Strand Theatre, London

'Anything might have happened to “Kultur at Home.” What did was that it met not merely with toleration, which would have been significant, but with actual approval. Its main appeal was to a rooted love of justice and fair play innate in us. We are willing to learn what the German may be in his respectable aspect. On one side he is of sentimentality all compact, though underlying this quality a brutality of thought lurks which he will exhibit in act if he may do so with apparent immunity from retribution. This savagery sleeps when no occasion arises for unchaining it, as in the picture presented by this play of a German household into which a sweet and trusting but firm-willed English girl has been received … Given the opposed national characteristics, the chances are that rarely any other issue can follow. The playwrights have held the scales evenly. Blame cannot be apportioned wholly to either side. The outbreak of war cuts the tangle that could have been loosed only so. The story grips one, but some of its persistence may be due to the spectators’ smug conviction of impartiality where prejudice would be excusable, and its contrary is admirable. Abundant laughter at the lighter passages points that moral’. The Sportsman, 11 May 1916. ‘Two months when “Kultur at Home” was produced by Mr. Otho Stuart at the Court Theatre, we described it as “bv far the finest play the war has suggested.” Its faithful – and revolting - picture of German life and “love” has not failed to make a strong appeal to the public … Those who desire to realise the true meaning of “kultur” and how utterly incompatible are the English and German temperaments should certainly witness Mr. Besier’s and Miss Spottiswoode’s play’. The Globe, 12 May 1916. 'One still wonders how it happened that a sensitive, refined English lady of family came to marry into such a vulgar, boisterous Prussian set, although not much in love with the young man; and also why she made so poor an effort to adapt herself to the new life chosen with open eyes. And it is still difficult, or impossible, to believe in her conduct during the last act. On the other hand, a great deal of the work is amusing - rather horribly - and much is thrilling; also, with all her faults, one has an almost breathless sympathy with the unhappy heroine when she discovers the full horror of her position'. The Sketch, 17 May 1916. 'one can praise the acting whole-heartedly without feeling so generous towards the play itself. When the actualities of war with a nation such as Germany are daily brought home to us, there is a feeling that a mimic representation on the stage of a German meanness and boorishness in home life savours somewhat of the petty. After all Kultur at Home presents the Case rather one-sidedly. All the Germans in the play are faulty in their manners, feelings, or in some other way, and all the English are not. One can state this without at all lowering the temperature of one’s patriotic sentiment'. The Stage, 18 May 1916. ‘Everybody should make a point of seeing “Kultur at Home" … for it affords a valuable insight into the real cause of the present war. It is difficult for the “plain man” in this country to realise the true significance of militarism and Kultur - the kernel of Teutonism - but when the thing is seen in working order, as it were, in the German home, the horror of it all comes as a revelation. M. Bessier and Miss Sybil Spottiswoode have given us a valuable piece of work'. The Graphic, 20 May 1916. ‘After many plucky and energetic attempts to gauge the inclination of wartime audiences, managers have discovered precisely the kind of fare that suits the taste the present day, and have provided plays light, bright, entertaining, and of sufficient interest to distract attention temporarily from the war and its million attendant anxieties. The one play touching on the war that has-been seen this year, “Kultur at Home” by Mr. Rudolf Besier and Mrs. Sybil Spottiswoode, was less concerned with the present crisis than with the differences of thoughts and ideals, set forth with scrupulous fairness, of England and Germany, as demonstrated in the home life of the inhabitants of the two countries’. The Era, 9 August 1916. ‘Mr. Rudolf Besier… in conjunction with Mrs. Spottiswoode … was responsible for “Kultur at Home,” which was an interesting study of the German in his own country and, perhaps unintentionally, a no less interesting study of the behaviour of English people in Germany. It had dramatic moments and considerable humour, in spite of a certain crudeness, and enjoyed some success’. Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 12 August 1916.

'It would be easy for the critic to damn the plot of 'The Hidden Hand' and to damn its people ... but he must not damn its sentiment, so salutary and so opportune in expression, so eagerly welcomed, and so wildly applauded by a vast audience of outraged English citizens' (The Globe, 5 July 1918) The play was performed at The Strand Theatre until December 1918 but also went on tour.