Ada Dyas

Who was Ada Dyas?

Ada Dyas was an Irish actress. She made her London debut in 1861 in Henry IV, and became famous in the 1871 play based on Wilkie Collins's novel The Woman in White.

Dyas's first American appearance was under the management of Augustin Daly in 1872 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, in Man and Wife. Later, at Wallack's, her most successful rôles were those of Kate Hardcastle, Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal, Lady Gay spanker, Lydia Languish, and especially that of Claire Ffolliott in Boucicault's The Shaughraun. She toured as Esther Eccles in Caste and subsequently as Mrs. Ralston in Jim the Penman and as Mrs. Seabrooke in Captain Swift. In 1892 she played Goneril in Sir Henry Irving's revival of King Lear at the London Lyceum.

Her performance in The Shaughraun is mentioned in Edith Wharton's 1920 novel The Age of Innocence.