The Bells is a play in three acts by Leopold David Lewis which was one of the greatest successes of the British actor Henry Irving. [1] The play opened on 25 November 1871 at the Lyceum Theatre in London and initially ran for 151 performances. Irving was to stage the play repeatedly throughout his career, playing the role of Mathias for the last time the night before his death in 1905.
The Bells is a translation by Leopold Lewis of the 1867 play Le Juif polonais (The Polish Jew ) by Erckmann-Chatrian. Le Juif polonais was also adapted into an opera of the same name in three acts by Camille Erlanger, composed to a libretto by Henri Caïn.
In 1871, Irving began his association with the Lyceum Theatre with an engagement under the management of Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman. The fortunes of the house were at a low ebb when the tide was turned by Irving's sudden success as Mathias in The Bells, a property which Irving had found for himself. Bateman had been looking for a leading man when he saw Irving in a play, and the two discussed terms and possible roles for Irving, including a new version of The Polish Jew, a play about a man haunted by a murder he has committed. The Lyceum Theatre season opened in September 1871, and the first two plays were box office failures. By late October Bateman was facing financial ruin. Again Irving urged him to stage The Polish Jew, convinced that the play would be a dramatic and financial success. An unsuccessful version of the play was running at the Royal Alfred Theatre in Marylebone to meagre audiences, which failed to convince Bateman that another version could be a success; but Irving persuaded him and gave him a copy of The Bells, by Leopold Lewis. [2]
The opening night of The Bells on 25 November 1871 was held before a small audience, and during the performance a woman fainted in the stalls. [3] The audience sat in stunned silence at the end of the play. [4] However, they then gave the play, and Irving's performance, a great ovation. [5]
George R Sims later wrote for The Evening News :
"... There were plenty of stalls vacant at the Lyceum, and the author and I sat in two of them... The first part of The Bells was not very enthusiastically received, but the audience was undoubtedly held by the big scene. In the stalls there was a general agreement that Henry Irving had fulfilled the promise of dramatic intensity which he had shown in his recitation of The Dream of Eugene Aram .
The play left the first-nighters a little dazed. Old fashioned playgoers did not know what to make of it as a form of entertainment. But when the final curtain fell the audience, after a gasp or two, realised that they had witnessed the most masterly form of tragic acting that the British stage had seen for many a long day, and there was a storm of cheers. Then, still pale, still haggard, still haunted, as it were, by the terror he had so perfectly counterfeited, the actor came forward with the sort of smile that did not destroy the character of the Burgomaster or dispel the illusion of the stage." [4]
The critics declared Irving a new star, and he was immediately established at the forefront of British drama. The play ran for 150 nights, which was an unusually long run at the time. It would prove a popular vehicle for Irving for the rest of his professional life. [2] [6]
Edward Gordon Craig, who saw Irving perform the play 30 times, described Irving's performance as "the finest point the craft of acting could reach". [5] Craig added,
"The thing Irving set out to do was to show us the sorrow which slowly and remorselessly beat him down. The sorrow, which he suffers, must appeal to our hearts. Irving set out to wring our hearts, not to give a clever exhibition of antics such as a murderer would be likely to go through. Here is a strong human being who, through a moment of weakness, falls into error and for two hours becomes a criminal - does what he knows he is doing - acts deliberately but acts automatically, as though impelled by an immense force, against which no resistance is possible."
The overture and incidental music for The Bells was originally composed by Etienne Singla, Chef d'orchestre of the Théâtre Cluny in Paris for the opera Le Juif polonais in 1869. H. L. Bateman brought Singla to the Lyceum to arrange his score for The Bells, and, according to the programme, Singla conducted on the opening night. In future productions Irving deleted many of the musical themes in order to heighten the drama in various scenes. [4]
As they drove home from the opening night of The Bells, Irving's wife, Florence, criticised his profession: "Are you going on making a fool of yourself like this all your life?" (She was then pregnant with their second son, Laurence). Irving got out from their carriage at Hyde Park Corner, walked off into the night and chose never to see her again. [7]
Period - 24 & 26 December 1833.
Set in Alsace, the border country between France and Germany, Irving played the burgomaster and family man Mathias, who, fifteen years before, on the night of 24 December 1818, to pay off his mortgage debt, had robbed a wealthy Polish Jewish seed merchant named Koveski who had come to Mathias' inn, killing him with an axe and throwing his body into a lime kiln. Over time Mathias goes insane with guilt, and begins to hallucinate the ghost of the Polish Jew. Only the murderer and the audience, but nobody on stage, could hear the bells on the Jew's sledge jingling or see his ghostly face.
Finally, Mathias dreams that he is on trial for the murder and, confessing his guilt, is condemned to death by hanging. Waking, he tries to pull the imaginary noose from around his neck, and dies of a heart attack.
