ARCHIVE NO. 009 · 19th century
Charles Dickens
Author and amateur actor
Charles Dickens performed at Newcastle’s Assembly Rooms on 27 August 1852 with the Guild of Literature and Art’s amateur company. The programme included Not So Bad as We Seem, a play by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
The company performed in Sunderland the following night. Fellow participant Charles Knight recalled Dickens walking there ahead of the others. The visit did not put the play beyond criticism: a Chronicle account found its plot “insufficient and meagre”.