One page flyer with woodblock-type illustration for The Shoemakers Holiday at the Mercury Theatre, production by Orson Welles, opening January 1st, in repertory with Julius Caesar.

Written by Thomas Dekker, this Elizabethan drama had originally been performed before Queen Elizabeth on New Year’s Day, 1600. The story details a romance between an aristocrat, Rowland Lacy, and Rose, the daughter of the Mayor of London. Welles sought a “busy” set that would recapture the original performance. He borrowed elements from his Julius Caesar set and began production of Shoemaker’s Holiday while the former was still running. Once again, a Welles play garnered kudos from the press. Time magazine proclaimed, “The Shoemaker’s Holiday struck Broadway like a brisk wind.”

The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company Welles established with John Houseman in 1937, right after Welles finished his work with the Federal Theatre Project. It would later have an incarnation as Mercury Theatre On the Air, the radio series in which the infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast would air. [Information obtained from orsonwelles.org] Adams-Stone Collection