Rose Edouin
Born
Rose Edouin Bryer

29 January 1844
Brighton, England
Died24 August 1925(1925-08-24) (aged 81)
Harrogate, England
NationalityUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Occupation(s)actor and playwright
SpouseGeorge Benjamin William Lewis
RelativesWillie Edouin (brother)

Rose Edouin Bryer, also known as Rose Edouin, Mrs G. B. W. Lewis and Rose Edouin Lewis (29 January 1844 – 24 August 1925) was a British actress and playwright who lived for some years in India and Australia. She and her siblings were child performers. She married George Benjamin William Lewis. She returned to acting working, in the UK and South Africa, after they ran short of money in the 1890s. She was one of the first women in Australia to play the title part of Hamlet. After her husband died in Australia she returned to Britain where she continued to act in Shakespeare's plays.

Early life

Edouin was born in 1844 in Brighton.[1] Her parents were John Edwin Bryer and Sarah Elizabeth Bryer (born May). She and her siblings played together in children's shows in London and Brighton.[2] By 1849, the children were appearing as "The Living Marionettes" in London in farces, ballets d'action, and extravaganzas.[3] In 1852 and 1854, the Edouin family children played in pantomimes at the Strand Theatre. In 1857, her parents took the family on a six-year tour of Australia, India, China and Japan.[2] The "Edouin Family" appeared in Melbourne at the Theatre Royal on 14 July 1857 in Frolics in France. Also involved were her sisters Eliza and Julia,[4] and brothers John and Willie. In 1863, Edouin and her brother Willie played in Fawcett's stock company at the Princess's Theatre, Melbourne, in burlesque.[2] She married the impresario George Benjamin William Lewis in 1864.[1]

In the 1880s Edouin ran a drama club for juveniles which culminated in a production of H.M.S. Pinafore. One graduate of this club, Flora Graupner, went on to a stage career.[5] Also in the 1880s, Edouin and her husband were leasing theatres in New Zealand and in Sydney.[6]

Later years

In 1892 she played a season in London at her brother Willie's Strand Theatre, in The Jealous Wife, and in 1894–95 she produced and starred in Grundy and Wills's The Pompadour and Wills's Jane Shore. She shared with Louise Pomeroy[7] the distinction of being one of the few females to play Prince Hamlet in Australia.[8]

In 1897 she became insolvent as a result of the bank failures of the time.[9] In 1900 she returned to the Melbourne stage, playing Mrs Vinard in Trilby for J. C. Williamson's.[10] She went to London where her brother found her work at his theatre and then toured in South Africa before returning to Australia.[1] Her husband's position led to his friends organising a benefit for her.[1]

Shakespeare's Tercentenary Henry V, 1916: James Dale, Leah Hanman, Edouin, W. H. Quintin and H. O. Nicholson.[11]

In 1906 she played Lady Wynnegate in The Squaw Man throughout Australia for Williamson's. In her career it was said that she played over 1,000 characters, and in later years was a respected drama teacher.[12]

In 1914 she was acting at Stratford-upon-Avon in several Shakespeare plays, including The Comedy of Errors and The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the following years she was still at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre appearing in such productions as Romeo and Juliet and Richard III.[13] In 1916 she was in Henry V and acted with Frank Benson's company during the commemorations of Shakespeare's tercentenary at Stratford.[11]

Death and legacy

Edouin died a widow in Harrogate in 1925 where she was continuing to act.[1]

She had survived her only child who became an adult, George Encyl Lewis (1865–1918). He was an accomplished musician and travelled with G. H. Snazelle to London to assist at his concert at the Egyptian Hall in 1894. He was conductor of the Adelphi Theatre orchestra in 1899.[14] He married his cousin Frances May Grahame (died 1902).[15] Their remains are buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery adjacent to the grave of Elizabeth Edouin Bryer who died in 1907. He composed the musical comedy A Spree in Paris, for which his mother wrote the libretto.[16]

Works

She wrote two pantomimes as "Mrs G. B. W. Lewis":

  • The Heathen Chinee ; or, Harlequin Bluebeard and the Good Fairy of the Plumed Throne of Fairyland, (1876); and
  • Little Goody Two Shoes ; or, Harlequin Who Killed Cock Robin?[17] with G. B. W. Lewis (1880)

She also wrote, as "Rose Edouin Lewis":

  • A play, The Wreck of the Inverness; or, Twenty Years After (1900);[18] and
  • A musical (with her her son George Encyl Lewis), A Spree in Paris and What Happened aka A Trip to Paris (1908)[19]

Further reading

  • Colligan, Mimi (2013). Circus and Stage: The Theatrical Adventures of Rose Edouin and GBW Lewis. Monash University Publishing. ISBN 978-1-922235-02-2.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Colligan, Mimi, "Edouin, Rose (1844–1925)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 22 September 2023
  2. 1 2 3 Banerji, Nilanjana. "Edouin, Willie". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32973. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ↑ "Willie Edouin Dead", The New York Times, 15 April 1908, p. 9
  4. ↑ "Dramatic Notes". The Lorgnette. No. 14. Victoria, Australia. 4 April 1891. p. 6. Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Dramatic Notes". The Lorgnette. No. 76. Victoria, Australia. 14 June 1890. p. 5. Retrieved 25 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "Mrs G. B. W. Lewis". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  7. ↑ "Miss Pomeroy as Hamlet". Geelong Advertiser. No. 10, 608. Victoria, Australia. 5 August 1882. p. 2. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "In Town and Out". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 17, 585. Victoria, Australia. 23 September 1933. p. 6. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Insolvency of Mrs G. B. W. Lewis". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 15, 923. Victoria, Australia. 14 July 1897. p. 6. Retrieved 19 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "The Playgoer". Punch. Victoria, Australia. 6 September 1900. p. 30. Retrieved 26 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. 1 2 The Sphere, 29 April 1916, p. 100.
  12. ↑ "Pioneers Honored". The Age. No. 25, 315. Victoria, Australia. 4 June 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 19 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "Search | RSC Performances | Shakespeare Birthplace Trust". collections.shakespeare.org.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  14. ↑ "Lady's Letter". Melbourne Punch. Victoria, Australia. 21 December 1899. p. 17. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "Family Notices". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 17, 400. Victoria, Australia. 19 April 1902. p. 9. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "About People". The Sunday Sun. No. 250. New South Wales, Australia. 12 January 1908. p. 8. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ↑ "AusLit: Mrs G. B. W. Lewis". The University of Queensland. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  18. ↑ "Greenroom Gossip". Melbourne Punch. Victoria, Australia. 1 November 1900. p. 36. Retrieved 25 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ↑ "Merely Personal". The Worker. Vol. 17, no. 19. New South Wales, Australia. 7 May 1908. p. 15. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
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