With ECHOES OF THE WAR, Mint Theater once again turned its spotlight on an author whose indelible achievement in writing for children had overshadowed his remarkable work for adults: J.M. Barrie, best known for Peter Pan.
THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS and THE NEW WORD were published in 1919 (along with two other one-acts) under the collective title ECHOES OF THE WAR. Mint used the same title for an evening of theater that the New York Post hailed as “a resounding success.”1
Leading the cast were two of New York’s most esteemed stage actors, Richard Easton and Frances Sternhagen. Easton played the blustery patriarch of THE NEW WORD, a father who must break his lifelong reserve to find the words to say to his son before he leaves for the front. Sternhagen played the title role in THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS, a lonely charwoman who lies about having a son at the front lines. She “steals every heart in the house, with the placid efficiency of a practiced dip lifting your wallet. The magic lies in her never seeming to do anything at all—you won’t know your heart’s gone till you feel the ache she’s left in its place.”2
For her acclaimed performance in THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS, Frances Sternhagen received a 2005 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play.
James Matthew Barrie (Playwright 1860-1937) If J. M. Barrie had only written Peter Pan, its extraordinary and enduring popularity would testify to his talents as a dramatist. As it is, Peter Pan, which celebrates its 100-year anniversary this year, now only obscures Barrie’s gifts as a dramatist of significance. In his lifetime, Barrie was much admired by his peers and even regarded as a genius, however his work fell out of favor in later years. His full length plays include Quality Street, The Admirable Crichton, What Every Woman Knows, Dear Brutus and Mary Rose. One-act plays include The Twelve-Pound Look, The Will and A Well-Remembered Voice among many others.
During WWI, Barrie devoted himself to raising funds for various charities and war efforts. The proceeds from the 1917 New York run of The New Word and The Old Lady Shows Her Medals were donated in their entirety to the Stage Woman’s War Relief Fund, the organization that went on to become The American Theatre Wing. The Times reported that this was “the first time in the annals of the local stage that the profits of an entire engagement have been devoted to charity.” When Barrie died, The New York Times obituary called him “one of the least well known great men of his time.”.
J. ELLEN GAINOR: THE STAGE WOMEN'S WAR RELIEF FUND (1917)
Professor J. Ellen Gainor of Cornell University leads a stimulating discussion of J. M. Barrie and the last New York production of ECHOES OF THE WAR. Gainor is the author of The Plays of Susan Glaspell: A Contextual Study. She holds degrees from Harvard and Princeton Universities and the Yale School of Drama.
MARTIN MEISEL: ECHOES OF THE WAR - A DISCUSSION ON BARRIE AND WORLD WAR I-ERA DRAMA
Martin Meisel, Brander Matthews Professor of Dramatic Literature Emeritus at Columbia University, leads a discussion on the drama of J. M. Barrie and his contemporaries. Professor Meisel is the author of Shaw and 19th Century Theater and Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial and Theatrical Arts in 19th Century England.