Hallo Stordfield,
vielleicht hilft Dir diese Passage aus dem JtR A-Z weiter:
After succeeding in New York and impressing Henry Irving, Mansfield took the play to London and opened at Irving's Lyceum Theatre on 4 August 1888. It closed on 29 September. It has frequently been said that the Ripper scare caused the failure of the production, and that despite making generous contributions to the Bishop of London's fund to open a laundry for the employment of reformed prostitutes, Mansfield was forced to close the production and return to America, maiking a loss. In fact, the play was running at a serious loss before the Ripper's activities were publicised and Mansfield had to revert to light comedies in October.
Ausführlicheres soll man in Danahay, Chisholm - Jekyll and Hyse dramatized finden können.
Vielleicht ist ja auch das noch interessant:
The Times (London)
Monday, August 6 1888
LYCEUM THEATRE.
In view of the very considerable stir made by the rival adapters of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," it is
possible that the public may have formed an exaggerated idea both of the dramatic merits of that work and of the power
with which the dual personality of the central character is, or can be, presented on the stage. If Mr. Mansfield's
appearance at the Lyceum on Saturday night caused just a shade of disappointment to fall upon the large and critical
house that assembled in his honour, the effect is to be ascribed, perhaps, as much to an abuse of the "puff preliminary"
as to any shortcomings in the actor's performance of his difficult, and somewhat oppressive task. There is but little scope
for acting in what has been described as Mr. Stevenson's "psychological study." As applied to the dramatic version of Mr.
Stevenson's book, the accuracy of the word "psychological" is open to question. There is no transfusion of thought or
character between "Dr. Jekyll" and "Mr. Hyde." In look, dress, and action they are wholly distinct individuals; and Mr.
Mansfield's appearances, now in the one part and now in the other, involve no more psychology than the "business" of a
"quick-change artiste" in the music-halls. There is much more psychology, for example, in Mr. Irving's impersonation of
Mathias in The Bells, where the conscience-stricken burgomaster leads a double life - one in the society of his family and
friends, the other in the solitude of his chamber. But except in the hands of a master, psychology is of small account on
the stage, which deals much more effectively with the cardinal passions. It is with no regret that we note the absence of
the psychological element from the dramatic version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Much more important from the
dramatic point of view is the absence of that conflict of passions or interests from which dramatic action springs. For Dr.
Jekyll's engagement to the daughter of Sir Danvers Carew, whom, as Mr. Hyde, he murders, never assumes the dignity
of a motive at all, or, indeed, appears in any light but that of a passing and wholly immaterial incident. The play is thus
reduced to a mere string of episodes in connexion with the dual character of its hero. First Dr. Jekyll appears; next Mr.
Hyde; then, after the metamorphosis has occurred a few times behind the scenes, Mr. Hyde changes into Dr. Jekyll
under the eye of the house, but with "lights down," when he mixes and drinks his mysterious powders in Dr. Lanyon's
study; finally Dr. Jekyll involuntarily falls back into the repulsive shape of Mr. Hyde, as he is looking out of a balcony at
the back of the stage, and, having now exhausted his supply of "salt," takes poison and dies. Instead of trying to
preserve or to suggest the identity of the two men in their different shapes, Mr. Mansfield, wisely, no doubt, in view of the
importance of broad effects, presents them as separate characters, Dr. Jekyll being a somewhat bland and platitudinous
philanthropist, who has a tendency to grope with his right hand in the region of his heart, while Mr. Hyde is a crouching,
Quilp-like creature, a malignant Quasimodo, who hisses and snorts like a wild beast. As Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Mansfield does
not strike one as an actor of remarkable resource; as Mr. Hyde, however, he plays with a rough vigour or power which,
allied to his hideous aspect, thrills the house, producing a sensation composed in equal measure of the morbidly
fascinating and the downright disagreeable. Studies of the horrible are not usually attractive to the public, who, after all,
go to the theatre mainly for the purpose of being pleasantly entertained and lifted out of themselves. The truth of this
axiom playwrights have more than once found to their cost. Still The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appeals in
a certain degree to the love of the occult which is deeply implanted in the human mind, and it may for that reason be able
to hold its place in the Lyceum bill.
The Star
Monday, 17 September, 1888.
THEATRICAL NOTES.
