Royal Grecian Theatre. Forget & forgive ; or, Love me, leave me not.

A$1,750 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

At head of title: On Monday, April the 8th, 1861, and during the week, the performances will commence with a New Drama, in 4 acts, by Mr. G. Conquest, partly founded on a tale by Pierce Egan, Esq., entitled Whitechapel : Pownceby, Steam Printer, 43 Leman St., [1861]. Double-page playbill, 340 x 430 mm; lithograph printed on thin paper; original central fold, in very good condition. A rare large-format playbill produced for the opening night of Forget forgive ; or, Love me, leave me not , at the Royal Grecian Theatre (formerly the Eagle Tavern) in London s Shoreditch in April 1861. The theatre s proprietor, Benjamin Conquest (1803-1872), also managed the Garrick Theatre in nearby Leman Street where the present playbill happens to have been printed by Henry Pownceby. George Conquest, Benjamin s son, not only wrote this play; he also produced, directed and starred in it. This would have been one of the first of around 100 productions that the father-and-son team staged during the 1860s and early 1870s. The first act of this three-act melodrama is set in the Crags and mountain tops of Australia . The characters listed on the playbill are Dick Stoney, an escaped convict (played by Mr Alfred Rayner); Nut Gull, an anythingarian, and lover of money (Mr George Conquest); Francis Fairland, a wealthy trader (Mr Holland); Henry Moreland, a settler in Australia (Mr William James); and Adele, a wild girl and half Native, wife of Henry Moreland (Mrs Charles Dillon). The final part of this o

• Binding: Hardcover

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