Henry Irving produced the play regularly throughout his career. Other actors who have played the Burgomaster Mathias in subsequent productions include Irving's son H. B. Irving, Henry Baynton, William Haviland, Bransby Williams and John Martin-Harvey.
The play was adapted into numerous film adaptations:
This is an overview of 1923 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
The year 1915 in film involved some significant events.
The year 1910 in film involved some significant events.
Sir Henry Irving, christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the West End's Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as representative of English classical theatre. In 1895 he became the first actor to be awarded a knighthood, indicating full acceptance into the higher circles of British society.
Sir John Martin-Harvey, known before his knighthood in 1921 as John Martin Harvey, was an English stage actor-manager.
The Lyceum Theatre is a West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand in central London. It has a seating capacity of 2,100. The origins of the theatre date to 1765. Managed by Samuel Arnold, from 1794 to 1809 the building hosted a variety of entertainments including a circus produced by Philip Astley, a chapel, and the first London exhibition of waxworks by Madame Tussauds. From 1816 to 1830, it served as The English Opera House. After a fire, the house was rebuilt and reopened on 14 July 1834 to a design by Samuel Beazley. The building is unique in that it has a balcony overhanging the dress circle. It was built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell. The theatre then played opera, adaptations of Charles Dickens novels and James Planché's "fairy extravaganzas", among other works.
Sidney Frances (Cowell) Bateman was an American actress, playwright, and theatrical manager who spent much of her career on the American stage.
Leopold David Lewis, was an English dramatist.
Harry Brodribb Irving, was a British stage actor and actor-manager; the eldest son of Sir Henry Irving and his wife Florence, and father of designer Laurence Irving and actress Elizabeth Irving.
The Bells is a 1926 American silent crime film directed by James Young and starring Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff. It was based on an 1867 French stage play called Le Juif Polonais by Erckmann-Chatrian. The play was translated to English in 1871 by Leopold Lewis at which time it was retitled The Bells. The English version of the play was performed in the U.S. in the 19th century by Sir Henry Irving. Le Juif Polonais was also adapted into an opera of the same name in three acts by Camille Erlanger, composed to a libretto by Henri Cain.
Le Juif polonais is a 1900 opera in three acts by Camille Erlanger composed to a libretto by Henri Caïn.
Henry Baynton was a British Shakespearean actor and actor-manager of the early 20th century who in a stage career lasting 40 years is credited with playing Hamlet over 2,000 times.
Harry Southwell was an Australian actor, writer and film director best known for making films about Ned Kelly. He was born in Cardiff, Wales and spent a couple of years in America, where he adapted some short stories by O Henry into two reel films. He worked for Vitagraph in the United States for five years, then moved to Australia in 1919, where he used his experience as a screenwriter to impress investors to back him making features. He set up his own production company in Australia but few of his movies were commercially successful.
The Burgomeister is a 1935 Australian film directed by Harry Southwell based on the 1867 play Le juif polonais by Erckmann-Chatrian, adapted into English in 1871 by Leopold Lewis, previously filmed a number of times. The Burgomeister is considered a 'substantially lost' film, with only one sequence surviving.
The Bells is a 1911 Australian feature-length silent film directed by W. J. Lincoln. It is based on the famous stage melodrama by Erckmann-Chatrian, adapted by Leopold Lewis, which in turn had been adapted for the Australian stage by W. J. Lincoln before he made it into a film.
The Bells is a 1931 British drama film directed by Harcourt Templeman and Oscar Werndorff and starring Donald Calthrop, Jane Welsh, and Edward Sinclair.
The Bells is a lost 1918 American silent drama film released by Pathé Exchange. It was adapted from the 1867 French play Le Juif Polonais by Erckmann-Chatrian and an 1871 English-language version, The Bells, by Leopold Lewis. The latter was a favorite vehicle for actor Henry Irving. This silent film stars Frank Keenan and Lois Wilson. The story was remade in 1926 as The Bells with Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff.
Virginia Frances Bateman was an American actress and actor-manager who performed with her husband Edward Compton in his Compton Comedy Company which toured the provinces of the United Kingdom from 1881 to 1923. On her husband's death in 1918 she ran the Company. She founded the Theatre Girls' Club.
The Lyons Mail is an 1877 drama by Charles Reade based on his play The Courier of Lyons (1854). The new version was written for Henry Irving for performance at the Lyceum Theatre.
The Polish Jew is a 1931 French historical drama film directed by Jean Kemm and starring Harry Baur, Mady Berry and Simone Mareuil. It is based on the 1867 play of the same name by Alexandre Chatrian and Emile Erckmann.