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English dramatist and stage director

Thomas William Robertson (9 January 1829 – 3 February 1871) was an English dramatist and stage director known for his development of naturalism in British theatre. Born to a theatrical family, Robertson began as an actor, but he was not a success and gave up acting in his late 20s. After earning a modest living writing articles for the press, translating and adapting foreign plays and writing several of his own plays he achieved success in 1865 with his play Society, which the actor manager Marie Wilton presented at a small London theatre, the Prince of Wales's. Over the next five years Robertson wrote five more plays for the Prince of Wales's. Their naturalistic style and treatment of contemporary social issues was in strong contrast to the melodramas and exaggerated theatricality to which the public had been accustomed, and Robertson's plays were box office and critical successes. Robertson supervised their productions and was a pioneer of modern stage directing. Among later theatrical figures influenced by Robertson's Prince of Wales's plays and productions were W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Wing Pinero, Bernard Shaw and Harley Granville Barker. Robertson wrote numerous plays for other theatres, and adapted many foreign plays for the English stage, but few of these made a strong or lasting impression. He strove successfully to improve the financial condition of dramatists, securing payment per performance, a basis that became the norm after his death. Robertson suffered from heart disease and died at the age of 42 at the height of his fame and popularity.

Robertson was born in Newark upon Trent, Nottinghamshire on 9 January 1829. and was the eldest son of William Shaftoe Robertson and his wife, Margharetta Elisabetta (née Marinus), a Danish born actress. Robertson senior had been articled to a lawyer, but abandoned the law to become an actor, and was taken on by his uncle's Lincoln Circuit Company, of which he afterwards became manager. Many of Robertson's large family of siblings went on the stage, including his brothers Frederick and Edward, and his sisters Fanny, Elizabeth and Margaret, the last subsequently famous as Madge Kendal. He made his first appearance on the stage in June 1834 at the age of five as Hamish, the son of the title character in Rob Roy, and played roles including Cora's child in Sheridan's Pizarro and the Count's child in Kotzebue's The Stranger. At the age of seven Robertson was sent to Spalding Academy, and then to a school in Whittlesey, acting with the family's theatrical company during the school holidays. When he was about 15 his schooling ceased and he rejoined the company full time, not only as an actor, but also, according to his biographer Michael R. Booth, "as a scene painter, songwriter, playwright, prompter, and stage manager".

Robertson moved to London, earning a meagre living, writing and taking such acting parts as he could get. His biographer T. Edgar Pemberton wrote, "The amount of work that he did there during his early struggling days was prodigious. In addition to writing and adapting plays he contributed stories, essays, and verses to many magazines: dramatic criticisms to several newspapers: and ephemeral work to numerous comic journals". In 1851 Robertson had a new play presented in the West End, A Night's Adventure, a comic drama set in the time of the Jacobite rising of 1745. He hoped this would be start of a successful career as a dramatist, but the play was not a success, closing after four nights, and he continued to scratch a living as a writer and actor. Together with H. J. Byron, who became a close friend, he put on an entertainment at the Gallery of Illustration, without success. He worked as a prompter at the Olympic Theatre, tried unsuccessfully to join the army, and travelled to Paris with a company giving a season of English plays there. In 1855, while playing at the Queen's Theatre, he met a 19 year old actress, Elizabeth Burton. They were married in July the following year; they had a son and three daughters. After their wedding the Robertsons toured Ireland before returning to act in London and the provinces. Robertson's farcical sketch The Cantab, staged as an after piece at the Strand Theatre in February 1861, attracted the attention of a Bohemian literary set, and led to his becoming a member of the Savage, Arundel and Reunion Clubs, where, in the words of his biographer Joseph Knight, "he enlarged his observation of human nature, and whence he drew some curious types". Success remained elusive, and Robertson considered giving up writing and becoming a tobacconist. the success of the production advanced the author's career. This play was his breakthrough. London managements turned it down, but through Byron's influence it was produced in Liverpool, where it was a critical and popular success.|group=n At his instigation Society was presented there on 11 November 1865. In a highly favourable notice the reviewer in The Times wrote, "The piece was vehemently applauded from beginning to end. Success could not be more unequivocal". Society ran for 26 weeks – 150 performances – a notable run for the time, establishing the fortunes of the theatre, as well as those of the author. It was revived several times during the next two decades, and was given nearly 500 performances under Wilton's (later the Bancrofts') management. Between the Liverpool and London openings, Robertson suffered the loss of his wife, who died on 14 August after months of ill health. but ran only briefly, and Robertson did not return to the musical theatre. In 1869 Clay asked him for a second libretto, but he declined and instead gave Clay an introduction to "a better man than I shall ever be", namely Gilbert, who collaborated with Clay on the successful Ages Ago. The success of Society established Robertson as a playwright and enabled him to have a decisive voice in the staging of his subsequent plays. His next, the comedy Ours, was first given in August 1866 at the Prince of Wales's, Liverpool, under his personal direction with a cast that included Wilton, Squire Bancroft (her future husband and partner) and John Hare. The play transferred to the Prince of Wales's in London the following month and ran for 150 performances. The Times remarked on the "ultra real" nature of the piece and of its staging.

TitleGenreActsPremiered atYearBirth comedy 3 Theatre Royal, Bristol 1870Breach of Promise, A farce 2 Globe Theatre 1867Cantab, The farce 1 Strand Theatre 1861Caste comedy 3 Prince of Wales's Theatre 1867Castles in the Air drama 1 City Theatre 1854Constancecomic opera1Covent Garden1865Dream of Venice, A German Reed entertainment 2 Gallery of Illustration 1867Dreams drama 5 Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool 1869Dublin Bay farce 1 Theatre Royal, Manchester 1869For Love; Or Two Heroes drama 3 Holborn Theatre 1867M. P. comedy 4 Prince of Wales's Theatre 1870Nightingale, The drama 5 Adelphi Theatre 1870Night's Adventure, A comic drama 2 Olympic Theatre 1851Not At All Jealous farce 1 Court Theatre 1871Ours comedy 3 Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool 1866Play comedy 4 Prince of Wales's Theatre 1868Rapid Thaw, A comedy 2 St James's Theatre 1867Row in the House, A farce 1 Toole's Theatre 1883School comedy 4 Prince of Wales's Theatre 1869Shadow Tree Shaft drama 3 Princess's Theatre 1869Society comedy 3 Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool 1865War drama 3 St James's Theatre 1871

Source: T. Edgar Pemberton's edition of Society and Caste, 1905.