The Procedure of Admission
OPENING OF THE DOORS
Throughout the eighteenth century all the London theatres operated
on the repertory system. From time to time a popular new play would be
performed for several consecutive nights, but the theory and the practice
were to act a different play every six nights in the week. This being the
case, how was the theatregoer to know what, on any given night, would
be available to him?
On a Monday he would decide to go to the theatre on Tuesday. Luckily,
unless he were in search of entertainment only for its own sake and indifferent
to what specific play was to be performed, he was well supplied with the
necessary information. Had he been in the theatre on the Monday he could
have read at the bottom of the broadside that was his playbill the various
performances that were proposed for Tuesday. Had he been elsewhere he
could find, on Tuesday morning, the same information in most of the London
daily newspapers. He could always, of course, apply in person at the theatre
itself. And, finally, one last resort remained to him: the “big bills.” These
were reproductions, usually printed in both black and red, of the smaller
playbills obtainable that same evening in whatever theatre he might be
frequenting; they corresponded to the theatrical affiches still posted on bill¬
boards in both European and American cities. They were, however, not
pictorial, and in size were approximately 3 inches long by 14^ inches wide :
so, at least, is the measurement of one of these bills, dated 20 January 1776,
now in the British Museum.: Twenty years later J. P. Kemble in his manu¬
script Memoranda notes that 187 big bills were sent out from Drury Lane
Theatre daily : 84 to be dispatched from the General Penny-Post Office in
Gerrard Street, 92 from the same office in Abchwich Street [i.e. Abchurch-
lane, near Lombard Street], 10 from each of the Mail Coach Inns, and one
to be left at the Temple of the Muses.2
1 Burney, 937. b. 3.
2 The playbills frequently carry the notice, at the time of a revival of a play or the debut
of a performer, “1st time at that theatre.” The use of the word “that” instead of “this”
is because of the posting of the big bills at locations far removed from the theatre itself.
The Temple of the Muses was the name given by James Lackington to his bookshop in
Finsbury Square. It had a frontage of 140 feet, and is described by the D.N.B. as “one of the
sights of London.”
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