Background

Alfred Sutro was born on August 7, 1863, in London, England. He was the son of Sigismund Sutro, a doctor.

Education

Sutro was educated at the City of London School and in Brussels.

Career

Sutro began his career as a clerk in the City of London. When he was twenty he entered into partnership with his elder brother Leopold, trading as wholesale merchants.

In 1894 Sutro moved to Paris and struggled to become a professional writer. He returned to England after a few years and developed a couple of unsuccessful plays. His first and biggest success was The Walls of Jericho, produced in 1904. It focuses on an honest Australian in conflict with the debauchery of English high society.

The other category of plays which Sutro wrote - the artificial comedy - is perhaps best represented by Mollentrave on Women (1905), The Perplexed Husband (1911), and The Two Virtues (1914). These differ structurally from the realistic plays in being loose and episodic. The plots may ramble over a period of days or weeks while error piles upon error, to the confusion of all parties on the stage and occasionally the audience. The stories are contrived and strained at times and not witty so much as jocular.

Achievements

• Alfred Sutro is remembered for his dramas and his light comedies. He was especially successful at writing the well-made play, a drama based on a formula that called for suspense, a complex and highly artificial plot, a focus on romantic conflicts, and a climactic resolution. Like other well-made plays, Sutro’s works have been criticized for their implausibility and their lack of substance, but he was one of the most popular playwrights in Edwardian England. He also is known for his translations of the work of his friend Maurice Maeterlinck, whom he met in Paris.
  
  Besides full-length works, Sutro was known for his one-act plays, some of which were published in Five Little Plays (1912). Sutra wrote more than forty full-length and one-act plays during his career, most of which were successful with the public.

Works

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  • A Marriage Has Been Arranged

    (a duologue, a comedy in one act)

    1904
  • The Laughing Lady

    (a comedy in three acts)

    1922
  • The fascinating Mr. Vanderveldt

    (a comedy in four acts)

    1907
  • The perplexed husband

    (a comedy in four acts)

    1913
  • The Firescreen

    (a comedy in four acts)

    1912
  • The Cave of Illusion

    (a play in four acts)

    1900
  • The perfect lover

    (a play in four acts)

    1906
  • The Barrier

    (a play in four acts)

    1908
  • Carrots

    (a play in one act)

    1900
  • The Man on the Kerb

    (a duologue)

    1908
  • The Death of Tintagiles

    (a play)

    1902
  • Aglavaine and Selysette 1897
  • Women in Love: Eight Studies in Sentiment 1905
  • The Walls of Jericho 1906
  • Mollentrave on Women 1905
  • John Glaydes Honour 1908
  • The Builder of Bridges 1909
  • Monna Vanna 1911
  • The Bracelet 1912

Personality

Sutro was a talented translator, mainly of the works of his lifelong friend, the Belgian dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck. Sutro was a friend of many noted writers of his day, including George Bernard Shaw and D.H. Lawrence.

Connections

In 1894, Alfred Sutro married Esther Stella Isaacs, an artist.

Father:

Sigismund Sutro

Wife:

Esther Stella Isaacs

Brother:

Leopold Sutro

Friend:

Maurice Maeterlinck

29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French.

Friend:

George Bernard Shaw

26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950

George Bernard Shaw known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist.

Friend:

D. H. Lawrence

11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930

David Herbert Lawrence was an English writer and poet. His collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation.

References

• DLB 10: Modern British Dramatists, 1900-1945 The 20th century brought Britain once again to the forefront in world drama. Not since Shakespeares time had Britain produced such an astounding group of talented playwrights.
  1982
• Alfred Sutro: A Man With a Heart Alfred Sutro (1863-1933) was a British playwright and translator who has been all but forgotten by literary history. The subtitle of this biography refers to what Sutro considered to be one of his best plays. Sawin is a professor emeritus of English, U. of Colorado. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc.
  1989