From telling dirty jokes at Worcester theatre to running it

In the 19th century, low comedy was the description for near-the-knuckle stuff, boisterous, ribald and often very rude jokes that didn’t take a lot of understanding or much intellect on the part of the audience.

A chap called Mr W Gomersal – hardly a snappy show biz name, but possibly the Bernard Manning of his day – was one such purveyor of the art and in 1852 appeared at the city’s Theatre Royal near the bottom (appropriately) of the list as second low comedian.

Read more: Famous Worcester building that was moved 10 yards along the road – literally

But there was more to W Gomersal Esq than a dirty joke, because he returned 10 years later to take over as manager of the establishment and write a cutting, and at the same time amusing, critique of the poor state of drama, and the theatre in particular, in Worcester at the time.

A post-war Christmas panto at the theatre and not an innuendo in sight

In his words: “The scenery was very limited. A drop scene representing Worcester Cross was only shown on special occasions, when announced on the bill, and the style  in which effect was given to a piece may be imagined when a bow-legged local celebrity named Phillips, 4ft 2in high, and another man 5ft 11in in stockings, named Spiers, constituted ‘the army’ in Richard III.

“Philips was an artist and many of his landscapes were to be seen in Worcester public houses, and Spiers was a carpenter, a property man, wardrobe keeper and gas man, as well as playing small parts in productions.”

In addition to the limitations of the theatre company, Gomersal also had few kind words for the audience, whom he considered “often abysmal”.

In one performance of Hamlet they insisted the first gravedigger played a tune on the hornpipe and during A Midsummer Night’s Dream they stopped the show by calling for the actor playing Bottom to give a rendition of Vilikins and his Dinah, a popular burlesque song of the time but nothing at all to do with William Shakespeare.

A bit like Cher on that battleship pitching up to sing If I Could Turn Back Time halfway through Macbeth at Stratford.

Then there was the sold out performance in 1839 of 11-year-old child star Master B Grossmith – billed as The Great Juvenile Mono-Dramatic Actor – whose management booked him in  for two additional shows at Worcester’s Natural History Society’s Rooms after packing out the Theatre Royal. Master Grossmith’s speciality was that he appeared as six different characters in a play called Eyes Right or The Short Sighted Gentleman.

Keeping it in the family, the remaining two, one of whom was a woman, were played by his father WR.

The balcony of the theatre in 1903

The theatre, originally called the Angel Street Theatre, had been built at a cost of £1,000 in 1779. It was renamed the Theatre Royal in 1805 and during its hey-day attracted national stars like Worcester’s own Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean and Young Roscium.

But with the rise of the music halls its time passed and a new more luxurious theatre emerged on the same site in 1875.

Reopening of the Theatre Royal after the 1903 refurbishment

However this burnt down two years later and was replaced by the Theatre Royal Version III.

The final days of the Theatre Royal. Possibly the lady with the shopping bag was not on her way to watch Forbidden Fruit

There was yet another rebuild in 1903 and this lasted until May, 1955, its final days featuring such adult only delights as Forbidden Fruit and We’ve Nothing On Tonight, which pretty much takes us back down to the level of  Mr W Gomersal, second low comedian.

Or in theatrical terms, full circle.