Periodization: 1760s1830s
 Theatre in the “Georgian”* era
 *The Georgian era is a period of British history,
which includes the reigns of the Kings of the
House of Hanover: George I, George II, George
III, and George IV, thus covering the period from
1714 to 1830, and including the sub-period of the
Regency, defined by the Regency of George IV
as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father
George III. Often, the short reign of King William
IV (1830 to 1837) is also included.
Periodization: 1760s1830s
 Theatre in the “Romantic”era
 e.g. :“English Romantic Theatre (1760/1830):
Texts, Theories and Stage” An Inter-University Research Project
(Universities of Bologna, Bari, Florence, Parma, Pavia, Roma La Sapienza)

“The aim of this research project is to re-evaluate the production
of British Theatre and Drama between 1760 and 1830 in the belief
that the theatrical culture and production of the 'Romantic' period
made a substantial contribution, often of the highest standard, to
the history of Western theatrical tradition. This research project,
therefore, aims at compensating for or, better, overthrowing a
prejudicial evaluation that has for a long time blamed Romantic
theatre for the definitive decline of the great dramatic tradition
which had existed since the classical era.”
A Theatrical Evening in Late Eighteenth-
/Early Nineteenth-century London
Inkle and Yarico: playbill of the
first performance, August 4, 1787)
“The hour is fairly early, the
curtain a 6:30 one, and there are no assigned
seats in the pit […]. Every night it is the
same; people clamber to get the best
seats in a race that would make
a modern rock concert seem sedate. While
you appreciate the lack of seat
backs as you hurtle seventeen benches,
you will miss them by the end of
the
evening. After all, you will
remain in the theater until eleven o’clock or
even
midnight, and will not
see a single play but
an entire
evening’s entertainment.”
J. Jeffrey N. Cox, Michael Gamer, Broadview Anthology
of Romantic Drama (2003)
The Institutions: Theatrical
Monopoly
In 1662 King Charles II granted patents to his courtier
playwrights Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant,
which permitted the performance of ‘tragedies,
comedies, plays, operas, music, scenes and all other
entertainments of the stage’. The King’s gift of patents,
together with the permission to build ‘two theatres
with all convenient rooms and other necessities
thereunto appertaining’ brought about the rise of
permanent London theatrical institutions, later
identified with Drury Lane (1663) and Covent Garden
(1732)
Adapted from: J. Moody, Illegitimate Theatre in London, 1770-1840, Cambridge:
CUP, 2000
Censorship
 The Licensing Act or Theatrical Licensing Act
of 21 June 1737 was a landmark act of
censorship of the British stage and one of the
most determining factors in the
development of Georgian drama and theatre.
The Act established that the Lord
Chamberlain had the power to approve any
play before it was staged.
 The Licensing Act of 1737 instituted a system
of censorship in Great Britain demanding
that all plays be reviewed by the Lord
Chamberlain before they could be licensed
for public performance. The initial reading
of a submitted play was left to an Examiner
of Plays; the Lord Chamberlain himself only
became involved if the Examiner detected
some objectionable content requiring
review and opinion.
Legitimate vs. Illegitimate Theatre
 The Licensing Act of 1737 tightened censorship of drama,
placing it under the control of the Lord Chamberlain.
Only patent theatres were able to perform drama –
known as legitimate theatre. Non-patent theatres
performed melodrama, pantomime, ballet, and other
forms of mainly visual spectacle. As these involved music
or musical interludes they could not be classed as plays
and were regarded as illegitimate theatre and were not
subject to the Licensing Act.
 Later, a series of royal patents were granted to cities
outside London. These became known as “Theatres
Royal”. Many still operate and were built in a restrained
neo-classical style.
 Adapted from: http://www.theatrestrust.org.uk/resources/exploring-theatres/historyof-theatres/eighteenth-century-theatre
The Patent Theatres:
Drury Lane (1662)
 The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a theatre in the West
End area of London, officially situated on Catherine
Street, but backing onto Drury Lane just to the east of
Covent Garden.
A cockpit in that location was converted into a theatre
during the reign of James I. After the Restoration of the
monarchy in 1660, a splendid new theatre was built to
designs by Christopher Wren. Having been razed by fire
on January 25, 1672, it was succeeded by a larger and still
more elaborate building also designed by Wren, which
housed two thousand spectators with the opening
attended by Charles II on March 26, 1674.
 The great English actor David Garrick managed
the theatre during the mid-eighteenth century,
during which time he produced many plays,
including most of Shakespeare's work.
By the end of the 18th century, the building
was in need of updating, and was demolished
in 1791. A third theatre was designed by Henry
Holland and opened on March 12, 1794, lasting
for only 15 years before burning down on
February 24, 1809.
William Hogarth:
David Garrick as Richard III,1745 (Detail)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth,_William_-_David_Garrick_as_Richard_III_-_1745.jpg
Drury Lane Theatre - London, England, 1808
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drury_lane_interior_1808.jpg
 The present Theatre Royal in Drury Lane,
designed by Benjamin Wyatt, opened on
October 10, 1812 with a production of Hamlet.
The interior has been substantially redesigned
and overhauled many times since then. It is one
of the West End's largest, and has been the
setting for appearances by Edmund Kean and
Sarah Siddons, among others.
With a capacity of 2,205, it has been home to
many large productions over the years.
Patent Theatres:
Covent Garden
.
Covent Garden was originally opened in 1732. In 1792, the theatre was
renovated and enlarged but it burnt down on 20 September, 1808 and
was redesigned by Robert Smirke opening less than a year later on 18
September, 1809, with a capacity of three thousand people. The
auditorium and stage were lit by gaslight from 1817. The picture below is
of Smirke's redesign.
Illegitimate Theatres:
Astley’s Amphitheatre
 Philip Astley opened Astley’s Amphitheatre in 1777, and, not
surprisingly for a former riding school owner, featured lots of
horses. The amphitheatre mixed circus with theatre, having a circus
ring attached to a stage and exploiting the circus tricks which
horses could do. Astley’s was renowned for its equestrian dramas,
which it continued to produce until its destruction in 1895. The
huge size of the stage space meant that it could produce huge
military extravaganzas with hundreds of soldiers, horses and
cannons.
 When Lord Sanger and his brother took over the Amphitheatre, in
1871, they moved the style of performance towards a more
zoological style. One production featured not only several hundred
humans in the cast but fifty-two horses, fifteen elephants, two lions
on leads, kangaroos, pelicans, reindeer, chamois and many more
animals.


