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500 or 600 p.a.), without any prospect of being able to use it the subsequent season. Apparently it was also the custom to sell all the scenery, etc., at the end of the season and this too could only be done at a heavy loss (for 1865 it had cost Tls. 2,400 and fetched but Tls. 200).109 In order to investigate the feasibility of a permanent, i.e., stone, theatre, a provisional committee was appointed in September 1866.10 The chances of realising the object in view did not seem very rosy though. At a meeting of the committee held on November 10, 1866, it was decided that the "circulation of a subscription list towards a permanent theatre should be deferred for the present" and instead guarantors for the construction of a temporary theatre (i.e., one of wood, which was much cheaper) should be sought.11 In this they were successful and on November 16, it was announced at a meeting that Tls. 3,500 had been subscribed. This, however, was not deemed sufficient to cover all the expenses and an amended motion was adopted stating that instead of fitting up a godown, a temporary theatre, on the plans submitted to the meeting, be built and fitted up, provided a sum of Tls. 6,000 be guaranteed within a week".12 And despite the rather severe limitations under which a number of merchants had to operate due to the collapse of the building boom - an adjourned meeting was informed on November 22 that this sum had indeed been guaranteed."
The new theatre would be built in wood and was designed by a local architect, Mr. William Kidner; originally it would contain 700 seats, but this was considered too much, 500 or 600 being enough. The firm of Dent & Co. showed itself willing to provide a plot of land for the sum of Tls. 250 annually and the cost of the theatre itself was estimated at Tls. 3,900. Some months later, on March 1, 1867, the wooden Lyceum Theatre opened on Yuanmingyuan Road* (later, Museum Road), with Morton's Whitebait at Greenwich and Faust and Marguerite (author not mentioned: F.C. Burnand?, T.W. Robertson?, J. Halford?).
One may well ask why the foreign residents had not found the courage and the money to erect a really “lasting structure" for, naturally, wooden buildings were prone to fire and it should come as no surprise that the "temporary'' theatre proved to be very temporary indeed, for on March 2, 1871, it burned down. Once again a substantial sum of money had been wasted on what turned out to be an ill-advised scheme. Sadder and wiser, it was finally decided in 1872 to construct a brick theatre on an adjacent site on Museum Road, stage entrance on Yuanmingyuan Road. On
*This is the theatre marked "b" at Appendix III.