[An archive of playbills for the Royal Lyceum Theatre].
[London].
[vs.], [1870s-90s]
Quarto.
77 playbills. Overall clean and crisp.
An extensive archive of playbills advertising performances at the West End's Royal Lyceum Theatre in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, spanning the years under the management of actor Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905), with Bram Stoker (1847-1912) serving as acting manager.
Given Irving's reputation as a leading Shakespearean performer, unsurprisingly the majority of the playbills concern stagings of the Bard's plays, including performances of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice. In the latter, Irving commonly took the role of Shylock. He notably restored the fifth act, which had for long been omitted by actors who thought that the disappearance of Shylock meant the end of interest in the plot. He did however cut the text, though not as savagely as many of his contemporaries, due both to the time constraints resulting from the extended scene changes, and indeed the eccentricities of popular taste that favoured truncated stagings.
Several of the playbills relate to stagings of Faust, Irving's immensely popular production which ran to hundreds of performances. It has been argued that the titular character of Stoker's Dracula (1897) was in part inspired by Irving's portrayal of Mephistopheles in those productions; and indeed, the works of Goethe more broadly were highly influential, in particular his poem 'Die Braut von Corinth' (1797) that introduced the vampire to German literature.
Four of the playbills were issued for theatres in the north of England, including Leeds and Bradford, at which the Lyceum Company performed, with acclaimed Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) taking the lead female roles. Since taking over operation of the Lyceum in 1878, Irving had been beset by financial misfortune and medical woes. In order retain the extremely expensive theatre and to keep up with payments on his ever-increasing debts, he was forced to undertake numerous tours of America and the British provinces - the faithful Stoker ever by his side.
An exceptional opportunity to acquire a plethora of ephemeral material exhibiting late Victorian theatrical fashions and social appetites, soon to be superseded by the epochal technological innovations of the twentieth century.
£ 2,500.00
Antiquates Ref: 35167
Given Irving's reputation as a leading Shakespearean performer, unsurprisingly the majority of the playbills concern stagings of the Bard's plays, including performances of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice. In the latter, Irving commonly took the role of Shylock. He notably restored the fifth act, which had for long been omitted by actors who thought that the disappearance of Shylock meant the end of interest in the plot. He did however cut the text, though not as savagely as many of his contemporaries, due both to the time constraints resulting from the extended scene changes, and indeed the eccentricities of popular taste that favoured truncated stagings.
Several of the playbills relate to stagings of Faust, Irving's immensely popular production which ran to hundreds of performances. It has been argued that the titular character of Stoker's Dracula (1897) was in part inspired by Irving's portrayal of Mephistopheles in those productions; and indeed, the works of Goethe more broadly were highly influential, in particular his poem 'Die Braut von Corinth' (1797) that introduced the vampire to German literature.
Four of the playbills were issued for theatres in the north of England, including Leeds and Bradford, at which the Lyceum Company performed, with acclaimed Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) taking the lead female roles. Since taking over operation of the Lyceum in 1878, Irving had been beset by financial misfortune and medical woes. In order retain the extremely expensive theatre and to keep up with payments on his ever-increasing debts, he was forced to undertake numerous tours of America and the British provinces - the faithful Stoker ever by his side.
An exceptional opportunity to acquire a plethora of ephemeral material exhibiting late Victorian theatrical fashions and social appetites, soon to be superseded by the epochal technological innovations of the twentieth century.
