Theatre poster

This poster advertises performance at the Old Leeds Theatre on 1 June 1789. The star performer was Mrs Sarah Siddons, the celebrated Shakespearean actress, who played the starring role in the "Tragedy of Jane Shore" and "Double Disguise".

The Leeds Theatre was built in 1771 by Tate Wilkinson on Hunslet Lane, just south of Leeds bridge. It was a plain brick building. According to the Leeds Guide of 1806, the theatre was "inconvenient and utterly unworthy of the populous and flourishing town to which it belongs". The theatre burnt down in 1875.