Actress

In 1914 Lilian Baylis, following the death of her Aunt, took over the Royal Victoria Hall, affectionately known as the Old Vic.   Baylis focussed on Shakespeare productions.   Ben Greet became her influential Producer and Robert Atkins the Stage Manager.   During WW1 the conditions were pretty difficult and the audiences were often very small.   Male parts were frequently allocated to women because there was a shortage of actors as so many enlisted for the war – some of whom never returned…  

Most of the actors shared roles and, in half the plays, Silvia shared with someone called Katherine Carew.   Sibyl Thorndike was a fellow actress in eleven of the performances that included Silvia.   In her journal Silvia admits, with particular reference to A Midsummer’s Nights Dream, that to play in Shakespearean love scenes with someone you happen to be in love with is an experience one doesn’t forget!    Except for Dusk, she is known as Sylvia Fausset when acting.

 A disturbing backdrop for Silvia at this time would have been the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin where her Baker relations lived.   Her Aunt Anna later wrote an alarming account of sniper activity in and around Merrion Square where she and her family lived.

We can only surmise as to why Silvia gave up acting in favour of art school but one reason she gives is that Ralph Hodgson (a poet who she met in 1916) helped her to understand that drawing was just as much a vehicle for emotion as acting.  He also persuaded her that there was more opportunity in art for women when they became older than there was in acting.  Interestingly, I have a copy of a letter written by Hodgson’s nephew, in which he suggests that Ralph did his best to save young actresses if they had talent (other than acting) and tried to take possession of it as if it was his personal property.