H M Walbrook

J. M. Barrie and the Theatre H M Walbrook

Since 1902, the year of the production of The Admirable Critchon, Sir J. M. Barrie has been one of the most interesting figures in the British Theatre. No other dramatist has given so much delight to so many people and at the same time lived so apart from public life. The newspaper interviewer has long regarded him as morbidly elusive, nor has the most determined roar of "Author!" yet succeeded in drawing him into the glare of the footlights Born on May 9th, 1860, at Kirriemuir, in Forfarshire, and educated at Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh University, Sir J. M. Barrie has made the village of Kirriemuir famous throughout the English speaking world as "Thrums", but London has been the scene and center of most of his triumphs. His writings, whether novels or plays, have been as popular in America as at home. For the rest, our author would probably insist that his most illustrious days have been those on which he has played cricket at Lord's; the fact that J. M. Barrie's first comedy had a country cricketer for its hero and a budding one for its 'juvenile comedy' was as characteristic of him as anything he has ever written.