| Description | Letter from Charles Dickens, Devonshire Terrace [London] to Charles Evans, Upper Temple Street, Birmingham [as Honorary Secretary of the Birmingham Polytechnic Institution], relating to arrangements for the proposed amateur performance at the Theatre Royal, 22 May.With envelope.
Dickens insists that the performance must be on the Tuesday [9 June] because the company will be playing at Liverpool on the Monday and that the majority of the company - because of the nature of their literary engagements - need to be back in London by Wednesday evening. He encloses the draft of the playbill, advising Evans to make the necessary 'business additions' and confirms the programme as Evans had suggested, putting up 'Every man in his Humour' 'with a farce that made the people here, roar with laughter'. Dickens also requests that the theatre be got on the best terms and that there will be a 'very good and ample orchestra'. He congratulates Evans on his organisation and publicity: The 'instant formation of the committee, and announcement of the thing all over the town, are the grand preliminaries; and I am delighted to see that you rush into those, like an Express Train.'
The Birmingham Polytechnic Institution was founded in 1843. It was a short-lived organisation - it closed in 1853 - was supported by Birmingham liberals. It apparently taught languages, mathematics and chemistry but also ran literary soirees and invited visiting lecturers including Charles Dickens, Douglas Jerrold and Sir Robert Peel. Dickens delivered a speech for the Polytechnic at the Birmingham Town Hall in May 1846 and hence was presumably was able to call on contacts there to assist with the arrangements for his performance. |