KNOBLOCK’S TIGER! TIGER! PART TWO

Tiger! Tiger! was a success when it played on Broadway. It racked up 183 performances.  David Belasco (1853-1931) was producer and director.  He was delighted with the production and claimed in the New York Times on November 14, 1918 that he had never staged a greater success than Tiger! Tiger! He further announced the theatre was sold out for every performance.

Perhaps the popularity for Tiger! Tiger! should not only be attributed to the play itself and the glowing reviews for Frances Starr (1886-1973) in the leading role as Sally as well as praise for Lionel Atwill (1885-1946) a British actor who played Clive Couper, but some credit should also be given to the free publicity garnered by the controversy surrounding the play. The New York Times reported on December 7, 1918 that a magistrate would determine if the play’s content was immoral within the meaning of the law.  This issue was raised due to a police complaint that focused on some of the speeches in the opening scene.  A December 11^th follow-up article reported the chief magistrate refused to entertain the complaint after he perused the manuscript and attended a performance. He claimed there were conspicuously objectionable points in the play, but offered that the title is misleading and should be changed.

Theatre Magazine later reported that David Belasco consented to modify some of the offending lines, but it is unclear whether it was done.  This tempest in a teapot helped make Tiger! Tiger! the controversial play that became a popular box office hit across the United States. 

 

After it closed on Broadway in April 1919, the production toured the United States through fall of 1920. The tour included Chicago, where it played for several months in early 1920 before moving to other destinations in middle America and later heading to theatres in western cities.

Since interest in this play lasted more than two years in the United States, it gained a reputation as “one of the most discussed plays of the last decade,” according to the Dover Express on May 21, 1920, when Tiger! Tiger! was having its pre-London performance week at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in Folkestone, England. The article further claims that the play “created an immense sensation due to the courageous frankness with which it tackled a difficult but virtually important sexual problem.”

The play opened at the Strand Theatre in London and the review in the London Times appeared June 3, 1920. The review states: “These simple tales of elementary human passion can hardly achieve their full poignancy of effect without the best acting. Tiger! Tiger! we fear, gets only the second best.”  The review neither mentions the relationship between the social classes nor does it comment on the male/female issues beyond the passionate relationship. The reviewer ignores the war as a factor beyond stating it is “on” and that “the M.P. is chafing to get to the front.”

Other reviews also mention the acting as the major weakness of the production. The Tatler’s  June 23, 1920 review is more specific: “Miss Kyrie Bellew has not the temperament to give a perfect representation of a cook carrying on a secret liaison with an M.P. Nor has Mr. Leon Quartermaine quite the style to make us understand and sympathize with this M.P.”

Leon Quartermaine (1876-1967) who played Clive Couper, was an established British actor by 1920. He had been acting both in London and on Broadway for nearly two decades by the time he was cast in Tiger! Tiger!  Kyrie Bellew was the young wife of Arthur Bourchier (1863-1927) an established actor, who managed the Strand Theatre when Tiger! Tiger! was presented. Bellew had starred in plays prior to Tiger! Tiger! but did not always earn positive reviews.

Knoblock remarks in his biography, Round the Room, that the London production of Tiger! Tiger! “made no appeal whatever and only ran about six weeks.  His rational was that the London public in 1920 was sick of all references to the topic of war. He claimed his only consolation about this play was “Somerset Maugham told me once that he thought it perhaps my best play—‘very nearly a great play’ he added.”

The play garnered new productions in Great Britain after its London premier. It was produced in March, 1921 in Grimsby, England at the Prince of Wales’ Theatre. Another production was produced in Worthington, England in May, 1922. I have not attempted to discover more British revivals of the play.

It also was staged in Paris, France and opened in September, 1922 at the Théatre des Arts under the title L’Eveil du Fauve. This production was labelled an adaptation of Knoblock’s play in an article that appeared in The Stage on September 21, 1922. This same theatre presented the play under its English title in September, 1923. It starred two well-known French actors Paulette Pax (1887-1942) as Sally and Pierre Renoir (1885-1952) as Clive Couper.

Knoblock had nine new plays that appeared on Broadway and in London throughout the 1920s and 1930s. One of those plays relates to World War One. It is titled Simon Called Peter (1924) and adapted from the best seller 1921 novel by Robert Keable (1887-1927). This play opened on Broadway in November 1924 and closed in January 1925 after playing a total of eighty-eight performances.

