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Les origines (1831-1895)

Dès son plus jeune âge, Wybert Reeve montre un goût pour la scène et il est toujours prêt à organiser quelques représentations amateurs chez ses amis :

[...] when between the ages of 11 and 12, I sought my theatrical amusements in a very daring manner without any one's permission. Sent to bed, like a good little boy, at 8 o'clock, I waited for a short time, listening for a fitting opportunity, then sneaked down a second staircase in the house, used only by the servants, ans quietly opening the front door made my way to some London theatre for an hour or two. It was in this manner I saw the great Macready, Miss Charlotte Cushman, the American actor Forrest, and others. Returning home I climbed the high area spiked railings, swung myself to the iron support, and dropped into the arms of the servant before spoken of, who was the only person in the house with a theatrical taste besides my own. She provided me with a couple of baked potatoes, with which I sneaked up to bed. Strange to say, I was never found out. The nearest approach to discovery was caused by one of these baked potatoes. It was Christmas time. Members of the family, as usual in those days, had assembled from all parts; the house was full. An uncle of mine, th incumbent of a Bristol parish, had come up to town with the rest, and had to sleep in my bed. He must have arrived shortly after I returned from an hour's visit to a pantomime. I awoke by hearing him call out lustily, and to my horror discovered that I had fallen asleep and left one of the hot potatoes broken in the bed, and he had lain on it. I made some excuse, and he was good fellow enough not to speak of it. 

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/19066589

Il a environ 17 ans lorsqu'il s'engage dans le 3^e Dragoon Guards à la caserne de Piershill. La vie dans un régiment de cavalerie n'est pas de tout repos: les gardes, les rondes, l'école d'équitation où il se rend tous les matins, les exercices d'escrime... ajoutées à cela, les conditions de vie, en hiver, dans la caserne, tout cela va le conduire à renoncer à sa vie de soldat et à 18 ans, il quitte son régiment et devient acteur.

Wybert Reeve commence alors, en 1849, sa carrière dramatique. Il aurait commencé à Bradford (Yorkshire) où le directeur du théâtre accepte de le faire travailler pour juste une semaine à condition qu'il trouve lui-même ses costumes... Peu après, il semble avoir incarné le rôle de Frederick dans The Wonder. Acteur, mais également auteur, en 1852, à Plymouth, il produit sa première pièce, une farse, intitulée An Australian Hoar. En 1855, il rejoint la "Bath and Bristol Company". Cette même année, il écrit et produit une farse Supper Gratis. En 1857, Reeve devient membre du Theatre Royal de Manchester. Après près de cinq ans d'expérience en province, il décide de se lancer dans la direction théâtrale. Il commence à Cardiff, puis on le retrouve directeur à Swansea, Ryde, Sheffield, South Shields et Scarborough, avant de s'installer au Théâtre d'Édimbourg pendant deux ans [1866-1868]. Il va produire ainsi de nombreuses pièces de théâtre : Pike O'Callaghan, Not so Bad After All, The Dragon of Wantley, Robinson Crusoe, Littler Red Riding Hood.. Il fait ses débuts à Londres sur la scène du Lyceum Theatre, en octobre 1869, dans le rôle de John Mildmay dans Still  Waters Run Deep. S'ensuivent d'autres pièces comme Won At Last, The Woman in white...

Wybert Reeve va alors poursuivre sa carrière à l'étranger. Il se rend au Canada, aux États-Unis... Il quitte Londres, à bord du Chimborazo, pour Adelaide  (Australie) où il arrive le 18 octobre 1878 et s'installe pour quelque temps dans le pays où il développe une part essentielle de ses activités artistiques :

Mr. Wybert Reeve made his first appeance in Australia on Saturday night, at the Theatre Royal. He played Count Fosco in Mr. Wilkie Collins' drama of "The Woman in White," a story which has the advantage of having been dramatised by the author himself, and which, therefore, may be supposed to present the principal points of interest in that very engrossing novel.

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The Australasian, Melbourne, samedi 26 octobre 1878, p. 18.

Il va fréquenter la plupart des scènes australiennes et on le retrouve ainsi au Theatre Royal (Brisbane, août 1881), Hobart (janvier 1884)... En 1887, il fait équipe avec MM. Williamson, Garner et Musgrove afin de prendre la direction du Theatre Royal d'Adelaide.

