Tag Archives: theatrehistory.com

Under The Gaslight

undergaslight

Thanks again to The University of New Brunswick I continue to enjoy peeking into the past to follow Lizzie May’s first big season as an actress.  As a soubrette in William Nannary’s troupe, Lizzie May was part of the extremely popular production of  Aristophanes’ The Clouds . 

The dramatic season at the Academy of Music lasted 11 weeks. The popular Clouds was followed by New Men and Old Acres, My Mother-In-Law and many others.

Audiences were soon entranced by the company’s production of Under The Gaslight. Under the Gaslight written in 1867, is such a fantastic example of the melodramatic plays of the day.  The story reads like a soap opera… Laura Cortlandt  is jilted by her lover, Capt. Ray Trafford  when he discovers she is merely an adopted daughter (the scandal!) and actually of mere humble parentage. Laura in shame runs away from home but is dragged into court, where the villainous Byke  claims that she is actually his child and so is given custody of her. He attempts to take poor Laura to New Jersey but is stopped by a one‐armed ex‐soldier named Snorkey (you can’t make this stuff up!), and the dashing Captain Trafford. In the ensuing tussle, Byke throws Laura into the river, but she somehow swims to safety and returns to the family who adopted her. It gets even better. The furious Byke then decides to rob the Cortlandt home. Snorkey overhears his plans, but then the evil Byke catches him and ties him to the railroad tracks (!) knowing that an express train will soon pass by and crush him! Laura out for a walk just happens to see Snorkey tied there and releases him moments before the train comes. She then returns home to live happily after ever with the handsome Captain Trafford.

Apparently the famous railroad scene that thrilled audiences was said to have been borrowed by an English play written a few years before called The Engineer. Later, the hero or heroine tied to the train tracks became a staple of early cinema.

Daly’s play is famous for introducing the cliched “thrill” device…offering one sublime, extremely realistic wow moment such as a fire rescue, a volcano erupting, a shipwreck etc… These so-called “sensation plays” were used by many theatre companies to draw in the crowds.

Whether Lizzie May played the lead is not clear but I think she would have made a wonderful Laura.

Clouds

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The University of New Brunswick has a wonderful collection of memorabilia of the bygone theatre. Through their website I discovered  a mention of  William Nannary’s troupe including Lizzie May and George, performing in Halifax back in 1877.  The piece that they performed on January 16,1877 was called The Clouds. At the time it was all the fashion for theatre troupes to perform ancient Greek plays.

The Clouds is an ancient Greek play by Aristophanes. According to theatrehistory.com , The Clouds was chiefly a general exhibition of the corrupt state of education at Athens, and of its causes; it was a loudly uttered protest on the part of Aristophanes against the useless and pernicious speculations of the sophists. The Clouds, themselves, who form the chorus, no doubt dressed fantastically enough, are an allegory on these metaphysical thoughts, which do not rest on the ground of experience, but hover about without definite form and substance, in the region of possibilities.

As there were no female roles in the play except for the clouds, I would hazard a guess that Lizzie May dressed in gauzy splendor was hung by a basket from the rafters and slowly lowered to the stage. Her stage direction would have been to look ethereal and light. With the over-emoting of the day I would certainly have loved to have seen that!

According to reviews the company put on an excellent performance and they opened to a packed house. The name G.T. Ulmer is merely mentioned as part of the troupe of players. Lizzie May however is singled out as a pretty ingenue and one of the best soubrettes in the troupe. Young, pretty actresses usually filled the role of soubrette who had a light soprano voice and a young coquettish attitude. A soubrette was flirty, and fun and connected well with audiences. I wonder how well George, a known ham, felt about his 22 year old wife getting more recognition than himself?