World Theatre II: 1640-1880: Drury Lane & Dorset Garden

Course Features

• A course website that will be updated with any changes in schedule, links relating to course topics, copies of lecture outlines and other handouts and prompts for class readings and assignments, review sheets for mid-terms
• Outlines will be distributed at the beginning of lecture classes including key terms f for review as well as questions and prompts to guide reading for the subsequent class. These outlines will also be posted on the website.
• An optional development process for mid-term and final papers, involving feedback to help you reach standards for academic writing in the humanities.
• In-class reviews for the mid-term and final exams
• Mid-term grades, broken down into components that should assist students in determining what needs more work in the second half of the course, and whether the exam or final paper option may be preferable.

Wednesday, February 4

Drury Lane & Dorset Garden

Wealthy patrons of the Dorset Garden theatre would arrive at the theatre along the Thames by boat

When King Charles II gave Davenant and Killigrew warrants to form their two companies of players in 1660, he likewise gave them leave 'to purchase, build and erect or hire at their charge... two houses or theatres'. After the Puritan interregnum, the options for venues were initially limited. Killigrew's King's Company occupied a converted tennis-court (following a common French practice) whereas Davenant's Duke's Company occupied an old playhouse at Salisbury Court. However, Davenant immediately began planning a playhouse that would enable him to make use of the Italian innovations in scenery already so popular in France. The converted tennis court theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, which opened in 1661, was the first such attempt and marks the beginning of a distinctive Restoration style of playhouse. The stage was extremely deep to allow both mid-level scenic spectacle as well as more distant 'vistas'. A deep forestage under and beyond the proscenium arch was where most of the acting took place. Everything was lit by candles and chandeliers. With boxes up both sides of the stage, the actors and audience are fairly intimate. There is no gulf between actors and audience as in later proscenium theatres. This basic approach is also evident in the Drury Lane theatre, which Killigrew opened in 1663.

As was true throughout Europe at the time, lighting by candles combined with extensive scenery of fabric and wood contributed to frequent fires. Drury Lane burned down in 1672, and a second theatre was built there in 1674. This second theatre was demolished in 1791 by Sheridan so that he could build a grander one in 1794. This theatre burned down in 1809. The fourth Theatre Royal at Drury Lane, which is still a fixture of the London theatre scene, was erected in 1812.

A performance at the Covent Garden theatre in 1674.

Elevation of second Drury Lane by Thomas Leacroft and a scene of a 1674 performance

Davenant, however, like many a modern producer, had his sights set on making theatre ever more extravagant. He died in 1668, but the Duke's Company was carried on in the same style under the leadership of Betterton. With the opening of his new playhouse at Dorset Garden in 1671, he set a new standard for scenic spectacle. The theatre was demolished in 1709, but we get some sense of its cavernous depth and height from a few surviving engravings of scenes from Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco (1673). It is designed for a level of spectacle that would surely overwhelm most drama, and makes Drury Lane look quite cozy in comparison. Nevertheless, many of the most famous plays of the era, including Aphra Behn's The Rover, premiered there. We can only guess at what the production must have looked like!