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ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841-1901) |
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THEATRE REVIEWS 7. The Mormons: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives (1881)
The Mormons: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives (Harriett Jay played the role of Hester Fitzgerald.)
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper (1 May, 1881) The next production at the Olympic will be a strong drama, entitled The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and his Seven Wives. It will be supported by a strong cpmpany, including Miss Harriett Gay, and will be illustrated by some striking scenery, founded on sketches taken at Salt Lake City. In Act 3, which is called “Among the Mormons,” an extraordinary glimpse is given of the social life of Utah. ___
Daily News (2 May, 1881) A new drama, entitled “The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and His Seven Wives,” will be produced at the Olympic Theatre on Saturday evening next. It is founded on a satirical story in verse by Mr. Robert Buchanan. The character of the heroine will be sustained by Miss Harriet Jay, author of “A Queen of Connaught,” who lately played the part of Lady Jane Grey in Mr. Buchanan’s historical drama, “The Nine Days’ Queen.” ___
The Era (7 May, 1881) A Coincidence. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ERA. Sir,—I see in your issue of last Saturday that The Exiles of Erin, at the Olympic, deals with Mormonism both in its pathetic and humorous light, and that the scenes are laid in Ireland and Salt Lake City, both which statements might apply to a drama of mine just finished, and which has been submitted to one or two gentlemen of the profession on whom I can call for a verification of its existence at the present date, if necessary. ___
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper (8 May, 1881 - p.1) OLYMPIC. Last night a new romantic drama, professedly taken in part from “an American source,” and partly from the poetical satire, “St. Abe,” and called The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and his Seven Wives, was produced at the Olympic with but indifferent success. Loosely constructed, with wild and improbable situations, jumbled with over-acted comic business, it failed after the second act to hold the attention of the audience, although at periods a good situation won applause, or an indiscreet joke won a laugh. The piece is in a prologue and four acts, and its purpose is to illustrate the manners and customs of the “much married” people of Utah. In the prologue, which supplies the motive for the succeeding acts, we have a story of seduction and death. The victim is Norah, a young Irish girl of gentle blood, and the betrayer, a disreputable fellow named Corcoran, who robs her of her fortune and casts her out on the world. Her brother, who has been transported for complicity with Fenianism, hearing of her misfortunes, returns clandestinely to Ireland, just in time to witness her death at the hands of her seducer, who escapes to America as the companion of a ruffianly Mormon elder named Swayne, a man who represents the dark side of the apostles of Brigham Young. Young Desmond resolves to avenge his sister’s murder, and starts in pursuit of Corcoran, who has become a murderous tool of Young’s, as one of his “Avenging angels.” Desmond appears amongst the Mormon emigrants as “Uncas the trapper,” a daring hunter, beloved by Indians and by Hester Fitzgerald, a young Irish lady, who with her brothers are dupes of Swayne, and journeying to Utah. Uncas too freely denounces the Mormons, and Swayne marks him for assassination; Corcoran leading on the attack, which results in the rescue of the hunter by an Indian chief. In this way the incidents, more or less sensational and exciting, progress till we are introduced to Utah, where Brigham and Swayne plot to “seal” Hester to the latter. A forced marriage is contemplated, but is interrupted by the heroic Desmond. The doings of the Mormons are depicted in the blackest colours, the Temple of the “prophet” being invested with horrors, suggesting the days of the Inquisition. In the end, of course, the heroic Desmond carries Hester through her perils, and avenges his sister’s shame. In the development of this highly seasoned fare the audience are treated to materials so over-strained as to verge on the ludicrous, and by the time the third act was reached the sympathies of the audience were estranged, and occasional symptoms of merriment were prevalent. Mixed with the sensationalism, in very little accord, are some comic scenes, which give the ridiculous side of Mormon matrimony, and these caused mirth, more by their suggestiveness than their wit. The acting was exceptionably good, Mr. Calhaem giving a grotesque sketch of Indian life as the friendly chief, and Mrs. Digby Willoughby gave force and quaintness to a good-hearted Irish girl. Miss Harriet Jay was an earnest Hester, and Mr. Redmond the trapper Uncas. The scenery was bright and picturesque. ___
