Jane Annie facts for kids

Cover of programme, 1893

Jane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize is a funny musical play. It was written in 1893 by J. M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle. The music was composed by Ernest Ford. He was a conductor and sometimes wrote music.

After the famous writing team of Gilbert and Sullivan stopped working together, a theatre owner named Richard D'Oyly Carte needed new shows. He owned the Savoy Theatre. J. M. Barrie was a writer at that time. He had written some popular books. He had not yet created his famous story, Peter Pan.

Barrie shared his idea for Jane Annie with D'Oyly Carte. D'Oyly Carte thought Arthur Sullivan should help Barrie. But Sullivan suggested Ernest Ford instead. Ford had written other short musical plays. Barrie found it hard to finish the story for Jane Annie. So, he asked his friend Arthur Conan Doyle for help. Conan Doyle was already famous for his Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Conan Doyle finished the play, but he had to follow Barrie's original ideas.

Performances of Jane Annie

Jane Annie first opened in London at the Savoy Theatre. This was on May 13, 1893. The show was not successful there. Barrie and Conan Doyle tried to make changes to it. But the play closed after only 50 performances. Even famous actors from the Savoy Theatre were in the show. These included Rutland Barrington, Walter Passmore, and Rosina Brandram. Jane Annie was the first big failure for the Savoy Theatre.

The show closed in London on July 1, 1893. Then, it went on a tour to other cities. It played in Bradford, Newcastle, Manchester, and Birmingham. The tour lasted until August 26, 1893. The play was much more popular on tour than it had been in London. Rutland Barrington, one of the actors, loved golf. He thought the show failed in London because golf was not popular there yet. Jane Annie has not been performed by professional groups since then.

From programme, 1893

The Proctor explains his job and his helpers: I'll tell you what we do, We watch the university students. When they see our special clothes, They run away very fast. Then my helpers follow them, These men I will describe; My "bulldogs" will catch them, They never take money to let someone go.

Characters and Original Actors

Here are the main characters and the actors who first played them:

• The Proctor, who likes Miss Sims (bass-baritone singer) - Rutland Barrington
• Sim, a helper called a bulldog (baritone singer) - Lawrence Grindley
• Greg, another helper called a bulldog (baritone singer) - Walter Passmore
• Tom, a student reporter (tenor singer) - Charles Kenningham
• Jack, a soldier (baritone singer) - R. Scott Fishe
• Caddie, a young servant (treble singer) - Harry Rignold
• First Student (does not sing) - Bowden Haswell
• Miss Sims, the headmistress (contralto singer) - Rosina Brandram
• Jane Annie, a very good girl (mezzo-soprano singer) - Dorothy Vane
• Bab, a naughty girl (soprano singer) - Decima Moore
• Milly, an average girl (soprano singer) - Florence Perry
• Rose, another girl (mezzo-soprano singer) - Emmie Owen
• Meg, another girl (does not sing) - José Shalders
• Maud, another girl (does not sing) - May Bell
• Chorus of Schoolgirls, Student Reporters, and Soldiers

What some words mean: A proctor is a senior person at a university. They are in charge of rules and discipline. They can give out fines. Bulldogs are like university police. They help the proctor. A page is a young servant. They usually do small jobs around a house.

Story of Jane Annie

Jane Annie takes place at a girls' boarding school. It is near a famous English university town. This town is probably Oxford.

Act I: Night at the School

The girls are saying goodnight to each other. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. Miss Sims, the headmistress, lets three men into her office. She blocks the keyhole. Bab, who is known as a "bad girl," starts to tell the other girls a secret. But Jane Annie, the school's "good girl" and a tattletale, stops her. Jane Annie quickly goes to tell Miss Sims what she heard. Bab quickly tells the other girls her plan. She wants to run away that night with Jack, a soldier.

When Jane Annie comes back with Miss Sims, Bab pretends. She says her secret was how tired she was. She pretends to go to bed. Miss Sims introduces her guests. They are the Proctor and his "bulldogs." They are at the school to catch a student. This student is having secret meetings. After the girls go to bed, the Proctor hides. He gets inside a grandfather clock. He puts his face where the clock face should be. He waits for the student.

Tom, a student reporter from the university, comes in through the window. He also likes Bab. He meets with her, but she ends their friendship. The Proctor comes out of the clock. He scares Tom, who jumps back out the window. A moment later, a note is thrown through the window. Bab thinks it is from Miss Sims. Miss Sims used to be the Proctor's girlfriend. As the Proctor leaves, Jane Annie comes downstairs. She turns down the lights. Jack, the soldier, enters wearing a cloak. He realizes he has come to the wrong girl. He drops the cloak as he runs away.

Jane Annie puts on the cloak. She pretends to be Jack. Bab comes downstairs with her bags. Bab faints into Jane Annie's arms. Jane Annie screams. The whole house wakes up. Student reporters from the university are nearby. They were following the Proctor to get a story. They hear the scream. They join the girls and Miss Sims. They find Bab in Jane Annie's arms. Bab fainted from fright. Miss Sims sends the girls to their rooms. But they stay on the balcony instead.

