Tristan Rawson

[1] He began his performing career as a singer, playing baritone roles at the Cologne Opera, where he made his debut in September 1910 and remained for four years.

[1] During the First World War Rawson was a member of the company of the Zurich Opera, where he created the role of Barak in Busoni's Turandot.

[5] He was persuaded to take part in an amateur production given by "The English Players" – organised by James Joyce – of The Importance of Being Earnest in the leading role of John Worthing.

[6][n 1] Rawson continued to act with the company during 1918 in plays including Hindle Wakes, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, and She Stoops to Conquer.

[8] In 1919, back in England, Rawson made his professional debut on the non-musical stage with the Lena Ashwell players, under the direction of D. A.

He was in plays ranging from modern comedy to old melodrama (East Lynne), Elizabethan classics (Kent in Edward II and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice), new costume drama (Robert E. Lee by John Drinkwater), and Ibsen (Borgheim in Little Eyolf).

[14] He played Marcellus, Laertes and Claudius in productions of Hamlet, Richmond and Hastings in productions of Richard III, Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cinna in Julius Caesar, the Duke of Venice in Othello, Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Orsino in Twelfth Night, the Duke in As You Like It, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing and Simonides in Pericles.

[2] During the 1945 season at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon he appeared in Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello and Much Ado About Nothing.