Viola Tree
Encyclopedia
Viola Tree was an English actress, singer, playwright and author. Daughter of the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree
, she made many of her early appearances with his company at His Majesty's Theatre
. Later she appeared in opera, variety
, straight theatre and film.
and his wife, the actress Helen Maud Tree, née Holt. Her aunt was author Constance Beerbohm
and an uncle was Max Beerbohm
. She was educated privately in London and in Europe. Her sisters were Felicity Tree
(1895-1978) and Iris Tree
. She also had seven illegitimate half-siblings, the products of her father's many infidelities, among them the director Carol Reed
and Peter Reed, whose son became the actor Oliver Reed
.
. Her other Shakespeare roles included Hero in Much Ado about Nothing
, the Queen in Richard II
, Ariel in The Tempest
, Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
, Ophelia in Hamlet
and Perdita in The Winter's Tale
, in which Ellen Terry
played Hermione.
Tree continued to plan an operatic career, and after making a success in the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride
and as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice
at the Savoy Theatre
in 1910, she went to Milan
to study. On her return, however, she did not pursue her operatic ambitions, except for playing Euridice again in 1912. Instead, she continued to build her stage career in plays and in variety
. In 1912, Tree married a drama critic, Alan Parsons, who died in 1933, aged 44. They had two sons, including David Tree
, and a daughter.
In 1919, Tree took over the management of the Aldwych Theatre
, scoring particular success with the works of Sacha Guitry
. Her last Shakespeare role was Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream
in 1923. In 1930-31 she was in the U.S., appearing on Broadway
and on tour in drama and also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies
. Through the 1930s, Tree continually played in light comedies in the West End
, varied with occasional unorthodox undertakings. In 1930 she directed an Italian play, La Piccola by Massimo Bontempelli
, in the original Italian, and in 1934 she directed Jean-Phillippe Rameau's opera Castor et Pollux
for the Oxford University Opera Club. Her last West End appearance was in The Melody that Got Lost, "a comedy with music", in January 1938. She was an early and strong supporter of the foundation of a National Theatre
.
Tree also played in four films between 1920 and 1938, the last of which, Pygmalion
, by George Bernard Shaw
(1938), completed three generations of the Tree family's connection with premieres of versions of the play: Tree's father created the role of Henry Higgins in the London stage première in 1914
; Viola Tree revived the play in 1920; and she played a cameo role in the film, in which her son David Tree played Freddy.
under the joint pen name of Hubert Parsons, opened at Wyndham's Theatre
, starring Tallulah Bankhead
in her London début. She wrote a second play, The Swallow, about decent people coping with the rise of Italian Fascism
, produced in London in 1925. Tree published several books: her memoirs, Castles in the Air (1926); a book of etiquette advice, Can I Help You? (1937); a novel; a biography of her husband; and an anthology, Alan Parsons' Book (1937).
Tree died of pleurisy in London, aged 54.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
, she made many of her early appearances with his company at His Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
. Later she appeared in opera, variety
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
, straight theatre and film.
Biography
Tree was born in London, the eldest of three daughters of Herbert Beerbohm TreeHerbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
and his wife, the actress Helen Maud Tree, née Holt. Her aunt was author Constance Beerbohm
Constance Beerbohm
Constance Beerbohm was the oldest daughter of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm , of Dutch, Lithuanian, and German origin, who had come to England in about 1830 and set up as a prosperous corn merchant. He married an Englishwoman, Constantia Draper, and the couple had four children...
and an uncle was Max Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
. She was educated privately in London and in Europe. Her sisters were Felicity Tree
Felicity Tree
Lady Felicity Cory-Wright was an English baronetess, the daughter of the actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his wife, the actress Helen Maud Holt...
(1895-1978) and Iris Tree
Iris Tree
Iris Tree was an English poet, actress and artists' model, described as a bohemian, an eccentric, a wit and an adventuress....
. She also had seven illegitimate half-siblings, the products of her father's many infidelities, among them the director Carol Reed
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed was an English film director best known for Odd Man Out , The Fallen Idol , The Third Man and Oliver!...
and Peter Reed, whose son became the actor Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
.
Stage and film career
Originally, Tree planned a career as a singer, but entered the family profession in 1904. She made a very successful London debut in March 1904 as Viola in Twelfth Night. For the next four years she appeared in her father's productions at His Majesty's TheatreHer Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
. Her other Shakespeare roles included Hero in Much Ado about Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
, the Queen in Richard II
Richard II (play)
King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
, Ariel in The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
, Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
, Ophelia in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
and Perdita in The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
, in which 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....
played Hermione.
Tree continued to plan an operatic career, and after making a success in the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
and as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
in 1910, she went to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
to study. On her return, however, she did not pursue her operatic ambitions, except for playing Euridice again in 1912. Instead, she continued to build her stage career in plays and in variety
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
. In 1912, Tree married a drama critic, Alan Parsons, who died in 1933, aged 44. They had two sons, including David Tree
David Tree
David Tree was an English stage and screen actor from a distinguished theatrical family whose career in the 1930s included roles in numerous stage presentations as well as in thirteen films produced between 1937 and 1941, among which were 1939's Goodbye Mr...
, and a daughter.
In 1919, Tree took over the management of the Aldwych Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
, scoring particular success with the works of Sacha Guitry
Sacha Guitry
Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.- Biography :...
. Her last Shakespeare role was Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
in 1923. In 1930-31 she was in the U.S., appearing on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and on tour in drama and also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
. Through the 1930s, Tree continually played in light comedies in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, varied with occasional unorthodox undertakings. In 1930 she directed an Italian play, La Piccola by Massimo Bontempelli
Massimo Bontempelli
Massimo Bontempelli was an Italian poet, playwright, and novelist. He was influential in developing and promoting the literary style known as magical realism.-Life:...
, in the original Italian, and in 1934 she directed Jean-Phillippe Rameau's opera Castor et Pollux
Castor et Pollux
Castor et Pollux is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 at the Académie royale de musique in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard, whose reputation as a salon poet it made. This was the third opera by Rameau and his second in the form of the...
for the Oxford University Opera Club. Her last West End appearance was in The Melody that Got Lost, "a comedy with music", in January 1938. She was an early and strong supporter of the foundation of a National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
.
Tree also played in four films between 1920 and 1938, the last of which, Pygmalion
Pygmalion (1938 film)
Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller....
, by George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
(1938), completed three generations of the Tree family's connection with premieres of versions of the play: Tree's father created the role of Henry Higgins in the London stage première in 1914
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
; Viola Tree revived the play in 1920; and she played a cameo role in the film, in which her son David Tree played Freddy.
Writing
In 1923 The Dancers, a play written by Tree in collaboration with the actor-manager Gerald du MaurierGerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
under the joint pen name of Hubert Parsons, opened at Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
, starring Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
in her London début. She wrote a second play, The Swallow, about decent people coping with the rise of Italian Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, produced in London in 1925. Tree published several books: her memoirs, Castles in the Air (1926); a book of etiquette advice, Can I Help You? (1937); a novel; a biography of her husband; and an anthology, Alan Parsons' Book (1937).
Tree died of pleurisy in London, aged 54.
External links
- Viola Tree at the IMDB
- Viola Tree at the IBDB
- Genealogical information on Tree at ThePeerage.com
- Caricature of Viola Tree