First reading of Edward Stirling's Mayflower Play, Imperial Hotel, Birmingham (April, 1920)

Under the auspices of the Anglo-American Society, an audience at the Imperial Hotel in Birmingham (now Imperial House, Temple St - visible on the left of the image) was one of the first to hear readings from a new play written by Birmingham author Mr W. Edward Stirling, along with Mr Alfred Hayes, about the Mayflower voyage (read more about the play here). Due to be performed at Plymouth, Manchester, London, and other venues across the country, the four-act play detailed the history of the Pilgrims’ travels from Lincoln, Leyden, and Plymouth, onward to the New World. The play was in large part based on the famous poem by Longfellow, with a few new dramatic flourishes and more strongly drawn characters. Local reports praised Stirling’s solo reading, though the language of the play was “not free from theatricalities and modernism”.

Birmingham Post, “’The Mayflower’; A new play read in Birmingham”, 17 April 1920.