“EUROPE”: A Patriotic Ballet for the First World War

Abstract

ABSTRACT From September 1914 to January 1915, the Empire Theatre in London staged what was billed as a patriotic ballet called Europe. In addition to its lengthy run in the capital, a second version of the show toured the country, appearing at theatres in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bradford, Nottingham and Portsmouth. The show received unanimous praise in both national and regional newspapers. However, despite its reach, popularity and impact, Europe has been mostly forgotten. Since it was a dance-based performance, no script was submitted to the Lord Chamberlain’s office. Although the piece did include music, it produced no hit songs captured on gramophone records or sheet music. Moreover, once the reality of the First World War began to hit home, the manner in which the show trivialised and glorified the conflict quickly fell out of step with public opinion. Therefore, when Europe’s run ended, it was permanently shelved and assigned to the passing of time. Nevertheless, the show left an archival imprint scattered through newspapers, theatre programmes, magazines and autobiographies. The following article draws these fragments together to form a blueprint of this hitherto discarded piece of popular culture. This reconstruction reveals a strikingly complex and rich piece of theatre, both in terms of its technical construction and how cultural conventions were adapted to turn the war into entertainment. In its three short scenes, Europe featured national personifications inspired by political cartoons, virtuosic dances associated with European nations, a scenario lifted from a 40-year-old pamphlet on the Franco-Prussian War, and a giant decoupage map of Europe from which melodramatic villains, heroes and damsels in distress appeared. Through these tropes, archetypes and devices, Europe presented a story of the First World War to the masses, including who started it, what had happened so far and how it would end. The ballet also introduced the audience to a conception of Europe that simultaneously confirmed Great Britain’s dominant position within the continental community while underlining the country’s moral responsibility to defend the liberty of the nations within it.