Fame in a night" is a phrase which is particularly applicable to the career of Miss Getha Sowerby, whose remarkable play, "Rutherford and Son," was produced at the Royal Court Theatre, at the beginning of February, 1912. The strength and power of the play led many critics into the error of thinking that it was a man who wrote it, but the secret leaked out next day. An extraordinary fact regarding the success of this play is that it was actually the first one Miss Sowerby had written. Although she had not studied stagecraft, she had mastered the difficulties of construction in an extraordinary manner. Curiously enough, Miss Sowerby, who had previously written children's books, and, in her own words, "had done a lot of other small work not worth mentioning," commenced to write her play some years ago, with no idea that it would ever be produced, but just for her own amusement. Ultimately a friend - an actress - happened to glance through what she had written, with the result that the play was submitted to a well-known manager, who promptly produced it; and thus another talented lady dramatist was added to the list of stage writers. Miss Sowerby, who is a Northumbrian by birth, has lived most of her life in the North, and it was from the scenes and incidents she has actually witnessed that she built up this strong play which deals with tense Northern industrial life.

Miss Getha Sowerby Bassano