Jane Thomson (actress)

Jane Thomson (1827–1901), was an Australian stage actor and dancer.

Early years

She was born to the actor Martha Mary Thomson and her spouse John Thomson, and arrived to Hobart in Tasmania with her parents in 1837. Her mother was a trained actress active in London, Hobart in Tasmania (1837–38) and Sydney's Royal Victoria Theatre (1838-40). She was given ballet instruction from the dance master Monsieur Charriere in Sydney. She debuted in Sydney in 1842.

Career

Jane Thomson and her spouse performed at the theater of Anne Clarke in Hobart in 1844-46. She was highly praised as a dancer, but at this stage regarded a moderate actor. In 1845, the couple were engaged by George Coppin with a number of other members of Clarke's troupe and followed him to the Queen's Theatre in Melbourne, but returned to Clarke after only a couple of months. In 1846-47, she performed in the theater founded and managed by her spouse and mother. In 1849, her spouse became stage manager at the Royal Victoria Theatre in Hobart and she became ballet mistress: from 1849 until 1857, however, she was engaged in Melbourne, where she became famous.

Between the late 1840s and through the 1850s, Jane Thomson was described as a star and admired for her skill as a dancer and her versatility as an actor, and according to the Hobart Courier on 21 March 1849, "the Victoria has not been so thronged for a considerable time." She was known for her performance as Madeline in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Eugene Aram, and admired for her performance in the farce Continental Frolics, where she impressed when she "showed off" her "versatility of talent to advantage" by successfully playing five different characters, and her personal popularity and talent was confirmed by the fact that the critics gave her acknowledgments for her performance even when they regarded the play itself bad.

Between 1857 and 1862, she performed in London under the stage name "Eliza Young" and enjoyed great success as "one of the notable actresses on the London stage of the middle and late Victorian age."

Family

She married actor Charles Frederick Young (1819-1874) in 1843; she thereby became the sister-in-law of Emma Young, who was a very popular comedy actor and dancer in Australia between 1842-57. She divorced her spouse for adultery on his part after having been abused by him during their marriage, a divorced which attracted great attention in Australia, where she was still a celebrity at that point.

References

• Anae, Nicole: A Selected and Crowned Band of women, 2005

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