Ashley Dukes
Ashley Dukes was an influential English playwright and drama critic, born in 1885 in Bridgwater, Somersetshire. Growing up as the son of a clergyman, he received his education at Silcoates School and graduated from Manchester University. Dukes began his career in London, where he contributed to the New Age newspaper and became involved with the Fabian Society before moving to Germany for two years. His writing included critiques of English drama, and he achieved recognition for his plays, notably "The Man with a Load of Mischief" which premiered in 1924. In 1918, he married Marie Rambert, a Polish-born ballet dancer, and they collaborated on numerous ballet productions, significantly impacting British ballet.
Dukes was known for adapting various European works into English and for his focus on avant-garde and poetic drama, championing a less realistic style of theater. He played a key role in establishing the Mercury Theater in London, which became renowned for its innovative productions. In 1937, his contributions to drama earned him the title of professor of drama from the Royal Society of Literature. Dukes passed away in 1959, leaving a lasting legacy in both theater and ballet.
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Ashley Dukes
Playwright
- Born: May 29, 1885
- Birthplace: Bridgwater, Somerset, England
- Died: May 4, 1959
Biography
Ashley Dukes was born in Bridgwater, Somersetshire, England, in 1885. The son of a clergyman, he attended the Silcoates School in West Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, and then went on to graduate from Manchester University. He taught in London and associated with the Fabian Society, but he left Britain for Germany in 1907. He lived in Munich for two years before returning to London.
Dukes began to write regularly as a drama critic for the New Age newspaper (to which he had contributed sporadically in the previous few years). Until 1911, he wrote almost weekly, expressing the ideas he had formed during his time on the Continent and reflecting on English drama. He also wrote for several other periodicals during his career. While he was writing for the New Age, he also had his first play produced (Civil War, 1910). Dukes wrote several other plays; his most successful was, The Man with a Load of Mischief (1924).
In 1918, Dukes married the Polish-born ballet dancer Marie Rambert, who was born Cyvia Ramberg in Warsaw in 1888. Rambert was trained at first in Paris, but then later in Geneva, where she studied eurhythmics. She and Dukes would collaborate in many ballet productions through the coming years. They had two daughters, Angela (born in 1920) and Helena in (born in 1923).
Dukes is also known for his productions of other writers’ plays. He adapted many French and German pieces to the English stage, and he also produced a number of experimental dramas, including T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. He specialized in “poetic dramas” (plays written in verse) and other avant-garde forms. His greatest reputation was as a proponent of Continental drama, which utilized a much less realistic approach than did traditional English theater.
In 1925, Dukes took some his profits from The Man with a Load of Mischief and bought the Horbury Hall in London to provide a home for Rambert’s ballet school and dance company. In 1933, they remodeled it to become the Mercury Theater, and Dukes and Rambert produced plays and ballets in the facility. Although the theater was small, it achieved considerable fame for its productions. In fact, it was so successful that it came to be known as “the birthplace of British ballet.” Ballet had been performed in Britain for almost two centuries, but Rambert’s artistic style of and Dukes’s sense of dramaturgy helped establish what came to be seen as a distinctively British school of ballet performance.
In 1937, four years after the opening of the theater, the Royal Society of Literature named Dukes as professor of drama in recognition of his achievements. Dukes died on May 4, 1959. Rambert remained active in London dance productions through the 1960’s and survived her husband for many years. She died in 1982.