Editing Arthur Wing Pinero (section)

===Actor and rising playwright: 1874–1884===
[[File:Henry Irving.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=head and shoulder portrait of clean-shaven white man with longish hair|[[Henry Irving]]: Pinero was a member of his company from 1876 to 1881.]]
As a junior member of Wyndham's company Pinero quickly gained experience in a range of roles, supporting [[E. A. Sothern]] in ''[[Our American Cousin]]'', and [[Charles Mathews]] in the [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]] adaptation ''A Game of Speculation'', and graduating to larger parts such as Crosstree in ''[[Black-Eyed Susan]]''.<ref name=d29/> His engagement in Edinburgh came to a sudden end in February 1875 when the theatre was destroyed by fire.<ref name=dnb/> He was fortunate in being offered another provincial engagement, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, [[Liverpool]], where he began to be noticed by the press, gaining approving reviews for his acting in supporting roles.<ref>"Provincial Theatricals", ''The Era'', 7 March 1875, p. 4; and 14 March 1875, p. 5</ref> A production of ''Miss Gwilt'', an adaptation of Wilkie Collins's ''[[Armadale (novel)|Armadale]]'', starring [[Ada Cavendish]], was reported by the theatrical paper ''[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]'' as "a genuine triumph";<ref>"Miss Gwilt", ''The Era'', 12 December 1875, p. 4</ref> the play transferred from Liverpool to the [[West End theatre|West End]], and Pinero retained his role as an elderly solicitor.<ref name=dnb/> The production was not the hoped-for success in London, but Pinero received good notices for his performance, and when the run finished after ten weeks he was immediately engaged by [[Henry Irving]]'s manager, Mrs Bateman, as a member of the supporting cast for Irving's forthcoming provincial tour.<ref>Dawick, p.</ref>

Although the tour was uncongenial, and Pinero gathered some highly critical notices, he continued to work as a supporting actor to Irving for five years. He first appeared at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]], Irving's London base, in December 1876 and played a total of 21 parts there between then and 1881. His Shakespearean roles were Lord Stanley in ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]'' (1877), Rosencrantz in ''[[Hamlet]]'' (1878), Guildenstern in ''Hamlet'' (1879), Salarino in ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' (1879), and Roderigo in ''[[Othello]]'' (1881). In a revival of the melodrama ''[[The Bells (play)|The Bells]]'', with which Irving's name was already synonymous, he played Dr Zimmer (1878).<ref name=who/>

While in Irving's company Pinero wrote his first plays. He began with ''£200 a Year'', a one-act comedy written in a single afternoon for a colleague to present at a benefit performance in 1877. The play was well received and was given several further performances, bringing Pinero's name a modest amount of publicity.<ref>Dawick, pp. 57–58</ref> His first full-length play, ''La Comète'', was staged in a theatre in [[Croydon]] in 1878, and he wrote four more one-act comedies, staged in London in 1878–1880, playing in two of them – ''Daisy's Escape'' and ''Bygones'' – at the Lyceum.<ref name=who/> Another of these, ''Hester's Mystery'' (1880), written for the comic actor [[J. L. Toole]], ran for 300 performances at the [[Toole's Theatre|Folly Theatre]].<ref name=dnb/>

[[File:Myra-Holme-1882.png|thumb|upright|left|Myra Holme, who married Pinero in 1883|alt=portrait of young white woman with dark hair, leaning back in a chair]]
Pinero's profile as a playwright was further raised by ''The Money Spinner'', a full-length comedy, first given at the Prince's Theatre, [[Manchester]] in November 1880 and then at the [[St James's Theatre|St James's]] in London in January 1881. The theatre historian [[J. P. Wearing]] regards the play as of particular importance in the history of the St James's, a theatre previously known more for its failures than its successes. Pinero's play was regarded as daringly unconventional and a risky venture, but it caught on with the public, particularly for the character Baron Croodle, a "disreputable but delightful old reprobate and card-shark" played by [[John Hare (actor)|John Hare]].<ref name=hdnb>Wearing, J. P. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33711 "Hare, Sir John (real name John Joseph Fairs) (1844–1921), actor and theatre manager"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 10 February 2019 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> The following year Pinero wrote the first of eleven more plays for the St James's, ''The Squire'' (1881).<ref name=hdnb/> It caused controversy by its supposed similarity to [[Thomas Hardy]]'s ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd]]''.<ref>Duncan, pp. 193–195</ref>

After leaving Irving's company Pinero joined another well-known London management, [[Squire Bancroft]] and his wife [[Effie Bancroft|Effie]], who ran the [[Haymarket Theatre]]. For them he played the Marquis de Cevennes (''Plot and Passion'', 1881), Sir Alexander Shendryn (''Ours'', 1882), Hanway  (''Odette'', 1882) and finally Sir Anthony Absolute in ''[[The Rivals]]'' (1884) as part of a starry cast that included Squire Bancroft, [[Johnston Forbes-Robertson]], [[Lionel Brough]] and [[Julia Gwynne]]. Pinero received mixed notices, some unfavourable,<ref>"Last Night's Theatricals", ''Reynolds's Newspaper'', 4 May 1884, p. 8; and "Our London Correspondence", ''The Liverpool Mercury'', 5 May 1884, p. 5</ref> and others among the best of his acting career.<ref>"Theatres", ''The Graphic'', 10 May 1884, p. 455; and "The London Theatres", ''The Era'', 10 May 1884, p. 6</ref> This was his last professional engagement as an actor.<ref name=who/>{{refn|Pinero made a single later appearance as an actor, in the role of Dolly Spanker in a special performance of ''[[London Assurance]]'' to mark the retirement of the Bancrofts from management at the Haymarket in July 1885. Other stars appearing in that programme included [[Arthur Cecil]], [[Johnston Forbes-Robertson]], [[John Hare (actor)|John Hare]], [[Henry Irving]], [[David James (actor, born 1839)|David James]], [[Madge Kendal]], [[W. H. Kendal]], [[Lillie Langtry]], [[William Terriss]], [[Ellen Terry]], [[J. L. Toole]], [[Mrs. John Wood|Mrs John Wood]] and [[Charles Wyndham (actor)|Charles Wyndham]], as well as the Bancrofts themselves.<ref>"The Bancroft Farewell", ''The Era'', 25 July 1885, p. 9</ref>|group= n}}

During his time at the Haymarket Pinero married Myra Emily Wood (c. 1852–1919), who had acted under the stage name of Myra Holme, a widow with two children, Angus and Myra, from her first marriage. The wedding took place on 19 April 1883. There were no children of the marriage to Pinero.<ref name=dnb/>