y separately published work icon Kismet single work   musical theatre  
Issue Details: First known date: 1911... 1911 Kismet
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Play with music.

Kismet's story is played out over the course of one day, with Act 1 set during the morning and Act 2 set during the evening. The epilogue contains a number of songs and dances and is played out in a street in front of the Mosque of the Carpenters.

Hajj, a beggar whom we soon gather was not always so, chances upon a bag of gold flung at him by his one-time enemy Sheikh Jawan, when he foolishly prophesises that the sheikh will meet his long-lost son before the day has ended. Meanwhile, the young Caliph Abdullah, who is in disguise, meets Hajj's only child, the beautiful Marsinah, and falls instantly in love with her. She, in turn, falls for him, but is under the impression he is the gardener's son. Puffed up with pride at having found a windfall, Hajj promises his daughter that she will have a rich marriage.

As the story progresses Hajj undergoes a series of adventures, which include tricking some tailors out of fine garments and end with him being hauled before the wicked Wazir Mansur on stealing charges. The wazir plies Hajj with wine and puffs up his pride even further, promising to marry Hajj's daughter if Hajj will kill the young Caliph Abdullah. In his state of stupor, Hajj agrees but when his attempt to kill the caliph fails, he is thrown into the same prison as Sheikh Jawan, whom he had denounced to Wazir Mansur as a robber. Hajj kills Jawan, breaks out of gaol in Jawan's clothes, rescues his daughter and the caliph, and kills the wazir (who proves to be Sheikh Jawan's long-lost son) by holding him under the water of his own women's bath. Although Hajj has helped the caliph and become his father-in-law, he is banished from the city, and the play ends with him returning to the market place (where only that morning he had been a beggar). As he begins his pilgrimage to Mecca to atone for his sins, Hajj surmises that 'many strange things may happen to men by the will of Allah between sunrise and sunset.'

Notes

  • Not long after returning to England following his 1909-10 Australian tour, Oscar Asche took over the management the Garrick Theatre and initially began by reviving a few of his earlier Shakespeare productions. He also obtained the rights to Edward Knoblock's play Hajj's Hour. At the time, Knoblock was in a state of despair, having had an unsuccessful run with The Fawn, while his manuscript for Hajj's Hour was reported to have been 'dog-eared with refusal.' Even Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree had turned it down, while it fared no better with American producers. Still flush with money from his Australian tour, and needing a new show in a hurry, Asche attempted to contact Knoblock, who was away at the time. Asche's agent rang Knoblock's sister who found two versions in a cupboard: one as originally written and the other 'embodying all the alterations the various managers who had turned it down had suggested as improvements.' The sister unwittingly sent the original version to Asche. 'He got it on a Saturday... read it on Sunday, bought it on Monday,' writes W. Macqueen-Pope in Carriages at Eleven, 'and working like demons put the play into production almost immediately. First were the changes to text, and a new title, Kismet. Then they hired Percy Anderson to do the costumes, Joseph Harker to design the settings, and Christopher Wilson to write the music (Anderson later worked with Asche on Chu Chin Chow). Asche's conceptual design also saw him run out an apron stage so as to have something going on stage all the time whilst the many changes of scene were being made' (p.202).

    Macqueen-Pope further recalls the pre-production period: 'Nobody had much sleep during that time. The company was too large for the theatre - so big was the crowd; the stage too small for the large effects visualised. But Asche overcame it all. News got out that there was nudity in the show. Excitement reigned. At last, after never-ceasing work, it opened on 19 April 1911. It was a vivid first night. The splendour of the Orient came to Charing Cross Road, the Bazaar scene with its ever-changing crowds, its noise, its colour, brought the audience to its feet with cheers. The naked lady went into the bath with an accompanying gasp of excitement. Asche was the ideal "Hajj"... [while] Brayton was the ideal "Marsinah." Its barbaric spectacle and riotous colour, its savagery, its originality - its sweep carried it to vast and overwhelming success. The scenery... alone was a masterpiece' (p.202).

    The London production ran until late January 1912, sustaining good audiences despite running into trouble with the Lord Chamberlain over the bath scene. The day after its closure Asche, Brayton and the company left England for their second Australian tour, which included revivals of Kismet.

    Source: Macqueen-Pope, W. Carriages at Eleven: The Story of the Edwardian Theatre. London: Hutchinson, 1947.

