‘Allan Wilkie: Henry VIII on Stage’, <em>The Sunday Times</em>, 27 April 1930
Allan Wilkie, Allan Wilkie Company, Anne Boleyn (c.1501-1536), Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (c.1473-1530), Catherine of Aragon (1484-1536), Duke of Buckingham, Edward Stafford (1478-1521), Henry VIII (1481-1547), His Majesty's Theatre, Miss Hunter-Watts, Miss Mildred Howard, Mr Alexander Marsh, Mr John Cairns, Mr William Lockhart, papal envoy, play, performance, Perth, Old England, stage, Tudor times, WA, Western Australia.
This article published in <em>The Sunday Times</em> reviews a production of ‘Henry VIII’ staged at the His Majesty's Theatre in Perth by the Allan Wilkie Company in 1930. Assisted by elaborate scenes and plush costumes it succeeded, according to the article, in bringing to life the Tudor period: an age of ‘a powerful diplomatic Cardinal that rose from the lowliness of being a son of a butcher; who rose to share the prominence of his regal master; of the beautiful and ill-fated loves of Henry, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn and of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham’. A criticism levelled against the play was that its attempt to include so many different historical events could lead to incoherency, however, the general consensus of the article was that this was countered by its spectacular revival of ‘Old England’.
Anon
TROVE: National Library of Australia, <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58381388" target="_self">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58381388</a>
The Sunday Times
27 April 1930, p.8
Copyright Expired
Newspaper Article
The Feigned Death of Juliet
bedchamber, Capulet, characters, Count Paris, domestic interior, Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), Friar Laurence, Juliet, Lady Capulet, medieval dress, music, musical instruments, musicians, nurse, play, Romeo and Juliet, SA, Shakespearean characters, South Australia, tragedy, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
This oil on canvas painting by nineteenth-century artist Frederic Leighton was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia with funds from the Elder Bequest in 1899. Titled ‘The Feigned Death of Juliet’ it depicts a scene from William Shakespeare’s tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet'. In Act IV Scene V of the play, Count Paris arrives at the Capulet house with Friar Laurence to claim Juliet as his bride. However, instead of finding her ready to proceed to the church to be wed, he discovers Juliet seemingly lifeless in her chamber. In Leighton’s painting, Juliet is shown lying on a bed surrounded by her mother, her nurse, her father and Count Paris. Friar Laurence hovers in the corner and a band of musicians congregate by the open door with their instruments. Although the play was written in the 1590s, it is set in Verona in an earlier (but unspecified) period. The characters in the painting are all depicted wearing styles of dress typical of the High Middle Ages.
Leighton, Frederic
Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia
1856 - 1858
Art Gallery of South Australia
Oil on Canvas, 113.6 x 175.2cm;
Hyperlink
Vacuum Entertainment: Enjoyable Evening at the Y.A.L.
alchemy, alchemist, drama, entertainment, function, G. W. Craggs, L. B. McCay, laboratory, Major Norman Brearley, medieval setting, play, stage performance, Vacuum Oil Company, WA, Western Australia Y.A.L. Hall
This newspaper article from the Sunday Times reports on a function hosted by the Vacuum Oil Company at the Y.A.L. Hall on 1 June 1932. In addition to an address Major Norman Brearley, the managing director of W.A. Airways, the programme for the evening featured a well-received one-act play written by Mr L. B. McCay and produced by one of the Company’s automotive staff, Mr G. W. Craggs. Although no further details about the play are provided, the setting is described as ‘the subterranean laboratory of medieval alchemists’.
Anon.
The National Library of Australia
The Sunday Times
5 June 1932, p. 4.
The Sunday Times
Digitised newspaper article; PDF
English
"Saint Joan"
Albert Chevalier, Atholl Fleming (1984-1972), Battle, Bishop of Beauvais, Bluebeard, British stage, Bruce Winston, canonisation, Captain La Hire, cast, characters, Charles VII, Charles de Ponthieu (1403-1461), Christopher Casson (1912-1996), Dauphin, Donald Eccles (1908-1986), drama, Dunois, Earl of Warwick, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Hilda Davies, His Majesty’s Theatre, Hundred Years’ War (1336-1453), Inquisitor, Jeanne d’Arc, Joan of Arc (1412-1431), Ladvenu, Leonard Bennett, Lewis Casson (1875-1969), maid of Orléans, medieval France, Michael Martin-Harvey (1897-1975), New Theatre, Page, Perth, play, Poulengey, Rheims Cathedral, Robert de Baudricourt, Rouen, Saint Joan, “Saint Joanâ€, St. Joan, St Joan, saint, saints, stage, Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976), T. Tracy, theatre, theatrical production, trial, warrior, Zillah Carter (1864-1941)
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This article from the Sunday Times provides a positive review of George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan”, which premiered in Australia at His Majesty’s Theatre in 1932. “Saint Joan” is a play based on the life (Scenes 1-5), trial (scene 6) and canonisation (Epilogue) of Joan of Arc. The play’s depiction of medieval France is praised by the reviewer as vivid and realistic. For a copy of Shaw’s “Saint Joan”, see <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200811h.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200811h.html</span></a>. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">About Joan of Arc:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /> Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in the French village of Domrémy. From the age of about 12, Joan had visions of saints and heard heavenly voices that increasingly urged her to fight for France during the Hundred Years’ War. She travelled to the court of Charles De Ponthieu, the Orléanist claimant to the throne, where she was provided with a suit of armour and her distinctive banner depicting a golden fleur-de-lys. She secured a decisive military victory to rescue the city of Orléans from the Earl of Salisbury’s English army in 1429, and was present at the coronation of Charles VII. However, in May the following year Joan was captured by Burgundian forces at Compiègne, and was handed over to the English. She was tried at Rouen on charges of witchcraft and heresy, and was condemned to death. On 30 May 1431, she was executed. Two and a half decades later, the case was appealed and her conviction was overturned. She was beatified in 1909 and canonised as a saint in 1920.</span></p>
Anon.