source: http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/99-00/9702981a/mmcourse/project/html/Astleys.htm
Astley’s Amphitheatre
Source: http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/99-00/9702981a/mmcourse/project/html/Astleys.htm
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Astley%27s_Ampitheatre_Microcosm_edited.jpg
Adelphi (Strand)
 Built in 1806 opposite Adam Street by merchant John
Scott as the Sans Pareil to showcase his daughter's
theatrical talents, the theatre was given a new facade and
redecorated in 1814. It re-opened on 18 October 1819 as
the Adelphi, named after the imposing complex of West
London streets built by the brothers Robert (1728-92) and
James (1730-94) Adam from 1768. The name "Adelphoi" in
Greek simply means "the brothers." Among the
celebrated actors who appeared on its stage was the
comedian Charles Matthews (1776-1835), whose work was
so admired by young Charles Dickens. It had more "tone"
than the other minor theatres because its patrons in the
main were the salaried clerks of barristers and solicitors.

Source: Theatres in Victorian London, The Victorian Web http://victorian.lang.nagoyau.ac.jp/victorianweb/mt/theaters/pva234.html
Source: http://www.victorianweb.org/mt/theaters/adelphi.html
Theatrical Genres
 “Romantic theater was an exciting dramatic
laboratory in which playwrights experimented
with a wealth of new forms and technologies”
 J. Cox, M. Gamer, Broadview Anthology of Romantic Drama (2003)
 ‘Legitimate’ (‘spoken’) drama: tragedy, comedy
of manners
 ‘Illegitimate’ (‘mixed’) drama: comic pantomime,
melodrama, ‘burletta’, harlequinade,
‘extravaganza’, nautical drama, hippodrama

Main Entry: 1pan·to·mime

Pronunciation: \ˈpan-tə-ˌmīm\

Function: noun

Etymology: Latin pantomimus, from pant- + mimus mime

Date: 1589

1 : pantomimist






Main Entry: pan·to·mim·ist
Pronunciation: \ˈpan-tə-ˌmī-mist, -ˌmi-\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1823
1 : an actor or dancer in pantomimes
2 : a composer of pantomimes

2 a : an ancient dramatic performance featuring a solo dancer and a narrative chorus b : any
of various dramatic or dancing performances in which a story is told by expressive bodily or
facial movements of the performers c : a British theatrical entertainment of the Christmas
season based on a nursery tale and featuring topical songs, tableaux, and dances
3 a : conveyance of a story by bodily or facial movements especially in drama or dance b : the
art or genre of conveying a story by bodily movements only

— pan·to·mim·ic \ˌpan-tə-ˈmi-mik\ adjective
[adapted]
Comic Pantomime*
 A 'pantomime' in Ancient Greece was originally a group who
'imitates all' (panto- - all, mimos - imitator) accompanied by sung
narrative and instrumental music, often played on the flute. The
word later came to be applied to the performance itself. The
pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece
and, later, Rome.
 The origins of British Pantomime or "Panto" as it is known in the UK,
has its origins in the traditions of the Italian "Commedia dell’ Arte”, a
type of travelling street entertainment which came from Italy in the
16th century. Commedia was a very physical type of theatre that
used dance, music, tumbling, acrobatics and buffoonery. Commedia
dell'arte troupes had a repertoire of stories that they performed in
fairgrounds and market places. Often the touring troupes were made
up of family members who would inherit their characters, costumes,
masks and stories from their parents or grandparents.

