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year after a visit to Hong Kong" for another run of several weeks. As was usual with repertory companies of this kind their output was vast, ranging from Planché's The Invisible Prince to Shakespeare's Richard III from which the fifth act only ("A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!") was given "somewhat disappointingly".
One other touring company is mentioned in the early Shanghai annals: the Thorne Company, which consisted of "seven gentlemen and two ladies" whose talents had been "extolled by the Hong Kong press", and which came to the Yangtze port in January 1865. Conflicting reports make it difficult to judge whether the group was praised as much in Shanghai as in Hong Kong. According to the Herald it had given a "successful representation of the Octoroon (by Dion Boucicault, on January 11 1865) and announced a second performance for the 14th". However, the Shanghai Commercial Record wrote that "the patronage bestowed on the Thorne Troupe was extremely small. Indeed when they opened on Wednesday evening last (January 11) it was literally to an empty house, for we hear there was actually no one present to view the performance. The company were so disgusted that they left next day for San Francisco". So many years later there is obviously no way in which we can verify either of these assessments, but it only stresses how unfortunate it is that the sources for the study of early Shanghai are not more abundant.
152x
A special feature of some of these travelling groups should be noticed, namely the existence of benefit performances. Benefits had been known in Britain from the late 17th century; generally speaking the net proceeds of such a performance went to a member of the company, but gradually it was realised that the system had more disadvantages than advantages
e.g. actors were frequently paid low salaries because of the, often highly uncertain, supplementary income that could be derived from the benefits. One of the first to try to abolish them was Madame Vestris in the 1830s, but they existed well into the 1870s. Both the Faylor and Lewis companies had kept the custom. Thus it was announced that on November 26 1864 "the benefit of J.B. Creswick under the distinguished patronage of the Consular authorities" would be given; on December 9, "Mr. H. Birch's benefit took place", and so on for nearly every member of the company.
169
year after a visit to Hong Kong" for another run of several weeks. As was usual with repertory companies of this kind their output was vast, ranging from Planché's The Invisible Prince to Shakespeare's Richard III from which the fifth act only ("A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!) was given "somewhat disappointingly"."
One other touring company is mentioned in the early Shanghai annals: the Thorne Company, which consisted of "seven gentlemen and two ladies" whose talents had been "extolled by the Hong Kong press", and which came to the Yangtze port in January 1865. Conflicting reports make it difficult to judge whether the group was praised as much in Shanghai as in Hong kong. According to the Herald it had given a "successful representation of the Octoroon (by Dion Boucicault, on January 11 1865) and announced a second performance for the 14th".SI However, the Shanghai Commercial Record wrote that "the patronage bestowed on the Thorne Troupe was extremely small. Indeed when they opened on Wednesday evening last (January 11) it was literally to an empty house, for we hear there was actually no one present to view the performance. The company were so disgusted that they left next day for San Francisco". So many years later there is obviously no way in which we can verify either of these assessments, but it only stresses how unfortunate it is that the sources for the study of early Shanghai are not more abundant.
152x
A special feature of some of these travelling groups should be noticed, namely the existence of benefit performances. Benefits had been known in Britain from the late 17th century; generally speaking the net proceeds of such a performance went to a member of the company, but gradually it was realised that the system had more disadvantages than advantages
e.g. actors were frequently paid low salaries because of the, often highly uncertain, supplementary income that could be derived from the benefits. One of the first to try to abolish them was Madame Vestris in the 1830s, but they existed well into the 1870s. Both the Faylor and Lewis companies had kept the custom. Thus it was announced that on November 26 1864 "the benefit of J.B. Creswick under the distinguished patronage of the Consular authorities" would be given; on December 9, "Mr. H. Birch's benefit took place", and so on for nearly every member of the company.
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