Dame Irene Boucicault ( Barnes; 2 December 1872 – 30 November 1949), known professionally as Irene Vanbrugh (), was an English actress. The daughter of a clergyman, Vanbrugh followed her elder sister Violet into the theatrical profession and sustained a career for more than 50 years.
After appearing in supporting roles with J. L. Toole, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, George Alexander and others, she graduated to leading roles in the 1890s, creating such roles as Gwendolen in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and establishing her reputation in Arthur Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex (1899). In her early days as a leading lady she was particularly associated with Pinero's plays and later had parts written for her by James Barrie, Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham, A. A. Milne and Noël Coward. More famous for comic than for dramatic roles, Vanbrugh nevertheless played many of the latter both in modern works and in the classics. Her stage début was in Shakespeare, but she seldom acted in his plays later in her career; exceptions were her Queen Gertrude in Hamlet in 1931 and her Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, opposite her sister Violet as Alice Ford, in 1934.
Best known as a stage performer, Vanbrugh appeared in three silent films in the 1910s but did not return to the cinema until the mid-1930s; she made ten films over the following decade. She appeared frequently in fundraising shows for various charities, and was active over many years in the support of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, of which her brother Kenneth was principal. After her death the academy's new theatre was named the Vanbrugh Theatre in honour of her and her sister.
Life and career
Early years Vanbrugh was born in Exeter, Devon, on 2 December 1872, the youngest daughter and fifth child of six of the Rev Reginald Henry Barnes, Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral and Vicar of Heavitree, and his wife, Frances Mary Emily, Nation, daughter of a barrister.Littlewood, S. R. "Vanbrugh, Dame Irene (1872–1949)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2011 Vanbrugh, p. 5 Irene's eldest sister Violet and younger brother Kenneth also made theatrical careers. Irene was educated at Exeter High School and at schools in Paris. When the Barnes family moved to London in the mid-1880s, she attended a school near Earls Court recommended by the actress Ellen Terry, a family friend. After seeing Vanbrugh in a school play, Terry commented, "Irene, you seem to be a professional acting with amateurs".
It was also at Terry's suggestion that Violet, on starting a theatrical career, adopted the stage name Vanbrugh. Irene was encouraged by her sister's early success to follow her into the theatrical profession, also with the stage name Vanbrugh. In his memoir An Actor in His Time (1979) Sir John Gielgud described the two:
As her elder sister had done, Irene joined Sarah Thorne's repertory company at the Theatre Royal, Margate, as a student. For a fee Thorne would take pupils into her company, but the Vanbrugh girls showed such promise they were accepted free of charge. Violet was playing leading roles by the time Irene arrived at Margate two years after her, in August 1888.Johns, p. 58Vanbrugh, p. 17 Irene recalled Thorne as an excellent teacher,Vanbrugh, pp. 18 and 93 adding, "We played every kind of play there; comedy, farce, and drama of the deepest dye; while at Christmas there came the pantomime, so that the Juliet of a week ago might be the Prince Paragon of the Yule-tide extravaganza."Bacchus, Reginald, "Miss Irene Vanbrugh: Her Art and Herself", The Ludgate, October 1899, p. 501 As a student her first appearance on stage was in August 1888, as the capricious shepherdess Phoebe in As You Like It at the Theatre Royal, in a cast led by Violet as Rosalind."Dame Irene Vanbrugh", The Times, 1 December 1949, p. 7
Early roles Lewis Carroll, a college friend of Vanbrugh's father, saw her performing in Margate and was impressed. On his recommendation she made her London début in December 1888, playing the White Queen and the Knave of Hearts in a revival of Alice in Wonderland at the old Globe Theatre. Her sister Edith joined her in this production."Chips", The North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 4 December 1888, unnumbered page Some of Violet's early theatrical work had been with J. L. Toole. Irene emulated her and joined his company in 1889, playing in established comedy successes including Dion Boucicault's Dot and H. J. Byron's Uncle Dick's Darling.
When Toole toured Australia and New Zealand in 1890–91 Vanbrugh was a member of his company, acting in every play in its repertoire. She later commented:
After nearly a year the company returned to London."Toole's Theatre", The Globe, 18 April 1891, p. 4 Vanbrugh remained a member and played her first original roles as Thea Tesman in James Barrie's burlesque Ibsen's Ghost (1891),Wearing, p. 128 and as Bell Golightly in Barrie's comedy Walker, London (1892), which ran for 497 performances.Wearing, p. 198
First West End successes
Although she was happy in Toole's company, by 1893 Vanbrugh felt the need to widen her experience.Morley, p. 395 She joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre as the serving-maid Lettice in The Tempter (1893) by Henry Arthur Jones. The play was not popular and was taken off after 73 performances;Wearing, p. 346 in 1894, after three more productions in Tree's company, she was engaged by George Alexander at the St James's Theatre. There she had more success in Jones's next play, The Masqueraders, in a supporting role to Alexander and Mrs Patrick Campbell in the leads."Mr H. A. Jones's New Play", The Birmingham Daily Post, 30 April 1894, p. 4 In Alexander's company she played Fanny in Henry James's drama Guy Domville, which closed after 32 performances,Wearing, p. 453 and in 1895 created the role of the Honourable Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest.Parker, pp. 1470–1473
When Arthur Bourchier, who had married Violet Vanbrugh, launched himself as an actor-manager in 1895, Irene joined them at the Royalty Theatre and on tour, winning good notices as Dulcie in The Chili Widow and in the title role of the comedy Kitty Clive. She went with the Bourchier company to America, making her Broadway début in November 1896 in The Chili Widow. After her return to London in 1898 she appeared at the Criterion Theatre with Charles Wyndham in October 1897, as Lady Rosamund Tatton in Jones's comedy The Liars.
