“We Want No More Bastard Drama”

Abstract

Late in 1905, Edward Garnett wrote to Galsworthy to say that the Vedrenne-Barker management at the Court Theatre was looking for contemporary plays and suggested that Galsworthy write and submit one. At that time, Harley Granville Barker (1877–1946), the talented actor, director and writer, and John E. Vedrenne (1867–1930), the actor and manager, with the financial backing of J. H. Leigh, a rich amateur actor, had the lease of the Court Theatre, later called the Royal Court, in Sloane Square and were attempting to stage new plays without regard to possible commercial success. They were interested in plays that expressed contemporary life and conveyed ideas, plays that, in English terms, might duplicate the challenging theatre of Ibsen and Hauptmann on the continent. In April 1904, Granville Barker and Vedrenne had begun with Shaw’s Candida, written seven or eight years earlier but having received only a very short provincial production. Characteristically, they would put on a play for only six or eight performances, often matinées, hoping that it would receive sufficient attention to warrant evening production or the interest of one of the larger West End theatre managers, who would buy the rights to and transfer the play. Consequently, Vedrenne and Barker needed a fairly large supply of new plays.