Glasgow Herald (9 May, 1881) MR ROBERT BUCHANAN’S NEW PLAY. (FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) London, Saturday Night. |
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[Advert for The Exiles of Erin (aka The Mormons) from The Times (12 May, 1881 - p.8)]
The Pall Mall Gazette (12 May, 1881 - Issue 5059) A drama founded upon a portion of Mr. Buchanan’s poetical satire of “St. Abe and his Seven Wives” has been produced at the Olympic, under the title of “The Exile of Erin.” With the comic story of the Mormon elder who, though married to the woman he prefers before all others, finds the presence in the same house of six other wives to whom likewise he is sealed so distasteful and destructive of domestic serenity that he faces all the risks attending the escape from Utah, and comes with the favourite wife to Europe to enjoy the pleasures of monogamy, is associated a melodramatic interest of the most pronounced kind. A pair of young lovers are members of a band of emigrants which crosses the prairies in the direction of the Salt Lake. Covetous eyes are cast upon the young heroine by a Mormon elder, and her ultimate escape from the toils in which she is entrapped is not effected without many hair-breadth escapes. In her numerous adventures the white men are her constant foes, and her chief protectors are the redskins, whose zeal on behalf of distressed virtue is only matched by their affection for the fire-water of the palefaces. There are some good if familiar scenes in the play, and the interest in it is both strong and sympathetic. Brigham Young, the Mormon Governor, is introduced in full conclave with his elders, and his conduct is painted in the darkest colours. Miss Harriett Jay, whose last appearance in London took place in “Lady Jane Grey,” now plays the heroine, a young Irish girl. Among the more prominent of her supporters are Mr. Percy Compton (a son of the well-known comedian), Mr. William Redmund, Mr. St. Maur, and Miss L. Williams. ___
Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin) (12 May, 1881) LONDON GOSSIP. (From the Lady Correspondent of the “Evening Telegraph.”) London, Tuesday Evening. The theatres are absolutely racing with each other in their efforts to secure the attention of the public, not by excellence, but by novelty, and certainly the aim has been attained in one or two cases most effectually. The play of “Juana,” just brought out at the Court Theatre by Mr. Wills, has the double merit of not only being an interesting work upon the whole, but that likewise of having relieved us, we hope, once for all, of the abortive endeavours made by Madame Modjeska to perform Shakespeare intelligibly to English ears. ... “Juana” affords a fine vehicle for Madame Modjeska’s display of power and dishevelment, the mad scenes in the play being well adapted for the exhibition of both. The rival attraction is a play by Robert Buchanan, which is really original, and strikes a chord which, at the present moment vibrates most strongly. “St. Abe and his Seven Wives” will be most interesting to Irish intending-emigrants. St. Abe is a Mormonite, and his seven wives are the seven plagues of his life. The scene at Queenstown is amusing in the extreme, and the whole play has an Irish flavour which cannot fail to make it popular on your side of the Channel. Mr. Robert Buchanan is greatly aided in his work by his relative, Miss Harriet Jay, the authoress of the Queen of Connaught novel, from which a most successful piece was taken, which had a long run last year. With the proceeds Mr. Buchanan founded a magazine called “Light,” which failed after the issue of a few numbers, without bringing anything but loss both to himself and his contributors. He is one of the adventurous authors of the day; and at the same time that St. Abe is being played in London, brings out a piece at Brighton taken from his own novel of the “Shadow of the Sword,” the title of which contained all that is good about it, while the piece of “St. Abe and his Seven Wives,” is really striking and original, and likely to have a long run. ___
