THE MASK OF VIRTUE (1935)

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Sydney Carroll: "Vivian" - it's neither one thing nor other. It'll confuse people. They won't know if you are a man or a woman. Will you agree to spelling it "Vivien"?

"I changed my name again today," Vivien Leigh told her husband that day.

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The action of the play takes place in Paris about 1760

Produced: Maxwell Wrey

Impressario: Sydney Carroll

Directed: Maxwell Wray

Vivien's role: Henriette Duquesnoy

Scenery: Philip Gough

Costumes designed: Philip Gough

Miss de Casalis's second costume: Nathan

Miss Leigh's Act 2, Scene 2 wedding dress: Nathan

Mr. Cellier's first and second costumes: Nathan

Mr. Cellier's third costume: Simmons

Furniture: J. S. Lyin, Ltd.

Wigs: Gustave

Silverware: Robinson Bros.

General manager: Jack Thomas

Business Manager: J. Wood-Ingram

Stage Manager: Leslie Bodley

Press Pepresentative: Robert Jorgensen

Location: Ambassadors Theatre, London

Opened: Ambassador's Theatre, London, May 15th, 1935
May 15, 1935; St. James's Theatre, London, May 29, 1935

Cast: Vivian Leigh (Henriette Duquesnoy), Frank Cellier (the Marquis), Jeanne De Casalis, Lady Tree

Comments

Vivien Leigh: I remember the morning after The Mask of Virtue - which is the first play I did at the West End - that some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said - for those first notices. I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well, and have never forgiven him. [It was W. A. Darlington.]

Some paper (May 1935): NEW STAR TO WIN ALL LONDON
                                                VIVIEN LEIGH SHINES IN NEW PLAY
Cedric Belfrage (The Daily Express): A ravishing stage debutante whose beauty will be the talk of the town. Miss Leigh was the success of the evening. Her charm is matched by rare intelligence. A new star is in the ascendant.
E. A. Baughan (News-Chronicle): A great young actress. Vivien Leigh is the name of a young actress whose distinguished beauty and sense of style in acting will astonish all London as they astonished the audience last night. An actress of uncommon gifts, the actress succeeded through sheer sincerity and naturalness.
Daily Express: "a lightning change came over her face"
John Betjeman (Poet Laureate): "the essence of English girlhood"
James Agate (Sunday Times): "She [Vivien Leigh] gives to this part all that it asks, except in the matter of speech. If this young lady wants to become an actress, as distinct from a film star, she should at once seek means to improve her overtone, which is displeasing to the fastidious ear"
Stephen Williams (The Evening Standard): Miss Vivien Leigh as the reluctant bride has beauty and charm.

Laurence Olivier: Her [Vivien's] looks were magical, she possessed beautiful poise; her neck looked almost too fragile to support her head and bore it with a sense of surprise... She also had something else: an attraction of the most perturbing nature I had ever encountered. *
*The autobiography of the greatest actor of our times.
LAURENCE OLIVIER
CONFESSIONS OF AN ACTOR
Copyright Wheelshare Ltd, 1982

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