E. Martin Browne
Encyclopedia
E. Martin Browne was a British theatre director, known for his production of twentieth century verse plays. He collaborated for many years with T. S. Eliot
and was first producer of many of his plays including Murder in the Cathedral
.
, Wiltshire
, on 29 January 1900, the third son of Colonel Percival John Browne. He was educated at Eton College
, and Christ Church, Oxford
, where he studied modern history and theology. Between 1923 and 1930 he worked at a variety of jobs related to drama, in Kent
, Doncaster
, London and in the United States as assistant professor of drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
, Pittsburgh.
In 1924 he married the actress Henzie Raeburn, who subsequently appeared in many of his productions. They had two sons.
, Bishop of Chichester
, to be director of religious drama for the diocese
. One of Browne's early assignments was to organise a pageant, The Rock
, to raise funds for the building of Anglican churches. At the request of Bishop Bell, T. S. Eliot
wrote a series of choruses linking the loosely historical scenes of the pageant, which was played by amateurs and presented at Sadler's Wells Theatre
for a fortnight's run in summer 1934.
After this success, Bell invited Eliot and Browne to work on a play to be written by Eliot and presented at the Canterbury Festival
the following year, with Browne as director. The title was Murder in the Cathedral
and it was this production that established the collaboration between Eliot as poet-playwright and Martin Browne as director which was to last for twenty years. This first production, with Robert Speaight
as Becket
, was staged in the chapter house
at Canterbury
and was then taken to London, where it ran for almost a year. It established Browne as the leading director of the "poetic drama
" movement, which was then undergoing something of a revival. The American premiere, in New York, followed in February 1938, with Browne himself playing Fourth Tempter.
He succeeded Bishop Bell as President of the Religious Drama Society of Great Britain ("RADIUS"). In March 1939 he directed Eliot's second play, The Family Reunion
, in London and in the same year he launched a touring company which he called the "Pilgrim Players", whose programme was dominated by the plays of Eliot and, to a lesser degree, of James Bridie
(O. H. Mavor), the Scottish dramatist. These tours continued until 1948.
and devoted it for the next three years to the production of modern verse plays, with first productions of plays by Christopher Fry
, Ronald Duncan
, Norman Nicholson
and Anne Ridler
, all directed by Browne himself. From 1948 to 1957 he was the director of the British Drama League, an organisation devoted to giving assistance to the work of amateur theatres.
In 1951 he was appointed as director for the first major production since the middle of the sixteenth century of the York Mystery Plays
, which he directed in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, York
for the York Festival, part of the celebrations of the Festival of Britain
. He undertook further productions of the plays in the same venue in 1954, 1957, and 1966. Meanwhile he continued his collaboration with T. S. Eliot, directing The Cocktail Party
in 1949, The Confidential Clerk
in 1953, and The Elder Statesman
in 1958.
For six months of each year from 1956 to 1962 he served as visiting professor of religious drama at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
, and from 1962 to 1965 he was drama adviser to Coventry Cathedral
, directing the mediæval mystery plays there in 1962 and 1964. In 1967 and 1968 he directed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
in Guildford, the plays being Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, Thornton Wilder
's Our Town
and The Long Christmas Dinner
, and the mediæval morality play, Everyman
.
He was appointed CBE
in 1952. Following the death of Henzie Raeburn, in 1974 he married Audrey Johnson. He died in the Middlesex Hospital, Westminster, on 27 April 1980, survived by his second wife.
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
and was first producer of many of his plays including Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, first performed in 1935...
.
Early life
Elliott Martin Browne was born in ZealsZeals
Zeals is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is next to the A303 road between Wincanton and Mere, and adjoins the villages of Bourton, Dorset and Penselwood, Somerset....
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, on 29 January 1900, the third son of Colonel Percival John Browne. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, where he studied modern history and theology. Between 1923 and 1930 he worked at a variety of jobs related to drama, in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Doncaster
Doncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
, London and in the United States as assistant professor of drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
, Pittsburgh.
In 1924 he married the actress Henzie Raeburn, who subsequently appeared in many of his productions. They had two sons.
First work with Eliot
In 1930 he returned to England and was appointed by George BellGeorge Bell (bishop)
George Kennedy Allen Bell was an Anglican theologian, Dean of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester, member of the House of Lords and a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement.-Early career:...
, Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
, to be director of religious drama for the diocese
Diocese of Chichester
The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was created in 1075 to replace the old Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey from 681. The cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Chichester...
. One of Browne's early assignments was to organise a pageant, The Rock
The Rock (play)
The Rock was a pageant play with words by T. S. Eliot, first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London on 28 May 1934.In a prefatory note Eliot disclaimed full responsibility for the text, saying "I cannot consider myself the author of the "play", but only of the words which are printed here." ...
, to raise funds for the building of Anglican churches. At the request of Bishop Bell, T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
wrote a series of choruses linking the loosely historical scenes of the pageant, which was played by amateurs and presented at Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
for a fortnight's run in summer 1934.