*Adapted from “The History of British Pantomime”, http://www.limelightscripts.co.uk/scripts/history.htm
 Commedia spread across Europe from Italy to France
and by the middle of the 17th century began to be
popular in England. The Commedia dell’arte
characters first began to appear in English plays
around 1660. And such was the success of Commedia
in England that intense rivalry soon sprang up
between the theatres producing it. Within two days
of a new performance opening at Lincoln's Inn Fields
Theatre in 1716, a show with an almost identical title
opened at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.
 The actors generally improvised their way through a
plot involving characters such as Arlecchino, or
Harlequin and his true love, Columbina or Columbine.
Other stock characters were the over protective
father, Pantaloon, who refused to allow the heroic
Harlequin to seek his daughter’s affections. In some
versions Pantaloon has a servant, Pulchinello, later
to be known as Clown, and a soldier, an unsuitable
suitor who seeks the hand of Columbine. Comic
chases and tricks were employed to full effect.
Although the character of "Pulchinello" has vanished
from the Pantomime today, he still exists in this
country as "Mr. Punch", the anti-heroic puppet, who
along with his wife Judy can still be seen in seaside
towns and parks entertaining children today.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xmlnl
Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) was the most celebrated of
English clowns. Grimaldi's performances made the Clown
character the central character in British harlequinades, i.e.
a kind of pantomime or that part of a pantomime in which
the harlequin and clown play the principal part. As a
pantomime clown Grimaldi’s greatest success was
Harlequin and Mother Goose; or the Golden Egg at the
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (1806 and often revived).
Illegitimate genres:
Melodrama
 Melodrama became popular from the 1780s to 1790s and lasted
until the early 20th century. The first drama in Britain to be labelled
a melodrama was Thomas Holcroft's A Tale of Mystery in 1802.
 Melodrama consisted of short scenes interspersed with musical
accompaniment and was characterized by simple morality, good
and evil characters and overblown acting style. Characters in
melodrama were stereotypical - there was always a villain, a
wronged maiden and a hero. The emotions of the actors were
played out in the music and accompanied by dramatic tableaux.
Because of these musical interludes melodrama was not considered
a 'play' and thus evaded the monopoly of the patent theatres
stipulated in the Licensing Act.

Source: “Nineteenth-Century Theatre”, Victoria & Albert Museum,
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/0-9/19th-century-theatre/
Illegitimate genres:
Extravaganza
 The term extravaganza refers to an elaborate
and spectacular theatrical production. The
term once specifically referred to a type of
19th-century English drama made popular by
J.R. Planché, a British playwright and
antiquary who wrote fanciful portrayals of
fairy tales and other poetic subjects based on
similar French productions. Planché’s
productions included dancing and music and
influenced such later writers as W.S. Gilbert.

Encyclopaedia Britannica
Illegitimate genres:
Burletta
 Closely allied to extravaganza is the Burletta,
which began in the middle of the eighteenth
century as a ‘poor relation to an Opera’, and ‘a
drama in rhyme, which is entirely in music’.
Legally, any piece with at least five songs in each
act was a burletta, and could be performed at
the minor theatres. This allowed the adaptation
and presentation of plays by Shakespeare and
other ‘legitimate’ dramatists.

The Oxford Companion to the Theatre (1996).
Illegitimate genres:
Nautical Drama

England was a seafaring nation, and in the 1820s and 1830s a
mania for nautical drama gripped the London stage. Plays
featuring the exploits of brave, patriotic, honest sailors battling
at sea or safe in harbour included stirring songs, picturesque
hornpipes, nautical jargon, spectacular scenery and effects, and
sentimental endings. They presented a hopelessly unrealistic
view of life in the British navy, and audiences adored them.
 The taste for nautical drama began in London's West End.
Covent Garden and Drury Lane staged tributes to the death of
Lord Nelson in 1805, and in 1806 The Battle of Trafalgar was reenacted as the finale of The Rival Patriots on the water tank of
the Aquatic Theatre, Sadler's Wells, with miniature ships made
by Woolwich dockyard shipwrights

Catherine Haill, “Nautical Drama”, East London Theatre Archive http://www.elta-project.org/themenautical.html