90, Gloucester Place.
Portman Square.W.
Novr 16th 1867
My dear Webster,
Some misunderstanding
appears to have happened
about Miss Leclercq’s engagement
at the Adelphi to play
in “No Thoroughfare”. She
has not yet, as I hear,
been informed that she is
engaged – and, with other
proposals before her, she
naturally feels in some
difficulty about her position.
A line from you to
Miss Leclercq will set this
right. Please write
that line as soon as possible
– and so secure us the
“cast”, exactly as we decided
on it with Dickens and
Fechter at “All The Year Round”.
Ever yours
Wilkie Collins
P.S. The first act is done. I
begin Act 2 tomorrow. I
have put some new lines into “Bintrey’s” mouth, which I think will tell on the
audience.
Carlotta Leclercq in a photograph by Sarony in New York
1. Benjamin Nottingham
Webster (1797–1882: DNB), actor,
proprietor and manager of the Theatre Royal Adelphi until his retirement in
February 1874.
2.
No Thoroughfare, the collaboration
between CD and WC for the 1867 Christmas number of
All The Year Round, subsequently adapted for the stage. The play
opened at the Adelphi on 26 December and ran for over 150 performances.
Webster played the head cellarman, Joey Ladle, while the leading role,
Obenreizer, was taken by the Anglo-French actor Charles Albert Fechter
(1824–79).
3. The part
of Marguerite was indeed played by Carlotta Leclercq. See to her of 19 April
1873.
4. Bintrey, the
lawyer in No Thoroughfare, was played by George Belmore.