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Dr Janice Norwood
Lecturer in English Literature
Despite his long theatrical career and enthusiastic reviews of his productions, William Bourne did not achieve celebrity status in his lifetime, his plays were largely ignored after his death, and today his name is virtually unknown even among historians of nineteenth-century popular entertainment. Yet his story is an important and fascinating one for what it reveals of ordinary performing life and the day-to-day activity of provincial theatres during the Victorian period. While the majority of scholarly attention has been focused on performers and productions on the stages of the West End of London, Bourne’s life and work reminds us of the vitality of the theatre in other areas and is arguably more representative of popular dramatic activity.
Study of the touring schedules of Bourne’s companies shows they relentlessly traversed England, Wales and Scotland, bringing his productions to a dizzyingly widespread number of venues. Some of these were situated in major cities such as Liverpool, Birmingham and London while others provided entertainment in smaller towns and communities such as Coatbridge and Torquay. Bourne capitalised on the extent of the tours in his advertising, claiming in 1890 that Man to Man (then in its sixth year of touring) had been performed in every town in the country that had a theatre. The logistics involved in organising and managing tours on this scale would have been extremely challenging, particularly during periods when Bourne was co-ordinating two companies at the same time and performing in the productions himself. The fact that he was able to make enough profit to carry on is testimony both to his own business acumen and to his undoubted understanding of audience taste.
The plays that Bourne scripted, produced and starred in are conventional melodramas. Such plays formed the greatest part of the nineteenth-century theatrical repertoire. Work and Wages, which was first played in Hanley in 1890, is a typical example. It takes advantage of a topical subject alluded to in its subtitle, The Great Strike. Appearing six months after the great Dock Strike of 1889 and the wave of other industrial disputes, Bourne’s drama sides with unfairly treated workers but is also critical of political agitators and any criminal activity committed by strikers. It ends with a patriotic call for harmony. Such sentiments were expedient given that the play needed to appeal to audiences comprised of people from a mixture of social classes and holding a range of political views. Bourne proved adept at satisfying these diverse interests at the same time as offering entertaining spectacle.
Wentworth M. Johnson and Pieter F. de Lang are to be commended for providing wider access to these previously unpublished scripts.
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| WORK AND WAGES |
FIRST OF THREE PALYS
Work and Wages
(The Great Strike)
A five-act play first performed at the Theatre Royal Hanley. 27 January 1890
List of Characters
1st Workman
2nd Workman
Moses Abraham
Adele Langlois
Adolphus Addle
Clerk of Arraigns
Counsel for the Defence
Counsel for the Prosecution
Doctor Meredith
Jonathon Radford
Lord Arlingford M.P.
Marchioness de Montador
Mr Justice Buckgrove
Olivia Graham
Paul Radford
Policeman
Robert Dormer or Bob
Sally Woodleigh
Sam Crumpton
Tom Wentworth
Usher
Victor Langlois
Act 1
Exterior of Radford’s works.
Workmen discovered listening to Sam Crumpton who is on steps.
Men Aye, aye, he’s right there.
1st Man Of course he’s right, he’s always right. Go on Sam.
Sam Well then I say “Stand up for your rights.” You know your worth in the social scale – you are not dirt, nor vermin, nor scum of the earth, are you?
Men No. No.
Sam Then what are you? Will the truth be palatable? I’ll tell you what you are. You are fools. Every one of you (Murmurs among men) I repeat, is fools. Fools and you know it. There’s not a man among you. T’death are we slaves we working men to be yoked like beasts of burden, to be the playthings of the masters and when trade is slack down go your wages – Aye, aye – but when Trade is good do they ever go up again? No, No – No. Then what do you do? You come fawning and cringing bowing your knees humbly, cap in hand and ask for what? For an advance, for a favour, forgetting all the time that you are merely seeking your own. D’ ye hear what I say? Your own.
Men Aye, aye Sam you’re right.
Sam Right – of course I’m right. I’ve no patience with you. Did you well know masters put back what they take away unless compelled?
Men Not they.
Sam Very well then you know what to do. Stand firm. Don’t budge an inch. Show them that you are men of steel and you’ll win. Falter and you are lost. Nail your colours to the mast. Ten per cent advance, no less. For a fair day’s work a fair day’s pay.
Men Bravo! Sam, Bravo!
1st Man You’ll want a drink after this Sam.
Sam Well it is dry work and that’s the truth.
1st Man Come along then and I’ll stand you half-a-pint.
Sam Half a what?
1st Man Beg pardon, Sam. Half-a-quart then.
Men Ha, ha. So’ll I. So’ll I.
Sam Ah that’s business. Focus on then and we’ll drink success to the four eights.
1st Man Four eights, what’s that, Sam?
Sam Don’t know what the four eights is, well your education’s been terribly neglected. The four eights should be every workingman’s ambition. Eight hours work, eight hours play, eight hours sleep and eight bob a day.
