Everything about William Poel totally explained
William Poel (1852-1934) was an
English actor, theatrical manager, and dramatist best known for his presentations of Shakespeare.
Life and career
A son of
William Pole, he grew up among
pre-raphaelite painters and reportedly sat for
William Holman Hunt in his painting
Finding The Saviour In The Temple. He took on the name
Poel following a misspelling of his own name on a theatre billing. At
St. George's Hall,
London, in
1881 he revived
Hamlet, with the text of the first quarto and without scenery. From 1881 to
1883 he was manager of
Royal Victoria Hall, London, and then for a year manager of
F. R. Benson's company.
In
1895 he founded the
Elizabethan Stage Society and spent much of his career researching and lecturing on Elizabethan performance. He put his studies to work on stage, as he tried to recreate performances using an open stage, a unified acting ensemble, an uncut text, very little scenery, and a swift pace of performance. His work affected many theatre practitioners, most of all
Harley Granville Barker. His presentations included
Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (
1893) and
Two Gentlemen of Verona (
1910), plays by
Marlowe and
Ben Jonson,
Milton's Samson Agonistes (
1900), and
Swinburne's Locrine (1900).
Poel also dramatized
W. D. Howells's A Foregone Conclusion (under the title
Priest and Painter, produced 1884) and
Baring-Gould's novel
Mehala (produced 1886). He wrote several
comediettas and a book,
Shakespeare in the Theatre. The
National Portrait Gallery contains a number of pictures by William Tonks of Poel in the role as Father Keegan in
G. B. Shaw's play John Bull's Other Island. His great-nephew
Rupert Pole (1919-2006) was married to
Anais Nin.
Further Information
Get more info on 'William Poel'.
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