 |
|
|
|
|
ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841-1901) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THEATRE REVIEWS 32. Sweet Nancy (1890) - continued |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
[Miss Annie Hughes]
The Echo (11 December, 1896 - p.2) CRITERION THEATRE. MISS ANNIE HUGHES’ REVIVAL OF It was a very happy notion of Miss Annie Hughes to set Sweet Nancy once more before us, a very timely reminder to playgoers in general, and critics in particular, that in this charming and vivacious young lady we have not only an expert and, in her own line, unrivalled comedienne, but also an actress who can call forth sympathy and our tears. Mr. Buchanan’s very successful adaptation of Miss Rhoda Broughton’s novel has lost none of its freshness or fragrance since it was seen at the Lyric and the Royalty about six years ago, and, though Mr. Henry Neville and Mr. Yorke Stephens have made way for Mr. Edmund Maurice in the part of General Sir Roger Tempest, and pretty Miss Lena Ashwell follows Miss Harriet Jay as Barbara Grey, happily Miss Hughes still remains to give us her vivid and bewitching sketch of “Sweet Nancy”—Lady Tempest. The scene of separation that concludes the second act was never better played by the actress. Nancy’s frantic entreaties to her husband not to go to the war had all the poignancy and girlish pathos that attaches to genuine cris de cœur. Needless to say that Miss Hughes rendered the tomboy aspects of captivating gaucherie and naiveté of Miss Broughton’s heroine with wonderful delicacy and aplomb. Mr. Maurice was rather gruffer than Mr. Neville, and perhaps scarcely suave and dignified enough, but on the whole he has never acted better. He gave a perfectly sincere and virile performance. Mr. C. M. Hallard, who used to play Bobbie Grey, makes the lover much more plausible than Mr. Garthorne. Miss Lena Ashwell strikes the right key as Barbara Grey, and Miss Helen Ferrers sustained a very promising reputation as Mrs. Huntley. Mr. Martin Harvey following Mr. Henry Esmond is delightfully boyish and calf-like as Algernon Grey, and Mr. Charles Rork gives a clever character sketch of Mr. Grey. A very pleasant afternoon. By the way in the Royalty programme Grey (now described as a country gentleman) has his name spelt with an “e,” in the Criterion bill it is printed with an “a.” We notice this discrepancy and ask for an explanation, inasmuch as we have never read Miss Broughton’s novel of Nancy. ___
The Morning Post (11 December, 1896 - p.3) CRITERION THEATRE. Miss Annie Hughes yesterday gave a special afternoon performance at the Criterion Theatre. The first piece was a one-act play entitled “An Old Song,” by the Rev. Freeman Wills and A. Fitzmaurice King. It has not been played before in London, and was very favourably received, being a touching idyllic story of Rouget de l’Isle, who is represented as starving in a garret until his old friend, Signora Rosetti, takes up his song, “The Marseillaise,” and sings it at the Opera House, where it at once becomes popular, so that it is repeated in the street outside. But the success comes too late; the poet dies before he has enjoyed his fame. Mr. Martin Hervey played the poet and Miss May Whitty the singer. “Sweet Nancy,” adapted by Mr. Robert Buchanan from Miss Rhoda Broughton’s novel, was the principal piece. Though not new it has not been lately given, and was followed with great interest. The first act relates the courtship of General tempest and Nancy Gray, a young lady whose disposition is that of a schoolgirl. She accepts him without the slightest serious notion of the responsibilities she is undertaking. In the second act Nancy, as the young wife, shocks the conventional people about her by her girlish naiveté; the General goes off to a war and leaves her alone, and his young friend Musgrave decides to take advantage of his absence to seek for himself the affections of Nancy. Nancy supposes that Musgrave’s visits are meant for her sister Barbara, and so she encourages them. In the third act, a year after the second, the General comes home. Musgrave takes the opportunity to declare his passion to Nancy, who resents it, in the hearing of Barbara. The scoundrel is sent packing, and the General finds his wife the same naïve, good girl that she was at the beginning. Miss Annie Hughes played Nancy with great skill, rendering the light and serious shades of the character with force and truth. Miss Lena Ashwell gave her excellent support as Barbara; and Mr. Edmund Maurice made a good General. The other parts are unimportant, but were very fairly represented. There was a good house, which was most appreciative of the merits of the play and of the acting. ___
