|
| Lena Ashwell (1872-1957) |
|
Click here for Lena Ashwell biography. Scroll down for Gallery Brief facts:
|
|
| Click any image for a larger view | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The Great Mrs. Alloway"
By Douglas Murray.
Produced at the Globe Theatre on 8th November, 1909.
Miss Lena Ashwell, Messrs. Fred Kerr, Dawson Milward, Arthur Wontner, Herbert Bunston, Reginald Owen, Philip Knox, Misses Kate Sergeantson, Madge McIntosh, Joy Chatwyn, Adeline Bourne, and Nina Sevening.
After a few week's run "The Great Mrs. Alloway" followed many other plays of the same type, and may probably never be heard of again. That is the pity of it. There is still some interest left for the woman with a past, but what the public wants is a new method of working out her destinies. A few drastic alterations, clippings and paddings here and there might have turned the piece into a paying and an artistic success. I must be kind to a new author, but it is often difficult to be kind and just at the same time. In comparing Mr. Murray's work with that of his more experienced brother-dramatists, it was found too impossible, and we were asked to swallow too much. The sugar-coating on the pill wasn't thick enough, and to use a fairy tale in connection with an Indian ring as a serious factor in a tale of human passion and emotion is really too much for the average patron of the theatre to digest. Mr. Murray must try again, and he will probably succeed. There were signs and promises of a capacity for better work in "The Great Mrs. Alloway" that create a pleasurable anticipation.
Playgoer and Society Illustrated, Vol I No 3, December 1909.