Thomas William Robertson
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Thomas William Robertson (January 9, 1829 – February 3, 1871) was an Irish dramatist and innovative stage director best known for a series of realistic or naturalistic plays produced in London in the late 1860s.
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[edit] Life and career
Born in Newark-upon-Trent, Nottinghamshire, The son of a provincial actor and manager, Tom Robertson belonged to a family famous for producing actors. The actress Margaret (Madge) Robertson was his youngest sister. Never a successful actor himself, he wrote a number of popular plays, mostly comedies, which achieved popularity.
[edit] Plays Produced
Robertson produced a farcical comedy, A Night's Adventure at the Olympic Theatre under in 1851, but this did not catch on, and he remained for some years longer in the provinces, varying his work as an actor with miscellaneous contributions to newspapers. In 1860, he moved to London and worked as an editor, also writing a novel, later dramatised under the title Shadow Tree Shaft. He also wrote a farce entitled A Cantab, which was played at the Strand Theatre in 1861. This brought him a reputation among a Bohemian clique of writers, the Fun magazine gang (W. S. Gilbert, Tom Hood, Clement Scott and F. C. Burnand), but so little profit that he thought of abandoning the profession to become a tobacconist. Finally, in 1864, he had his first notable playwriting success, David Garrick, produced at the Haymarket Theatre with Edward Sothern in the title role. Robertson also wrote the libretto to the 1865 comic opera Constance, with music by Frederic Clay.
Robertson found fame in 1865 with the production under the management of the Bancrofts at the Prince of Wales Theatre of his comedy Society, which included a scene that fictionalized the Fun gang, who frequented the Arundel Club, the Savage Club, and especially Evans's café, where they had a table in competition with the Punch "Round table".Schoch, Richard, Performing Bohemia (2004) This play became regarded as a milestone in Victorian drama because of its realism in sets, costume, acting and dialogue. The most popular of Robertson's plays were produced by Squire Bancroft (and his wife Marie) at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End. Other Robertson plays for the Bancrofts at the Prince of Wales Theatre included the domestic dramas Ours (1866), Caste (1867), Play (1868), School (1869), and M.P. (1870).
[edit] Innovations in Realism and Directing
Robertson's plays were notable for their "cup and saucer" realism, treating contemporary British subjects in settings that were realistic and usable, unlike larger Victorian melodramas that were popular at the time. For example, whereas previously a designer would put as many chairs into a dining room scene as there were actors who needed to sit down, Robertson would place on stage as many chairs as would realistically be in that dining room, even if some were never actually used. Some critics said there was nothing in Robertson's plays but commonplace life represented without a trace of wit and sparkle, but many admired the new style of play and new style of acting. George Bernard Shaw called Robertson's play Caste "epoch making" and referred to Robertson's innovations as a "theatrical revolution". It is now disputed whether Robertson really originated many of his supposed innovations, but Society and its successors were certainly viewed at the time as something quite new and, in their quiet way, revolutionary.
The Bancrofts gave Robertson unusual artistic freedom to control his scripts and direct his plays. Before Robertson and James Planche, star actors generally had control of scripts in the theatre. Robertson insisted on retaining control over his scripts and required that his actors follow his directions - a novel concept at that time. Robertson directed (or "stage-managed", as he called it) his own plays, aimed to get rid of the unreal stylisation and bombast of the old melodramas. W. S. Gilbert learned from the older playwright's use of "stagecraft" and personal direction of his actors. Tom Robertson was also a leader in requiring a fee from his managers for every performance of his plays, thus pioneering the modern royalty system.
[edit] References
- Tydeman, William Ed. Plays by Tom Robertson 1982 ISBN 0521233860
- Pemberton, T. Edgar. The Life and Writings of T. W. Robertson. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1893.
- Savin, Maynard. Thomas William Robertson: His Plays and Stagecraft. Providence: Brown UP, 1950.
- Durbach, Errol. "Remembering Tom Robertson (1829-1871)", Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Oct., 1972), pp. 284-288.
[edit] External links
- Biography of Gilbert that includes info on Robertson
- 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica entry
- Broadway credits
- Photo of Robertson
- Article on realism, naming Robertson as a proponent
This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
