London Walworth Lecture Hall – 1852 – First Show

Description

• DATE 23/02/1852
• Venue Walworth Lecture Hall – London
• Production A mixed number of plays all together.
• Principal Cast
  Mr Bowden, Mr W Morgan, Mr Hart.

An important early (apparently the very first) programme for an entertainment written and presented by JL Toole, who would become one of the giants of Victorian theatre later in the century as producer, theatre owner, writer and performer. The 7” by 9” four-sided programme was printed in gold ink and issued at a performance in the Lecture Hall of the Walworth Literary and Scientific Institution in Carter Street, South London on Monday 23 February 1852. Toole had begun his training with the City Histrionic Club and is here assisted by members of that organisation. The text certainly suggests, in a number of different places, that Toole’s solo appearances represented his first such. It includes the sketch “Trying a Magistrate” which would be for many years a staple of Toole’s entertainments. Certainly this performance, a few days before Toole’s 22^nd birthday, predates by five months what is generally considered to be his “first appearance on stage” at the Haymarket Theatre in London.

• Condition
  Fair/good,cfld,lcr,slight cover age marks, has a few tears which have been repaired with clear tape,a few edge nicks,
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