THE METHUEN

DRAMA

DIC T ION A R Y O F
T H E T H E AT R E

Edited by
Jonathan Law

LON DON • N E W DE L H I • N E W YOR K • SY DN EY

 Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway

London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10018
UK USA

www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Methuen Drama

Parts of this work previously published as Brewer’s Theatre and
Cassell Companion to Theatre by Cassell, 1994, 1997

© Market House Books 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting

on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication
can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.

Visit www.bloomsbury.com to find out more about our authors and their books
You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you can sign up for
newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: PB: 978-1-4081-3147-3

EPDF: 978-1-4081-3148-0
EPUB: 978-1-4081-4591-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
 P R E FA C E
The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre offers lively,
illuminating, and up-to-date guidance to the world of drama,
past and present. While providing authoritative coverage of all
the essential topics, it also finds room for much fascinating and
out-of-the-way information not usually included in conventional
reference books. The approach is deliberately eclectic, with an
accent on the curious, the quirky, and the carnivalesque.
The book aims to cover all aspects of theatrical life, language, and
legend. It provides a glossary of words and phrases ranging from
technical terms to actors’ slang and jargon, while also giving clear
explanations of the major schools and genres from Old Comedy
to in-yer-face theatre. The reader will find facts, quotes, and
stories, about the great personalities of the theatre, from Aeschylus
to Ayckbourn and from Roscius to Rylance. (A little browsing will
also uncover some less esteemed practitioners –‘Poet’ Bunn,
‘Bellower’ Quin, and the infamous ‘Scum’ Goodman.) The book
provides plot summaries of, and key information about, the
world’s best-known plays, from the Oresteia of Aeschylus to
Angels in America and from Racine’s Phédre to Mamma Mia!
Other entries explore the eventful histories of some of the most
famous theatre buildings and companies. Finally, there are
numerous miscellaneous entries, ranging from accounts of theatre
ghosts and notable forgeries, riots and fires to lists of the world’s
longest plays and actors’ taboos and superstitions.
We have tried to be as inclusive as possible in our definition of
theatre; although the main emphasis falls on the classic repertoire
of Britain, Europe, and America, there is wide coverage of both
popular and folk theatre (from mummers’ play to music hall and
striptease) and the rich theatrical traditions of non-Western
cultures (from Beijing Opera to the numerous genres of the
subcontinent). The result is a companion to world drama that is
at once thoroughly contemporary and truly catholic.
Entries are in strict alphabetical order with the exception of a
small number of entries that take the form of a sentence or
phrase. To make the book more user-friendly, these are
alphabetized by key word (usually the first main noun or verb).
So, for example, the famous slogan We never closed appears at the
dummy headword closed and the catchphrase send in the clowns at
clowns.
Cross-references in the text are indicated by the use of SMALL
CAPITALS.

J.L.
2011

CONTRIBUTORS
John Wright
Mark Salad
Alan Isaacs
David Pickering
Rosalind Fergusson
Fran Alexander
Amanda Isaacs
Jenny Roberts
Lynn Thomson
Peter Lewis
 Abigail 1

record of the dance before the 17th century,

A carbon dating has established that the horns

date back to Anglo-Saxon times.
Abbott, George (1887–1995) US
Abbey Theatre A theatre founded in playwright and director of musicals. A supreme
Dublin in 1904. The Abbey, which was built craftsman, he did most of his best work
at the instigation of W. B. YEATS and Lady collaborating on and rewriting plays for
GREGORY and financed initially by Annie Broadway. His biggest hit came in 1938 with
HORNIMAN, became the home of the Irish the musical THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE. Abbott
National Dramatic Society. It presented the wrote the book and directed; the music was by
first peformances of works by Yeats, Gregory, Richard RODGERS and Lorenz Hart. It was not
SYNGE, George Russell (known as AE), and seen in London until 1963, in a production
(later) Sean O’CASEY, amongst others. directed by the 75-year-old Abbott.
Audiences tended to be vociferous and easily His first success was The Fall Guy (1925),
offended: the first productions of Synge’s THE cowritten with James Gleason. Other hits
PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD (1907) and included Love ’em and Leave ’em (1926),
O’Casey’s THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS (1926) Broadway (1926; with Phillip Dunning),
were both greeted with riots. In 1924 the Coquette (1927), starring Helen Hayes, Three
Abbey became the first state-subsidized theatre Men on a Horse (1935; with John Cecil
in the English-speaking world. A fire destroyed Holm), Where’s Charley? (1948; with Frank
the original building in 1951 but a new Loesser), The Pajama Game (1954; with
playhouse was subsequently built, opening in Richard Bissell and music by Richard Adler
1966. and Jerry Ross), Damn Yankees! (1955; music
In subsequent decades the Abbey reclaimed by Adler and Ross), and Fiorello (1959; music
its original role as a promoter of challenging by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick). Abbott
new work with productions of plays by a also directed Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey
younger generation of Irish playwrights, (1940), which made Gene Kelly a star, and
notably Brian FRIEL, Hugh Leonard, and Frank High Button Shoes (1947).
MCGUINNESS. However, centenary celebrations In 1966 the Adelphi Theatre on Broadway
in 2004 were marred by a severe financial and was renamed the George Abbott Theatre in his
administrative crisis that led to the formation honour. He remained active in the theatre into
of a new company and the appointment of his nineties and lived to the age of 107.
Fiach Mac Conghail as artistic director. In abele spelen (Middle Dutch: noble
2007 the Irish government announced plans to plays) The earliest vernacular plays of the
move the Abbey to a newly built theatre Netherlands, which are among the earliest in
complex in Dublin’s rejuvenated docklands Europe. They developed in the 13th century
area. from an amalgamation of mime with the
Abbot of Unreason See LORD OF ballads and lays of the minstrels. The subject
MISRULE. matter was secular and nearly always drawn
from chivalric romance. The abele spelen were
Abbots Bromley Horn or Antler
generally followed by bawdy farces, called
Dance A folk dance performed in the small
sotternieën or kluchten.
village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire.
The earlier Dutch LITURGICAL DRAMA has
Originally performed on St Bartholomew’s
not survived, but four abele spelen are extant
Day (24 August), it now takes place on
from the 14th century, including the tragedy
the Monday after the first Sunday after
Lanseloet van Denemarken. The only surviving
4 September. The six horn dancers, all male
example from the 15th century is De Spiegel
as in MORRIS DANCES, hold reindeer antlers
der Minnen by Colijn van Rijssele.
(three of which are painted brown and three
white) to their heads as they dance. They are Abigail A traditional name for a lady’s
accompanied by a HOBBY HORSE, a MAID maid, deriving from the play The Scornful
MARIAN, a jester, an accordion player, and two Lady (1616) by Beaumont and Fletcher, in
boys. The horn sets weigh between 19 and which Abigail is a ‘waiting-gentlewoman’.
25lbs (8.5–11.5kg) each. Although there is no The authors probably had in mind the biblical
2 above

Abigail, who frequently refers to herself as The reason why Absurdist plays take
“thine handmaid” (I Samuel xxv, 24–28). place in No Man’s Land with only two
The character was enormously popular and characters is primarily financial.
the forerunner of a whole race of superior ARTHUR ADAMOV
women servants, invariably named Abigail, in
works by Swift, Fielding, Smollett, and many Absurd Person Singular A black
others. The equivalent name for a valet or comedy by Alan AYCKBOURN, often considered
manservant was Andrew. his most perfect work. It was first performed in
1972 at the STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE IN THE
above See STAGE DIRECTION. ROUND, Scarborough, where Ayckbourn was
Abram-man In Tudor and Stuart times, a artistic director. It transferred the following
wandering beggar who pretended to be year to the Criterion Theatre, London, where
mentally ill. Inmates of Bedlam who were not it became one of five Ayckbourn plays running
dangerous were kept in the ‘Abraham Ward’ simultaneously in the West End. The play ran
and sometimes allowed out in distinctive dress for over 590 performances during its first
to beg, thus giving an opportunity to many Broadway run in 1976.
imposters. The three acts feature three parties, in
In King Lear Edgar disguises himself as a three kitchens, on three successive Christmas
mad beggar (‘Poor Tom’) in order to help his Eves. In each case the action takes place away
stricken father. Abram-men also appear in from the main group of guests; Ayckbourn
Fletcher and Massinger’s Beggar’s Bush called Absurd Person Singular his first “offstage
(c. 1622), which features a “ragged regiment” action play”. In the first act the abrasive Sidney
of beggars, and are alluded to in Massinger’s A and his wife Jane play host to their neighbours
NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS. Geoffrey and Eva and Ronald and Marion.
Absolute, Captain A headstrong The action is pure farce, with flyspray
domineering character in Sheridan’s THE mistakenly used as a room freshener, guests
RIVALS (1775). In order to woo the romantic locked outside, and numerous personal
Lydia Languish, he pretends to be a poor misunderstandings. At the second party, given
officer, Ensign Beverly. See also ACRES, by Geoffrey and Eva, Geoffrey tells his wife
BOB. that he intends to leave her on Boxing Day.
She tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide but
Absurd, Theatre of the A theatrical none of the guests notices. Geoffrey goes for a
genre of the 1950s and 1960s, in which doctor as the drunken guests sing ‘On the First
accepted stage conventions were largely
Day of Christmas’. The last act takes place in
abandoned in order to present a view of the
Ronald and Marion’s kitchen, with Marion
world as meaningless and incomprehensible.
drunk and ill in her bedroom. The party ends
The phrase was coined by the theatre critic
with frenzied dancing to a Scottish reel.
Martin Esslin in 1961, who saw in the plays of
BECKETT, IONESCO, and others a reflection of Abydos Passion Play See TRIUMPH OF
the philosophical concept of the Absurd HORUS, THE.
popularized by existentialist writers such as
Albert Camus. Ionesco’s one-act play THE Accesi A company of Italian actors
BALD PRIMA DONNA (1950) is perhaps the
founded in about 1590 to perform works of
earliest play to be recognizably absurdist in its the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. By 1600 they had
style and preoccupations, while Beckett’s come under the leadership of Pier Maria
WAITING FOR GODOT (1953) is the Cecchini. Leading actors with the company
quintessential work in the genre. Other included the renowned Harlequin Tristano
playwrights to be associated with the style Martinelli, Flamineo Scala, and Silvio Fiorillo
included the Frenchman Arthur ADAMOV and (who joined in 1621). In 1608 the company
the American Edward ALBEE. The impression gave a series of performances in France, finding
of a coherent movement was largely the result much acclaim at the French Court. The Accesi
of an accidental similarity of theme and eventually joined forces with Francesco
treatment and by the 1960s the leading Andreini’s family troupe, which also toured
writers had already begun to take different France. However, the two companies separated
paths. after the wives of Cecchini and Andreini began
 acrobatics 3

to quarrel, and Cecchini retained the Accesi important factors are the size of the interior,
name. the shape of the ceiling (which reflects most
of the sound), and the sound-absorbing
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
properties of carpets, etc. A theatre’s
A black comedy by the Italian playwright
PROSCENIUM ARCH is also a major determinant.
Dario FO, first performed in 1979 in Varese.
The ancient Greeks and Romans built
The play holds the record as Britain’s longest-
their outdoor theatres in quiet locations; the
running fringe theatre presentation; in
1980–81 the Belt and Braces Company gave Greeks improved the sound reception by
622 performances of the play at Wyndham’s seating the audience on steep hillsides, while
Theatre, London, seen by more than 400,000 the Romans used elevated platforms. The
theatregoers. Greeks also introduced PERIAKTOI – prisms
The play is based on the true case of the that could be angled to deflect sound towards
anarchist Guiseppe Pinelli, who somehow fell the audience.
to his death from a window at police The Italian opera house introduced
headquarters while being interrogated; officials excellent acoustics for music by eliminating the
said he jumped. Fo’s play makes use of a Fool, domed ceiling, draping boxes to dampen
who impersonates a Captain of Police, thereby reverberations, and adding baroque
exposing the inconsistencies in the police’s ornamentation, which diffused the sound.
version. In one ending, the Fool is himself The spoken word presented more difficult
thrown to his death and resurrected. In problems. The Elizabethans placed a small roof
another, he escapes by threatening to send a over the stage to deflect sound downwards.
tape of police testimony to the press. However, later and larger theatres often
allowed architectural flourishes to come before
Acharnians, The A comedy by acoustical considerations. When VANBRUGH’s
ARISTOPHANES, first performed in 425 BC in large Queen’s Theatre opened in 1705 at the
Athens. His earliest complete extant drama, it Haymarket, its concave roof meant that only
won the first prize at the Lenaean Festival. one in 10 words was heard distinctly. Thomas
The Acharnians is a satire on the Betterton’s company, who had moved there
Peloponnesian War in which the hero, the old from Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, had to
farmer Dicaeopolis, weary of the fighting, return to their old venue until alterations could
makes his own private peace treaty with the be made. The late recognition of the value of
Spartans. This arrangement is furiously the convex roof was particularly important
denounced by the chorus of old charcoal when projection acting was replaced by more
burners of Acharnae, but Dicaeopolis’s life realistic conversational styles. Convex devices
begins to improve as he trades with the old have also been hung from the ceiling, as in
enemy. The play mocks Athenian values: one London’s Royal Albert Hall. Acoustics experts
scene shows a wealthy Boeotian asking to buy have also found that sound quality is improved
a typical Athenian souvenir and ending up by a horseshoe-shaped auditorium. In modern
with an informer; another shows a poor theatres with sound-absorbing ceilings,
Megarian selling his two daughters (disguised electrical amplification is needed for proper
as pigs) to keep them from starving. acoustics.
Aristophanes also included lines alluding to
his own impeachment the previous year for Acres, Bob A cowardly blustering
attacking the demagogue Cleon and his character in Sheridan’s THE RIVALS (1775),
followers in his play Babylonians. whose courage always somehow “oozed out at
The play also mentions the EKKYKLEMA, an his fingers’ ends.” He is an unwelcome suitor
early piece of theatrical machinery consisting to Lydia Languish and as such a rival to
of a wheeled platform. When a character Captain Jack ABSOLUTE. In the 19th century
knocks on Euripides’s door and asks him to the role was greatly expanded by the third
come out, the dramatist replies that he is not at Joseph Jefferson (see JEFFERSON FAMILY), who
leisure. The annoyed visitor replies: “At least transformed Acres from a rustic buffoon into a
be wheeled out.” whimsical eccentric. Jefferson named his
Lousiana estate Bob Acres in honour of the
acoustics The characteristics of a theatre,
role.
auditorium, or other room that affect sound
transmission and its fidelity. The most acrobatics The performance by an
4 act

entertainer of feats requiring physical agility or theatres) or by raising the house lights. In
coordination. Acrobatics has had an important ancient Greece tragedies were divided into five
role in many comic traditions and remains a acts, a convention that was reinforced by
mainstay of the CIRCUS. It is of ancient origin: Horace (65–8 BC) in his Ars Poetica. Ben
acrobats performed leaps, somersaults, and Jonson introduced this convention to the
vaults at Egyptian feasts, and Greece had English stage, leading later editors to divide
itinerant acrobats in the 7th century BC. The Shakespeare’s tragedies into five acts.
Tumbler of Our Lady was a popular 12th- Comedies are traditionally written in three
century fabliau about an acrobat. Later the acts. Modern drama tends to employ a more
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE depended upon varied structure, with many full-length plays
acrobatic skills, as did the English having no divisions into acts.
HARLEQUINADE.
ACT See AMERICAN CONSERVATORY
The basic move is the salto, or leap. In its
THEATRE.
advanced forms this can be dangerous. In 1842
an attempt at a triple salto mortale, or death- act-drop See CURTAIN.
defying leap, ended in a fatality at the Van
actor A person who acts in a play, film,
Amburgh Circus (it was finally mastered in
etc., especially one who does so professionally.
1860 by the American Billy Dutton). Devices
The term used to be reserved for male actors
used in leaping have gone from the ancient
but is now used increasingly of women also.
springboard to the flying trapeze, invented in
The first actor known to us by name is
1859 by the Frenchman Jules LÉOTARD.
THESPIS (6th century BC), who is usually
Other moves include the antipodean, in
considered the founder of the profession. In
which one acrobat lies on his back and juggles
ancient Greece acting was considered an
with another. A development of this is the so-
honourable occupation. This was less so in
called Risley Stunt, invented by Professor
ancient Rome, although some performers,
Richard Risley of Carlisle, in which two
most notably the comedian Quintus ROSCIUS
children somersault from foot to foot of a
Gallus (120–62 BC), are known to have
prone partner. A perch act involves one
enjoyed a high social position.
acrobat performing balancing moves on the
This situation changed with the adoption
top of a pole held by a second. Another form
of Christianity as the state religion. Thereafter
of acrobatics is wire-walking, which has often
actors were deprived of their legal rights and
been used for spectacular entertainment; in
forced into virtual slave labour for theatre
1859 the Frenchman BLONDIN walked
managers. Professional acting did not revive
blindfolded on a rope over Niagara Falls.
until the 16th century, with the advent of the
Acrobatic skills are essential to slapstick
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE companies. The early
comedy. In the late 1880s the young Fred
travelling actors often endured miserable
KARNO had a juggling and tumbling act with
poverty. In 1603 the Spanish writer Augustin
Monsieur Alvene, a well-known ‘gymnast and
de Rojas Villandrando wrote:
equilibrist’. However, Karno soon made a
discovery: They sleep in their clothes, go
barefoot, are always hungry, rid
It came to me that Alvene and I were
themselves of their fleas amid the grain
breaking our arses doing fancy
in summer and do not feel them on
acrobatics for a bit of polite applause,
account of the cold in winter.
when what the customers liked best
was when we were larking about and In Elizabethan England the first professional
falling on our bottoms. company was organized by James Burbage (see
BURBAGE FAMILY). Unlicensed performers,
Karno went on to become a famous impresario
however, were still classified as vagabonds and
of slapstick comedy.
liable to whipping or imprisonment. In 1597
Actors of the legitimate theatre also learn
the Lord Mayor of London objected to a
some acrobatic moves as part of their training.
proposed theatre because it would portray vice,
act One of the major structural divisions of attract depraved spectators, and spread disease
a play. The end of an act, which can contain – an attitude maintained by such puritan
several scenes, is often indicated by the campaigners as William Prynne, who
lowering of the curtain (in PROSCENIUM ARCH denounced actors as “the very filth and off-
 Actors Studio 5

scouring, the very lewdest, basest, worst, and actor-manager An actor who manages
perniciously vicious of the sons of men”. his own company, generally both directing and
Audiences were often no more respectful, starring in its productions. This arrangement
sometimes forcing actors to halt an unpopular dominated the 19th-century English stage,
performance and start another play. Poor with the actor-managers Henry IRVING and
acting resulted in a bombardment with Beerbohm TREE achieving particular
oranges, nuts, tiles, and even benches. In prominence. Irving managed the Lyceum
Catholic countries actors were refused the Theatre with some 600 employees, while Tree
sacraments and denied Christian burial (see managed three theatres, the Comedy, the
LECOUVREUR, ADRIENNE). Haymarket, and Her Majesty’s. The great
In the 18th century the status of the acting actor-managers were often accused, with some
profession was greatly enhanced by David reason, of mounting productions that were
GARRICK, who, according to Edmund Burke, little more than showcases for their own
“raised the character of his profession to the bravura talents (the actor-manager was defined
rank of a liberal art”. Other great British by one wit as a man to whom the part was
actors of the 18th and 19th centuries include always greater than the whole). The authority
Sarah SIDDONS, Edmund KEAN, and Henry of actor-managers began to wane at the turn
IRVING. The profession finally achieved full of the century with the rise of independent
respectability when Irving was knighted in non-acting directors. Notable 20th-century
1895. In 1970 Laurence OLIVIER became the exceptions to this trend include the
first theatrical knight to be raised to the appointment in 1944 of OLIVIER and
peerage. Richardson as co-directors of the Old Vic and
Despite this late-won respectability, actors Olivier’s appointment in 1962 as director of
continue to attract their share of derogatory the National Theatre Company. The tradition
comment (the following are all from modern of the actor-manager has more recently been
sources): revived by Kenneth BRANAGH, whose
Acting is therefore the lowest of the Renaissance Theatre Company toured widely
arts, if it is an art at all. in the late 1980s, and by Mark RYLANCE at
GEORGE MOORE: Mummer-Worship
Shakespeare’s Globe.
At one time I thought he wanted to be Actor Prepares, An The usual English
an actor. He had certain qualifications, title of Konstantin STANISLAVSKY’s treatise
including no money and a total lack of (1926) on the psychology of acting. This title
responsibility. was used for a 1936 abridgement published in
HEDDA HOPPER: From Under My Hat America. A more literal translation of the
Russian title would have been An Actor’s Work
Scratch an actor and you’ll find an on Himself. The US edition was used as the
actress. basis for training in the METHOD, a
DOROTHY PARKER
psychological system of acting based on
An actor’s a guy who, if you ain’t Stanislavsky’s theories.
talking about him, ain’t listening.
Actors’ Equity Association See
MARLON BRANDO
EQUITY.
They didn’t act like people and they
didn’t act like actors. It’s hard to Actors Studio The New York-based
explain. They acted more like they workshop for professional actors founded in
knew they were celebrities and all. 1947 by Elia KAZAN, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl
J. D. SALINGER: The Catcher in the Rye Crawford. Under the artistic direction of Lee
STRASBERG (from 1948), the Studio became
We’re actors – we’re the opposite of known as the US home of the METHOD school
people. of acting and nurtured many leading theatre
TOM STOPPARD: Rosencrantz and
and film stars, including Marlon Brando.
Guildenstern Are Dead The Actors Studio West, the Studio’s only
A talented actor is as rare as an arsehole branch outside New York, opened in West
in the face. Hollywood, California, in 1965. The Studio is
THOMAS BERNHARD: The Showman primarily a forum for exploration and
See also ACTRESS; ADVICE TO ACTORS. experimentation, away from the pressures of
6 actress

commercial production. The costs are met by nude on the British stage was Maggie Wright,
voluntary subscription, and membership is by when she played Helen of Troy in the Royal
invitation following audition. Shakespeare Company’s 1968 production of
Dr Faustus. Many actresses now prefer the sex-
actress A female who acts in a dramatic
neutral term ‘actor’:
performance. Respectable women did not act
in the classical drama of Greece and Rome, I’m an actor. An actress is someone who
although prostitutes and slaves sometimes wears boa feathers.
appeared in MIME. On the English stage female SIGOURNEY WEAVER
parts were always taken by boys until the Acts of Pilate, The See GOSPEL OF
Restoration. Actresses had been introduced to NICODEMUS.
the French and Italian theatres somewhat
earlier. In 1611 the traveller Thomas Coryate Acts of the Apostles A group of
noted of his stay in Venice: “When I went to a French miracle plays written between 1452
theatre I observed certain things that I never and 1478 by Simon Gréban, probably with his
saw before; for I saw women act”. Outstanding brother Arnoul. The stories of the travels,
early actresses include Italy’s Isabella Andreini teachings, and martyrdom of Christ’s apostles
(Isabella Canali; 1562–1604), who developed were collected in a manuscript containing
the role of the inamorata (young girl in love), 61,968 lines.
France’s Madeleine Béjart (1618–72), For over 70 years the plays were presented
cofounder with Molière of the Illustre-Théâtre, by the CONFRÉRIE DE LA PASSION, an
and Germany’s Caroline Neuber association of amateur actors, at a site just
(1697–1760), or Die Neuberin, who also outside the walls of Paris. In 1541, however,
managed. the Confrérie was charged with adding
England’s first professional actress was apocryphal material along with farces and
Margaret Hughes (1643–1719), Prince pantomimes. The Church authorities protested
Rupert’s mistress, who made her public debut that the performances encouraged “neglect of
on 3 December 1660 at the Vere Street theatre divine service, indifference in almsgiving and
in Killigrew’s The Moor of Venice. The charity, adultery and incessant fornication,
audience gave an enthusiastic ovation when scandals, mockery and scorn”. Even priests
informed by the prologue that a woman would were said to hurry through services in order to
appear. Actresses were officially licensed to see the plays. These attacks had little effect on
appear in English theatres in 1662: the plays’ popularity; in 1545 the Acts of the
Apostles was played every Sunday for seven
Whereas, women’s parts in plays have
straight months. Three years later, however,
hitherto been acted by man in the
when the Confrérie moved to a new
habits of women…we do permit and
permanent home at the HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE
give leave for the time to come that all
they were prohibited from performing
women’s parts be acted by women.
religious works.
CHARLES II: royal licence of 1662
Other early actresses to take London by act-tune Music played between the acts of
storm were Nell GWYNN (1650–87), the a play. Such musical interludes were especially
mistress of Charles II, and two names extolled important in the Elizabethan and Restoration
in PEPYS’s diary, Mrs Knepp (d. 1677) and Mrs theatre. The composer Henry Purcell supplied
Betterton (Mary Saunderson; d. 1712). act-tunes for such plays as King Arthur (1691)
Edward KYNASTON (d. 1706) seems to have and The Fairy Queen (1692). Introductory
been the last male actor to take female parts in music for a play was known as the curtain-
serious drama. tune.
One of Britain’s greatest tragic actresses Adamov, Arthur (1908–70) Russian-
was Sarah SIDDONS (1755–1831). During her born French playwright, who became one of
last performance – Macbeth in 1812 – the the leading exponents of the Theatre of the
audience were so moved that they stood on ABSURD in the 1950s. Adamov, who did not
benches and demanded (successfully) that the begin writing for the theatre until the late
play end with her last scene. America’s first 1940s, was heavily influenced by the dramatic
native-born actress was Charlotte CUSHMAN. works of Strindberg. His first play, La Parodie,
The first legitimate actress to appear totally was written in 1947 but not performed until
 advice to actors 7

