Lawrence Barrett

BY MICHAEL GERBINO, Chair, Art Committee

Part of the Club’s collection of theatrical artifacts contains the archival photographs, letters, and documents pertaining to the involvement of The Players’ original incorporators. Twelve of the original sixteen founding members have been put on display on the north wall of the Dining Room, and include Edwin Booth, John Drew, Mark Twain and Lawrence Barrett (1838–1891). Highlighted here is Barrett, who was closely associated with Edwin Booth.

Born the impoverished son of an Irish immigrant tailor, Barrett was fascinated by the stage. At age fourteen he found work as a call-boy at the Metropolitan Theatre, studied a copy of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary by the light of pilfered candle stubs, and battled for months with intense stage fright that left him unable to say a word of his lines and led to his nearly being fired. Yet in time Barrett became as much an all-American icon of the theatre as his predecessor Edwin Forrest. He performed in a stock company supporting visiting stars for two years before finally securing an engagement in New York in 1857, when he first met Edwin Booth and Charlotte Cushman.

After being discharged from the army, having enlisted at the beginning of the Civil War, Barrett performed in productions that ranged from contemporary American plays to Shakespearean classics. Reviewers praised the hard work and years of commitment to the theatre that eventually transformed him into one of the country’s greatest actors. As Barrett lacked the family reputation of the Booth clan and the intense physicality that launched Edwin Forrest’s career, the 1884 St. Louis Republican noted that while “Barrett had to work solely with his brain,” as a result “Lawrence Barrett possesse[d] more general culture—all of his own getting—than any actor on the stage, either in England or America.” The actress Clara Morris fondly remembered him as “a man whose intellectual enthusiasm was backed by a cold determination that would never let him say ‘die’ while he had breath in his body and a stage on which to rehearse.”

Though they had acted together many times before this, Booth and Barrett entered a partnership in 1885 for a series of highly acclaimed Shakespeare revivals that included a wide range of Shakespearean characters such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Cassius, the role that brought Barrett to prominence. Their partnership continued until shortly after Barrett’s death in 1891, the last production being “Richelieu." Beyond acting, Barrett also worked as a theater manager and wrote about the craft of acting, as well as a biography of Edwin Booth. Barrett also lived briefly with Booth in separate living quarters at 16 Gramercy Park South. Together their influence helped to shape the development of American theatre in the late nineteenth century.

This print is believed to date from about 1865, and was produced by H.B. Hall and Sons, the engraving studio established by Henry Bryan Hall, an Englishman who immigrated to the United States in 1850. Hall worked for Henry Thomas Ryall, who was the designated Portrait and Historical Engraver to Queen Victoria. The engraving of Barrett is likely based upon a cabinet card portrait taken by José María Mora, who trained under Napoleon Sarony. Mora’s studio photographed various New York celebrities, including actors, opera singers, and writers, and his portraits were regularly featured in illustrated newspapers.

The series of framed photographs in the Dining Room, including the photograph and signature of Barrett, are gifts of Player Ted Manekin.

Player, Michael Gerbino; Photo by Leo Jacob

Michael Gerbino writes the monthly email blast “Artwork at The Players” and is the current Chair of the Art Committee. Michael also serves on the Board of Directors of The Players Foundation for Theatre Education.