Both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were seized with a sharp attack of rheumatism on Saturday morning, and in consequence
there was no performance at the Lyceum, afternoon or evening. Mr. Mansfield expects to be well enough to appear this
evening however, and "Lesbia," a new curtain-raiser by Mr. Richard Davey, will precede the regular performance.
The Star
Tuesday, 18 September 1888
The staple of the evening's
entertainment, Mr. Mansfield's version of Mr. Facing-both-ways, has apparently lost nothing of its weird fascination for
the British sensation-hunter. It is still drawing crowded houses.
Steht für mich jetzt im Widerspruch zu dem was im A-Z steht, aber wer weiß schon, was die Produktion kostete.
The Star
Wednesday, 19 September 1888
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving. - TO-NIGHT, at 9.0, (Last 12 Performances) MR. RICHARD
MANSFIELD, in DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE. Preceded at 8 by LESBIA. Classical Comedy in one Act, by Mr. Richard
Davey. LESBIA, Miss Beatrice Cameron.
MORNING PERFORMANCE NEXT SATURDAY, at 2.0.
MONDAY, Oct. 1, A PARISIAN ROMANCE. Mr. Mansfield as THE BARON CHEVRIAL.
So geht's weiter bis Ende des Monats, mit Countdown (Last 11 Performances,...)
The Star
Tuesday, 2 October 1888
LYCEUM THEATRE.
Mr. Mansfield Essays Another Gruesome Part with Success.
Last night Mr. Richard Mansfield made good his claim to rank as a dramatic artist. His previous performance of the
protagonist - or pair of protagonists - of Mr. Stevenson's strange psychological study, interesting, fascinating even, as it
was, hardly substantiated this claim. After all, this Jekyll-Hyde was only the bogey of a nightmare - the most gruesome of
bogeys, to be sure, but still a creature of sheer fantasy, something not only inhuman but extra-human. Mr. Mansfield's old
Baron Chevrial in "A Parisian Romance" is far ahead of this, ahead by all the length of the gap which separates fantasy
from realism, the figment of a dream from the study of a man. The play itself is as feeble as the one particular player is
strong. It is a translation, by an American hand,
A VERY AMERICAN HAND,
of Octave Feuillet's "Un Roman Parisien," which was produced at the Paris Gymnase in the autumn of 1882, ran for
about 100 nights, and then was permanently shelved. The story is incoherent, unreal, and uninteresting. A young
husband, whose misfortune it is in the present version to combine the false sentiment of the French jeune premier with
the false emphasis of the average American actor, is suddenly called upon to face a great renunciation. He learns that
his dead father had embezzled trust-money; this money is owing to an old, worthless rake of a banker, already, as the
French would say, seven times a millionaire; to pay it he will have to give up every penny of his own, his mother's, his
young wife's fortunes. But he does not hesitate, pays over every penny of the money, and retires into poverty. The
wicked banker makes love to his wife; she runs away to America to try her fortune on the operatic stage; the wicked
banker dies in a fit of apoplexy at a naughty supper-party; the wife returns, laden with dollars, to make all the virtuous
people happy again - and there is the drama. This is the sort of thing which the scribes who invent the literary
introductions to
PATENT-MEDICINE ADVERTISEMENTS
would hardly condescend to, and the fact that it is signed by Octave Feuillet, member of the French Academy, is a
severer criticism on that institution than the most vitriolic gibe in M. Daudet's "L'Immortel." But there is a compensation.
