I have a collection of theatre programmes, most of them for productions in London, with some from the time when, as second-stringer on The Times, I reviewed a fair amount of work in regional theatre. A handful of the programmes are for productions in Chicago, New York and elsewhere in North America, Paris and Rome.

  Mainly acquired between 1948 and ’87. They cover the period in which the title of the person staging the play changed in British usage from ‘producer’ to ‘director’, the three-act play gave way to the two-acter and, with lighting design becoming a profession, the footlights and stage make-up declined in use, as did the use the of the Strand Electric company’s equipment, stages increasingly lit by equipment hired from Theatre Projects whose directors included the lighting designer Richard Pilbrow.

  As well as recording such changes and the rise or decline of talents (or managements’ view of their appeal to audiences) the programmes for London productions include advertisements aimed largely at members of the middle class who, to the accompaniment of trios in orchestra pits, could sip tea in their seats during the intervals of matinees. Larger than the names of the actors are those for Rose’s lime juice served by Hedges the Butler, and for cigarette brands: Embassy, Benson & Hedges, Players – ‘Craven-A for your throat’s sake’ – and, in emulation of the Edwardian actor manager du Maurier – Olivier.

  The production credits in West End programmes also include advertisement: ‘stockings by Kayser Bondor’, ‘wardrobe care by Lux’ and, even if nobody lit up onstage, ‘cigarettes by Abdullah.’

  With the rise of the RSC and National Theatre, the increasing price of some West End programmes is justified by their acquiring a little material on the production, or a bit of theatrical history.

  My collection is in fifteen box files, 8 x 25 x 31cm. and a cardboard box, 36 x 30 x 30cm. It is not catalogued; but some boxes are evidence of my effort at one time to bring together all my programmes for plays staged in particular theatres, eg. The Old Vic.

  I would be pleased if they could serve research – which would necessarily be augmented by those in the V&A, Kingston, the Society of West End Theatre and other collections.

  As a pensioner, I must ask that that any institution accepting the offer arrange and pay for collection (I am in Bristol) and that interest if any is conveyed to me at [log in to unmask] before the end of September.

  Charles Lewsen