Much has been written about Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his grandiose Shakespearean productions, but his equally flamboyant wife Maud, Lady Tree, has received less attention. Born in 1858, she was a working actress through a wide stretch of the history of British theatre, and a celebrity in her own right. Her first stage role was in 1883, she had starring roles in the silent films of the 1910s, and her final movie was released in 1936. Counting members of the aristocracy, politicians, artists and playwrights among her vast network of friends, Maud was also a manager, a director, a mother, a long-suffering wife, a charity worker, a radio broadcaster, and a political campaigner. Subservient to no-one, she nevertheless spoke out passionately against votes for women. Against the glittering backdrop of Her Majesty’s Theatre, with its back-stabbing leading ladies and posturing actors, Maud emerges as a woman of consequence on a much wider stage.
Susana Cory-Wright has a PhD from de Montfort University and has written on Edwardian theatre.