Samuel Rayner
1812-1898

"An inquest was held at Nottingham, on Monday last, touching the death of Sarah, wife of Mr Samuel Rayner, Proprietor of a portable Theatre which had been erected in Sneinton-market a few days before. On Saturday evening, while Mrs Rayner was engaged taking money at the show, she complained of feeling poorly, and soon afterwards fell down insensible. She was carried into the van used as a dwelling-house, and Dr Sutton was summoned, but she remained unconscious and speechless until Sunday [12th] when she died. The verdict of the Jury was "Died from natural causes." Thirty years ago the deceased was a member of Carter's travelling theatrical company, and for the last twenty years her husband has been Proprietor and Manager of a portable Theatre in the Midland district. Mrs Rayner was a native of Loughborough, Leicestershire, and was fifty years of age."

The once-familiar figure of old Sammy Rayner - now no more - is still remembered by many hundreds of the inhabitants of Nottingham and district. For generations his well-known "Acting Show", with its travelling company of real tragedians and pantomime performers, who were once the pleasure of the multitude of sightseers, and charmed the minds of youthful playgoers until they became transformed into "gods".

These sights and scenes are still fresh in the memory of people of mature years, and probably many front-seaters and occupants of the boxes at our Royal and Grand Theatres received their first dramatic impressions in Old Sammy's temple of Thespis. No Goose Fair, or March Fair, was looked upon as an orthodox holiday without Sammy Rayner's Show; but then the outside show, that brought to our gaze so many familiar faces and figures, surrounded by all their glittering glare of tinsel and spangles, made us almost envy them in their exalted sphere. And as we have watched them in their princely garbs and kingly crowns, they have almost led us to think that they were the actual people whom they represented. Then came the long train of mail-clad knights, noble Romans, and brigand Chiefs, looking with disdain upon "Joey" the Clown, Pinafore Billy, and the weak-kneed Pantaloon, as if they were in the wrong shop.

Then came the fairies and other celestial beings, dressed in spangled muslins and pink tights, to go through a series of evolutions for our delight, to the harmonious strains of the gentle musicians. There was one familiar figure which deserves our special notice, whose tall, gaunt, imposing and majestic appearance was the cynosure of all - that was, "Old Smalley", whose demoniacal countenance, and lank jet-black hair, used to cause all the little boys who saw him to dream of hobgoblins and rat-tailed ghosts.'

"Rayner's Travelling Theatre" performed at the Goose Fair in Nottingham's Market Square at the beginning of October each year, and at Sneinton Market, Nottingham at Easter. In between they visited smaller towns, such as Ilkeston, Eastwood, Heanor and Long Eaton. They wintered at Eastwood, where D.H.Lawrence went to see the show. Most of the cast were "family", but other families, including the Briggs and the Hendersons, were part of the company. Behind an elaborate facade they performed in a much worn old tent lit by coal oil flares. Plays they performed included "Sweeny Todd" and "The Murder in the Red Barn".