In 1902 Terry played Mistress Page in "The Merry Wives of Windsor", with Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Falstaff and Madge Kendal as Mistress Ford. In the 1890s, Terry had struck up a friendship and conducted a famous correspondence with George Bernard Shaw, who wished to begin a theatrical venture with her. In 1903, Terry formed a new theatrical company, taking over management of the Imperial Theatre with her son, after her business partner Irving ended his tenure at the Lyceum in 1902. Here she had complete artistic control and could choose the works in which she would appear, as Irving had done at the Lyceum. The new venture focused on the plays of Shaw and Henrik Ibsen, including the latter's "The Vikings" in 1903, with Terry as the warlike Hiordis, a misjudged role for her. Theatre management turned out to be a financial failure for Terry, who had hoped the venture would showcase her son's set design and directing talents and her daughter's costume designs. She then toured England, taking engagements in Nottingham, Liverpool, and Wolverhampton, and created the title role in 1905 in J. M. Barrie's "Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire" at the Duke of York's Theatre. Irving died in 1905, and the distraught Terry briefly left the stage.