Chowringhee Theatre

A few months back, while reading Radharaman Mitra's Kalikata Darpan I came to know why Theatre Road is so named. I didn't know about the 'Chowringhee Theatre' that existed there, or about Mrs Leach. A few hours back I was looking up what is available on the Portuguese presence in Calcutta, and in the process of doing so I stumbled upon a couple of newspaper articles from 1836 about the Chowringhee Theatre. I am posting excerpts from two of the performance reviews that I read.

OTHELLO

                                              Let jealousy
Distil her bane to taint their growing loves!
Light up resentment! fan the dangerous fire
With dark surmises, hints, invented tales
Till it burst all the tender bonds asunder
That knit their souls-Virginia.
This jealousy is for a precious creature.-Winter's Tale

Chowringhee Theatre, Dec. 14.

The amateur who so lately performed the part of Shylock, appeared on this occasion in the character of Othello. It was in the former that Kean made his first appearance on the London Stage, and it was in the latter that he feebly fretted his last hour as an actor, coincident with the close of the real tragedy of his life. In both of these parts he had often electrified the audience with his bursts of passion; but though his Shylock was in many respects a wonderful performance, his jealous Moor was superior, not only to his malignant Jew but to all his other personations. it was by far the greatest triumph of his skill, and singularly well adapted for the full display of his peculiar powers. To have seen Kean in this character is an event in a man's life that can never be forgotten.
…
The character of Iago has been compared with that of Zanga in Young's tragedy of The Revenge. But we might as well compare a Saracen's head on a sign-post with one of Rembrandt's portraits. Hazlitt justly styles it a vulgar caricature. Dr. Gregory in one of his letters informs us that when he was a very young man he used to think Zanga a better drawn character than Iago, but that more knowledge of the world convinced him of his error.
…
His excellence in comedy and farce is well known, but we somewhat doubted his powers in the tragic line; and we never dreamed that he could so ably sustain the difficult part of Iago [actor identified as an "Amateur", "who sometime ago personated Rashleigh Obsaldistone"]. We were far from expecting an entire failure, but little did we expect such great success. It was his very best performance on the Chowringhee Boards. And yet, with all this praise we must caution him against attempting a different department of the tragic drama. Let him not try Othello - he would fail, we think, in the development of overmastering emotion.
…
Can he be angry?…
The emphasis was placed on the word angry, - of course it is the personal pronoun he that should have been made emphatic. There was another error of which the same gentleman was guilty, and while demands particular notice, because it is too common amongst amateur actors. When he described Cassio's dream he accompanied the words "and then did kiss me hard, as if he plucked up kisses by the root, that grew upon my lips", with an explanatory plucking motion of his hand to and from his lips. In the first place Cassio was not supposed to pluck kisses with his hand, but with his lips, and in the second, even if the manual explication had been more correct, it would still have been unnecessary and injudicious.
…
Mrs. Leach as Desdemona was not seen to so much advantage as usual. Her grief wants dignity. It is not womanly, but child-like. Her tender admiration and confiding love in the early scenes were delicately and beautifully true. Mrs. Francis must not be passed over. There was genuine feeling in her deliver of the noble and indignant out-breaks against the Moor and her husband in the concluding scene.
Upon the whole were much gratified with the style in which the Tragedy of Othello was got up on this occasion; and we hope it ail not be long before we see another of Shakespeare's Plays, represented on the Chowringhee Boards. - Ed. Cal. Lit. Gaz.

The second last excerpt found its way into my post simply because it is representative of the kind of detail that one could expect in these reviews. You may find the italicised character names a little disturbing: I decided that I should retain the original formatting as far as possible, because who knows, that too may have a story to tell some day. And here's the second one:

MACBETH

Macbeth was played at Chowringhee on the 25th February. In some respects the performance was decidedly good, but taken as a whole we have seen and we hope to see many better. None of the personages appeared to us quite at home in their parts. The representative of Macbeth presented a studied and elaborated delineation of the character, but to our apprehension it was wanting in intensity and in an adaptation of the voice and exterior to the varied emotion to be painted, and especially was it deficient in that solemn and affecting pathos which in the later scenes compels us in spite of ourselves to sympathise with the murderer. The performance was frequently forceable and at times highly impressive-but it never in our estimation rose to undoubted excellence. Mrs. Leach's Lady Macbeth will not add to her Theatrical reputation, but we are certain it will not detract from it. She has an innate perception of dramatic propriety and talent and perseverance which will always prevent her from sinking below mediocrity. But it is certain that the part of Lady Macbeth is beyond her power. She deserves every credit for the attempt and to say that the performance exhibited no glaring defects but continued to interest the audience to the last, is to praise highly. But something more than the absence of defects and generation of ennui is requisite in a character like Lady Macbeth's and we would counsel Mrs. Leach not to try it again - in a multitude of characters she is really great; but here she is only mediocre.
...
Bengal Herald

On 8 December 1836 there was also a performance of Il Barbiere di Seviglia, which from what I can make out was played by a principally English cast but in the Italian. There are records of several other performances in the same year. I hope to find more in and around the time. What struck me is how on both occasions Mrs. Leach does not seem to have put on inspired performances.

I found this picture on the British Library online gallery. Luckily this is from the 1830s, drawn by William Prinsep (1794-1874), who has drawn several other remarkable sketches. Among the things inscribed on the picture is the statement: "Chowringhee Theatre holds about 800 persons in the boxes and 200 in the pit. Last scene of 'Blind Boy' set-my own drawing WP." Trying to picture Othello being played on this stage. Hmm.

Radharaman Mitra writes in Kalikata Darpan (my translation):

To the South of the Chowringhee Road and Theatre Road crossing, between 1813 and 1839 stood the wooden theatre called 'Chowringhee Theatre'. The greatest female actor of the age, Mrs Esther Leach, made her debut in this Theatre on 27 July 1836, aged only 17. On 31 May 1839 the Theatre got burnt down. Dwarakanath Tagore purchased the land on which it stood at the price of Rs 30,100. It is from this Theatre that the adjacent road got its name.

The Theatre and Mrs Leach share a St. Xavier's connection. Mitra tells us that after the Theatre was burnt down Mrs Leach, with the help of Mr Stocqueler (editor, Englishman) and Lord Auckland (who contributed Rs 16,000), raised funds and built the Sans Souci Theatre at 10 Park Street. It was completed in 1840 and inaugurated a year later.

Sadly, however, within a couple of years of inaugurating her new Theatre, Mrs Leach passed away. On 2 November 1843, while she was playing her part in Handsome Husband, her dress caught fire. She died on the 18th, succumbing to the burns. She was buried at the Bhowanipur Cemetery (perhaps because she was the daughter of Sergeant Major John Leach, Fort William), but her grave bears no marks today. She acquired the epithet "Indian Siddons" and was known "for talent and personal attractions, without a rival, even in England."

Coming back to Othello, the incredible (and by that I don't mean that he lacks credibility) Radharaman Mitra tells us that in 1848, twelve years after the Calcutta Amateurs staged the play at the Chowringhee Theatre, another British company performed the same at Sans Souci. This time round, and Mitra notes this with great excitement, a Bengali gentleman called Vaishnacharan Adhya played the title role on two nights, 17 August and 12 September.

One hopes to find more on the Chowringhee Theatre in the course of time. Perhaps Shakespeare on the Calcutta Stage: A Checklist edited by Sukanta da and Dr. Lal will have something to offer. I'll look it up and be back, hopefully.