Carlotta Addison

Carlotta Addison (9 July 1849 – 13 June 1914) was an English actress. Stage appearances included leading roles in original productions of plays by T. W. Robertson, W. S. Gilbert, H. J. Byron, Arthur Wing Pinero and Bernard Shaw.

Life Addison was born in Liverpool in 1849, the younger daughter of Edward Phillips Addison, a comedian; the actress Fanny Addison was her sister. She first appeared on stage at the Liverpool Amphitheatre. On 13 May 1865 she appeared with her father at the New Theatre Royal, Bath in a special benefit performance under the patronage of the Bath and County Club. Her London debut was in October 1866 at the St James's Theatre, as Lady Frances Touchwood in The Belle's Stratagem by Hannah Cowley. Later that year she created the role of Adina in the musical burlesque Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack, by W. S. Gilbert, at the St James's Theatre. She later joined the company of the New Royalty Theatre, and in February 1868 appeared in Daddy Grey by Andrew Halliday, as Jessie Bell, the central figure of the play.

The Prince of Wales's Theatre Programme for the original production of the play M. P., with Carlotta Addison in the cast Later the same year she joined the company of Squire Bancroft and his wife Marie Wilton at the Prince of Wales's Theatre and appeared in a revival of Society, by T. W. Robertson, as Maud Hetherington. In January 1869 at the same theatre she played Bella in the first production of Robertson's School. A reviewer in The Daily Telegraph (25 January 1869) wrote that Addison "in showing the good qualities of the pupil-teacher revealed some rare excellencies. ... There was not the slightest exaggeration in the display of her emotion, and the exquisite love scene in the third act, so full of purity and tenderness, owed much of its effect to the discreetly subdued style in which it was acted by Miss Addison and Mr. H. J. Montague." In October 1875, at the Haymarket Theatre, she took the role of Ethel Grainger in Married in Haste by H. J. Byron. A reviewer in The Athenaeum (9 October 1875) wrote: "So concentrated and intense was the manner in which she displayed feeling, without going outside the bounds of social custom, that a high position might reasonably be predicted for her as an exponent of realistic drama." From 1888 she played Ruth Rolt in two long runs of Sweet Lavender by Arthur Wing Pinero at Terry's Theatre.

In 1910 she appeared in the film The Blue Bird (based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck) as the Fairy Bérylune, a role she had played on stage during a long-running production.

Addison died on 13 June 1914, aged 64, during the run of Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion in which she was playing Mrs Eynsford-Hill.