The Graphic (14 May, 1881 - Issue 598) The new piece at the OLYMPIC called The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and his Seven Wives, and founded on a humorous poem by Mr. Robert Buchanan, both amazed and amused those who witnessed its first performance on Saturday night. It had no doubt a certain charm of its own, for the spectator felt impelled to remain till he had seen how the extraordinary production should end. Its comic situations represent the trials of a Mormon saint, whose seven wives of different nationalities, all in full-dress, national costume, are a great deal too many for him. Difficulties are increased when he falls madly in love with one of the number, and at last he resolves upon an elopement with his own wife. The imagination which runs riot in the tragic passages of the piece is somewhat deficient in these scenes, which ought to be much firmer. Out of them a farce might perhaps be constructed, while the rest of a play, so absurd in its suggestions and its situations, might be banished from the stage, or stored away to furnish hints for some tragedy-burlesque. The good humour of Miss Lizzie Williams, acting as Biddy Linny, a roving Irish colleen, the melodramatic fervour of Mr. William Redmund, and the performances generally of Miss Harriet Jay, Mr. Calhaem, Mr. Compton, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Arnold, and others of the cast received fair recognition from the audience, which, comprising a number of the class who delight in sensational scenes, were at times prodigal of applause, and were laughingly joined in their demonstrations by playgoers who manifestly treated the whole performance as a joke. ___
The Era (14 May, 1881 - Issue 2225) THE OLYMPIC. Henry Desmond . . . . . . . . . Mr WILLIAM REDMUND This “grand, romantic, sensational, and humorous drama, partly taken from an American source, and partly founded on the well-known poetical satire of ‘St. Abe,’” may, we think, be fairly called the most extraordinarily ridiculous play that has been put upon the stage in recent years. The audience that sat it through on the first night was a very friendly one, and must have suffered much for the sake of friendship. Had not this self-sacrificing spirit prevailed we fancy that The Exiles of Erin would have been howled down long before the four acts and seven tableaux had been completed. Our annoyance arose chiefly from the fact that with so many people around who, it was evident, were well disposed towards the author and his work, we could not well, without running the risk of appearing rude, indulge in a good, hearty roar of derision just in those passages of the play where Mr Buchanan intended to be most serious. In the “humorous” parts we could, of course, shed a silent tear without attracting much attention or becoming the object of tremendous frowns, but there was not much consolation or gratification to be derived from this. Once or twice we almost persuaded ourselves that to go to sleep would be the proper thing, but Mr Edward Jones, who presided over the orchestra, was a very determined foe to anything in the shape of repose. His baton seemed to direct some electric battery, and, now and again, at the sign of indifference or a slight drooping of the eyelids on the part of any unhappy individual seated behind him—he evidently knew what was going on—his musical myrmidons struck a chord which acted like a spur upon the drowsy and fairly made them jump. Mr Jones, perhaps, was not so responsible in this matter as was Mr Buchanan, for we think we shall be right in saying that the latter thought and arranged to get some fine “effects” out of his “situations” by the aid of the gentlemen with the fiddles. There was slow music and there was fast music—music that was of the creepy, ghost-like order and music that seemed to be made of fireworks and to go off with a bang. Indeed, we think it may be said that The Exiles of Erin is made up of Mormonism and music, and we are quite certain that in the way of a mixture of mirth and murder, plottings, fights with knives, and fights with pistols, schemes to assassinate this one and to marry that one against her will, to drug here, to hang there, and to carry on sorry work with the assistance of Brigham Young and a mysterious individual who is everlastingly spoken of as a doomsman, nothing so remarkable in the way of a dramatic hash has been seen since the days when there was prosperity at the Bower Saloon. The prologue takes us to Queenstown Harbour in winter. The snow falls fast just when anything startling is going to happen, and that something startling does happen may be guessed from the words in the playbill. Here they are:— “The Mormon Missionary. The Emigrants. A Marked Man. The Deserted Wife. When the Snow Falls. The Face in the Snow.” The fact is that there is a