1952. The play, which features a large handless upper-class family and their servants are
clock towering over the set, satirizes man’s shipwrecked on an island, Crichton, the
attempts to find the elusive meaning of butler, emerges as the natural leader of the
existence. In 1950 The Large and Small group. However, when rescuers arrive he
Manoeuvre and The Invasion were both staged. resumes his original inferior position.
Major acclaim only arrived, however, with the The name was originally bestowed on
1953 production of the Kafkaesque PROFESSOR James Crichton (1560–85), the Scottish
TARANNE, which concerns a university traveller, scholar, and soldier, by Sir Thomas
professor who can no longer maintain his Urquhart in his book The Exquisite Jewel
public character. Ping Pong (1955), another (1652). It is sometimes used to mean a person
well-known work, revolves around a pinball of all-round talents.
machine and the obsession of the central
Admiral’s Men An English theatre
characters with this futile game of chance. The
company formed in 1585 with Admiral Lord
play marks a move away from Adamov’s dream
Howard as its patron. Their large repertory of
world towards the more overtly political
plays included several by Marlowe. With
concerns that characterize such later works as
Edward ALLEYN as their leading actor, they
the Brechtian Paolo Paoli (1957), about the
performed at the THEATRE with Strange’s Men
turn-of-the-century trade in ostrich feathers,
in 1590; after an argument with the landlord
and Spring ’71 (1961), which provides an
BURBAGE both companies moved to the ROSE
account of the Paris Commune of 1871. Off
THEATRE.
Limits (1968), set in America at the time of the
The Admiral’s Men lost several good actors
Vietnam War, and If Summer Returned (1970)
to the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN when the latter
were his last plays before his death from a
were formed in 1594, but Alleyn continued to
drugs overdose. The private neuroses that
lead them as an independent company. He
informed the nightmarish world of his plays
retired in 1597 but returned three years later
are detailed at length in his autobiographical
when the company moved to the Fortune
works The Confession (1946) and Man and
playhouse under their new name of Prince
Child (1968).
Henry’s Men. In 1612 they became the
Adding Machine, The An expressionist Palsgrave’s Men under their new patron the
play by Elmer RICE, first performed in 1923 in Elector Palatine. The company lost all of its
New York. The play is a satire on automation. costumes and playbooks when the Fortune
Rice’s anti-hero, Mr Zero, is a book- burned down in 1621. It disbanded 10 years
keeper who represents the average man’s later, after the plague had greatly reduced
dehumanization by the machine age. He is theatre-going.
nagged by his wife, rejected at the office by
advertisement curtain In the British
the pretty Daisy, and after 25 years of faithful
theatre of the late 19th and early 20th
service finds himself replaced by an adding
centuries, an inner CURTAIN lowered between
machine. Mr Zero murders his employer and
acts that carried the advertisements of
is subsequently tried and executed. In heaven,
companies and local shops sponsoring the
he meets Daisy who has committed suicide
theatre. This practice mostly occurred in
and now confesses her love. However, he is
provincial and small London theatres.
informed by heavenly sources that after a
“cosmic laundering” he will be sent back to advice to actors
earth as a mindless machine operator. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I
pronounced it to you, trippingly on
ad lib To depart from the script and
the tongue; but if you mouth it, as
improvise. It is often resorted to in
many of your players do, I had as lief
emergencies, such as the absence of an essential
the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do
prop or a failure to remember the correct lines.
not saw the air too much with your
The term derives from the Latin ad libitum,
hand, thus; but use all gently: for in
literally, at pleasure. See also BUSK; GAG; PONG.
the very torrent, tempest, and – as I
Admirable Crichton, The A comedy may say – whirlwind of passion, you
by J. M. BARRIE, first performed in 1902 in must acquire and beget a temperance,
London. It examines the disparity between that may give it smoothness. O! it
natural talent and social status. When an offends me to the soul to hear a
8 Æ

robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a works, referring only to his service at the Battle
passion to tatters, to very rags, to split of Marathon (490 BC).
the ears of the groundlings, who for
the most part are capable of nothing African Roscius, the Nickname for Ira
but inexplicable dumb-shows and Frederick ALDRIDGE, who is recognized as the
noise: I would have such a fellow first great Black American actor. See also
whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it ROSCIUS.
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. afterpiece A brief play, often a farce,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet.
offered as comic relief after a full-length
When in doubt, shout – that’s the tragedy in the 18th-century British theatre.
motto. Those who wished to see only the afterpiece
ANONYMOUS (19th century) were usually charged half-price. It tended to
Just know your lines and don’t bump appeal to the less sophisticated part of the
into the furniture. audience. One theatre-goer in 1806 was
NOËL COWARD amazed to see a play go “eight and twenty
First wipe your nose and check your nights without the buttress of an afterpiece”.
flies. After the Fall A play about love and
SIR ALEC GUINNESS responsibility by Arthur MILLER. Elia Kazan
Æ The pseudonym of the Irish dramatist directed the original production at the
and writer George William Russell Washington Square Theatre, New York, in
(1867–1935). He originally intended to use 1964, when it opened the first season of the
the pen name ‘Aeon’, a word to which he Vivian Beaumont Repertory Company (which
attributed great mystical significance, but the following year became the Lincoln Center
settled on the shorter form when a newspaper Repertory Company). It was performed at the
accidentally printed it this way. Russell’s Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 1967.
considerable and varied output includes several Most believe, although Miller always
volumes of poetry and the play Deirdre (1902). denied, that the play was based on his failed
He also helped to found Dublin’s ABBEY marriage to the Hollywood sex symbol
THEATRE.
Marilyn Monroe. The play’s main female
A-effect See ALIENATION EFFECT. character, Maggie, is given less love than she
needs and commits suicide. Monroe’s death, a
Aeschylus (525–456 BC) The father of
suspected suicide, had occurred only two years
Greek tragic drama, usually considered the first
earlier, and some critics suggested that Miller
great writer in the Western theatrical tradition.
Only seven plays, of over 70 known titles, are could have waited longer before releasing the
extant. These are THE PERSIANS (472 BC), work.
SEVEN AGAINST THEBES (469 BC), PROMETHEUS The action takes place in an abstract,
BOUND (c. 460 BC), THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN multi-level setting representing the mind of
(c. 460 BC), and the ORESTEIA trilogy (458 BC), Quentin, a 40-year-old Jewish lawyer. Quentin
comprising Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and addresses the audience directly about the
Eumenides. He also wrote numerous SATYR- traumas of his life, which are depicted in a
PLAYS, which have only survived in series of scenes. These show his indifference to
fragmentary form. Maggie’s tragic pleas for attention and his
Aeschylus’s work is powerful and operatic, doomed relationships with other women,
using majestic but often innovative language. including Louise, another ex-wife, and a
His attitude to Greek society and religion was German girlfriend who harbours guilt about
generally conservative, although he boldly the Holocaust.
depicted the sufferings of men and woman
when moral systems, and the gods themselves, Agate, James (1877–1947) British
are in conflict. theatre critic, whose reviews appeared in the
Legend says he was killed by a tortoise Sunday Times from 1923 until his death. He
dropped by an eagle (to break the shell) on his credited George Bernard SHAW as his
bald head (mistaken for a stone). His inspiration, saying, “The articles signed
tombstone makes no mention of his literary ‘G.B.S.’ in The Sunday Review made me
 Aktie Tomaat 9

determine that one day I would be a dramatic Department of Agitation and Propaganda,
critic.” which was set up in 1920 by the Central
In 1928 Agate used his fortnightly theatre Committee of the Communist Party.
talk on the BBC to promote R. C. Sherriff’s Travelling agitprop abounded in Russia and
JOURNEY’S END, which had just opened. He spread throughout Europe. In 1950–51, and
claimed that he had advised the manager to again in the 1960s, the Chinese workers’
cancel it because the public was utterly theatres produced their own version of
unworthy of such a play. Abusive letters agitprop.
poured in from listeners and people rushed to
agon An ancient Greek theatrical term for
the box office. He often used the incident as an
the central conflict in classical TRAGEDY. The
example of the power of exaggeration. word meant a ‘contest’ or ‘struggle’; originally
Agate’s one attempt to write a play himself it had the specific meaning of a contest for a
was a disaster. Having collaborated on a prize at the public games.
comedy, Blessed Are The Rich, he persuaded
friends to put up several thousand pounds for Aguecheek, Sir Andrew A foolish,
its production at the Vaudeville Theatre in timid, and effete country squire in
1928. When the curtain fell the audience lured Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT. He is the
Agate onstage with polite applause then roared companion of Sir Toby BELCH, who exploits
their disapproval with loud shouts of Sir Andrew’s infatuation with the countess
‘Rubbish!’. The play lasted 13 performances Olivia.
and attracted many actors and playwrights who Ah! Wilderness An uncharacteristic play
enjoyed this revenge on their previous by Eugene O’NEILL, being a nostalgic comedy
tormentor. about his youth (later depicted so bitterly in
He was notoriously difficult to please. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT). The plot
Only Henry Irving and Sarah BERNHARDT follows 17-year-old Richard Miller during his
were accorded the accolade of greatness. His two-day passage to manhood in a local bar.
sister May Agate (1892–1960) had studied The play opened on Broadway in 1933 with
with Bernhardt and appeared with her in Paris Elisha Cook Jr as Richard and the veteran
and London. Agate’s pen could be florid when vaudeville star George M. COHAN as
he contemplated the French actress: Richard’s father, Nat. Despite receiving an
You would know a scene of Sarah overwhelming ovation and rave reviews,
Bernhardt’s if you met it in your Cohan scowled and groaned, “Imagine my
dreams. To say of the very greatest reciting lines by Eugene O’Neill! Why, he
actress of this type that she is always ought to be on the stage reciting lines by me!”
herself is obviously to mean that O’Neill’s plays were generally thought too
whatever quality she expresses will be long and he fought to keep every minute.
expressed in its highest power. When the curtain fell on one early
It also could be sharp, as in his review of performance of Ah! Wilderness, the stage hands
Charles LAUGHTON’s London performance as demanded overtime. After much persuasion,
Henry VIII in 1933: O’Neill delighted the management by agreeing
Mr. Laughton came to Sadler’s Wells to trim 10 minutes; however, this turned out
with all his blushing film vulgarities to be a 10-minute intermission.
thick upon him. aisle sitters US slang for theatre CRITICS,
agitprop A derogatory term for a type of probably from the notion that someone sitting
theatre that uses propaganda and tendentious in the aisle of a theatre could escape from a
boring play before the end or leave to send
argument to influence its audience’s political
copy to a newspaper without disturbing other
attitudes. It is often applied to the activities of
theatregoers.
left-wing touring companies. A prime example
was New York’s LIVING THEATRE, which Aktie Tomaat (Dutch: Tomato Action)
toured Europe in the 1960s with a message of A radical movement in Dutch theatre in the
anarchy and revolution. In its own work, late 1960s and early 1970s. It was sparked by
Paradise Now (1968), the audience was urged an incident in 1969, when students of the
to take the struggle onto the streets. Toneelschool (Amsterdam’s School of Drama)
The term derives from the Soviet Union’s threw tomatoes at actors performing with the
10 Aladdin

Nederlandse Comedie in Amsterdam’s being awarded almost a decade later for

municipal theatre. The action was intended as Seascape (1975).
a protest against the bland socially irrelevant His later plays, which tend to be somewhat
productions offered by the Dutch theatrical abstract and experimental, have on the whole
establishment. Another source of complaint been less successful with audiences and critics.
was the allegedly dictatorial role of the Notable exceptions are Three Tall Women,
director. which won Albee his third Pulitzer Prize in
The campaign emphasized the social 1994, and the Tony Award-winning The Goat
function of drama. New works were written or Who is Sylvia? (2004), about an architect
and produced to appeal to sections of the who falls in love with a goat. Me, Myself and I
(2007) concerns a pair of identical twins both
population that had been neglected by the
named Otto. Albee has adapted several works
mainstream theatre. Improvisation was
for the stage, including Nabokov’s Lolita
encouraged as a way of developing new themes (1981), as well as directing a number of plays
and the creative role of the actor was stressed. off-Broadway. The New York theatre marked
Several new democratically organized theatre Albee’s 80th birthday with a short season of his
companies emerged, including Amsterdam’s works in 2007–08.
WERKTEATER, the Sater educational theatre,
and the Toneel environmental theatre. See also Albery Theatre See NOËL COWARD
THEATRE.
VORMINGSTONEEL (POLITIEK).

Aladdin An oriental tale that has been a Alchemist, The A satirical comedy by
Ben JONSON, first performed in 1610 at the
favourite subject for PANTOMIMEs since the late
Globe Theatre. The plot concerns the attempts
18th century. The poor Aladdin obtains a
of three rogues – the alchemist Subtle, the
magic lamp, whose genie will comply with any butler Face, and the whore Dol Common – to
request. Aladdin has a splendid palace built fleece gullible people in the house of Face’s
and marries the daughter of the sultan of absent master, Lovewit. They distribute
China, but loses the lamp when his wife alchemical and astrological advice and even
unwittingly disposes of it to a wicked sorceror. perform magic rituals for their customers (at
As a result both palace and wife are transported one point summoning up the ‘Queen of the
to Africa. Aladdin subsequently recovers the Fairies’). Lovewit returns unexpectedly,
lamp and returns with his wife to China, however, and the law officers are summoned.
where they live happily ever after. H. J. The alchemist is found to have fled, while Face
Byron’s 1861 version was the first to name remains in his master’s good graces by
Aladdin’s mother WIDOW TWANKEY and the arranging a marriage for him. Jonson’s delight
wicked magician Albanazor. in trickery and practical jokes is evident
throughout. The play also presents a serious
Albee, Edward (Franklin) (1928– ) moral about human greed and gullibility.
US dramatist. Albee was born in Virginia and The Alchemist has attracted some of
named after his adoptive grandfather, a Britain’s best serious actors into comedy.
manager of vaudeville theatres. He first came David Garrick played Abel Drugger, one of the
to public attention with a run of successful duped customers, as did Alec Guinness in
one-act plays, The Zoo Story (1959), The 1947 at the Old Vic, when critic Kenneth
Sandbox (1960), and THE AMERICAN DREAM TYNAN wrote of watching “his wistful, happy
(1961), which led to his being classed with the eyes moving in dumb wonder…” Ralph
writers of the Theatre of the ABSURD. Albee’s Richardson was Face in the same production.
reputation was firmly established, however, by In more recent revivals Subtle has been played
the Broadway success of his first full-length by Leo McKern (1962) and Face by Ian
play WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? McKellen (1977) and Simon Russell Beale
(1962), a campus play exploring the savage (2005).
love-hate relationship of a college professor Aldridge, Ira Frederick (1804–67)
and his wife. In 1966, it was made into a The first great Black American actor. The so-
successful film starring Richard Burton and called African Roscius began performing in
Elizabeth Taylor. A DELICATE BALANCE (1964) New York in 1821 with James Brown’s
won Albee his first Pulitzer Prize, the second African-American company at the African
 Alhambra 11

Grove tea garden. As racial barriers prevented visiting Martian, provoked boos from the
him from developing a theatrical career in gallery. Referring to the play’s anti-Cold War
America, he moved to Britain, making his message, Home made the startling prediction
London debut in 1826 at the Royalty Theatre. that “if they don’t learn the lesson of
In the course of his highly successful compromise taught tonight [in his play], in six
career, Aldridge played not only Othello but month’s time that gallery won’t be here”. The
also Shylock, Macbeth, Lear, and other major gallery was still there 30 years later when the
Shakespearean roles. He made his first tour of RSC’s production of Steve Gooch’s The
the Continent in 1853, becoming especially Women-Piraces: Ann Bonney and Mary Read
popular in Germany, where he acted in (1978) was loudly booed and garnered such
English while his supporting cast spoke
reviews as “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of twaddle”.
German. His only performances of Lear were
It closed after 19 performances.
in Russia, where he played with a whitened
face but black hands. Aldridge’s success Now under US ownership, the Aldwych
brought him considerable wealth and has enjoyed success with Tom Stoppard’s
decorations from monarchs in Prussia, Russia, Hapgood (1988), acclaimed revivals of
and Saxe-Meiningen. He became a naturalized Priestley’s An Inspector Calls (1992) and
British subject in 1863. Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1996),
and the film-based musicals Fame (2002) and
Aldwych Theatre A theatre in the West Dirty Dancing (since 2006).
End of London known for its productions of
both farces and Shakespeare. It was built as Alexandre le Grand A tragedy by Jean
one of a pair with the Waldorf Theatre RACINE that made his name but led to a breach
(subsequently the Strand Theatre, now the with his supporter MOLIÈRE. Molière produced
Ivor Novello) when slums were cleared away the play at the Palais-Royal in 1665, a year
for two new roads, The Aldwych and after staging Racine’s first play, La Thébaïde ou
Kingsway, in 1905. The 1089-seat theatre les frères ennemis, with moderate success.
opened with the musical Bluebell in Fairyland, Alexandre le Grand quickly proved popular and
written by and starring Seymour Hicks, one of seemed destined for a long run. Two weeks
the theatre’s owners. after opening, however, Racine secretly took
In 1911 the Aldwych saw the first English the play to a rival company, the Comédiens du
performance of a Chekhov play, The Cherry Roy, who performed it at the HÔTEL DE
Orchard, while during World War I it was
BOURGOGNE with Floridor, the greatest tragic
converted into a club for Australian
actor of the time, in the lead role. When
servicemen. The first of Ben TRAVERS’s famous
Aldwych farces, A Cuckoo in the Nest, was Molière found out, he severed relations with
presented in 1925. The series, which also Racine and never spoke to him again. The
included Rookery Nook (1926) and Thark Hôtel de Bourgogne became the venue for all
(1927), featured a regular cast headed by Racine’s subsequent tragedies.
Robertson Hare, Mary Brough, Tom Walls, The plot of Alexandre le Grand focuses on
and Ralph Lynn. Other successes included the conflict between Alexander the Great,
Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine (1942) presented as a paragon of magnanimity, and
and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named two Indian kings, Porus and Taxile. When
Desire (1949), with Vivien Leigh. Racine published the play in 1666 he
As the London home of the ROYAL dedicated it to Louis XIV, the ‘Alexander’ of
SHAKESPEARE COMPANY from 1960 to 1982, that age.
the Aldwych staged such celebrated
productions as Peter Brook’s Marat/Sade Alhambra A popular MUSIC HALL in
(1964) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Leicester Square, London, that for 76 years
(1970) as well as the eight-and-a-half-hour presented most of the great British stars of
Nicholas Nickleby (1980). The Aldwych also song and comedy. The venue was opened in
played host to the annual WORLD THEATRE 1854 as a 3500-seat exhibition centre named
SEASON from 1964 until 1973. The Aldwych the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art. Four
has also seen two particularly disastrous years later it became the Alhambra Palace then,
productions. William Douglas Home’s after alterations, the Alhambra Music Hall.
Ambassador Extraordinary (1948), about a The name would later change to the Albambra
12 Ali Baba

Palace of Varieties and, finally, the Alhambra step out of character during a scene to address
Theatre. the audience.
In 1861 the Alhambra introduced the
Alleyn, Edward (1566–1626) English
spectacular French acrobat Jules LÉOTARD to actor and manager, who began his theatrical
London audiences. It was also the first British career with Worcester’s Men in about 1583
theatre to present the French cancan, an before moving to the ADMIRAL’S MEN in about
indiscretion that briefly cost the Alhambra its 1587, both companies being managed by the
licence. The music hall burned down in 1882 Elizabethan impresario Philip HENSLOWE.
but was quickly rebuilt and reopened a year Alleyn was especially admired for his portrayals
later, establishing a reputation for lavish revues of MARLOWE’s Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine.
and ballets. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes In 1592 Alleyn married Henslowe’s
performed there in 1911 and on several later stepdaughter Joan Woodward, being thereafter
occasions. Comedy stars to head the Alhambra closely associated with Henslowe’s business
bill included George Robey and Violet affairs. He became a part owner in both the
Loraine, who were seen together in The Bing Rose and Fortune Theatres, as well as
Boys Are Here (1916), and Gracie Fields, who becoming involved in some of Henslowe’s
made her name in the revue Mr. Tower of other enterprises (which included bull-baiting
London (1923). The building was demolished arenas and brothels).
in 1936. The site, on the east side of the It appears that Alleyn’s fortunes prospered
square, is now occupied by the Odeon cinema. sufficiently for him to be able to retire before
The original Alhambra is a palace and the age of 40; thereafter he devoted himself to
fortress built at Granada by the Moorish kings charitable work, founding (1619) the College
in the 14th century. The Alhambra theatre of God’s Gift at Dulwich, which he later
was famous for its ornate Moorish-style endowed with his personal papers, which give
architecture. a unique insight into the business side of the
Elizabethan theatre. Following the death of
Ali Baba The hero of a story that was Joan in 1623, Alleyn married Constance, the
added to French versions of the Arabian Nights daughter of the Dean of St Paul’s, John
in the 18th century; it has become a favourite Donne.
subject for PANTOMIME. A poor woodcutter,
Ali Baba sees a band of forty thieves enter a Alleyn’s fortune proceeded no doubt
cave by using the magic password “Open from marrying three wives, each of
whom brought a handsome fortune,
Sesame”. When they have gone he enters the
partly from the success of his theatre,
cave, loads his ass with treasure, and takes it
partly from his being keeper of the
home. The thieves discover that Ali Baba has
King’s wild beasts, and master of the
learned their secret and plot to kill him,
Royal Bear Garden, and partly from
but are finally outwitted by the slave girl his being a most rigid and penurious
Morgiana, who pours boiling oil into the jars economist, which character he so
in which they are hiding. The story also strictly enjoined himself, that he was
provided the plot for the hit musical CHU CHIN the first pensioner in his own charity.
CHOW.
CHARLES DIBDIN
alienation effect (German: All for Love; or, the World Well
Verfremdungseffekt) The term coined by Bertolt Lost A tragedy in blank verse by John
BRECHT for his technique of deliberately DRYDEN, first performed in 1677 in London.
limiting the degree to which both actors and The plot is derived from Shakespeare’s
audience identify with the drama. Brecht’s ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, but with Dryden
intention was to jolt the sensibilities of all expanding the last hours of the doomed lovers
concerned in order to sharpen their objectivity into a five-act drama that focuses on the
and awareness. He achieved this alienation conflict between love and honour. All for Love
effect in various ways, including the use of is the most successful example of an English
third person or past-tense narrative, spoken tragedy influenced by classical French drama.
stage directions, unusual or subversive stage The UNITIES of time, place, and action are
design, as well as the use of songs, placards, strictly observed. The result is a taut well-
etc. One common device was for an actor to constructed work that lacks the sweep and
 Almeida Theatre 13

grandeur of Shakespeare’s treatment. The tone committed suicide on learning of his father’s
is also noticeably bleaker. Nevertheless, it has crime. Faced with this truth, Keller shoots
some excellent poetry and provides rich acting himself in the head and dies.
parts. It is the most frequently revived of The play was later made into a Hollywood
Dryden’s plays. film starring Edward G. Robinson as the
father. In the 1981 London revival Colin
All God’s Chillun Got Wings Eugene
Blakely played Joe with Rosemary Harris as his
O’NEILL’s play about the marriage between a
wife.
Black man and a White woman. It caused
Despite the seriousness of the theme, the
outrage when first performed in 1924 at the
first production of All My Sons ended with one
Provincetown Playhouse, New York, in a
of those stage pranks beloved by actors. On its
production starring Paul ROBESON and Mary
last night, the leading man reached for his
Blair. Newspapers carried the headline “White
packet of cigars to find a packet of cocktail
Actress Kisses Negro’s Hand” after this
sausages in its place.
occurred on stage. O’Neill, his children, and
the cast, all received death threats. All-Russian Theatrical Society
Before the play opened, O’Neill and the (VTO) A Russian actor’s union established in
Provincetown management decided to revive 1883 to protect working conditions and pay.
his earlier play The Emperor Jones in “an Dramatists and composers were protected by a
attempt to focus the attention of the public on subsidiary organization, the Union of Stage
an actor instead of a controversy”. Robeson Workers. The actress Alexandra Yablochkina
won acclaim in the role of the Black emperor, (1868–1964) was president of the All-Russian
but this did nothing to stem the outrage after Theatrical Society from 1916 until her death.
the opening of All God’s Chillun Got Wings. All’s Well that Ends Well A comedy
O’Neill countered with a press statement: by SHAKESPEARE, first performed c. 1602–04.
Prejudice born of an entire ignorance Owing to its sombre introspective quality, the
of the subject is the last word in play is traditionally classed with Shakespeare’s
injustice and absurdity. The ‘dark comedies’ or ‘problem plays’. It has only
Provincetown Playhouse has ignored 14 speaking parts, making it, with Twelfth
all criticism not founded on a Night, the Bard’s least populated play.
knowledge of the play and will The plot is based on a tale in Boccaccio’s
continue to ignore it…All we ask is a Decameron. The King of France is cured of a
square deal…We demand this hearing. mystery illness by a physician’s daughter,
New York’s district attorney tried to ban the HELENA. As a reward, he offers her any
play but had to concede that no law was being bachelor of the court as her husband. She
violated. Instead, he banned the use of child chooses the arrogant BERTRAM, who, regarding
actors and their lines were read by the stage her as beneath him, runs away to the wars.
manager throughout the run. Later he writes tauntingly that he will wed
Helena only when she obtains the ring from
All My Sons A play by Arthur MILLER that
his finger and has his child. She travels to
proved his first success, winning the New York
Florence and asks Diana, whom Bertram has
Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.
pursued, to pretend to submit to him. In the
First performed in 1947 in New York, All My
dark, Helena replaces Diana in bed and
Sons is an Ibsenian drama about war
successfully entreats Bertram to give her his
profiteering. Set in the aftermath of World
ring. When Bertram returns to Paris, the king
War II, the story centres upon 60-year-old Joe
has him arrested, believing that he has killed
Keller, whose partner Deever is serving a
Helena. In the play’s last moments the
prison sentence for knowingly fitting P40
pregnant Helena arrives wearing Bertram’s
fighter planes with defective engines, causing
ring, so all apparently ends well. Other notable
the deaths of 21 pilots. Although Keller had
characters include the Countess of Roussillion
instigated the crime, he had been released
– one of Shakespeare’s best roles for the older
owing to lack of evidence. Deever’s son,
woman – and the braggart PAROLLES.
George, visits and reveals the truth to Keller’s
son, Chris. A letter then reveals that Keller’s Almeida Theatre A small venue in
other son, Larry, whom everyone supposes Islington, north London, that has established
to have been killed in action, had in fact itself as one of the UK’s most dynamic and
14 alternative theatre