After this success, Bell invited Eliot and Browne to work on a play to be written by Eliot and presented at the Canterbury Festival
Canterbury Festival
The Canterbury Festival is Kent's international festival of the arts. It takes place in Canterbury and surrounding towns and villages each October and includes performances of a variety of types of music, ranging from Opera and Oratorio to art, comedy and theatre...
the following year, with Browne as director. The title was Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, first performed in 1935...
and it was this production that established the collaboration between Eliot as poet-playwright and Martin Browne as director which was to last for twenty years. This first production, with Robert Speaight
Robert Speaight
Robert Speaight was a British actor and writer, and the brother of George Speaight the puppeteer.He was an early performer in radio plays. He came to prominence as Becket in the first production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. He went on to Shakespearean roles, and to direct.He also...
as Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, was staged in the chapter house
Chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries....
at Canterbury
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
and was then taken to London, where it ran for almost a year. It established Browne as the leading director of the "poetic drama
Verse drama and dramatic verse
Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama. For a very long period, verse drama was the dominant form of drama in Europe...
" movement, which was then undergoing something of a revival. The American premiere, in New York, followed in February 1938, with Browne himself playing Fourth Tempter.
He succeeded Bishop Bell as President of the Religious Drama Society of Great Britain ("RADIUS"). In March 1939 he directed Eliot's second play, The Family Reunion
The Family Reunion
The Family Reunion is a play by T. S. Eliot. Written mostly in blank verse, it incorporates elements from Greek drama and mid-twentieth-century detective plays to portray the hero's journey from guilt to redemption. The play was unsuccessful when first presented in 1939, and was later regarded as...
, in London and in the same year he launched a touring company which he called the "Pilgrim Players", whose programme was dominated by the plays of Eliot and, to a lesser degree, of James Bridie
James Bridie
James Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor....
(O. H. Mavor), the Scottish dramatist. These tours continued until 1948.
Postwar
In 1945 Browne took over the 150-seater Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill GateMercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate
The Mercury Theatre was a small theatre in Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill Gate, London, notable for the productions of poetic dramas between 1933 and 1956, and as the home of the Ballet Rambert until 1987.- History :...
and devoted it for the next three years to the production of modern verse plays, with first productions of plays by Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry was an English playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, notably The Lady's Not for Burning, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s.-Early life:...
, Ronald Duncan
Ronald Duncan
Ronald Duncan was a writer, poet and playwright, now best known for preparing the libretto for Benjamin Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia, first performed in 1946....
, Norman Nicholson
Norman Nicholson
Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson OBE, , was an English poet, known for his association with the Cumberland town of Millom...
and Anne Ridler
Anne Ridler
Anne Barbara Ridler OBE was a British poet, and Faber and Faber editor, selecting the Faber A Little Book of Modern Verse with T. S. Eliot . Her Collected Poems were published in 1994...
, all directed by Browne himself. From 1948 to 1957 he was the director of the British Drama League, an organisation devoted to giving assistance to the work of amateur theatres.
In 1951 he was appointed as director for the first major production since the middle of the sixteenth century of the York Mystery Plays
York Mystery Plays
The York Mystery Plays, more properly called the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of forty-eight mystery plays, or pageants, which cover sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgement. These were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi...
, which he directed in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, York
St Mary's Abbey, York
The Abbey of St Mary in York, once the richest abbey in the north of England, is a ruined Benedictine abbey that lies in what are now the Yorkshire Museum Gardens, on a steeply sloping site to the west of York Minster. The original abbey on the site was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olave...
for the York Festival, part of the celebrations of the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
. He undertook further productions of the plays in the same venue in 1954, 1957, and 1966. Meanwhile he continued his collaboration with T. S. Eliot, directing The Cocktail Party
The Cocktail Party
The Cocktail Party is a play by T. S. Eliot. Elements of the play are based on Alcestis, by the Ancient Greek playwright Euripides. The play was the most popular of Eliot's seven plays in his lifetime, although his 1935 play, Murder in the Cathedral, is better remembered today.The Cocktail Party...
in 1949, The Confidential Clerk
The Confidential Clerk
thumb|1st edition cover The Confidential Clerk is a comic verse play by T. S. Eliot.-Synopsis:Sir Claude Mulhammer, a wealthy entrepreneur, decides to smuggle his illegitimate son Colby into the household by employing him as his confidential clerk...
in 1953, and The Elder Statesman
The Elder Statesman
The Elder Statesman is a play in verse by T. S. Eliot first performed in 1958 and published in 1959.-Overview:T. S. Eliot once quipped: “A play should give you something to think about...
in 1958.
For six months of each year from 1956 to 1962 he served as visiting professor of religious drama at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
, and from 1962 to 1965 he was drama adviser to Coventry Cathedral
Coventry Cathedral
Coventry Cathedral, also known as St Michael's Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry, in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The current bishop is the Right Revd Christopher Cocksworth....
, directing the mediæval mystery plays there in 1962 and 1964. In 1967 and 1968 he directed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey presents in-house productions which often tour and transfer to London's West End. Other performances include opera, ballet and pantomime. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, the company has two performance venues, a main theatre and the smaller Mill...
in Guildford, the plays being Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
's Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
and The Long Christmas Dinner
The Long Christmas Dinner
The Long Christmas Dinner is a play in one act written by American novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder in 1931. In its first published form, it was included in the volume The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act.-Characters:...
, and the mediæval morality play, Everyman
Everyman (play)
The Somonyng of Everyman , usually referred to simply as Everyman, is a late 15th-century English morality play. Like John Bunyan's novel Pilgrim's Progress, Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation by use of allegorical characters, and what Man must do to attain it...
.
He was appointed CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1952. Following the death of Henzie Raeburn, in 1974 he married Audrey Johnson. He died in the Middlesex Hospital, Westminster, on 27 April 1980, survived by his second wife.