The Era (12 December, 1896 - Issue 3038) MISS ANNIE HUGHES’S MATINEE. At the Criterion Theatre, on Thursday Afternoon, Dec. 10th, General Sir Roger Tempest Mr EDMUND MAURICE Mr Robert Buchanan’s adaptation of Miss Rhoda Broughton’s novel “Nancy” was first seen at the Lyric Theatre on July 12th, 1890, with Mr Henry Neville as Sir Roger Tempest, Mr Buckland as Frank Musgrave, Me Ernest Hendrie as Mr Gray, Miss Ethel Hope as Mrs Gray, Miss Harriet Jay as Barbara, Mr Henry V. Esmond as Algernon Gray, and Miss Frances Ivor as Mrs Huntley. The version was subsequently transferred to the Royalty Theatre on Oct. 6th of the same year, Mr Yorke Stephens being the Sir Roger, Mr C. W. Garthorne the Frank Musgrave, and Miss Jennie McNulty representing the designing widow. Mr Buchanan’s adaptation formed the chief attraction at Miss Annie Hughes’s matinée at the Criterion Theatre on Thursday last. We have already twice dealt with the merits and demerits of the work, and need now only record that Mr Edmund Maurice made an easy, natural, and quite gentlemanlike Sir Roger Tempest; that Mr C. M. Hallard was thoroughly effective as Frank Musgrave; that Mr Charles Rock, though emphatic and domineering enough, made Mr Gray rather too common and vulgar; that the “boys” were well played by Mr Martin Harvey, Mr Kenneth Douglas, and Master Grose; that Miss Henrietta Cowen duly depicted the meek supineness of Mrs Gray; that Miss Lena Ashwell was sweet and gentle as Barbara; that Miss Annie Hughes was as charmingly simple and ingenuous as ever as Nancy; that Miss Marion Bishop made a pretty Theresa, and hat Miss Helen Ferrers acted with skill and tact as Mrs Huntley. ___
From The Theatrical ‘World’ of 1896 by William Archer (London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1897 - p.341-342) “SWEET NANCY.” On Thursday last Miss Annie Hughes revived at the Criterion, for a single afternoon, Mr. Robert Buchanan’s dramatisation of Miss Rhoda Broughton’s Nancy. When first produced at the Royalty, this clever and really human little play was less successful, I fancy, than it deserved to be. It certainly delighted the audience at the Criterion, where it was acted with excellent spirit. Miss Hughes seems born for the title-part, in which she displays admirable humour, vivacity, and tenderness. Her performance is a genuine and most sympathetic character-creation. Mr. Edmund Maurice was good as Sir Roger Tempest, and the Gray children were capitally played by Mr. Martin Harvey, Mr. Kenneth Douglas, and Miss Beatrice Ferrars. ___
The Stage (11 February, 1897 - p.13) THE COURT So much favour was given to Sweet Nancy on its revival at Miss Annie Hughes’s matinée at the Criterion, on December 10, that its reappearance in an evening bill, with Miss Hughes again in the title character, will be welcome to very many playgoers, more especially when it is preceded by a new play from the pen of Mrs. Oscar Beringer, a writer whose work always deserves careful criticism. Thus the double bill with which Mr. Arthur Chudleigh reopened the Sloane Square house on Monday, February 8, ought certainly to prove attractive, until Easter, at all events. The cast of Robert Buchanan’s adaptation of Rhoda Broughton’s novel is in most respects identical with that of the Criterion matinée, and the interpretation given of this delightful comedy on Monday was such as fully to justify the genuine applause of an emphatically well-pleased audience. We have nothing further to say about Miss Annie Hughes’s charming embodiment of the girlish heroine, her Sweet Nancy being now indeed an impersonation flawless in the blending of childlike candour and sisterly devotion with the keen love and passionate jealousy of a rapidly growing woman. Mr. Edmund Maurice gave again a bluff and manly performance of Sir Roger Tempest; Mr. Martin Harvey as Algernon, Mr. C. M. Hallard as the would-be seducer, Frank Musgrave, and Miss Henrietta Cowen as the downtrodden and submissive Mrs. Gray repeating their excellent portrayals. Miss Beatrice Ferrar appeared on Monday as that lively tomboy, “Tow-Tow,” instead of her sister, Miss Marion Bishop. The character of the mean, intriguing domestic tyrant, Mr. Gray, was assigned to Mr. George Canninge (vice Mr. Charles Rock), who by his make-up imparted a certain oddity to the rôle. Miss Helen Ferrers made the grass widow, Mrs. Huntley, as worldly and superficially fascinating as necessary, other parts being filled by Mr. Hubert H. Short and Mr. Trebel as the younger Gray lads, Mr. Williams as the butler, and Mrs. Campbell Bradley as the housekeeper. Miss Lena Ashwell was succeeded as Barbara by Miss Beryl Faber, a young actress of much culture and high intelligence, whose dignified and sympathetic playing of her important scenes in the last act counted for much in the success of this Court revival. ___
