Effie Bancroft
Encyclopedia
Marie Effie Wilton, Lady Bancroft (1840–1921) was an English actress and theatre manager
. She appeared onstage as Marie Wilton until after her marriage in December 1867 to Squire Bancroft
, when she usually appeared under the name Lady Bancroft. Bancroft and her husband were important in the developmant of Victorian era
theatre through their presentation of innovative plays at the London theatres that they managed, first the Prince of Wales's Theatre and later the Haymarket Theatre
.
, and as a child appeared on the stage
with her parents, who were both actors. Among her early parts was that of Fleance in Macbeth
(1846). She made her London début on 15 September 1856, at the Lyceum Theatre
, as the boy Henri in Belphegor, playing the same night in Perdita; or, the Royal Milkmaid. She won great popularity in several boy roles, in burlesques at various theatres, as Cupid in two different plays, and notably as Pippo, in The Maid and the Magpie, by H. J. Byron
, at the Royal Strand Theatre
(1858). For several years she remained at the Strand, taking numerous parts of the same general type.
,_lady_bancroft_by_thomas_jones_barker.jpg)
In April 1865, she began, in partnership with Henry Byron
, the management of the Prince of Wales's Theatre. For two seasons before her marriage she managed the theatre alone. She secured as a leading actor Squire Bancroft
, whom she had met shortly before in Liverpool
and married in December 1867. The Prince of Wales's soon became noted for its series of successful comedies by T. W. Robertson
, namely: Society
(1865), Ours (1866), Caste (1867), Play (1868), School (1869) and M. P. (1870).
Bancroft regularly took the principal female parts in these pieces, her husband playing the leading man. Together, Robertson and the Bancrofts are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama'. The Bancrofts gave Robertson an unprecedented amount of directorial control over the plays, which was a key step to institutionalizing the power that directors wield in the theatre today.
The Bancrofts were also responsible for making fashionable the 'box set', which Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
had first used at the Olympic Theatre
in the 1830s – this consisted of rooms on stage which were dressed with sofas, curtains, chairs, and carpets on the stage floor. They also provided their actors with salaries and wardrobes. Also, the Bancrofts redesigned their theatre to suit the increasingly upscale audience: "The cheap benches near the stage, where the rowdiest elements of the audience used to sit were replaced by comfortable padded seats, carpets were laid in the aisles, and the pit was renamed the stalls."
Other plays that the Bancrofts produced at the Prince of Wales's Theatre were Tame Cats (1868), The School for Scandal
(1874), Sweethearts
(1874), The Vicarage (1877), and Diplomacy (1878, an adaptation of Victorien Sardou
's Dora). Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft likewise presented at their theatre a number of prominent actors, among them Hare
, Coghlan
, the Kendals
, and Ellen Terry
. In 1879, she reprised a favourite role of hers, Nan, in John Baldwin Buckstone
's Good for Nothing, in a mixed bill alongside W. S. Gilbert
's Sweethearts
, in which she played Jenny Northcott.
, a larger house, where they continued the successful presentation of modern comedy until both retired from the stage on 20 July 1885, having made a considerable fortune producing theatre. After that, they rarely appeared onstage.
in June 1903.
Actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the company's business and financial arrangements, sometimes taking over the management of a theatre, to perform plays of their own choice and in which they will usually star...
. She appeared onstage as Marie Wilton until after her marriage in December 1867 to Squire Bancroft
Squire Bancroft
Sir Squire Bancroft , born Squire White Butterfield, was an English actor-manager. He and his wife Effie Bancroft are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama', owing to the realism of their stage sets.-Early life and career:Bancroft...
, when she usually appeared under the name Lady Bancroft. Bancroft and her husband were important in the developmant of Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
theatre through their presentation of innovative plays at the London theatres that they managed, first the Prince of Wales's Theatre and later the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
.
Life and career
Bancroft was born at DoncasterDoncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
, and as a child appeared on the stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
with her parents, who were both actors. Among her early parts was that of Fleance in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
(1846). She made her London début on 15 September 1856, at the Lyceum Theatre
Lyceum Theatre (London)
The Lyceum Theatre is a 2,000-seat West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand. There has been a theatre with this name in the locality since 1765, and the present site opened on 14 July 1834 to a design by Samuel Beazley. The building was unique...
, as the boy Henri in Belphegor, playing the same night in Perdita; or, the Royal Milkmaid. She won great popularity in several boy roles, in burlesques at various theatres, as Cupid in two different plays, and notably as Pippo, in The Maid and the Magpie, by H. J. Byron
Henry James Byron
Henry James Byron was a prolific English dramatist, as well as an editor, journalist, director, theatre manager, novelist and actor....
