Globe Theatre, London

This performance was a charity matinee under the stage direction of Mr. Barnard Moore. It raised £56 in aid of the Home Camps Concert Fund (Little Theatre Section). During the varied programme. Miss Clare Greet and Miss Frances Weatherall performed in the play.

A matinee performance given in aid of the Irish Prisoners of War fund and to aid Irish regiments, under the auspices of the Irish Women's Association. Lady MacDonnell, president of the association was in charge of the programme sellers who included the Honourable Anne MacDonnell, her daughter; Lady Margaret Forbes, Miss K. MacDonnell, and Miss Grenvill. This was reported as the first play from Duncan to be presented in London and the Illustrated London News commented that ' It looks as if Mrs. Everard Cotes has a vocation for playwriting’ (4 August 1917). The Daily Mirror reported that 'First you laughed, then you cried, and then you clapped wildly, for the human play is a charming one. And this despite the fact that every woman in the theatre was incredulous: how could any woman mistake another man for her husband?’ (26 July 1917). The Era reported that this incident was based on a real story which took place in Manchester (1 August 1917) In the cast were The cast was: Philip Anthony; George Elton; Frank E. Petley; C. Barnard Moore; Moya Mannering; Hilda Harris; Alice Phillips; J. D. Beveridge; and Jerome Murphy. It was produced by Mr W. G. Fay. The Irish Guards were present and played Irish airs.

