Author: WYNNSTAY THEATRE
Title: Ticket. [after William Bunbury, etched by James Bretherton]
Description: Wynnstay Theatre, [1781] Etching, 190 x 150 mm. Dated from the British Museum copy. Private theatricals at Wynnstay in Denbighshire were established by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, a country squire of taste and culture and friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds. They were the longest lasting private theatricals of the period> Sir Watkin, the 4th baronet, established them in 1770 in a building originally constructed as a kitchen for his 21st birthday celebrations that year, and they ceased with his death in 1787. In that time, 25 plays and 24 afterpieces were presented, including 14 Shakespeare plays and adaptations - covering tragedy, farce, comic opera, pantomime, comedy and burlesque. The 5th baronet reestablished them on a smaller scale between 1803 and 1810. Most amateur theatricals of the period were aristocratic in tone and audience, but Wynnstay was more a country house atmosphere, with audience and players drawn from tradesmen, neighbours and servants as well as specially invited performers. Garrick visited Wynnstay in 1777 but could not be persuaded to perform.

Keywords: Ephemera


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