"The Contrast" was produced on April 16, 1787, at the John Street Theatre, in New York, by the American Company, the original cast including Mr. Henry and Mr. Hallam as the rival lovers, and Mr. Wignell in the part of _Jonathan_, the first stage Yankee. Anyone who has read the play will quite understand why it is that the honours so easily fell to Mr. Wignell rather than to Mr. Henry or to Mr. Hallam, and it is no surprise, therefore, to find, after the initial performance, that jealousy began to manifest itself between these three gentlemen,--so much so, indeed, that, when the time arrived for the Company to go to Philadelphia, in December, 1787, Mr. Wignell was unable to present "The Contrast" in the theatre, and had to content himself with a reading, because it was "impracticable at this time to entertain the public with a dramatic representation." The Notice continued: Mr. Wignell, "in compliance with the wishes of many respectable citizens of Philadelphia, proposes to read that celebrated performance at the City Tavern on Monday evening, the 10th inst. The curiosity which has everywhere been expressed respecting this first dramatic production of American genius, and the pleasure which it has already afforded in the theatres of New York and Maryland, persuade Mr. Wignell that his excuses on this occasion will be acceptable to the public and that even in so imperfect a dress, the intrinsic merit of the comedy will contribute to the amusement and command the approbation of the audience." Of Wignell and his associates, an excellent impression may be had from a first hand description by W. B. Wood, in his "Personal Recollections." Whether the intrinsic merits of the play would contribute to the amusement of audiences to-day is to be doubted, although it is a striking dramatic curio. The play in the reading is scarcely exciting. It is surprisingly devoid of situation. Its chief characteristic is "talk," but that talk, reflective in its spirit of "The School for Scandal," is interesting to the social student. When the ladies discuss the manners of the times and the fashions of the day, they discuss them in terms of the Battery, in New York, but in the spirit of London. The only native product, as I have said, is _Jonathan_, and his surprise over the play-house, into which he is inveigled, measures the surprise which must have overwhelmed the staid New England conscience of Royall Tyler, when he found himself actually in that den of iniquity,--the theatre. For the first time in the American Drama, we get New England dialogue and some attempt at American characterization. Wignell, being himself a character actor of much ability, and the son of a player who had been a member of Garrick's Company in London, it is small wonder that he should have painted the stage Yankee in an agreeable and entertaining and novel manner.