The Freedom of the Seas

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This is a breezy nautical comedy, novel in subject and fresh in treatment. This interesting if not very probably story, which begins in 1915, tells how a crushed London clerk in hopeless love with his bullying employer's termagant daughter, is inspired by a Canadian friend (who by trick secures him a commission in the navy) to assert himself as a man of initiative and determination. It’s thrilling result is that three years later on we find him in charge of tramp steamer on behalf of the Admiralty, in which capacity he is enabled by chance to rescue and befriend his late employer and win his haughty lady-love, while he is defeating the villainous schemes of a pro-German Swede with a contraband cargo to be transferred to a submarine. The sensational details of wireless message of theatrical torpedo and so forth are skilfully worked out, while human interest is secured in the fitful development of the hero's character under the stress of the stirring action. There is no need to give details of complications which are as inoffensive as they should be effective, nor of incidental humorous of characterization equally innocuous. Recommended for licence. Ernest A. Bendall

Researcher's Summary:

The Freedom of the Seas began with a six month (August 1918 - Feb 1919) run at the Haymarket Theatre in London. It does not appear to have been staged at the Royalty Theatre although this was the theatre listed on the script submitted for licensing (which also listed no author) to the Lord Chamberlain. It was hit with tragedy at the end of November 1918 when Billie Carleton, the lead actress and a star of the West End, died of what later turned out to be as the result of an overdose. Following the end of its run at the Haymarket it did a short tour of a few suburban London theatres with the same cast as that in the Haymarket. In August 1919 two companies began touring the country, both organised by Thomas C. Dagnall, one led by Robert Brasher and the other by J. Lawrence Anderson. Both were fully booked up until December 1919 when the tour led by J. Lawrence Anderson stopped, only doing a couple of performances over the next year. In December 1920 the production led by Robert Brasher closed so he could focus on another production. Louis Victor took over from J. Lawrence Anderson and continued performances until April 1921. The first production of the play not associated with the Haymarket or Thomas C. Dagnall took place in September 1921. Following the publication of the play in 1929 a number of productions, both professional and amateur took place around the country. In 1934 a film version of the play was produced. The play is mentioned in F. Tennyson Jesse’s novel A Pin To See The Peepshow (1934) which was inspired by the Edith Thompson/Frederick Bywaters murder case of 1922. In the novel Julia Almond (who is based on Edith Thompson) is taken to see The Freedom of the Seas, ‘the new play at the Haymarket’, by her future husband Herbert Starling. Julia thought that ‘Billie Carleton did nothing much save look pretty’, which dates the occasion to before Carleton’s death on 27/28 November 1918. Julia was more taken by Dennis Eadie ‘who had taken the place in Julia’s heart held in her childhood by Lewis Waller’.