<span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; color: #000000; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">National Library of Australia, </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58662791" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58662791</span></a></span></span></span>
The Sunday Times
8 May 1932
National Library of Australia
Digitised Newspaper Article
English
Theatre review: Emlyn Williams ‘The Wind of Heaven’
Theatre, Wind of Heaven, medieval saints, saint, saints, hagiography, saints in drama, drama, children, children as portents of the divine, divine, divinity, Genesian players, Sydney, The Marvellous History of Saint Bernard, Barry Jackson, Henri Gheon, fifteenth century, manuscript, The Green Pastures, play, Marc Connelly, angel, Gabriel, Adam, Eve, Adam and Eve, Bernard Shaw ‘Saint Joan’, good versus evil, Minerva Theatre, Jerome K. Jerome, ‘The Passing of the Third Floor Back’ play, jester, pilgrims, pilgrim
A.T. critiques three plays that have an angel or saint in them. Set in a Welsh village, ‘The Wind of Heaven’ is about a boy named Gwyn who works a miracle in a village devastated by cholera. He brings back to life a dead soldier and new hope to the soldier’s widow and the whole town. Jerome K. Jerome’s play about a mysterious Stranger is ‘the saint over-done’. The final play, ‘The Marvellous History of Saint Bernard’, divides its stage into heaven, earth and hell. This picture ‘was as real to the medieval mind as the Harbour Bridge is to us’. The author notes that it is illegal to depict the Deity on stage in England so Mary was substituted for God in the latter play. A.T. remarks that Bernard Shaw deployed similar techniques in his play ‘Saint Joan’.
A.T.
Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney Morning Herald
26 April 1947
Public Domain
Trove
Newspaper Review
English
Interview with Bernard Shaw, playwright. Miracle plays of medieval church as influences.
Bernard Shaw, Edith M. Fry, origins of modern theatre, medieval mystery plays, theatre, drama, tragedy and comedy in theatre, medieval church passion play, miracle plays, medieval stage influence on Shaw’s drama, Oberammergau Passion play
Edith M. Fry interviews Bernard Shaw about his dramatic philosophy. Shaw claims that tragedy and comedy are intertwined. He delivers a short history of the theatre from Greek to modern times. He models his lack of scenery changes on stage from the techniques of the miracle plays of the medieval church. The miracle plays have no curtain; all scenery is placed on the stage; actors pass easily from one location to another without a change of scenery. He cites the Oberammergau Passion Play as an example. Shaw concludes that great drama ought not to depend on elaborate or changing scenery.
Fry, Edith M.
Sydney Morning Herald/National Library of Australia
Sydney Morning Herald
15 May 1920
Public Domain
Newspaper Article
English
Murder Scene, 'Murder in the Cathedral', Bonython Hall, Adelaide.
actor, actors, Adelaide, archbishop, Archbishop of Canterbury, Australian Elizabethan Trust, Bonython Hall, Canterbury Cathedral, cathedral, Hugh de Morville, knight, murder, ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, medieval crime, play, Reginald Fitzurse, Richard le Bret, Robert Speaight, South Australia, T. S. Eliot, Thomas a’Becket, Thomas Becket, verse drama, William de Tracy
British actor, Robert Speaight (as Thomas a'Becket) in the murder scene from 'Murder in the Cathedral', performed in Bonython Hall, Adelaide, with 4 knights (L to R: Ron Haddrick, Ken Broadbent, Eric Reiman and Ron Graham, members of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre).
‘Murder in the Cathedral’ is a verse drama written by T. S. Eliot and first performed in 1935. The plot recreates the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket by four knights at Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170. The knights - Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Bret - had overhead Henry II complaining about Becket and interpreted it as an order to kill him.
Anon.
National Archives of Australia, Image number L34653
Australian News and Information Bureau, Canberra
1960
Australian News and Information Bureau
Hyperlink
"Rumpelstiltskin" Pan Pow Productions stage performance at Monash University, 1974
Alexander Theatre, child, fairytale, gold, Grimm Brothers, king, knights, medieval costume, medieval dress, Monash University, Monash, university, Pan Pow Productions, performers, play, queen, Rumpelstiltskin, spinning wheel, straw, theatre, theatre group, theatrical production, Victoria
A Photograph of Act 1, Scene 4 from a 1974 stage performance of "Rumpelstiltskin" at the Alexander Theatre, Monash University, featuring Beverley Gardiner as Gretchen and Penelope Richards and Paul Kennedy as the two knights.
“Rumpelstiltskin†is a children’s fairytale by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It was first written in 1812 and expanded in 1857. It tells the story of a Miller’s daughter who is forced to spin straw into gold on threat of her life for three successive nights. A little man appears and offers to spin the straw for reward. On the first night she gives him her necklace, on the second her ring but on the third she has nothing to give and promises him her first born child. Years later, after she has married the king and has her first child, the man appears and gives the queen three days to guess his name or he will take her child. After two days of guessing to no avail, the queen’s messenger (according to the 1857 version) stumbles upon the man dancing and singing in a house in the forest. The song he sings mentions his name, which the queen correctly reveals the following day. Although no date is given in the tale, the characters - involving a king, a queen and royal knights - and the importance of the spinning wheel are often assumed to indicate a medieval setting.
Anon.
Monash University Archives
Monash University
1974
Monash University
Hyperlink