PLAYS

As with Buchanan’s novels, so with his plays - they have all been forgotten and it is extremely unlikely that any will ever be revived. John Cassidy in ‘Robert W. Buchanan’ (Twayne Publishers Inc., 1973) felt that “at least three of his plays—Sophia, Joseph’s Sweetheart, and Dick Sheridan—deserve printing and perhaps staging” but I doubt that will ever happen. Again, as with his novels, it is assumed that Buchanan wrote his plays purely to make money and, to a large extent, that is undoubtedly the case. However, reading Harriett Jay’s biography, it is clear that the theatre was in Buchanan’s blood from a fairly early age. In Chapter IV: Youth, 1856-58 there is an extract from Buchanan’s autobiography where he waxes lyrical about his teenage fascination with the plays and players at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. In Chapter VIII, Harriett Jay describes his first attempts at writing for the theatre, The Witch-finder and The Rathboys (in one performance of which Buchanan himself played the part of the hero, Shadrack the Shingawn). Then in Chapter XXIV: Play-writing Harriett Jay deals with Buchanan’s later theatrical successes and the inevitable failure. Despite all the money he made from the theatre, in 1894 he was declared bankrupt. As he said to Henry Murray (the co-writer of A Society Butterfly, the play which finally ruined him): “We are all gamblers. Man is a gambler by nature and predestination, and life itself is a gamble. The tradesman, the City man, the professional man, the artist, are gamblers alike, and the artist is the biggest of all, for he stakes his brains against the public stupidity, and the odds are heavily against him.” Harriett Jay closes her chapter on Buchanan’s theatrical adventure with the following:
          “Looking back upon that experience, I think now that the man whom I then regarded as his bitterest enemy, since he brought about his financial disaster, was in reality a friend in disguise. For several years he had been living in a fool’s paradise, veritably gambling away the best hours of his life. What part had he, who from first to last was a Poet with the deep poetic heart, among the worldlings of finance? All his thoughts and dreams were of higher and nobler things, and au fond all his daily prayer was to escape again into solitude and to be alone with his first love. It was only half a heart he could give to money getting. He awoke from his folly disillusioned, wretched, dispirited, but the punishment he had received was really given to him in mercy, for from that time forth he saw both himself and the world with very different eyes.”

***

Neither Buchanan’s reputation, nor his plays, lasted beyond the silent era of cinema and the films based on the plays, Alone In London, The Trumpet Call, The Charlatan, A Man’s Shadow, The Lights of Home and The English Rose, are presumably all lost (for further details see the Filmography). Details of the few plays which were published, and those which exist in other forms, are available on the Additional Bibliographic Information page.

***

Although most of the information about Buchanan’s plays is revealed in the reviews of the time (accessed from the list below), I have also added the following to this section of the site:

Buchanan’s Theatrical Ventures In America

(Material relating to the visit Robert Buchanan and Harriett Jay made to America in 1884 and his associations with American theatre managers.)

Alone In London

(Probably Buchanan’s most popular play, although he later disowned it. Contains the programme from the first week of the Olympic Theatre production in November 1885, reviews, accounts of a court case arising from the London production and material relating to the original American production and the subsequent careers of Cora Tanner and Col. Sinn.)

***

The Plays:

The Rathboys. (In collaboration with Charles Gibbon.) 1862.

The Witchfinder. 1864. [review]

A Madcap Prince. 1874. [review]

Corinne. 1876. [review]

The Queen of Connaught. (An adaptation of Harriett Jay’s novel, written in collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1877. [review]

The Nine Days’ Queen. 1880. [reviews]

Only A Vagabond. 1880. [A short play, presumably based on Buchanan’s poem, ‘Attorney Sneak’, which was presented as an opener for The Nine Days’ Queen and Lady Clare] [review]

The Exiles of Erin. [Alternate title: The Mormons.] 1881. [review]

The Shadow of the Sword. 1881. [reviews]

Lucy Brandon. (An adaptation of Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford.) 1882. [reviews]

Storm-Beaten. (An adaptation of Buchanan’s novel, God and the Man.) 1883. [review]