Not unfrequently on the stage, in bold defiance of Euclid, the whole is very much less than a part, and so it is with "A
Parisian Romance." The part is that of the wicked old banker, Baron Chevrial, which Mr. Mansfield has laid hold of,
thought out, and elaborated into a wonderful characterisation. His, of course, is not the first fine study of senility the stage
has shown by many a long way. Oddly enough, old men have generally been best played by young actors. Mr. John
Hare and Mr. Beerbohm Tree are contemporary cases in point. And here is Mr. Mansfield, another youngster as age
goes on the stage, jumping into the front rank of his art by a remarkable picture of the weaknesses of an aged
debauchee. His picture, of course, suggests other pictures. His makeup is curiously like that of Mr. Arthur Cecil's elderly
rake in "The Millionaire," an old Court success; his voice is the voice of Mr. William Farren in Lord Ogleby. But the
character is, for all that, a new and distinct creation - it bears the sign-manual of none but Richard Mansfield. The palsied
hand, the pendulous lip, the tottering gait, the cracked voice - all these may have been shown us on the stage before; but
these are only part of Mr. Mansfield's study of the
AMOROUS, WORN-OUT DOTARD,
Baron Chevrial. The sudden unholy flash that gleams in his eyes when he thinks of the fearful temptation he will be able
to offer the young fashionable wife who has become suddenly poor; his death by a stroke of apoplexy in the moment of
his proposing a blasphemous toast to the triumph of matter; these - and the part is a mosaic of such things - are
moments when one recognises the true artist, the actor who can both think and convey his thoughts to others. In London,
Baron Chevrial will suffice to establish Mr. Mansfield's reputation. No other element in the cast is of the slightest interest
or importance. Miss Beatrice Cameron is sympathetic as the young wife, Mr. John T. Sullivan terribly heavy as the young
husband, and Miss Maude White cleverly continues to represent a fast actress without offending the susceptibilities of
the British matron. The rest is naught. But poor as the play is, the acting of the chief player is a thing on no account to be
missed.
The Star
Monday, 8 October 1888
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving.
MR. RICHARD MANSFIELD.
SPECIAL NOTICE. - In response to numerous requests, a limited number of representations of DR. JEKYLL AND MR.
HYDE will be given.
TO-NIGHT (Monday), WEDNESDAY, and FRIDAY, at 9 o'clock, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Preceded, at 8, by
LESBIA.
TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY EVENINGS at 9, and SATURDAY AFTERNOON at 2, A PARISIAN ROMANCE.
At 8 LESBIA.
Box-office (Mr. J. Hurst) open 10 to 5. - LYCEUM.
Also so erfolglos kann das Stück wohl nicht gewesen sein.
The Star
Friday, 12 October 1888.
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving.
MR. RICHARD MANSFIELD.
TO-NIGHT at 9, and every evening (except Friday next), DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. At 8, LESBIA. MATINEE, A
PARISIAN ROMANCE, TO-MORROW (Saturday), at 2. Last time.
Friday next, PRINCE KARL. Mr. Mansfield as Prince Karl, his original character. Performance for the benefit of the Poor
at the East End of London.
The Star
Saturday, 13 October 1888
ACTORS AND ACTING.
"SPECTATOR'S" NOTES ON THE DRAMATIC WEEK.
Mr. Richard Mansfield has shown a wise discretion in selecting a piece of pure comedy for his benefit performance next
Friday in aid of the Bishop of Bedford's Home and Refuge Fund for the East-end Poor. The real horrors of Whitechapel
have just now put the sham horrors of the stage to shame, and Mr. Mansfield is quick to recognise the situation. "Prince
Karl" was produced about four years ago at the Boston Museum, was transferred to the New York Madison Square
Theatre, where it ran for a year, bringing its author, Mr. Archibald Gunter, a royalty of £40 a week, and so giving him
leisure and means to write his "Mr. Barnes of New York." Assuredly Mr. Mansfield has much to answer for! By the way,
he tells me he has abandoned his intention of producing "Nero" in London, his season terminating as early as 1 Dec. His
next novelty after "Prince Karl" will be an original play by an English author, name not stated. I should not be surprised if
it turned out to be Mr. A Jones.
The Star
Saturday, 20 October 1888
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving.
MR. RICHARD MANSFIELD.
TO-NIGHT, at 9, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Preceded at 7.45 by ALWAYS INTENDED.
MONDAY EVENING at 8.45, PRINCE KARL. Preceded at 7.45 by ALWAYS INTENDED.
Box-office (Mr. J. Hurst) open daily from 10 till 5.
LYCEUM THEATRE.
"Prince Karl": A Trifle Bizarre, but a Relief from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
When a critic is confronted with a subject that he cannot at once bring into one of his ready-made categories or, in the
colloquial phrase, cannot quite make head or tail of, his usual course is to take refuge in such vague, non-committing
epithets as "eccentric," "nondescript," "bizarre." We feel sorely tempted to tack one of these adjectives on to "Prince
Karl," the piece Mr. Richard Mansfield introduced to Londoners last night at his benefit performance in aid of the Bishop
of Bedford's East-end Refuge Fund. Is it a comedy? No; for it makes an attempt from first to last to keep within the
bounds of probability. It postulates too much. Let it be granted that a man who, for reasons, has induced the world to
suppose him dead, can present himself undisguised, as a servant in the house of his former fiancée, yet not be
recognised, and the rest of the piece flows freely to the final Q.E.D.; but it cannot be granted. Is it a farce? Perhaps,
though farces in four acts are something of a novelty to the British playgoer. Is it a variety entertainment? Well, perhaps it
is a little of that, too, as it seems designed to provide all the performers with constant opportunities for irrelevant
"business," and one of them with a chance of showing how well he can patter German dialogue and
WARBLE A GERMAN SONG.