innovative producing theatres. The building century. It is also found in 18th- and 19th-
opened in 1837 as the Islington Literary and century Yugoslavian folk-paintings.
Scientific Institution, a forum for lectures and Altwiener Volkstheater (German:
demonstrations that included the unwrapping Old Viennese folk theatre) A type of
of one of the first Egyptian mummies brought improvised folk comedy popular in the
to Britain. It subsequently served as a music Viennese theatre of the early 18th century. It
club and a Salvation Army hall before falling was popularized mainly by the Austrian actors
derelict. In 1980 it was reopened by the Joseph Stranitsky (1676–1726) and Gottfried
founder and first director of the Almeida Prehauser (1699–1769). Derived from the
Theatre Company, Pierre Audi. HAUPT- UND STAATSAKTIONEN, the Altwiener
The Almeida’s golden era began in 1990, Volkstheater featured the wild antics of the
when Jonathan Kent (1955– ) and Ian Bavarian peasant clown HANSWURST. The
McDiarmid (1944– ) became its joint artistic genre fell out of favour in the mid 18th
directors and instituted a policy of presenting century.
British and foreign classics in sometimes
Alvin Theatre See NEIL SIMON THEATRE.
startling new versions. The theatre quickly
became one of the most talked about in Amadeus Peter SHAFFER’s hit play about
London, not least because of the readiness of the life and death of Wolfgang Amadeus
international celebrities (Juliette Binoche, Mozart. It opened in 1979 at the Olivier
Kevin Spacey, Cate Blanchett) to work there Theatre in a production directed by Peter Hall,
for little more than kudos. Famous Almeida transferring to Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1981.
productions of this era include Euripides’ The play also took Broadway by storm in
Medea (1994) with Diana RIGG and Hamlet 1980. The Sunday Times, however, called it
(1995) with Ralph Fiennes, both of which “tripe”. Simon Callow created the role of
Mozart, who is presented as a uniquely gifted
transferred to Broadway and won Tony
buffoon. The intense role of Salieri, his
awards; a version of Chekhov’s Ivanov (1997)
conscientious but mediocre rival, was played
travelled to Moscow.
by Paul Scofield at the Olivier, Frank Finlay at
In 2000 the Almeida closed for major Her Majesty’s, and Ian McKellen in New
renovations and the company moved to a York. A 1983 film version directed by Miloš
temporary home in a former bus garage near Forman won eight Oscars, including Best
King’s Cross Station. For the last production Picture and Best Actor (Murray Abraham as
before the move, a spectacular version of The Salieri).
Tempest, the Almeida stage was completely The work takes its central idea from
flooded and a hole was made in the roof for Pushkin’s play Mozart and Salieri, which
the entrances of Ariel. In 2002 the theatre suggested that Mozart was poisoned by his
reopened under a new artistic director, rival. In Shaffer’s play Mozart goes into a
Michael Attenborough. Triumphant physical and moral decline as Salieri
productions of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea undermines his position at the Austrian court
(2003), Albee’s The Goat (2004), and Tom and becomes senior composer. Salieri also
Kempinski’s Duet for One (2009) have attempts to drive the more gifted composer
followed. mad by posing as the ghost of his dead father.
Years later Salieri himself goes mad and writes
alternative theatre See COLLECTIVE a confession to the murder of Mozart.
CREATION; COMMUNITY THEATRE; FRINGE
THEATRE; OFF-BROADWAY; OFF-OFF-BROADWAY. Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC)
A theatre group founded in 1855 by
Altweibermuehle (German: Mill for F. C. Burnand (1836–1917), a Cambridge
Old Women) A Tirolean FASTNACHTSSPIEL in undergraduate, who later became a playwright
which a group of old men drag their wives to a and editor of Punch. It revived acting at
miraculous mill that can transform them into the University, where no plays had been
young and desirable women. After the performed since the Puritans closed the
treatment, however, the wives refuse to return theatres in 1642 (see INTERREGNUM, THE). The
to their husbands unless they reform their ADC, which celebrated its 150th anniversary
behaviour. The plot dates from the 16th in 2005, continues to develop actors for the
 American Company 15

professional stage, having already contributed introduce the ‘intimate revue’, a form which
such talent as Michael Redgrave (see REDGRAVE became hugely popular during World War II.
FAMILY). George Rylands (1902–99), lecturer Many of these, such as Sweet and Low (1943),
and fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, starred Hermione Gingold. During the war the
directed many of its most successful theatre also remained open for matinee
productions. performances of the Ballet Rambert.
On 25 November 1952 the Ambassadors
amateur theatre Drama in which the
presented the first performance of The
performers and stage workers receive no Mousetrap, which ran there for more than 21
payment other than some expenses. Amateur years with 8862 performances. It later moved
theatre has contributed greatly to the cultural next-door to the St Martin’s Theatre, where it
life of areas that seldom see professional still runs. Post-Mousetrap productions at the
companies and has strong links with the Ambassadors have varied widely, ranging from
FRINGE THEATRE. It has been an important
the RSC’s 1987 success with Christopher
nursery of talent for the professional theatre in Hampton’s Les Liaisons dangereuses to the
most countries. “rock ’n’ roll rave” From A Jack to A King
The early 20th century saw a growing (1992) and Conor McPherson’s ghost story
interest in amateur theatre in Britain and THE WEIR (1997). Recent productions have
REPERTORY companies soon began to merge
included an award-winning revival of
elements of the amateur and professional Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (2005), the 50th-
traditions. In 1955, the NATIONAL YOUTH anniversary revival of Peter Hall’s Waiting
THEATRE was founded by the director Michael for Godot (2006), and the dance theatre
Croft to promote amateur productions performance Stomp (since 2007).
featuring child actors. Today amateur theatre
thrives in university societies, such as the Ambigu, Théâtre de l’ A theatre in
Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), Paris that opened in 1769 on the Boulevard du
and in local societies, who often perform in Temple as a venue for children’s plays and
their own LITTLE THEATRES. puppet shows. From 1797 onwards it became
The British Theatre Association (BTA), a leading theatre for melodramas by such
founded in 1919 by Geoffrey Whitworth writers as Pixerecourt and Bouchardy. It
(1883–1951) as the British Drama League, burned down in 1827 and was rebuilt in 1828
coordinated ‘am dram’ throughout the country on the Boulevard Saint-Martin, where it
until its demise in 1990. Its valuable library became associated with the new Romantic
passed to the THEATRE MUSEUM (now also drama of Hugo and DUMAS père. The second
defunct). The BTA’s representative role has Ambigu was demolished in 1971. See
been largely taken over by the National BOULEVARD THEATRES.

Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA), American Academy of Dramatic

established in 1899, which provides advice and Arts (AADA) The oldest DRAMA SCHOOL in
leadership and also has a publishing arm. The America and still one of the best training
International Amateur Theatre Association grounds for US actors. It was founded (as the
(IATA), based at The Hague, was founded in Lyceum Theatre School of Acting) in 1884 in
1952 under the British actor and director New York by the theatre designer and
E. Martin Browne (1900–80). playwright Steel MacKaye and others. The
Ambassadors Theatre An intimate Academy is today affiliated with the State
London theatre that became home to small- University of New York and offers junior and
scale revues and Agatha Christie’s record- senior classes in acting. There is a second
breaking play THE MOUSETRAP. Designed as a campus in Hollywood.
pair with the next-door St Martin’s Theatre, it American Company A US theatre
opened in 1913 and is decorated in Louis XVI company that played a major part in the
style; the auditorium is adorned with development of early American drama and had
ambassadorial crests. The venue was renamed a virtual monopoly on US stage performances
the New Ambassadors Theatre in 1999 but for many years. The company was assembled
reverted to its original name in 2007. in 1763–64 in Charleston by David Douglass
The Ambassadors originally specialized in from former members of the elder Hallam’s
revues. It was the first theatre in England to troupe, including his widow and son (see
16 American Conservatory Theatre

HALLAM FAMILY). It was soon housed in the (1994) and a revival of Coward’s High Society
John Street Theatre, New York, under the (1997).
joint management of John Henry, Lewis
American Dream, The A one-act play
Hallam, and John Hodgkinson. In 1796 by Edward ALBEE, first performed in 1961 in
William DUNLAP became manager after New York. It takes a satirical look at the
bringing in the first Joseph Jefferson (see tensions underlying everyday middle-class
JEFFERSON FAMILY) as the leading actor. The
family life in America. Set in an average living-
company had no serious rival until 1794, when room, the plot centres on Mommy, Daddy,
Tomas Wignell, their former leading man, and Grandma. The latter fearfully awaits the
formed his own troupe and opened the arrival of the “van man”, who will one day
Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. come and take her away. A visit by Mrs Barker,
The American Company was the first to chairman of a woman’s club, reminds
stage a professional production of a play by an Grandma that 20 years ago this same woman
American, Thomas Godfrey; his tragedy The brought Mommy and Daddy a bundle of joy
Prince of Parthia was presented for one night at from the Bye Bye Adoption Agency. This child
the Southwark Theatre, Philadelphia, in 1767. was unloved and soon died. After Mrs Barker
The company’s repertoire included several by leaves, a handsome young man (the American
Dunlap, such as The Father; or, American Dream) appears seeking work. He tells
Shandyism (1789) and André (1798). In 1798 Grandma that he is incomplete, having no
it moved to New York’s Park Theatre but was emotions since being separated at birth from
disbanded in 1805 after Dunlap went his identical twin brother. When Mrs Barker
bankrupt and retired. The theatre was taken returns, Grandma tells her to pretend that the
over by a member of the company, Thomas American Dream is Mommy and Daddy’s
Abthorpe Cooper. adopted child, now grown up. This pleases
everyone, but Mommy has a funny feeling that
American Conservatory Theatre
the young man somehow seems familiar.
(ACT) The largest regional repertory company
in America, based at San Francisco’s 1456-seat American Laboratory Theatre An
theatre of the same name (formerly the Geary acting school and production group
Theatre), with some performances also at the established in 1924 in New York by Richard
Marine Memorial Theatre. The 50-member Boleslavsky (1889–1937), who was soon
company, which performs both classical and joined by Maria Ouspenskaya (1876–1949).
modern works, is committed to an educational Both were former pupils of STANISLAVSKY at
and experimental role. the MOSCOW ART THEATRE. Boleslavsky had
ACT was founded in 1965 at the already taught the METHOD acting system for a
Pittsburgh Playhouse by the flamboyant actor year at New York’s Neighbourhood Playhouse
William Ball (1931–91), already acclaimed for after appearing in the Moscow Art Theatre’s
staging an OFF-BROADWAY production of first Broadway season.
Chekhov’s Ivanov (1958). He created a The Laboratory Theatre, which lasted
‘dashing style’ for the new company but soon until 1929, was the primary advocate of
fell out with the Pittsburgh management; ACT Stanislavsky’s theories in America. Among its
toured for a year before settling in San pupils were Lee STRASBERG, who became
Francisco, where it opened with Molière’s director of the New York Actors’ Studio in
Tartuffe (1966). In 1970 Allen Fletcher began 1951 and made it home to the Method, and
to direct the company’s training programme Harold Clurman (who later complained that
and in 1978 it began to offer a master’s degree the Method produced “a kind of constipation
in acting. of the soul”). Strasberg and Clurman were
The company overcame a 1973 deficit of among the founders of the GROUP THEATRE in
$900,000 by trimming its size and repertoire. 1931.
Its productions have since ranged from Hamlet American Museum A Broadway theatre
to Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear and Albee’s A opened by P. T. BARNUM as a museum in
Delicate Balance. The theatre was damaged by 1841. It became a theatre in 1849 and, after
an earthquake in 1989 and did not reopen for being enlarged and refurbished, reopened a
some years. Subsequent successes have year later with W. H. Sedley-Smith’s
included Tony Kushner’s ANGELS IN AMERICA moralistic melodrama The Drunkard, which
 American Repertory Theatre 17

had a record run. Cultural events were also Library in 1941. Later offerings included two
staged, such as concerts by the opera singer plays by Hill, Walk Hard (1944) and On
Jenny Lind. Personal financial problems forced Strivers’ Row (1946) and, at the Harlem
Barnum to sell the theatre in 1855 but he was Children’s Center in 1949, Synge’s Riders to
able to repurchase it six years later. In the the Sea. The company’s greatest success was
1860s, plays were largely displaced by boxing, Philip Yordan’s Anna Lucasta, starring
oddities, and freak shows, including the Frederick O’Neal, which opened on Broadway
midget General TOM THUMB. The building in 1944 and ran for nearly three years. It
burned down in 1865. opened in London in 1947 with equal success.
Barnum briefly operated from the Winter The American Negro Theatre toured England
Garden before opening his New American and Europe in 1953 but was disbanded on its
Museum later that year in the former Chinese return to America.
Rooms on Broadway. A variety of shows were
presented, including Van Amburgh’s American Place Theatre A New York
menagerie in 1867, but plays continued to be theatre company now based at 111 West 46th
performed. This theatre also burned down, Street in the rear of the Stevens Building facing
during a performance of Harriet Beecher Sixth Avenue. In 1971 this underground
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1868. Barnum complex was presented to the company for an
never rebuilt it. annual lease of $5, because zoning laws allow
American National Theatre and the builder of a skyscraper to add storeys if a
Academy (ANTA) The national theatre theatre is included.
organization that Congress established under The company mounted its first
Franklin Roosevelt’s administration in 1935 to productions in 1964 at St Clement’s Church
provide a tax-free “people’s project, organized on West 46th Street. Its founders, Wynn
and conducted in their interest, free from Handman, who remained the artistic director
commercialism”. A self-supporting organization for many years, and the Reverend Sidney
run by its own members, it became the US Lanier, pastor of the church, dedicated the
centre for the INTERNATIONAL THEATRE company to the presentation of works by living
INSTITUTE in 1948. Two years later it acquired US playwrights. When the company moved to
the Guild Theatre in New York, which it its present location in 1971, the experimental
renamed the Anta Theatre. The venue was theatre group, Sub-Plot was also formed. In
later leased to provide needed funds, although 1978 the Women’s Project was created by Julia
ANTA maintained offices there. In 1968 the Miles.
Anta Theatre was given to the nation (under The company’s 10-month season includes
the National Council on the Arts) as a both full productions and works-in-progress.
performing arts centre operated by ANTA for Among its acclaimed productions have been
non-profit-making theatre groups. It returned Killer’s Head by Sam Shepherd in 1975 and
to private ownership in 1980 and is now John Leguizamo’s Mambo Mouth in 1991. In
known as the August Wilson Theatre.
recent years it has been increasingly involved in
In 1963 ANTA oversaw the building of
education and literacy programmes.
the shed-like Washington Square Theatre as a
temporary home for the Lincoln Center American Repertory Theatre The
repertory company. It opened in 1964 with title of two US production companies. The
the premiere of Arthur Miller’s AFTER THE first was founded in 1946 in New York by
FALL. The musical Man of La Mancha ran there three actress-directors, Cheryl Crawford
from 1965 until 1968, when the venue was (1902–86), Eva Le Gallienne (1899–1991),
demolished. The organization declined in the and Margaret Webster (1905–72) (see WEBSTER
1980s and is not currently active. FAMILY). The company, modelled on Le
American Negro Theatre A US Gallienne’s earlier Civic Repertory Company,
theatre group founded in 1940 to promote was not a financial success and closed after one
Black productions and actors under the season of six plays given in an old theatre on
direction of the playwright Abram Hill. The Columbus Circle. Webster directed and
first production, Theodore Browne’s Natural appeared in the opening production of Henry
Man, was staged at the New York Public VIII, as well as in Barrie’s What Every Woman
18 American Shakespeare Theatre

Knows, Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion, and American Theatre Association
Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. (ATA) A former US theatre organization,
The current American Repertory Theatre based in Washington, DC, that supported
(ART) is a professional company established in educational and noncommercial theatre. It was
1979 at Harvard University by Robert founded in 1936 as the American Educational
Brustein (1927– ), who had earlier founded Theatre Association and went bankrupt in
the Yale Repertory Theatre. It is dedicated to 1986.
performing new US plays, neglected works, The ATA founded the annual American
and innovative productions of the classics. College Theatre Festival, a competition
Leading directors to work with the ART have granting awards at regional and national
included Joanne Akalaitis (1937– ), Dario festivals. Although it supported the activities of
Fo, David Mamet, and Robert Wilson more than 2000 drama departments and
(1942– ). The company’s work has often schools in US colleges and universities, it was
been unconventional. Samuel Beckett not wholly an educational organization. The
threatened legal action in 1984 when Akalaitis seven subdivisions of ATA, some of which now
set his Endgame in an abandoned subway function independently, were: the American
tunnel. In 1986 Wilson combined Euripides’s Community Theatre Association, the Army
Alcestis with a Japanese KYōGEN play and Theatre Arts Association, the National
added laser projections. More conventional Association of Schools of Theatre, the
productions have included the Tony Award- National Children’s Theatre Association, the
winning musical Big River (1985), which Secondary School Theatre Association, the
transferred to Broadway. Diane Paulus became University and College Theatre Association,
the company’s artistic director in 2008. and the University Resident Theatre
American Shakespeare Theatre A Association.
theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, that was amphitheatre A theatre or concert hall
home to a famous annual summer drama with a central arena surrounded by circular or
festival featuring the works of Shakespeare and semicircular seating. Examples include the
other classics. The venue, an octagonal Royal Albert Hall, London, and Madison
structure with a THRUST STAGE and a 1534-seat Square Garden, New York. Sometimes the
auditorium was designed by Edwin Howard to term is used for the first tier in the gallery of a
resemble the original GLOBE THEATRE. The theatre. The word is from the Greek meaning
organization was founded in 1951 under ‘double theatre’; it arose because the first
Lawrence Langner as the American Festival Greek theatres were semicircular or semioval,
Theatre and opened in 1955 with an eight- rather than having seats all around the acting
week season beginning with Julius Caesar. area. The amphitheatres of the Romans, built
Spring performances for students were first in cities throughout the Empire, were often
added in 1959. used for dramatic performances as well as for
The current name was adopted in 1972. such spectacles as gladiatorial contests. Famous
Five years later the Connecticut Center for the amphitheatres include the Colosseum in
Performing Arts was formed to bring in Rome, opened in 80 AD, whose four-storey
touring companies and guest artists. The latter structure could accommodate about 50,000
have included Christopher Plummer, Jessica spectators on its marble seats.
Tandy, Katharine Hepburn, James Earl Jones,
and Alfred Drake. Plummer and Jones Amphitryon In classical legend, a prince
appeared together in 1981, as Iago and of Thebes whose wife, Alcmena, was seduced
Othello, respectively. The following year, by Jupiter. The fruit of their union was
however, the American Shakespeare Theatre Hercules. The story has been adapted for the
filed for bankruptcy with debts of nearly $2 stage in numerous versions.
million and sold the building to the state of Amphitruo, a one-act comedy by PLAUTUS,
Connecticut. After major refurbishment, the is the earliest known dramatization of the
theatre opened for a short season in 1989 but story. First performed in about 190 BC, it is
this proved technically and financially the only parody of mythological themes to
disastrous, and has not been repeated. New have survived from the Roman theatre. In a
plans to revive the theatre were announced in prologue, Mercury explains that Jupiter is in
the 2000s but have so far come to nothing. love with Alcmena. While Amphitryon is
 Androcles and the Lion 19

waging war, Jupiter assumes his identity and and hanged. Knox is implicated and flees but is
Mercury disguises himself as Sosia, eventually rescued by his students.
Amphitryon’s loyal slave. Jupiter’s real identity Anderson, Maxwell (1888–1959) The
is made clear to the audience by a gold tassel prolific US playwright, whose works included
on his hat, and Mercury’s by a helmet plume. historical plays, verse dramas, comedies, and
The plot involves the unexpected return of musicals. He worked briefly as a journalist
Amphitryon and Sosia to Thebes and a riotous before enjoying his first stage success with
confusion of identities all round. When What Price Glory (1924; with Laurence
Amphitryon questions his wife’s fidelity, Stallings), about a World War I soldier. Night
Jupiter appears as himself to confess that he Over Taos (1932) was the first production by
has made her pregnant. the GROUP THEATRE in New York. In 1933
This farcical plot provided the basis for Anderson scored a double triumph with Both
such later versions as Heywood’s The Silver Age Your Houses, a satire on political corruption
(1613), MOLIÈRE’s Amphitryon (1668), and that won a PULITZER PRIZE, and Mary of
Dryden’s Amphitryon (1690; mostly adapted Scotland, in which Mary was played by Helen
from Molière). Hayes. The latter was the first of his poetic
A phrase from Molière’s version of the historical dramas, the others being Elizabeth
story has become semi-proverbial in France: the Queen (1930) and Anne of the Thousand
Days (1948).
Le véritable Amphitryon
Some of Anderson’s best plays dealt with
Est l’Amphitryon où l’on dine. contemporary subjects: these included
This refers to the moment in the play Winterset (1935), about the Sacco-Vanzetti
when Amphitryon comes home to find the murder case of the 1920s, and High Tor
disguised Jupiter giving a banquet in his house. (1936), a satire on materialism. With the
Although he claims to be the true Amphitryon, composer Kurt Weill he wrote the musicals
the servants and guests make it clear that as far Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the
as they are concerned the person who provides Stars (1949).
the feast is the real host. In 1946 the then-unknown Marlon
The best-known modern version is Jean Brando appeared in Anderson’s Truckline Café,
GIRAUDOUX’s Amphitryon 38, which was first about a returning GI who murders his wife.
performed in 1929 in Paris. It was adapted for Harold Clurman, the director, was mystified
the English-speaking stage by S. N. Behrman by the actor: “He read poorly, his head sunk
low on his chest as if he feared to divulge
and produced in 1937 in New York, where the
anything. He mumbled for days.” Both
LUNTS played Jupiter and Alcmena; it opened a
Anderson’s wife and agent wanted Brando
year later in London. The title arose from fired, but the playwright told his director to
Giraudoux’s belief that his was the 38th persevere with him. One day, Clurman made
version of the Amphitryon legend. him shout his lines in the empty theatre while
Anatomist, The A play by James BRIDIE climbing a rope hanging from a gridiron.
that established his reputation as a dramatist Brando became furious during the session but
when it was produced in 1930, first in thereafter spoke up.
Edinburgh and then at the Westminster Andrew See ABIGAIL; MERRY-ANDREW.
Theatre, London. Bridie was actually Dr
Androcles and the Lion A two-act
Osborne Henry Mavor, a Scottish physician;
comedy by George Bernard SHAW. It was first
his plot is based on the true story of the
produced in 1913 in London, starring Harley
Scottish anatomist, Dr Robert Knox, who Granville-Barker and his wife, Lillah
conspired with the body snatchers Burke and McCarthy. The brief play, which explores
Hare to obtain cadavers for dissection. In the questions of religious belief, was published
play, Burke murders a disreputable woman with a lengthy preface on Christianity. When
whose corpse is recognized on the dissection first produced it was criticized as being
table by Knox’s assistant. He is disturbed by somewhat light and frivolous. There was a
the anatomist’s unconcern about how the notable revival at the Mermaid Theatre in
bodies are obtained. When Hare turns King’s 1961.
Evidence, Burke is convicted of the murder The plot is based on an old tale recorded
20 Andromaque

