Above we see the notice on page three of the Byrne’s Dramatic Times from 124 years ago, Saturday, January 17, 1885 announcing a new play opening in Bangor, Maine.
They play was “Vindicated”, adapted from a novel by local author Charles E. Williams, who as we can see had high hopes of success to take the play on tour.
Below, we see the review of the play the following week in the January 24th edition of the Dramatic Times (which also fell on a Saturday as it does tomorrow). Apparently, the performance didn’t go so well. After “the leading lady went into convulsions of laugher” the rest of the play seemed to go south.
As the unnamed newspaper correspondent reflected, “Truly the life of the dramatic author is not one of the pleasantest.”
Hopefully, author Charles E. Williams went on to more profitable projects.
This post is actually an introduction to my new blog on theatre past and present in New England, called Tragedy and Comedy in New England. I hope you can stop by.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tragedy and Comedy in New England
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2 comments:
So happy to have just found you today. There's not a lot of current writing that's interesting and insightful about our regional culture without that travel industry boosterism tinge. We are still different and special here! Thanks!
Thank you so much, Lynn. New England history and culture is a favorite topic of mine. I might be prejudiced, though.
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