, at the Royal Strand Theatre
Royal Strand Theatre
The Royal Strand Theatre was located in Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps...
(1858). For several years she remained at the Strand, taking numerous parts of the same general type.
Prince of Wales's Theatre (1865-80)
Henry James Byron
Henry James Byron was a prolific English dramatist, as well as an editor, journalist, director, theatre manager, novelist and actor....
, the management of the Prince of Wales's Theatre. For two seasons before her marriage she managed the theatre alone. She secured as a leading actor Squire Bancroft
Squire Bancroft
Sir Squire Bancroft , born Squire White Butterfield, was an English actor-manager. He and his wife Effie Bancroft are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama', owing to the realism of their stage sets.-Early life and career:Bancroft...
, whom she had met shortly before in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and married in December 1867. The Prince of Wales's soon became noted for its series of successful comedies by T. W. Robertson
Thomas William Robertson
Thomas William Robertson , usually known professionally as T. W. Robertson, was an Anglo-Irish dramatist and innovative stage director best known for a series of realistic or naturalistic plays produced in London in the 1860s that broke new ground and inspired playwrights such as W.S...
, namely: Society
Society (play)
Society was an 1865 comedy drama by Thomas William Robertson regarded as a milestone in Victorian drama because of its realism in sets, costume, acting and dialogue. Unusually for that time, Robertson both wrote and directed the play, and his innovative writing and stage direction inspired George...
(1865), Ours (1866), Caste (1867), Play (1868), School (1869) and M. P. (1870).
Bancroft regularly took the principal female parts in these pieces, her husband playing the leading man. Together, Robertson and the Bancrofts are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama'. The Bancrofts gave Robertson an unprecedented amount of directorial control over the plays, which was a key step to institutionalizing the power that directors wield in the theatre today.
The Bancrofts were also responsible for making fashionable the 'box set', which Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris was an English actress and a contralto opera singer, appearing in Mozart and Rossini works. While popular in her time, she was more notable as a theatre producer and manager...
had first used at the Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
in the 1830s – this consisted of rooms on stage which were dressed with sofas, curtains, chairs, and carpets on the stage floor. They also provided their actors with salaries and wardrobes. Also, the Bancrofts redesigned their theatre to suit the increasingly upscale audience: "The cheap benches near the stage, where the rowdiest elements of the audience used to sit were replaced by comfortable padded seats, carpets were laid in the aisles, and the pit was renamed the stalls."
Other plays that the Bancrofts produced at the Prince of Wales's Theatre were Tame Cats (1868), The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...
(1874), Sweethearts
Sweethearts (play)
Sweethearts is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years.It was first produced on...
(1874), The Vicarage (1877), and Diplomacy (1878, an adaptation of Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
's Dora). Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft likewise presented at their theatre a number of prominent actors, among them Hare
John Hare (actor)
Sir John Hare , born John Fairs, was an English actor and manager of the Garrick Theatre in London from 1889 to 1895.-Biography:Hare was born in Giggleswick in Yorkshire and was educated at Giggleswick school...
, Coghlan
Charles Francis Coghlan
Charles Francis Coghlan , Canadian actor, was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and was educated in law.He made his first London appearance in 1860, and became the leading actor at the Prince of Wales's Theatre. He starred in Sweethearts by W. S. Gilbert...
, the Kendals
William Hunter Kendal
William Hunter Kendal was an English actor and theatre manager. He and his wife Madge starred at the Haymarket in Shakespearian revivals and the old English comedies beginning in the 1860s. In the 1870s, they starred in a series of "fairy comedies" by W. S. Gilbert and in many plays on the West...
, and Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
. In 1879, she reprised a favourite role of hers, Nan, in John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826....
's Good for Nothing, in a mixed bill alongside W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's Sweethearts
Sweethearts (play)
Sweethearts is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years.It was first produced on...
, in which she played Jenny Northcott.
Later years
In 1879, the Bancrofts moved to the Haymarket TheatreHaymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
, a larger house, where they continued the successful presentation of modern comedy until both retired from the stage on 20 July 1885, having made a considerable fortune producing theatre. After that, they rarely appeared onstage.
Books
Bancroft was the author of the novel The Shadow of Neeme. She also collaborated with her husband in the production of two volumes of reminiscences called Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft On and Off the Stage, Written by Themselves (London, 1888) and The Bancrofts: Recollections of Sixty Years (Dutton and Co.: London, 1909).Recordings
Bancroft recorded three 10" discs for the Gramophone CompanyGramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
in June 1903.
- 1236 Drinking the waters.
- 1237 The Deutscher's baby.
- 1238 (a) A boy's philosophy; (b) Love.