Alfred Wootton, the Man in a Trance: performing hypnotism in the Edwardian variety theatre
Dr Ann Featherstone
- Region:
- East Midlands
- Notice Period:
- Regular (more than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Paid: 50
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 5th February 2021
- Tagged:
- Entertaiment | Edwardian | Illusionists | Magic
Alfred Wootton was one among many performers of the 'trance act' - performers who were (apparently) buried alive or coffined for days. Who were these people? And the hypnotists who claimed to entrance them?
Views: 801 | Enquiries: 2About Dr Ann Featherstone
I am a retired university lecturer and teacher as well as a writer. I write non-fiction books and articles and I’m a historical novelist with two novels to my name. My particular interest is the 19th century: popular entertainment, theatre, music hall and circus, although I do stray into the 20th century. I have appeared on The One Show, The World’s Oldest Joke (with Sir Michael Grade) and in documentaries about fairs and circuses on BBC4. I’ve been a guest expert on Who Do You Think You Are twice, once with Sheridan Smith and in 2016 with Sir Ian McKellan. Recently I appeared in the second series of the BBC's A House Through Time, when the location was Newcastle. .My talks are informative, well-researched and well-presented. Someone said to me recently, “I could have listened to you for another hour!” Praise indeed.
All of my talks are illustrated with good quality Powerpoint slides. I bring my own lap-top and projector. And a screen if necessary.
As well as the East Midlands (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire), I will travel to the West Midlands and South Yorkshire . Of course, all of my talks are available via Zoom.
And I will try and help if you need a speaker at short notice.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Dr Ann Featherstone
- Fools and horses: the Victorian circus
- Music hall: the singers and the songs
- When music hall became variety
- The Victorian fair: freak shows and fisticuffs
- Maidens, murderers and monsters: Victorian melodrama revealed
- From baby farmer to acid bath murderer: a century of crimes and punishments
- Extraordinary Eaters: from giant feasts to stones, cannons and frogs
- A Storm in a Teashop: the Waitresses' Strike of 1908
- The baby-killer and the thief: two Victorian crimes and punishments
- Understanding Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man
- First bite: the earliest stage performances of Bram Stoker's Dracula
- 'I'll polish him off!': the curious history of Sweeney Todd
- 'Here we are again!': a (very) brief history of pantomime
- Season's Greetings: a Christmas Miscellany
- The Bond Street Fortune-tellers and the Lady Detectives
- Ghostly Tales to be Told
- The Murder of the Blackpool widow
- Mashed potato sandwiches and bottle-top tinsel : Rose Buckner's post-war world of home-making
- Food, glorious food
- Sand between the toes
- Wagon and tilt: portable theatres in the 19th and 20th centuries
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