What a piece of work...!!!

Last time I posted, I had decided to create a basic reference spreadsheet of performers in the Principal Company, taken from the records in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust archive catalogue, Well, I might have slightly underestimated how long that task would take, even given such a limited frame of reference.

However, I think it will have been worth the effort when I finally reach the end of it...

Up until now, I suppose I've just had lots of names sloshing round in my head, with only the vaguest idea about dates,  roles and career progression. It has been fascinating to see how the personnel of the Principal Company changed over the years that they were the resident company at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.  The spreadsheet has also highlighted some persons of interest outside the 'usual suspects' who may be worthy of further exploration because their stories suggest something about what it meant to be a touring Shakespearean in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

J.C. Trewin's  'Benson and the Bensonians' gives as much credit in its title to those who passed through the companies as FRB himself and the list of Bensonians name-checked in the book is impressive. Re-reading it again this week, every sentence seems crammed with information and I'm in awe of the research and collation such a work must have taken.  It has done very little for my Pre-PhD nerves or my inevitable imposter syndrome.  I once sat behind the seat dedicated to  Trewin in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and I feel that's still where I am - just sitting in his shadow!

A few interesting things I've stumbled across this week include two separate essays about Lily Brayton's career, information about Alice Denvil's theatrical family (one of her sisters was apparently the wardrobe mistress at Drury Lane) and the revelation that actress Tita Brand was actually Michael Morpurgo's maternal grandmother.  

I've also unearthed another article by Arthur Machen which contains some fascinating details about 'Pastoral' performances, based on his experiences with the 'vacation' company of Harcourt Williams and Garnet Holme.  Because of the spreadsheet it has been really easy to identify the other performers he refers to, usually only by character name or as 'A'. 'B' or 'C' and I can see it will also be useful when trying to identify actors in uncredited photographs.

He finishes his recollection with the following, which I rather liked: 

I remember once in Hampshire, Rosalind and Orlando, Jaques and Touchstone, and the rest of that company of forest wanderers, made their entrance by strolling down under the pines, knee deep in heather and bracken; and I should think those fantastic figures, glinting amongst the green, must have added no small charm to the show (...) In a wicked, tiresome world such as this is, when men earn their living for the most part by ‘doing  business’ or by such other evil and squalid tricks, there seems nothing more innocent or more charming than this device of wandering from wood to wood in odd dresses, in doublets and trunk hose, with false beards and painted faces, speaking Shakespeare’s lines, and trying to murmur the airs of Arden in the fairy age to this dull and gloomy time. 

According to the review in the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal  on Friday 12th July 1901, Rosalind was played by Constance Robertson, Orlando by Harcourt Williams, Arthur Whitby was Jaques and H.O. Nicholson played Touchstone.  

(The illustration is by Charles A. Buchel)

UPDATE: Benson Company Performers sample database is now here!!!  Some tweaks and changes still to make but v1 is live.  I'll post more details next week, but Sheet 1 focuses on rep, Sheet 2 lists the roles played by any performer in the sample who spent two or more seasons with the company within the framework of the Stratford 1886-1916 performances.