Trilby (play)

Trilby is a stage play based on the 1895 novel Trilby by George du Maurier. The novel was adapted into a long-running play starring Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Svengali and Dorothea Baird in the title role at the Haymarket Theatre in London in October 1895. The role of Svengali was originally created by American actor Wilton Lackaye in an earlier version of the play performed at the Boston Museum in March 1895.

While touring the United States in the Spring of 1895 Tree heard of the success of an adaptation of du Maurier's novel by Paul Meredith Potter (1853–1921) being performed by the company of theatrical manager Albert Marshall Palmer at the Boston Museum. He sent his half-brother and agent Max Beerbohm to see the play and report back on it. Max Beerbohm stated that the play was "absolute nonsense" and would be a failure in London. Tree dismissed the play from his mind until he had a night free and went to see the play in Buffalo, New York, with Wilton Lackaye in the role of Svengali and Virginia Harned playing the title role.

Tree immediately bought the British rights to the play and on his return to London mounted his own production, firstly at the Theatre Royal in Manchester on 7 September 1895 and finally on 30 October 1895 at the Haymarket Theatre in London. The two Manchester performances secured British copyright for Potter’s adaptation. Tree’s company then toured, performing Trilby at the Grand Theatre, Leeds 11–14 September; at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow 16 and 20 September; at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh 23–27 September; at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool 30 September-5 October; at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin 7–12 October; at the Tyne Theatre in Newcastle 14–19 October; and at the Theatre Royal in Birmingham 21–26 October.

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