Spranger Barry

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Spranger Barry
Spranger Barry (left) as Romeo with Maria Isabella Nossiter as Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , Covent Garden , 1759

Spranger Barry (born November 23, 1719 in Dublin , † January 10, 1777 in Covent Garden , London ) was an Irish actor and founder of the theater.

Life

Barry was born in 1719 on Skinner's Row in Dublin, the son of a silversmith , and learned his father's craft, which he also took over. However, he was not very successful. The unusual first name is said to be the mother's maiden name.

His first appearance as an actor was on February 5, 1744 in the front house of the Dublin Theater Royal on Smock Alley . This significantly improved his economic position. For the first time on a London stage, the Theater Royal Drury Lane , he then appeared in 1746 in the role of Othello . His talent was quickly recognized and so he alternated with David Garrick in the dramas Hamlet and Macbeth . When he achieved great success in the role of Romeo , he aroused Garrick's jealousy. This led him to move from Dury Lane to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1750 , accompanied by Susannah Maria Cibber , his Julia. Both houses were now in a rivalry and always started the popular piece Romeo and Juliet at the same time. Here, Barry's Romeo was better received by the criticism.

Barry opened the Crow Street Theater in Dublin in 1758 , which would later become a Theater Royal . Then he also opened a theater in Cork , later the Theater Royal Cork . He staged many successful productions. However, he wasted the theatre's income through private, extravagant parties. In 1767 he returned to London to play at the Haymarket Theater . In 1768 the actress Ann Street Barry (1733-1801) became his second wife. The couple played under Garrick's management, with whom he struck a truce . After a ten year absence from the London stage, Barry appeared here in 1767, in Othello , his greatest role. In 1774 Barry moved with his wife and son of the same name to Covent Garden, where he lived until his death. He was 57 years old. His wife asked David Garrick to write the epitaph, but this refused. The funeral and burial took place at Westminster Abbey . When Ann Street Barry died in 1801, she was buried next to Spranger Barry, although remarried.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th edition. Volume III. Anonymous. Cambridge: University Press, 1910, p. 445.
  2. ^ A b c Henry Boylan: A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition . Gill and MacMillan, Dublin 1998, ISBN 1-57098-236-8 , pp. 14 .
  3. ^ A b Catherine Curzon: A Covent Garden Gilflurt's Guide to Life. 2013–2019 (online)
  4. ↑ Biographia Hibernica. Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. I, pp. 44-58.
personal data
SURNAME Barry, Spranger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish actor and theater founder
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1719
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1777
Place of death London