The Irving edition of Shakespeare’s plays is full of a sense of the plays in performance. Performance histories, wonderful footnotes, play specific vocabulary lists all fascinate and clarify. A little extract from the performance history of ‘Twelfth Night’ is full of interest.
Two points of especial interest here both about this Olympic Theatre production of ‘Twelfth Night’ of 1865. Clearly, the idea of one actor, Miss Kate Terry, doubling as both twins, Viola and Sebastian, is sufficiently unusual for it be described here as ‘a bold device.’ Another point of interest here is the mention of Ellen ‘Nellie’ Farren as the Clown in the same production. Farren (1848-1904) was an extraordinary figure of the London stage at the time. A child star, Farren was to become most celebrated for her roles as ‘principal boy’ in the burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre. The period at the Olympic Theatre preceded the Gaiety and Farren’s move to the Olympic in 1868 and that might explain the comment about her abandonment of the higher form of comedy.
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The Solitary Reader 