked made itself too obvious. But these were trifles compared to the marvellous breadth and elaboration of the spectacle, to the fidelity of the imitative carpentry, and to the thrilling effect of the lifeboat rescue. The wreck scene is alone sufficient to secure the success of The Lights of Home. Mr E. B. Norman, who, under the personal direction of the authors, produced the piece, deserves great credit for the thoroughness of his share of the work; Messrs Bruce Smith, W. Perkins, and Henry Emden have excelled themselves in the splendid scenery; and though The Lights of Home is not exactly a “costume piece,” the dresses—designed by Karl, and made by Messrs L. and H. Nathan—must be praised for their prettiness and suitability to the wearers.

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Black and White (6 August, 1892)

     In the new Adelphi piece, The Lights of Home, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Sims have done again what they have often done before, and gauged to a nicety the taste for melodrama of an Adelphi audience. There is a place in the world of dramatic creation for good melodrama, and Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Sims between them can turn out very good melodrama of the kind the Strand haunter loves to see. Given certain conditions, given the inevitable hero accused of the inevitable murder, and the inevitable girl who has been seduced by the inevitable villain, The Lights of Home is as good a play as heart of melodrama-loving man could desire. If the would-be visitor to an Adelphi melodrama were to jot down beforehand what he expected to find in his evening’s entertainment, it is probable that in nine cases out of ten he would predict pretty accurately what he was going to see. A wrongly accused hero is an essential, so is an injured young woman, so is comic relief. The heroes are always the same, the heroines are the same, the injured young women are the same, the comic relief is the same. Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Sims do the work probably as well as it can be done. But it would be interesting to know what the author of “London Idylls,” what the translator of the “Contes Drolatiques” really think of performances which give to the Adelphi audiences so much honest and so much wholesome pleasure.
                                                                                                                                     HAFIZ.

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The Theatre (1 September, 1892)

“THE LIGHTS OF HOME.”

A drama, in five acts, by ROBERT BUCHANAN and GEORGE R. SIMS.
First produced at the Adelphi Theatre, on Saturday evening, July 30th, 1892.

     From one point of view, a remarkable drama; a very remarkable achievement! Neither to Mr. Sims nor to Mr. Buchanan is it given to present a personal resemblance to the late Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, but their joint career in melodramatics surely has been foreshadowed by his in politics. In the startling appearance of the young Commoner of 1837 there is nothing to suggest Mr. “Dagonet” and his brother “Bard”—if photography lie not. The bottle-green frock coat, the Dick Swiveller waistcoat, the network of glittering chains, the large-fancy-pattern pantaloons, the black “muffler” tie—“above which no shirt collar was visible”—these impressive details of thef amous picture find no counterpart in the portraits of the twin dramatists to-day. Nor can either of them boast of “a countenance lividly pale, set out by a pair of intensely black eyes, and a broad forehead overhung by clustering ringlets of coal-black hair, combed away from the right temple and falling in bunches of well-oiled ringlets over his left cheek.” In Disraeli’s reception by the Commons—his New Critics—and in the dramatists’ by theirs—the Intellectual Intolerants—is distinguishable, however, the same note of baffling derision, and one may readily conceive their echoing the prediction of the dandy-politician:—“The time will come when you will hear me.” Now that time has come. From the least sympathetic of quarters their drama has wrung a grudging and halting praise, and for this reason does it claim recognition as a remarkable piece of work. In outline it is a lusty, shapely member of what Mr. Pinero has called “the family of Falsely Accused,” but several striking features betray its near relationship with some of Dickens’ beautiful creations. This fact it is, perhaps, which accounts for the rout of the Intolerants. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin—and reconciles even the Old Critics and the New. And a touch of nature undoubtedly there is in the new version of Steerforth’s seduction of Little Em’ly, and Dan Peggotty’s shame and vengeance. The betrayal of Tress Purvis by Arthur Tredgold and his accidental death at her father’s hands, form the secondary plot. They are the broom, so to speak, which clears the way for Carrington’s elopement with Sybil, and the inevitable accusation of murder, without which no hero’s honeymoon can be complete. In the eyes of the audience, however, this Little Em’ly episode is the drama, and but for the general opinion that the nominal heroes and heroines must now-a-days be of gentle birth, the whole play might well have dealt with it and it alone. The characters of Tress and Dave are drawn with a firm yet tender hand, and the confession of her fall to her old playmate, Carrington—with the ensuing scene of her father’s horror, grief, and forgiveness—is in language and in treatment worthy of comparison with the famous scene in “Olivia.” Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Mr. W. A. Elliott create a fine effect in these parts. Mrs. Campbell’s nervous frame vibrates with emotion. Her artistic instinct serves her truly. In her picture of Tress she is never at fault. Of singular pathos, of unutterable mournfulness, exquisite in womanly feeling is her playing in the great scene; and for Mr. Elliott’s strong, sturdy, earnest work almost equal praise is due. Only a great actor could do more with Dave than he does, and Dave, it may be said, is a part not unworthy of a Willard or a Tree. Mr. Bellew lavishes upon the Adelphines refinements and natural touches to which they have been unaccustomed since Mr. Alexander left the house. His share is an admirable contribution of art, and in partnership with Miss Millard—the prettiest heroine we have, and one, moreover, with a throbbing heart in her bosom—he so dignified the episode of Carrington’s return from a supposed watery grave, that a note of genuine pathos was clearly struck. Quaint Mrs. Leigh, sprightly Miss Jecks, and the inimitable Mr. Rignold raise mountains of laughter from molehills of humour, and Mr. Bruce Smith and Mr. Emden must be credited with some of the success, their exceptionally beautiful pictures of coast scenery, and a marvellously realistic wreck scene, furnishing an excuse for any Intellectual Intolerant to pay a second and a third visit to a moving play that is by far the most interesting melodrama since “The Silver King.”

