Event Comment: [The play was not allowed to conclude, nor was the afterpiece,
All the World's a Stage, performed. "Yesterday evening, during the representation of...
A Bold Stroke for a Wife, at
China Hall,
Rotherhithe, a party of the inhabitants, who had laid an information against the performers, rushed into the theatre, behind the scenes, and seized
Mr Russell (who played the character of
Colonel Feignwell), and carried him, in his stage dress, before
Justice Smith, at the
Rotation-Office,
St Bennet's-hill, who committed him to the House of Correction, for further examination this morning" (
Morning Chronicle, 24 July). What happened to
Russell is not known, but because of this occurrence the theatre did not re-open until the following season, on 25 May 1778. See my article on the history of this unlucky playhouse,
Theatre Notebook, VIII, 76-80.