Op o' Me Thumb
The play opened in Boston in April of 1905 according to one source; according to another, it opened on Feb. 6, 1905. In either case, it was produced by Charles Frohman and written by Frederick Fenn and Ricard Bryce. Maude Adams played the part of Amanda Affleck.
It is aone-act play added to end of The Little Minister for final two weeks of Empire run since she felt Lady Babbie no longer presented the artistic challenge she craved.
The play is the story of a drudge in a London laundry. She finds romance in each week washing a shirt that had been left there by a workman who is her ideal man. He returns and ends up being macho, saying he won't pay for the washings. He later takes the girl out but only to a place where they won't be seen by a lot of people, the girl understanding that he is ashamed to be seen with her, so she ends up refusing to go out with him.
=====American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1869-1914 by Gerald Bordman; Oxford University Press, 1994=====
Since late December Maude Adams had been playing in a revival of The Little Minister. As business began to wane, Charles Frohman added a curtain raiser, a second English play, Frederick Fenn and Richard Bryce's 'Op o' Me Thumb ( 2-6-05, Empire). Miss Adams, in a broken straw hat and tattered, ill-fitting clothes, was cast as a laundress who lives in her dream world but is poignantly made aware that no Prince Charming awaits her.
=====Representative One-Act Plays by British and Irish Authors by Barrett H. Clark; Little Brown and Company, 1921=====
FREDERICK FENN' AND RICHARD PRYCE FREDERICK FENN was born at Bishop Stortford in 1868. He is best known as an adapter of plays and the author of a number of successful one-act and full-length plays. His first successful play, "Judged by Appearances was produced in 1902, by the popular actor, James Welch. " 'Opo'-Me-Thumb", written in collaboration with Richard Pryce, is the best-known work of either dramatist. It owes its popularity primarily to the fact that it has often been acted in this country by Maude Adams. RICHARD PRYCE was born at Boulogne, France. Like Frederick Fenn, with whom he collaborated in several plays, he has adapted plays and is the author of a few original dramas. He has also written half a dozen novels.
Reviews
One review ran:
"It is a most pathetic little picture that one carries away in the mind after seeing Miss Adams in 'Op o' Me Thumb. Crouching under the table, as the curtain descends, the actress portrays every pang of despair; of utter wretchedness and of absolute desolation that the unloved, unlovable woman feels tearing at her heart. Miss Adams proved herself the devoted and consummate actress; if she were anything short of that she would hesitate to enter into with such a character and make herself so pitiably unattractive, with anemic skin, shuffling gait, scrawny figure and thin hair-how she flattens out her own fine locks is a mystery-terminating in an unkempt pug."
Another review went:
"Miss Adam's work in this dramatic fragment will long remain one of the most effective things she has ever done. It was the acme of genuine pathos, a most moving and telling portrayal of unhappy girlhood."
During the winter of 1904-1905, though, she had an attack of appendicitis. For some reason her doctor allowed her to finish the season and she was not operated on until May 23, 1905 in her own house.
'With a flat old straw hat jammed on tightly drawn hair, which is pulled back and tied into a doughnut loop, Miss Adams was ludicrous yet pitiful in the picture she made. The loose old garb of the hard worker at starvation wages hung limply about her seemingly flat-chested and stooping figure. She walked with the flat-heeled, short-stepping gait of a burden-carrier, and was the extreme opposite to the light-hearted, dancing sprite of gypsy Babbie.'' Dramatic Mirror, Feb. 18, 1905
"When Maude Adams walked out on the stage at the Empire Theatre last night the usual burst of welcoming applause was droned in a roar of laughter. No one ever saw Maude Adams look like that before....The discovery that Miss Adams has a tenement voice and can use it came with something of a start...The highest tribute to the truth of Miss Adams' art is that the wistful little face of her waif often could not be seen for the tears which sprang from sympathy. Even the guffaws of big men who tried to laugh to hide their feelings were unwilling tributes at her feet."" Sun, Feb. 7, 1905
"Not a moment was she other than she seemed, though too critical analysis could pick flaws in her dialect, but that would be unfair, as she had the throbbing heart of the part in every tone and movement. Her humble pride and feverish idealizing of the anemic, half-starved brain were shown as deftly and in the high art of simplicity. The passion and pathos needed to be remarkable to overcome the homely handicap of her make-up, and the achievement adds other laurels to her artistic store."" Dramatic Mirror, Feb. 18, 1905
"The charm of Miss Adam's acting in this role is, indeed, irresistible. It also defies analysis. In a merely technical sense her acting has seemed more satisfying in other roles. But in no other has she exerted so strong a spell upon the public."" New York Times, Jan. 19, 1900
 The Trenton Times, May 1, 1905 |
This is one of the plays where it's very, very hard to find much of any information dealing with the play.
Op O' Me Thumb Play Book. Right click and choose save target as.
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