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The Stage (23 February, 1893 - p.6)

     PLYMOUTH—ROYAL (Lessee, Mr. C. F. Williams; Acting Manager, Mr. Harry E. Blakeley).—On Monday there was another large audience for the first provincial production of The Lights of Home, by Mr. Auguste Van Biene’s Co. Barring a few hitches here and there, the piece went splendidly, and any amount of applause was given for this latest Adelphi drama of G. R. Sims and Robert Buchanan. The striking scenic effects were almost as well realised as in London, and Mr. E. B. Norman, stage manager of the Adelphi, who came down to direct the performance, is to be highly commended on its success. Mr. Conway Wingfield makes a very good Philip Carrington, and Sybil Garfield is very prettily portrayed by Miss Essex Dane. Garfield and Arthur Tredgold fall to Mr. C. Tufnell Douglas and Mr. Leslie Murray, who are quite satisfactory. Miss Mary Raby once more wins the sympathy of Plymouth audiences for her pathetic acting as Tress Purvis. Mr. Harry Yardley gave a fine character study of the old fisherman Dave Purvis. Others deserving of notice include Messrs. George Miller as Jim Chowne (a really good part, well played), C. T. Douglas, F. D. Wood, Master Alexander, R. Roberts, W. Jordon, A. Alexander, A. Henderson, and Misses J. Blake (Mrs. Purvis), E. Victor, G. Deroy, A. Keene, and Miss L. Ferris. Miss Lena Burleigh was very funny as the landlady of the Lobster Smack. The Shipwreck Scene was received with tremendous applause.

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The Stage (23 August, 1894 - p.5)

     MERTHYR TYDFIL—ROYAL AND OPERA HOUSE (Lessee, Mr. Will Smithson).—This week we have Mr. Robert Lynton and Co. in The Lights of Home, which has been well received by large audiences. The piece is well mounted, and the scenery is most attractive. As Philip Carrington Mr. J. Malcolm Dunn deserves praise, and he is nightly the recipient of loud applause. Mr. Sydney Leyton as Edgar Garfield is capital. Mr. Sydney Halling is the Arthur Tredgold, Mr. Ivan Barlin is a commendable Dave Purvis, and Mr. Cecil Croft does well as Jim Chowne. Miss Mary Brammer plays Sybil Garfield with care and discretion, Miss Kate Perfrement is quite at home as Mrs. Purvis, and Miss Violet Rawlings does well as Mrs. Pretherick. Miss Louisa Biddulph impersonates Trees Purvis in a sympathetic and womanly manner, and Miss Cissy French makes a vivacious Martha Widgeon. The other parts are well represented.

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