she had been in a production of Alphonse Daudet's Le Nabab at the Gaiety in 1883. Her reviews then had been good, but her return in June 1894 in Madame Sans-Gêne prompted superlatives from the critics and drew full houses, even with the counter-attraction of a Bernhardt season at Daly's Theatre. Réjane's season had to be extended by a fortnight to meet demand. In February 1895 Réjane opened at Abbey's Theatre in New York for a season comprising Madame Sans-Gêne, Divorçons, Sapho, Ma cousine and A Doll's House. Reviews for Réjane were excellent, but less so for the plays, and audiences were unresponsive: as an American commentator put it, "The language was, of course, one stumbling block, for a keen understanding of the foreign tongue was more necessary for a taste for Réjane than for the broad effects, say, of a Bernhardt". Among those in the audience who understood the words there was a substantial section whose broadness of mind did not extend to the content of French plays. The New York Times later commented that Réjane was "hampered by the moral bias of American audiences". Réjane was so disgusted at the lack of appreciation that she vowed never to return. She took her company back to Paris via London, where they played a season of most of the same plays to full houses at the Garrick Theatre. Madame Sans-Gêne was once again an immense success, and Sir Henry Irving negotiated the rights to stage an English version, which he produced at the Lyceum Theatre with Ellen Terry in Réjane's role two years later. Réjane eventually relented and agreed to return to the US, but not until 1904, by which time she had been seen by audiences in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Austria, Romania, Italy, Spain and Portugal. In the meanwhile, at home her marriage was disintegrating, and in 1905 she and Porel were divorced. The children remained with her. The Vaudeville, under Porel's management, being now closed to her, Réjane decided to go into management on her own account. Théâtre Réjane and later years Réjane was not long without a theatrical base. In 1906 the writer Arnold Bennett, then resident in Paris, wrote: At the Théâtre Réjane its proprietor appeared in twenty new plays and revivals by playwrights ranging from the grandiose Catulle Mendès to the chic Sacha Guitry between 1906 and 1910 – "none of them,