1863; or, The Sensations of the Past Season

H.J. Byron’s 1863; or, The Sensations of the Past Season, which premiered at the St. James’s Theatre on Boxing Day in 1863, is part revue and part burlesque. The first half of this disjointed, but amusing play—a survey of the 1863 London theatre season—recalls Planché’s similarly topical revues Success; or, a Hit if You Like (Adelphi 1825), The Drama at Home; or, An Evening with Puff (Haymarket 1844), The Camp at the Olympic (Olympic 1853), and The New Haymarket Spring Meeting (Haymarket 1855). ¹ The usual conceit for this type of performance is that an actor-manager, playing himself, seeks the advice of a magical sprite or allegorical figure to help him decide which play his theatre should produce first. Much of the performance consists of speeches by personifications of the principal dramatic genres (tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce, pantomime, and burlesque), allusions to recent theatrical productions, and even parodic recreations of memorable scenes from those productions. In 1863, Byron directs much of his satire at the Adelphi Theatre and its productions of such sensational melodramas as Aurora Floyd, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, Lady Audley’s Secret, and Leah, the Jewish Maiden.