Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; D 3, by
Henry Neuman, based on
Der Opfertod, by
August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Text (
R. Phillips, 1799) assigns no parts]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of
Rice, at the Theatre. The Theatre, since the last Season, has been newly Decorated. [Beginning with 19 June the playbill: Printed by
T. Woodfall,
Drury Lane; on 4 Sept.: No. 104, Drury Lane.]
Morning Chronicle, 27 June 1799: This Day is published
Family Distress (2s.).
Gentleman's Magazine, May 1800, pp. 406-8, prints a letter from "J. B." in which strong exception is taken to Kotzebue in general, and this play in particular. "Theatrical entertainments have an extensive influence upon the manners of
Society. When well regulated, and the pieces for representation well selected both as to matter and manner, they may be esteemed friendly to morality, and improvers of public taste. But what shall we say when both these ends are disregarded; when moral virtue is banished from the scene, and purity of taste is destroyed by affected language and pantomimical decorations? Improvements in almost every art and science have been within a few years, rapid and important. But that is not the case with the stage; nor can it be, while Kotzebue and his friends usurp the venerable boards of
Shakespeare." The writer then, in sarcastic terms, outlines the plot of
Family Distress. [
Pope and
Miss Chapman were both from
cg.