  • There remains some question over the extent to which Oscar Asche re-worked Edward Knoblock's original story and, in particular, the non-Asche directed revivals, beginning in 1911 with the debut New York season. Newspaper advertising for all Kismet productions, including those starring and directed by Asche, propose that Knoblock was the sole playwright. However, as the above note indicates, Asche played a significant role in shaping the original text for the stage, as well as providing it with its distinctive title. This issue has been ignored by most theatre historians to date but was viewed as particularly strange by the New York Times critic who reviewed the 1911 Knickerbocker Theatre premiere. The critic writes, 'Kismet - something different, and something quite worth while, for which praise be not to Allah (the phrase sticks after the performance) [but] to Mr Edward Knoblauch [sic], who first conceived it, and then to the several estimable gentlemen who have combined to bring it to our stage. Says the programme: "Klaw and Erlanger present Otis Skinner (by arrangement with Charles Frohman) in an Arabian Night Kismet, by Edward Knoblauch, produced and managed by Harrison Grey Fiske". Which would seem to indicate that everybody is getting a proper share of the glory. Perhaps. But Mr Oscar Asche, the English actor-manager, who had the courage to give Kismet a first hearing on the stage and the good taste and enterprise to make the setting worthy of the tale, is entitled to a word at least, of mention' (28 December 1911, p.7).

  • A revival of Kismet, with the authorship again attributed solely to Edward Knoblock, was staged at the New Oxford Theatre, London, beginning 9 April 1925. As noted above, the relationship between this production (and later versions) of Kismet and those staged by Oscar Asche between 1911 and 1914 remains unclear. (For details regarding the 1925 version, see 'New Oxford Theatre' Times 9 April 1925, p.8).

  • A four-reel (4,000 ft) silent-film adaptation of Kismet was made in 1914 by the Zenith film company (Britain). Directed by Leedham Bantock, who also adapted the screenplay, the film starred Oscar Asche, Lily Brayton, Caleb Porter, and Herbert Grimwood. Presumably, other members of Asche's company at that time also appeared in the film. Art direction was by Joseph Harker.

Production Details

  • 1911: Garrick Theatre, London, 19 April 1911 - 27 January 1912. Director/Producer Oscar Asche ; Lessee Arthur Bourchier and Herbert Sleath ; Cast incl. Oscar Asche (Hajj), Lily Brayton (Marsinah), R. Ian Penny (The Guide Nasir), Caleb Porter (Shiekh Jawan), Bessie Major (Narjis), Nancy Denvers (The Almah), Tripp Edgar (The Begger Kasim), Murial Hutchinson (Miskah), Saba Raleigh (Kut-al-Kuluh), Athol Forde (Amru), R. F. Anson (Zayd), Ben Webster (Caliph Abdullah), Ewan Brooke (Wazir Abu Bakr), Herbert Grimwood (Wazir Mansur), George Relph (Kafur), A. Winspeare (Afife), J. Fritz-Russell (The Gaoler Kutayt).

    1911: Knickerbocker Theatre, New York, 25 December 1911 - 1 June 1912. Director Harrison Grey Fiske ; Producer Klaw and Erlanger (in association with Charles Frohman) ; Cast incl. Otis Skinner (Hajj), Rita Joviet (Marjanah), Sheridan Block (Sheik Jawan), Fred Eric (Caliph Abdullah), Miron Leffingwell (Wazir Abu Bakr), Hamilton Revelle (Wazir Mansur), Georgia Woodthorpe (Narjis), Eleanor Gordon (Kut-al-Kulub), T. Tamamoto (The Muezzin), Del De Louis (Imam Mahmud), John Webster (A Mufti), Sydney Mather (The Guide Nasir), Macy Harlan (The Begger Kasim), Daniel Jarrett (Amrus), Harrison Carter (Zayd), Gregory Kelly (Amru's apprentice), George Relph (Kafur, Mansur's sworder), Bennett Kilpatrick (Afifa, mansur's secretary), Richard Scott (Captain of the Watch), William Lorenz (Mansur's attendant), Thomas Audley (A Chamberlain), Martin Sanders (The Gaoler Kutayt), Ameila Barleon (Kabirah), Merle Madden (Muskah), Violet Romer (The Almah). Before the curtain: Ernest Leeman (The Man), Roma Devonne (The Woman), Mervyn Rentoul (The Storyteller), Youna (The Juggler), Violet Romer (The Dancer).