Lady Clare. (An adaptation of Georges Ohnet’s Le Maître de Forges.) 1883. [review]

A Sailor and his Lass. (In collaboration with Sir Augustus Harris.) 1883. [reviews]

Bachelors. (In collaboration with H. Vezin.) 1884. [review]

Constance. 1884. [review]

Agnes. 1885. [review]

Alone in London, or, A woman against the world. (In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1885. [reviews]

Sophia. (An adaptation of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.) 1886. [reviews]

A Dark Night’s Bridal. 1887. [A one act play, based on a prose sketch by Robert Louis Stevenson, presented as an opener for Sophia.] [review]

The Blue Bells of Scotland. 1887. [review]

Fascination, or, The way we live. (In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1887. [review]

Partners. (An adaptation of Daudet’s Fromont Jeune et Risler Ainé.) 1888. [reviews]

Joseph’s Sweetheart. (An adaptation of Fielding’s Joseph Andrews.) 1888. [review]

That Doctor Cupid. 1889. [review] [programme]

The Old Home. 1889. [review]

A Man’s Shadow. (An adaptation of Jules Mary’s Roger-la-Honte.) 1889. [reviews]

Man and the Woman. 1889. [reviews]

Clarissa Harlowe. 1890. (An adaptation of Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa.) 1890. [reviews]

Miss Tomboy. (An adaptation of Vanbrugh’s The Relapse.) 1890. [review]

Theodora. (An adaptation of Victorien Sardou’s Théodora.) 1889. [reviews]

The Bride of Love. 1890. [reviews]

Sweet Nancy. (An adaptation of Rhoda Broughton’s Nancy.) 1890. [reviews]

The English Rose. (In collaboration with G. R. Sims.) 1890. [reviews]

The Struggle for Life. (In collaboration with Frederick Horner.) 1890. [review]

The Sixth Commandment. (An adaptation of Dostoievsky’s Crime and Punishment.) 1890. [review]

Marmion. (An adaptation of the poem by Sir Walter Scott.)1891. [review]

The Gifted Lady. 1891. [reviews]

The Trumpet Call. (In collaboration with G. R. Sims.) 1891. [reviews]

Squire Kate. (An adaptation of La Fermière by Armand d'Artois and Henri Pagat. A dramatisation of Buchanan’s novel, Come Live with Me and Be My Love.) 1892. [reviews]

The White Rose. (An adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's Woodstock. In collaboration with G. R. Sims.) 1892. [reviews]

The Lights of Home. (In collaboration with G. R. Sims.) 1892. [review]

The Black Domino. (In collaboration with G. R. Sims.) 1893. [review]

The Piper of Hamelin: a fantastic Opera in two acts. 1893. Music by F. W. Allwood. [available at the Internet Archive] [reviews]

The Charlatan. 1894. [review]

Dick Sheridan. 1894. [review]

A Society Butterfly. (In collaboration with Henry Murray.) 1894. [reviews]

Lady Gladys. 1894. [review]

The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown. (Written in collaboration with Charles Marlowe - pseudonym of Harriett Jay. This play was later adapted into the musical comedy, Tulip Time, by Worton David, Alfred Parker and Bruce Sievier.) 1895. [review]

The New Don Quixote. (In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1896.

The Romance of the Shopwalker. (In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1896. [reviews]

The Wanderer from Venus. (An adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Wonderful Visit. In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1896. [reviews]

The Mariners of England. (In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1897. [reviews]

Two Little Maids from School. (An adaptation of Les Demoiselles de St. Cyr. In collaboration with Harriett Jay.) 1898. [reviews]

The Squireen. (Written in collaboration with Aubrey Boucicault.) (n.d.)

***

Further information about performances of Buchanan’s plays at London’s Adelphi Theatre is available on Eastern Michigan University’s Adelphi Theatre site:

Storm-Beaten 1882-83 Season
The Bride Of Love 1889-90 Season
The English Rose 1890-91 Season
The Trumpet Call, The White Rose 1891-92 Season
The Lights Of Home, The Black Domino 1892-93 Season

***

1898 poster for the Theatre Royal, Hobart, Tasmania
(J.W.B. Murphy Collection, State Library of Tasmania.)