The curious and uncommon performances of a monkey

I recently stumbled across the Sadler’s Wells Theatre archive blog about cataloguing and preserving the Sadler’s Wells archive.

The collection contains materials dating from the early 1700s onwards, representing all six theatres that have occupied the site since 1683. These range from 18^th century playbills and Victorian pantomime scripts to modern administrative files and photographs.

Included are such gems as a poster of Signor Spinacuta and his performing monkey, Le Chevalier des Singes, in 1768. The act was advertised as "The curious & uncommon performances of a monkey as they will be introduc'd every evening at Sadlers Wells".

Last month the archive set up a blog to post updates highlighting interesting material they discover.