C. Haddon Chambers's play is based on the novel Tante, published in 1912, by American-born British novelist Anne Douglas Sedgwick.
When a film version was released in 1919, the Times said of the original play that:
'Playgoers may remember Mr Haddon Chambers's comedy which was produced at the Haymarket a month after the outbreak of war. It did not enjoy any undue share of prosperity, doubtless because the world was to much perturbed with soul-stirring events at the time to worry about the tantrums of a spoilt and bad-tempered pianist, who flew into fits of temper whenever her will was thwarted or her path crossed. We can still see Miss Lillah McCarthy in Oriental robes and hair awry flinging herself at the keyboard of her piano and revelling in the complexity of the part.'
Source:
'The Film World', The Times, 13 October 1919, p.10.
Produced as The Impossible Woman at the Haymarket, London, in 1914.
Presented by Frederick Harrison.
Cast members included Lillah McCarthy (Madame Mercedes), Godfrey Tearle (Gregory Jardine), Henry Edwards (Franz Lippheim), Malcolm Cherry (Claude Drew), Hilda Bayley (Karen Woodruff), May Whitty (Mrs. Talcot), Ruth Mackay (Mrs Forrester), and Helen Haye (Miss Scrotton).
(Information via the play's program.)
Premiered as Tante at the Empire Theatre in New York, opening on 28 October 1913 and closing in January 1914.
Produced by Charles Frohman.
Cast members included Ethel Barrymore (Madame Okraska/Tante), Mabel Archdall (Mrs Forrester), Charles Cherry (Gregory Jardine), Lizzie Hudson Collier (Mrs Talcott), E. Henry Edwards (Claude Drew), William Ingersoll (Franz Lippheim), Frances Landy (Maid), Frank McCoy (Vickers), and Eileen Van Biene (Karen Woodruff).
