Nicholas Vlieland index of performers

University of Bristol Theatre Collection: index of performers on the London stage, 1920s and 1930s

Jill at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection very kindly searched their archives for us and found Nicholas listed for ten productions, as actor, stage manager or assistant stage manager.

Actor

1927: The Revue, White Birds, at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, which ran for 80 performances.

1927: The Heroic comedy in 5 scenes, Cyrano de Bergerac, at the Apollo Theatre, London; Nicholas played 1st Lackey and Baron d’Antignac-Juzet. The play was also broadcast on Radio 2LO London (the fledgling BBC), on 11 April 1927 and had originally opened at the Garrick Theatre, London, in March 1919, when Robert Loraine created the lead role that he reprised in the radio broadcast. He was famed as an intellectual actor, who could portray the thoughts of the character he was playing as if they were his own.

1930: The Comedy, The Command to Love, at Daly’s Theatre, later transferring to the Savoy Theatre, London; Nicholas played Don Esteban Galvez. The play had opened at the Longacre Theatre, Forty Eighth Street New York, on 7 November 1927, with Mary Nash and Basil Rathbone in the leads, and run for 247 performances.

1931: The 1-act drama, A Night at an Inn, at the Savoy Theatre; Nicholas played the 1^st Priest of Kesh.

1931: The Tragedy, Salome, at the Savoy Theatre; Nicholas played a Slave.

1935: The Play in 2 parts, The Hangman, at the Duke of York’s Theatre; Nicholas played the Young Man.

Stage manager

1929: The Exciting improbability in 3 acts, Afraid of the Dark, at the Royalty Theatre, London.

1930: The Psychic drama in 3 acts, Through the Veil, at the Duchess Theatre, London. The play’s author, Cecil Madden, was later instrumental in the birth of BBC TV.

1931: Farce with music, The Gay Princess, at the Kingsway Theatre, London.

Assistant stage manager

1929: The Fantasy, The Devil in the Cheese, at the Comedy Theatre, London. On Broadway, in 1925–6, the play had starred both Frederick March and Bela Lugosi.

This information is drawn from J.P. Wearing’s indexes of performers on the London stage: The London Stage 1920–1929: A Calendar of Plays and Players, vol. I: 1925–1929 (Metuchen, NJ and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1984); vol. II: 1930–1934 (1990); vol. III: 1935–1939 (1990).

We like to thank the University of Bristol for their help .