{{short description|British actress and playwright}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2020}} thumb|Waveney Hare Bicker-Caarten and Audrey Carten
'''Audrey Hare Bicker-Caarten''' (1900–1977) was an actress and playwright who worked under the name of '''Audrey Carten'''.
==Biography== Audrey Hare Bicker-Caarten was born in 1900 into a middle-class family in Blomfield Road, Maida Vale, London, the daughter of Catherine and Edwin Hare Bicker-Caarten.<ref name="encyclopedia">{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/carten-audrey-b-1900|title=Carten, Audrey (b. 1900) | Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Among her siblings: Waveney Bicker Caarten (1902–1990) and Kenneth Bicker Caarten (1911–1980).{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Noel Streatfeild, attending the Academy in the same period, remember her as a brilliant and beautiful girl, the most gifted member of her class. They became friends, even if Streatfeild admitted she was second rate in comparison to her.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bull|first1=Angela|title=Noel Streatfeild: a biography|date=1984|publisher=Collins|page=[https://archive.org/details/noelstreatfeildb00bull/page/70 70]|isbn=9780001950443 |url=https://archive.org/details/noelstreatfeildb00bull|url-access=registration|accessdate=16 January 2018}}</ref> At the Academy her "sensitive, neurasthenic acting had been seen and admired by George Bernard Shaw".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Shaw Review, Volumes 16–17|date=1973|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|page=143|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGSaAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>
By 1920, Audrey Carten was trying to make a name as actress in Shakespearean productions. In ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' directed by J.B. Fagan, J.C. Trewin points out Carten in 1920 (and later Edith Evans in 1924) was the first to play the role of Helena as a comic rather than purely romantic role.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kehler|first1=Dorothea|title=A Midsummer Night's Dream: Critical Essays|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|page=471|isbn=9781135886677|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2oRUsOp6FAC&pg=PA471}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Sprague|first1=Arthur Colby|last2=Trewin|first2=John Courtenay|title=Shakespeare's plays today: some customs and conventions of the stage|date=1970|publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson|page=[https://archive.org/details/shakespearesplay0000spra/page/98 98]|isbn=9780283980916 |url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearesplay0000spra|url-access=registration|accessdate=16 January 2018}}</ref>
In 1922, she is the heroine in ''Bulldog Drummond'', produced, directed and performed by Gerald du Maurier. Critics said that Cartern "puts life and vivacity into the part of the somewhat commonplace heroine".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Wyndham's Bulldog Drummond – 31 Dec 1922, Sun • Page 11|journal=The Observer|year=1992|page=11|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597510/the_observer/}}</ref> According to Du Maurier's daughter, Daphne Du Maurier, in this period, her father had an affair with Carten.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cook|first1=Judith|title=Daphne: A Portrait of Daphne Du Maurier|date=1992|publisher=Charnwood|page=[https://archive.org/details/daphneportraitof00cook/page/72 72]|isbn=9780708986592 |url=https://archive.org/details/daphneportraitof00cook|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Forster|first1=Margaret|title=Daphne Du Maurier|date=2012|publisher=Random House|page=47|isbn=9781446455609|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZ3hQPo0bAgC&pg=PA47}}</ref> In 1923 she played Una Lowry in Du Maurier's ''The Dancers'', at the Wyndham Theatre, cowritten by Du Marier and Viola Tree.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Actress Killed – 04 Dec 1953, Fri • Page 35|journal=The Ottawa Journal|year=1953|page=35|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597426/the_ottawa_journal/}}</ref> Critics praised her "delicate, eerie, sensitive" portrayal; she "was hard and tender and desperate with a convincing mastery of moods".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Miss Viola Tree as Dramatist – 16 Feb 1923, Fri • Page 16|journal=The Guardian|year=1923|page=16|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16598440/the_guardian/}}</ref> Tallulah Bankhead was playing the role of Maxine, and the two women became close friends. For the next ten years, it was common to see them together at parties, restaurants and various events.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ackland|first1=Rodney|last2=Grant|first2=Elspeth|title=The celluloid mistress; or, The custard pie of Dr. Caligari|date=1954|publisher=A. Wingate|page=22|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0GY3AAAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bankhead|first1=Tallulah|title=Tallulah: My Autobiography, Volume 1211|date=1952|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|page=187|isbn=9781604736786|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YDbxoUYQy0gC&pg=PA187}}</ref> After a party where they met Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova, apparently Bankhead said to Carten, "Imagine the poor darling [Valentino n.d.r.], having to fuck that. Is there any wonder he'd rather lick the other side of the stamp?"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bret|first1=David|title=Valentino: A Dream of Desire|date=2007|publisher=Carroll & Graff|page=117|isbn=9780786719488|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIUdAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> Bankhead became a surrogate mother to Carten's brother, 11 years old Kenneth, who during the summer break from Eton College, went to live with them.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bret|first1=David|title=Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life|date=1998|publisher=Robson Books|page=46|isbn=9781861051905|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sx8NAQAAMAAJ}}</ref>
