IT was one hundred and fifty years ago, that Newport welcomed one of the country's leading authors and public readers, Charles Dickens, to the stage at the Victoria Assembly Rooms, Bridge Street.

His appearance on Thursday, January 21 1869 was part of his one-man tour, where he read and semi-acted extracts from a number of his best-known literary works.

In 1869 authors often made regular tours around the country where they read and performed extracts from their most popular works. The Victorians loved this type of entertainment, and Dickens’s appearance in Newport was guaranteed to attract lots of interest. Like today, this tour had a title “The Farewell Tour”, and he meant it; Dickens was ill and by June 1870 he would be dead.

A tour management company, Messrs Chappell & Co, arranged the tour, and like management companies today they co-ordinated everything from the venue, transport, etc., basically everything that Dickens needed to fulfil the engagements.

Dickens was engaged to appear in Newport for only one night at the Victoria Assembly Rooms.

Tickets for the show were obtained from Mr E Newman of The Music Warehouse, Newport. Excitement was a fever pitch, with the residents of Newport demanding further dates, but Chappell & Co. stated firmly that Dickens would not consider adding any additional nights in any town where a performance had already been agreed. Unsurprisingly tickets did not last long - they sold out and fast.

On the night the crowds on Bridge Street were so big that the venue opened its main doors early to elevate some of the issues. Dickens appeared on stage at 8pm prompt.

He began with a very popular choice, A Christmas Carol. He had been undertaking public readings of his works for quite some time, and this was one of his stock pieces. He had repeatedly enthralled audiences here and abroad with this reading, which meant that he did not read direct from the script. Newport audiences would have experienced a captivating rendition of the piece, in which the characters would have bounce to life. When Dickens read he put his interpretation into them through his acting skills, changes in voice and emotions that he envisaged for each one. Basically, audiences experienced the work how he had intended them to see it, what a treat. When the reading was over, Dickens and the audience took a much-needed break, to recover from the high powered and gripping performance.

The second half was the reading, ‘The Trial of Pickwick’, from The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. This was a shorter reading and extremely funny with the dialogue between Pickwick and Bardell being absurd, and as one contemporary commented it possessed ‘innate humour’.

The evening was extremely successful and generated positive reviews in the Newport local newspapers. Dickens performed for an extremely exhausting two hours, and as always he gave hundred per cent. After the performance he was whisked away and travelled onto The Plough Hotel in Cheltenham for the night ready for his performance at the Cheltenham Assembly Room the next day.

That memorable evening150 years ago saw members of Newport and the surrounding area come together to witness a great British author bring his characters and works to life in a passionate and engaging first-rate show.

If we had a time machine to go back and ask those people who were there that night what they thought, some might say that it had been a night that they would never forget.

We do not know for sure but what we can say 150 years later, they were lucky to have been there to witness it.

By Wendy Taylor