by Aulus Gellius (c. 130–180 BC). Androcles is patrons, of the ancient Greek theatre, who
a runaway Christian slave who takes shelter in underwrote the expenses of the drama festivals.
a cave. A lion enters and, instead of devouring
Angels in America Tony KUSHNER’s
him, lifts up its forepaw so that Androcles can
epic two-part drama about gay life and the
remove a thorn. Androcles is subsequently
advent of AIDS in Ronald Reagan’s America.
captured and condemned to fight with a lion
Subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National
in the Roman arena. It so happens that the Themes”, the play blends tragedy with comedy
same lion is led out against him, and and genres ranging from soap opera to science
recognizes its benefactor. fiction and political prophecy. It is now widely
Shaw’s play focuses on the different ways regarded as the most significant US drama of
in which Androcles and his fellow Christians the 1990s.
face death. He depicts Caesar as persecuting Angels in America was first conceived in
Christians merely for short-term political 1987 when Kushner, a relatively inexperienced
motives. playwright, was approached by Oskar Eustis, a
Andromaque The play by Jean RACINE director of the Mark Taper Forum in Los
that established his reputation as a great tragic Angeles, to write a drama about the impact of
dramatist. It was first performed in 1667 AIDS. Kushner and Eustis worked together for
before the king and queen in the queen’s several years on the piece, which grew rapidly
apartments, with Racine’s mistress Thérèse in size and scope. In May 1991 Millennium
Du Parc in the title role. The first public Approaches, the first part of Angels, was staged
performance was given a few days later at the by the Eureka Theatre of Los Angeles in a
HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE. In this play Racine production by David Esbjornson. A second
broke decisively from the conventions of part, Perestroika, followed in November 1992,
baroque theatre with his fast and ingeniously in a production by the Mark Taper Forum
simple plot. The play was staged using directed by Eustis and Tony Taccore. Finally,
elaborate machinery and the new Italian in November 1993, the complete play, which
painted scenery. lasts about seven hours in performance, was
The plot draws upon Euripides’s play of staged in both London and New York to
the same name and on an incident in Virgil’s ecstatic reviews. Its numerous awards have
Aeneid. Having slain Hector in the Trojan included the Pulitzer Prize for drama (1993)
War, Pyrrhus has abducted his wife, and the Tony Awards for Best Play for both
Andromaque. She agrees to marry Pyrrhus in 1993 (Millennium Approaches) and 1994
order to save her son’s life. The marriage, (Perestroika).
however, infuriates Hermione, daughter of The complete play consists of 60 short,
Helen of Troy, to whom Pyrrhus was pledged. sometimes overlapping, scenes that take place
She has him murdered and then commits in locations ranging from New York offices
suicide over his body. and hospitals to Antarctica and Heaven; the
Because the play shows love overwhelming 30-odd characters are played by eight actors.
and destroying all, many contemporary critics The main focus is on four very different gay
felt that it pandered to the audience’s taste for men, each of whom is affected, directly or
pure passion. Particularly poignant are indirectly, by AIDS: these are Louis Ironson, a
Andromaque’s devotion to her dead husband self-doubting New York Jew; Prior Walter, his
and the fierce reproaches of Hermione to long-time lover, who is in the first stages of the
Pyrrhus. illness; Joe Pitt, a married man, conservative
lawyer, and devout Mormon; and Joe’s boss
angel A financial backer, especially a Roy Cohn – a historical figure notorious for
major one, of a play or other theatrical his role in the McCarthy hearings, his Mafia
entertainment. The term, first heard in links, and his career as a ruthless right-wing
America in the 1920s, originally referred to fixer. In the course of the play the anguished
someone who donated money to a politician’s Louis struggles to reconcile his love for Prior
campaign; it was soon picked up by theatre with his panicky decision to end their
people and became so commonplace on relationship, and his new feelings for Joe with
Broadway that it lost its political meaning. his loathing for Joe’s mentor, Cohn – a man
The first known financial backers of drama he regards as “the polestar of human evil… the
were the choregoi (see CHOREGUS), or rich worst human being who ever lived”. As Prior’s
 Anna Christie 21

illness progresses, a more phantasmagorical Jack Melville did the Dobbin act in a
element is introduced, most dramatically when pantomime presented by Fred KARNO’s
the Angel of America crashes through the roof company at the Hippodrome Theatre in
and calls upon him to prophesy to the nation Stockport. In the legitimate theatre, Arthur
and the world (“Greetings Prophet! The great Lupino (see LUPINO FAMILY) was an acclaimed
work begins!”). By part two, Roy Cohn has animal impersonator, being chosen by Sir
also developed AIDS but remains in complete J. M. Barrie to play Nana, the dog, in the
denial over his sexuality; in hospital, he is original production of PETER PAN (1904).
visited by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, the
Ankiya Nat (Hindi: act drama) A form of
woman he sent to the electric chair 30 years
religious theatre found in the Indian state of
earlier, but shows no remorse. Other characters
Assam that honours Vishnu’s manifestation
include Joe’s mother, Hannah; his valium-
as Krishna. The genre was created by
addicted wife, Harper; and Belize, a Black
Sankaradeva (c. 1449–1568), who wrote many
nurse and former drag queen who gets most of
such plays and urged all religious leaders to
the play’s best lines.
write at least one drama. Performances occur at
In 2003 Angels in America reached a wider
religious festivals. The amateur companies
audience when HBO screened an acclaimed
have about 15 actors, who are often monks.
six-part version starring Al Pacino, Meryl
Men play all the roles in monastery
Streep, and Emma Thompson (as the Angel).
performances, while women may participate in
Angry Young Men A term applied by community productions. The roles of Krishna
journalists to a number of young British and his brother Balarama are played by boys,
dramatists and novelists in the later 1950s. who are said to be possessed by the gods
Although the writers were not part of any during their performances.
organized movement, their work shared a An Ankiya Nat drama lasts from about
number of characteristics, in particular an 9 p.m. until sunrise the next day. It is
aggressive dissatisfaction with the social and traditionally held in the nam-ghar, or prayer
moral values of post-war British society. Their hall, of a monastery. The acting and dancing
concentration on the lives of the middle and occurs within a narrow corridor marked off by
working classes was something of a departure ropes with the audience on both sides. At one
from the concerns of the previous generation end is the shrine containing the sacred text
of writers, who were generally from, and wrote Bhagavata Purana and opposite is the agni-gad,
about, the upper strata of English society. or archway of lights, through which the actors
Principal figures associated with the term enter. Characters wear colourful costumes and
include Arnold WESKER, and especially John crowns to show their station in life. Demons
OSBORNE, whose play LOOK BACK IN ANGER and animals are represented by effigies of
(1956) is usually seen as the quintessentially bamboo and papier-mâché up to 15 feet tall
‘Angry’ work. Stylistically there is an emphasis and manipulated by several actors.
on naturalism and the language of ordinary Preliminaries include drumming, dances,
people. See also KITCHEN SINK. and songs praising Krishna. When these are
completed, the sutradhara, or stage manager,
animal impersonator A performer
enters to the accompaniment of fireworks and
who adopts the guise of an animal. Such
dancing. He sings, dances, and recites from the
impersonation plays an important part
play. Krishna then makes his entrance and
in the folk rituals of many cultures, with
dances towards the shrine. Next comes the
English examples including the HOBBY HORSE
play itself, which dramatizes the conflict
in the MUMMERS’ PLAY and the ABBOTS
between good and evil. The stage manager
BROMLEY HORN DANCE. In the Greek theatre
remains to give directions to both the actors
Aristophanes used animal choruses in several
and musicians and to interpret the action for
of his works, including THE BIRDS (414 BC)
the audience. The entertainment is concluded
and THE FROGS (405 BC).
with more songs and dances.
PANTOMIME and variety have featured
various animal roles from Dick Whittington’s Anna Christie A tragicomedy by Eugene
cat to Dobbin, the two-man horse; the latter O’NEILL, about a fallen woman redeemed by
dates back to the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE of the love. The play opened on Broadway in 1921
16th century. In 1902 Charlie Chaplin and and earned its author the Pulitzer Prize for
22 Annie

Drama; later that year it was seen in London 1860–1926). Its New York premiere was in
with the original Anna, Pauline Lord, in the 1946 with the brassy-voiced Ethel MERMAN in
title role. It was later made into a film starring the lead. The first British production a year
Greta Garbo. In 1979 The Royal Shakespeare later starred Dolores Gray and gave the
Company staged an excellent revival at the London Coliseum its longest ever run (1304
Warehouse Theatre with Susan Tracy as Anna. performances). It has been revived numerous
There have also been Broadway revivals times, the last West End production being in
starring Liv Ullmann (1977) and Natasha 1992 at the Prince of Wales Theatre (with
Richardson (1993). Kim Criswell winning rave reviews as Annie).
O’Neill probably derived the story from The story follows Annie as she joins
Theodore Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie (1900). BUFFALO BILL’s Wild West Show and becomes
The play begins with Anna, a prostitute, the main attraction, even outshooting the
searching for her estranged father, a seaman, famed marksman Frank Butler. Love ensues
on the New York docks. She finds that he is in but is blocked by pride on both sides. Annie
charge of a coastal barge and accepts his finally loses a big shooting contest to Frank
invitation to move in, keeping her past a when Chief Sitting Bull bends her rifle sights.
secret. Later they save the lives of five sailors Male pride is restored and the love match
and Anna falls in love with one, a loud sealed. (The required male triumph does not
Irishman named Mat Burke. She refuses Mat’s go down well with many audience members
proposal of marriage and confesses her past to today.)
him and her father. Mat comes to the barge Berlin’s music includes Sioux Indian
meaning to kill Anna but instead offers to dances as well as such hits as ‘Anything You
marry her. The happy ending has come in for Can Do’, ‘I Got the Sun in the Morning’,
much criticism. ‘Doing What Comes Naturally’, and the show-
business anthem ‘There’s no Business like
Annie A musical with book by Thomas Show Business’.
Meehan, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and music An Annie Oakley is US slang for a
by Charles Strouse. Based on the popular US complimentary theatre ticket – probably
comic-strip character Little Orphan Annie, it because a punched ticket is thought to
was first performed in 1977 at the Alvin resemble the bullet-riddled playing cards used
Theatre, New York and won a Tony Award as as targets by the markswoman.
the best musical. It opened a year later at
London’s Victoria Palace Theatre. Anouilh, Jean (1910–87) French
Annie lives in a dismal orphanage run by dramatist, whose play ANTIGONE, produced in
the horrid Miss Hannigan. One Christmas the Paris during the German occupation, brought
secretary of the millionaire Oliver Warbucks him international fame at the end of World
chooses her to be a guest at his mansion. The War II. His works offer a disenchanted view of
abrasive Warbucks is so delighted with the girl humanity, recurring themes being the loss of
that he takes her to the White House to meet innocence, the inevitability of compromise, the
President Roosevelt, who immediately difficulty of distinguishing between reality and
conceives his New Deal when Annie sings illusion, and the impossibility of real human
‘Tomorrow’. Warbucks then offers $50,000 if contact (especially in marriage).
Annie’s real parents will come forward. Miss The son of a tailor, Anouilh worked in
Hannigan’s brother Rooster and his girlfriend advertising before entering the theatre in 1931
arrive with forged papers. Their plot is foiled, as secretary to Louis JOUVET, principal director
however, when FDR produces an FBI report with the Comédie des Champs-Élysées. His
proving that Annie’s parents are dead. ‘Daddy’ own work was much influenced by Molière
Warbucks adopts Annie and sees that her and Jean Giraudoux. His first play, The
Ermine, was produced in 1932 by Lugné-Poë,
orphan friends are liberated. Apart from
but he attracted little attention until 1937,
‘Tomorrow’, the songs include ‘Something
when TRAVELLER WITHOUT LUGGAGE, a sombre
Was Missing’, and ‘You’re Never Fully
piece about an ex-soldier, was staged in Paris.
Dressed Without a Smile’.
Anouilh’s output is usually divided into
Annie Get Your Gun Irving BERLIN’s the romantic pièces roses, such as THIEVES’
fast-paced musical about the sharpshooter CARNIVAL (1938); the tragic pièces noires, such
Annie Oakley (Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee; as La Sauvage (The Restless Heart; 1938); the
 anti-Shakespeareana 23

witty pièces brillantes, such as La Répétition, ou and the rebel leader in the war, was amongst
l’amour puni (The Rehearsal; 1950), the bitter those killed. Creon, Oedipus’s brother-in-law,
pièces grinçantes, such as THE WALTZ OF THE now rules Thebes and refuses to allow
TOREADORS (1952), and the historical pièces Polyneices to be buried. Antigone, Oedipus’s
costumées, such as L’Alouette (THE LARK; 1953), daughter, defies the ban but is caught and
about Joan of Arc, and Becket, or the Honour of brought before the king. Although she insists
God (1959). that her obligation to her brother comes before
His later works were more whimsical. her duty to the state, Creon sentences her to be
Kenneth Tynan noted, “He uses fairy-tale or buried alive. His son Haemon, who loves
mythical plots of bald simplicity to make Antigone, pleads for her pardon and the king
his people disrobe their souls.” La Grotte finally relents. She has already committed
(The Cavern; 1961), a work showing the suicide, however, and Creon cannot prevent
influence of Pirandello, was seen at the Strand further suicides by his son and his queen. He is
Theatre, London, in a production starring left shattered by sorrow and guilt. With its
Alec McCowan, while Hurluberlu, ou le
powerfully presented theme of the conflict
réactionnaire amoureux (1959) was produced at
between public and private loyalties, the play
the 1966 Chichester Festival as The Fighting
has proved perennially relevant. It has inspired
Cock. Cher Antoine (1969) was hailed by some
numerous later versions.
as a late masterpiece. His last play, The Navel,
was produced in 1981. (2) The tragedy by Jean ANOUILH that first
established his international reputation. It
ANTA See AMERICAN NATIONAL THEATRE opened in 1944 in German-occupied Paris,
AND ACADEMY. where it enjoyed a great but controversial
Anthony Street Theatre A theatre success. The play was widely interpreted as a
that stood on Worth Street, New York famous parable of wartime France. Some felt that it
as the venue for Edmund KEAN’s first was anti-Nazi in its emphasis on private
appearance in that city. Originally a circus, it conscience and personal loyalty in the conduct
reopened in 1812 as the Olympic Theatre with of Antigone, while others saw a defence of the
a company led by two British-born US actors, Vichy government in the sympathetic
Charlotte Melmoth and William Twaits. portrayal of the authoritarian Creon. Anouilh’s
Circus acts continued to appear there. The first Chorus concludes:
season saw the US premiere of M. G. (‘Monk’) Tragedy is clean, it is restful, it is
Lewis’s equestrian melodrama Timour the flawless. In tragedy nothing is in doubt
Tartar. In 1813 the theatre was redecorated and everyone’s destiny is known.
and renamed the Anthony Street Theatre (the In the 1949 Old Vic production at
following year it changed its name to the
London’s New Theatre, Laurence Olivier
Commonwealth Theatre and then to the
played the Chorus and his wife Vivien Leigh
Pavilion Theatre before reverting to the
played Antigone. The role finally brought her
Anthony Street).
recognition as a fine tragedian.
After the PARK THEATRE was destroyed by
fire in 1820, its company moved to the anti-Shakespeareana William
Anthony Street, where they brought in the SHAKESPEARE is undoubtedly the preeminent
celebrated British actor Edmund Kean. After English man of letters. Or is he? Many have
his appearance in the title role of Richard III, disagreed…
the New York Evening Post called him “the
An upstart crow beautified with our
most complete actor, in our opinion, that ever
appeared on our boards”. Tickets were in such feathers.
ROBERT GREENE
demand that they were auctioned and the
profits given to charity. The company left The most insipid, ridiculous play that
when the Park reopened in 1821; the Anthony ever I saw in my life.
Street Theatre closed and was demolished. SAMUEL PEPYS: referring to A

Antigone (1) A one-act tragedy by Midsummer Night’s Dream

SOPHOCLES, first performed in 422 BC in His rude unpolished style and
Athens. It is set in the aftermath of the Theban antiquated phrase and wit.
civil war. Polyneices, the son of King Oedipus LORD SHAFTESBURY
24 Antony and Cleopatra

A disproportioned and misshapen Antony and Cleopatra SHAKESPEARE’s

giant. tragedy of doomed love and imperial politics,
DAVID HUME first performed in about 1607. It was replaced
Shakespeare never had six lines for years on the English stage by Dryden’s
together without a fault. Perhaps you retelling of the story, ALL FOR LOVE (1677);
may find seven, but this does not Shakespeare’s play was only revived in 1849.
refute my general assertion. Famous duos to have played the parts include
SAMUEL JOHNSON Godfrey Tearle and Edith Evans in 1946 at the
Piccadilly Theatre, Laurence Olivier and
I cannot read him, he is such a Vivien Leigh in 1951 at the St James’s, and
bombast fellow. Michael Redgrave and Peggy Ashcroft in 1953
GEORGE II
at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1978 at the Old
Was there ever such stuff as the greater Vic, John Turner and Barbara Jefford became
part of Shakespeare? Only one must the first couple to appear in both Shakespeare’s
not say so. and Dryden’s plays. More recent pairings
GEORGE III include Alan Bates with Frances de la Tour
Shakespeare – what trash are his works (1999) and Patrick Stewart with Harriet
in the gross. Walter (2006), both at Stratford.
EDWARD YOUNG The play consists of 40 scenes set in 37
different locations – the most for any work by
One of the greatest geniuses that ever Shakespeare. He included some teasing lines
existed, Shakespeare, undoubtedly for the boy actors who would play CLEOPATRA,
wanted taste. making the queen say at one point:
HORACE WALPOLE
I shall see
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my
and found it so intolerably dull that it greatness
nauseated me. I’ the posture of a whore.
CHARLES DARWIN: Autobiography
The complex and inscrutable queen is
The undisputed fame enjoyed by usually seen as Shakespeare’s most challenging
Shakespeare as a writer is, like every female role.
other lie, a great evil.
LEO TOLSTOY
Anything Goes A musical with lyrics
and music by Cole PORTER and book by
With the single exception of Homer, Howard Lindsay, Russel Crouse, P. G.
there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Wodehouse, and Guy Bolton. It opened on
Walter Scott, whom I can despise so Broadway in 1934 at the Alvin Theatre and
entirely as I despise Shakespeare when starred Ethel Merman as the nightclub singer
I measure my mind against his. The Reno Sweeney. The New York Times review
intensity of my impatience with him said “If Ethel Merman did not write ‘I Get a
occasionally reaches such a pitch, that Kick Out of You’ and also the title song of the
it would positively be a relief to me to show, she has made them hers now by the
dig him up and throw stones at him, swinging gusto of her platform style.” There
knowing as I do how incapable he and were notable revivals at New York’s Lincoln
his worshippers are of understanding Centre in 1987 and the Royal National
any less obvious form of indignity. Theatre in 2002.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: after seeing The plot involves Reno’s friendship with
Irving’s production of Cymbeline Billy Crocker, who still yearns for his ex-
If all the work of Shakespeare could be fiancée Hope. Reno sails for England on the
gathered up and burned in one pile, same ship as Hope; Billy, following her, stows
the world would witness the most away with the help of the devious Dr Moon,
beneficial action for the sake of who is wanted by the FBI as ‘Public Enemy
literature since the invention of Number 13’. When they arrive in London,
alcohol. Billy is horrified to learn that Hope plans to
The Waterloo, Iowa, Times-Tribune wed Sir Evelyn Oakleigh for his money. A
1920 business deal comes through, however, and
 Apple Cart, The 25

Billy suddenly has the wealth to keep Hope. In Wilton Road and Vauxhall Bridge Road; it
the meantime, Sir Evelyn falls for Reno and also features inlaid doors and humorous carved
the FBI reclassifies Dr Moon as ‘harmless’, reliefs in nooks and crannies.
upsetting his pride. Porter’s songs include The first production was a revival of
‘Anything Goes’, ‘You’re the Tops’, ‘I Get a Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of
Kick Out of You’, and ‘All Through the Music. From 1984 until 2002 it was home to
Night’. Andrew LLOYD WEBBER’s Starlight Express, one
APA See ASSOCIATION OF PRODUCING of the longest-running musicals in British
ARTISTS. theatre history. This was succeeded by another
Lloyd Webber production, the Bollywood
Apollo Theatre The third theatre to be musical Bombay Dreams, with music by A. R.
built on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue. Rahman. The London production of Stephen
Opened in 1901 by Harry Lowenfeld, the Schwartz’s fantasy musical Wicked opened in
Apollo has maintained its French Renaissance
September 2006 and is still running (2010).
exterior and the ornate auditorium decorated
in pink, turquoise, and gold. The theatre’s Appius The name given to the critic and
badge, seen in the dress circle, features a group playwright John Dennis (1657–1734) in
of German gypsies that lived on the Lowenfeld Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism (1711).
family estate in Poland. Dennis was the author of the unsuccessful
The Apollo concentrated on musicals until tragedy Appius and Virginia (1709). Although
1913 (hence the special orchestra pit design). a severe critic himself, he was extremely
Cicely Courtneidge made her London debut sensitive to criticism from others, a fact alluded
here in Tom Jones (1907) and the Pélissier to in Pope’s lines:
Follies were based at the theatre from 1908 to
But Appius reddens at each word you
1912. Other notable productions included a
speak,
series of comedies (1934–37) written by
And stares, tremendous! with a
Walter Hackett and George Broadhurst for
Hackett’s US actress wife Marion Lorne, threatening eye,
Robert Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight (1938), and Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry.
Rattigan’s Flare Path (1942). John Dighton’s True to form, Dennis took this censure to
farce The Happiest Days of Your Life opened in heart, replying with a furious attack on Pope
1948 and ran for 605 performances; in 1962 that the latter considered “perfectly lunatic”.
Marc Camoletti’s air-hostess comedy Boeing, The feud raged for some twenty years. In 1717
Boeing began its run of 2035 performances at Pope again satirized Dennis in the play Three
the Apollo. John Gielgud appeared in 1968 as Hours after Marriage, in which he appears as
the headmaster in Alan Bennett’s Forty Years the character Sir Tremendous. For his part,
On. Dennis wrote to the Daily Journal (11 June
More recently the Apollo has presented 1728):
Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage (1987) Pope comes from the Latin word Popa,
starring Maggie Smith, Keith Waterhouse’s which signifies a little Wart; or from
Our Song (1992) with Peter O’Toole, an Poppysma, because he was continually
acclaimed revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia popping out squibs of wit…
Woolf? starring Kathleen Turner (2006), and
Jez Butterworth’s much lauded JERUSALEM However, when Dennis was dying in poverty
(2010). Pope wrote a prologue for his BENEFIT
performance. Although Dennis’s plays are now
Apollo Victoria Theatre A large forgotten he is remembered for his criticism
theatre in Wilton Road, London. It was built and for his invention of the ‘thunder run’ (see
in 1930 as the New Victoria, a ‘super cinema’ at THUNDER).
with an ‘atmospheric’ auditorium in blue and
green designed to give the impression of an Apple Cart, The A political comedy by
underwater world. In 1980 the building was George Bernard SHAW, first performed in 1929
converted into a combined concert hall and in Warsaw and given its British premiere at
theatre, which opened in 1981 as the Apollo that year’s MALVERN FESTIVAL. The leading role
Victoria. Unusually, its spacious foyer runs of King Magnus, which is longer than
right through the building, opening on both Hamlet’s, was written for Cedric Hardwicke.
26 apron