Lady Caroline Paget remembered to have been introduced to Bankhead and her "friend and travelling companion" Carten in the 1930s.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
Another friend of the time was Gwen Farrar: in 1925 Carten and Farrar were arrested for assaulting a police officer who was giving them a parking ticket.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} At Farrar's death in 1945, Carten was among the main beneficiaries, all women, of Farrar's estate, £361,000: Elizabeth Pollock received £72,000, Carten £52,000 (£{{formatnum:{{inflation|UK|52000|1945}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}} sterling), Joan Griffiths £12,000, and Norah Blaney £8,000.<ref>{{cite journal|title=London Woman Cellist Leaves £361,000 Estate – 05 Aug 1945, Sun • Page 20|journal=Chicago Tribune|year=1945|page=20|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597763/chicago_tribune/}}</ref>
At the end of the 1920s, Carten moved to playwriting and together with her sister, Waveney, they wrote a number of successful plays<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodman|first1=Lizbeth|last2=de Gay|first2=Jane|title=The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|page=81|isbn=9781134707607|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EO6FAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81}}</ref> such as ''Happy Families'' (1929) (cowritten also with Jane Ross, produced by Gerald du Maurier, Carteen played the main role, Daphne Beresford),<ref>{{cite journal|title=08 Sep 1929, Sun • Page 13|journal=The Observer|year=1929|page=13|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597394/the_observer/}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Happy Families – 02 Oct 1929, Wed • Page 4|journal=The Guardian|year=1929|page=4|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597264/the_guardian/}}</ref> ''Change of Heart'' (1929) (produced by Du Maurier),<ref>{{cite journal|title=13 Jan 1929, Sun • Page 13|journal=The Observer|year=1929|page=13|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597806/the_observer/}}</ref> ''Fame'' (1929),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gale|first1=Maggie|title=West End Women: Women and the London Stage 1918 – 1962|date=2008|publisher=Routledge|page=211|isbn=9781134886722|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cw1qimj9lggC&pg=PA211}}</ref> ''Lady Kathleen'' (1931),<ref>{{cite book|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1|date=1931|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=226|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yc5DAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA226}}</ref> ''The Day After'' (1932) (produced by Harry C. Bannister),<ref>{{cite journal|title=12 Dec 1932, Mon • Page 17|journal=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|year=1932|page=17|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597878/pittsburgh_postgazette/}}</ref> ''Always Apologise'' (1932) (with Margaret Bannerman as lead actress),<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Shilling Theatre – 05 Jan 1933, Thu • Page 8|journal=The Guardian|year=1933|page=8|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16597939/the_guardian/}}</ref> ''Table Talk'' (1932) (produced by Harry C. Bannister),<ref>{{cite journal|title=05 Dec 1932, Mon • Page 6|journal=Detroit Free Press|year=1932|page=6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16598194/detroit_free_press/}}</ref> ''The Day After'' (1932) (produced by Harry C. Bannister),<ref>{{cite journal|title=08 Dec 1932, Thu • Page 26|journal=Oakland Tribune|year=1932|page=26|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16598275/oakland_tribune/}}</ref> ''Late One Night'', and ''Gay Love'', this last adapted for the screen in 1934. The plays were produced on Broadway too, and Audrey and her siblings moved ofter between England and the United States. In 1936 Noël Coward produced their adaptation of Jacques Deval's ''Madamoiselle'', with Greer Garson at her first appearance. The production ran for 147 performances.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
In 1930, Aubrey Carten appeared in ''Birds of Prey'', a crime movie directed by Basil Dean.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
In the late 1930s, with her brother, Kenneth, she frequented the same circle of Elvira Mullens Barney.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
Audrey Carten died in Hastings in 1977.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
==Legacy== The 1962 portrait of Audrey Carteen by Peter Shiel is at the Victoria & Albert Museum.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carten, Audrey}} Category:1900 births Category:1977 deaths Category:20th-century British dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people Category:20th-century English women writers Category:20th-century English writers Category:Actresses from London Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:LGBTQ people from London Category:Actors from the City of Westminster Category:People from Maida Vale