2500 Theatre Scenes in Europe and America from 1890 to 1935: Some scenes from Tantrums written by Frank Stayton (1874-1951), and performed at the Criterion Theatre, London, in 1912.

Wednesday, 5 August 2026

Some scenes from Tantrums written by Frank Stayton (1874-1951), and performed at the Criterion Theatre, London, in 1912.

Some scenes from Tantrums written by the English playwright Frank Stayton (1874-1951), and performed at the Criterion Theatre, London, in 1912.

Frank Stayton was born on December 25, 1874 in Ryde, Isle of Wight, England, UK. He was a writer, known for A Woman in Pawn (1927), The Inferior Sex (1920) and A Gamble in Lives (1920). He died on January 29, 1951 in Kensington, London, England, UK.

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, November 2nd, 1912, "Tantrums," by Frank Stayton, at the Criterion Theatre.

1- A familiar scene in the home of the Halsteads.- Virginia, the shrew, has been screaming and breaking china, and is thrashing the piano as the servants enter, upon which silence and stiff formality fall upon them all.

2- Virginia, now the wife of Charles Vansittart, is preparing the worst-cooked meal she can for her husband, in order to spite him for trying to control her.

3- After "Love's" first encounter.- Charles Vansittart (Mr. Charles Maude) having received a vase-one of Virginia's "throw-outs"-on his hat as he passed the house, has entered and, like Petruchio, offered the shrew marriage. After breaking more china and throwing about the furniture, she accepts his offer of marriage in the sense of a challenge for mastery. Her Father is also seen surveying the result of lending his drawing-room for "love making."

4- At the hotel on the honeymoon Virginia finds Charles has locked the hotel doors and cut off the telephone. Her response is to throw the door-key out of the window and to jeer at all her husband says and does.

5- Virginia slaps the face of her maid Rose (Miss Dora Barton), it having been agreed that she shall pay the girl a fixed price per blow as compensation for these ebullitions of temper, the account being settled monthly.

6- Charles affects poverty to tame Virginia, and Virginia, turned cook, ruins Charles's digestion in revenge. He is seen secretly wrapping up his uneatable steak in newspaper before throwing it out of window. The end of all, however, is mutual love and peace, with the honours on the lady's side.