Silk and satin playbills and programmes were commonly produced in the 18th and 19th centuries to mark special evenings at the theatre, often lavishly fringed and sometimes even illustrated. This silk playbill, unfringed but neatly hemmed by hand, was produced for a three-night production by officers of the Royal Artillery at the Theatre Royal, Kirkee, a town in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which still has a large army base. Despite it being an amateur performance, a silk bill was produced, headed with the royal crest, perhaps because His Excellency the Governor was himself due to attend.

Kirkee was the site of the Battle of Kirkee, fought between the British East India Company and the Marathas in 1817 in which the Peshwa ruler was defeated. Soon after the war the British set up a cantonment here which became the base of the Royal Regiment of Artillery's 79 (Kirkee) Commando Battery. Their first offering of the evening, the farce The Rifle and How To Use It!,obviously of appeal to a military audience, was followed by Aladdin, in which even Princess Barioulbadour was played by a man. Producing Aladdin in September followed the earlier convention of pantomime not being restricted to Christmas time.