poor Irish girl, who has been betrayed and deserted by a scoundrel named Denis Corcoran. He is responsible for her death, and her brother, Henry Desmond, coming home from his wanderings and learning of the treatment to which she has been subjected, swears to be revenged, and starts in pursuit of her murderer. Corcoran, we presently find, has located in America, and has become one of the Mormon leader’s “destroying angels.” He is in the emigrant camp with the “Exiles of Erin” on the prairie. So, too, is Henry Desmond, who is now passing as Uncas, the trapper. The latter has fallen desperately in love with Hester Fitzgerald, who, with her brother, is on her way to join the Mormons. He tries to persuade her to abandon her purpose, and to avoid the society of the polygamists; but her brother fiercely rebukes him, and a certain Elder Swayne, who seems to be in charge of the party, gives orders to Corcoran to give “Uncas” quick despatch; in other words, to murder him as soon as possible. The attempt is made, but “Uncas” finds a friend in Chingachook, “an Indian, not of the type drawn by Cooper, but good-hearted and given to fire-water.” In the second act we are permitted entrance to Utah. The first scene shows us the “Prophet’s” office, with Abraham Clewson, “known as St. Abe, a recalcitrant polygamist,” pleading to be released from six out of his seven wives. The third scene takes us to this young gentleman’s home. We are allowed to go into the garden of this very much married man, and to make acquaintance with the ladies who have vowed to love, honour, and obey him. They seem to be of all sorts and all sizes, and to be proud of their nationality and their babies. For, be it said, Mr Buchanan brings on some real babies—actors and actresses in swaddling clothes; quiet, well-behaved, and seeming thoroughly to enjoy the novelty of their surroundings. There is a very lame attempt to get something like fun out of the scene by showing us “St. Abe’s” seven wives contending for the first place in his affections, and the Red Indian Chingachook indulging in encounters with the eldest of the ladies, who rejoices in the name of Tabitha. He calls her a squaw, and he thinks it the right thing to be continually squaw-ling at her. Now, it appears that Elder Swayne has made up his mind to add Hester Fitzgerald to his stock of wives, and to this arrangement “Uncas” very naturally objects. Swayne would marry her at midnight, and here we get about the most stupid scene of the whole production. Hester has been brought to the scratch by force; her brother, who has been initiated, and who has received the “pass word,” enters a protest, and is handed over to the doomsman, a funny fellow, who lifts up a trap door to show him the way to the vaults that mean death. But the doomsman presently turns out to be none other than Henry Desmond disguised. He contrives to carry off Hester, but she is recaptured, and is condemned to look on while her lover is executed. Her lover, however, is not executed. He is reserved by a benificent Providence to bring Denis Corcoran to his doom. Denis compares himself to Cæsar, and would like to “beware the Ides of March,” but he has to give up his game and to give up the ghost ere, upon “Sunrise in the Golden Valley,” the curtain finally falls. We sincerely hope we have done Mr Buchanan no injustice in our description of his play, but we think it very likely that we have got some of the incidents rather mixed. That, however, is no fault of ours. We found no natural sequence and it was impossible to make one. Love, murder, Mormonism, cradles, babies, wives, knives, scoundrels, Indians, and destroying angels pressed sorely on our memories as we left the Theatre, and we fear it must be confessed that trying to unravel the mysteries of Mr Buchanan’s play sadly interfered with the attention we should have paid to the following Sunday morning’s sermon. Miss Harriett Jay, who is called “the popular young actress,” represents the heroine, Hester Fitzgerald. She is a little crude at times, but it may be said she played her part with pleasant earnestness, and almost made us regret that she had such poor stuff to interpret. Miss Lizzie Williams is to be complimented on her impersonation of Biddy Linney, “a roving Irish colleen,” who roves all over the world with bare arms and without a bonnet. Her animation made amends for any deficiencies in the dressing of the part. Mrs Digby Willoughby, too, did well in the comparatively small part of Norah, the betrayed young damsel of the prologue. Miss Letty Lind and Miss Agnes Clifton were conspicuous among the seven wives of At. Abe, and merit special mention. Mr W. Redmund was very