Mime

For the Benefit of Mr. Bradbury. On friday January 25 1799 will be performed Not acted these Two Years the favourite comedy of The Way to get Married.To which will be added an entire original pantomime with new scenery Dresses and Decorations called harlequin sailor: Or The flight from africa.

1799 · AQ25369 — s.i.: s.n. 1799. Single leaf handbill printed on one side only. A trifle browned manuscript price '£88-8-6' to verso presumably the evening's box office take An apparently unrecorded Regency playbill advertising a performance of Thomas Morton's 1764-1838 popular comedy The Way to Get Married to which was added an original pantomime entitled Harlequin Sailor: Or The flight from Africa which boasted the intriguing prospect of 'The Clown's Invitation or the Grand Cock Fight' as well as the perilous spectacle of 'Harlequin's surprising leap from the gallery to the stage and through a Hoghead of Fire'. According to a statement at the foot of the playbill tickets were available from Messrs. Merritt and Wright among others suggesting - via comparison with contemporary extant advertisements - that the entertainments were staged at the Theatre Royal Liverpool. This is further attested to by the presence of Mr. Bradbury in the lead role of the Harlequin likely cabinet maker turned clown Robert Bradbury d. 1831 who made his debût at the theatre. Not in ESTC. Dimensions 160 x 230 mm. [s.n.] unknown