Benson made many visits during his career to Edinburgh,
often for two week seasons, and always performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. Like the Waterford Theatre, the
Edinburgh Royal Lyceum (named after Irving’s
Theatre in London) is still operating as a theatre today, now with its own resident
theatre company. Benson first visited the
Lyceum in 1888, five years after it had opened.
Yet another auditorium designed by the prolific C.J Phipps, the theatre reputedly
cost £17, 000 to build.
On February 15th
1893, Benson presented a week of plays including Merchant of Venice, Twelfth
Night, Richard III and Hamlet as well as
‘Old English’ comedies, The Rivals and School for Scandal. The following week was a full week of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Benson had
originally produced his ‘Grand Production’ of the Dream in 1889 for a six week
season at the Globe Theatre where it had been very favourably reviewed by the
national press. The Pall Mall Gazette,
in particular, praised Benson’s ambitious intentions: ‘There has been no
‘scamping’ behind the scenes at the Globe – no half measures in the matter of
mounting. On the contrary, the play has
been put upon the stage with as much care as if it were intended run for a
year.’
Benson would go on to use the fact
that this was a London production in much of his publicity for the play and
would recruit local ‘elves and sprites’ from each town the production visited
to be trained up for the performance.
Benson’s production obviously proved popular in Edinburgh, returning the
following year for a further week’s performances.
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