Barrie and Doyle
Barrie and Doyle is an article published in the Daily Express on 16 september 1921.
Barrie and Doyle
BARRIE AND DOYLE.
I was looking through a drawer yesterday, and came on a faded annotated programme — not my property — which is, I think, the only relic of a gallant attempt to write a British comic opera in the manner of Gilbert Sullivan. The work — a "new and original English comic opera" — was produced in 1893, and called "Jane Annie; or the Good-Conduct Prize." its joint authors were Mr. J. M. Barrie, the Scottish author, and Mr. Conan Doyle, the well-known writer of detective stories. The music was by Ernest Ford, and the whole thing was produced at the Savoy on May 13.
DEAR! DEAR!
It seems that the critics were sympathetic, but the "book," the effort of Mr. Barrie and Mr. Doyle, was described as "weak and a triffle dull." A good word, however, was said for Rutland Barrington and Decima Moore, who wore in the cast.
Well, well. And here is Sir James Barrie to-day practically a god — yes. I offer incense myself quite often. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's head is in the clouds; probably if you murmured. "Jane Annie" to him he would ask if she were an apport medium. And I wonder if both of them by some fantastic means wrote a comic opera "book" together again, whether any one in England to-day would find any weakness or dulness in it — and have the nerve to say so.
