In , the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane hired him and he began a triumphant career that would last for over 30 years. Within five years, he was also managing the theatre. Garrick changed the whole style of acting. He rejected the fashion for declamation, where actors would strike a pose and speak their lines formally, and instead preferred a more easy, natural manner of speech and movement. The effect was a more subtle, less mannered style of acting and a move towards realism.
The Licensing Act of had a huge impact on the development of theatre in Britain. It restricted the production of plays to the two patent theatres at Drury Lane and Covent Garden in London and tightened up the censorship of drama, stating that the Lord Chamberlain with his Examiners of Plays must vet any script before a performance was allowed. The act was put in place by the then Prime Minister Robert Walpole — , who was concerned that political satire on the stage was undermining him and the authority of the government.
A production of The Golden Rump, a farcical play of unknown authorship, was the chief trigger for Walpole pushing the case for banning obscene drama from the public arena.
The play scandalously suggested that the Queen administered enemas to the King. Henry Fielding, author of a number of successful satires, and others were suspicious that this play had in fact been engineered by Walpole himself.
To get around the restrictions of the Licensing Act, non-patent theatres interspersed dramatic scenes with musical interludes. Melodrama and burlesque, with their short scenes and musical accompaniment, became extremely popular at this time.
Eventually, the huge growth in demand for theatrical entertainment in the early 19th century made the patent theatres' system unworkable. Theatres had sprung up across London and the boundaries between what was allowed in the patent theatres legitimate drama and what was presented in other theatres illegitimate theatre had become blurred. In the Licensing Act was dropped, enabling other theatres to present drama, although Lord Chamberlain's censorship of plays remained in place until After the Covent Garden theatre burnt down in , the management decided to raise prices to cover the cost of rebuilding.
To increase revenue, the management reconfigured the upper gallery to squeeze in more of the one shilling seats, creating what angry patrons described as 'pigeon holes'. The price for a seat in the pit was raised from three shilling and six pence to four shillings, and the admission to the public boxes went up from six to seven shillings. A whole tier of boxes became 'private' and could only be hired for an entire season.
Audiences were furious and turned their anger on the theatre's manager, the actor John Philip Kemble. On 18 September Kemble stepped on stage in the costume of Macbeth to welcome the audience to the first production in the new theatre, and was met with a barrage of shouting, hissing and hooting which continued throughout the performance.
Although magistrates were summoned, and some protesters arrested, the disturbance did not end until two in the morning. This was the start of what were known as the Old Price or O.
For the next ten weeks every performance at Covent Garden was disrupted. The principal objective of the protesters was to force the management to restore the old system of pricing. By December the cost of legal fees, wages for bouncers, and free passes for allies who were paid to chant "N.
Kemble accepted the demands of the rioters and made a public apology from the stage. At the turn of the 19th century the Kemble family dominated the London stage.
Actor John Philip Kemble — was said to be the finest actor in England and his sister, Sarah Siddons — , was regarded as one of the greatest ever tragedians. In her first season, she performed 80 times in seven different roles, inducing faintings and hysterics amongst her audiences.
John Philip Kemble made his debut on the London stage in as Hamlet. His acting style was static and declamatory, with long sweeping lines and a detached grandeur. Kean was one of the few actors who could fill the vast Drury Lane theatre to its capacity of 3, His natural passion and fiery spirit suited a melodramatic style of acting. He was said to be at his best in death scenes and those that required intensity of feeling or violent transitions from one mood to another.
Melodrama became popular from the s and lasted until the early 20th century. Melodrama consisted of short scenes interspersed with musical accompaniment and was characterised by simple moral stories with stereotypical characters — there was always a villain, a wronged maiden and a hero acting in an overblown style.
From the middle of the 19th century theatre began to take on a new respectability and draw in more middle-class audiences. They were enthralled by the historical accuracy and attention to detail that was becoming increasingly influential in stage design.
Pictorial drama placed great emphasis on costume and reflected a fashionable interest in archaeology and history. The inevitable long and complex scene changes meant that plays, especially those by Shakespeare had to be cut. One of the main exponents of pictorial drama was Charles Kean — 68 , son of Edmund Kean.
Charles Kean was known for his painstaking research into historic dress and settings for his productions at the Princess's Theatre in London's Oxford Street during the s.
Henry Irving — , Charles Kean and Beerbohm Tree — all created productions in which they were the star. Henry Irving dominated the London stage for over 25 years and was hero-worshipped by his audiences.
Shakespeare was the most popular writer for these actor-managers. It became fashionable to give Shakespeare's plays detailed and historically realistic sets and costumes. Since the basic pattern of melodrama is always much the same good persecuted by evil, with the eventual triumph of good , variety was gained through such novelties as exotic locales, ever-more spectacular effects, increased realism, incorporation into the action of the latest inventions, and dramatizations of popular novels or notorious crimes Brockett, O.
Melodrama emphasized clear and suspenseful plots in which a virtuous protagonist was hounded by a villain and rescued from seemingly insurmountable difficulties only after undergoing a series of threats to life, reputation or happiness Brockett, O. They were skilled in the use of facial expression and heightened body language to show particular emotions Clausen, M.
Realistic spectacle, thrilling effects, novelty, suspense, and the vindication of virtue were the major appeals of melodrama Brocket, O. Brockett, Oscar, G. Kaplan, E. Redmond, James, ed. Themes in Drama A useful collection of essays on melodrama from a variety of perspectives. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions.
For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. Not a member? Sign up for My OBO. Already a member? Publications Pages Publications Pages. Corsican Brothers , The Octoroon Combined sentiment, wit, and local color with sensational and spectacular endings. He was the first in the U. Instrumental in The International Copyright Agreement of His plays contained volcanoes, earthquakes, burning buildings, etc.
George L. Six acts, done without an afterpiece — established the single-play format. The most popular melodrama in the world until the First World War. O ther P opular 19 th C entury T heatrical F orms:. Pantomimes — elaborate tricks with scenery and costume.
Short musical revues "vaudevilles" in France — topical. Comic operas — sentimental stories, original music. Revivals of Shakespeare — usually Bowdlerized " Bowdlerizing " [or click here ] a play -- refers to deleting or changing parts of a script, removing socially "unacceptable" or sexually "offensive" parts of the script.
From Thomas Bowdler, who published the "Family Shakespeare," with sexual innuendo and reference left out, and turning sad endings into happy ones. The well-made play : " piece bien-fait. His plays gave the appearance of having tightly woven plots unifies by causality, when in fact his plays had many lines of action unfolded by coincidence and chance.
But his influence on later writers was great—Ibsen in particular. M ajor T rends in 19 th C entury T heatre. The typical producing organization was the resident company performing a large number of plays each season, till the end of the 19 th century.
Some variations: visiting stars, touring companies, long runs.
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