J. M. BARRIE’S BARBARA’S WEDDING & A WELL-REMEMBERED VOICE

Four of James M. Barrie’s (1860-1937) one-act plays, relating to how people were dealing with the effects of war on the British home front, were published in 1918 under the title Echoes of the War.  This volume was published in London by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Charles Scribner’s Sons. The four plays, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, The New Word, Barbara’s Wedding and A Well-Remembered Voice were readily available for readers on both sides of the Atlantic.

My post on April 20, 2015 titled “Two Sir James M. Barrie Theatrical Successes” discusses The Old Lady Shows Her Medals and The New Word.  This post focuses on the remaining two plays from the quartet.

Barbara’s Wedding is set in the sitting-room of a country cottage. The plot revolves around an aged Colonel, who fought in the Crimean War (1853-56). He suffers with dementia and has trouble separating the present from the past. He remembers young Barbara, the bride, from before the war, but he is unsure who she is marrying on this day. Billy, his grandson, had been in love with Barbara and planned to marry her. Billy was killed during the early days of World War One. Barbara, presently a nurse in the Red Cross, is marrying Captain Dering, who had been prior to the war, the Colonel’s gardener. The Colonel’s wife, Emily, explains to the Colonel the reality of the situation. This play represents both the past and the reality of the present after three years into the war. The conditions before the war are contrasted with those of rural Great Britain in 1917.

There is an interesting side issue in Barbara’s Wedding. The Colonel mentions a young German fellow named Karl, who was Billy’s friend at university prior to the war. The Colonel liked Karl and speaks of him to Emily. Emily tells the Colonel that Karl, who fought in the German army died in the same battle that Billy did. Understandably, it was unusual for a British play written during the war years to remark kindly about a German, particularly one serving in the German military. This provides a moment that illustrates the losses suffered by both sides of the conflict.

Barbara’s Wedding was not produced in London until August 23, 1927. It was the curtain raiser for August Strindberg’s The Father at the Savoy Theatre. The entire production transferred to the Apollo Theatre on September 19, 1927 and ran for a total of seventy-five performances.  The role of The Colonel was played by Robert Loraine (1876-1935) a successful London and Broadway actor, who received praise in the London Times review of his performance: “--the evening is a triumph for him—he gives a superb performance as the veteran.” (August 24, 1927)

A British production of these same two plays was produced by Lee Shubert on Broadway at the 49^th Street Theatre opening on October 8, 1931. Barbara’s Wedding played for twenty performances before it was removed from the bill. Robert Loraine reprised his role as The Colonel.

The 1931 Broadway run was a long time after Barbara’s Wedding had been introduced to American theatre audiences. An article in the Washington Herald dated November 18, 1917 announced that Barbara’s Wedding, “which Barrie has just written” was scheduled to be included with The New Word and The Old Lady Shows Her Medals starting on November 26 at the Empire Theatre in Washington, D.C.  It also announced that Charles Frohman’s theatrical production company had scheduled a tour across the United States for this bill of three Barrie’s plays. There are numerous newspaper announcements from various cities about this successful tour.  The cast members were known Broadway actors.

A Well-Remembered Voice is set in the living-room of Mr. and Mrs. Don. A séance is being conducted by Mrs. Don who hopes to contact her dead son’s spirit. The son, named Dick, was killed in the war and both parents are grieving.  After the failed séance, Dick speaks only to his father, a veteran of a previous war. Dick tells his father that he can only appear to the parent who needs him most. Dick’s voice is the only evidence of him that the audience has of his presence.  The father and son talk about simple activities that they enjoyed. Their shared memories comfort the bereaved Mr. Don.  Dick explains to his father that he is content with death and Mr. Don should not grieve. This is a moving, wishful piece of theatre.

This play’s use of spiritualism as a means of contacting the dead was a popular topic and practice during the closing years of the war. Many authors incorporated it into plays and novels. Spiritual practices were attended by grieving people who lost love-ones during the war.

A Well-Remembered Voice premiered in London on June 28, 1918 at Wyndham’s Theatre. It was one of three plays presented as a benefit performance for a London hospital that served wounded soldiers. This play was not staged again in London even though it was published with other Barrie plays numerous times.

After nearly a century, A Well-Remembered Voice was finally produced during the spring of 2014. This production was developed in a partnership with Io Theatre Company and the University of Hertfordshire’s Everyday Lives in War Centre. Original music was created for this production. A Well-Remembered Voice has toured various cities including London, playing at Leicester Square Theatre in October, 2016. There is a short YouTube video of the play’s highlights with the 2014 cast that is worthwhile viewing.

As mentioned earlier in this post, A Well-Remembered Voice and Barbara’s Wedding were highly successful theatre pieces in the United States. Once the war was concluded and the first major tour of these one-acts ended, both plays continued to be presented by nonprofessional and educational theatres until the late 1940’s. Barbara’s Wedding and A Well-Remembered Voice evoke a comforting quality while being remarkably insightful.

NOTE:

Charles Frohman (1856-1915) was an American theatrical producer, 

who also partnered with British producers on London productions. 

He introduced the plays, playwrights and players of these two 

countries to each other. Frohman was on his annual trip

to England in May, 1915. He was a passenger on the Lusitania 

when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat.

G.B. SHAW’S O’FLAHERTY V.C.

 VICTORIA CROSS:

A British naval and military decoration instituted by royal warrant and bestowed for "Conspicuous bravery or devotion" to the country in the presence of the enemy.

