WHEN DITCHERS AND JACK TARS COLLIDE: BENEFIT THEATRICALS AT THE CALCUTTA LYRIC THEATRE IN THE WAKE OF THE INDIAN MUTINY. Issue 3 (6th June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Isbell, Mary; Gibson, Mary Ellis; Richard, Melissa
• Is Part Of: Victorian literature and culture. Volume 42:Issue 3(2014)
• Page Start: 407
• Page End: 423
• Publication Date: 2014-06-06
• Subjects: English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Arts, Victorian -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- Civilization -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Criticism and interpretation -- Periodicals; Criticism and interpretation -- Periodicals; 820.8
• DOI: 10.1017/S1060150314000060
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1060-1503

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="text-abstract"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p> <sc>The collision I explore</sc> in this essay is not a physical one, though it does emerge from a performance event that brought Ditchers (European residents in Calcutta) and Jack Tars (sailors in the Royal Navy) to the Calcutta Lyric Theatre on February 25, 1858. The collision actually manifests in print, as conflicting reviews of this event. Announced in the silk playbill pictured in Figure 19, the sailor amateurs of HMS <italic>Chesapeake</italic> offered a benefit theatrical to raise money for the Indian Relief Fund, a charity offering support to "widows, orphans, or other representatives of those who perished in the mutiny" ("Indian Relief") (Figure 19).</p> </abstract>