“A Little Bit of Fluff”


Ernest Thesiger as Bertram Tully


West Pier, Brighton

October 11

Criterion Theatre, London

October 27, 1915 - ?, 1918

1241 perf


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The Sketch, November 17, 1915

“The character of Bertram Tully, with his overpowering innocence, his keen desire to be called Bertram and not plain Tully, his mission work, and his love of playing the flute, is one of the happiest seen on the stage

for a decade past, and Mr. Ernest Thesiger achieved a real triumph as the young man who, when told by an imperious and rather vulgar young woman to pull his socks up, obediently bent down to the task.”

“Towards the end of the month a really first-rate farce was produced at the Criterion, Mr. Walter Ellis’s ”A Little Bit of Fluff,” the comic hero of which was played by Mr. Ernest Thesiger;  his performance was wonderful.”

“Mr. Ernest Thesiger was certainly funny as the confiding friend, but his style is unpleasantly effeminate.”

“Mr. Ernest Thesiger as the unfortunate friend dragged into all sorts of impossible scrapes was a huge success, and the rest of the cast acquitted themselves excellently.”

“The splendid behavior of the theatre audiences in the West-End during the trying experiences of Monday night’s air raid has made theatrical managers determined to adhere to the decision made by the Theatrical Managers’ Association on Monday morning to ‘carry on’ during the period of moonlight nights...At the Criterion Theatre the unconscious audience giggled and chuckled through the first act of ‘A Little Bit of Fluff’ while the raid was in progress...While all the racket was going on, and while refugees were seeking shelter on the stairs and landings of my theatre, I stationed one or two of my men among the audience to report to me any signs of panic.  There was none, and from the faces of the audience, who were thoroughly enjoying Mr. Ernest Thesiger’s comic agonies as the scapegoat of the piece, it was evident that they had not heard the remotest echo of the raid.”

London Standard, October 28, 1915

The Annual Register, Volume 157

Liverpool Daily Post, October 29, 1915

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, October 29, 1915

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, November 20, 1915

Liverpool Daily Post, by special arrangement with the Daily Chronicle, September 26, 1917

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, November 20, 1915

caricatures by Thomas Downey

The Bystander, November 10, 1915