W.S. Gilbert — a Stage-struck Kid

W.S. Gilbert was a stage-struck kid.

As a youngster, he used to write plays that the family performed at home, and his mother and his two younger sisters were interested in amateur dramatics. (Gilbert and Sullivan: A Dual Biography, by Michael Ainger)

When he attended the well-regarded public school, the Great Ealing School in London, he would write plays, direct them, and even paint the scenery.  One of the plays he produced was called Guy Fawkes, in which he also played the principal role.

In February 1852, the 15-year-old Gilbert went to see The Corsican Brothers by Dion Boucicault, at the Princess’ Theater in Oxford Street. He was so impressed by the performance that he packed his bag and went back to the theater and nervously asked to see Charles Kean, the actor-manager. Unfortunately for young Gilbert, Kean knew Gilbert senior, and sent the boy straight home to his father.

According to “Gilbert and Sullivan” by Hesketh Pearson, an author who apparently enjoyed sticking his poisoned pen into Gilbert, the meeting between Charles Kean and young Gilbert went something like this:

“Believing that, given the chance, he could teach real actors a thing or two, he decided to waste no more time over the classics, but to go on to the stage at once Without communicating this bright idea to anyone in authority, he left school one afternoon and made his way to the theatre where the leading actor of the day, Charles Kean, was performing.

Once in the theatre, he became the prey of misgivings, and when at last Kean appeared his was not in a condition to bear up against the actor’s voice, which, though it sounded splendid in the gallery, was more like the roar of exploding gunpowder at close quarters.

“So you would like to be an act-orr?” bellowed Kean.

“Ye-e-es.”

“What’s yourrr name?”

Gilbert tried hard to think of any name except his own, but the eagle eye of the actor was upon him and he faltered out an apologetic “G-Gilbert.”

“Not the son of me old frrriend, Gilbert?”

The fat was in the fire.

“Ye-es.”

Gilbert was back among the classics the next morning.”

Even though Gilbert might also have been interested in other professions—as a young man in his 20s, he wanted to be an artillery officer in the Army, and although he never pursued that career, he spent many years serving in militia regiments—the theatre remained his main calling throughout his life.

What about you? Did you know from a very young age what you wanted to do with your life or are you, as the currently fashionable phrase has it, a multi-passionate person?

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