In January 1898 she joined John Hare's company at the Court Theatre, where she created the roles of Rose Trelawny in Trelawny of the Wells by Arthur Pinero, and Stella de Gex in Robert Marshall's His Excellency the Governor. A fellow member of Hare's company was Dion Boucicault Jr. (known as "Dot" to family and friends),Vanbrugh, p. 39 son of his more famous namesake. They had met while Vanbrugh was in Australia with Toole's touring company, and for six months they were together in Hare's highly successful American tour, playing in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago.Morley, p. 396 Boucicault proposed to her while Trelawny of the Wells was playing in London, but she did not accept him straight away and they were not married until three years later.Vanbrugh, pp. 49 and 61
In 1899 Vanbrugh played the role that made her name – Sophy Fullgarney in Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex. This part, a Cockney manicurist, was quite different from any she had played before, but Pinero was insistent that she should play it. In the words of the biographer S. R. Littlewood, "Vanbrugh's intelligence, sympathy, and alertness avoided extravagance in a subtle expression of class-contrast. This gave the character an intensity of appeal that was at the time something quite new." A contemporary critic commented, "She has sprung all at once into the ranks of the leading actresses of our day". Lawrence, p. 24 The play was regarded as risqué, and one critic commented that had Lewis Carroll still been alive, he would have approved of "Miss Vanbrugh's greatest triumph" but probably not of the play.
By the turn of the century Vanbrugh's reputation was established. In Boyle Lawrence's 1900 survey of leading stage performers the chapter on Vanbrugh begins:
Early 20th century In July 1901 Vanbrugh and Boucicault married, at a private ceremony in Buxton, where her uncle was the vicar of St John's Church.Vanbrugh, p. 61 The couple frequently appeared together for the rest of Boucicault's life, and he became her manager in 1915. They had no children.
Between the turn of the century and the First World War Vanbrugh had leading roles in new plays by J. M. Barrie, Pinero and Somerset Maugham. The Barrie plays were The Admirable Crichton (1902),"Duke of York's Theatre", The Times, 5 November 1902, p. 10 Alice-Sit-by-the Fire (1905), and Rosalind (1912)."Duke of York's Theatre – The Triple Bill", The Times, 15 October 1912, p. 8 In the second of these she had an adverse review. In The Saturday Review Max Beerbohm contrasted Vanbrugh with her co-star, Ellen Terry, whom Beerbohm thought more attuned to Barrie's childlike innocence, whereas with Vanbrugh, "Her personality is in no way Barrieish. She looks, indeed, quite young enough for her part; but her soul is not childish enough."Beerbohm, Max. "Mr Barrie Again", Saturday Review, 15 April 1903, pp. 483–484
The three Pinero plays starring Vanbrugh in this period had mixed fortunes. Her own notices for Letty (1903) were excellent,"Duke of York's Theatre", The Times, 9 October 1903, p. 4; "Letty", The Echo, 9 October 1903, p. 1 but the play closed after 64 performances.Dawick, pp. 404–406 His House in Order (1906) was a considerable success for Vanbrugh, Alexander and Pinero, running for 430 performances."St. James's Theatre – 'His House in Order'", The Times, 2 February 1906, p. 4 Her performance in Mid-Channel (1909) was highly praised, but the play was not,"St. James's Theatre – "Mid-Channel'", The Times, 3 September 1909, p. 8; and "New Plays in London", The Birmingham Post, 3 September 1909, p. 4 and closed after 58 performances. Vanbrugh's Maugham roles were in the drama Grace (1910) and the romance The Land of Promise (1914). The critics were more complimentary about the acting than the plays,"Duke of York's Theatre – Grace", The Times, 17 October 1910, p. 7; "London Theatres", The Stage, 20 October 1910, p. 19"The Land of Promise – Mr. Maugham's Play at The Duke of York's", The Times, 27 February 1914, p. 10; and "The Theatre", The Globe, 27 February 1914, p. 10 which ran for 72 and 76 performances respectively.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 94 and 114 She also starred in new plays by Charles Haddon Chambers (Passers-By, 1911)"Wyndham's Theatre – Passers-By", The Times, 30 March 1911, p. 10 and A. E. W. Mason (Open Windows, 1913)."St. James's Theatre – Open Windows", The Times, 12 March 1913, p. 10
Away from the West End theatre, Vanbrugh went on the music-hall stage with Barrie's one-act play The Twelve-Pound Look in 1911, co-starring with Edmund Gwenn in a variety bill in which W. C. Fields also appeared."Coliseum", Pall Mall Gazette, 23 December 1911, p. 6 Over the next four years she appeared in other Barrie pieces – Half an Hour and Rosalind – and Maugham's The Land of Promise, written with her in mind.Maugham, p. xiii In 1913 Vanbrugh played Lady Gay Spanker in a revival of Boucicault senior's London Assurance in an all-star cast including Herbert Tree, Charles Hawtrey, Arthur Bourchier, Weedon Grossmith and Marie Tempest. This was one of the many charity fund-raising productions in which Vanbrugh appeared throughout her career,"London Assurance – Royal Visit to St James's Theatre", The Times, 28 June 1913, p. 10 such as a starrily cast The School for Scandal in 1915 in which she played Lady Teazle to Tree's Sir Peter."The Royal Matinee", The Stage, 28 January 1915, p. 19
First World War