female role in Thérèse by John Howard Payne, when the cast actress fell ill. Overall, the London public remembered her as The Times put it, “a face and features well adapted to her profession; but [an actress] not likely to make a great impression on a London audience, or to figure among stars of the first magnitude.” Success in Paris In 1827, Smithson made her Paris début as Lydia Languish in The Rivals at the Odéon theatre. Though she received negative reviews for this role, she was highly praised for her beauty and ability in the subsequent performance of She Stoops to Conquer. On 11 September 1827, she was given the small part of Ophelia next to Charles Kemble in Shakespeare's Hamlet. She left a long lasting impression on the French through her interpretation of Ophelia's madness, utilizing pantomime and natural presentation. Miss Smithson acted the scene in which, robbed of her sanity, she takes her own veil to be her father's body with utmost grace and truth. The whole passage which seemed long and relatively insignificant and even exaggerated in reading, had tremendous impact on stage…The most remarkable feature of her acting is her pantomime; she adopts fantastic postures; and she uses the dying fall in her inflections, without ever ceasing to be natural… On 18 September, Shakespeare's Othello became the third Shakespeare tragedy to be performed by The English theatre. Her performance as Desdemona was less effective, but the production was popular enough to be repeated the week after. The English Theatre replaced the productions of tragedies with comedies, such as The Belle's Stratagem, The School for Scandal, Mrs. Centlivre's The Wonder, and Mrs. Cowley's The Weathercock. However, press's demand for more tragedies led to the production of The Tragedy of Jane Shore. In this renowned tragedy, Smithson was cast as Shore, the role in which she moved her audience to tears. The production soon became the most performed play in the English season. At the end of her time in France, she acted in several productions with famous actors such as William Charles Macready, Edmund Kean, and Charles Kemble. Smithson became famous for her natural presentation of characters, striking pantomime, and beauty. She introduced the French to natural English theatrical techniques that allowed her to become her characters instead of simply portraying them. The new acting style, emphasizing drama and truth, which appealed to the French Romantics,