Wynnstay Hall

Playbill of Wynnstay Theatre, 20 January 1781, announcing King Richard III &c.

Three tickets of admission to the Wynnstay theatricals (British Museum)

Wynnstay Theatre Ticket (Yale Center for British Art)

Wynnstay Theatre Tickets, from the 'European Magazine', ix. 379.

Private theatricals were hosted by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn (fourth baronet) at Wynnstay Hall in Denbighshire, Wales, in the second half of the eighteenth century. The theatricals began in 1770 and ended on his death in 1787. In that time, 25 plays and 24 afterpieces were presented, including 14 Shakespeare plays and adaptations.

A private theatre was built in the grounds of the house. Numerous intricate ticket designs for the theatricals have survived, as well as a number of playbills. One of the tickets depicts the theatre, set apart from the house.

Theatricals were resumed at Wynnstay under the fifth baronet between 1803 and 1810.

Performances

On 20 January 1781 King Richard III was performed alongside The Lyar.

Other plays performed include, The Constant Couple, The Spanish Barber, Cymbeline and The Devil Upon Two Sticks, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife and Bon Ton.

Sources

Sybil Rosenfeld, Temples of Thespis: Some Private Theatres and Theatricals in England and Wales, 1700-1820, 1978.