167:. Robertson directed his own plays, which was a radical change from the usual system in Victorian theatre of the manager of the theatre company staging the work around its star player. Gilbert said of this innovation: "I frequently attended his rehearsals and learnt a great deal from his method of stage-management, which in those days was quite a novelty, although most pieces are now stage-managed on the principles he introduced. I look upon stage-management, as now understood, as having been absolutely invented by him."
232:," he says, "was a very important one to intrust to so young an actor as I then was, bearing as it does much of the burden of the play, I should like to note how much of the success I was fortunate enough to achieve was due to the encouragement and support I received from the author, who spared no pains with me, as with the others, to have his somewhat novel type of characters understood and acted as he wished."
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of to-day!) that then formed the staple fare at that popular little playhouse, was anxious to spread her wings and try her strength in comedy. With that object in view she had taken the old Prince of Wales
Theatre, hard by Tottenham Court Road, a place of amusement that had fallen into such disrepute
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had been rejected by many theatrical managers before finally being produced at the Prince of Wales's
Theatre. Together, Robertson and the Bancrofts are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama', so-named because real cups and saucers
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The supposed danger lay in the simplicity of the play. True to nature it might be, but audiences accustomed to theatrical types verging on the border-land of caricature would (so managers thought) be hardly likely to accept a mere photograph of human life. It was the old tale of actors' portraits
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that the originality and cleverness of the dramatist were fully recognised. Play-writer and company were exactly suited one to another; the plays and the acting together – the small size of the playhouse being also in their favour – were at once recognised as a new thing. Although some critics
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was produced in the metropolis on 11 November 1865, and on the following day
Robertson awoke to find himself famous. The success of the piece was, indeed, instantaneous, and soon became the talk of the town. Not to have seen Marie Wilton as Maud Hetherington, Bancroft as Sidney Daryl,
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He might have added but perhaps he hardly realised it that the triumph of the whole play owed much to the tact and the liberality of the clever lady who allowed
Robertson to have his own way with the stage-management and (as far as was then possible) with the mounting of his work."
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at its true worth, declared that danger was better than dullness, selected her supporters, and under the now delighted author's superintendence, commenced rehearsals. After some preliminary difficulties it was produced, first in
Liverpool and then in London.
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that it was sneeringly nicknamed "The Dust-bin" ... So different in treatment was it from the plays with which theatre-goers were then apparently well pleased that Miss Wilton's friends and admirers frankly warned her that introduction was "dangerous."
129:, Robertson made a distinct attempt to introduce naturalism into contemporary drama. In his play, Robertson looked at the world around him and tried to reproduce it realistically through drama. The characters act like people of their day.
200:"Penny plain and tuppence coloured." The coloured articles had the readiest sale in the shops, ergo they could not be made too florid in the theatres. Miss Wilton, however, having in common with
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as Lady
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drama because of its realism in sets, costume, acting and dialogue. Unusually for that time, Robertson both wrote and directed the play, and his innovative writing and
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sneered at the "cup-and-saucer comedy", others voted it absurdly realistic, and said there was nothing in it but commonplace life represented without a trace of
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How much of this success was due to
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was so popular that it encouraged
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Miss Marie Wilton, the darling of the Strand
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Library, University of Kent at Canterbury Theatre Collections : London Theatres
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The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes
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as Lord Ptarmigant, John Clarke as John Chodd, junior, Fred Dewar as Tom Stylus, and
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The comedy was such a success that another row of stalls had to be added, and the
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wit and sparkle. Nevertheless, playgoers flocked to the little theatre in
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The History of World Theater: From the English Restoration to the Present
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454:. Vol. 8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 20–1.
322:(1905). "The English Drama from its Beginning to the Present Day".
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421:"W. S. Gilbert: Antiquarian Authenticity and Artistic Autocracy"
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Having been very favourably received in the Lancashire city,
94:'Round table'. The play marked the London debut of
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376:Londré, Felicia Hardison; Margot Berthold (1999).
342:Thomas William Robertson: His Plays and Stagecraft
384:. New York: Continuum International Pub. p.
16:1865 comedy drama by Thomas William Robertson
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446:Ward, A. W.; Waller, A. R., eds. (1907–21).
365:Information about the Bohemian Round Tables
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155:(1870). These plays, together with
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560:Plays by Thomas William Robertson
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407:society bancroft robertson 1865.
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283:John Chodd, Jnr – John Clarke
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25:Engraving of Tom Robertson
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125:came to see the play. In
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419:Bruegge, Andrew Vorder.
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510:Encyclopædia Britannica
339:Savin, Maynard (1950).
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