Eva Elwes

Eva Elwes (born Gertrude Emma Cannon; 1876–1950) was an English actress and playwright who wrote over 50 plays between 1907 and 1938. Acting career Between 1896 and the late 1920s Elwes performed in a variety of plays and variety shows. She regularly performed in her own plays which were often staged by Will H. Glaze’s touring theatre company. She also acted in other touring companies playing mostly in the north of England. In 1922 Will Glaze set up the Alexandra Players at the Alexandra Theatre, South Shields. Elwes's second husband, Ernest Eykyn, became the theatre’s stage manager and artist, and she performed in the Alexandra Players. Elwes became the co-lessee of the theatre with Ethel Hird from 1930–1940. When the theatre closed in 1940, due to the World War II blackout, a newspaper article recalled "some particularly fine performances by that grand dowager of drama Eva Elwes". Elwes and Eykyn both contributed to the Actors’ Benevolent Fund from the production of one her plays The Cottage Girl.