178
be embellished by a variety of cosmoramic views which will add much to its beauty" 92
This process was continued and another new drop scene, “A View of Palermo" was unveiled on May 6, 1852.93 Thus everything was done to turn the godown into something that resembled a theatre.
B.
Of course it would be more or less a waste if everything had to be demolished because the lease of the building could not be extended. Yet that was possibly the case, for during the season 1852-1853, after many doubts whether any theatricals would be given at all, the Imperial Theatre became the scene; it can only be guessed if this was the same as the Theatre Royal.
C.
94
For subsequent years we are on somewhat firmer ground.* The seasons 1853-1854, 1856-1857 and 1857-1858 came off in the same building, viz. a godown in the Commercial House or Commercial Hotel compound that was situated at the northwestern corner of Park Lane (Nanking Road), and Church Street (Kiangsi Road) (the names of the roads were, in 1864-1865, changed from the old "homelike" ones; Park Lane, Church Street, Mission Road, etc. into ones more in tune with local conditions: Nanking Road, Kiangsi Road, Foochow Road, etc.).† Despite the fact that the theatre was housed in one and the same building throughout this period it bore several different names. It was called the Tae Ming Theatre (i.e. Great and Bright Theatre) 1853-1854; once the name Old Theatre was attached to it (1856), then it was called the Theatre Royal (1857-1858). There was some political irony involved when the Herald announced that on March 8, 1854 the Tae Ming Theatre had opened "under a concession from and immediate patronage of the Tae-ping-wong" (the leader of the Taiping movement). Because of the change of regime in the native city the name "Imperial" Theatre was mockingly considered a little inappropriate.
Originally the stage was rather small, but later it was "extended in the rear and the wings thrown back, giving a larger area for action".95
* See Map at Appendix III.