PLANCHE

Over a period of approximately 60 years he wrote, adapted, or collaborated on 176 plays in a wide range of genres including extravaganza, farce, comedy, burletta, melodrama and opera. Planché was responsible for introducing historically accurate costume into nineteenth century British theatre, and subsequently became an acknowledged expert on historical costume, publishing a number of works on the topic.Planché's early works were generally unremarkable, one exception in this period being The Vampire, or, The Bride of the Isles, produced at the Lyceum in August 1820, an adaptation of Charles Nodier's Le Vampire (this was a dramatisation of John Polidori's novel The Vampyre). The play featured the innovative vampire trap, a trapdoor in the stage which allowed an actor to disappear (or appear) almost instantly.Lewis Strange WINGFIELD (1842-1891) was an Irish traveller, actor, writer, and painter. In 1868 he married Cecilia Emma, daughter of John Wilson Fitzpatrick, 1st Baron Castletown.