‘Old Favourites and New Candidates for Public Favour’: Harry Siddons’ Theatrical Tour to Lerwick, 1879-1880
Monday, September 17th 2018 2:30pm - 5:00pm
Auditorium, Shetland Museum and Archives.
Join Jill Farleigh Tattam Wolfe for an afternoon talk: Changing mid-winter celebrations in Lerwick served as a backdrop to Harry Siddons’ launch of his company’s 1879-1880 winter season.
Siddons was able to attract audiences partly because he capitalized on an energetic entertainment scene that included public and often costumed street celebrations. A souvenir programme in the Shetland Archives describes “the first ever pantomime to be performed in Lerwick”.
His efforts were dogged by an ingrained local hostility to theatre by certain members of the community. The granting of a theatre license for the tour was hotly contested, prompting a lively exchange of letters in Shetland Times.
Jill Farleigh Tattam Wolfe is a retired teacher in the Language and Culture Institute at the University of Tromsø/Norway’s Arctic University. She is currently putting the finishing touches to a book length manuscript entitled “Before the Curtain”: Taking the Stage with Lottie Harcourt and Harry Siddons as they travelled in the last quarter of the 19th Century.
Click here to book your ticket
Ticket price: £3.50
Talk starts at 2.30pm (doors open at 2pm).
Category: Gallery Talks