AustLit

Not long after returning to England following his 1909-10 Australian tour, Oscar Asche took over the management the Garrick Theatre and initially began by reviving a few of his earlier Shakespeare productions. He also obtained the rights to Edward Knoblock's play Hajj's Hour. At the time, Knoblock was in a state of despair, having had an unsuccessful run with The Fawn, while his manuscript for Hajj's Hour was reported to have been 'dog-eared with refusal.' Even Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree had turned it down, while it fared no better with American producers. Still flush with money from his Australian tour, and needing a new show in a hurry, Asche attempted to contact Knoblock, who was away at the time. Asche's agent rang Knoblock's sister who found two versions in a cupboard: one as originally written and the other 'embodying all the alterations the various managers who had turned it down had suggested as improvements.' The sister unwittingly sent the original version to Asche. 'He got it on a Saturday... read it on Sunday, bought it on Monday,' writes W. Macqueen-Pope in Carriages at Eleven, 'and working like demons put the play into production almost immediately. First were the changes to text, and a new title, Kismet. Then they hired Percy Anderson to do the costumes, Joseph Harker to design the settings, and Christopher Wilson to write the music (Anderson later worked with Asche on Chu Chin Chow). Asche's conceptual design also saw him run out an apron stage so as to have something going on stage all the time whilst the many changes of scene were being made' (p.202).

Macqueen-Pope further recalls the pre-production period: 'Nobody had much sleep during that time. The company was too large for the theatre - so big was the crowd; the stage too small for the large effects visualised. But Asche overcame it all. News got out that there was nudity in the show. Excitement reigned. At last, after never-ceasing work, it opened on 19 April 1911. It was a vivid first night. The splendour of the Orient came to Charing Cross Road, the Bazaar scene with its ever-changing crowds, its noise, its colour, brought the audience to its feet with cheers. The naked lady went into the bath with an accompanying gasp of excitement. Asche was the ideal "Hajj"... [while] Brayton was the ideal "Marsinah." Its barbaric spectacle and riotous colour, its savagery, its originality - its sweep carried it to vast and overwhelming success. The scenery... alone was a masterpiece' (p.202).

The London production ran until late January 1912, sustaining good audiences despite running into trouble with the Lord Chamberlain over the bath scene. The day after its closure Asche, Brayton and the company left England for their second Australian tour, which included revivals of Kismet.

Source: Macqueen-Pope, W. Carriages at Eleven: The Story of the Edwardian Theatre. London: Hutchinson, 1947.

There remains some question over the extent to which Oscar Asche re-worked Edward Knoblock's original story and, in particular, the non-Asche directed revivals, beginning in 1911 with the debut New York season. Newspaper advertising for all Kismet productions, including those starring and directed by Asche, propose that Knoblock was the sole playwright. However, as the above note indicates, Asche played a significant role in shaping the original text for the stage, as well as providing it with its distinctive title. This issue has been ignored by most theatre historians to date but was viewed as particularly strange by the New York Times critic who reviewed the 1911 Knickerbocker Theatre premiere. The critic writes, 'Kismet - something different, and something quite worth while, for which praise be not to Allah (the phrase sticks after the performance) [but] to Mr Edward Knoblauch [sic], who first conceived it, and then to the several estimable gentlemen who have combined to bring it to our stage. Says the programme: "Klaw and Erlanger present Otis Skinner (by arrangement with Charles Frohman) in an Arabian Night Kismet, by Edward Knoblauch, produced and managed by Harrison Grey Fiske". Which would seem to indicate that everybody is getting a proper share of the glory. Perhaps. But Mr Oscar Asche, the English actor-manager, who had the courage to give Kismet a first hearing on the stage and the good taste and enterprise to make the setting worthy of the tale, is entitled to a word at least, of mention' (28 December 1911, p.7).

A revival of Kismet, with the authorship again attributed solely to Edward Knoblock, was staged at the New Oxford Theatre, London, beginning 9 April 1925. As noted above, the relationship between this production (and later versions) of Kismet and those staged by Oscar Asche between 1911 and 1914 remains unclear. (For details regarding the 1925 version, see 'New Oxford Theatre' Times 9 April 1925, p.8).

A four-reel (4,000 ft) silent-film adaptation of Kismet was made in 1914 by the Zenith film company (Britain). Directed by Leedham Bantock, who also adapted the screenplay, the film starred Oscar Asche, Lily Brayton, Caleb Porter, and Herbert Grimwood. Presumably, other members of Asche's company at that time also appeared in the film. Art direction was by Joseph Harker.