Burlesque and Shakespeare collide in Colchester

Some Shakespearen purists may think of it as a travesty in the true sense of the word. This theatre playbill from the British Library’s collection of thousands of digitised bills advertises an action-packed and quite a pacey Tuesday evening down at the Theatre Royal, Colchester.

After a presumably serious performance of Hamlet, the audience in 1849 were then treated to a burlesque performance of Othello, billed as ‘Othello Travestie!’

Burlesques were becoming common in the mid-late Victorian period – reflecting the contemporary taste for melodrama. As written on this playbill, they were also known as “Travestie!” and are a form of parody – with a well-known opera or play adapted into a comedy or musical play.

On the playbill Desdemona is described as '…a very good-natured lady, wife of Othello, and not a bit too well treated by him'; and the part of the Duke of Venice is described as ‘a hasty old codger’. This was an operatic version of Othello, performed in just two acts.

For the good people of Colchester attending a burlesque version of Othello on a Tuesday night in December, 1849 (see theatre playbill), they could expect puns, music, song, dance…and, oh…lots of ladies in tights.

Robson as burlesque Shylock in Francis Talfourd's Shylock, Olympic Theatre, London, 1853 (c) Folger Shakespeare Library

Costumes were extravagant and many of the male roles were played by actresses, often dressed in a way which would show off their physical charms.

Shakespeare’s plays were among the more popular to be chosen for burlesque, indeed Shakespearean scholar Professor Stanley Wells says the Victorian era was the height of Shakespearean burlesque, but noted they often bore little relation to the original text.

Some critics at the time took an even dimmer view, describing burlesque as vulgar and demoralising…