PARSING WORLD WAR ONE PLAYS

The first several posts discussing specific World War One plays relate to two plays written after the war and one penned prior to it.  After reading numerous World War One plays from a number of different countries, I began to realize that the plays fell into three distinct segments—Pre War, During the War and Post War.  This is particularly true for plays written in Europe and Great Britain; however, there were also voices in North American that followed this pattern.

                   PRE WAR PLAYS (1910-1914)

This group of plays anticipated a war and discuss specific attitudes about how to be patriotic and/or heroic.  Others scripts make a case for not engaging in a war.  There are also plays that examined possible social and political changes that a war might introduce into the social and cultural environments.  Edward Knoblauch is one example of a playwright trying to use his art to provide insight into the growing possibility of a war.  Knoblauch, who changed the spelling of his name in 1916 to Knoblock when he became a British citizen, was born in the United States. He moved to Europe and then to London in order to establish his credentials as a playwright. He achieved his goal in 1911-12 with his box office success Kismet that successfully played in England, United States and France.  Knoblauch wrote two plays that fit the pre-war plays category.  Marie-Odile written in 1913 had its world premiere on Broadway in 1914. The declaration of war by England delayed its originally scheduled opening in London.  The story is set during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and relates to the impact of war on innocent citizens.  The other 1913 play Knoblauch wrote is My Lady’s Dress, which also appeared on stage in London and New York in 1914. Its premise is that all countries share the responsibility of maintaining the achieved level of civilization, since many basic commodities for daily life were based on international manufacturing cooperative practices.  His example is a lady’s gown.  The silk was spun in Italy, it was woven into fabric in France, lace was made in Holland, sable trim came from Siberia and the garment was assembled in London. It was sold at a Bond Street establishment.

          DURING THE WAR (1914-1918)

There are several different types of plays that fit into this timeframe. 

•  Perhaps the most popular commercial plays written in English were the spy plays.  These plays were thrillers and often they included the element of romance.  They were very popular at the box office in many countries.  In Great Britain these dramas played to the public’s fears of embedded German spies, who had immigrated to England years earlier. Many of these plays also represented the British phobia of a surprise invasion by sea.

•  Patriotic plays helped to encourage behavior relating to supporting the war effort as well as building hope and developing courage. Sarah Bernhardt commissioned a play by Eugene Morand shortly after the war commenced in France. The play titled Les Cathedrals raised the hopes of the French citizenry and the soldiers at the front by providing national pride in victories of the past. Another type of patriotic play may also be dubbed recruitment plays. These dramas urged the population to contribute actively to the war effort. A patriotic identity also applied to women who were urged to join the war efforts in such areas as nursing or working in armament factories.

•  Social change plays were written during the war as well as after its conclusion.  There were plays concerned with the possible rise of Communism in their country following the war.  Many British and European plays in this category related to the erosion of the class system.    J. E. Harold Terry’s 1917 comedy titled General Post was a huge success throughout Great Britain for over a decade.  It is an entertaining play that was also well received on Broadway.  

•  There were numerous antiwar plays written in many countries.  While some countries banned antiwar plays from their stages during the war years, these plays were read by individuals.  One stunning example is the play Ein Geschlecht, It was written by Fritz von Unruh, an officer in the German army, who was from an aristocratic Prussian military family.  He wrote this play in 1916, as he fought his way to Verdun.  It is reported that young German soldiers in the trenches read hand written copies of this play.  This drama was an international success throughout Europe after the war ended.

•  Propaganda plays were assumed necessary to insure continuing support from the home front. These plays generally display negative sentiments about the enemy and his actions toward innocent victims caught in the jaws of war.  Outrageous acts of violence committed by the named enemy were thought to fuel the audiences’ hatred and add another layer of fear if the war was lost to this vicious foe. 

My listing of categories only focus on the plays presented on professional stages.  However, many theatre professionals presented productions written for charity events during the war years.  These plays were usually shorter in length and were often labelled skits or sketches.  There were various topics for these special events plays and many of the leading playwrights contributed to this type of endeavor. Some of the plays became popular and had a life beyond one event.

The third period for World War One plays will be discussed in the forthcoming post.