New play - The Queen of Hoxton

Between 1871 and 1899, the proprietor of one of the largest and most successful theatres in London was a woman - Sara Lane. Her theatre, the Britannia in Hoxton, was an astonishing palace of illusion in the heart of the East End - not a music hall but a full scale theatre, seating 3,000, offering a programme of performances from fire-eaters to Shakespeare. The theatre was particularly well known for its annual three-month-long pantomime, witnessed by Dickens (who enjoyed himself). 

The photo is of an original programme for the 1886 pantomime, from the archive of Sara Lupino, a descendant of the famous Lupino acting family, who were related by marriage to Sara Lane. Sara Lupino first told me the story of her ancestor and gave me the idea of writing a play about her. 

At the same time as the Britannia Theatre was in its heyday, another pioneering  woman was working in the East End - Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx. Eleanor loved the theatre, so I thought, what if these two formidable women met...? The play was born from that idea.