Great War Theatre

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This vigorous little sketch, described as a 'story of Leitz Drift' shows how a young officer who has won his V. C. for a deed of gallantry in the South African War is unmasked as a fraudulent coward by his brother, who was the real hero and who returns, years after he has been 'reported missing', to prove himself, in death, worthy of the honour bestowed upon another. Recommended for license. Ernest A. Bendall.

Researcher's Summary:

Only one performance of 'The Missing' by Val Gurney has been found - on 14 May 1915 at the Elephant and Castle Theatre, London.

Licensed On: 8 May 1915

License Number: 3394

Author(s):

Genre(s):

British Library Reference: LCP1915/12

British Library Classmark: Add MS 66098 C

Performances

Date Theatre Type
14 May 1915 Elephant and Castle Theatre, London Unknown Licensed Performance
14 May 1915 Elephant and Castle Theatre, London Unknown
Read Narrative
The Stage, Thursday 13 May 1915, announced, ‘Tomorrow (Friday) [14 May 1915] at one o’clock at the Elephant and Castle Mr. F. Rawson Buckley will produce a new one-act play by Val Gurney, entitled The Missing. The parts will be played by Mr. George Barran, Mr. J. A. Bentham, Mr. F. Rawson Buckley, and Mr. Bartlett Garth. The performance is one given under the mistaken impression that such a thing as used to be generally known as a *“copyright” performance is necessary’. [* ‘The copyright performance of a play was a first public performance in the United Kingdom, staged purely for the purpose of securing the author’s copyright over the text. There was a fear that, if a play’s text was published, or a rival production staged, before its official preview or premiere, then the author’s rights would be lost; to forestall these abuses, the practice arose of staging a copyright performance, which was notionally public, but in practice staged hastily before an invited audience with no publicity and no regard for the artistic quality of the acting or production … Many less commercially viable plays were never performed other than in a single copyright performance … Copyright performances were rendered unnecessary by the Copyright Act 1911, which secured the author’s rights over unpublished and unperformed works and derivatives’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_performance).] The Globe, 15 May 1915, reported, ‘At the Elephant and Castle Theatre yesterday afternoon Mr. F. Rawson Buckley and his company gave an invitation performance of a new one-act play, “Missing.” The piece is well written and vigorously acted, and should do well either on the “halls” as a sketch or as a curtain-raiser’.