earnest as Henry Desmond, but we may say this young actor will do much better things when he can be persuaded to moderate his ardour. His elocution is invariably pitched in too high a key. Mr H. St. Maur was but a mild Fitzgerald. Mr J. A. Arnold gave melodramatic force to the part of the rascally Denis Corcoran, and Mr McIntyre was, as usual, very vigorous as the villainous Elder Swayne, a very remarkably unpleasant personage. Mr Dolman’s Brigham Young was what he did not mean it to be, funny; and we may say that Mr Calhaem’s Chingachook, although clever in its way, will not bear comparison with his marvellously skilful portraiture of Jacky in It’s Never Too Late to Mend. Mr Percy Compton was amusing as Abraham Clewson, the gentleman with seven wives, but it was curious to note that he fell alternately into imitations, now of Mr Buckstone and now of his own father. Mr Buchanan was called to the front at the end, but the compliment could not be considered of much value. ___
Brief News and Opinion (14 May, 1881) Olympic Theatre.—A play entitled “The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and his Seven Wives,” was produced at this theatre on Saturday. Beginning in a snowstorm on the coast of Ireland, the story pursues its course through a series of crimes, vows of love and vows of vengeance, midnight bridals, duels with knives, and flights for life, till it ends at “Sunrise in the Golden Valley,” with the shooting of a long-haired Yankee, who, after he has been shot, takes a splendid “header” from a bridge into the seething tide below. The personages are chiefly Irish adventurers of one sort or another, Irish “colleens,” Fenian assassins, Mormons, emigrants, trappers, Ojibbeway redskins, and destroying angels in the pay of Brigham Young. The actors, more particularly Mr. William McIntyre, Mr. Redmond, Miss Harriet Jay, and Mrs. Digby Willoughby, played excellently, and the scenery was bright and pretty. The play was accordingly received with great applause. ___
Bell’s Life In London (14 May, 1881) SUNDRIES. A drama called “The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and His Seven Wives,” was brought out at the Olympic Theatre last Saturday night. It appears, however, that a play called “The Exiles of Erin” has already been done in England; and so the Olympic drama has been re-christened “The Mormons,” &c. Mr Robert Buchanan is the author, and the work deals in romantic style with the dangers and difficulties of the inconvenient institution of polygamy in the State of Utah. Miss Harriet Jay plays the part of the heroine, supported by Mr McIntyre, Mr. Redmund, Mr Calhaem, and others. ___
Reynolds’s Newspaper (15 May, 1881 - Issue 1605) OLYMPIC. The new play by Mr. Robert Buchanan, produced the other night at this theatre, is one of those pieces in which, to use a fragment of theatrical slang, there is a good deal of money out of London. The author is far too practical a man to suppose that “The Exiles of Erin; or, St. Abe and His Seven Wives,” is likely to hold the attention of a metropolitan public. The play is professedly taken from an American source, and supplemented by the broad humour of Mr Buchanan’s satirical poem attacking the Mormon philosophy and styled St. Abe. The work, essentially a melodrama, complicated by coarse fun, suggests Mr. Boucicault’s Irish manner, while now and again the scenes suggest the Indian tales of Fenimore Cooper and Gustave Aimard. Nor is the comic Indian which Mr. Boucicault imported into the Octoroon absent from last night’s dramatic effort. The play is in four acts, preceded by a prologue, in which we have a young Irish lady betrayed by a villain and reduced to rags, who is murdered before the audience upon her entreating that her destroyer will marry her. The assassin is a Fenian, who has betrayed the brotherhood, and has been condemned to death. Under these circumstances he is glad to avail himself of the offer of a Mormon elder to follow him to Utah. The act drop falls upon the discovery by her outlawed brother of the dead girl—the motive of the piece being the pursuit of the villain by the avenging brother. The piece now carries us to America, where we are in a prairie encampment of the Mormons, who have attracted one Maurice Fitzgerald and his sister Hester (Miss Harriet Jay). The avenger, now called Uncas, is condemned by the Mormons, and their destroying angels, with knife, pistol, and cord, are upon him, when he is saved by Hester’s rifle and an Indian chief’s tomahawk. In the next act we are plunged into the supposed daily life of Utah. We are introduced to Brigham Young, who is dreaming of the disruption of the Union and his own elevation to imperial