3-071-245 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Rehearsing for the Pantomime, 1881. '...an immense amount of labour and capital, of patience and industry, are annually expended on these costly shows, that are perpetuated for the sake of the children, and are preferred to a regular play in the winter or holiday season. No greater contrast exists than at theatre lighted up at night, full of well-dressed and happy people, the music playing from a full orchestra, and the stage a blaze of brilliancy; and a theatre in the morning...the artists engaged on a rehearsal as despondent as the scene...those who are so disposed to abuse the theatres, and to accuse them of encouraging frivolity and what not, would find a vast amount of honest hard work, patience, skill, and good temper in the countless manufactories of pleasure when the human machinery is set going and they are rehearsing for the pantomime'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.