Playhouse, London

Madame Réjane performed one act of the play. On the same bill were Madame Hanakow (dancer), Indain Tableaux.

'Miss Blanche makes the biggest Peter Pan on record, and then appropriately puts on khaki and hazards a Great Adventure, to the Wendy of Miss Ida René, in the scene representing the Borderland between Fact and Fiction' (The Stage, 2 December 1915). 'It is a fitting way for Peter Pan to grow up. The whole feeling of Sir James Barrie’s wondrous work is kept in this little scene It rang true to me, for did not Peter come of an old fighting stock? Had he not fought pirates galore and revelled In it? And he was a British boy, too. That is the whole point of the change. A British boy, however little he liked the idea of “growing up,” had to do it to fight for his country, and all boys must have known how Peter felt about it. He had no sense of responsibility, just because he was designed for a dreary routine life at an office desk, but he had to put on khaki: that was different, very different, and we are all proud of him ... I think every child should see it when he or she has seen “Peter Pan.” It is a happy pendant.' (Weekly Dispatch (London), 5 December 1915). '[Marie Blanche's] Peter Pan turned soldier boy is a fine and inspiring episode' (The People, 5 December 1915). 'Miss Marie Blanche has a great deal to do, and she does it very well. Her acting is spirited, her singing tuneful, and she looks nice, especially as Peter Pan' (Reynold’s Newspaper, 5 December 1915). '.. Then follows a scene called “Border Land,” where our old friend Wendy presides in order to keep a strict dividing line between fact and fiction. Wendy has invited Peter Pan to tea, but when he comes he is found to have grown up and to be on the point of visiting a recruiting officer. Both Miss Blanche and Miss Ida Rene distinguish themselves in this scene, the former getting quite a stirring ring into her patriotic utterances as Peter' (Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 18 December 1915). 'in another “Sample,” dedicated to Peter Pan (now “grown up” at last, and in khaki), [Mabel Russell] made a most sweet and unsophisticated Wendy; and generally it might be said without exaggeration she was the life and soul of every scene in which she appeared' (Westminster Gazette, 5 January 1916). 'One of the “Samples,” pictorially charming and illustrating a pretty idea, represents “Border Land” - the land betwixt fact and fiction - and brings in our old friends Wendy (Miss Ida Rene) and Peter Pan (Miss Marie Blanche). But Peter is grown up at last, and now, clad in khaki, is doing his bit for the country’ (Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore), 12 January 1916).

A revival with Percy Hutchinson as the VC which ran until Saturday 5 January

Mander & Mitchenson, p. 335, list the cast as follows: Babsy, Wendy Attenborough; Lottie, Monica Stirling; Hannah, Thelma Rea; Jessie, Ethel Warwick; Emma, Bunty Bruce; Elder Daniels, George Wray; Blanco Posnet, Esmé Percy; Strapper Kemp, Geoffrey Wardwell; Feemy Evans, Margaret Rawlings; Sherriff Kemp, Edmund Willard; Foreman of Jury, Edward Wheatleigh; Nestor, a Juryman, J. Lister Williams; The Woman, Catherine Lacey; Waggoner Jo, Allan Hamilton. ‘The bill of one-act plays which Miss Nancy Price is presenting at the Playhouse for three performances (profits to the funds for the distressed areas) consists of one well-known Shaw and one unknown Dunsany … Mr. Shaw’s famous melange or [sic – of?] horse-opera and higher thought was as sharp and to the point as a new pin … In “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” Mr. Esme Percy, who also directed, played Blanco with terrific gusto, and Miss Margaret Rawlings as “Feemy” and Miss Catherine Lacey as “The Woman” each had only a moment. But what good moments they both made of them!’ (Daily News (London), 15 February 1939). 'In behalf of the funds for the Distressed Areas, Nancy Price and the People’s National Theatre arranged three special performances of “The Showing-up of Blanco Posnet” and a new poetic playlet by Lord Dunsany entitled “The Bureau de Change.” The first performance was held on Sunday evening, February 12; the second, a matinée, on Tuesday; and the third will be given at the Playhouse to-morrow. Miss Price’s choice of plays for her charities, with the generous support of a notable company of players, was well marked by strong contrast. “The Showing-up of Blanco Posnet” is one of Shaw’s most effective plays. It is virile and colourful. It is also more compact than some of Mr. Shaw’s plays, and it would be difficult to point to a single line less trenchant than it should be or superfluous to the action. Thus while it is true that “The Showing-up of Blanco Posnet” may be called by its author “a sermon in crude melodrama” the lesson is not thrust upon one per se, and the melodrama is crude only because it is undisguisedly human and true in the little allegory (in “knee boots, breeches, Garibaldi shirts, cowboy hats” and with bronco countryside) it sets out to imprint on heart as well as mind. Some there may be who think that “Blanco” is the most human of Shaw’s plays, for what it teaches is also something most needful of being taught. It is pity ... the selection of a rough community for the expounding of this gospel of pity removes the sermon from the mock mawkishness that charity has in the spheres of a regulated philanthropy. Modern dramatic literature has little to excel the masculine quality of that last outburst by Blanco' (The Stage, 16 February 1939).