Mr. Mansfield himself shirks this difficulty of classification by calling "Prince Karl" an "improbable story," with the fell intent
doubtless of taking the wind out of the critic's sails. Better call it a fantasy - a word as comfortable as "Mesopotamia" to
journalists at a loss for a label - and have done with it. Prince Karl von Arnheim is driven by debt to seek the hand and
fortune of a widow supposed to be wealthy, a certain Mrs. Daphne Lowell from Boston, whom he meets as she is touring
on the Rhine. On the eve of the wedding, however, his courage fails him; he recognises in Mrs. Daphne's niece a girl to
whom some time before he had lost his heart, and to escape his engagement he feigns madness, jumps into the Rhine,
and lets it be supposed that he is drowned. Reappearing in the widow's household as a courier, he finds, what he had
hitherto doubted, that the niece really loved Prince Karl, and, after many quaint adventures, he declares his identity, and
all ends happily to the good old tune of wedding bells. But the story of the piece is its least important feature. The point of
the production consists in its
WEALTH OF LUDRICROUS DETAIL,
its queer mixture of Teutonic romance and New England manners, of jest and earnest, of actuality and that sort of No-
Man's-Land atmosphere which Leigh Hunt and Lamb said was the native air of the Drama of the Restoration. All this is,
perhaps, a little bewildering to matter-of-fact playgoers; an English audience likes to know exactly what sort of article it is
invited to deal with, and though the players met last night with a very favorable reception, there were not wanting signs
that the house on the whole was more puzzled than dazzled. Mr. Mansfield's dryly droll mock-heroics made the German
Prince turned courier a very diverting personage; Miss Beatrice Cameron and Miss Emma Sheridan were a pretty pair of
frisky American girls; and that excellent actress of the sound old school, Miss Carlotta Leclercq, provoked hearty laughter
as an elderly, amorous widow. On the whole it was a pleasant experiment of Mr. Mansfield's,
AN AGREEABLE RELIEF,
from the sombre tone of his previous performances; but whether "Price Karl" has enough substance in it to stand the
wear-and-tear of a continuous run is open to doubt. Four-act farces - for, after all, the piece had better be called a farce,
if a name has to be definitely given it - are not popular in England. Even in Paris, all the skill of Meilhac and Halévy failed
to reconcile the French to five-act farces. And Mr. Archibald Gunter, the author of "Prince Karl," is neither a Meilhac nor
an Halévy. Did he get the idea of his piece from a German original? There is a certain Teutonic heaviness here and there
in its humor which lends countenance to the conjecture.
Where is the Coroner's Warrant?
With regard to the alleged "body snatching" at the Finchley Cemetery, the St. Pancras Guardian says: - The Inquiry
Committee are well aware that they can find no record in the office to establish the truth of the assertion that the bodies
were disinterred for the purposes of a coroner's inquisition. We repeat again and again that bodies have been removed
illegally; and we defy the Committee to prove otherwise.
Daily News
12 November 1888
Mr. Richard Mansfield's tenancy of the Lyceum is drawing to a close, but Mr. Mansfield had no intention of leaving
London at present. Shortly before Christmas he will open the Globe Theatre for winter season. Among his arrangements
for the evening performances are a revival of "Prince Karl," to be followed by the production of a new play. Concurrently
with these items, Mr. Saville Clark's adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" will occupy the afternoon bill throughout the
holidays.
Although the police diligently continued their inquiries they had not, down to an early hour this morning, succeeded in
capturing the Whitechapel murderer. Several persons were arrested, either on Saturday or yesterday, but they were able
to give a good account of themselves. Great excitement continues to prevail in the neighbourhood. A description of
scenes in the streets last evening will be found in another part of our impression.
