Great War Theatre

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

A very effective and timely little sketch. A popular young variety-actress is persuaded by a young journalist-admirer to seek kudos by reading to wounded Tommies in hospital their sweetheart's letters, and by getting photographed while doing so as 'angel of mercy'. She does so with such success that she has offers of most lucrative engagements, which, to the journalist's surprise, she refuses since she feels herself to be a sham in her pseudo-charitable trading upon the realities of war. Her example so fires the cynical newspaper-man that he is preparing to enlist, as the curtain falls upon a well-written and useful little piece. Recommended for license. Ernest A. Bendall.

Researcher's Summary:

Only one performance week has been identified for this sketch, at the Empress, Brixton, music hall. The Era viewed it more favourably than did The Stage.

Licensed On: 22 May 1915

License Number: 3453

British Library Reference: LCP1915/14

British Library Classmark: Add MS 66100 C

Performances

Date Theatre Type
7 Jun 1915 Empress, Brixton Unknown Licensed Performance
7 Jun 1915 Empress, Brixton Professional
Read Narrative
The Era, 9 June 1915, reviewed ‘Sham’, a dramatic sketch by Preston Lockwood and Lincoln Eyre produced at The Empress, Brixton on Monday 7 June. The review continued: ‘The action of this present-day dramatic sketch, which was successfully produced at the Empress, Brixton, on Monday, is supposed to take place in Phyllis Knight’s flat. She and her friend Doris Scott (both of the theatrical profession), on the curtain rising, are discovered talking, Phyllis complaining that for lack of advertisement she cannot get an engagement. Their mutual friend, Guy Armstead, a young journalist, comes in, and he proposes to boom Phyllis, which he does, by getting her photographs inserted in the Press and other means and contracts roll in. But Phyllis Knight has character. She scorns to profit by such means, refuses the contracts, and joins the Red Cross brigade, not, however, before she has given Guy Armstead “a piece of her mind,” with the result that as the curtain falls he says, “I wonder how I should look in khaki?” The sketch is well conceived, and not badly constructed, and it has many excellent lines; but it is disfigured by cheap gibes at the Press. Miss Janice Deane was most successful as Phyllis Knight, and Mr. F. G. Knott scored as Guy Armstead. Miss Irene Stuart as Doris Scott did well in a small part. The scenery and appointments alike were excellent. Mr Pierre de Reeder, who has pioneered the company, deceives praise for his courage in submitting to the music hall public a play of this calibre’ (The Era, 9 June 1915). The Stage, 10 June 1915, reviewed Sham, a dramatic sketch in one scene by Preston Lockwood and Lincoln Eyre, produced at The Empress, Brixton on Monday evening 7 June 1915. The cast was: Phyllis Knight, Janice Deane; Doris Scott, Irene Stuart; Guy Armstead, F. G. Knott. The scene was the dining room in Phyllis Knight’s flat, and the times was the present. The review continued: ‘Sham starts out by being a play with purpose – and a very good purpose, too – but the authors have so over-stated and mis-presented their case that they succeed only in being ludicrous. The rise of the curtain discovers Phyllis Knight and Doris Scott bewailing their fate as two actresses who have been hard hit by the War. The fiancé of the first-named lady is a journalist and press-agent – the two do not always go together – and it occurs to her that possibly he could do some good by booming her in the papers. Whereupon Guy Armstead, the young journalist in question, hits upon the amiable idea of setting her to do little acts of kindness to wounded Tommies in hospitals, and having her photographed during the process. The scheme works so well that within a week not is the lady’s photograph, with or without other descriptive matter, in all the papers, from the Times down to the Mirror, as the young gentleman puts it, but she is the holder of many contracts, of which the lowest is for £50 a week! To do her justice she is heartily ashamed of her success; and to do her justice a second time, she evidently confounds the lowest and most dishonest type of press-agency flapdoodle with journalism when she tells her lover, during far too wordy a scene, that in such times as these journalism should be left to the aged and feeble – a statement which, in the light of recent journalistic events, is delightfully refreshing! There is nothing else to say about this would-be recruiting sketch beyond the fact that the press-agent, hearing a battalion of Territorials pass along the street below, puts himself right again in the young lady’s affections by wondering how he will look in khaki. The three players in the cast do all that is possible with the poor material at their command’ (The Stage, 10 June 1915).