Retro: County theatrics

David Cliffe • Published 15 Oct 2009 10:00 0 Comments

WAS it fate, coincidence, or serendipity?

In my continuing attempts to bring the behind-the-scenes part of the local studies collection into more logical order, I was moving things around in the strongroom, and came upon an envelope.

It was among the things awaiting my attention, and written on it were the words: "Fragile. Handle with care. Small and valuable items."

Put like that, I had to take a peep, and among the items inside was this playbill for Reading's Royal County Theatre, from 1892.

They must have been printed in their thousands, and by now, this may well be the only one still in existence.

After a few seconds of quiet reverie, I decided it was high time that I went to the office and turned on the computer to check my email.

Imagine my surprise when the first message turned out to be from The History of Reading Society, asking if I would like to give a talk on the theatres of Reading in March next year.

Destiny had obviously decided that I was going to give the talk, and it was pointless to resist, so I agreed to do it.

In 1892 the Royal County Theatre was not the one which some can still remember.

The original Royal County Theatre was in Friar Street, where Poundland and The Money Shop are now, and it burned down in 1894. The New Royal County Theatre opened a few doors away in 1895, in the building which had been built as the Augustine Chapel.

This was the theatre that burned down during the pantomime season in 1937.

The handbill advertises the Christmas show of 1892-3, Dorothy, to be performed by The Original Juvenile Comic Opera Company, which had enjoyed recent success at Brighton.

It opened with a "Grand Morning Performance on Boxing Day". If you look up the local papers for December 24, you can see that the "morning performance" was in fact a matinee at 2.30pm.

One would have loved to see Dorothy, complete with "special scenery and trained foxhounds".

I can't help wondering what the dogs actually did - the reviews in the local papers of December 31 are disappointingly silent on that point!

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This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 15 Oct 09

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