Cairns James

Cairns James () was a British actor trainer, and actor manager.

Not to be confused with the South African actor and playwright from the late 20th century, James Cairns

Biography

He was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music (founded 1880) who left to start his own School of Musical and Dramatic Art, focusing on stage work and specializing in musical comedy. His company had close links with George Edwardes.

James visited South Africa under the management of the Wheeler Brothers in 1894, playing the leads for a company popularly known as the Cairns James Company, and said by Boonzaier (1980) to have been the first Gaiety Company to visit South Africa, opening a season of plays in the Good Hope Theatre on 9 June, 1894.

The season began with a fine performance of In Town (Ross, Leader and Carr), followed by Mam'zelle Nitouche (Meilhac and Millaud), Miss Decima (Burnand), A Gaiety Girl (Hall).

D.C. Boonzaier, 1980. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

Sources

Colin Chambers (ed). Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Bloomsbury: p.221[1]

D.C. Boonzaier, 1980. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

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