We knew that Robert Mulvey was involved with the Sefton Theatre, Liverpool, but had difficulty pinning down any facts. Family lore says that he counted 'Jersey Lily' Lily Langtry, among his personal friends.
Anyone looking for anything on Victorian theatre in Liverpool might find information in Annals of the Liverpool Stage, a booklet kept by Liverpool library. I reproduce the section about the Sefton Theatre below.
NB: As well as Robert Mulvey, this piece mentions Mr CH Duval. Robert Mulvey's great granddaughter Eileen Unwin married a Jack Duval just after the Second World War. I often wonder if they are the same family.
The booklet goes on to mention the Shakespeare Theatre in Fraser Street, off London Road, which was built by Liverpool-born Ellis Brammall Jnr and opened in August 1888. Ellis was the son of Ellis Brammall b1829 in Stockport, and they lived in Erskin Street, where Ellis senior was a timber merchant.. Ellis junior went on to marry Lucy b1848 in meath. Their children are Humphrey 1871, Maud 1874 and Henry 1876. As far as I know, they are not part of my Bramhill family.
From the Annals of the Liverpool Stage
After the closing of the Royal Park Theatre in Parliament Street, the south end of Liverpool remained without a playhouse until the Sefton, a rectangular hall in Park Road, was opened by Mr CH Duval, for purely dramatic purposes, on September 21, 1875. Previously the hall had been used for various kinds of entertainments.
Mr Duval's reputation had preceded him to 'The Park' and on the opening night he was patronised by an audience which completely filled the house. A new stage had been erected and everything fitting in the way of adequate scenery, dresses and a good stock company provided. The performance opened somewhat unambitiously with the comedy A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush. The company comprised Misses Rose Mortimer, Grace Montford and A Powell; and Barry Stuart, Ben Schofield and E.Fitzdavis. The theatre accommodated about 1,100 persons - 800 in the body and 300 in the gallery.
On the occasion of Mr GW Edwards's benefit, which took place on March 29, 1879, Messrs HT Brickwell and James Carr played the respective parts of Valentine and Orson in the romantic drama of that name. The former gentleman afterwards appeared as harlequin in a laughable pantomime, entitled Fun, Frolic and Mischief; or the Clown's Holiday. this was two years before Mr Brickwell joined Edward Terry as acting manager.
Although not a native of Liverpool, having been born at Stroud in 1858, Mr Brickwell was educated at the Liverpool College, and in a small part, made his first appearance on stage at the local Amphi.
In the eighties, the Sessions House Hotel , Kirkdale, was occupied by Mr Brickwell pere. One Sunday when his son and his daughter-in-law arrived at the hotel they were surprised to find, massed in front of the house and stretching aloong the footwalks and roadway leading thereto, a dense body of people. On seeing Mr HT Brickwell, the crowd shouted 'That im, that's im' and then a very respectable cheer was given. The younger Brickwell blushed becomingly, looked dreadfully conscious, and bowed as gracefully as possible. Apparently he had been taken for some illustrious personage. Who could it be? The mystery was solved after he and his spouse had fought their way through the demonstrative crowd, each one striving to shake him by the hand, and were safely housed in the hotel. It then appeared that Mr Brickwell had been mistaken for Bartholomew Binns, the successor of the 'long drop' man, who was expected to arrive that day to carry out on the morrow the dread sentence of the law on an unfortunate criminal at the adjacent Kirkdale gaol.
After directing the theate for a few years, Mr Duval was succeeded as lessee by Mr R Mulvey, who re-christened the house the Royal Sefton Theatre. Mr Mulvey's stock company used to give drama interspersed wtih variety turns. London by Night, Liberty, The Press Gang, Life's Devotion, Nobody's Child, Blow for Blow and Maria Martin were some of the plays submitted.
Mark Melford, the well-known actor-dramatist, John Sheridan, Mr and Mrs WH Morton, Frank Fuller and William Tallon, were all formerly assocated as players with this house. The last-mentioned gentleman is still a resident of this city. Mr Henry Loydall managed the theatre for a time and after his regime Mr Mulvey again took up the reins of management. in 1895, Mr James Kiernan opend the Sefton as a music hall. Afterwards it was converted into a billiard hall, which it still remains.
... her son-in-law Robert Mulvey
...and his daughter Rebecca, wife of George A Unwin
