Burlesque Shakespeare in Gloucestershire

Hamlet Travestie! is a Shakespearean parody performed here in Tewkesbury in 1825 in a burlesque style.

It’s a parody of the original with exaggerated characters, skits and satirical songs.

Written in 1810 by the playwright John Poole (1786 – 1872) the pastiche presumed audiences knew the plot and, as the jokes flowed thick and fast, it flattered their sophistication.

The creators of these burlesques loved Shakespeare, but were concerned that the over-the-top productions staged at Covent Garden and Drury Lane in London were ruining his works.

At the same time these productions professed to educate their audience, provide plum parts for actor-managers, and confer respectability on the theatre and the proprietor.

This evening of entertainment is in the summer of 1825 in Tewkesbury. But it was to be the mid-Victorian era when audiences witnessed Shakespeare burlesques at the height of their risqué frenzy and fervour!

Within a decade of the passage of the Theatres Regulation Act of 1843, the playwright Planche quipped that Shakespeare was free to be performed “where’re you please, no longer pinioned by the patentees” (from “The Drama At Home”)

Stanley Wells, the Shakespearean scholar and academic, calculated that roughly twice as many Shakespearian burlesques were written between 1840 and 1870 as in the preceding thirty years.

In the 19th century Hamlet was the most popular play to get this treatment with over 12 versions performed or published.