Advertisement for the Theatre Royal, Halifax, 1849.
Although politics dominated the 1840s, important developments in other fields were simultaneously taking place. During the eighteenth century Halifax had been the focus of the performing arts in British America. It possessed a theatre long before Montreal. Throughout the Napoleonic wars, stage drama and music, performed both by local amateurs and by touring English professionals. enjoyed a lively popularity. Unfortunately, peace brought a cultural as well as an economic decline to Halifax. Reduction of the military garrison deprived the arts of many of their leading patrons. The town merchants failed to fill the gap, either because of a narrow preoccupation with making money or because, as one critic put it, they appreciated nothing more sophisticated than the bagpipes. Equally destructive to higher culture were those puritanical zealots who denounced entertainment as lewd and who demanded the exclusion of organs from churches.
The arts never entirely died out, however, and by the 1840s they were experiencing a renaissance evidenced by a proliferation of amateur theatre and choral groups. To provide quarters for performances, a group of army officers in 1846 converted a hay barn into the Theatre Royal. It sat some 500 patrons and over a six month season offered a succession of amateur performances. such as the one advertised here. By the 1850s public support for the arts had revived to the point where touring professionals were once again coming to Halifax.
