Charles Dickens, who had wrote several previous plays, collaborated in 1867 with novelist Willkie Collins to create a Christmas play for the holiday theatrical season. The melodramatic plot of the play concerns two boys given the same name at the Founding Hospital which results in unfortunate consequences in adulthood. The play was produced with a memorable cast including the popular actors Charles Fechter and Benjamin Webster. Audiences received it with good support and the play had a lengthy run of over one hundred and fifty performances after which it was transferred to the Royal Standard Theatre. The following year, Dickens traveled to Paris to supervise a French version called "A'Abime" at the Vaudeville Theatre. An American production, an unauthorized pirated version, opened in 1868 at the Park Theatre, Brooklyn.