In 1986 Peter O’Toole played Magnus in a used in theatres. Employing two carbon
memorable revival. electrodes, it provided an intense (though
Set in England in 1962, the play discusses flickering) beam. The arc was invented in
the relationship between the monarchy and 1809 by Sir Humphry Davy, who also helped
elected government and examines the morality develop the LIMELIGHT. It was used as an
of party politics. At the time critics felt that experiment in an 1846 production of Prophète
Shaw was sending a message to Ramsay at the Paris Opera but did not come into
MacDonald’s socialist government. general theatrical use until about 1870. By the
The plot centres upon King Magnus, who 1880s the arc had been replaced by Thomas
is given an ultimatum by prime minister Edison’s incandescent lamp.
Proteus and his corrupt cabinet: the king must
Arcadia A play by Tom STOPPARD, which
stop public speaking, manipulating the press,
opened at London’s Royal National Theatre in
and otherwise using his influence, or the
1993; the production, which was directed by
government will curtail his remaining powers.
Trevor Nunn, later transferred to the West
Magnus, however, is clever enough to outwit
End and Broadway. The action, with alternate
the politicians, threatening to upset the apple
scenes in the first decade of the 19th century
cart by renouncing all his titles in order to
and the last decade of the 20th, takes place in
enter parliament. Proteus and his cabinet,
the same room of an English stately home.
aware of the king’s charm and popularity,
Thomasina, the young daughter of the 19th-
withdraw the ultimatum.
century family, has a precocious gift for
apron or forestage A part of the stage mathematics that leads her to anticipate
that projects in front of the PROSCENIUM ARCH aspects of modern chaos theory. This is
and curtain. It was a Restoration development considered prophetic by all but Valentine, her
from the Elizabethan platform stage (see 20th-century kinsman, a mathematician
THRUST STAGE). Christopher Wren’s new preoccupied with the study of variations in a
Drury Lane theatre opened in 1674 with a population of grouse. In the 19th century,
semi-oval stage that projected 10 feet forward, Lord Byron visits from his nearby home,
allowing actors to be clearly heard throughout Newstead Abbey; in the 20th, the
the large auditorium. consequences of this visit are plausibly but
Apron stages have been added to the Old chaotically misinterpreted by Bernard, a
Vic Theatre and at Stratford-upon-Avon in visiting English don. Meanwhile another
order to produce Elizabethan and Restoration visiting writer, Hannah, is preoccupied with an
plays in a historically accurate fashion. They ultimately successful search for the identity of
are also seen in other venues, especially those the mysterious hermit who occupied the
used by academic and experimental companies. hermitage in the park. Elements of high
comedy and glimpses of a tragic love story are
aquatic drama A type of dramatic
interspersed with expositions of the design and
spectacle, popular in the 18th and 19th
layout of English parklands and the influence
centuries, in which the acting area was filled
of the Second Law of Thermodynamics on
with water and naval battles etc. were staged.
Newtonian mechanics.
The vogue originated in Paris, where it was
popularized by circuses and the New Aquatic Arch Street Theatre One of America’s
Theatre. In London aquatic dramas, often early theatres, opened in 1828 in Philadelphia
featuring historical engagements such as the by the US actor William B. Wood. It
Battle of Trafalgar, were staged at such major immediately engaged in fierce competition
theatres as Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and with the Walnut Street Theatre and the
Sadler’s Wells. At Sadler’s Wells, which briefly Chestnut Street Theatre, being a factor in the
changed its name in the 1830s to the Aquatic latter’s bankruptcy. Under the forceful
Theatre, a large tank was filled from the New management (1860–92) of Louisa Lane
River. Drew (see DREW FAMILY) the Arch Street’s
More recently, Alan Ayckbourn’s black stock company presented both classic and
comedy Way Upstream (1982) required a canal contemporary works, becoming a great success
boat floating on real water. both commercially and artistically.
arc Informal name for a carbon arc Arden, Forest of A wooded tract of
spotlight, the earliest form of electric LIGHTING country in north Warwickshire, formerly part
 Arena Stage 27

of a large forest covering much of the West Faversham in Kent. The play follows the actual
Midlands (in his topographical poem events fairly closely. Arden’s wife Alice, in love
Polyolbion the Elizabethan writer Michael with a tailor called Thomas Mosby, plotted to
Drayton described it as stretching from the murder her husband, with the aid of two
Severn to the Trent). It is usually assumed to ruffians known as Loosebagg (in the play,
be the Arden of Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT, Shakebag) and Black Will. After several foiled
although he may have intended the Ardennes attempts, Arden was killed as he played
region of France and Belgium, as several of the draughts in his parlour with Mosby. In the
play’s characters have French names. play the murderers rush in on the signal “Now
The Arden Shakespeare is the standard I take you”, when Mosby takes one of Arden’s
modern scholarly edition of the plays. pieces. Three of the murderers were
Shakespeare’s mother was one Mary Arden. apprehended: Alice was burnt at Canterbury,
Mosby was hanged at Smithfield, and Black
Arden, John (1930– ) British
Will was also executed. Loosebagg escaped and
dramatist, noted for his politically challenging
was never heard of again.
and linguistically rich plays in the tradition of
Since the 18th century the play has
Brecht; he has written for radio and television
generally been performed in a version by
as well as for the stage. After 1965 he
George Lillo, completed after his death by
collaborated on many works with his wife, the
John Hoadly and first acted in 1759.
Irish playwright Margaretta D’Arcy.
The story appeared in Holinshed’s
Arden’s first professionally produced play
Chronicles (1587). Arden’s half-timbered house
was a radio drama, The Life of Man, broadcast
in Faversham is still standing.
in 1956. In the late 1950s Arden was
associated with the ROYAL COURT THEATRE, arena An open area for acting or
where his stark anti-war play SERJEANT entertainment placed in the centre of an
MUSGRAVE’S DANCE opened in 1959. The play auditorium with seats on all sides; also a
was something of a commercial failure at the theatre, concert hall, etc. designed on this
time, but has been frequently revived since. It principle (in America this is known as an arena
was during the 1960s that Arden produced theatre). The word, which is Latin for sand,
most of his major stage works; these include came to mean the central performing area of
The Happy Haven (1960), The Workhouse an ancient Roman AMPHITHEATRE.
Donkey (1963), which concerns municipal
Arena Stage An 800-seat theatre in
corruption in Arden’s native Barnsley,
Washington, DC, at 6th Street and Maine
Armstrong’s Last Goodnight (1964), which drew
Avenue, NW, designed by Harry Weese in
parallels between contemporary political events
1961 as a THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND. It was
in the Congo and machinations in medieval
built with grants from several organizations
Scotland, and Left-Handed Liberty (1965).
(including the Ford Foundation) and opened
In 1972 Arden and D’Arcy had a major
that year with a production of Brecht’s The
argument with the RSC about the staging of
Caucasian Chalk Circle. The resident Arena
their Arthurian play The Island of the Mighty.
Stage Company has earned high praise for its
The argument culminated in Arden picketing
productions of new US and European works,
the theatre and vowing that he would not write
classic revivals, and musicals.
for the British stage again. Although he has
The company was founded in Washington
since written plays for both the radio and the
in 1950 by six people from George
stage, he has not returned to the theatrical
Washington University, including Professor
mainstream. Many of his plays of the 1970s
Edward Mangum and Zelda Fichandler. The
are didactically Marxist in character. In the
first season was presented in-the-round at a
1980s he began a second career as a novelist.
cinema. Fichandler soon took over as the
See also LONGEST PLAYS.
company’s director and manager, positions she
Arden of Faversham A play printed in still holds (sharing the latter post with her
1592; it has sometimes been attributed to husband, Thomas, since 1961).
Shakespeare but the most likely author is now In 1956 the company transferred to an old
thought to be Thomas KYD. The earliest brewery and remained there until its move to
English domestic melodrama, it is based on the the Arena Stage. In 1970 a modified THRUST
1548 murder of Thomas Arden, mayor of STAGE theatre, the Kreeger Theatre, was
28 Ariel

added, and soon afterwards a cabaret, the Old elegant English Harlequin. The first Italian
Vat Room. These facilities were also home to Arlecchino was probably Tristano Martinelli
the radical COMMUNITY THEATRE group Living (1557–1630); another famous interpreter of
Stage (1966–2002). A major remodelling of the part was Giuseppe Biancolelli (1637–88).
the theatre began in 2008; this will leave the The character was known as Arlequin in later
main stage and the Kreeger Theatre little French comedy and was then transformed in
altered while demolishing most of the the early 18th century into HARLEQUIN, the
backstage areas and replacing the old Vat magic-making lover of Columbine in the
Room with a new intimate theatre, the Kogod English harlequinade.
Cradle.
Arms and the Man A play by George
Ariel An “airy spirit” in Shakespeare’s THE Bernard SHAW, first performed in 1894 in the
TEMPEST. Before the action of the play begins, Avenue Theatre, London. The financial
Ariel was enslaved to the witch Sycorax, who backing for the production came from Annie
punished his disobedience by shutting him up HORNIMAN, who founded the ABBEY THEATRE
in a cloven pine tree for 12 years. PROSPERO in Dublin. The only hiccup in the first night’s
liberated him and was subsequently served by performance was the moment when an actor
the spirit in all his plans. At the end of the play mistakenly referred to the British army instead
he sets Ariel free. of the Bulgarian. Despite this, the play was
Ariel was also the name of the boat in rapturously received. When Shaw took his bow
which Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in the as author, he was greeted with cheers and a
Bay of Lerici in July 1822 – the poet having solitary boo. Shaw remarked:
chosen it in allusion to his favourite play. His
I quite agree with you, my friend, but
tombstone carries three lines from one of
what can we two do against a whole
Ariel’s songs in The Tempest:
houseful of the opposite opinion?
Nothing of him that doth fade,
Shaw once described the play as “one joke after
But doth suffer a sea change
another, it’s a firecracker”. The plot makes
Into something rich and strange.
light of both love and war. It follows a Swiss
Aristophanes (c. 450–c. 385 BC) The mercenary soldier, Bluntschli, as he takes
great Athenian comic dramatist. His earlier refuge in the bedroom of the young Raina
plays are the only examples of the OLD Petkoff. She is intrigued by his prosaic view of
COMEDY to have survived intact. In his last war (he fills his cartridge case with chocolates)
works he developed the more subtle and as contrasted with the romantic approach of
subdued style known as MIDDLE COMEDY. her fiancé Sergius. Raina helps Bluntschli
Aristophanes’s plays are colourful, imaginative, escape. When he returns with her father’s coat,
and highly irreverent. His humour ranges from she chooses him over Sergius. The story was
razor-sharp political satire and entertaining later adapted for the musical The Chocolate
blasphemy, to the most obvious sexual Soldier (by Oscar Straus).
innuendos and jokes about bodily functions. In 1944 Olivier and Richardson opened
Although he was enormously popular in his their first Old Vic season with Arms and the
heyday and his work is a perennial favourite Man. Richardson was highly praised as
amongst classical students, the difficulty of Bluntschli but Olivier got such bad reviews as
writing really funny translations and his the conventional Sergius (a part he admitted to
uninhibited coarseness have prevented his hating) that he almost quit acting.
work from finding a wider modern audience.
Only 11 of his numerous works are extant, the Arne, Susanna Maria See CIBBER
best-known being THE ACHARNIANS, THE FAMILY.
CLOUDS, THE FROGS, THE BIRDS, THE KNIGHTS,
Arrabal, Fernando (1932– )
LYSISTRATA, and THE PEACE.
Moroccan-born Spanish dramatist, poet, and
Arlecchino The most famous of the film-maker, who writes in French and has lived
ZANNI characters of the Italian COMMEDIA for many years in France. Much of Arrabal’s
DELL’ARTE. Wearing a black mask and dressed writing is informed by his traumatic childhood
in a multicoloured patched suit, he was experiences during the Spanish Civil War, in
alternately foolish and quick-witted. From this which his father, a Republican army officer,
ragged comic servant developed the more was betrayed, sentenced to life imprisonment,
 Artists of Dionysus 29

escaped, and was never seen or heard of again. poisoned elderberry wine. Upstairs lives their
His works deal with themes of violence, exile, insane brother Teddy who, believing he is
and betrayal in a style that is often grotesque Teddy Roosevelt, is digging the Panama Canal
and shocking. in the basement (where 11 bodies are buried).
Following the publication of his first Their brother Mortimer (a theatre critic)
collection of plays in 1958 Arrabal became discovers the horrific secret and decides he
associated with the burgeoning Theatre of the cannot marry his girlfriend since insanity runs
ABSURD. Arrabal would later apply the label in the family. At the story’s end, Teddy and his
Théâtre Panique to his work – because it was sisters leave for the lunatic asylum and tell
intended to provoke psychological shock Mortimer that he is not after all related to
amongst the audience. In 1959 he produced them, enabling him to marry.
his most experimental work, Theatrical Art A comedy about art and friendship by
Orchestration, which contains no dialogue the French writer Yasmina Reza (1960– ),
whatsoever. Strong anti-Catholic sentiments first performed in Paris in 1994 and
are to be found in a number of his plays: Car subsequently staged around the world in some
Cemetry (1964), for example, includes a 35 languages. The English-language version,
blasphemous parody of the crucifixion. Other by Christopher HAMPTON, opened at
plays include The Architect and the Emperor of Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in October
Assyria (1967), And They Put Handcuffs on the 1996 and ran for over six years.
Flowers (1969), a protest against political The play concerns the relationship
oppression written after his own imprisonment between three old friends: Serge, Marc, and
by the Franco regime, and The Ballad of the Yvan. When Serge buys an expensive work by
Ghost Train (1974). His complete works for a revered avant-garde artist, he is keen to show
the theatre, numbering around 100 pieces, it off to his friends – despite the fact that
were published in 1997. Arrabal has also (give or take a few diagonal markings) it is
written a novel, several volumes of poetry, essentially an all-white canvas. Marc is appalled
essays, and screenplays, as well as directing by what he sees as his friend’s lack of judgment
a number of films. In addition, he has and cannot hide the fact; the resulting
contributed a column on chess to the French argument causes the two men to reassess the
weekly L’Express for some 30 years. whole basis of their relationship. A third
arras Tapestry, so called from the French friend, Yvan, is ambivalent about the painting
town of Arras, once famous for its production and tries to hold the group together.
of fine textiles. When rooms were hung with Although some critics hailed Reza’s play as
tapestry, this provided an obvious hiding place a scintillating comedy of ideas, others felt that
for anyone wishing to conceal him or herself; it had little new to say about either modern art
this is a frequent device in Elizabethan drama. or male friendship and was mainly successful as
In Shakespeare, for example, Polonius is killed a vehicle for the interplay of the three actors.
by Hamlet while concealed behind the arras In London, the three men were originally
(Hamlet, III, iv); Falstaff hides behind it in played by Tom Courtenay, Ken Stott, and
Ford’s house (The Merry Wives of Windsor, III, Albert Finney; other veteran talents to become
iii); and so on. involved during the play’s long run included
Tom Conti, Nigel Havers, Richard Griffiths,
Arsenic and Old Lace A chaotic black and Barry Foster (who died during the
comedy by Joseph Kesselring, first performed engagement). For its final months, the parts
in 1941 in New York, where it ran for 1444 were taken by the League of Gentlemen
performances. The London production, which comedy team.
opened the following year in the Strand
Theatre, ran for 1337 performances with Artaud, Antonin See CRUELTY, THEATRE
OF.
Lilian Braithwaite and Mary Jarrold as the
lethal heroines. The play was filmed by Frank Artists of Dionysus Troupes of
Capra in 1942 with Cary Grant as Mortimer. travelling players in ancient Greece who
The story involves two elderly sisters, Abby organized themselves into the first actors’ guild
and Martha Brewster, whose angelic looks hide or union in the 4th century BC. The Artists of
the fact that they cure the loneliness of Dionysus established rules and regulations for
gentlemen callers by murdering them with the profession and dealt with business and
30 Arts Councils

financial questions, such as actors’ wages. See its being refused Arts Council assistance; it
DIONYSUS. closed the following year.
Arts Councils The main funding bodies Arts Theatre A small London theatre in
for the arts in England, Wales, and Northern Great Newport Street. It began in 1927 as one
Ireland. In 2007 the Arts Council for Scotland of the private theatre clubs formed to exploit a
was replaced by a new agency, Creative loophole in British censorship. An early success
Scotland. In the field of drama the Councils (1928) was John Van Druten’s Young Woodley,
have fostered the growth of repertory, a play banned in public theatres by the Lord
encouraged new playwrights, subsidized ticket Chamberlain. Between 1942 and 1950
prices, and assisted commercial theatres with manager Alec Clunes developed a “pocket
‘partly educational’ productions. Grants and National Theatre”, offering such new plays as
awards are made to hundreds of companies Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not for Burning.
In 1955 Peter Hall presented the British
throughout Britain, the chief recipients being
premiere of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Other
the Royal National Theatre and the Royal
notable premieres included Anouilh’s Waltz
Shakespeare Company. Since 1995 the Arts
of the Toreadors (1956) and Pinter’s The
Councils have been responsible for allocating Caretaker (1960). The Royal Shakespeare
about 20% of those funds from the National Company presented a six-month experimental
Lottery designated for ‘good works’. season at the Arts Theatre in 1962.
The Arts Councils evolved from the Carl Jenner’s Unicorn Theatre for
Council for the Encouragement of Music and Children took over the venue in 1967. In the
the Arts (CEMA), which was set up in 1940 1970s the Unicorn presented new plays for
(with grants from the Pilgrim Trust and the children while leasing the venue to visiting
Treasury) to bring drama, opera, ballet, companies for evening performances; this
concerts, and other entertainment to areas produced such successes as Tom Stoppard’s
whose populations had increased because of Dirty Linen (1976), which ran for 1667
wartime evacuation. In 1946 CEMA was performances, and John Godber’s Teechers
replaced by the Arts Council of Great Britain, (1988). In 1992 the Reduced Shakespeare
created by Royal Charter to “develop a greater Company offered The Complete Works of
knowledge, understanding, and practice of the William Shakespeare, with 37 plays abridged
Fine Arts” as well as to make them more into two hours. Recent productions have
accessible to the public and to improve artistic included The Vagina Monologues (2001) and
standards. The Council was now funded on a the satirical The Madness of George Dubya
permanent basis, mostly by an annual grant-in- (2003). Since coming under new management
aid from the Treasury. The Arts Councils of in 2006 the Arts has concentrated largely on
Scotland and Wales became independent in music and stand-up comedy.
1994 (that for Northern Ireland having always Ashcroft, Dame Peggy (Edith
been autonomous). Margaret Emily Ashcroft; 1907–91) British
actress, once described by J. B. Priestley as “the
Arts Laboratory An experimental
best all-round actress on the English-speaking
London theatre opened in 1968 in Drury Lane
stage”. With the exception of Lady Macbeth,
by the American Jim Haynes, who later
she played every major Shakespearean heroine,
remarked, “My artistic policy was to try to many opposite John Gielgud. After losing her
never say the word no.” It was used by such father in World War I she was brought up by
radical fringe theatre companies as the Pip her mother, an amateur actress. She attended
Simmons Theatre Group and the People Show the Central School of Dramatic Art, making
(who as part of their first production there her debut in 1926 in Barrie’s Dear Brutus at
locked the audience in cages). The staging area the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
was a curtained off section of a long room. The She was Desdemona to Paul Robeson’s
building also contained a basement cinema, in Othello in 1930 at the Savoy Theatre. Two
which the audience sat or lay on the foam- years later, her Juliet, given at the Old Vic,
rubber floor (described as the biggest bed in was considered one of the great performances
London). The Laboratory’s association with of modern times. In 1937 she made her
student rebellion and the drug culture led to Broadway debut in Maxwell Anderson’s High
 Astley’s Amphitheatre 31

Tor then returned to London for Gielgud’s between prime minister Margaret Thatcher
1937–38 season at the Queen’s Theatre, in and a woman admiral:
which she played several roles, notably Irina in ADMIRAL Oh, Leader, when all these
Chekhov’s Three Sisters. bungling incompetents let you down,
Just prior to World War II, Ashcroft remember there is a shoulder here for
played in Gerhart Hauptmann’s Before Sunrise you to weep upon. We women must
with the German actor Werner Krauss. When stick together!
he appeared on stage, the booing forced down MAGGIE (aside) I’ll bet she said the
the curtain, and a pale Ashcroft then appeared same to Edward Heath.
to address the audience: “There are about 30
British actors and actresses in this company, Asphaleian system In the Victorian
theatre, a hydraulic system for raising or
and all of us feel most deeply the honour
lowering the stage floor. Introduced in 1884 in
which has been conferred upon us in acting
Austria-Hungary, the iron mechanism used
with the distinguished artist who is a visitor in
hydraulic pistons under the floor, which was
our midst. I appeal to you to give him and us a
divided into large individual platforms. Besides
fair chance.” The play then went on to a great
moving up and down, each platform could be
ovation and excellent reviews.
tilted.
In 1942 she played with Gielgud in
Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest; The assistant stage manager (ASM) A
Times wrote of her performance that she was member of the production team who assists
“a jewel changing colour with the light, now the STAGE MANAGER in meeting the needs of
innocently olive-green, now an audacious the director and cast. The duties can be
pink”. In 1954 Ashcroft won great acclaim in handled by one person, but large productions
the title role of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the will have three assistant stage managers. The
Westminster Theatre; a year later she acted the various jobs include being responsible for
part in Oslo, receiving King Haakon’s Gold prompting and making sure that the actors’
Medal. During the 1950s she also began to moves coincide with the director’s decisions,
take roles in contemporary plays, including placing props and furniture on stage, calling
Miss Madrigal in Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk actors to the stage for cues or entrances, and
Garden in 1956 (the year she was created controlling backstage lights and those on stage
DBE). during scene changes, etc.
She was a founding member of the ROYAL Association of Producing Artists
SHAKESPEARE COMPANY in 1961, later (APA) During its ten-year existence (1960–70),
becoming a director; her roles with the this New York repertory company provided
company included Queen Margaret in Peter the widest cross-section of drama to be seen in
Hall’s WARS OF THE ROSES cycle (1963–64). In America. Its eclectic repertory included works
1962 a 700-seat theatre was named after her in by Shakespeare, Shaw, Chekhov, Pirandello,
Croydon. Her later successes included Samuel and Ionesco.
BECKETT’s Happy Days in 1974 and the RSC’s Founded by Ellis Rabb, the APA formed
All’s Well That Ends Well at the Barbican in a liaison with the OFF-BROADWAY Phoenix
1982. Theatre. The company won high critical praise
Ashcroft’s few films include A Passage to but was sometimes accused of relying upon
India, for which she won an Academy Award proven successes. It failed to receive an
as Best Supporting Actress in 1984. adequate subsidy and financial problems
aside In a play, a comment addressed eventually forced it to close.
to the audience rather than to the other Astley’s Amphitheatre A London
characters, who are supposed not to have heard theatre famous in the 18th and 19th centuries
it. The device is popular in melodramas, for its exhibitions of horsemanship and
comedies, and pantomimes; it is often EQUESTRIAN DRAMAS. Philip Astley
accompanied by an exaggerated gesture, such (1742–1814), a horse trainer and former
as a hand held over the mouth. For example, cavalry officer, opened it in 1769, with his
John Wells’s topical comedy Anyone for Denis? charger Gibraltar. Astley also built 19 similar
(1981) contains the following exchange amphitheatres throughout Britain, Ireland, and
32 Astor Place riot

France, including the Astley Amphitheatre in him be an American actor – and a great
Paris (1782). American actor – but keep on this side of
His original wooden building on the Atlantic, and no one will gainsay his
Westminster Bridge Road had an unroofed comparative excellence.” After Forrest heard
stage until 1784. The venue burned down four Macready’s remark he took to playing the
times in 47 years, first in 1794, after which it same roles as Macready, in the same town, on
reopened as the Royal Grove Amphitheatre, the same nights.
and for a second time in 1803, after which it The conflict escalated during Forrest’s
reopened as the Royal Amphitheatre of Arts. second tour of Britain, in 1846; as a member
In 1825 a former equestrian performer, of the audience for Macready’s Hamlet, Forrest
Andrew Ducrow (1793–1842), became joint began to hiss. Personal pique erupted into
owner despite being illiterate, and he added international scandal: “I feel I cannot stomach
melodrama to the bill. Two more destructive the United States as a nation”, Macready
fires followed in 1830 and 1841, after which wrote.
William Batty reopened it as Batty’s The climax of the affair came with
Amphitheatre. The next manager, William Macready’s US tour of 1848–49. On 7 May
Cookes, turned Shakespeare’s Richard III into 1849, at the Astor Place Opera House,
an equestrian drama, even creating a leading Macready, playing Macbeth, was openly
role for Richard’s horse, White Surrey. jeered; the performance ended with the
Dion Boucicault took over in 1863 and audience throwing eggs and chairs onto the
renamed the venue the Theatre Royal, stage. The New York management,
Westminster, presenting premieres of his own embarrassed by the episode, persuaded
plays and works by Sir Walter Scott with little Macready to repeat the role three days later.
success. The following year E. T. Smith On this occasion, order within the theatre was
restored the name of Astley’s and the US maintained throughout the performance, but
actress Adah Isaacs MENKEN played there in the outside an angry mob confronted the
highly successful equestrian drama Mazeppa, assembled riot police. When the police lost
an adaptation of Lord Byron’s poem, in which control of the mob, 60 mounted militiamen
she appeared “in a state of virtual nudity when were called to the scene, followed by the
bound to the back of the wild horse”. infantry, with bayonets fixed. The reading of
In 1871 the circus proprietors John and the Riot Act, twice, failed to calm the incensed
George Sanger assumed control, enlarged the rioters; the order to fire was given. As a result
venue, and renamed it Sanger’s Grand 22 rioters died and 36 were wounded.
National Amphitheatre. By 1893 the building Macready himself slipped out of the theatre
was closed after being declared unsafe; it was and escaped to Boston: he never acted in
demolished two years later. America again. The theatre itself closed for
repairs but, now known as the ‘Massacre
Astor Place riot A riot that took place at
Opera House’, it failed to prosper, finally
the Astor Place Opera House in New York on
shutting its doors for ever on 12 June 1850.
10 May 1849 as a result of the long-standing
rivalry between the great British tragedian As You Like It A comedy by
William MACREADY and his US counterpart SHAKESPEARE, written c. 1599, date of first
Edwin FORREST. performance unknown. Tradition says the
The rivalry began in 1836, when Forrest Bard himself played the role of Adam, the old
first appeared on the London stage in parts and faithful retainer. Based on Thomas
Macready considered his own. Although Lodge’s Rosalynde (1590), the play is set in the
Macready never saw Forrest perform, his contrasting worlds of Frederick’s oppressive
comment was ominous: “It would be stupid court and the Forest of ARDEN. The plot
and shallow hypocrisy to say that I was concerns the romantic tribulations of four
indifferent to the result.” For a man with an couples: Orlando and ROSALIND, Oliver and
ungovernable temper, this showed considerable Celia, Touchstone and Audrey, and Silvius and
restraint. Phebe. The characters represent various
In 1843 Macready began his own lengthy attitudes to love. Silvius is full of exaggerated
tour of America; in an unguarded moment he sentiment, whereas Touchstone is brutally
reacted incautiously to a newspaper article that down to earth. Although deeply in love herself,
compared his talent to that of his rival: “Let Rosalind mocks romantic excess; when
 Athénée, Théâtre de l’ 33

