Book Reviews

Elizabeth Robins: Staging A Life, 1862-1952

Elizabeth Robins, 1862-1952: Actress, Novelist, Feminist

Elizabeth Robins, 1862-1952: Actress, Novelist, Feminist. Joanne E. Gates. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1994; pp. xi + 297.

Elizabeth Robins was a fascinating woman. Born in the shadow of the American Civil War, she lived through two world wars, had affairs with some of the most famous men of her time and was involved, often simultaneously, with the worlds of theatre, writing, and politics. Associating with such theatrical luminaries as Bernard Shaw, Beerbohm Tree, and Oscar Wilde, she became one of the first New Women actresses to play Ibsen and was actively involved with the suffrage movement through writing plays like Votes for Women! And yet she is a woman about whom little has been known until recently, when she was "discovered" by feminist scholars, even though she wrote several autobiographical pieces and left behind a vast correspondence. As these two biographies suggest, Robins herself colluded in this lack of information, not just by withholding the truth but by constantly hiding behind different identities.

Such a rich, varied and, at times, deliberately obfuscated life is obviously both exciting and daunting for any biographer. The two authors who have risen to the challenge, one English, the other American, choose to concentrate on differing aspects of Elizabeth Robins's life, as can be ascertained from the subtitles of these books: "Staging a Life"; "Actress, Feminist, Novelist."

Angela John's biography concentrates on Robins, the woman. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Robins's early life was marred by a tragedy that came back to haunt her in later years. Several family members suffered from mental problems, including her mother who was eventually put in an asylum. Her father, to whom she was devoted, held a deep mistrust of the stage, but against family pressure, Robins took up acting. John gives an illuminating account of how, while appearing in her hometown with James O'Neill (father of playwright Eugene), Robins felt deep humiliation when, "Before all the world" her father walked out of the theatre during the second act (quoted on 19). However, supported by her mother and grandmother, Robins continued with her stage career at the prestigious Boston Museum Company, where she met her future husband, George Parks. Marrying secretly, she then entered a period of her life that, John stresses, was both personally and professionally difficult, one that left an indelible mark on her character. Released by the theatre company because she was now a married woman, she and her husband lived in abject poverty for two years. Elizabeth took what roles she could, and George struggled as an actor, then drowned himself; his suicide note implied that he did not wish to hold back his wife's career.

John astutely connects the difficulties Robins encountered during these early years with the decisions she made later on in her life, particularly those that involved rewriting the past or creating new roles for herself. Johns underscores these changes of identity by structuring her book around the various names by which Robins was known--Bessie, Lisa, C. E. Raimond, Elizabeth Robins, E.R.--each of which corresponded to a different section of her life.

John's describes quite nicely how, once again, Robins had to rebuild her acting career--and a new identity--when she arrived in London shortly after her husband's suicide. Watching Janet Achurch as Nora in Ibsen's pioneering A Doll's House in 1889 proved a turning point. Robins recalled that it was "less like a play than like a personal meeting--with people and issues that seized us and held us, and wouldn't let us go" (quoted on 53). Soon after, Robins and another actress, Marian Lea, successfully negotiated for the English rights to Hedda Gabler and used their jewelry as collateral to rent a theatre. Their production opened to great acclaim; a leading newspaper called it "one of the most notable events in the history of the modern stage
. . . it marks an epoch and clinches an influence" (quoted on 9). Robins later wrote "I came to think of my early life as divisible into two parts: 'before or after Hedda'" (quoted on 55). More Ibsen roles followed, including Hilda in The Master Builders, which she saw as one of her greatest achievements, Rebecca West in Rosmersholm, and roles in Little Eyolf and John Gabriel Borkman, among others.

Through judicious use of illustrative detail, John suggests the vulnerability of women, particularly those who worked late at night, in London during [End Page 241] the 1890s, when the city was the largest in the world. She also illustrates the sexism of West End actor-managers such as Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who offered to "provide" for Robins. Robins seems to have held a fascination for both men and women alike that, John suggests, might be ascribed not only to her personal magnetism but to her ability to assume whatever identity was required by the other person. Publisher William Heinemann proposed to her several times, Henry James was possibly in love with her, and she continued an affair with theatre critic and Ibsen translator William Archer for a number of years. She also became embroiled in a strange relationship with poet John Masefield, the effects of which can be seen in such novels as his 1913 My Little Sister (published as Where Are You Going To . . . ? in Britain).

Joanne Gates's book claims to be the first study to benefit from access to the Elizabeth Robins collection of papers, and the author makes good use of this material. Where Johns places primary importance on the events of Robins's life, Gates dismisses her early years in less than a dozen pages, winning her insights, instead, by analyzing Robins's writing, comparing fiction with fact. This focus is heightened by introducing each chapter with a dramatic episode taken from personal documents.

Both books highlight the importance of Robins the actress but are equally vague about the non-mainstream theatre of the period, particularly the role played by Edy Craig's Pioneer Players and Suffrage Theatre. However, Gates pursues in more detail Elizabeth Robins' role as theatrical producer, particularly her plans for the ambitious New Century Theatre, "a kind of little Theatre for the Minority which will year by year . . . give a series of performances of plays not to be expected at the regular theatres" (91).

After her last professional role in 1902, writing and politics became the nucleus of Robins's life. Gates analyzes Robins's writing in great detail, astutely comparing her fiction to contemporaries like Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather. The book's principal aim of treating "Robins' writing in the context of her developing feminist aesthetic" (3) is well served by accentuating topics of particular interest to a feminist critic, such as fictional uses of female silence, sickness and sisterhood.

As Gates shows, Robins's career as an actress stood her in good stead as she turned to political life, and she soon became publically identified with the suffrage movement through her 1907 play Votes for Women! and her novel, The Convert. She said of the former that it was "the first thing I shall have written under the pressure of a strong moral conviction" (quoted on 154). Asked by the Pankhursts to speak at meetings on behalf of the cause, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the Women Writers' Suffrage League (WWSL)--founded by another feminist playwright, Cicely Hamilton--and worked towards obtaining the vote for women by using her pen and her talent as a charismatic orator. Gates presents us with a figure who became more rather than less politically motivated as she grew older, devoting her middle years to furthering women's opportunities in public life, including the cause of women in medicine and the international women's peace movement.

Elizabeth Robins is undoubtedly a figure of great importance to feminists, theatre historians and literary critics alike. Perhaps, though, she should be best remembered for her contribution to theatre. As an Ibsenite actress she was at the forefront of changing perceptions of drama, particularly the way women were portrayed on stage. Her play, Votes for Women!, now can be acknowledged as opening the floodgates for other suffrage and feminist drama, including Cicely Hamilton's influential Diana of Dobsons. Finally, as a theatrical producer she worked to build a "Theatre of the Future" whose challenge would eventually be taken up by other ensemble and collaborative groups.

It is interesting that two biographies of the same person should appear almost simultaneously. However, it is revealing to find how necessary both books are. Angela John gives a real sense of the psychological depth of Robins's character and the minutiae of her life; the people she met, events, locales. Joanne Gates, on the other hand, provides us with a shrewd view of Robins's role as writer and feminist, and, by considering all of her writing, including drama, fiction, and political essays, puts her work into literary and theatrical context.

Rebecca D'Monté
University of London

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