Having visited five theatres with Sherlockian or Doylean connections on a previous sojourn (including a ‘Behind The Scenes’ tour of the Lyceum), it was time to add two further theatres on one of my weekly theatre visits.
Opening its doors for the first time in December 1888, the Lyric Theatre is the oldest surviving theatre on London’s street of theatres, Shaftesbury Avenue. Designed by the architect C J Phipps, it was originally built for operetta and has since hosted a wide range of drama, comedy and musicals. It is currently home to ‘Hadestown’, a Broadway musical which intertwines two love stories from Greek Myth – that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone - in a score that is a joyful combination of folk, pop, Dixieland and blues. This was the main reason for my visit. However, the Lyric Theatre was also the location for two of Conan Doyle’s non-Sherlockian plays.
The first, in May to June 1906, featured Conan Doyle’s third most prominent hero (after Holmes and Challenger), Brigadier Etienne Gerard, a French Hussar of the Napoleonic army, who appears in a total of 18 stories. ‘Brigadier Gerard’ was a 4-act play written by Conan Doyle, which starred Lewis Waller as the title character. (Waller also played Gerard in the silent movie 'Brigadier Gerard' in 1915). In his autobiography, ‘Memories and Adventures’ (1924), Conan Doyle described his star as “a glorious fellow”, stating that “his premature death [was] a great blow to our stage”, and finally commenting “What virility! What a face and figure!”.
The second also starred Waller, this time as the hero, Colonel Cyril Egerton, in ‘The Fires of Fate’, another 4-act play written by Conan Doyle (this one subtitled ‘A Modern Morality Play’), which was based on his novel, ‘The Tragedy of the Korosko’, concerning a group of European tourists travelling on the Nile in Egypt on a boat such named when some Dervish warriors come alongside the boat threatening the passengers. This play was first performed at the Lyric Theatre between 15th June 1909 and 11th August 1909, before transferring to the nearby Theatre Royal Haymarket from 12th to 31st August 1909, starring Ben Webster replacing Waller who started a provincial touring from 23rd August with a new cast. The play then returned back to the Lyric Theatre from 6th September until 9th October 1909.
Having some time to waste before the show, I made my way to the theatre via the Haymarket, and stopped to take photos of the outside of the Theatre Royal, where ‘The Fires of Fate’ had its second run. which I last attended to watch ‘Only Fools and Horses: The Musical’. The Theatre Royal Haymarket, is a Grade I listed building designed and constructed by John Potter in 1720. It is one of Britain’s most treasured theatres, and is the third oldest London Playhouse still in use. This theatre also has a canonical connection as it was here that Jonas Oldacre claimed to have been whilst his wife and her lover ran off with his life savings in ‘The Retired Colourman’.
“On that particular evening old Amberley, wishing to give his wife a treat, had taken two upper circle seats at the Haymarket Theatre. At the last moment she had complained of a headache and had refused to go. He had gone alone. There seemed to be no doubt about the fact, for he produced the unused ticket which he had taken for his wife.” – JHW [RETI]
Making my way up Haymarket, I reached Piccadilly Circus
and then Shaftesbury Avenue. The Lyric is the first theatre in, and I took some
photos of the outside, before having my bag checked and making the climb up the
multitude of stairs to my Balcony seat. Once in my seat, I manged to take a few
photos of the auditorium as it filled up, but there was a much better photo of
the interior in my programme.
After an enjoyable evening, I made my way back to Shaftesbury Avenue, and the Underground, wending my way home.
