Theatre Royal, Nottingham

Performers: Cecile Barclay, Rupert Lister Review: "a tense, live drama", Nottingham Evening Post

The Nottingham Evening Post, 17 March 1915, advertised every evening that week at the Theatre Royal ‘Vedrenne and Eadie Present The Successful Royalty Theatre Spy Play, “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” Now Playing to Crowded Houses in London. Have you been excited by the German Spy Scare? See how it was tackled by The Man Who Stayed at Home’.

‘The attraction at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, for the six nights commencing next Monday will be Alick Chumley from the Savoy Theatre. Mr. Horace Annesley Vachell is undoubtedly one of our greatest modern playwrights and “Searchlights” is certainly his masterpiece. It is not a war play, though it touches upon it. It would, indeed, be difficult to write an up-to-date play that did not. The company that Messrs. Chumley and Davis are bringing with them is an exceptionally strong one. Mr. Russell Davis will himself appear as Robert Blaine, the part created by Mr. Irving and Mr. R. M. Dalzell will be seen in a most amusing role as Sir Adalbert Schmaltz, who conveniently changes his name to Sir Keith Howard on the outbreak of hostilities. The company will also include Mr. Albert Marks, Miss Mary Griffiths, Miss Edith Pither, Miss Deborah Norton, and that well-known actress, Miss Rosemary Rees, who will have full scope for her exceptional powers, as the Hon. Mrs. Blaine. The scenery and effects will be a reproduction of those used at the Savoy Theatre’ (Beeston Gazette and Echo, 21 August 1915). ‘Searchlights sought the approval of a Nottingham audience on Monday and the result was satisfactory. Mr. A. Russell Davis appears as Robert Blaine, with Miss Rosemary Rees as the wife, two characters well played. There is also clever acting by Misses Mary Griffiths, Edith Pither, and Rose Norton, and Messrs. R. M. Dalzell, Paul Hansell, and Stacey Gaunt’ (The Stage, 26 August 1915).

"its favourable reception must have been gratifying", "Nottingham Journal", 6 September 1915.

The Era, 31 May 1916, listed The Man Who Stayed at Home (Taylor Platt) as On The Road from 29 May at the T.R., Nottingham. ‘“The Man Who Stayed at Home,” which is on a return visit to the Theatre Royal, is entertainment of a thoroughly popular type. The fact that it ran over eighteen months in London affords proof of that. It tells the story of clever work by a British Secret Service agent, who defeats the aims of a gang of German spies in an East Coast boarding-house. There are thrills and laughter in “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” both following quickly upon each other, and the excitement never wanes' (Nottingham Evening Post, 6 June 1916).

Cast included: Matheson Lang, Avice Kelham, Ben Webster, Herbert Bunston, Louie Pounds, Spencer Trevor, James Prior, Cairns James, Charles Garth, Neville Brook, Blanche Stanley, Dorothy Turner, Hawley Franks, G. Mayor Cooke, J. D. Fagan, Ernest Trillingham.

The Nottingham Evening Post, 31 October 1916, advertised A Kiss for Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham in the following week. The Nottingham Evening Post, 7 November 1916, published a review of the production. ‘During the visit of Mr. Percy Hutchison’s “A Kiss for Cinderella” company to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, Mr. Hutchison gave a matinée for the purpose of providing Christmas gifts for the Belgian soldiers in the trenches. The matinée was under the direct patronage of the Duchess of Portland, and was organised by the Countess Bailet Latour. A large and distinguished party came from Welbeck Abbey for the occasion. At the close of the performance tea was provided by the committee on the stage, when Mr. Percy Hutchison presented Miss Trevelyan and his company to the Duchess of Portland, Countess Bailet Latour, and Lady Lennox. The matinée was an unqualified success, hundreds being unable to obtain admission’. The Era, 22 November 1916.

‘A crowded and enthusiastic audience assembled in the Nottingham Theatre Royal this afternoon at a special performance of the popular musical play, “The Bing Boys are Here,” in aid of the fund for Comforts for Prisoners of War, by permission of Mr. George Dance and the Robert Arthur Theatres Co., Ltd. Among those present were the Duchess of Portland, Lady Titchfield. Lady Charles Bentinck, Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox, and the Mayor of Nottingham (Councillor J. E. Pendleton). The artists and the staff of the theatre had given their services free, and during the interval the Mayor proposed a vote of thanks to all concerned, expressing his gratification at seeing such a large audience present in support of so deserving a cause. The Duchess of Portland seconded’. Nottingham Evening Post, 1 February 1917.

‘It would take a long time to enumerate the rare ingredients out of which the author, Mr. J. Hastings Turner, and the composer, Mr. Philip Braham, have obtained the distilled essence of mirth and laughter, duly labelled and ticketed “Bubbly” and served out hot in large and generous doses at the Nottingham Theatre Royal this week. “Bubbly” is a show in the making, a kind of cauldron of merriment, in which there keeps “bubbling up”’ various performers including ‘Cedric Percival [skilful as a] Press correspondent on the track of Bill Higgins, Bairnsfather’s original as he is “after the war”; [and] Mr. Edmund Russell, whose last “bubble” shows him as Major Blount, also “after the war” wooing sleep by means of such artificial aids to slumber as explosive pyrotechnics outside his peaceful home in Kent and an infernal tintinnabulation kindly provided by his servants around his sleeping bag’. Nottingham Journal, Tuesday 19 February 1918. Also brief notices in the Nottingham Evening Post, 19 February 1918, and The Era, 20 February 1918.

Performed 1-6 April by Moya Mannering, H. V. Esmond, Mr. Frank Fort, Hilda Harris, Florence Helm. The Nottingham Journal commented that ‘if to call the new play a war play is to frighten the theatregoing public, therein lies sufficient excuse for the misdescription of Julyann, an Irish comedy in four acts, which was presented at Nottingham Theatre Royal yesterday afternoon and evening. After all, the war is best seen through the glasses of Bairnsfather, and though it is through this medium that Sara Jeanette Duncan, the authoress of Julyann, has looked on the humorous triangular problem of Private and Mrs. Dempsey and Private Gallagher, it would probably have been damaging to her creation to label it a war play, which in reality it is' (2 April 1918)

The Stage, 28 August and 4 September 1919, listed Bubbly as On Tour from 1 September at the R., Nottingham. Previewed in the Nottingham Journal, 30 August 1919.

Performed as part of a series of plays.

Performed from 4-6 July 1929 by cast including Henry Baynton.

Starring Percy Hutchison

Percy Hutchison returned to the theatre in a new 1941 version of the 1918 play. Evelyn Shillington, daughter of Mrs Clifford Mills, prepared the new version. IT starred Tod Slaughter and Percy Hutchison in his original role.