Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 23 February 2002

A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines

* * * * * * * * Mr and Mrs Russell’s ‘Harmony and Expression of Motion,’ 1886 Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, Saturday, 31 July 1886 ‘A remarkable matinee was given here yesterday, Mr. Augustus Harris introducing Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Russell, of New York, in a form of drawing-room lecture entitled "The Harmony and Expression of Motion." Mr. Russell first occupied the stage, and told the story of how a past French singer, Delcarte, when he lost his voice, propounded a science of dramatic action. Then Mrs. Russell supplied several illustrations of this science in a graceful and pleasing manner. She showed by movements of her head how a young lady would express the various phases of emotion, and she told how the eye, as being nearest the brain, was the most important factor of emotion. Mr. and Mrs. Russell are anxious to introduce the science to London.’ (The News of the World, London, Sunday, 1 August 1886, p.5a) * * * * * * * * Without Love, a drama by Edmund Yates and A.W. Dubourg at the redecorated Olympic Theatre, London, 16 December 1872 ‘Under the touch of Mr. Alfred Thompson’s wand, aided by the chink of Miss [Ada] Cavendish’s money-bags, the dingy old Olympic has been transformed into the most gorgeous little theatre in London. It is unfortunate that one ruling power was absent from the ceremony - namely, taste. Gold and colours have been lavished in the internal decorations until the eye become dazed and the head turns giddy; and, in consequence, when the curtain rises the most sumptuous costumes appear poor and homely, whilst the scenery, though new and good, looks shabby and commonplace. Mr. Thompson would have done well to have studied certain articles which appeared some time since in the Athenaeuum upon "stage decoration," wherein it was clearly demonstrated that all glorification of the auditorium was at the expense of the stage, and hence of the treasury; that colours and patterns should therefore be kept down, and made to enhance by neutral tones the dresses and complexions of the fairer portion of the audience, whose charms might be considered as more pleasing to the eye than any amount of upholstery and stencilling. The hues of the renovated house are green, blue, and violet, exquisitely harmonised, all diapered with arabesque ornament belonging to the Greek, Italian, Renaissance, and Japanese styles, jumped together in a bewildering omnium gatherum, from amidst which medley rise groups of pale faces and colourless dresses, like mushrooms out of a flower-bed. The background of the boxes being light, throws out their occupants in shadow against a pale surface - an arrangement by no means happy. This is the second theatre that has been transformed under Mr. Thompson’s eye, with no greater success as regards good taste than the former one. One the other hand, Miss Cavendish not only abolishes fees, but puts the fragrant programme conceit to flight, so that we can study our playbill without being turned faint by the sickly odours which by courtesy are termed "scent." This is a most agreeable reform. After the performance of an inane farce, the curtain rose upon the new drama of which we have all heard so much, and from which great things were expected. Now, I have passed much of my youth in Continental capitals, have sown granaries of wild oats, have perpetrated al the endless little wickednesses which we consider necessary to a proper appreciation of that vague thing, "life," and in fact have revelled in everything which appeared to my unfledged mind "delightfully disreputable;" but never, in my wildest dreams, did I imagine anything so revoltingly wicked as the ordinary thoughts and impulses of the characters in this singular play. With no exception their desires and aspirations are of the grossest, without redeeming points; therefore the piece, though undeniably clever (and dramatic in the third act), is like a dose of physic, leaving an unpleasant flavour in the mouth.’ (The Cosmopolitan, London, Thursday, 19 December 1872, p.183c) * * * * * * * * Dion Boucicault’s drama, The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana Adelphi Theatre, London, 18 November 1861. First performed at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, December 1859. ‘Sir, - Now-a-days faults, either in the construction or acting of new plays, or in the acting of revived ones, rarely fail to be detected by the microscope of criticism; but I think a drama can be pointed out which enjoyed a fair London "run," and favourable criticism at its production, part of the plot of which is not only improbable (which is all "sensation" demands), but impossible, and which I do not think has ever been publicly noticed (except by myself, in an Edinburgh newspaper). I allude to that twin to the Colleen Bawn [by Dion Boucicault], the Octoroon, and it is Salem Scudder’s Photography [in the latter] which is at fault. In that play Photography was for the first time, I think, made to play a prominent part in a dramatic plot - an accidentally taken picture giving evidence against a murderer. But in what an impossible and impracticable way is this supposed to be brought about! An unprepared plate is exposed in a camera, behind an unfocused lens, a murder is enacted before it (in which the figures of course moved) and the apparatus is immediately afterwards smashed by a tomahawk blow. A considerable time afterwards, upon examination of the broken instrument, it is found to contain a life-like picture of the murderer stooping over his victim; and that without the plate having been developed, or in any way manipulated with. Indeed, such an excellent likeness is it that the prisoner (McLoskey) is immediately convicted upon its evidence, Salem Scudder observing that "The apparatus can’t lie." ‘Though not so innocent of "sensation" as the Colleen Bawn, this drama may be in many parts a picture seen by the author, by "holding the mirror up to nature;" but the photography introduced into its composition is surely more like a reflection from Zadkiel’s crystal ball. I do not speak of the intrinsic merits of the piece. In the scenery of the Colleen Bawn, the moon did not play a strictly astronomical part, and critics made the most of it; but it is eclipsed by the sensation Photograph of the Octoroon, in the taking of which not one of the conditions necessary to the production of such a picture are fulfilled. ‘The principles of Photography are now so generally known, that many who have seen this otherwise lifelike play must have noticed all this, and have often wondered how it has escaped the impartial pens of "conscientious critics."’ ‘I am, sir, your most obedient servant, ‘Photo. ‘Haddington, June 15th, 1864. (Tallis’s Theatrical, Musical, Fine Art, Literary, and General Family Newspaper, London, Saturday, 25 June 1864, p.203c) * * * * * * Frank Ottoway, a stage Ethiopian, 1887 Hammersmith Theatre of Varieties 'Mr. Frank Ottoway, with the ordinary business of the stage Ethiopian supplemented by special bone manipulation, makes a good impression.' (The Entr’acte, London, Saturday, 12 March 1887, p.11b)

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© John Culme, 2002