‘Miss Marie Lohr, in her production of “Nurse Benson” to-night at the Globe Theatre, has given the best war-time comedy yet seen on the stage. The authors, Mr R. C. Carton and Mr Justin Huntly M’Carthy, are experienced craftsmen, and they have found some inspiration from the epic times in which we live. There is nothing mawkish or neurotic in this play of healthy sentiment, in which a titled lady, anxious do “her bit,” assumes the name of a commoner, passes her examinations as a nurse, and by her ministrations restores one of our V.C. heroes to health. The dialogue is clever and at times brilliant. The wit is smart and never offensive, and the play is acted and produced with such skill and care that the production is one of artistic excellence' (Aberdeen Press and Journal, 22 June 1918). ‘The new play at the Globe Theatre made a very good start last night, for it caused a great deal of laughter and had an enthusiastic reception. The authors are Messrs. R. C. Carton and Justin Huntly McCarthy, a novel combination, I believe, which whilst it appears to have achieved success, and certainly has produced an amusing comedy of a farcical character, exhibits some want of homogeneity in workmanship; and I fancy there is evidence that the drama has undergone many changes before reaching its present shape. For the male and female villains who figure in the second and third acts are inharmonious with the style of the play, and suggest a development of the plot which never takes place, but may have occurred in earlier editions. As it stands they needlessly lengthen a work quite long enough without them. For the actual dramatic substance of “Nurse Benson” is very slight, and much skill is required on the part of the playwrights to keep the piece going for four acts, in which there is no growth of character' (Westminster Gazette, 22 June 1918). ‘When Mr R. C. Carton and Mr Justin Huntly McCarthy collaborate in dramatic authorship something worthy may confidently be expected. There was no disappointment in the case of the four-act comedy seen for the first time last night. It has a smoothness and a kindly wit to recommend it in parcels, if the story itself can lay no claim to great originality ... The allusions to the war are all in the best taste and informed with true feeling, to which Miss Marie Lohr gives perfect expression' (Sportsman, 22 June 1918). ‘A spring of laughter swelled into a torrent of applause. That was the best it. How often has the critic to say “Oh! That fatal third act!” Plays that begin well often finish badly; but here is a play that works out in proper grammar [sic]. It is “good, better, best.” Moreover, Miss Mane Lohr has a part that brings out one good quality of her art after another - high spirits, humour, and a girlish charm, with a note of sentiment. And so, it may be faithfully recorded that the third adventure of her management of the Globe Theatre, “Nurse Benson,” by Mr. R. C. Carton and Mr. Justin Huntly McCarthy, is a genuine success' (Globe, 22 June 1918). ‘Like every play by Mr. R. C. Carton ... “Nurse Benson,” written in conjunction with Mr. Justin Huntly McCarthy, is a distinct source of pleasure to the audience. Naturally, the degree of pleasure varies, and in this particular case it reaches a very high point. The authors allow us to see the development of a skilful situation that reaches sits climax in the fourth and best act. We watch the inevitable approaching and chuckle delightedly in anticipation ... The wording of the dialogue is [?] and the sentiment patriotic and tender - there is a fair quantity of both - is always sincere and never overdone. On the debit side, the four acts of the play might with advantage be compressed into three, and the elimination of two characters – a melodramatic adventurer, on the make of the “Play for a 100 up for a fiver or a quid any time dear boy” type (and worse), and his wife, a lively lady, whose object is to cajole susceptible young men to write her compromising letters, that she may use as a means to blackmail – would leave the comedy the [?] and none the poorer’ (The Era, 26 June 1918, which listed the cast as Lord Messiger, Fred Kerr; Hon. Brooke Stanway, Dawson Milward; Joseph Tibbenham, George Elton; Captain Tibbenham, V.C., F. Pennington-Gush; Ray Marrison, Nelson Ramsay; Sergeant Hinks, Charles B. Vaughan; Moxon, E. Vivian Reynolds; Smeeton, Douglas Munro; Finchett, E. A. Walker; Johns, G. Dickson-Kenwin; Lady Gillian Dunsmore, Marie Löhr; Mrs. Joseph Tibbenham, Lottie Venne; Mrs. Ray Marrison, Violet Farebrother; Nurse Benson, Blanche Stanley; Watts, Marjorie Battiss). 'Mr. R. C. Carton and Mr. Huntly McCarthy ... have succeeded in accomplishing a feat hitherto unachieved by our contemporary dramatists - writing a play which ambles along in a pleasant and sentimentally humorous vein for three acts and then in the fourth explodes (and with it the audience) into an ebullition of high comedy' (Truth, 26 June 1918). '‘The piece in which Mr. Carton has joined hands with Mr. McCarthy is comic, sentimental, and melodramatic. Mingled manners and moods are not an advantage in a play, and Nurse Benson can scarcely be described as a model of form. Mr. Carton is fond of a rather close construction, whereas Mr. McCarthy has an expansive way with him; and these individual characteristics of treatment do not blend well in their joint work. If one looks for predominant values in a play, one looks in vain in this instance. Nor must one look for anything like a consistent rendering of character and the interplay of character' (The Stage, 27 June 1918). ‘“Nurse Benson,” by R. C. Carton and Justin Huntly McCarthy, which was produced at the Globe Theatre last week, is a pleasant and often highly amusing comedy of modern manners, with an attractive love story, in which the principals are an unconventional young lady of title masquerading as a nurse, and a wounded V.C. officer. Of course, there are cross-purposes, but they arise naturally, and the romance goes forward to its happy climax on a gentle ripple of fun that is not much hindered by the somewhat vague antagonism of a couple of rather melodramatic characters' (Acton Gazette, 28 June1918). 'This is one of the most delightfully witty and charming little comedies which London has seen for a long, long while ... Not for a long time has London given a more cordial welcome to a new piece, nor for a still longer time with greater justification ... the acting was worthy of the comedy, and the comedy is worthy to be the great outstanding success of the present season’ (The Tatler, 3 July 1918). ‘By request of Queen Alexandra, who intends to be present, a special matinee of “Nurse Benson” will be given at the Globe Theatre on Thursday, July 18, the proceeds of which will be devoted to the Roll of Honour Hospital for Children’ (The People, 7 July 1918). 'The theme is of a more or less everyday kind; the real person is unable to undertake a certain duty: another is ready to deputise for her and for reasons of diplomacy, uses the “real” person’s name. But the authors of the commingling of the genuine with the spurious have invested an ordinary pilot with much more than ordinary interest, and have endowed it with the richest of rich humour. In short, Mr. R. C. Carton and Mr. Justin Huntley McCarthy have written something which in the hands of Miss Marie Lohr and a brilliant company, succeeds in dispersing the gloom and monotony of life lived under the spell of the long-drawn-out war' (Harrow Observer, 19 July 1918). '‘“Nurse Benson,” produced by Miss Marie Löhr at the Globe Theatre, continues to draw good houses. It is a pleasant and well acted comedy, with amusing conversational interplay provocative of much gentle laughter' (Hendon and Finchley Times, 1 November 1918). 'Here is quite the ideal play for war time - with a brave soldier for its hero, and a war-working girl of aristocratic lineage for its heroine; but no “alarums and excursions,” just pleasantry, and a brilliant wit and a dash of sentiment' (The Globe, 11 December 1918). ‘What is wrong with the theatre? Like most things in this life, it depends entirely on the point of view. For those whose artistic cravings do not extend beyond amorphous revue and salacious farce, there is nothing wrong with the theatre. It is what they would probably call a “bit of alright.” Those who are content with harmless, unpretentious light comedy have not much to complain of. Even during the war there has been no lack of this class of entertainment, Some of the pleasantest plays have come from America, but such native productions as “General Post” [by J. E. Harold Terry], “Nurse Benson” [by R. C. Carton and J. H. McCarthy] and “The Title” [by Arnold Bennett] are not at all to be despised. The intellectual drama, which had been on the whole progressing before the war, was stricken dumb in August, 1914' (Sunday Mirror, 22 December 1918). The Daily Mirror, Saturday 22 March 1919, advertised the last two performances that day of Nurse Benson at the Globe Theatre. ‘In one of the chief London newspapers there has been a keen and interesting correspondence on the neglect, chiefly in London, of the intellectual drama. The phrase need not be identified with “serious drama,” nor with the kind of production which a few years ago was described as “high-browed.” The intellectual drama may be comedy ... the complaint to-day is not that there have not been good plays, but that Londoners cannot see them, since the theatres are for the most part owned by syndicates who seek to supply “What the Public wants,” and think that the answer is Revue, or plays which, whether musical or otherwise, present some of the features for which some revues have been conspicuous. There have, it is true, been some plays produced since the war began that have been worthy of reasonable people’s attention, such as Barrie’s “Dear Brutus,” Carton’s “Nurse Benson,” and one or two more, but a correspondent has asked pathetically where is the equivalent now of the plays that used to be performed when Mr Granville Barker was directing the Court Theatre, when Sir H. Beerbohm Tree was producing lavishly at His Majesty’s' (Western Daily Press, 25 March 1919).