1906–1935 · Gramophone Company, Victor

The English Stage on Disc

Actors who played to Victorian houses, recorded

There is no recording of a West End performance before the war, and there never will be: nobody was allowed to put a machine in a theatre. What exists instead is this — actors brought into a studio, stood in front of a horn, and asked to do the speech everyone knew them for, in three and a half minutes. Ellen Terry was sixty-four when she recorded the mercy speech she had first played for Irving in 1879. Beerbohm Tree's Falstaff is the only sound of a manager who ran His Majesty's Theatre as a personal empire. The style is enormous, deliberate, sung almost — and it is the nearest thing we have to standing in a nineteenth-century stalls seat.

12 broadcasts · 7 seasons held · London and New York

19062

Antony's Lament Over the Body of Caesar — Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree

1 Jan 1906 · 2 min

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree — Julius Caesar. Recorded 1906, Special. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

The English Stage on Disc

Falstaff's Speech on Honour — Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree

1 Jan 1906 · 2 min

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree — Henry IV, Part 1. Recorded 1906, Special. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

19112

The English Stage on Disc

The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strained — Ellen Terry

1 Jan 1911 · 1 min

Ellen Terry — The Merchant of Venice. Recorded 1911, His Master's Voice. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

The English Stage on Disc

A Winter's Tale — Ellen Terry

1 Jan 1911 · 1 min

Ellen Terry — The Winter's Tale. Recorded 1911, Victrola. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

19201

The English Stage on Disc

Antony's Oration, part one — E. H. Sothern

1 Jan 1920 · 4 min

E. H. Sothern — Julius Caesar. Recorded 1920, Victrola. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

19212

The English Stage on Disc

Hamlet's Speech to the Players — E. H. Sothern

1 Jan 1921 · 4 min

E. H. Sothern — Hamlet. Recorded 1921, Victrola. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

The English Stage on Disc

The Balcony Scene — E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe

1 Jan 1921 · 3 min

E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe — Romeo and Juliet. Recorded 1921, Victrola. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

19281

The English Stage on Disc

Gloucester's Soliloquy — John Barrymore

1 Jan 1928 · 4 min

John Barrymore — Henry VI, Part 3. Recorded 1928, Victrola. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

19303

The English Stage on Disc

To Be, or Not to Be — Henry Ainley

1 Jan 1930 · 3 min

Henry Ainley — Hamlet. Recorded 1930, His Master's Voice. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

The English Stage on Disc

O, That This Too Too Solid Flesh — Henry Ainley

1 Jan 1930 · 2 min

Henry Ainley — Hamlet. Recorded 1930, His Master's Voice. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

The English Stage on Disc

Look Here, Upon This Picture — Henry Ainley

1 Jan 1930 · 2 min

Henry Ainley — Hamlet. Recorded 1930, His Master's Voice. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.

19351

The English Stage on Disc

The Importance of Being Earnest, excerpt — Dame Edith Evans and John Gielgud

1 Jan 1935 · 3 min

Dame Edith Evans and John Gielgud — Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest. Recorded 1935, His Master's Voice. Disc digitised by the Great 78 Project; public domain.