The Lily of Bermuda
Book by
Duse Mohamed Ali and Ernest A Trimingham
Lyrics by Lyrics by Hinton Jones
Music by Mark Strong and Harry M Wellmon
Theatre Royal, Manchester
The Lily of Bermuda is the earliest script recorded in the National Theatre Black Plays Archive. It opened at the Theatre Royal in Manchester on 8th November 1909, and was advertised as ‘The New Colonial Comedy, with Music’ with a ‘Powerful cast of London Artists’ (Manchester Evening News, 09.11.1909). In An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre, Mayes and Whitfield describe it as ‘a gentle satire of British colonialism in Bermuda’.
The plot revolves around white characters on the island, particularly on the story of Lily Ginter, the daughter of a wealthy ice salesman known as The Ice King, and her forbidden romance with the young Lieutenant Sir Geoffrey Hilton Bart R.A. The Ice King wants her to marry the much older Colonel Lang, but Lily has other ideas. Although set in Bermuda, native Bermudians are rare in the narrative. The on-stage roles for Black performers are small, relegated to occasional musicians and background infantrymen. Much of the plot hinges on the blooming of a flower which “opens at evening, and all those who smell it lose their heads and do all manner of strange things” (p.13).
The comedy revolves around mistaken identities and gender stereotypes, ending in a putting-to-rights conclusion, complete with marriages. As befits a light comedy, its style is slapstick and silly,with plenty of ridicule directed at ‘real old English Society’ (p.17) which is personified most strongly in Colonel Lang. The play also takes a small foray into political commentary with supporting characters Claribell, a suffragette, and Bill Smith, a socialist.
The reviews were middling, critiquing the writing, but finding more merit in the music and performances. One wrote “It must be confessed that like many other musical plays, “the Lily” had little or no plot - if it has, we certainly failed to discover it…The music was perhaps the best feature of the production.” (Manchester Courier)
The music for the show has not survived but the script and lyrics are available for consultation in The British Library’s Manuscripts Reading Room.
About the writers
Ernest A Trimingham (1880-1942) was an actor and writer from Bermuda. He worked as a performer on stage in plays and musical comedy and also appeared in films including The Adventures of Dick Turpin (1912) and Jack, Sam and Pete (1919).
Duse Mohamed Ali (1886-1945) was a Sudanese-Egyptian actor, writer, journalist and Pan-Africanist. He studied at the University of London and then became an actor. Shortly after The Lily of Bermuda was produced he wrote a short history of Egypt. called The Land of the Pharoahs and founded the periodicasl The African Times and Orient Review.
Resources
BFI Article on Black Voices in Silent Cinema
Credits:
copyright and credits: text by Lerato Mokate and Kate Dorney, 'The Lily of Bermuda', Black Theatre History Month project