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In December 1785, taking advantage of the huge public interest in Cook and the Pacific, the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden presented the pantomime OMAI: Or, A Trip Round the World. A mix of farce, topical satire, mime, song, dance, romance, commedia dell’arte and theatrical tableaux, the pantomime used the places visited by Cook as the setting for an improbable story in which Omai has to win the hand of the fair Londina and reclaim his rightful throne. With ‘authentic’ costumes, stage designs and extraordinary special effects by the artist Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, the production was considered by its audience to be ‘a beautiful illustration of Cook’s Voyages—an illustration of importance to the mature mind of an adult, and delightful to the tender capacity of an infant’. An early example of ‘infotainment’, the play was a huge success with 70 performances in 1785 and 86. |
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