Gertrude E. Jennings

Gertrude Eleanor Jennings (1877–1958) was a British theatrical author of the early twentieth century who is notable for her one act plays.[1]

Life

A daughter of British born Louis John Jennings, one-time editor of the New York Times (1870–1875) and subsequently MP for Stockport, and of American actress Madeleine Henriques, she began her career as an actress touring for Ben Greet’s company, also working under the name of Gertrude Henriques. Her plays were published by Samuel French Ltd. in London under the names of Gertrude E. Jennings, Gertrude Jennings, or G. E. Jennings.

She lived most of her adult life in The Boltons, SW10, in the Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and she died aged 80 on September 28th 1958 at The Knoll House, in Fittleworth, Midhurst, Sussex. She never married.

In 1914, her publisher Samuel French Ltd issued a collection of four of her early plays with the title Four One Act Plays, which included "The Rest Cure," "Between the Soup and the Savoury," "The Pros and Cons," and "Acid Drops."

In his introduction to her play Five Birds In a Cage (1915) in the Fourth Series of One Act Plays of Today (Harrap, 1928), the editor J. W. Marriott wrote:

“Miss Gertrude Jennings is a prolific writer of one act plays, and is immensely popular for a multitude of reasons. No humorist is more fully aware than she that people begin to be comic when they get into an awkward predicament, and as the situation becomes more and more hopeless the fun grows more furious. Her characters are clearly defined, and usually broadly contrasted in temperament as well as in social position. The scenes are invariably plausible incidents in present day life, and Miss Jennings intensifies effects and adds a touch of farce. Her play “Between the Soup and the Savoury” which was included in the third series of ‘’One Act Plays of Today’’, has pathos as well as laughter. “The Young Person In Pink” is the best known of her longer plays.”

Five Birds In A Cage was broadcast on the radio in the first year of the British Broadcasting Corporation on 29 November 1923, with subsequent productions on 11 April 1924 and 23 July 1926.

Jennings included issues of women's suffrage and equality in some of her plays, notably in A Woman’s Influence.[2]

Selected works

Film: The Girl Who Forgot, 1940, directed by Adrian Brunel.

References

  1. ↑ Lorna Sage; Germaine Greer; Elaine Showalter (30 September 1999). The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Cambridge University Press. pp. 349–50. ISBN 978-0-521-66813-2.
  2. ↑ Woodworth, Christine. 2006. "Cleaning House: Working-Class Women and Suffrage Drama." Theatre Annual: A Journal Of Performance Studies 59, 19-38.
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