Laurence Irving (dramatist) facts for kids
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Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving (born December 21, 1871 – died May 29, 1914) was an English playwright and actor. He and his wife, Mabel, sadly died in a big ship accident called the RMS Empress of Ireland disaster.
Life and Career
Laurence Irving was born in London. He was the son of a famous Victorian actor-manager, Sir Henry Irving. His mother was Florence O'Callaghan. Laurence also had a brother, Harry Brodribb Irving, who was an actor-manager too.
Laurence went to school at Marlborough College and College Rollin in Paris. He even spent three years in Russia studying to work for the Foreign Office. But instead of that, he decided to become an actor.
Becoming an Actor
Laurence first appeared on stage in 1891. He played Snug in a play called The Dream with F. R. Benson's theater group. In 1892, he acted in Daisy's Escape at Toole's Theatre. Later, he toured, playing the character Svengali in the play Trilby.
In 1898, Laurence joined his father's theater company at the Lyceum Theatre. He often played smaller parts or young main characters. Some of these plays included Peter the Great (1898) and Robespierre (1899). He also acted in The Lyons Mail (1900) and Coriolanus (1900–01). He was in Dante (1902–03) and Much Ado About Nothing (1904–05).
Laurence translated Robespierre and Dante from French himself. His father, Sir Henry Irving, acted in Dante.
His Own Company and Plays
Soon, Laurence became an actor-manager. This meant he acted, directed, and managed his own theater company. He even played the main role in Hamlet.
He also wrote plays. He turned Dostoevsky's book Crime and Punishment into a play called The Unwritten Law. Just before he traveled to the United States and Canada in 1912, he had a big hit in London. This was his own play, The Typhoon.
The Typhoon was about the Russo-Japanese War. Laurence played a Japanese officer in it. He first performed it at the Haymarket Theatre in April 1912. After that, he took the play on tour to other cities.
Laurence was known for his acting skills. He played the clever old Nikolas Arnesson in Ibsen's play The Pretenders. He also played Iago in a production of Othello at His Majesty's Theatre.
Plays He Wrote
Besides acting, Laurence was a talented playwright. Some of his plays include:
- Robespierre (1899)
- Richard Lovelace (1901)
- Dante (1903)
- The Fool Hath Said: There Is No God (1908)
- The Incubus (1909)
- The Affinity (1910)
- The Three Daughters of Monsieur Dupont (1910)
Sadly, his play Dante didn't make much money. This financial problem meant his father had to sell the Lyceum Theatre, London.
Laurence was married to another performer, actress Mabel Lucy Hackney (1872–1914).
From 1912 to 1914, Laurence and Mabel toured Australia and North America. Their most successful show on this tour was Laurence's play, The Typhoon.
Death
At the end of their tour, Laurence and Mabel Irving were returning home. They were on the RMS Empress of Ireland. On May 29, 1914, in the early morning, a terrible accident happened. The Empress of Ireland was hit by another ship, the Storstad, a Norwegian coal ship.
The collision caused a huge hole in the side of the Empress of Ireland. Water rushed into the lower decks very quickly. Many passengers and crew on the lower decks were trapped. Water also came in through open windows (portholes) that were close to the water.
People on the upper decks woke up because of the crash. They quickly tried to get into lifeboats. But the ship was tilting so much that many lifeboats could not be launched. Some lifeboats that were lowered flipped over, throwing people into the cold water. Only five lifeboats were successfully launched from one side of the ship.
About 10 to 11 minutes after the crash, the Empress of Ireland tilted sharply onto its side. This allowed about 700 people to crawl out of windows and onto the side of the ship. The ship stayed on its side for a minute or two. Then, at 2:10 AM, about 14 minutes after the collision, the front of the ship briefly rose out of the water, and the ship finally sank. Hundreds of people were thrown into the freezing water. This disaster led to the deaths of 840 people.
Stories from the tragedy say that Laurence and Mabel Irving were separated. Laurence might have been in a safe place for a moment. But he knew Mabel couldn't swim. So, he bravely jumped back into the St. Lawrence River to try and save her. Sadly, their bodies were never found.
See also
- Irving Family