When George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) wrote O’Flaherty V.C. for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1915, he already had an international reputation as a playwright.  O’Flaherty V.C. is a one-act comedy that Shaw subtitled “A Recruiting Pamphlet.”  The play was written shortly after Michael O’Leary became the first Irish soldier to be decorated with the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant O’Leary had killed eight German soldiers and thereby stopped the assaults from two German barricades. Shaw denied that he was inspired by the real-life soldier, but the newspaper reporters continued to press the comparison.

After being decorated with the Victoria Cross, Shaw’s character, Private Dennis O’Flaherty returned to his village in Ireland to see his mother. She is to meet him at the Irish country home of General Sir Pearce Madigan. It is the summer of 1915. The first half of the play is the discussion between Sir Pearce and O’Flaherty.  The young soldier shares his candid thoughts with his estate master, who is also his general. Mrs. O’Flaherty, an ardent Irish nationalist, arrives and is angry that her son is a soldier in the English army since he told her he was going to fight for the French and the Russians. She is also irate that her son had shaken hands with the King of England. Following a set-to with Teresa, the General’s parlor maid and O’Flaherty’s girlfriend, Mrs. O’Flaherty enters the General’s house to have tea. Both military men agree that life is quieter at the front.

Shaw believed he was writing a play that would help the British recruitments in Ireland that were below the needed number. Part of the problem was that the Irish Nationalists were not interested in assisting England’s World War One efforts. Shaw hoped his comedy might provide humorous insights into the grievances that the Irish held against the British and win over his Abbey Theatre audiences for recruiting purposes.

  

O’Flaherty V.C. was not produced during the fall of 1915 at the Abbey Theatre as had been planned.  The government of Great Britain intervened through its Dublin Castle administration. There were many newspapers across Great Britain that carried the notice in mid-November 1915, claiming that the play had been suppressed by the Censor. By November 17^th other newspapers carried the story that St. John Ervine (1883-1971), the manager of the Abbey Theatre and a playwright, claimed there was “no foundation for the play having been withdrawn.” He stated in the London Daily Mirror on November 17, 1915 that O’Flaherty V.C. had “only been postponed and the military authorities have not interfered in the matter.”  Shaw also denied in the press that his play had not been suppressed by the authorities. So there was no single explanation made to the public about the change of plans.

The Abbey Theatre never presented O’Flaherty V.C. and the play was not produced until 1917. It is noted in Bernard Shaw Selected One Act Plays published in 1965 by Penguin Books that this satire was “first performed by Robert Loraine for the British Expeditionary Force in 1917.”  Robert Loraine (1876-1935) was a successful London actor and friend of Shaw’s.  He was also a pioneer aviator who in 1917 was serving in the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front while stationed at Treizeenes in Belgium. He had created a dramatic society in his squadron and it was this group who premiered Shaw’s play on February 21, 1917.  It was also in 1917 that Hearst’s Magazine published the script of O’Flaherty V.C.

In 1915 a “rough proofed--unpublished” copy of O’Flaherty V.C. was printed by R.R. Clark in Edinburgh. This proof was never released for publication, but it did find its way into a few libraries. The official publication of O’Flaherty V.C. occurred in 1919. It has also been published in collections of George Bernard Shaw’s plays during the twentieth century.

In 1920, Shaw wrote a letter to the Managing Director of the new Celtic Players.  He offered this group, located in the United States, the opportunity to stage the first professional theatre production of O’Flaherty V.C.  This acting company, changed its name to The Irish Players, and opened its season in June, 1920. The Irish Players staged their production at the Thirty-ninth Street Theatre in New York City, with Shaw’s play on the bill. Newspapers across the United States carried stories about this production. The Cincinnati Enquirer carried a special “Correspondence of the Enquirer” story dated New York, June 30, 1920.  There is one sentence in this piece that sums-up my feeling for this play: “O’Flaherty is a real broth of an Irish lad, inspired with some of the keenest wit of the author of his being.”

The first production of O’Flaherty V.C. in England was produced by the Stage Society at the Lyric Theatre on December 19, 1920. This was a theatre society with limited membership which mounted private Sunday performances of new and experimental plays.  The group frequently presented the first English performance of plays that had been banned for public performance by a government authority. This performance was not open to the general public.

The play finally received its largest audience in 1924 when Shaw was invited by the British Broadcasting Company to read the play for a radio audience. The radio broadcast took place on November 20, 1924 and it was sent to every radio station on the network except the one in Belfast. The BBC estimated that this program reached an audience of three million listeners. This was the BBC’s first venture into broadcasting a play and it was Shaw’s first attempt at doing one of his own dramas. There were many positive reviews and some negative ones, but the BBC was encouraged to begin regularly broadcasting plays to its large audience.

This play is a gem and it has a long history of professional and amateur productions throughout the United Kingdom and North America. The play still has the power to capture an audience’s delight. The most recent production of O’Flaherty V.C., that I have seen mentioned in a review, was staged on March 7, 2007 by the Washington Stage Guild. 

NOTE: If you are interested in reading more information about the reasons the Abbey Theatre cancelled its production of O’Flaherty V.C., there is an in-depth article on PROJECT MUSE http://muse.jhu.edu titled “The Censorship of O’Flaherty V.C”.  The author is Dr. Lauren Arrington.

Source for Image: 

George J. Hagar The Standard American Encyclopedia (New York: University Society Inc., 1916) 12:Victoria Cross