Playbill

This playbill boasts the "immense attraction" of "two startling dramas". London's theatres used dramatic language on their playbills to attract their audiences. This playbill, for the Belgravia Theatre in Sloane Square announces performances of the 'Miser of Marseilles' and the "laughable farce" entitled 'Dumb Man of Manchester'. The Belgravia Theatre was a new venture, as it only opened in 1870. The playbill is unusual as it gives the theatre's location at the top of the bill, describing it as "opposite the railway station", which had opened eighteen months previously, at the end of 1868. The new theatre was not the success the owners had hoped, as theatre reviewers reported the theatre only attracted a small audience in the summer of 1870. By November the theatre had closed down, and the building was coverted into a new theatre called the Royal Court.