Le Cinématographe (octobre 1896-1897)

Dès l'automne 1896, Wybert Reeve va se procurer un cinématographe dont l'origine reste inconnue et va commencer son exploitation à Adelaide. Une matinée est donnée au Theatre Royal le 19 octobre, mais avec un résultat assez peu satisfaisant, la salle n'étant pas prévue pour faire l'obscurité nécessaire aux projections :

Mr. Wybert Reeve having secured the cinematograph for exhibition in Adelaide gave a matinee performance at the Theatre Royal on Monday for the purpose of introducing it to the amusement-loving public. Unfortunately the difficulties attending the transformation of the theatre, which is the home of "sweetness and light," into a chamber of darkness, proved insurmountable, and as a consequence the projection of the animated pictures from the cinematograph on to the screen erected upon the stage proved somewhat disappointing.

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The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, mardi 20 octobre 1896,, p. 3. 

Fort heureusement, l'appareil est présenté le soir même dans le Beehive Building (King William-street) où les projections vont pouvoir se dérouler dans des conditions bien plus satisfaisantes :

The removal of the apparatus in the evening to its permanent lodgings in Beehive Buildings, King William-street, however, proved eminently satisfactory, and the exhibitions of its powers were attended with signal success.

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The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, mardi 20 octobre 1896, p. 3.  

 http://www.apex.net.au/~tmj/mp/wybert-reeve.htm

AMUSEMENTS.

THEATRE ROYAL ATTRACTIONS.

Mr. Wybert Reeve returned from Sydney and Melbourne by the French steamer Australien on Monday after being most successful in making arrangements for future attractions. He has secured from Messrs. Barnett and Sestier the use of the second Lumiere cinematograph, which is now on board the incoming French steamer. It will be one of the Christinas holiday attractions. The first Lumiere lately shown in "Djin-Djin" at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, was first exhibited in a large shop in Pitt-street, Sydney. Its immense superiority over all others was so pronounced that it left a profit of over a thousand pounds to Mr. Williamson and his partners in about three weeks, although the charge made for admission was only one shilling. All those who visited Melbourne during the Cup week will have seen the wonder and admiration it created when shown there. The new instrument is precisely the same as the one now in use and crowding the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, where it has returned. The pictures and subjects to the number of 80 will be the same, as they will be exchanged between the two theatres, Sydney and Adelaide, as may be deemed expedient. They will include the 16 original ones so successfully taken by Mssrs. Barnett and Sestier, of the Derby Day, and the Melbourne Cup. With the cinematograph evening exhibition Mr. Keeve has arranged with Mr. Rickards for the services of certainly the best conjuror and most extraordinary illusionist, Karl Hertz. His marvellous entertainment will be remembered as crowding our Theatre Royal some six years ago, when he visited Australia under engagement to Mr. Musgrove. Another attraction will follow a little later on in the famous Vaidis sisters, the most marvellous and novel trapeze performers in the world. They crowded the Opera House, Melbourne for weeks, and are now crowding the Tivoli, Sydney, in the same way. It was Mr. Rickards’s intention to have arranged with Mr. Reeve for the Frantz family, but unfortunately they have to leave at once for Europe. A change of attraction will be made in the revisit of Mr. Dampier and his company, who will introduce several new plays, besides a revised edition of Garnet Walch's "Robbery Under Arms." The Pollards will play a season of opera, not as juveniles, but as adult singers and most successful opera performers. Amongst the operas produced will be "Rip Van Winkle." Mr. Reeve has also arranged with Mr. Robert Brough for a comedy season, when all the new and most attractive pieces in the company's repertoire will be played. The theatregoers' of Adelaide will also be pleased to hear there is every probability of their old friend Mr. Bland Holt and his strong dramatic company appearing early in the year, Mr. Holt having expressed his strong desire to fit in his arrangements so as to meet Mr. Reeve’s wishes; should he do so with his many new and strong pieces there is little doubt after so long an interval of a most successful season. Negotiations are pending with other important attractions, including several under the management of Messrs. Williamson and Musgrove, so that a very busy and more than usually brilliant theatrical year may be looked forward to. The Advertiser, Adelaide, mardi 8 décembre 1896, p. 5.

Il est "Lessee and Manager (locataire et gestionnaire) du Theatre Royal d'Adelaide où il présente le cinématographe. 

présente le cinématographe Lumière en Australie et en Nouvelle-Zélande (1897).

Et après... (1898-1906)

Adelaide Observer, Adelaide, samedi 29 septembre 1900, p. 16.

The Late Mr. Wubert Reeve
The well known Actor-manager
Observer, Adelaide, samedi 24 novembre 1906, p. 29.

Sources

"Death of Mr. Wybert Reeve", The Observer, Adelaide, samedi 24 novembre 1906, p. 41.

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