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.

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Andrew Franklin]: The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations entirely new. The Overture and Musick composed by Florio. The Scenes, designed by Greenwood, and painted by him, Banks, and assistants. The Machinery, Dresses and Decorations designed by Johnston, and executed by him, Gay, and Underwood. The Female Dresses designed and made under the direction of Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "With thy exception of Pizarro, this is one of the most magnificent spectacles the stage has for some time produced. The dresses...are attended with particular accuracy to the costume of the country...and the scenery is locally correct" (Monthly Mirror, Mar. 1800, p. 173). "As a singer [Mme Mara's] powers are indisputable; but as a performer she exhibits herself in a light which alternately provokes our ridicule and pity. Her delivery is an absolute libel on the profession. To the defects of a foreign pronunciation she joins a natural impediment of speech, which partakes too strongly of a lisp to warrant her bearing part in the prose dialogue of a play. What could possibly induce her to appear before the public under such disadvantages, unless she did it in compliment to the composer, we are at a loss to conjecture; nor less are we puzzled to account for the supineness of an audience which can patiently tolerate such puny efforts" (Dramatic Censor, I, 347-48). Morning Chronicle, 14 June 1800: This day is published The Egyptian Festival (2s.). Receipts: #320 18s. 6d. (277.6.6; 42.8.0; 1.4.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by James Cobb. MS: Larpent 698; not published; synopsis of plot in Public Advertiser, 28 Apr. Prologue by the author (Public Advertiser, 9 June)]. Account-Book, 30 May: Paid Cobb in full for Humourist #100. Receipts: #58 16s. (28/15; 29/1; 1/0)

Event Comment: [Home, who was from the Bristol theatre, is identified in Morning Herald, 21 June.] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Elizabeth Inchbald, based on L'Heureuse Erreur, by Joseph Patrat. Prologue by Thomas Holcroft (see text)]. Morning Chronicle, 15 Aug. 1786: This Day is published The Widow's Vow (1s.)