Orlando says he will die of love, she has her works at the theatre. André Barsacq
doubts: “Men have died from time to time, (1909–73), who began his career at the Atelier
and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” under Dullin, succeeded him as manager after
Melancholy Jaques derides everything, and his World War II.
famous speech reduces life to a farce full of
atellana A type of partly improvised
stock theatrical characters:
FARCE popular in the early Roman theatre.
All the world’s a stage, It was named after its birthplace, the town
And all the men and women merely of Atella in southern Italy. Its coarse rustic
players; humour derived from its original purpose of
They have their exits and their amusing local people on market day (early
entrances, atellanae have such titles as The Farmer and
And one man in his time plays many The She-Goat). The five main characters, each
parts, of whom wore distinctive masks and costumes,
His acts being seven ages. were the fat Bucco, the rural Maccus, the
In the 18th century As You Like It provided hunchback Dossennus, the ogre Manducus,
choice roles for such actors as Charles Macklin, and old Pappus. Scholars have remarked on
Charles Kean, and Mrs Siddons. Modern the similarities to the early form of the
actors to have excelled in the play include COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE.
Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Edith When the Atellan farce moved to Rome
Evans, Vanessa Redgrave, Katherine Hepburn, it gradually lost its impromptu nature. It
and George C. Scott. An all-male production achieved a more sophisticated literary status
at the Old Vic in 1967 featured Ronald in the first century BC, when the dramatists
Pickup, Charles Kay, Richard Kaye, and Pomponius and Novius began to write down
Anthony Hopkins as Rosalind, Celia, Phebe, the plots of the short comedies and to use
and Audrey respectively. them as curtain-raisers. Under the dictator
When Nigel Playfair directed the play in Sulla (138–78 BC) the fabula atellana was the
1919 at the SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL THEATRE, only indigenous Roman drama. It later evolved
he courted controversy by substituting into, and was replaced by, MIME.
authentic Shakespeare for local theatrical
tradition: amongst other changes he threw out Athalie Jean RACINE’s last play, often
an ancient stuffed stag always used in the play considered his finest. It was commissioned
and restored Shakespearean lines always left after his retirement from the commercial stage
out. Play-goers were outraged. One woman by Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV’s
approached the designer, Lovat Fraser, in town morganatic wife, for the girls’ school she ran
waving her fist: “Young man, how dare you and presented at Versailles in 1691. Despite its
meddle with our Shakespeare.” beautiful chorus passages, Louis XIV disliked
the play because Racine had departed from his
ATA See AMERICAN THEATRE ASSOCIATION. usual theme of praising the monarchy,
Atelier, Théâtre de l’ A theatre in promoting instead the views of the Jansenist
Paris near the Montmartre district. It opened cult that had educated him. Louis later
in 1822 as the Théâtre des Élèves, specializing dispersed the religious group. The first public
in melodrama and vaudeville; it was later performance was not until 1716, the year after
converted into a cinema. In 1922 the actor, Louis’s death. The tragedy subsequently
director, and producer Charles Dullin became a centrepiece in the repertoire of the
Comédie-Française.
(1885–1949) took it over as a home for the
The plot concerns Athalie, the first queen
avant-garde company he had formed three
of Jerusalem, who worships the pagan god
years earlier. The theatre’s reputation grew as
Baal. Having already murdered her own
Dullin presented the first French production
grandchildren, she orders the massacre of those
of a play by Pirandello and works by such
who worship Jehovah. The one grandchild to
dramatists as Marcel Achard and Jean Cocteau,
escape was Joash. When Athalie encounters
including the latter’s Antigone in 1922. Dullin
him, she has one moment of weakness and
also ran a drama school in the theatre that
rejects advice to kill him. This hesitation, a
provided one of France’s best training grounds
miracle from God, leads to her downfall.
for actors.
Louis Jouvet (1887–1951) also directed Athénée, Théâtre de l’ A theatre in
34 Athenian drama

Paris. As the Athénée-Comique it was drama reduced epic theatre to the level of
originally known for melodrama and light exhibitionism.” He also savaged Laurence
entertainment. In 1934 the director Louis OLIVIER and Vivien LEIGH’s performances in
JOUVET took over the Athénée and began to Romeo and Juliet in 1940 (which had been
produce serious plays by Molière and Jean highly praised in Chicago): “Much scenery, no
Giraudoux amongst others. The theatre’s play. Although Miss Leigh and Mr Olivier are
leading position declined after Jouvet’s death handsome young people, they hardly act the
in 1951. parts at all, and Mr Olivier in particular keeps
throwing his part away.” Reviewing a British
Athenian drama Greek theatre of the
actress named April who had opened on
5th and 4th centuries BC. The period saw the
Broadway he noted sharply: “Oh, to be in
evolution of both tragedy and comedy through
England, now that’s April’s here.”
two great annual competitions held in Athens:
the city DIONYSIA for tragedies and the LENAEA audition A method of casting a play,
for comedies. It also supplied the first major especially for secondary roles or in amateur
Western dramatist whose work survives in productions, in which actors compete for
AESCHYLUS, two more great tragic poets in parts. An audition is run by the stage manager;
SOPHOCLES and EURIPIDES, and the OLD its content may range from an informal chat to
COMEDY of Aristophanes. set readings from classical and modern pieces
During the period the emphasis on or from the play to be cast. Actors are often
religious themes and abstract issues found in called to perform before the director and
the early plays increasingly gave way to others at 10-minute intervals. The nerve-
individual character analysis. The chorus’s role wracking ritual is known derisively within the
was reduced and more actors brought upon the profession as the cattle call; the fact that many
stage. Basic props and scenery were also actors are auditioned for each part has
introduced. The first plays were staged in the produced the cliche ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call
ORCHESTRA in Athens market but as the you’. The musical A Chorus Line (1975)
popularity of drama grew, performances concerns a group of actors auditioning for a
shifted to the steep Acropolis hill, where Broadway show.
wooden, then stone, seats were installed. The
Audley. to John Audley A theatrical
development of MIDDLE COMEDY and then
phrase meaning to abridge, or suddenly
NEW COMEDY in the later 4th century BC had
conclude, a performance. It is said that the
an important influence on ROMAN DRAMA. See
18th-century comedian Ned Shuter used to
also GREEK DRAMA.
lengthen out his performances until a crowd
Atkinson, Brooks (1894–1984) The had built up for the next house. An assistant
drama critic for the New York Times from would then call out “Is John Audley here?” as a
1926 until 1960 (except during World War II, signal that the play should now be brought to
when he was a war correspondent in China an end as soon as possible.
and Russia). Atkinson was respected for his
Augustan drama The NEOCLASSICAL
penetrating reviews and was credited with the
DRAMA of the mid 17th century in France
ability to make or break shows. He received a
and of a slightly later period in England. In
Tony Award for distinguished achievement in
France it is represented by the great works of
the theatre and when he retired the Mansfield
Corneille, Racine, and Molière, and in
Theatre on Broadway was renamed the Brooks
England by the plays of John Dryden, William
Atkinson Theatre in his honour (1960).
Congreve, Joseph Addison, and others. The
Atkinson could be effusive in his praise, as
original Augustan Age was the Golden Age of
when describing Beatrice LILLIE in Oh, Please
Latin literature, so called from the Emperor
(1926) as “an incomparable comedienne in the
Augustus, in whose reign (27 BC – 14 AD)
highly intelligent vein of Charlie Chaplin”, or
Horace, Ovid, Virgil, Livy, Propertius, etc.,
saying of Ethel MERMAN’s performance in
flourished.
Gypsy: “her personal magnetism electrifies the
whole theatre.” At the same time he was no Aunt Edna A fictional theatregoer
respecter of reputations, noting of Charles conceived by Terence RATTIGAN as the epitome
LAUGHTON’s Galileo in 1947: “His pompous of the matinée audience he had to please. She
acting and his overbearing attitude towards the later became a widely recognized embodiment
 Avignon Festival 35

of all the forces that the ANGRY YOUNG MEN of event began with a procession of choirs, priests
the 1950s sought to displace. Rattigan bearing the Host beneath a canopy, royalty
introduced her in his preface to the second and nobles, and finally the actors. Prayers were
volume of his Collected Plays (1953): said at the stage before the performance. The
A nice respectable, middle-class, main religious allegory was usually preceded by
middle-aged maiden lady, with time a prologue and a farce and followed by
on her hands and the money to help concluding songs or dances.
pass it…Let us call her Aunt Edna… About 400 of the 1200 plays written by
Aunt Edna is universal…She is also Lope de VEGA were autos sacramentales, but the
immortal. most celebrated writer in the genre was Pedro
CALDERÓN de la Barca. His numerous religious
Aureng-Zebe A tragedy by John DRYDEN, works were staged in Madrid from 1650
first produced in 1675 in London. It was his onwards; the best known is El gran teatro del
last rhymed heroic play, a genre with which he mundo, which develops the idea that the world
had become disillusioned. In its dedication he is a stage on which each person plays the role
wrote “I desire to be no longer the Sisyphus of written for him or her by God. The autos
the Stage; to roll up a stone with endless sacramentales continued long after mystery
labour…which is perpetually falling down plays had died away in England and France,
again.” but they became less and less religious in their
The plot is loosely based on events in the content and were finally prohibited by royal
India of Dryden’s own day. Aureng-Zebe command in 1765.
seizes the Indian empire from his father and
his brothers. The hero maintains exemplary available See RESTING.
virtue in the midst of a chaotic world in which Avignon Festival A major French
his stepmother lusts after him and his father
theatre festival that by 1990 had assumed the
seeks the woman he himself loves.
status of that nation’s “premier cultural event”.
author’s night In the 17th- and It was founded in 1947 by Jean VILAR, who
18th-century English theatre, a BENEFIT that year appeared at Avignon in the first
performance whose proceeds went to the French version of Shakespeare’s Richard II.
playwright. This was usually the third night of The open-air production was staged with
a production (if it lasted that long). Samuel special music and lighting but without scenery
Johnson was given the proceeds of the 3rd, on a platform stage in the courtyard of the
6th, and 9th nights of Irene (1749), as was Palace of the Popes. The festival became an
Oliver Goldsmith for The Good-Natured Man annual July event and grew quickly. In 1951
(1768). Vilar revived the THÉÂTRE NATIONAL
POPULAIRE and subsequently brought the
Autolycus A dishonest pedlar in
Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE. A trickster company to the festival each year.
and petty thief, the character owes much to the Vilar’s festival productions were large-scale
rogue literature popular at the time. but emphasized the individual actor and made
In classical legend Autolycus was the son use of sparse platform settings. Attention was
of Hermes and a famous thief. Shakespeare’s focused upon the performers through elaborate
character remarks: costumes and special lighting. Early successes
included Corneille’s Le Cid and Heinrich von
My father named me Autolycus; who Kleist’s Prinz Friedrich von Homburg (both
being, as I am, littered under Mercury, 1951) and Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of
was likewise a snapper-up of Figaro (1956).
unconsidered trifles. In the 1960s the festival expanded rapidly;
The Winter’s Tale (IV, ii) in 1968 it had 12 official venues and many
auto sacramental The Spanish ‘off-Festival’ ones and staged about 300
equivalent of the English MYSTERY PLAY. This productions. This trend towards ever greater
vernacular religious drama dates back to about diversity continued after Vilar’s death in 1971,
1200 and derived from the Latin LITURGICAL with contributions from the major French
DRAMA. The plays were acted on temporary companies, fringe theatre groups such as New
open-air stages or wagons at Church festivals, York’s radical LIVING THEATRE, and French-
especially at the feast of Corpus Christi. The speaking countries in the developing world.
36 Awake and Sing!

The 1985 festival saw the premiere of Peter provides the audience with a choice of four
Brook and Jean-Claude Carrière’s adaptation versions, Intimate Exchanges (1984) has more
of the Sanskrit epic, MAHABHARATA. By the than 30 scenes that can be arranged in 16
early 2000s Avignon had assumed a scale and possible versions, and House/Garden (1999)
diversity second only to EDINBURGH among comprises two plays for the same cast that are
world arts festivals, with around 1000 events designed to be staged simultaneously in
being presented in locations throughout the neighbouring auditoriums.
city each year. Born in London, Ayckbourn joined
Donald Wolfit’s company as both actor and
Awake and Sing! A play by the US
stage manager at the age of 18. He later
dramatist Clifford ODETS. It was first
worked as an actor and director for Stephen
performed in 1935 by the GROUP THEATRE at
Joseph at his theatre-in-the-round in
the Belasco Theatre, New York. Its success led
Scarborough and at the Victoria Theatre,
to Odets being acclaimed as the country’s most
Stoke-on-Trent. Joseph encouraged him to
promising playwright. The story concerns a
write plays for both theatres; Ayckbourn’s first
shrewd Jewish mother who rules her working-
comedy, Mr Whatnot, was seen in London in
class family with an iron hand. She breaks up
1964 after opening the previous year at the
her son’s love affair and pushes her daughter
Victoria. Almost all of his subsequent works
towards a loveless marriage. In the end,
have been premiered in Scarborough before
however, her daughter defies her by eloping
transferring to the West End. In 1967 he
with a gangster. There was an acclaimed revival
found acclaim with RELATIVELY SPEAKING,
at the Belasco in 2006.
produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre,
Ayckbourn, Sir Alan (1939– ) The London, after its Scarborough opening. Its
most popular British playwright after suburban setting and acrimonious
Shakespeare and – with over 70 full-length relationships set the pattern for Ayckbourn’s
works to his credit – one of the most prolific. future hits. HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES
His comedies have been translated into some (1970) starred Robert Morley at the Lyric
30 languages, and in 1975 he had five plays Theatre and subsequently toured Canada and
running simultaneously in London’s West Australia. TIME AND TIME AGAIN followed in
End. From 1970 until 2009 Ayckbourn was 1972 at the Comedy Theatre, while the great
the artistic director (latterly unpaid) of the success ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR (1973) was
STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE IN THE ROUND at first produced at the Criterion. In 1974 The
Scarborough, where most of his plays have Norman Conquests opened at the Globe
been premiered. He was knighted in 1997. Theatre and Absent Friends began its run at the
Ayckbourn’s comic dissection of middle- Garrick Theatre.
class English mores often reveals the His other works of the 1970s and 1980s
underlying loneliness and despair of his included the five playlets in Confusions (1976),
characters. Recent works have become blacker. BEDROOM FARCE (1977), JUST BETWEEN
He noted, “I think inevitably as you write OURSELVES (1977), JOKING APART (1979), TEN
about people, you scrape away the outer layers TIMES TABLE (1978), Taking Steps (1980), WAY
and you get to darknesses”, also commenting UPSTREAM (1982), the musical Making Tracks
“People tend to be a lot warier of me now. (1983; with Paul Todd), and A Chorus of
They don’t invite me for dinner as much.” His Disapproval (1985). More recent plays have
works are often ingeniously constructed: THE included The Revenger’s Comedies (1991),
NORMAN CONQUESTS (1974) is a trilogy of Communicating Doors (1994), and the trilogies
comedies using the same set and variations on Damsels in Distress (2001) and Things That Go
the same plot, SISTERLY FEELINGS (1980) Bump (1994–2008).
 Back to Methuselah 37

versions by Wole Soyinka (1972) and David

B Greig (2007).
Bacchus (1) See DIONYSUS. (2) What has
that to do with Bacchus? An old catchphrase
Babes in the Wood An old story found meaning ‘What has that got to do with it?’
in a ballad (16th century) and also in a crude According to legend, THESPIS founded the
melodrama, printed in 1601 and attributed on Greek drama by introducing recitations into
the title page to Rob Yarington. the Bacchic vintage songs. This was considered
The story goes that the master of Wayland acceptable as long as his speeches dealt with
Hall in Norfolk died leaving a young son and the exploits of Bacchus. However, when he
daughter in the care of his wife’s brother; both ventured onto other subjects, the audience
were provided with money, but if the children pulled him up with the exclamation, “What
died first the uncle was to inherit. After a year has that to do with Bacchus?”
or so the uncle hired two villains to murder the backcloth See CLOTH.
babes; in the event, one relented and killed the
other in a fight, leaving the children in a wood. backstage In theatres with proscenium
They died during the night and robins covered stages, the area behind the proscenium arch
them over with leaves. out of view of the audience. This usually
A version of the story in which the birds’ includes the wings, dressing rooms, workshops,
ministrations save the children’s lives provides and storerooms. The term can also refer to
the basis of the PANTOMIME Babes in the Wood. these areas in non-proscenium theatres.
The show often incorporates elements of the A backstage musical or play is one that
ROBIN HOOD story.
deals with the lives, love affairs, rivalries, etc.,
of theatrical performers during a show.
Bacchae, The The last play by EURIPIDES, Typically, the actors find their real-life
written in exile in Macedonia and produced preoccupations mirrored in their stage roles.
posthumously in Athens in 405 BC. This one- Famous examples include the Cole Porter
act tragedy is Euripides’s most frequently musical KISS ME KATE (1948) and Michael
revived play, mainly because of the Frayn’s NOISES OFF (1982).
psychological intensity with which it presents
the conflict between Dionysus (Bacchus), Back to Methuselah A long fantasy
god of ecstasy, wine, and fertility, and the play by George Bernard SHAW, first performed
puritanical King Pentheus. in 1922 by the Theatre Guild in New York.
When Dionysus brings his cult to Thebes, Edith Evans created the roles of the Serpent
Pentheus (penthos in Greek means ‘sorrow’) and the She-Ancient. Shaw considered it his
spurns the god and imprisons his abandoned finest play, but it is seldom seen today, being
female followers, declaring “in all matters, self- too monumental for normal commercial
control resides in our own natures”. The god handling. The drama, five linked plays, covers
then appears in human form to lure the king human history from the Garden of Eden to the
to the rites where, disguised as a woman, year 31290. Shaw expounds his idea of
Pentheus secretly watches the orgiastic rituals. ‘creative evolution’ through the Serpent, who
In a blood frenzy, the Bacchae mistake the tells Eve:
king for a lion cub and rip him apart with their You imagine what you desire; you will
hands, led by his own mother who parades her what you imagine; and at last you
son’s head in triumph. This play is often taken create what you will…
as a parable about the dangers of repression. In the year 2170 “the thing happens” when
According to one (dubious) legend, two characters from the 1920s sequence are
Euripides himself was torn apart by mad dogs found to be still alive: humanity has at last
shortly after writing the dismemberment scene. achieved the longevity needed to acquire
The play was never finished. wisdom.
In 55 BC when the Roman consul Crassus Back to Methuselah was the source of a
was slain by the Parthians they allegedly staged phrase used by John F. Kennedy (1917–63)
a special performance of The Bacchae using and his brother Robert (1925–68) and often
Crassus’s severed head as a prop. credited to them. When the Serpent tries to
Modern adaptations of the play include seduce Eve, he says:
38 Baconian theory

You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But Powell. The most striking recent theory was
I dream things that never were; and I that proposed in 1989 by Colonel Gaddafi, the
say ‘Why not?’ Libyan leader. According to him, there existed
Another line from the play became a definite proof that the author was an Arab, one
catchphrase for Malcolm Fraser, the former ‘Sheikh Speare’.
prime minister of Australia (1975–83): “Life
baiting A form of entertainment in which
wasn’t meant to be easy.” In the play Shaw’s
animals are tormented and killed for the
He-Ancient declares:
pleasure of the spectators. It has existed in
Life is not meant to be easy, my child; many countries. In ancient Rome gladiators
but take courage: it can be delightful. known as venationes and bestiarii fought herds
Baconian theory The thesis (first put of exotic animals in the arenas. In the Middle
forward by the Revd James Wilmot in 1805) Ages bulls were baited for supposedly hygienic
that the plays of SHAKESPEARE were in fact reasons before their slaughter. The sports of
written by Sir Francis Bacon. This most bear-baiting and bull-baiting, in which these
persistent of literary red herrings is based on animals were chained to a stake and harassed
the assumption that Shakespeare could not by dogs, were introduced to England in about
have possessed the knowledge and culture the 13th century as an aristocratic pleasure.
revealed in his works and thrives upon our Henry VIII licensed public animal fights and
ignorance of his life. In 1887 Ignatius Elizabeth I was an avid supporter of bear-
Donnelly published The Great Cryptogram, baiting. Although the Puritans outlawed
which professed to show that cryptograms in baiting, three bear-gardens are known to have
the plays revealed Bacon as the undoubted existed in Restoration London, and it was not
author; the cryptographic method was further until 1835 that Parliament legally abolished
advanced by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence and the unsavoury practice.
others. Some have gone further, arguing that The Elizabethan theatre had close
‘Shakespeare’ was a wholly fictitious concept connections with baiting. When playhouses
improvised to disguise the political thoughts of closed on Sundays, the Bear Garden, situated
Bacon, Raleigh, and Sidney; proof, it is said, of next to Shakespeare’s GLOBE THEATRE,
this claim will be found in the playwright’s provided the only entertainment in town.
grave (as yet unopened). Bacon has also been In 1583 an overflowing crowd caused the
credited with the Essays of Montaigne, Bear Garden to collapse. It was rebuilt in
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, and the plays grand style in 1598 and subsequently managed
of Christopher Marlowe. However absurd it by Philip HENSLOWE, the owner of the
may seem, the theory has had many Fortune, Hope, and Rose playhouses. He
distinguished converts over the years, provided such ‘entertainment’ as the baiting of
including Mark Twain, Henry James, Helen bears and bulls by dogs and even the whipping
of a blind bear. In 1604 the actor Edward
Keller, and Sigmund Freud. W. S. Gilbert,
ALLEYN became Royal Keeper of Bulls and
who thought little of Sir Herbert Beerbohm
Mastiffs.
Tree’s performances of Hamlet, suggested that
Scholars have suggested that Shakespeare
the issue might be resolved once and for all by
used bears from the adjacent amphitheatre in
having both Bacon’s and Shakespeare’s coffins
The Winter’s Tale, which includes the famous
dug up; whichever corpse turned first in his
stage direction “Exit pursued by a bear”. The
grave at hearing Tree’s recitation would be the
Bard and his fellow actors were also familiar
true author.
with the names of individual bears: in The
Several other candidates for the authorship
Merry Wives of Windsor, the character Slender
have since been proposed, including Elizabeth
speaks of seeing ‘Sanderson’ loose 20 times. See
I herself. In the last hundred years the
also PARIS-GARDEN.
Baconian theory has been rivalled by the so-
called Oxfordian theory, according to which Bajazet In Marlowe’s TAMBURLAINE THE
the plays were written by a minor poet, GREAT an Ottoman sultan who is defeated in
Edward De Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford (see battle by Tamburlaine and subsequently
OXFORD’S MEN). Proposed in the 1920s by the carried about in an iron cage by his captor.
unfortunately named T. J. Looney, the theory Bajazet eventually beats out his brains on the
found a noted advocate in the politician Enoch bars of his prison. The character is based on
 Bald Prima Donna, The 39

the historical Bayezid I (ruled 1389–1403), the pit, boxes, and gallery. She then stuffed the
who was defeated and captured by Timur in receipts in her large front pocket and carried
1402. There is, however, no evidence for the them to her room to be added to the money
story of the cage. kept in large china punch bowls on the top
The caged sultan also appears in Nicholas shelf of an old bureau. Mistrusting banks, she
Rowe’s anti-Catholic play Tamerlane (1701), carried her savings from town to town, once
in which he partly represents Louis XIV of keeping a £200 note in her pocket for seven
France and his conqueror William III of years.
England. For over a century the play was Mrs Baker found various ingenious ways of
performed each 5 November, the anniversary overcoming her literacy problems. The critic
of William’s landing in Britain. Edward Dutton Cook (1829–83) described
her method of creating a playbill by cutting
Bajazet A tragedy by RACINE that set a new out the titles of a play, an interlude, and a farce
fashion by using subject matter from recent from old posters and sewing them together
Turkish history. It was first performed in 1672 “avoiding the use of pen and ink”. Other
in Paris; although Racine was criticized in occasions proved more embarrassing, especially
some quarters for treating an oriental story in when she had to replace the prompter. On one
classical style, the play was a great success. It is such evening, her leading actor James Gardner
now seldom performed. was playing the role of Gradus in the farce
Set in 1635 in Constantinople, the plot Who’s the Dupe? In a scene where Gradus
concerns the sultan’s younger brother, Bajazet, pretends to speak Greek, Gardner’s mind went
who reluctantly agrees to wed the possessive blank. He glanced towards the PROMPT SIDE,
and violent sultana Roxane in order to gain the but Mrs Baker was mute, puzzling over the
throne. When Roxane learns that Bajazet is playbook. “Give me the word, Madam,” he
really in love with the innocent Atalide, a whispered, but she only replied, “It’s a hard
young Ottoman princess, she has him word, Jim.” With desperation, he asked for the
murdered. The play’s atmosphere is one of next word. “That’s harder,” she replied. “The
intrigue and passion. next,” appealed Gardner. “Harder still!” she
Roxane provided a famous role for snapped, then hurled the book on stage and
RACHEL, who wore an approximation of called, “There, now you have them all. Take
Turkish dress as part of her campaign for your choice.”
historical accuracy in costumes.
balcony A US and Canadian term for any
Baker, Sarah (c. 1736–1816) English CIRCLE or GALLERY in the auditorium of a
theatre proprietor, famous for her indomitable theatre.
energy and enterprise during a career of more
than 50 years. Although she could barely read Balcony, The An expressionist play in
and write, she managed a circuit of 10 theatres nine scenes by Jean GENET, first performed
in Kent. in 1957 in London. In the 1960 Paris
Sarah was the daughter of a touring actress production, which was directed by Peter
BROOK, Marie Bell gave a noted performance
and began her career with a puppet show. She
married an actor in about 1761 but was as the madame, Irma. Set in a brothel, the play
widowed eight years later; to support her three compares the sex games of prostitutes and their
children, she managed her mother’s company clients with the shams of conventional society.
before forming her own. Edmund Kean The clients play out the roles of bishop,
appeared with her troupe early in his career. general, and judge, while the prostitutes
She established a touring circuit in Kent and assume the guises of virgin, thief, and queen;
the whole family regularly presented comedies meanwhile the madame watches everything.
and tragedies. From about 1789 onwards she When a revolution overthrows the
built her own theatres, eventually owning government, those inside the brothel are urged
to act out their roles in public as a means of
venues in Canterbury, Rochester, Faversham,
restoring order. These are played out so
Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Deal,
realistically that the borderline between
Folkestone, Sandwich, Sittingbourne, and
illusion and reality becomes impossible to
Lewes.
discern.
As well as contributing sound effects, Mrs
Baker personally collected admission fees for Bald Prima Donna, The A one-act play
40 Bale, John

