Frank Benson (actor)
Sir Francis Robert Benson (4 November 1858 – 31 December 1939) was an English actor-manager. He founded his own company in 1883 and produced all but two of Shakespeare's plays. His thirty-year association with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the annual Shakespeare Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon laid down foundations for the creation of the Royal Shakespeare Company after his death.
Benson's company toured widely, with few London seasons, and became a training ground for several generations of young performers, including Henry Ainley, Oscar Asche, Lilian Braithwaite, Isadora Duncan, Nigel Playfair, Nancy Price,Harcourt Williams and Moffat Johnston.
Benson was also the older cousin of the Oscar nominated, and Tony winning actor Basil Rathbone, to whom he bore a strong resemblance.
Life and career
Early years
Benson was born at Eden House,
In July 1881 Benson and his Oxford Agamemnon Society took the Imperial Theatre, London, for a single performance of Romeo and Juliet. The performance was not admired; The Stage found it "one of the very worst it has been our misfortune to witness", and commented that Benson's Romeo resembled George Grossmith's Bunthorne in Patience.[4] Benson then studied with Hermann Vezin and was encouraged by Ellen Terry, who persuaded Henry Irving to take Benson on to play Paris in Romeo and Juliet at the Lyceum in 1882. Irving was unimpressed and did not extend the young actor's contract. Terry suggested that Benson should join a touring company where he could gain more experience and better parts than in London. He joined first Miss Alleyne's company, and then that of Walter Bentley, which performed Shakespeare and classic comedies in the north of England and Scotland. The Times described the circumstances in which Benson came to take over the company in 1883:
Helped by further subsidies from his father, Benson built up his company and extended its touring range to the whole of the country and beyond.[1] In 1886 he married a member of his company, Constance Featherstonhaugh. They had two children, Eric William (1887–1916, killed at the battle of the Somme), and Brynhild Lucy (1888–1974).[1]
Benson's company
In 1886,
Each year, Benson gave one new production at Stratford, which was given on Shakespeare's birthday and became known as the Birthday Play. These productions, often of rarely performed plays, were subsidised by Flower or his fellow governors of the theatre, who paid for the design and making of the costumes and sets. Benson was then able to tour the production with his other plays. The extension of the Stratford repertoire rescued many Shakespeare plays from neglect, such as Timon of Athens, The Winter's Tale and King John, although the most popular plays were regularly staged as well. The three most successful at the box office were The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor, which were presented so often that members of Benson's company called their repertoire The Merry Shrews of Venice.[7]
Benson's productions were not avant-garde: he liked traditional staging and design, but he was the first producer of modern times to give
When not at Stratford, the Benson company's repertoire included some non-Shakespearean classics and modern plays, but Shakespeare predominated.[10] Benson's mission, in the words of The Times was:
Another celebrated aspect of Benson's life and work was the training of new generations of actors. A touring company paying modest salaries inevitably suffered a constant loss of its leading players to stardom and better pay in the West End, and Benson's company had a continual influx and outflow of actors.[2] In 1913 The Times printed a list of more than 90 "Old Bensonians" – eminent actors and actresses who "learnt their art under the inspiration of Mr Benson". The men included Henry Ainley, Oscar Asche, Matheson Lang, Nigel Playfair, William Poel and Harcourt Williams. Among the women were Lilian Braithwaite, Isadora Duncan, Kitty Loftus and Nancy Price.[11][n 2]
London
Although Benson's chief successes were gained out of London he sought recognition in the West End.[3] He presented his first London season at the Globe Theatre in 1889, beginning on 19 December with A Midsummer Night's Dream. The notices were highly favourable: one reviewer declared that the production was the best in living memory "so conscientious and complete, and so poetical and picturesque".[13] It ran for what was then a record 110 performances. Benson, who hated long runs and preferred a repertory system, added The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and Othello to the season, but according to the theatre historian J. P. Wearing this confused a London public unfamiliar with repertory seasons, and Benson lost money.[1]
Benson did not return to the West End for ten years, taking the Lyceum for four months in 1900. He had subsequent West End seasons at the
in 1911 Benson appeared in four films of Shakespeare plays, much abbreviated: Richard III, in the title role; Julius Caesar, in which he played Antony; The Taming of the Shrew as Petruchio; and Macbeth, in the title role.[15]
First World War and later years
Benson staged patriotic performances of Henry V during the early years of the war, but longed to make a more tangible contribution to the war effort. He was rejected for active service because of his age. He temporarily abandoned the stage and drove an ambulance in France, receiving the Croix de Guerre on the battlefield for rescuing wounded men on the front line. His wife ran a canteen for soldiers in France.[1] Benson was knighted in 1916.[16]
After the war Benson made his last appearance at Stratford in 1919, and then toured South Africa in 1921–22. At about this time he had an affair with an actress, Geneviève Smeek, also known as Townsend (1898–1927); the Bensons separated although they did not divorce.
Benson made his last appearance on stage as Dr Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, at the Winter Garden, London on 26 December 1932 in a production by the Old Bensonian Oscar Asche.
Notes, references and sources
Notes
- ^ The missing two were Titus Andronicus and Troilus and Cressida.[1]
- ^ Among other eminent Old Bensonians were Janet Achurch, William Armstrong, Leslie Banks, O. B. Clarence, Robert Donat, J. B. Fagan, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, H. O. Nicholson, and Benson's distant cousin Basil Rathbone.[11][12]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wearing, J. P. "Benson, Sir Francis Robert (Frank) (1858–1939), actor and theatre manager", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- ^ a b c d e f "Sir Frank Benson: A Great Theatrical Personality", The Times, 1 January 1940, p. 10
- ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 745.
- ^ "Imperial", The Stage, 15 July 1881, p. 8
- ^ Beauman, pp. 27–28
- ^ Beauman, pp. 31 and 34
- ^ Beauman, p. 33
- ^ Beauman, pp. 32–33
- ^ a b Parker, pp. 299–300
- ^ Beauman, pp. 30–31
- ^ a b "Mr Benson's Canadian and American Visit", The Times, 18 September 1913, p. 9
- ^ "F. R. Benson" and "Frank Benson", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 1 August 2021
- ^ "Globe Theatre", The Morning Post, 3 January 1890, p. 4
- ^ "Shakespeare Day Surprise", The Times, 3 May 1916, p. 11
- ^ "Lady Constance Benson", Shakespeare and the Players. Retrieved 31 July 2021
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Benson, Sir Francis Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 30 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 448.
- ^ "The Winter Garden", The Stage, 30 December 1932, p. 18
- ^ "Sir Frank Benson", The Times, 13 January 1940, p. 9
Sources
- Beauman, Sally (1982). The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-212209-4.
- Parker, John, ed. (1939). Who's Who in the Theatre (ninth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 473894893.
External links
- Frank Benson at IMDb