Matheson Alexander Lang was eighteen when he first appeared on the stage in 1897. Before forming his own company, he acted with the companies of Sir Frank Benson, Lillie Langtry, and Ellen Terry. In his early career he toured the United States and the West Indies; after his success in 1908 in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, he toured South Africa, Australia, and Asia, where his company played Shakespeare with great success. In 1914 he and his wife Hutin Britton inaugurated productions of The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, and Hamlet at the Old Vic. His long and successful career is recounted in his memoirs, Mr. Wu Looks Back (1940); Wu Li Chang, a character in the play Mr. Wu, was one of Lang's most popular and successful roles.