Prologue : 11 September 2007 -- Sydney, Saturday 30 July 1796 -- A brief history of the playbill -- Playbill conventions -- Writing about the playbill -- Collecting the playbill -- The playbill and cultural change in the nineteenth century -- The playbill and politics -- The 1796 Sydney playbill in its contexts -- The playbill's journey after 30 July 1796 -- Epilogue : the playbill in the twenty-first century.