The Morning Post (27 December, 1897 - p.2) Miss Marion Thornhill begins her season at the Avenue on January 6 with Robert Buchanan’s “Sweet Nancy,” which had a successful run at the Court Theatre. In the cast will be found Miss Lena Ashwell, Miss Thornhill, Miss Kate Osborne, Miss May Protheroe, and Miss Annie Hughes; Messrs. Martin Harvey, Havard Arnold, Jarvis Widdicombe, Herbert H. Short, and Mr. Edmund Maurice. Mrs. Beringer’s one-act play, “A Bit of Old Chelsea,” in which Miss Annie Hughes will resume her original part, is to precede the comedy. |
||||
 |
||||
[Advert for Sweet Nancy from The Times (28 January,1898 - p.6)] |
||||
 |
||||
[From The Penny Illustrated Paper (29 January, 1898 - p.68)]
The Guardian (26 September, 1899 - p.8) THEATRE ROYAL. SWEET NANCY. Manchester playgoers already know Miss Hughes’s performance in “Sweet Nancy.” Mr. Robert Buchanan did not make a highly skilful adaptation of Miss Rhoda Broughton’s novel “Nancy.” The play is rather episodic, and unity of purpose is necessarily wanting, particularly after the first act. The points that draw us are those of the story-teller rather than of the dramatist; we see in them the worldly knowledge and sagacity of Miss Broughton, the bias of cynicism that leads her to choose situations always on the verge of the unpleasant, even though they are true and natural and common; and, lastly, we see the unconventionality. Last night we felt that we owed everything to these traits of the novelist that visibly lie behind the work of the adapter, and to Miss Hughes. Nothing else and nobody else mattered. Miss Hughes has many qualities that fit her to present the captivating mixture of Nancy’s character. Nancy is a hoyden and an altruist, a vixen and a devotee, “a pleasant little devil” (in her own phrase) and a sister of mercy. She is a mere child, and the old man who marries her is a natural and obvious foil to her gusty but affectionate caprices. Where Miss Hughes fails is that her purpose is not perfectly consistent. Occasionally a sentence drops that seems detached in tone from the rest, that strikes the ear as a little incongruous piece of insincerity—a burlesque almost of her own manner and the play. Again, a few passages seemed to us to speak rather of a loud young woman than of what Nancy was at her wildest moments—a madcap. But Miss Hughes’s performance was still very pleasant, and never more attractive than when she was being followed about by that unconventional retinue of inquisitive and inconvenient young brothers and sisters. The playing of the rest of the company wanted finish and in most cases experience. ___
The Morning Post (12 December, 1900 - p.3) THE IRVING DRAMATIC CLUB. “Sweet Nancy” is well adapted to representation by amateurs. It portrays characters familiar and dear to us in every-day life, and the succession of light and humorous scenes makes no great demands on dramatic power or acting of serious pretension. In the hands of the Irving Amateur Society Mr. Robert Buchanan’s charming play delighted the audience that filled St. George’s Hall last night, and the success of the company was indeed well deserved. There was a care and finish in the performance unusual in the efforts of amateurs, and a regard to clear pronunciation that made it a pleasure instead of a task, as is so often the case, to listen to the words of the actors. Mrs. Archie Keen played Nancy. She wisely followed in the footsteps of the Nancy with whose memory the comedy will ever be associated—Miss Annie Hughes—but there was no servility in Mrs. Keen’s methods, and though she bears, singularly enough, some facial resemblance to one of our most genuinely comic actresses, her rendering had an individuality and a spirit of its own. The bevy of brothers and sisters who contributed so largely to our enjoyment was a marked feature of excellence, and Miss Nora Wallis Lancaster as Tow-Tow, Mr. Cyril Shepard as Algernon, Mr. Cuthbert Denton as Bobby, and Master Kimbell as “The Brat” were all quite up to the mark. Mr. Leonard Graves, to whom the company owe the first-rate stage management, was the gentle old general, and he presented the character with dignity and pathos. Mr. Percy Varley played the ridiculous father, a part easily exaggerated, and the lovers and minor personages were intelligently represented. Between the acts the orchestra, under Mr. Henry Baker’s baton, performed an unusually pleasant selection of pieces. |
||||
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Next: The English Rose (1890)
Back to the Bibliography or the Plays or Harriett Jay Theatre Reviews
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||