A Love of Theatre

Dickens’s love of theatre started at an early age. He was introduced to the wonders of the stage by his father John Dickens, a universal entertainer. John and the family would also put on plays together in their home, something Dickens later continued with his own family.

As a child on one of his first visits to the theatre, Dickens described how his ‘young heart leaped’ to see ‘the wicked king Richard, struggling for life against the virtuous Richmond’ in Shakespeare’s Richard III. In the first 20 years of Dickens’s life, there were two patented theatres — Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatre — that were licensed to perform ‘legitimate drama’ such as Shakespeare and his contemporaries Beaumont and Fletcher. But far from restricting theatrical productions, private theatres emerged adapting their productions with music, comedy, pantomime and acrobatics.

From Grimaldi the clown to Shakespeare and everything in-between, Dickens absorbed it all and its influence can be seen throughout his stories, with entertainment always at the heart of his literary endeavours.

This exhibition has been generously funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Dickens Fellowship and The Circles of Art. A special thanks to National Lottery players. 

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.