Victorian Entertainment: There will be Fun

Entertaining exhibition at the British Library focusing on five Victorian entertainers to showcase the popular entertainments of the time.

There was a lovely video recreating the act of each performer alongside play bills, posts and other ephemera.  They included magicians, a mesmerist, a circus impresario and a musical hall and pantomime star.

I was fascinated by John Neil Maskeyne who established the Egyptian Halls as a venue calling it the Hall of Mystery, There was a contemporary film that he’d made and shown there of a conjuror pulling eggs from his mouth and then removing his head for it to appear in a giant egg next to him. It still amazed today and the gentleman next to me and I both reacted with shock when it happened.

It was nice to include Dan Leno and emphasis his role in creating the idea of the Pantomime Dame, very topical. There was a nice original film in his section too showing him having tea with his family and fooling around.

Another London venue mentioned was Astley’s Amphitheatre developed by Lord George Sanger, the circus impresario. I know I would have been a regular there and at the Egyptian Hall’s if I’d been alive then, I’ll go to anything!

Closes on 12 March 2017

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