Irene Vanbrugh
In her early days as a leading lady she was particularly associated with Pinero's plays and later had parts written for her by James Barrie, Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham, A.
Her stage début was in Shakespeare, but she seldom acted in his plays later in her career; exceptions were her Queen Gertrude in Hamlet in 1931 and her Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, opposite her sister Violet as Alice Ford, in 1934.
She appeared frequently in fundraising shows for various charities, and was active over many years in the support of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, of which her brother Kenneth was principal.
In his memoir An Actor in His Time (1979) Sir John Gielgud described the two: As her elder sister had done, Irene joined Sarah Thorne's repertory company at the Theatre Royal, Margate, as a student.
"[9] As a student her first appearance on stage was in August 1888, as the capricious shepherdess Phoebe in As You Like It at the Theatre Royal, in a cast led by Violet as Rosalind.
On his recommendation she made her London début in December 1888, playing the White Queen and the Knave of Hearts in a revival of Alice in Wonderland at the old Globe Theatre.
Irene emulated her and joined his company in 1889, playing in established comedy successes including Dion Boucicault's Dot and H. J. Byron's Uncle Dick's Darling.
[1][16] In Alexander's company she played Fanny in Henry James's drama Guy Domville, which closed after 32 performances,[17] and in 1895 created the role of the Honourable Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest.
[3] When Arthur Bourchier, who had married Violet Vanbrugh, launched himself as an actor-manager in 1895, Irene joined them at the Royalty Theatre and on tour, winning good notices as Dulcie in The Chili Widow and in the title role of the comedy Kitty Clive.
[3] After her return to London in 1898 she appeared at the Criterion Theatre with Charles Wyndham in October 1897, as Lady Rosamund Tatton in Jones's comedy The Liars.
[3] A fellow member of Hare's company was Dion Boucicault Jr. (known as "Dot" to family and friends),[18] son of his more famous namesake.
[35] Away from the West End theatre, Vanbrugh went on the music-hall stage with Barrie's one-act play The Twelve-Pound Look in 1911, co-starring with Edmund Gwenn in a variety bill in which W. C. Fields also appeared.
[37] In 1913 Vanbrugh played Lady Gay Spanker in a revival of Boucicault senior's London Assurance in an all-star cast including Herbert Tree, Charles Hawtrey, Arthur Bourchier, Weedon Grossmith and Marie Tempest.
This was one of the many charity fund-raising productions in which Vanbrugh appeared throughout her career,[38] such as a starrily cast The School for Scandal in 1915 in which she played Lady Teazle to Tree's Sir Peter.
[3] In 1916 Vanbrugh appeared in a film, The Real Thing at Last (1916);[41] the following year she starred in two more silent films, Masks and Faces, playing Peg Woffington,[42] and The Gay Lord Quex, as Sophy, with Ben Webster as Quex and a supporting cast that included Lilian Braithwaite, Margaret Bannerman and Donald Calthrop.
The 1917 film of Masks and Faces had been made at her instigation to raise funds for the academy's partly completed theatre and she gathered a star cast, including not only leading actors but the playwrights Bernard Shaw, Pinero and Barrie in cameo appearances.
[50] During the run of Operette Vanbrugh celebrated her golden jubilee as an actress with a gala charity matinee at His Majesty's attended by the Queen.
[52] The matinee raised £2,245 (equivalent to £181,065 in 2023), which Vanbrugh donated to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and the Theatrical Ladies' Guild.
[3] The following year Vanbrugh created the role of Catherine of Braganza in Shaw's In Good King Charles's Golden Days.
[53] During the Battle of Britain in 1940 the Vanbrugh sisters carried out what Littlewood calls "a characteristic piece of war work" by giving, with Donald Wolfit, lunchtime performances of extracts from The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Strand Theatre.
Herbert wrote: All the great names that give our past a glow, Bancroft and Irving, Barrie and Boucicault, Vanbrugh and Playfair, Terry, Kendal, Maude, Gilbert and Grossmith loudly we applaud.