The Proctor enters, very angry. The student reporters surprise him with questions. They keep misunderstanding what he says. So, he makes up a story to avoid trouble. Greg and Sim announce they caught someone. But it's not the student they were looking for. Jack appears, angry about being wrongly caught. Miss Sims decides to reward Jane Annie. She stopped Bab from running away. Jane Annie asks for the Good Conduct Prize. Miss Sims agrees. While Miss Sims gets the prize, Jane Annie reveals something. She can use hypnotism. Now that she has the prize, she says she can be as naughty as she wants. She will start the very next day.

Act II: A Golf Course at the School

On the Golf Course

The next day is the last day of school. Caddie, a young servant, takes Bab to the golf course. Bab is being punished. She is not allowed to play. Jane Annie talks to Bab alone. She tells Bab that she has chosen one of Bab's friends, Jack, to be her boyfriend. She hasn't told him yet.

The girls come out to play golf. Miss Sims, who is under Jane Annie's hypnotism, decides something. She says some men can join their end-of-semester party. To make it more fun, she adds that the girls can pretend to be men. When she is alone with Jane Annie, Miss Sims says she had a strange dream. She dreamed she wrote several letters that morning. Caddie delivered them. The first letter's result is quickly seen. The student reporters arrive in their caps and gowns. They show Miss Sims her letter. She knows it is her writing. When drinks arrive (from the second letter!), Caddie suspects something. He threatens to tell on Jane Annie. He says he will tell if he doesn't get a kiss from her.

The girls meet the student reporters. All the girls have decided to pretend to be men. So, the students pretend to be girls to go along with it. Just as the fun starts, the Proctor appears. He scares away the real men. The girls keep pretending. But the Proctor threatens to punish them all. The girls drop their caps and gowns. The Proctor is embarrassed. He fines himself a shilling. Greg and Sim pay it for him. Jack and the soldiers arrive. Miss Sims invited them. More letters are revealed, which annoys her.

Jane Annie finds Jack. She tells him he will run away with her. He doesn't want to. Tom and Jack meet face to face. They say mean things about each other. But they still get ready to run away together. They find out that Caddie has hidden the key to the boat shed. As they plan, Bab and Tom make up. Bab thinks Jack is too proud and unrealistic. The Proctor catches Bab in Tom's arms. But she uses her charm to make the Proctor less strict. She eventually ties him up with her scarf. She locks him in a small garden house.

Jane Annie hypnotises Caddie

A carriage has arrived to take the couples away. But they cannot cross the river without the boat. Jane Annie hypnotizes Caddie. He hid the key somewhere on himself. When he gives up the key, Miss Sims catches them. Jane Annie hypnotizes Miss Sims. She makes Miss Sims give her blessing. Then she hypnotizes the Proctor. She makes him pay for their travel costs. Jack refuses to go with Jane Annie. So, she hypnotizes him too. He then agrees to love her.

The happy couples escape. When the hypnotism wears off, Miss Sims and the Proctor realize what happened. They know a trick was played on them. Their good names are ruined. The Proctor tries to find a lesson from it. But he cannot remember it. He suggests, "you'd best go home without it." Caddie wants to say the lesson is "no more Good Conduct prizes." But the others do not let him speak.

Songs in the Opera

Postcard of Dorothy Vane as Jane Annie

Here are some of the songs in Jane Annie:

• Introduction
• Act I
  • "Good night" (Milly and Girls)
  • "I'm not a sneak for praise or pelf" (Jane Annie and Girls)
  • "Bright-eyed Bab I used to be" (Bab, Miss Sims, Jane Annie and Girls)
  • "There was a time when we were not...Name and college!" (Proctor with Bab, Miss Sims, Jane Annie, Sim and Greg)
  • "Approach her thus" (Miss Sims, Proctor, Sim and Greg)
  • "When a bulldog I became" (Greg and Sim)
  • "It was the time of thistledown" (Tom)
  • "What are the gifts that love may bring?" (Bab, Tom and Proctor)
  • "Little maiden, pause and ponder" (Voices in the air)
  • Act 1 Finale
    • "Madam, do not think us rude in" (Press Students and Girls)
    • "There once was a man in a seaside town" (Proctor and Chorus)
    • "An officer I, strolling by" (Jack)
    • "When I was a little piccaninny" (Jane Annie and Chorus)
    • "Hail, Jane Annie, hail!" (Milly, Rose, Miss Sims, Caddie, Proctor, Sim, Greg and Chorus)

• Act 2
  • Introduction..."A page boy am I" (Caddie and Bab)
  • "To golf is staid for bashful maid" (Girls)
  • "A girl again I seem to be" (Miss Sims)
  • "Where the willows shade the river" (Press Students)
  • "When I was a" (Sim and Greg)
  • "We are conscious that we slightly condescend" (Jack and Soldiers)
  • "You and I, dear Jack, will show" (Jane Annie, Jack and Chorus)
  • Ballet
  • "Last night when we were forced to part" (Bab and Tom)
  • "I'm a man of erudition" (Proctor and Bab)
  • "You're now a sentimental maid" (Jane Annie, Miss Sims, Bab, Tom, Jack, Proctor and Chorus)
  • "The moral of this story is" (Milly, Miss Sims, Proctor and Chorus)