Managing the Pantomime: Productions at the Theatre Royal Nottingham in the 1860s

In 1866, John Knowles, the Manager of the Theatre Royal, Manchester, was questioned regarding the types of dramatic genres that attracted audiences at provincial theatres. He was asked whether 'the higher class of drama answers' or whether 'successful speculation is confined to pantomime, burlesque, and kindred pieces'. Knowles answered that for most provincial theatres, 'pantomime ... is the sheet-anchor of the drama at the present moment'. (1) Knowles's acknowledgement that the pantomime was financially crucial to the provincial theatre season was not made lightly: indeed it was made to a Parliamentary Select Committee, and the sentiments were echoed throughout the nineteenth century by provincial and London theatre managers alike. (2) Members of the Select Committee may not have considered pantomime to be the 'higher class of drama', but the genre flourished in the Victorian period. In particular, the mid- to late-nineteenth century was a period of varied and dynamic pantomime production in the provinces. However, little evidence remains of the financial investment made by theatre managers that so concerned the Select Committee. In her seminal work The Economics of the British Stage 1800-1914 (Cambridge, 2000), Tracy C. Davis addressed the issue of financial archives and remarked that whilst '[t]here is a surfeit of financial data from individual theatres during the Georgian and early Victorian periods' that data 'taper[s] off to almost none from the mid-Victorian era, with a renewed glut beginning around 1890'. (3) In the light of Davis's statement, a small archive of documents at the Nottinghamshire Archives requires closer examination. (4) The collection comprises details of the income and production expenditure for the company seasons of 1865-66 and 1866-67, including that for the two Christmas pantomimes at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. The various ledgers contain compellingly clear evidence of the conflicts of theatrical provision and local economic conditions in the 1860s, in particular the problems and partial resolutions found in the provision of the annual pantomime as a 'sheet-anchor' amid the squalls of trade depression. Nottingham in the mid-nineteenth century was a duo-industry town, its workforce largely deriving their wages from hosiery and lace manufacture, products which were notoriously susceptible to both the vagaries of fashion and foreign competition. The 1860s as a whole were years of fluctuating economic success in the town, reflecting national economic trends that centred on a depression in the early years of the decade (resulting from a drop in cotton supplies occasioned by the American Civil War), and a financial crisis in 1866 which led to the second economic trough of the decade. That depression continued until 1869. (5) A brief upturn in the economy in 1865 was reflected in Nottingham, where the new Theatre Royal was opened in September of that year. Financed by the Messrs. John and William Lambert, local lace manufacturers, the theatre was built to replace the old Theatre Royal, then languishing in an unfashionable part of the town. (6) After a period of much speculation, and some public concern over the speed at which the theatre was built, the new Theatre Royal opened on Tuesday 25 September, boasting a stock company recruited from the London and provincial stages and led by the Shakespearean actor Walter Montgomery, who also took on the role of Director. (7) Shortly after the opening performances, at the beginning of October, the annual Goose Fair took place in the town and, whilst the Lamberts had promoted the theatre as 'providing the most refined and classical pieces', they were quick to realise the pecuniary advantage of showing burlesque and spectacle for the holiday and fair audiences. (8) For the week of Goose Fair, therefore, serious drama was eschewed in favour of Ixion, or The Man at the Wheel, which ran with extra day performances. The burlesque proved to be very successful, with good audiences ensuring a sizeable profit at the end of the run. …