Sardou on the English Stage

Abstract

If by successful is meant widely performed, the most successful playwright in the English theatre between T. W. Robertson in the 1860s and A. W. Pinero in the 1890s was a Frenchman, Victorien Sardou. This apparent paradox can be elucidated not only by the list of English adaptations of Sardou which concludes this survey, but by noting some of the leading English actors who appeared in Sardou. They include Irving (Madame Sons-Gêne, Robespierre, Dante); the Bancrofts (Nos Intimes, Dora, Les Bourgeois de Pont-Arçy, Odette, Fédora); the Kendals (Les Pattes de Mouche, Nos Intimes, Dora, Maison Neuve); Wyndham (Rabagas, La Papillonne); Hare (Les Pattes de Mouche, Dora, La Tosca); Tree (Fédora); Forbes-Robertson (Dora, Les Bourgeois de Pont-Arçy); Hawtrey (Divorçons!); Bourchier (Divorçons!); Du Maurier (Dora). The admission to the list of such leading ladies as Ellen Terry, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Modjeska, Elizabeth Robins, and Gladys Cooper would extend it further.

Textualization of the English Theatre and Its Consequences in the 19th Century: Theatre Publisher Samuel French in the Mid-Victorian Period

“…Before the political comedies of Bernard Shaw and well-crafted plays of Oscar Wilde, there was not a single "canonical playwright" in England (Pearson 2015, p. 1). Historians have revealed that in the Victorian era, plays staged in London theatres were far from British; they were often adapted from contemporary French plays (Rowell 1976), novels (Cohen 2017), and other types of performances such as burlesques or animal shows (Davis and Holland 2007). Most of the plays performed on stage are unknown today because they were published as cheap, flimsy pamphlets or simply not published at all.…”