In this new regular series, we introduce you to some of By Jove’s Icons – the women who inspire us in our theatrical work, research, activism, and personal lives. Check back every four weeks for a Who, When, and Why on our heroines!
Who: Lillah McCarthy, actress
Recoloured photo of McCarthy as Dionysus in The Bacchae, 1908
When: 1875-1960
Why she’s a feminist icon: Lillah McCarthy was a prominent actress on the early twentieth century London stage. Prior to coming to London, she toured with the famed actor-manager Wilson Barrett. In 1904 Barrett was due to set McCarthy up in her own actor-manager enterprise but died unexpectedly. This represented a major blow to McCarthy – but encouraged by her brother (also an actor) she contacted George Bernard Shaw about taking up a role in one of his dramas. Shaw was struggling to cast Ann Whitefield in his Man and Superman at the time – upon meeting McCarthy, he gave her the part. In her autobiography McCarthy described Ann as ‘making a New Woman out of [her]’. Man and Superman was a major hit with audiences when it premiered at the Royal Court in 1905. Thereafter McCarthy became closely involved with Shaw’s work and with the New Woman movement that was opening up new possibilities for women – in how they dressed, in how they conducted their romantic relations, and societal expectations altogether. Her co-star in Man and Superman was Harley Granville Barker – they married soon after. Together with Barker’s business partner John Vedrenne, Shaw, Barker, and McCarthy worked closely in what McCarthy described as the ‘Court mission’ – stock seasons of ‘non commercial plays’ at the Royal Court that went against the grain of the West End and attracted an audience primarily of socialists, feminists, and avant-garde artists. Although brief (Barker and Vedrenne went their separate ways in 1908), the ‘Court mission’ went on to have a huge impact on London theatre. It popularised Shaw as well as Euripides (in translations of Gilbert Murray), both considered feminist, avant-garde writers.
Although McCarthy played the leads in many of Shaw’s plays (directed by Shaw himself), Vedrenne forbade McCarthy from appearing in plays directed by her husband. This was particularly a source of frustration from McCarthy in 1907 when she was denied the role of Medea. The following year, however, she took the step of producing her own Greek tragedy, staging the first recorded production of The Bacchae since antiquity. She played the role of Dionysus. Unfortunately a dispute between Murray and the production’s director, William Poel, led to the production’s premature cancellation. Nevertheless, it was a sign of what was to come: beginning in 1910, McCarthy was regularly producing and starring in plays under her own management or co-management with Barker. She was noted for her deep, commanding voice and statuesque appearance, and the passion with which she threw herself into her roles – when she played the lead in The Witch (translated by John Masefield) her performance was so terrifying that her co-stars reportedly became worried for their own safety and asked her to tone it down! She appeared in prominent roles in Barker’s revolutionary productions of Twelfth Night and Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also became particularly associated with Greek tragic roles – she played Jocasta in Max Reinhardt’s Oedipus the King, Hecuba in Trojan Women and most famously played Iphigenia in successive productions of Iphigenia among the Taurians. She described Greek tragedy as ‘the loveliest thing in the world’
She was also a committed suffragist – in her autobiography, she describes graffiti-ing the prime minister’s desk with ‘votes for women’ on a trip to Downing Street, feeling like ‘Joan of Arc of the Ballot Box’. She joined the Actresses’ Franchise League and served on the committee.
At the end of World War I, her and Barker divorced acrimoniously – he left her (and, broadly, the theatre) for an American heiress. The exact circumstances of the divorce remain unclear but certainly Barker was anxious McCarthy not publicly discuss it – he censored her memoir so that the only mention of him was ‘in 1905 I married’ (paraphrase).
Barker’s censoring and the scandal of their divorce proved devastating in the long term for McCarthy’s theatre career and legacy – he effectively wrote her out of the narrative of his theatre career. Considering that his career eventually spurred the creation of the National Theatre, that’s pretty significant. It’s even more significant because by many account McCarthy did the majority of the work while Barker studied and wrote at home. McCarthy was particularly good at charming money from sponsors and without her Barker’s career would have stalled.
In 1920 she married Sir Frederick Keeble, a noted botanist, and withdrew from acting. She styled herself as Lady Keeble. Although she returned briefly to the stage in the 30s to much acclaim (playing Iphigenia again!) she broadly took up an aristocratic life. She tried on several occasions to cement her legacy with the publication of her memoir Myself and My Friends in 1933 but this was always frustrated by Barker. Shortly before she died in 1960 she wrote to many friends asking for permission to publish their letters so that her career could be remembered – unfortunately this never occurred.
However, she made an indelible mark on theatre, influencing Shaw, Barker, and others, helping to pave the road to the National Theatre, and becoming a leading public figure in support of women’s suffrage.
