This toy theatre with its little wax figures dates from around 1799. The set and the costumes with their plumed headdresses identify the play as a miniature version of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s Pizarro. Pizarro was a reworking of a German play about the Spanish invasion of Peru in the 16th century and was a commercial success for the Drury Lane Theatre. Drury Lane had recently been rebuilt and enlarged, and held 3,600 people, which encouraged a declamatory and pictorial style of acting. Elaborate stage machinery and effects gave those at the back of the theatre, who could hardly hear the actors, something spectacular to look at. Towers, battlements, archways and suspended bridges were described as ‘highly magnificent’ by The Times. The original production starred John Philip Kemble, his brother Charles, and his sister Sarah Siddons.