by IONESCO, first performed in Paris in 1950, well-known tunes. The form began as a parody
that was subsequently recognized as the first of Italian opera and remained satirical, often
major work in the Theatre of the ABSURD. This attacking contemporary political figures. Gay’s
debut piece introduced many of the themes THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (1728) remains the most
that were to characterize both Ionesco’s own famous example. A year later Charles Coffey
later works and those of other Absurdist produced The Beggar’s Wedding and the same
writers. Principal among these is an awareness author’s play The Devil to Pay (1731) also
of the deficiencies of language. The bizarre became a popular ballad opera when cut to
conversations between the play’s main one act. When translated into German (as
characters – Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr and Der Teufel ist los; 1743) this inspired the
Mrs Martin – were apparently inspired by the development of the parallel Singspiele tradition
dialogues in an English-language phrase book. there.
Audiences were at first bemused by the The ballad opera style was revived by the
author’s rejection of all accepted theatrical success of Isaac BICKERSTAFFE’s Love in a
conventions, but in time responded to the Village in 1762, but this and such later works
desperate humour of the piece. The play’s long as Sheridan’s THE DUENNA (1775) are not true
residency at the Théâtre de la Huchette in ballad operas, their music having been specially
Paris, beginning in 1957 and continuing to composed.
this day, has made it the world’s longest- ballyhoo Originally, the patter of a
running play after THE MOUSETRAP. In theatrical or fairground barker; the term now
America the piece is known as The Bald denotes any kind of hype or exaggerated
Soprano. publicity.
Bale, John (1495–1563) English banana A slang term for a comedian. The
dramatist who penned 21 plays in defence of term originated in US BURLESQUE, with the
the Reformation, formed his own company of best or senior comedian being the ‘top banana’
travelling players, and eventually became the followed by the ‘second banana’, ‘third
Bishop of Ossory in Ireland. His most famous banana’, etc. The term was apparently
work, Kynge Johan, was published in 1536 but suggested by the banana-shaped clubs filled
revised for Edward VI and again for Queen with air or water that burlesque comedians
Elizabeth I. It is usually considered the first used to hit one another over the head. These
English historical play, representing a implements may be related to the phallic
transition between the medieval MORALITY symbols used in comedy performances in the
PLAY and the chronicle plays of the ancient Greek and Roman theatres.
Elizabethans.
The play presents John as a heroic figure Bancrofts, the The English actor-
who rescues Widow England from the clutches manager Sir Squire Bancroft (1841–1926) and
of an oppressive Church, declaring that his his actress-manager wife, the former Marie
duty is to God and not to the foreign Pope. Effie Wilton (1839–1921). While managing
A number of historical characters appear as the Prince of Wales’ Theatre and the
morality figures; thus the Pope is represented Haymarket, London, they introduced the
by the character Usurped Power, the dramatists Tom Robertson, A. W. Pinero, and
Archbishop of Canterbury by Sedition, and Tom Taylor to play-goers. They initiated the
Cardinal Pandulphus by Private Wealth. Bale’s vogue for CUP-AND-SAUCER DRAMA and
DRAWING-ROOM DRAMA and promoted realistic
major source was William Tyndale’s Obedience
of a Christian Man (1528). Bale also used scenery and more naturalistic styles of acting.
the INTERLUDE for religious and political The Bancrofts also raised the financial standing
propaganda. The extreme vehemence of his of actors, paying the highest salaries in London
and providing their actresses with personal
controversial writings earned him the
wardrobes.
nickname Bilious Bale. His life provided the
Marie Wilton came from a family of actors
basis for John ARDEN’s historical novel Book of
and first appeared on stage at the age of six,
Bale (1988).
playing the Emperor of Lilliput in the
ballad opera A type of musical drama pantomime Gulliver’s Travels. She specialized
popular in the 18th century, in which spoken in male roles in BURLESQUE pieces, notably at
dialogue was interspersed with songs set to the Strand Theatre where Charles Dickens
 Bankhead, Tallulah 41

called her “the cleverest girl I have ever seen on performance, joining the action only when
the stage in my time”. Unable to escape being they have lines.
typecast, she borrowed £100 and persuaded
Bankhead, Tallulah (1902–68) US
the dramatist Henry J. Byron to join her in actress known for her flamboyant style on and
leasing the tatty Queen’s Theatre (known as off stage and for her habitual husky-voiced
the DUST HOLE). She redecorated the venue greeting of ‘Dahling’. Although superb in
and renamed it the Prince of Wales’ Theatre, femme fatale roles, she was frequently accused
opening in 1865. of being more personality than actress.
Squire Bancroft was educated privately Tallulah was born in Alabama, the daughter of
until his father’s early death forced him to earn a US Congressman, and at 15 won a contest in
a living. He joined the Theatre Royal, a film magazine that sent her to New York. A
Birmingham in 1861 and met his future wife year later she made her theatrical debut there
in repertory in Liverpool. He played 346 in The Squab Farm.
different parts during his four years with stock It was in London, however, that she found
companies before joining her company at the fame, with her performance in The Dancers at
Prince of Wales’ for the opening. Wyndham’s Theatre in 1923. With her acid
Squire became joint manager when Byron wit and outrageous style, she instantly became
left and the venue developed into London’s the toast of the town. Shops promoted
leading house for comedy. The Bancrofts, who Tallulah hats, dresses, and hair styles. Queues
married in 1867, set a new fashion by formed 48 hours in advance for unreserved
presenting only one play in an evening. In seats and police once had to disperse 2000
1869, when all seats to a revival of Sheridan’s admirers from the stage door. During her
The School For Scandal were booked, they seven years in London she took the lead in
presented one of London’s first matinees. some 15 plays, including COWARD’s Fallen
When the venue became too small, the Angels (1925). The Master always thought her
Bancrofts moved to the Haymarket in 1880. charming but embarrassing. During an
There was a near riot, however, because they evening at Chez Paree, Coward recalled:
had switched the cheap seats from the pit to “Tallulah screamed and roared and banged the
the second circle and replaced them with table, etc., and I wished the floor would open.”
expensive stalls. The howls of protest and cries After returning to New York in 1933 she
of ‘Where’s the pit?’ lasted for more than 20 enjoyed two of her greatest successes as Regina
minutes. in Hellman’s The Little Foxes (1939) and
The Bancrofts retired in 1885, but Squire Sabina in Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth
returned in 1889 to appear opposite Irving at (1943). When she played the Queen in The
the Lyceum. In 1893 Marie joined him in Eagle Has Two Heads (1947) she had the then-
Diplomacy at the Garrick Theatre, and Queen unknown Marlon Brando dismissed from the
Victoria commanded them to perform the play cast because she disliked his attitude. He
at Balmoral that same year. Squire, who opened that same season in A Streetcar Named
received a knighthood in 1897, was later Desire, the work that made his reputation.
president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic For years Tennessee WILLIAMS begged her
Art (see RADA), where he is now honoured by to perform in his plays. Tallulah consistently
the presentation of the Bancroft Gold Medal. refused because the works shocked her; finally,
in 1956, she agreed to play Blanche in A
Bandi Nata A form of traditional theatre Streetcar Named Desire. Eventually her life of
in India’s eastern state of Orissa. It presents three-day parties, smoking, alcohol, and
legends associated with Bandi, the wife of the cocaine took its toll. Her last performance was
god Krishna, especially stories of her self- in 1964 as Mrs Goforth in Williams’s The
sacrifice in allowing him to frolic with Radha, Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore; the
her sister-in-law. play ran for five disastrous nights before
The plays, most of which last about three closing.
hours, combine drama, humour, dances, and Tallulah’s performances veered from
songs, with accompaniment by the dhol drum. brilliance to calamity. The notices for her
They are performed by Untouchables from the performance of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra (1937)
central and western areas of Orissa. The actors were particularly miserable; undaunted, she
mingle with the audience during the used to read them gleefully out loud, including
42 Bankrupt, The

John Mason Brown’s opinion that “Miss Charles Deburau (1829–73) inherited the role.
Bankhead barged down the Nile last night as Jean-Louis BARRAULT famously recreated
Cleopatra – and sank” and George Jean Baptiste’s Pierrot for the film Les Enfants du
Nathan’s comment “Miss Bankhead played the Paradis (1945).
Queen of the Nil.” See also CAMPBELL, MRS At the height of his fame, Baptiste became
PATRICK. involved in a serious scandal when he struck
She was always a star, but only out with his walking stick at a drunken man
intermittently a good actress. who had insulted his wife and, by some
BRENDAN GILL (1973) misfortune, killed him. The resulting court
case drew huge crowds – mainly, it is said,
A day away from Tallulah Bankhead is
because the people of Paris recognized their
like a month in the country.
one chance to hear the great mime speak.
Show Business Illustrated (1961)
Although Deburau was acquitted and became
Bankrupt, The A play by the Russian more popular than ever, there were some in
dramatist Alexander OSTROVSKY that was the theatrical world who recalled with a frisson
banned for 13 years because it offended the the actor’s tales of his violent, poverty-stricken
traders of Moscow. Written when the author childhood – one of which involved his being
was 25 years old, it was first performed in taught the art of killing with a single blow of a
1849 at the Maly Theatre, Moscow and caused stick….
an immediate outcry with its exposure of
bogus bankruptcies among the city’s Barber of Seville, The A comedy of
merchants. It was later renamed It’s All in the intrigue by BEAUMARCHAIS, first produced in
Family, sometimes also translated as It’s A Paris in 1775; it had been banned from the
Family Affair, We’ll Settle It Among Ourselves. stage for several years owing to its criticism of
The Bankrupt was among the plays that led the aristocracy. The play introduced as the
to Ostrovsky being nicknamed the Balzac of barber the famous character of FIGARO, who
the Muscovite Merchant. It also resulted in later appeared in several sequels. An opera by
him being dismissed from the civil service and Paisello appeared in 1780 but was eclipsed by
placed under police supervision. Although the Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia, with words by
play could not be performed, it circulated in Sterbini. The latter was hissed on its first
manuscript form and became well known. appearance in 1816 under the title of
All the characters in the play…are first- Almaviva.
rate villains. The dialogue is filthy. The Barbican An entertainment complex in
entire play is an insult to the Russian the City of London housing two theatres, a
merchant class. concert hall (the home of the London
Censor’s report on Ostrovsky’s The Symphony Orchestra), two exhibition halls, art
Bankrupt galleries, a public library, three cinemas, bars,
Baptiste Stage name of Jean-Gaspard and restaurants. The Barbican Centre for Arts
Deburau (also known as Jan Kašpar Dvořák; and Conferences was opened on 3 March 1982
1796–1846), France’s most famous PIERROT. by Queen Elizabeth II, who described it as
Born into a family of Bohemian acrobats, he “one of the wonders of the modern world”.
took over the role of the Pierrot at Paris’s tiny The complex was built on a World War II
Théâtre des Funambules on the Boulevard du bombsite and named after the former Roman
Temple in about 1816. Baptiste transformed fortifications in the area.
the character into a melancholy and poignant For almost 20 years the Barbican was the
but sometimes macabre figure; as a result of his London base of the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE
popularity, Pierrot displaced HARLEQUIN as the COMPANY, which brought many productions
main character in pantomime. In the part here from Stratford. The first of these, given in
Baptiste wore a new style of white face, a black the Barbican Theatre in 1982, was Henry IV,
skullcap (in place of the traditional large hat), Part I, starring Joss Ackland as a brilliant
and a costume of loose white trousers and Falstaff. The 1166-seat auditorium has three
blouse (with large buttons but without the circles and the stage positioned in front of the
traditional ruffles at the neck). He played the proscenium arch; as a result the most distant
part for 30 years until his death, when his son seat is only 65 feet away. Scenery is stored
 Barnum, P(hineas) T(aylor) 43

above the stage in a 109-foot fly tower, one of plot concerns a newlywed couple, Corrie and
the tallest in the world. Paul Bratter, who move into a rented
Smaller-scale productions are given in The apartment on 48th Street in New York. The
Pit, a flexible studio theatre that seats around five flights of stairs defeat most visitors,
200 people on three or four sides according to including Corrie’s mother, but the couple
the production, with no set seating plan. settle in happily with the eccentric residents.
Originally intended as a rehearsal room, The Soon, however, the quarrelling begins: Corrie
Pit received numerous transfers from the calls her husband a stuffed shirt because he will
RSC’s small Stratford theatre, the Other Place. not walk barefoot in the park in freezing
Arguably, the Barbican theatres have weather. Despite a disastrous evening at an
lacked a major role since the RSC’s Albanian restaurant with Corrie’s mother, the
precipitate withdrawal in 2001. The couple draw back together and rekindle their
Barbican International Theatre Events (bite) love.
programme, which was introduced as a limited
season in 1998, has now been extended into a barker A person employed by a troupe of
year-round feature and the Cheek by Jowl entertainers to address passers-by in a loud
company also holds regular residencies. voice to attract their custom. This mode of
The Barbican building (by Chamberlin, publicity is usually associated with fairground
Powell, and Bon) has frequently been reviled, or other open-air performances of an
both for its ugliness and its confusing and unsophisticated nature. The tradition can,
impractical design: however, be traced back to the theatres of
Cosy as an international airport, ancient Greece and Rome. The main character
welcoming as a bank vault, the place in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical
CAROUSEL (1945) is the New England
set new standards in the degree of
torture people will endure in pursuit of fairground barker, Billy Bigelow.
an evening’s entertainment. barndoor or barndoor shutters A
IRVING WARDLE pair of spotlight shutters used to limit the spill
Bard or Bard of Avon William from a light and to adjust the beam’s size and
SHAKESPEARE, who was born and buried at shape on the stage.
Stratford-upon-Avon. It became customary to barnstormer A strolling player, and
refer to Shakespeare in this way in the mid-to- hence any second-rate actor, especially one
late 18th century. with an exaggerated declamatory style. The
For the bard of all bards was a term derives from the itinerant actors who
Warwickshire Bard. performed in village barns.
DAVID GARRICK: ‘Song’ (1785)
The term bardolatry, meaning excessive or Barnum, P(hineas) T(aylor)
idolatrous admiration for Shakespeare, was (1810–91) The greatest US showman and
popularized by George Bernard SHAW in the publicist of his day. His numerous fraudulent
early 20th century. exhibits earned him the nickname the PRINCE
OF HUMBUGS. Despite this, Barnum established
Bardolph One of FALSTAFF’s hangers-on, a strict moral codes for his shows, led a
poor drink-sodden swaggerer. Falstaff calls him respectable family life, and founded a model
“the knight of the burning lamp” because his workers’ community in East Bridgeport,
nose is so red and also tells him “I never see Connecticut.
thy face but I think upon hell-fire”. The Barnum began his show business career in
character appears in both parts of HENRY IV, 1834 in New York. In 1841 he purchased
HENRY V, and THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Scudder’s AMERICAN MUSEUM in that city and
In Henry V he is hanged on the orders of the opened it as Barnum’s American Museum, a
king (as Prince Hal, his former drinking crony) venue for ‘moral’ plays, dioramas, and such
for robbing a church. curiosities as the first live hippopotamus seen
Barefoot in the Park A comedy by in New York, a fake mermaid, and the midget
Neil SIMON that opened in 1963 in New York General TOM THUMB (Charles Stratton), who
and ran for 1530 performances. A 1967 film toured Europe in 1844. In 1849 the museum
starred Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. The became a stock company, and the following
44 Barnwell, George

year he brought the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ Rabelais (1969), his own adaptation of
Jenny Lind over for a US singing tour. Gargantua and Pantagruel. In 1970 Barrault
Barnum remained director of the museum helped Peter BROOK to establish the
until 1865. Six years later, at the age of 60, he INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEATRE
set up his great CIRCUS and menagerie, which RESEARCH in Paris.
in 1881 merged with that of his rival James From 1980 onwards Barrault was based at
Bailey to become the three-ring Barnum and the Théâtre du Rond Point, Paris, where he
Bailey’s Circus billed as “The Greatest Show staged both new productions and revivals of
on Earth”. It was sold to the Ringling Brothers his earlier successes, including a 1985
in 1907. The hit musical Barnum (1981) was production of Corneille’s Le Cid. Barrault also
based on his career (see PALLADIUM). appeared in numerous films, most notably
Marcel Carne’s epic of 19th-century theatrical
Barnwell, George The subject of a
life Les Enfants du Paradis (1944), in which he
17th-century ballad and of George Lillo’s
played the great mime artist BAPTISTE.
prose tragedy The London Merchant, or the
History of George Barnwell, first produced in barrel See BATTEN.
1731. Barnwell, a London apprentice, becomes
barrel system See DRUM-AND-SHAFT.
infatuated with a scheming young woman
named Sarah Millwood. At her persuasion he Barretts of Wimpole Street, The A
robs first his employer and then his uncle, a play by Rudolf Besier based on the true love
rich farmer in Shropshire, whom he also story of the poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert
murders. Sarah betrays him to the authorities Browning. It was first performed in 1930 in
but is then informed on by her own servant; London with Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as
both are hanged, but not before George has Elizabeth. The following year it opened on
undergone a deep Christian repentance. Until Broadway with a strong performance by
1776 the play was staged at least once a year Katherine CORNELL who began her
for the edification of London’s apprentices. See management of the Empire Theatre with the
also BÜRGERLICHES TRAUERSPIEL. production. It ran for a year and then toured
77 US cities, providing Cornell with her most
Barrault, Jean-Louis (1910–94) French
famous role. The critic Brooks Atkinson wrote
actor, director, and manager, who studied
that Cornell’s “wild sensitivity… charges the
acting under Charles Dullin (making his debut
drama with a meaning beyond the facts it
in Dullin’s 1931 production of Volpone) and
records”. The cast also included a dog in the
mime under Etienne Decroux. In 1940
role of Elizabeth Barrett’s beloved Flush.
Barrault joined the Comédie-Française, where
Set in 1845 in the London home of
he met his future wife, the actress Madelaine
Edward Moulton-Barrett, the tyrannical father
Renaud, with whom he formed (1946) the
of the invalid Elizabeth, the play shows his
Renaud-Barrault Company at the Théâtre
domination of the large family. When the
Marigny. Barrault and Renaud remained at the
handsome young poet Robert Browning is
Marigny for a decade, during which they
attracted to Elizabeth’s poetry, visits, and
established a high reputation with a broad
eventually proposes, she is fearful of her
range of productions. In 1956 the company
father’s reaction. When he strikes her sister for
moved to the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, before
asking permission to marry, Elizabeth agrees to
subsequently moving to the Palais-Royal.
elope with Browning and they prepare to leave.
From 1959 to 1968 Barrault was director of
In his fury, Moulton-Barrett orders her dog,
the Théâtre National de l’ODÉON, which was
Flush, to be destroyed but is thwarted.
renamed the Théâtre de France during this
In 1964 the musical Robert and Elizabeth
period. Many of his productions at this time
(book by Fred G. Morrit and Ronald Millar
were of plays by such contemporary dramatists
and music by Ron Grainer) was produced in
as Beckett and Ionesco.
London with June Bronhill and Keith Michell
During the student riots of 1968 Barrault
in the lead roles. The songs included ‘Moon in
allowed protestors to occupy the Théâtre de
My Pocket’ and ‘In A Simple Way’.
France, which they used as a headquarters and
as a forum for debate. When this led to his Barrie, Sir J(ames) M(atthew)
dismissal, Barrault returned to the independent (1860–1937) Scottish playwright and novelist,
theatre, where he staged a production of whose lasting fame derives from the children’s
 Barry, Sebastian 45

fantasy PETER PAN. Although Barrie’s more Mustapha. Mrs Barry excelled in tragedy,
sentimental offerings led to his being described having a strong voice and statuesque figure,
as “sugar without the diabetes” by the US and often appeared opposite Thomas
theatre critic George Jean Nathan, he also BETTERTON. She was known for her hard
wrote a variety of plays ranging from social character, miserly ways, and fiery temper;
comedies to a tragedy. during a production of Nathaniel Lee’s The
The son of a handloom weaver, Barrie Rival Queens she allegedly stabbed and
studied at Edinburgh University before wounded a rival actress on stage. Her lovers
becoming a journalist. His first theatrical were supposedly legion. “Should you lie with
success came in 1892 with the short farce her all night,” complained one Tom Brown,
Walker, London. In 1897 he adapted The Little “she would not know you next morning unless
Minister from his own book and became close you had another five pounds at her service.”
to Sylvia Llewellyn Davies and her five sons, Mrs Barry created more than 100 roles,
for whom he devised his stories of Peter, the including two of Thomas Otway’s heroines,
boy who would not grow up. In 1902 Barrie Monimia in The Orphan (1680) and Belvidera
enjoyed success with the costume drama in Venice Preserv’d (1682). She was also Zara in
QUALITY STREET and the social comedy THE Congreve’s only tragedy, The Mourning Bride
ADMIRABLE CRICHTON, about a butler who (1697). She retired in 1710. Her death three
emerges as the natural leader of a group of years later was apparently the result of a bite
castaways, which includes his former from her favourite lapdog who, unknown to
employers, on a desert island. her, had become rabid.
Peter Pan was first staged in 1904 at the
Barry, Sebastian (1955– ) Irish
Duke of York’s Theatre, London, with Nina
playwight, novelist, and poet, whose works
Boucicault as Peter; this established the role as
explore the interplay between family and
one for actresses. The play was revived in
national history. Barry was born in Dublin, the
London each Christmas from 1905 to 1940,
son of an architect father and the actress Joan
when the tradition was interrupted by the war.
O’ Hara, a stalwart of the Abbey Theatre.
When a dinner partner once suggested “Not all
Despite not learning to read or write until he
your plays are successes, I suppose, Sir James,”
was nine, Barry went on to publish several
the playwright retorted, “No, some Peter out
novels and volumes of poetry while still in his
and some Pan out.”
twenties. His career as a playwright began in
In 1908 Barrie wrote another popular
1988, when the Abbey staged Boss Grady’s
social comedy, WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS.
Boys, the first in a series of loosely linked plays
Dear Brutus (1917), often considered Barrie’s
about “the lost, hidden or seldom mentioned
finest work, shows nine people being given a
people in one Irish family” – the family in
second chance at life but bungling it once
question being based on Barry’s own. The
again. The tragedy Mary Rose (1920), about
series continued with Prayers of Sherkin
the problems caused by a girl who does not
(1990), White Woman Street (1992), and The
grow up, shows the other side of the Peter Pan
Only True History of Lizzie Finn (1995).
syndrome.
International recognition came with
His last play, the biblical The Boy David
Barry’s next play, The Steward of Christendom
(1936), was written for the Austrian actress
(1995), which was staged at London’s Royal
Elisabeth BERGNER, who played David. In
Court by the OUT OF JOINT company and later
Bergner’s opinion, the play’s failure
transferred to New York. The play traces the
precipitated Barrie’s death the next year.
declining fortunes and eventual breakdown of
Barrie, however, left £2000 to “my loved
Dunn, a Catholic police officer who remained
Elisabeth Bergner for the best performance
loyal to the British during Ireland’s struggle for
ever given in any play of mine”.
independence in the 1920s. The tormented
Barry, Elizabeth (1658–1713) British central character was based on Barry’s own
actress, generally considered the first English great-grandfather. Our Lady of Sligo (1998),
woman to achieve excellence in the profession. another award-winning play about private and
She entered the Restoration theatre as a public memories, was seen at the National
protégée of the Earl of Rochester (whose child Theatre in London and subsequently in
she later bore), making her debut in 1673 in a Dublin and off-Broadway. Much less
revival of Lord Orrery’s heroic drama successful was Hinterland (2002), a
46 Barrymores, the

coproduction between Out Of Joint, the which ran for four years. She subsequently
Abbey, and the National that caused a furore abandoned the theatre for the cinema. Her
when it was staged in Dublin: the play – which daughter Ethel Barrymore Colt (1912–77)
features a disgraced politician clearly based on became an opera singer.
the former premier Charles Haughey – upset Lionel Barrymore, who called acting “the
not just political interests but many critics, family curse”, reluctantly went on the stage at
who considered it deeply flawed. Subsequent 15 after tutoring by his grandmother. As he
works for the stage have included the later wrote:
monologues Whistling Psyche (2004) and The Neither Jack nor myself…preferred the
Pride of Parnell Street (2007), Tales of stage…Yet it seemed that we had to be
Ballycumber (2009), and Andersen’s English actors. It was as if our father had been
(2010), about the Danish writer’s visit to a street cleaner, and had dropped dead
Charles Dickens in England. near a fire hydrant, and we went out to
In recent years Barry has found greater pick up the shovel and broom and
recognition as a novelist, notably with A continue his work.
Long Long Way (2005) and the enormously He abandoned the theatre for three years in
successful The Secret Scripture (2008). 1906–09 in order to paint in France, later
Barrymores, the A distinguished US starring with his brother, John, in Peter
acting family, consisting of Ethel Barrymore Ibbetson (1917) and The Jest (1919). In 1926
(1879–1959) and her brothers Lionel Lionel turned permanently to Hollywood,
Barrymore (1878–1954) and John Barrymore where he made nearly 200 films. He published
(1882–1942). They were the children of the an autobiography, We Barrymores, in 1951.
actress Georgiana Drew (see DREW FAMILY) and His younger brother John Barrymore
the British actor Maurice Barrymore preferred love affairs and drinking to acting.
(1847–1905). The Drew-Barrymore clan He became noted for his comedy roles before
inspired the 1927 Broadway comedy The Royal making a stunning transition to tragedy in
Family by George S. Kaufman and Edna Galsworthy’s Justice (1916). One of the first
Ferber. MATINEE IDOLS, he became known as the
Ethel Barrymore began her career as a Great Profile on account of his striking good
pianist. She made her theatrical debut in 1894 looks. His electrifying Hamlet (1922) ran for a
in the company managed by her grandmother, record 101 performances; members of the
Mrs John Drew. Three years later she played PLAYERS’ CLUB were upset because he had not
London with Henry Irving in The Bells and in stopped at 99 in respect for Edwin Booth’s
1901 became a Broadway star in Captain Jinks record 100 performances. John returned to the
of the Horse Marines. A remarkable beauty, role in 1925 at London’s Haymarket. One
Ethel soon became the darling of the stage, the evening, rather the worse for drink, he rushed
title glamour girl being first coined for her. from the stage to vomit. Later, at the GARRICK
Time magazine also coined the adjective CLUB, he was congratulated for having so
Barrymorish to describe her captivating stage movingly expressed Hamlet’s grief by retiring
presence. When Winston CHURCHILL proposed from the stage.
marriage she declined, later explaining “My He had a furious temper. One evening,
world was the theatre.” She was also noted for when coughing interrupted his lines, he
her wit. When a critic pointed out that an returned in the second act and reached inside
actress known for her bad language was his coat for a large fish. “Here you damned
playing in a theatre with poor acoustics, Ethel walruses,” he shouted, hurling the fish at the
commented “Now she can be obscene and not audience, “busy yourselves with this, while we
heard.” go on with the play.” He once wrote:
Ethel was also praised for her performances My only regret in the theatre is that I
in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1905), Pinero’s could never sit out front and watch
Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1911), and such me.
Shakespearean roles as Ophelia, Portia, and John was lazy and, at the peak of his stage
Juliet. In 1928 the Shuberts opened the Ethel career, abandoned it for films. Both his
Barrymore Theatre with the actress starring in daughter Diana Barrymore (1921–60) and his
The Kingdom of God. In 1940 she crowned her son John Barrymore Jr (1932–2004) had
career in Emlyn Williams’s The Corn is Green, promising acting careers ruined by alcohol and
 Bates, Sir Alan 47