  • 1912: Theatre Royal, Melbourne, 6 April - 31 May. Director Oscar Asche ; Producer J. C. Williamson's ; Music Director F. Wynne Jones ; Scenic Art Jospeh Harker ; Stage Manager J. Fritz Russell ; Costumes Percy Anderson ; Cast incl. Oscar Asche (Hajj), Lily Brayton (Marsinah), Caleb Porter (The Sheik Jawan), Herbert Grimwood (Wazir Mansur), Frederick Worlock (Caliph Abdullah), H. R. Hignett (Wazir Abu Bakr), Frances Wetherall (Kut-al-Kulub, Mansur's first wife), James Plinge (The Muezzin), Neville Brook (The Iman Mahmud), K. Macalaster (A Mufti), R. Ian Penny (The Guide Nasir), Bessie Major (Narjis), Zara (The Almah), Vernon Kelsall (The Beggar Kasim), Arthur Trainton (Amru the shopkeeper), R. F. Anson (Zayd the shopkeeper), Norman Harle (Kafur, Mansur's sworder), Alfred Bristowe (Afife, Mansur's secretary), Alexander Onslow (Captain of the Watch), Ernest Horrs (Mansur's attendant), Newton Griffiths (A Blind Man), Chas Skillan (Chamberlain of the Caliph), J. Fritz Russell (The Gaoler Kutayt), Florence M. Allen (An Old Woman), Olive Noble (Miskah, a slave). Before the Curtain: H. R. Hignett (The Storyteller), Penerell Price (The Man), Lilian Burton (The Woman), Houna (The Sorcerer), Zara (The dancer).

    1912: Theatre Royal, Sydney, 22 June- 3 August. Cast and production mostly as for previous Melbourne season.

    1913: His Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, 22 - 31 March. Cast and production mostly as for previous Melbourne season.

    1914: Globe Theatre, London, 10 March - 9 September. Director Oscar Asche ; Cast incl. Oscar Asche (Hajj), Lily Brayton (Marsinah), Caleb Porter (Shiekh Jawan), Bessie Major (Narjis), R. F. Anson (Kasim the beggar), Murial Ashwynne (Miskah), Suzanne Sheldon (Kut-al-Kuluh), Frederick Worlock (Caliph Abdullah), H. R. Hignett (Wazir Abu Bakr/The Storyteller), Herbert Grimwood (Wazir Mansur), J. Fritz-Russell (Afifie), Penderell Price (The Man), Lilian Birtles (The Woman), H. B. Hasleton (The Snake Charmer), Nancy Denvers (The Dancer).

    • This revival was advertised as presenting entirely new costumes and scenery.

    • The premiere was also advertised as the 381st production.

  • This entry has been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian-written music theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1911 .
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • Holding note: BL

Works about this Work

'Kismet' Revived : Mr Asche and Miss Brayton 1914 single work review
— Appears in: Pall Mall Gazette , 11 March 1914; (p. 7)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
Revival of 'Kismet' : Mr Oscar Asche's Company at the Globe 1914 single work review
— Appears in: The Times , 11 March 1914; (p. 5)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
'Kismet' Different; Quite Worth While 1911 single work review
— Appears in: New York Times , 26 December 1911; (p. 7)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
A Bath Play : Novel Oriental Effects in Mr Oscar Asche's New Production 1911 single work review
— Appears in: Pall Mall Gazette , 19 April 1911; (p. 10)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
The Gorgeous East, at the Garrick 1911 single work review
— Appears in: Pall Mall Gazette , 20 April 1911; (p. 4)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
Garrick Theatre: 'Kismet' 1911 single work review
— Appears in: The Times , 20 April 1911; (p. 8)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
The Gorgeous East, at the Garrick 1911 single work review
— Appears in: Pall Mall Gazette , 20 April 1911; (p. 4)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
A Bath Play : Novel Oriental Effects in Mr Oscar Asche's New Production 1911 single work review
— Appears in: Pall Mall Gazette , 19 April 1911; (p. 10)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
Revival of 'Kismet' : Mr Oscar Asche's Company at the Globe 1914 single work review
— Appears in: The Times , 11 March 1914; (p. 5)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
'Kismet' Revived : Mr Asche and Miss Brayton 1914 single work review
— Appears in: Pall Mall Gazette , 11 March 1914; (p. 7)

— Review of Kismet Oscar Asche , Edward Knoblock , 1911 single work musical theatre
Last amended 25 Aug 2017 09:29:20
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