Men Hear, hear, bravo, Sam.
Sam Now boys, three cheers for the 4 eights.
Men (As they go off) Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! (Exit R. U. E.)
(Bob Dormer & Sally enter L. U. E.)
Bob D’ye see them Sally? There they go in tow of that vagabond who’ll drink the last penny they have in their pockets. Blind fools, four eights indeed. If he had four dozen across his bare back it’d do him more good.
Sally Oh, Bob, whatever for?
Bob Well he’s undoing all the good Wentworth’s done. He’s been spouting again influencing their minds with his drunken arguments. Making them more discontented than they are. You see Sally, he’s got too much of what I have too little of – what the French call…
Sally Oh for goodness sake don’t talk French.
Bob Don’t say that, Sally. How can a fellow learn the language if he doesn’t practice it?
Sally Well don’t practice it on me, Bob. I hate people who try to speak a foreign language before they learned their own.
Bob Oh! That is too bad, what I mean is in plain English, that fellow’s got too much of what I’ve got too little – the gift of the gab.
Sally Oh that’s plain English, very, but sometimes when you don’t speak, Bob, you are more eloquent than when you do. (Walks away.)
Bob Now what does she mean by that? That’s the effects of you living up at the house and seeing so much of Miss Graham. You’ve said lots of pretty things since she came.
Sally Well she says some very pretty things and gives me good advice. What an angel she is. She gave me a very sensible piece of advice yesterday.
Bob Oh, what was that?
Sally I want to get married, and I want to fall in love.
Bob Some people are very ready with their advice. What does she know about it? I suppose she is to be married some day.
Sally I don’t think so.
Bob Why not?
Sally Well in the first place, I should say there’s no man good enough for her.
Bob Perhaps not, but I’ve noticed Tom Wentworth has not been the same man since Miss Graham came to the place.
Sally Bob, you’re joking. What can she be to him?
Bob I don’t know, sometimes when her name crops up, he raises his hat and shouts, “Bob, I can’t stay here, I’m going out.” and away he goes slamming the door after him as if he wanted to get away from himself.
Sally Perhaps it’s the strike that’s worrying him.
Bob Perhaps so, but it’s more than the strike and my name’s not Robert Dormer if the cause ain’t connected with Miss Graham.
Sally Well while you say your name’s Robert, I know you’re in earnest, but the wisest thing he can do is to keep his thoughts off her. I’m quite certain she’ll never marry and I’d be sorry to see so good and beautiful a creature the slave of even the best of your noble sex. Ha, ha!
Bob Never mind, Sally, Miss Graham may be an angel, she looks one, but when you talk about men M. E. N. I’d like to tell you that Tom Wentworth is worthy to be the husband of a Princess.
Sally I like you for sticking up for him but fancy a Princess having a husband who works.
Bob It would be a novelty wouldn’t it? Ah! Sally, talking of novelties, have you heard of my latest?
Sally No.
Bob Well I’ll give you a treat, I’ve got it here. It’s something wonderful.
Sally Indeed! I hope it will turn out more useful than some of your wonders, they’ve been dreadful failures up to now. I don’t forget your great invention, the machine for peeling potatoes. They tried it up at the house, cut the potatoes all to pieces and nearly cut off the fingers of all who tried to use it.
Bob Yes. There was something a little wrong with that, I’ll admit.
Sally There was.
Bob But this is alright. There look at that.
Sally What’s that? A doll’s house?
Bob Oh, Sally, don’t chaff a fellow.
Sally Well it looks like it.
Bob No that’s a model, a model of my new patent house for working men. You see the advantages, plenty of light, lots of air, heaps of rooms every square inch of space utilized. Simply perfect in fact beau ideal (beau! French) of what a working man’s house should be.
Sally Well I daresay it’s very clever but I don’t understand the advantages.
Bob You would, Sally, if one of these dwellings were occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Dormer
Sally Go along, Bob, and what do you think will come of this wonderful invention?
Bob Come off it, Sally. It only needs to be seen to become universally adopted by architects, builders, lawyers, doctors, philanthropist and everybody. Whole cities will be built in this style.
Sally I’m sorry for the cities.
Bob Use, Sally. Use before ornament. I shouldn’t wonder if in time the whole land was covered by these houses.
Sally Well that would be awkward for the rich people. What are they going to do?
Bob Ah they don’t count! They are the drones – we are the working bees.
Sally Where do the people sleep in the wonderful house?
Bob Why on the first floor of course.
Sally Oh, how do you get up to it?
Bob Get up to it?
Sally Yes.
Bob Get up – why damn me, I’ve forgot the stairs.
Sally Oh, Bob I’m afraid you are a long way off being a successful inventor yet. Hello who’s that?
Bob Ah! My, ain’t he a swell.
Sally I thought it was Paul Radford at first, he did give me a fright.
(Lord Arlingford enters L. U. E.)
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