Much Ado About Nothing is Manager’s choice at Wolverhampton Theatre, 1794

At the end of a season of performances, the actor/manager of a theatre group would choose the play and take the profits once salaries and running costs had been paid.

And so we see here in January 1794, at Wolverhampton Theatre, the performance of Shakespeare’s Much Ado Abut Nothing is 'for the benefit' of manager Mr Miell.

Although we can’t say for certain where this particular theatre stood, some sources, including the Arthur Lloyd website, say the first purpose-built theatre in Wolverhampton was a hall built at the back of the Swan Inn just off High Green in 1779, and it was in use until 1841.

Theatre, Wolverhampton (Credit: The British Library)

Manager Mr Miell plays the lead role of Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, generally thought to be one of Shakespeare's best and more popular comedies.

It’s a part played previously by another, more famous actor and theatre manager, David Garrick.

Almost 100 years later, Victorian stars Henry Irving and Ellen Terry played Benedick and Beatrice (1862).

Here, the actors in Wolverhampton are not perhaps the huge stars of the day, but they are offering a varied evening’s entertainment.

The theme of courtship and confusion is continued in the form of a song, 'Bobby Wronghead's new Method of Courting', and the evening is rounded off with a farce performed previously at the King’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket (the theatre is looking to London for its inspiration and kudos - and alludes to Dora Jordan, a popular actress of the time and also performed Shakespeare. She was also the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, later King William.)

Her name on this playbill suggests that Wolverhampton looks wistfully towards to a time when the city will have a permanent theatre that can itself attract the big names from the capital.

These entertainers have travelled to Wolverhampton from Cheltenham’s prestigious Theatre Royal to stage a performance of Macbeth

Theatre Royal, Cheltenham (Credit: The British Library)

In the lead part is a certain Mr Siddons - a well-established actor in London and the provinces.

While quite a draw for the Wolverhampton crowd, Mr Siddons wasn’t thought to be as celebrated as his wife, the famous Sarah Siddons, who was revered for her portral of Lady Macbeth.

On this night, Lady Macbeth is played by the somewhat lesser known, Mrs Macnally.

Any group of performers from a patent (or official) Theatre Royal such as Cheltenham could call themselves 'servants of their majesties'.

This was not a sign of Royal patronage, rather than a way of emphasising that they were from a licensed theatre and benefitting from the cachet of this status.

And the playbill advertising this performance to the good people of Wolverhampton sells this fact.

The play is a crowd-pleaser… a banker for the management.

In this popular adaptation of Macbeth, the role of the weird sisters or witches has been expanded and includes singing!

The play is referred to, without irony, as 'the celebrated Historical Play of Macbeth with all the Original Music, Composed by Locke'.

"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

- Scene IV, Act I

At this time, Shakespeare productions were freely adapted, plots could be changed, new characters introduced, and lines rewritten.