From Australia’s Jewish Past: Continuing Lena Brasch’s story from artist model to her theatrical career
Part 2: Read Part One.
Lena Brasch 1898
Lena’s on-stage debut commenced at the Paddington Town Hall Sydney in February 1895, where she appeared in a one-act farce to be followed by her first professional production in a melodrama staged at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Her roles were insignificant, apart from a biblical play – Joseph of Canaan – where she had two roles – as young Joseph in the Prologue and Benjamin.
It was from her role as Benjamin that she received a pleasant review from the Sydney Morning Herald of 26 August 1895 – ‘Miss Brasch, as Benjamin, repeated the pleasing impression she created as Joseph in the Prologue’. The production moved on to the Theatre Royal in Melbourne and she was again praised in a review in The Age: ‘Miss Brasch takes the part of the Hebrew youth and plays it with naturalness and marked ability.’ In January 1896, Lena was featured in an article in The Australasian Hebrew Standard about her progress not only as an actor, but as a musician: ‘This talented young lady is in her eighteenth year and, though a native of Melbourne, has been reared and educated in Sydney. She has always evinced a decided leaning for the stage but parental prejudice always stood in her way. An early and exceptional talent for music led to her friends hoping that she would devote herself to the pursuit of music. Young as she is, she has already composed quite a score of pieces. The Olga Waltz, published in 1894, was very popular as a bright and clever piece of dance music. Professor Marshall Hall of Melbourne University tried her compositions, met her, and thought so highly of her talent that he offered to train her free of charge. The article went on to sing her praises as an actor. Clearly, Lena’s teenage theatrical and musical careers had taken off well’. She made the choice not to continue with music – at least professionally. From here, we will see how Lena’s acting career developed.
As one can imagine, parental opposition to a career in the theatre was widespread in the late nineteenth century for young women. The perceived problem for young women was exacerbated by a widespread belief that the acting life came along with what is now described under the general heading of ‘sex work’. How Lena overcame the prejudices of her parents is not known.
Lena returned to the stage in 1900, initially at Her Majesty’s in Sydney, with her old employer George Rignold in Henry V, where she had a very small but touching part in the production. The play was successful and she travelled with the company to Perth the following year. Her next break was meeting a newly arrived American actor – Nance O’Neil – who had made her stage debut in 1873 in San Francisco at the age of nineteen. In 1898, and now quite a star, she embarked on a world tour, including Australia. In Sydney under J C Williamson, she and Lena were cast in two plays – Magda and Camille. The Sydney newspapers seemed more interested in Lena’s dress: ‘The most picturesque Frenchy apparition on the stage was Lena Brasch in a brilliant daring frock of bright green with red roses,’ said The Truth Newspaper. The company moved on to play a season at Her Majesty’s in Melbourne. The following year Lena rejoined Nance, who by now had her own company, and the two travelled to Perth and the Kalgoorlie gold fields, with Lena playing different roles in plays she had performed in previously. Nance and Lena left Perth and travelled around South Africa. By the time they reached Port Elizabeth in 1902, Lena left the company. It is not sure why, but it was said to be owing to an alleged breach of one of the company’s rules and Lena sued the company for unfair dismissal. She was said to be joining another troupe – Herbert Flemming’s company in South Africa – where she apparently took on fifteen different roles with them.
By August 1903 at the age of twenty-nine, Lena arrived in London, living in Knightsbridge in a flat owned by Walter Barnett – the photographer. Here she met up with many of her artist friends from Sydney. She managed to secure small roles in some unsuccessful plays. It is understood that, following a tour of Scotland in 1906 with an unnamed repertory company, this was in fact to be the end of her stage career. Returning to London she entertained at a club in Mayfair, did some musical monologues in private homes, sang at a concert for the unemployed, and performed during the summer at a theatrical garden party at Kew Gardens. Her attempt to make a name for herself in London was no more successful than it had been in Australia. Angela Woollacott – Australian historian and author – writes in her book – To Try Her Fortune in London – Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity – ‘there may well have been an additional barrier—her Australian accent could be a significant issue for [Australian] women hoping to have theatrical or singing careers in London’.
However, in the last months of her acting life, she was back as an artist model, and new portraits – painted and photographic – appeared. In February 1905, it was announced that the Australian artist Tom Roberts had completed a new portrait of Lena. The Hebrew Standard of Australasia reported: The figure is standing in what may be called the modern antique garb, so much in vogue for certain occasions of late—a hat much swathed in lace and a décolleté gown. This portrait by Roberts, his last of Lena, seems to have been lost.
In August 1906 it was learned that Lena had retired from the stage and had undertaken an ‘advantageous marriage’ in London. Lena, thirty-one, married James Wyatt, twelve years her senior, in the West End of London. They had one son, Roderick, born on 14 December 1907, who was baptised. It is not clear if Lena still had any connection with her family. The Wyatt family settled in South Kensington and James – a poultry merchant – set up a business there. In correspondence written by James to a friend in Melbourne, he mentioned that he had seen Mrs Louis Abrahams (Golda) and her children. Whilst Lena continued to keep a low profile, it was noted that, in June 1918, she was summoned to court, for travelling by train to England’s South Coast, together with her maid and without tickets. She was fined forty shillings plus costs.
If one summarises Lena’s artistic legacy: she acted in relatively small roles in many productions between 1895 and 1905, rarely receiving critical accolades above ‘pleasing’, ‘charming’, ‘prettily’ – so her career never broke through to larger, more challenging parts. However, her role in portraits, especially those by Tom Roberts and Walter Barnett, reveals a much stronger, more vivid personality, one frequently present in art historical publications.
The next we hear of Lena is when she is sixty-five years old in 1939 and attending a ball for the 400-plus staff of the Brasch business in Sydney. She had returned to her home in Penkivil Street at some point in her 60s – her husband presumably having died in London in his 80s. Lena died at the age of seventy-nine on 12 May 1954 at a private hospital in Mosman. In the death notices, there was no mention of her theatrical past, nor of the many fine portraits of her.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:
Theatre Heritage Australia – Roger Neill; Publications as noted; To Try Her Fortune in London – Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity – Angela Woollacott
