Bristol Archives recently purchased a set of sixteen playbills relating to two major Bristol theatres in the 1870s. This was thanks to support from the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.
During that period, the Theatre Royal was not running a full programme of productions. The owner had set up the New Theatre Royal on Park Row and focussed on promoting that instead. It later became known as the Prince’s Theatre.
We have recently completed a National Lottery Heritage Fund project with two other partners. These were the Bristol Old Vic (previously the Theatre Royal on King Street) and the University of Bristol Theatre Collection. We hold a large number of playbills for the Theatre Royal, many of which were digitised as part of the project.
By comparison we have very few for the New Theatre Royal. These playbills also pre-date most of those already held in our collections. This means they are a very timely and very useful addition to our theatre-related holdings.
Many of the advertised plays are well known today, such as Shakespeare’s Richard III, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice. They also include less well-known plays such as Jeanie Deans (based on a Walter Scott novel) and Wife’s Secret by George William Lovell. There are also Christmas pantomimes of Red Riding Hood (1875) and Beauty and the Beast (1877).
Graham Tratt, Archivist