The Theatric Tourist

In the early nineteenth-century, James Winston—actor, theater manager, author, obsessive collector of theater ephemera, and artist—traveled throughout Britain making sketches of nearly 300 theatres and recording their most intricate details. Published in a deluxe edition two centuries ago, The Theatric Tourist has before now never been reprinted—though most copies have either disappeared or have been broken for the remarkable hand-colored plates found within. This remarkable piece of social and theatrical history is presented by the British Library and the Society for Theatre Research in a superb facsimile edition, which includes both Winston’s original text and his 24 stunning illustrations—presenting many of the long-since vanished playhouses of late Georgian England. A collector’s item for any cultural historian or theater buff, The Theatric Tourist is an invaluable piece of social history and a unique record of the buildings, players, and atmosphere of a time gone by.