Herbert Beerbohm Tree

thumb|Herbert Beerbohm Tree

Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor-manager of the late Victorian era and Edwardian era.

Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the rebuilding, and became manager, of His Majesty's Theatre. Again, he promoted a mix of Shakespeare and classic plays with new works and adaptations of popular novels, giving them spectacular productions in this large house, and often playing leading roles. His wife, actress Helen Maud Holt, often played opposite him and assisted him with management of the theatres.

Although Tree was regarded as a versatile and skilled actor, particularly in character roles, by his later years his technique was seen as mannered and old-fashioned. He founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1904 and was knighted for his contributions to theatre in 1909. His famous family includes his siblings, explorer Julius Beerbohm, author Constance Beerbohm and half-brother caricaturist Max Beerbohm. His daughters were Viola, an actress, Felicity, a socialite and Iris, a poet. His illegitimate children included film director Carol Reed. He was a grandfather of the actor Oliver Reed.

Early life and career

Born in Kensington, London as Herbert Draper Beerbohm, Tree was the second son and second child of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (1810–1892) and his wife Constantia () Beerbohm. The senior Beerbohm was of Lithuanian origin; he had come to the United Kingdom in about 1830 and set up and prospered as a cereal merchant. Draper was an Englishwoman. They had four children. Max jokingly claimed that Herbert added the "Tree" to his name because it was easier for audiences than shouting "Beerbohm! Beerbohm!" at curtain calls. The latter part of his surname, "bohm", is north German dialect for "tree".

Tree's early education included Mrs Adams's Preparatory School at Frant, East Sussex, Dr Stone's school in King's Square, Bristol, and Westbourne Collegiate School in Westbourne Grove, London. After these, he attended the Salzmann Schnepfenthal School in Thuringia, Germany, where his father had been educated. Upon his return to England, he began performing with amateur troupes, eventually using the name Herbert Beerbohm Tree, while working in his father's business. Another London engagement was as Prince Maleotti in a revival of Forget-me-Not at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in 1880.

His first London success came in 1884 as the Rev. Robert Spalding in Charles Hawtrey's adaptation of The Private Secretary. Tree embellished the comic elements of the role, which added to the popularity of the play. His next role was Paolo Marcari in Called Back by Hugh Conway. The contrast between this dashing Italian spy and his timid parson in Hawtrey's play, showed his versatility as a character actor. Other appearances over the next two years included roles in revivals of A. W. Pinero's The Magistrate and W. S. Gilbert's Engaged. In 1886, he played Iago in Othello and Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal with F. R. Benson's company at Bournemouth. The same year, in London, he made a success at the Haymarket Theatre, in the character role of Baron Harzfeld in Jim the Penman by Charles Young. His Haymarket seasons were broken by visits to the United States in January 1895 and November 1896, and occasional visits to the provinces. The theatre historian W. J. MacQueen-Pope, wrote of the theatre,

<blockquote>Simply to go to His Majesty's was a thrill. As soon as you entered it, you sensed the atmosphere ... In Tree's time it was graced by footmen in powdered wigs and liveries ... Everything was in tone, nothing cheap, nothing vulgar.</blockquote>Tree opened his theatre in 1897 during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year, associating the new structure with an imperial celebration.

Over the next two decades, Tree staged approximately sixty plays there, programming a repertory at least as varied as he had at the Haymarket. His first production at Her Majesty's was a dramatisation of Gilbert Parker's The Seats of the Mighty. Tree mounted new plays by prominent British playwrights, such as Carnac Sahib (1899) by Henry Arthur Jones. His productions were exceptionally profitable; they were famous, most of all, for their elaborate and often spectacular scenery and effects. Unlike some other famous actor-managers, Tree engaged the best actors available to join his company and hired the best designers and composers for the plays with incidental music. His productions starred such noted actors as Constance Collier, Ellen Terry, Madge Kendal, Winifred Emery, Julia Neilson, Violet Vanbrugh, Oscar Asche, Arthur Bourchier, and Lewis Waller. Tree also took his productions on tour to the United States many times. In 1907 he visited Berlin's Royal Opera House at the invitation of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Gilbert remarked that Tree had been invited by the Kaiser "with the malignant motive of showing the Germans what impostors we all are."

thumb|Macbeth (1916)

Tree sometimes interpolated scenes of famous historical events into the plays to provide even more spectacle, such as King John's granting of Magna Carta or Anne Boleyn's coronation in Westminster Abbey. In California in 1916, Tree played the title role in a film of Macbeth, by D. W. Griffith (considered a lost film).

In the great tragic Shakespearean roles, however, Tree was overshadowed by earlier actors such as Henry Irving. Tree's versatility, however, was a two edged sword: he quickly tired of characters after a brief run and sought to add business and details to the part to sustain his interest, which led to further character inconsistencies in long runs. Tree's voice was described as thin, and he was sometimes criticised for struggling to project it in a manner that made his performance seem unnatural. In the last decade of his career, Tree's technique was seen as mannered and old fashioned. His spectacles, too, in comparison with the experimental methods of Poel and other producers, seemed outdated, although Tree responded to his critics by noting that his productions remained profitable and well attended. He was also the grandfather of Hollywood screenwriter and producer Ivan Moffat.

Tree founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1904. He also served as president of the Theatrical Managers' Association and assisted the Actors' Benevolent Fund and the Actors' Association. For his contributions to theatre, he was knighted in 1909. During World War I, Tree contributed his celebrity by delivering patriotic addresses. He wrote several books discussing the importance of the theatre and the arts in modern society. His remains were cremated, and his ashes are buried at the additional burial ground of St John-at-Hampstead church.

Discography

Tree recorded five 10" records for the Gramophone Company (afterwards His Master's Voice, couplings as E numbers) in 1906.

1312 Hamlet's Soliloquy on Death: "To be, or not to be" – Hamlet (Shakespeare) (3554/E162). (See external link)
1313 Svengali mesmerises Trilby: "The roof of your mouth is like the dome of the Pantheon" – Trilby (Paul M. Potter, after G. du Maurier) (3751/E162).
1314 Mark Antony's lament over the body of Julius Caesar: "Oh pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth" – Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) (3557/E161).
1315 Richard II's Soliloquy on the death of kings: "No matter where – of comfort no man speak" – Richard II (Shakespeare) (3556/E163).
1316 Falstaff's speech on Honour: "Hal, if thou see me down in battle / 'Tis not due yet..." – Henry IV, Part 1 (Shakespeare) (3555/E161).

In popular culture

The songwriter Maude Valérie White dedicated her setting of Byron's song "So we'll go no more a-roving" to Tree, "in grateful remembrance of 13 July 1888". In the musical Cats, Jellylorum says of Gus, "He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree." In the Frasier episode "Daphne's Room", the plot involves Frasier's retrieval of a book from Daphne’s room called The Life and Times of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

Gielgud, John. An Actor and His Time, Sidgwick and Jackson, London (1979),
Macqueen-Pope, W. Carriages at eleven: the story of the Edwardian theatre (1947) Carriages at Eleven
Pearson, Hesketh. Gilbert and Sullivan, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth (1950)

External links

Herbert Beerbohm Tree in postcards at Shakespeare & the Players, Emory University
Tree archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Hamlet reading 'To be or not to be'
Image of the actor in costume