Mrs Nunn plays Hamlet in Yorkshire

In Shakespeare’s time, all parts were played by male actors. But now, sensationally, female actors were establishing themselves as Shakespearean stars of the stage. Here is an example in Huddersfield of a woman playing Hamlet.

This benefit performance is for a married couple – Mr and Mrs Nunn, who appear in two extracts from Shakespeare.

By this time women were beginning to play the tragic Danish Prince and other “male” characters.

One of the first to do so was the celebrated Sarah Siddons who performed Hamlet a handful of times from 1776 – and she chose the English regions to showcase her portrayal.

It appears that there is only one playbill in the British Library’s collection that refers to her Hamlet: “for this night only by desire” are the words printed on the bill flyer dated 2 Oct 1778, in Liverpool. Why did Siddons not perform it in London, home of the prestigious big two theatres?

Siddons was wary of exposing herself to criticism in the capital at a time when the morals of actresses were questioned. The provincial theatres were freer – and as an actress born and bred from strolling players, she felt at home in the English Regions.

Either way, Sarah redefined the scope of the actress, and others followed suit.

Around the same time as Mrs Nunn is delighting the spectators with her Hamlet, the American actress Charlotte Cushman is donning doublet and hose to play Romeo in England. She too, would go on to perform Hamlet.

The roll call would grow to include Sarah Bernhardt, Asta Nielsen, Angela Winkler, Frances de la Tour and Maxine Peake. Mrs Nunn was an experienced actress and by accounts had a lot of stamina and a great memory.

The Arthur Lloyd website has a note that at one point this actress had appeared as as many as fourteen characters in a week. When she appeared at the Old Theatre Royal in Bradford her takings reached £50, the highest sum ever realised in the theatre for a single benefit.

The first Theatre Royal Huddersfield was in existence since the early 1840s and may have opened in 1841.

The building was originally built as a Lecture Hall by the Philosophical Society. It is on a site which was next door, and to the right of, the Library's entrance on Ramsden Street.

This playbill proclaims proudly: “Licensed According to Act of Parliament” - which suggests that the patent has been granted recently.

In 1859 the New Theatre Royal opened. The new Theatre was more like other Theatres in Britain with better exits and entrances to all levels and an auditorium on three levels, stalls and pit, and two galleries supported by beams and pillars.

Small, of a nervous disposition, and with reddish hair, Miss Sarah "Sally" Booth (1793–1867) was originally a dancer. However by 1822, the date of this playbill, she is nearly thirty and has an established career at the prestigious London theatres of Covent Garden and Drury Lane.

She was noted for her Juliet, a role that suited her girlish demeanour and pretty looks. The manager is pleased to have lured this famous London actress to his theatre where she appeared for the first time. He hopes she will be a big draw for audiences.

Sally Booth was born in Birmingham and trod the boards for the first time in Manchester at about the age of 11. She and her sister were engaged as dancers and the English provinces were her training school.

First she worked for an irascible Irish manager called Macready, and gradually she began to play roles such as Prince Arthur in Shakespeare’s King John.

Then she went to Doncaster, where she joined the company run by the well-known Tate Wilkinson, the manager of a circuit of theatres in the North of England. There, in true fairytale fashion, she got a first break due to the illness of one of the leading actresses in the company.

She was spotted by the manager of one of the big London theatres, the Royal Circus, which was re-christened the Surrey. Her first appearance in London was in 1810 and on 23 November of the same year she played for the first time at Covent Garden.

She remained at Covent Garden where she was occasionally allowed to play the role of Juliet. But that’s where the fairytale petered out, as a rival put paid to her hopes of a career as a tragedienne, at least for a while.

For the Irish actress Miss O’Neil was getting the kind of roles Sally Booth might have been offered.

Eclipsed by O’Neil’s talent and popularity, she left Covent Garden and only returned when the actress retired from the stage.

Finally it was her moment in the spotlight - an opportunity to play Cordelia to the King Lear of an actor who shared her surname but not her lineage, Junius Brutus Booth

Sally Booth claimed to be a descendant of a Lancashire actor Barton Booth, famed for his Shakespeare roles. So when she appeared with Junius Brutus Booth she asked him to add a final 'e' to his name, so as to prevent the suggestion of any connection between them.

She then acted at several London theatres: at the Olympic on 19 December 1821, at Drury Lane on 2 February 1822, and at the Haymarket and Adelphi theatres, remaining long at none.

Towards the end of the year, she was in Huddersfield and built up a reputation as a “celebrated actress” though, as this history suggests, she was a pleasing rather than an impressive performer.

She died on 30 December 1867, after giving up the stage before then. Sally Booth was part of a trend for provincial theatre to employ actors and actresses from London.

With the development of the railway this became easier and gradually, as the century progressed, theatres preferred to book from London rather than more local talent.