power in the States, where he will have lived as a ruler, and after death be adored as a canonized saint. The Indian chief appears in a corded striped shirt, “worn over,” as he puts it, and is made drunk by Brigham Young; the Ojibbeway, however, recovering sufficiently to visit St. Abe and his seven wives, who, with their babies, are presented bodily to the public. Hester escaping from Utah to her lover Uncas, who is with the Indians, is of course again captured by the Mormons, aided by chloroform, while Uncas faints upon the stage. In the third act we are presented with the mysteries of a Mormon wedding, where the unwilling bride, refusing the sacrifice, she and her brother are left to the tender mercies of a masked destroying angel, who should be the villain of the prologue, but who is the heroine’s lover. They escape, only to be caught again in the fourth act, and once more finally released by the death of the early assassin at the hands of the victim’s brother, while the elder is shot through the head, virtue being left triumphant. The gloom of this final act is, however, relieved by the tearful widowhood of six of St. Abe’s wives, he having eloped with the loved seventh, while the half-dozen appeal to Brigham Young for new settlements, one of them finally pairing off with the Indian chief. It is perhaps needless to say that the piece did not succeed, although the author, in answer to some faint applause, came before the curtain. The piece is well played. Miss Harriet Jay is always intelligent, even engaging, and would under happier dramatic circumstances than those in which she has yet been seen make her mark. Mr. Redmund, as the hero, is vigorous and good, while Mr. Calhaem is quite a treasure as the Indian chief. The actor’s ability in playing aborigines is well known. Mr. Percy Compton as St. Abe, to some degree, reminds the spectator of his clever father. ___
The Times (16 May, 1881 - p.10) There have been one or two recent changes of less note in the substantial programme of our theatrical entertainments. At the Olympic, for instance, the place of Jo—that version of “Bleak House,” which Miss Lee’s sentimental crossing-sweeper has helped to make so very popular—has lately been supplied by a curious work known as The Mormons, but first appearing as The Exiles of Erin, a title discovered to have been anticipated. The author is Mr. Robert Buchanan, and the principal part is played by Miss Jay, the lady who recently figured as the heroine of the same writer’s poetical tragedy, The Nine Days’ Queen. This later work is not poetical, though certainly tragic enough, with a large mixture of comedy, or farce—the two are now so closely allied that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them. The piece aroused a good deal of laughter on its first appearance, sometimes in the comic scenes, sometimes in the tragic. ___
The Brisbane Courier (2 July, 1881 - p.5) Old-Country Notes. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, 20th May. ..... Robert Buchanan, the poet, has produced a play called “The Mormons.” It is a dramatised version of a poem published some time ago in the “Gentleman’s Magazine.” Miss Harriet Jay, his niece, and authoress of the “Queen of Connaught,” appears as the heroine. The critics do not like Buchanan, and are making a dead set against him. According to the papers, therefore, the play is a failure; if the rapturous applause of big houses may be taken to mean anything, it is a marked success. ___
From London’s Lost Theatres of the Nineteenth Century by Erroll Sherson (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1925 - p. 109) Next year [1881], there was a very curious play by Buchanan and Harriet Jay called “The Mormons: or St. Abe and His Seven Wives.” The cast was composed of a lot of nobodies except the veteran McIntyre (who had played Mogg, the convict, in “The Great City” at Drury Lane in 1865 and had been known at the Surrey and other transpontine houses before that), and Stanislaus Calhaem, also somewhat of a veteran whose Australian aborigine in “It’s Never Too Late to Mend” was long remembered. These dramas by Buchanan and Jay (of which there were several) hardly ever succeeded, in London at any rate, and in 1881 the Olympic took a new line and went in for comic opera, though I believe it was not actually the first time that light opera had been done there for, in 1869, “L’Oeil Crevé” in an English version by Burnand was given under the title of “Hit and Miss: or All My Eye and Betty Martin.” _____
Next: The Shadow of the Sword (1881)
Back to the Bibliography or the Plays or Harriett Jay Theatre Reviews
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