Acting dynasty comes to Derby Theatre

With the Napoleonic wars raging and Nelson to be fatally wounded fighting the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 was a historically important year.

Beethoven’s music was attracting attention and at the turn of the century, when it came to the staging of Shakespeare, one family dominated above all others.

That family was the Kembles and as this playbill from Derby Theatre dated Feb 1805 shows, playing the leading role was another of this famous acting dynasty, Stephen Kemble.

Derby Theatre playbill, 1805 (c) British Library

Stephen Kemble was the younger brother to his more famous siblings of the London stage, namely Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble.

Sarah Siddons and her younger brother John Philip Kemble were to make their name in tragic roles but Stephen (1758–1822), was best known playing the particular comic role of Sir John Falstaff. Indeed, a year later he played Falstaff at Covent Garden.

Portly in stature, the younger Kemble would have raised a belly-laugh when he delivered Falstaff’s bawdy dialogue. Reportedly, he needed no padding for the role!

This is just one of the many thousands of theatre playbills to be stored and preserved in the British Library, where more than thirty thousand are digitised. It marks the first performance of Shakespeare’s Henry IV in 12 years.

By Hannah Manktelow, University of Nottingham doctoral researcher, working with the British Library

The dawn of a new century coincided with a period when strict regulations on theatres and performances across England were continuing to lift.

Hannah Manktelow, Nottingham University MA Student

Some 70 years before Stephen Kemble went on stage to play Falstaff at the Derby Theatre, the government of the day had imposed strict regulations on productions.

This was enshrined into the 1737 Licensing Act – brought in by the then Prime Minister Robert Walpole in response to some unwelcome criticism of his government via numerous satires on the London stage.

These new restrictions meant that no new play could be performed without being first cleared by the Lord Chamberlain, and that only theatres with a special patent would be allowed to stage performances.

In practice this meant only two London Theatres – Covent Garden and Drury Lane – could officially stage plays. However, most towns at this time did not have their own theatres and their hunger for drama was satisfied by travelling groups. Under the Licensing Act these groups were, strictly speaking, operating illegally.

But local magistrates were often willing to turn a blind eye and allow them to continue to perform. Some did so because they enjoyed watching the plays too, or they may also have enjoyed the business it brought to the area.

As time went on and England’s towns grew, so did the appetite for their own theatre. From 1768, a select few began to be granted their own special patents to establish a Theatre Royal in their town or city.

For some reason – size of the population perhaps - Derby did not make the list of places securing a Theatre Royal patent, although 13 such venues were established between 1768 and 1826 – including Margate and Chester.

But smaller towns which lacked the population to support a larger theatre were provided with more legal headroom in 1788 when local magistrates were given the powers to license 'theatrical representation occasionally' for up to 60 days at a time, with certain caveats (relating to being outside of London; eight miles away from a patented ‘Theatre Royal’; and ten miles from a royal residence!