Poster

Double-crown playbill printed in brown and blue ink announcing performances of the 'Golden Dustman' and 'Papillonetta' at Sadlers Wells theatre. The Golden Dustman was an adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend. The title refers to the central character of the novel Mr Boffin, a wealthy London dustman. The popularity of Dickens' novels resulted in numerous stage adaptations of his works and plays appeared on the West End stage very quickly after the first few chapters of the monthly part works were published. Theatres employed resident dramatists to adapt the works for the stage and even predicted how the novel may end before the final part works were even written by Dickens, often with surprising results.