Event Comment: Afterpiece: A Pantomime Entertainment not acted
these eight years. [See 20 Oct. 1768.] New Scenes, Dresses and o
ther Decorations. Doors open at 5 o'clock. To begin exactly at 6 o'clock.
Theatrical intelligence,
Covent Garden:
Mrs Hunter, lately returned from
Ireland was very well receiv'd in
Mrs Oakly, and to do her justice she played
the part throughout better than it has been performed for some time at ei
ther house.
The labourings of
Mr Wroughton's jealousy in
Oakly reminded us of
the progressive workings of a fatt of small beer, when inflated with powerful yeast....
Orpheus and Eurydice was reviv'd after
the play-
the dullest of all dull Pantomimes (
Harlequin's Jacket excepted).
The two additional scenes we were summoned by
the bills to behold, are two of
the late memorable regatta:-
The first is a perspective of
Ranelagh Gardensv to
the water, illuminated with party-coloured lamps, which terminates with
the temporary obelisk erected on that occasion:-Behind this we just catch
the streamers of
the barges and etc., supposed to be rowing up to
the stairs, and landing
their company, to martial music and under
the discharge of cannon, imitated by
the unnatural slamming of one of
the Green Room doors. This scene, however, had a tolerable appearance, but being on too confined a scale, its intended effect must have been lost.
The o
ther represented
the inside of as much of
the Temple of Neptunev as was possible to give
the spectators in a
theatre:-we cannot extol it by any means as a perfect representation:-and to prevent it coming too near
the original,
Harlequin,
Perot,
Pantaloon, and etc. were made to lounge in
the orchestra instead of its being occupied by a good band of music:-in short
the whole pantomime went off ra
ther flat. It is recommended to
the managers here never to suffer
the scene shifters to appear again in such garb as
they did; old greasy plush waistcoats, with red-stocking sleeves!-such a habit may be in keeping with a blacksmaith's forge, but not for a
theatre royal in
the metropolis of a polished country (
Folger News Clipping)