WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 806, 2 May 1910, Page 3

WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS.

The twentieth century Las dawned with promise and fulfilment for women aB dramatists (says an English journal), and emancipated from the handicap of the early Victorian .tradition they will regain the position as. playwrights which'they held in the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century, when they stood on a broad intellectual basis in an age of brilliant men. Mrs. Cowley produced that ' delightful comedy, "The Belle's Stratagem," which draws full houses to-day. Mrs. Incbbald achieved renown' with ' "The Great Mogul" and "Tho Married Man," while the excellent Hannah More made £30,000 by her plays, which w;ere chiefly sacred dramas. The renaissance of the woman playwright is attested 'in our own times by the work of the late Mrs. Craigie, Mrs. Musgrave of "Our Flat" renown, Miss Fletcher tlio author of "The Canary," Mrs. Ejrley tho brilliant author of some forty plays including "Mice and Men," and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett, with the dramatisation of her exquisite creation, "Little lord Fauntleroy," a piece produced by Mrs. Oscar Beringer at Terry's Theatre when she was in stage management.

. Mrs. Havelock Ellis's first introduction to the drama was agreeably dramatic. ' She was confined to 'bed with bronchitis'and to amuso herself made her little plans' of "The Subjection of Kezia" out of her book "Cornish 'Neighbours." She sent it to Mr.Otho Stuart and in a fortnight it was produced at the Court Theatre. It had a good run at the Court, the Garrick, the Criterion, and the New Theatre in 1908, and was played in the provinces. This. was Mrs. Ellis's first attempt at play-writing, and has been followed by that remarkable play, "Kit's Woman." Both pjays are delightfully descriptive of Cornish peasant life. "ICit's Woman" is an adaptation, in collaboration with Mr. Joshua Bates, from Mrs. Ellis's novel. Mrs: Ellis, was bom with a taste for the drama, and her great ambition as a girl was Ite be an actress like Ellen Terry.

Mrs. de la Pasture served a . very long apprenticeship-as a dramatist by writing 'and acting plays for and with amateurs. Her • first serious venture was "The Lonely Millionaires," acted at the Court Theatre. by the Earl of Altamont's company of amateurs/ and was afterwards produced at the Adelphi. Then camo her brilliant success, "Peter's-Mother," which was played at •four London theatres during its run of nearly -two hundred nights, and was commanded by the King to he played at Sandringham for the Queen's Birthday. The play, "Peter's Mother," was written before the novel.

Mrs. de la Pasture is the author of several novels, but most of them were first written in dramatic form. She prefers play-writing to any other form of work although the calls upon her as a novelist draw her away from it. She lias recently dramatised "Debbrah of Tods," which was first bought by Mr. Arthur Bourchier and then transferred to Miss Maxime Elliott, who will make an ideal "Deborah" in'appearance. It is being produced in America. This summer, Mrs. de la Pasture's play, "Luigi's Wife," was performed at the Prime Minister's house, when Mrs. Asquith entertained a circle of friends to a dramatic At Home. THo other play acted, "Tom's Second Missus," was also by a lady, Mrs. Francis Blundell (M. E. Francis).