Playbill for Oliver Twist, 1861

American adaptations of Dickens’s work also quickly appeared. In February 1839 Charlotte Cushman first appeared as Nancy in Oliver Twist. She had prepared for the role by spending several days in the slum area of Five Points where many sex workers were based. Walt Whitman described her performance as ‘the most intense acting ever felt’. She performed the role for over 20 years, and this one is advertised as ‘positively the last’.  

Playbill for Oliver Twist at Holliday Street Theatre, Baltimore, 1861
DH804 © Charles Dickens Museum
Purchased with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Friends of the National Libraries and The Dickens Fellowship.

Image taken by Lewis Bush, 2025. This image is provided under Creative Commons License 4.0 until 1 April 2031, made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.