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.

KNOBLOCK’S (Knoblauch) TIGER! TIGER! PART ONE

Edward Knoblock (1874-1945), born in New York City, was in 1917 a renowned playwright on both sides of the Atlantic, when he wrote Tiger! Tiger!  He was the first American to establish an international reputation as a playwright when his play Kismet became a sensation in 1911. Many of his dramas were produced in London, New York and major cities throughout Europe.

When Great Britain declared war against Germany, Knoblock was residing in London. He immediately began to use his writing skills to create plays for British organizations.  His short plays varied from recruiting sketches to raising funds for British War Relief or demonstrating how to protect one’s home and neighborhood during enemy attack.

Knoblauch became a British citizen in 1916, and changed his surname to Knoblock, eliminating the Teutonic spelling and sounding elements. His new citizenship permitted him to become a member of the Intelligence Department in Britain’s War Office. It was during his Sunday duty at the Intelligence Department, when the office was usually quiet that he wrote Tiger! Tiger!

This play is set during the years of World War One. Act I begins in the spring of 1914. It is set in the London chambers of Clive Couper, a Peer of the Realm.  He is a man “of thirty-six or seven; intellectual, rather than physical; a man who appreciates the really fine things of life.” His dwelling shows “great refinement and taste.”  Scene one takes place after dinner. Couper is entertaining his friend Stephen Greer, a kindred type, but older by twenty-five years.  Evelyn Greer, Stephen’s daughter, is playing the piano and singing in another room. Greer urges Couper to marry Evelyn. The scene ends as Couper decides to walk his two friend to a taxi stand.

Scene two is in the same location ten minutes later. Couper returns to his chambers and he is accompanied by a young woman that he has just met on the street. She is a working class person. He is fascinated by her and eventually urges her into his bedroom.

Scene three takes place a half hour after the end of the previous one. The woman’s name is Sally and Clive is enamored. As she is about to leave, Freddie Staunton arrives for a nightcap. He is bachelor friend of Couper’s and about twelve years older. Sally leaves and the two men have a nightcap.

Act II takes place in March, 1916. The location is the same and the time is 9:30 in the evening. The Greers are expected to join Clive for late supper. Couper has continued his relationship with Sally over the past two years, but has never revealed it to anyone. Couper has become a very active, vocal member of the House of Lords since the beginning of the war. He attributes his new work ethic and values to Sally’s influence. When Sally arrives unexpectedly, Clive strives to not let his secret relationship be revealed to the Greers.

Act III, scene one is set in a Red Cross office.  It is several months following Act II. Freddie heads this unit. He requested Sally to come so he can discuss her relationship with Couper. Freddie believes he is protecting his friend’s reputation.

 Scene two is set in the servants’ area of the home where Sally works as the cook. Her servant status was considered by Couper’s class to be near the bottom rung of society. The father of two young girls that Sally is attached to comes to see her. He asks her to marry him, but she refuses his proposal.

Scene three is in Couper’s chambers two nights later. Since it is Tuesday evening, Sally is scheduled to arrive. Freddie drops in first. It becomes known to Couper that Freddie was meddling in his life. Later Sally and Couper have an argument. He declares that he will join the military and go to France.

Act IV. Couper’s chambers, one year later. Couper died in France and his chambers are being dismantled by Evelyn, Freddie and his housekeeper. Sally has been contacted to come today since Couper left her one of his belongings. Evelyn tells Sally about Couper’s final moments of life.

In this play the war is a secondary influence on the immediate lives of the characters. The playwright depicts the war as “out there” meaning in the French trenches. The influence of the war is on those characters in the play who go to France. It either alters one’s goals in life or it takes one’s life.

Tiger! Tiger! was a daring statement relating to the relationship between men and women of the different British classes during the years of World War One. Knoblock states in his 1939 biography titled Round the Room, that the “uncertainty of life led to a relaxation of all former standards.”  Tiger! Tiger! examines a number of social issues—class behavior, role of women in society, influence of war on individuals as well as the major theme that explores the role of sexual passion in men and women and how it governs one’s life choices. 

The play’s title references William Blake’s 1794 poem The Tiger (The Tyger). Knoblock uses the tiger as a symbol of sexual instinct. Although references to sexual relationships outside of marriage were not censored for stage presentation at this time, it was daring to present this progressive topic.

Prior to its London production, Tiger! Tiger! opened on November 12, 1918 in the United States on Broadway. It became known as a controversial play and as a result it was a box hit. After its New York run, it toured the United States through the fall of 1920. The play premiered at London’s Strand Theatre in early June of 1920. 

The production history of this polemic drama will be discussed in my following post.

NOTES:
Photo: The Graphic, June 5, 1920.