drugs. His granddaughter, Drew Barrymore beginning on St Bartholomew’s Day

(1975– ), seemed set for a similar fate after (24 August); after the reform of the calendar
early fame in the film E.T. (1982) was in 1752 it began on 3 September. It moved to
followed by a spell in rehab before she was 15. Islington in 1840 and was last held in 1855.
However, Drew went on to star in a string of One of the year’s main trading events for
successful films in the 1990s and 2000s. dealers in cloth, livestock, etc., the fair also
provided a variety of amusements and
Barter Theatre The first state-subsidized
entertainments. It long held its place as a
theatre and oldest professional repertory venue
centre of London life, despite the attempts of
in America. It is located at Abingdon, Virginia,
the Puritans to suppress it.
a town of some 4500 residents; audiences
Ben JONSON’s Bartholomew Fair was first
usually contain a large proportion of tourists.
acted on St Bartholomew’s Day 1614. The
Built as a Presbyterian church in 1833, the
play gives a vibrant bustling picture of the fair
building is America’s second oldest theatrical
and the wide cross-section of London life that
structure (the oldest is Philadelphia’s WALNUT
attends; the characters include showmen,
STREET THEATRE). The interior was
rogues, dupes, fashionable gallants, and a
redecorated in 1951 with fittings from the
gaggle of censorious Puritans. In the play’s
Empire Theatre in New York, which closed
climactic scene the hypocritical Zeal-of-the-
that year. Actors whose early careers were
land Busy is worsted in a debate about the
boosted by stints at the Barter include Gregory
morality of the theatre.
Peck, Patricia Neal, and Ernest Borgnine.
The 1682 miscellany Wit and Drollery
The Barter Theatre was established during
records:
the Depression. It was the inspiration of
Here’s the Woman of Babylon, the Devil
Robert Porterfield, an unemployed actor from
and the Pope.
Virginia, who decided that he would not starve
And here’s the little girl just going on
if theatre-goers could “trade ham for Hamlet”,
the rope!
bartering food for their entertainment. With
Here’s Dives and Lazarus, and the
22 colleagues and scenery begged from a
World’s Creation;
touring company, Porterfield arrived in
Here’s the Tall Dutchwoman, the
Abingdon to open the theatre in 1933. The
like’s not in the nation.
price of admission was 40 cents or the
Here is the booths where the high
equivalent in produce. Porterfield told the
Dutch maid is,
local population, “With vegetables you cannot
Here are the bears that dance like any
sell, you can buy a good laugh.” At the end of
ladies
the first season the company had a profit of
$4.35 and two barrels of jelly (and the actors One of the fair’s chief attractions
recorded a collective weight gain of over 300 (denounced as idolatrous by Jonson’s Puritans)
pounds). was the roasting of whole pigs and sale of their
The Barter’s first production was John meat (see also COCKAIGNE). In Henry IV, Part II
Golden’s After Tomorrow in 1933. Later Doll Tearsheet affectionately calls FALSTAFF:
successes have included Shakespeare’s Twelfth Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew
Night in 1947, Talley’s Folley in 1981, Steel boar-pig.
Magnolias in 1988, and the revue Doctor! See also LANTHORN, LEATHERHEAD.
Doctor! in 1997.
Basilisco A cowardly bragging knight in
In 1946 the state legislature approved an
the tragedy Solyman and Perseda (c. 1590),
annual appropriation and the designation of
generally attributed to Thomas KYD. The
the Barter as ‘The State Theatre of Virginia’.
character is alluded to in Shakespeare’s King
Porterfield died in 1971 and was succeeded by
John and other Elizabethan and Jacobean
Rex Partington, who began his acting career at
works.
the Barter in 1950. The current artistic
director is Richard Rose. Bartering for the bat The lath wand traditionally sported by
price of a ticket, still technically permitted, has HARLEQUIN. The word comes from French
passed into history. batte, a wooden sword.
Bartholomew Fair A fair originally held Bates, Sir Alan (1934–2003) British
at Smithfield, London, for the four days actor, who was particularly associated with the
48 batten

plays of Simon GRAY and other contemporary This is known in Britain as a compartment
British dramatists. Bates was born in batten or magazine batten and in America as a
Derbyshire, the son of an insurance broker. strip light or border light. The arrangement
After studies at RADA, he made his provides a more even but dimmer light than
professional debut in 1955 and joined George individual floodlights.
Devine’s ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY later that
Bayes A character in THE REHEARSAL
year. In May 1956 Bates came to sudden
(1671), by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of
prominence playing the part of Cliff to
Kenneth Haigh’s Jimmy in John Osborne’s Buckingham, who is designed to satirize the
LOOK BACK IN ANGER. Further success followed
poet and playwright John DRYDEN. The name
in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night alludes to the bay laurel of the laureateship,
(1958) and Pinter’s THE CARETAKER (1960), in Dryden having been appointed poet laureate in
which he played the part of Mick. 1668. The phrase dead men may rise again,
In 1960 Bates made his film debut in like Bayes’s troops refers to the ludicrous play-
Tony Richardson’s Osborne adaptation The within-a-play in The Rehearsal, in which a
Entertainer. Although he went on to star in battle is fought between foot-soldiers and great
HOBBY HORSEs. At last DRAWCANSIR kills
some of the decade’s most memorable British
films, his screen career lost momentum in the everybody on both sides. When asked how
1970s and 1980s – largely, it seems, because of they are to get off the stage, Bayes (the author)
his fussiness about parts. During this period he replies, “As they came on – upon their legs”,
continued to appear in a wide range of stage upon which they all jump up alive again.
plays, including works by Storey, Chekhov, Baynes, Arthur See STAINLESS STEPHEN.
and Strindberg. His Shakespearean roles
included Richard III (1967), Hamlet (1970), Bayreuth A city in Bavaria, Germany,
Petruchio (1973), Benedick (1989), and famous for its association with the composer
Antony (1998). Bates began his long Richard Wagner (1813–83) and as the site of
association with the works of Simon Gray in his theatre, Das Festspielhaus. Although
1972, when he appeared as the title character – Bayreuth already possessed a magnificent opera
a sardonic egotist – in Butley. His performance house when Wagner settled there, he was
earned him a Tony Award when the play determined to build a new type of theatre
transferred to Broadway a year later. Bates capable of presenting his monumental music
went on to appear in Gray’s Otherwise Engaged dramas, particularly the Ring cycle. Its
(1975), Stage Struck (1979), Melon (1987), strikingly plain design, the work of the
and Life Support (1997), in which he gave a architect Gottfried Semper (1803–79), broke
mesmerizing performance as a travel writer at with tradition in several respects. The fan-
the bedside of his dying wife. shaped auditorium had 31 rows of seats on a
In the early 1990s Bates suffered a single slope like a Greek theatre; there were no
crushing double blow when the death of his grand boxes or special seating areas. The stark
teenage son from an asthma attack was simplicity proved to be a major influence on
followed within two years by that of his later theatre design.
wife, the actress Victoria Ward. His last Das Festspielhaus was constructed just
decade produced particularly memorable outside town and opened in 1876 with the
performances in Ibsen’s The Master Builder complete Ring cycle, presented as part of the
(1995) and the Turgenev adaptation Fortune’s first Bayreuth Festival. This proved so costly
Fool (2002), which earned him a second Tony that the theatre did not present another
Award. performance for six years. It closed during
World War I, resuming Festival performances
batten A length of wood or metal that is in 1924. There was another closure from 1945
used to hang lights or scenery, to stiffen a FLAT
until 1951, when the management of the
or board, or to join flats together. A metal
Festival was resumed by Wagner’s two
batten is sometimes called a barrel or spot bar
grandsons.
in Britain and a pipe or pipe batten in
America. One common type of light batten Beaton, Sir Cecil (1904–80) British
comprises a series of floodlights mounted in a photographer and theatrical designer. Beaton
row of compartments and connected to three began his photographic career while still a
or four different circuits for colour mixing. student at Harrow, subsequently specializing
 Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de 49

in portraits of the rich and famous. He became French theatre before the Revolution of 1789.
a close friend of Wallis Simpson, serving as the He is often credited with hastening that event
official photographer at her wedding (1936) to with his two irreverent plays THE BARBER OF
the former Edward VIII. Turning to stage SEVILLE (1775) and THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
design, he worked on several ballets and revues (1784). Both are better known today in their
before providing costumes and scenery for operatic versions, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di
major West End productions. His opulent Siviglia (1816) and Mozart’s Le Nozze di
designs drew on many sources, ranging from Figaro (1786). Although Beaumarchais’s later
the gilded salons of Buckingham Palace to his works were failures, his writing influenced
own grandparents’ upholstery. such subsequent playwrights as Eugène Scribe
His first great success was John Gielgud’s and Georges Feydeau.
1945 production of Lady Windermere’s Fan, An early campaigner for authors’ rights, he
for which he created a yellow silk boudoir and battled the Comédie-Française to secure
long corridors hung with ancestral portraits. ROYALTY payments and regularized the practice
For Pinero’s The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1950) through the Société des Auteurs, which he
he recreated the grandeur of stately homes in founded in 1777. He also won the right for
the 1890s as well as a series of lavish gowns for authors to have a say in casting and was the
Eileen Herlie. He worked with Noël Coward first dramatist to add detailed stage directions
on Quadrille (1952) before moving to to his scripts.
Broadway, where he carried out most of his Beaumarchais was born in Paris, the son of
later work. a clockmaker. At the age of 19 he invented the
Beaton’s finest work for the stage was escapement watch mechanism still used today.
undoubtedly that for the Lerner and Loewe The Beaumarchais name was taken from the
musical MY FAIR LADY (1956); the Ascot scene estate of the first of his three wives. He bought
was considered particularly stunning. His a judgeship in 1763 but lost it when his
designs were also used in the film version, financial dealings led to a court case.
earning him an Academy Award. After several theatrical failures,
Beaton was also a compulsive diarist who Beaumarchais found success with his first
wrote thousands of words a day; his journals comedy of intrigue, THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.
contain many sharp comments on his The Comédie-Italienne rejected it because
theatrical friends. After seeing Mrs Patrick their leading actor was a former barber. The
CAMPBELL in Tanqueray at the Pier Theatre in Comédie-Française accepted it in 1772 but the
Bournemouth in 1924, he wrote, “Mrs. Pat work’s criticism of the aristocracy led to a ban
was incredibly huge and terrible. Repulsive! on performances. However, Beaumarchais
She was twice as large as any man on the stage. earned permission to stage the provocative play
She is most amusing, the old brute, when she in 1775, having recently undertaken a secret
takes her call. She waddles to the footlights mission to Vienna for Louis XVI, which ended
and leans forward, holding up her skirt with in his imprisonment. In 1775 he was sent to
one hand, and bowing with a terrible sneer on London to recover secret French plans to
her face.” invade England and during the American War
of Independence he was involved in sending
Beatrice In Shakespeare’s MUCH ADO
volunteers and provisions to the colonists.
ABOUT NOTHING, the reluctant lover of
Beaumarchais had further trouble
BENEDICK. Born under a “dancing star”,
producing THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO,
Beatrice is perhaps the wittiest of Shakespeare’s
sometimes called the most subversive play ever
heroines and probably the most attractive to
written. Its attacks on the decadent nobility led
modern audiences. Ellen TERRY gave a
to a banning order from the king. Public
particularly notable performance in the role at
opinion, however, demanded its performance
the Lyceum Theatre in 1882. More recent
and it opened in 1784 at the Comédie-
successes in the role include Sinead Cusack
Française. Shortly afterwards, the naive Marie
(1985), Felicity Kendal (1989), and Tamsin
Antoinette played Rosina in The Barber of
Greig (2006).
Seville in her Court Theatre, inviting
Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais to attend.
Caron de (Pierre-Augustin Caron; Following the Revolution Beaumarchais
1732–99) The last brilliant playwright of the was imprisoned and narrowly escaped the
50 Beaumont, Sir Francis

guillotine. His mistress obtained his release innkeeper tries to rob the house, Archer and
and he escaped to Hamburg. He returned to Aimwell thwart their efforts and are acclaimed
France in 1796 but died three years later, still as heroes. Aimwell, now engaged to Dorinda,
writing furiously in an attempt to regain his reveals his true identity just as news arrives that
fortune. his brother has died and the title is genuinely
his. Dorinda forgives him and the couple grant
Beaumont, Sir Francis (1584–1616)
a fortune to Archer, leaving him free to pursue
English playwright, mainly remembered for his
Mrs Sullen, now that her disreputable husband
successful collaboration with John FLETCHER, has agreed to end their marriage.
their works being more popular than The Beaux’ Stratagem has been regularly
Shakespeare’s in their day. The two bachelors revived in the 20th century. When John
lived together on Bankside and “had one Clements and his wife Kay Hammond starred
wench in the house between them”, according in a 1949 production at the Phoenix Theatre it
to John Aubrey in Brief Lives. ran for 532 performances, a record for a classic
Beaumont was the son of Francis revival.
Beaumont, a justice of common pleas in
Leicestershire. He left Oxford without a degree Beckett, Samuel (1906–89) Irish
and studied at the Inner Temple before playwright and novelist who was awarded the
turning to writing. He enjoyed success with Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His plays,
The Woman Hater (1606) but made his name which often dispense with plot, action, and
the following year with THE KNIGHT OF THE even character, are the most celebrated works
BURNING PESTLE, a parody of chivalrous associated with the Theatre of the ABSURD.
romances that also made fun of the play-going Their bleak vision of the futility of human
citizen and his wife. existence in an indifferent universe is offset by
He began to collaborate with Fletcher in humour and stoicism.
about 1606–08, being always the dominant Born near Dublin, he moved to Paris in
partner. Their first success came in 1609 with 1928, where he began to write poetry, essays,
Philaster; or, Love Lies Bleeding, followed a year and stories under the influence of his friend
later by The Maid’s Tragedy and A King and No James Joyce. After further spells in Dublin and
King in 1611. Together they wrote at least six London, he settled permanently in Paris in
plays; in a further seven or eight cases the 1937; most of his best-known works were
attribution is probable but not certain. written initially in French. His wartime work
After marrying an heiress in 1613, with the French Resistance earned him the
Beaumont retired to live in Kent. He is buried Croix de Guerre.
in Westminster Abbey. Beckett wrote a series of novels in relative
obscurity before finding sudden fame when his
Beaux’ Stratagem, The A comedy by first play En attendent Godot (WAITING FOR
George FARQUHAR, first performed in 1707 in GODOT) was produced (by Roger Blin) in Paris
London. Lacking funds, he sketched out the in 1953. The work achieved an immediate
plot in one evening at the urging of his friend, succès de scandale. In 1957 came the one-act
the actor Robert Wilks. It was on the stage Fin de partie (ENDGAME), produced a year later
within six weeks, but Farquhar died after its in London with the monologue KRAPP’S LAST
third night. TAPE.
The plot concerns two young gentlemen, Oh! les beaux jours (HAPPY DAYS) is a
Francis Archer and Thomas Aimwell, who seek monologue for an actress buried up to her
their fortunes in the country having spent their waist – subsequently up to her neck – in sand.
inheritances in the city. They arrive at It had its debut in 1961 in New York and was
Lichfield and learn from the evil innkeeper seen in London a year later. In 1976 the play
Will Boniface of the wealthy widow LADY opened the National Theatre building on the
BOUNTIFUL and her lovely daughter Dorinda. South Bank of the Thames in a production
In order to infiltrate the household Aimwell starring Peggy ASHCROFT. Beckett had sat in
passes himself off as his elder brother, Lord on rehearsals when Ashcroft first performed
Aimwell, and Archer pretends to be his the work in 1974 and showed his characteristic
servant. Soon they are adored by Dorinda and obsession with detail. His minute directions to
her sister-in-law, Mrs Sullen, who is married to the extremely experienced and instinctive
a drunken boor. When a gang led by the Ashcroft, on which hand to use to unpack a
 Beerbohm, Sir Max 51

handbag and what to do with her hat and performance by the US actress Florence Kahn
glasses, nearly ended their collaboration – (1877–1951); they married later that year.
fortunately she had a month to recover before Beerbohm also wrote fiction, including the
opening night. novel Zuleika Dobson (1911), and drew
Beckett’s later works for the stage, which caricatures, including a famous one of Oscar
include the monologues Not I (1971) and Wilde.
Rockaby (1980), became increasingly austere Beerbohm’s one-act play A Social Success
and minimalist. Although critics often praised was produced in 1913 with George Alexander
his work for its almost classical sense of form, in the lead. He also turned one of his own
the writer himself disagreed. “I was in hospital short stories into the one-act CURTAIN-RAISER
once,” Beckett once told Harold Pinter. The Happy Hypocrite; this achieved great
“There was a man in another ward, dying of success at the Royalty Theatre in 1900 with
throat cancer. In the silence, I could hear his Mrs Patrick Campbell. On the opening night
screams continually. That’s the only kind of (which Beerbohm spent in hiding in the
form my work has.” Metropole Hotel, Brighton), he confided to a
bedroom farce A type of broad comedy friend that he did not “give a damn” if the
that depends upon chaotic and compromising critics liked it or not because “the public, after
situations featuring loss of clothing, mistaken all, is the final court of appeal”.
identities, and double entendre. The A three-act version of The Happy Hypocrite
Whitehall farces, many of which featured by Clemence Dane was produced in 1936 at
Brian Rix, are amongst the best-known British His Majesty’s Theatre. This starred Ivor
examples of the genre; some of the Aldwych NOVELLO as a fat dissolute man who recovers
farces of Ben Travers also come into the his self-respect when he falls in love. It proved
category. the handsome star’s least successful role and
Bedroom Farce is also the title of a two-act the play closed in three months.
comedy by Alan AYCKBOURN, first performed Beerbohm’s reviews often showed his
in 1977 at the National Theatre. The play Edwardian prejudices; for example, he wrote
concerns three married couples and takes place that Eleanora DUSE had a “great egoistic force.
in their bedrooms, shown simultaneously on In a man I should admire this tremendous
stage with the action switching rapidly from egoism very much indeed. In a woman it only
one to another. makes me uncomfortable. I dislike it. I resent
it. In the name of art, I protest against it.” He
Beefsteak Club The name of several preferred the gentle Ellen Terry (see TERRY
London clubs frequented by wits and theatre FAMILY) who “always reminds me of a
people. The first such club was established in Christmas-tree decorated by a Pre-Raphaelite.”
about 1705 by the actor Richard Estcourt and When Sarah BERNHARDT played the role of
had a gridiron as its badge. In 1735 the Hamlet in 1899 in London, Beerbohm wrote:
Sublime Society of Steaks was inaugurated “The customs-house officials at Charing Cross
when Lord Peterborough dined at the Covent ought to have confiscated her sable doublet
Garden Theatre with its manager, John Rich and hose.” Writing about the Tivoli, he said
(see RICHES, THE). Peterborough was so “The aim of the music hall is, in fact, to cheer
delighted with the steak that he proposed to the lower classes up by showing them a life
repeat the dinner every Saturday. The Society uglier and more sordid than their own.”
continued to meet at Covent Garden until the On one occasion the actor John Drew
fire of 1808, when it moved to other premises. (see DREW FAMILY), who had shaved off his
The ‘Steaks’ included many famous actors moustache for his current role, met Beerbohm
until its members lost interest – it came to an in the lobby of a London theatre but could not
end in 1867. The modern Beefsteak Club was recall his name. Beerbohm recognized him at
founded by W. S. Gilbert and others in 1876.
once and commented: “Oh, Mr Drew, I’m
Beerbohm, Sir Max (1872–1956) afraid you don’t know me without your
British theatre critic and playwright, the half- moustache.”
brother of the actor-manager Beerbohm TREE. After World War I Beerbohm retired to
In 1898 he became drama critic of the Rapallo, in northern Italy, where he was often
Saturday Review, succeeding George Bernard to be seen in the gardens of the Villino Chiaro
Shaw. In 1908 he reviewed a London in his white linen suit. His near neighbour was
52 Beestons, the

Rex HARRISON, who once asked the critic for a suspected him of betraying actors to the
suitable Italian name for his house. On authorities (see ILL BEEST, AN).
Beerbohm’s suggestion he called it ‘Villa San After the Restoration, he reopened
Genesio’, after the PATRON SAINT OF THE Salisbury Court and led a company there until
THEATRE. 1664. Beeston was therefore one of the few
theatrical figures to bring an essentially
Beestons, the The actor-manager
Elizabethan training into the Restoration era.
Christopher Beeston (1570–1638), a leading
figure in the early 17th-century English beggar’s daughter of Bednall
theatre, and his son William Beeston Green The subject of a play by Henry
(1606–82), who also acted and managed. Chettle and John Day (1600), another by
Christopher Beeston, who sometimes Sheridan Knowles (1834), and a musical play
called himself Christopher Hutchinson, made by Robert Dodsley (1791). All three are based
his stage debut with Strange’s Men and on an old ballad. According to the tale, the
probably also appeared with the Lord beautiful Bessee had four suitors – a knight, a
Chamberlain’s Men. In 1598 he appeared in gentleman, a merchant, and the son of an
Ben Jonson’s Every Man In His Humour at innkeeper. She told them that she could not
London’s Curtain Theatre along with marry without the consent of her father, the
Shakespeare and Richard Burbage. In 1602 poor blind beggar of Bethnal Green; on
Beeston performed with Worcester’s Men and hearing this, they all slunk off except the
remained with the company when it became knight, who went to ask the beggar’s leave. At
QUEEN ANNE’S MEN a year later. He the wedding feast the ‘beggar’ revealed his true
subsequently became their business manager identity as the son of Simon de Montfort, earl
and in 1616 gave up acting to become of Leicester.
manager of the COCKPIT THEATRE, which he Beggar’s Opera, The A BALLAD OPERA
converted into a covered private theatre. He by John Gay (1685–1732) that opened at
housed his old company at the venue and Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, London, in
allowed others to lease it. Beeston owned two- 1728. The idea originated with Jonathan
thirds of the theatre’s shares and began the Swift, who suggested to Gay that a Newgate
practice according to which the theatre prison pastoral “might make an odd pretty sort
manager also owned the costumes and the of thing”. Since the play’s great success
playscripts. After it burned down in 1617, brought its producer John Rich (see RICH
Beeston rebuilt the theatre as the Phoenix and FAMILY) an £800 profit, London wits said The
brought in Prince Charles’s Men. Beggar’s Opera “made Gay rich and Rich gay”.
Beeston was a close friend of Thomas Gay’s sequel, Polly, was banned until 1777
Heywood, also of Queen Anne’s Men, and put when it opened at the Haymarket in an
on several of his plays. After the plague of expurgated version by the elder George
1625 had disrupted the profession, Beeston Colman (see COLMANS, THE).
formed QUEEN HENRIETTA’S MEN. He The Beggar’s Opera satirized both the
disbanded them when the plague returned in conventions of Italian opera and contemporary
1636, but the following year obtained a royal politics. Almost all the topical references are
warrant to bring together young players as the missed by modern audiences, but at the time
King’s and Queen’s Boys, usually known the character of Macheath, the highwayman,
simply as Beeston’s Boys (see BOY COMPANIES). was widely understood to represent the prime
William Beeston, who had acted under his minister Sir Robert Walpole. This influenced
father, became master of the King’s Company Walpole’s decision to introduce the 1737
of boy players at Salisbury Court before 1642. Licensing Act, placing tighter controls on the
Following his father’s death, he took over stage (see GOLDEN RUMP, THE; LICENCE).
Beeston’s Boys and appeared with them at the The play’s English airs, selected and
Cockpit. After the closure of the theatres arranged by Pepusch, have always been a major
during the Puritan INTERREGNUM, he re- part of its appeal. Frederic Austin rearranged
established the company at Salisbury Court the music for a 1920 production at the Lyric
but was forced to close in 1649 when the army Theatre, Hammersmith, while in 1948
wrecked the interior. He was also imprisoned Benjamin Britten adapted it for Sadler’s Wells.
for staging an unlicensed play. However, some In 1928 Bertolt Brecht used the story as the
 Behn, Aphra 53

basis of his THE THREEPENNY OPERA with was also premiered in Gaelic before being
music by Kurt Weill (including the famous successfully presented by Littlewood’s group in
‘Mack the Knife’). 1959. The plot concerns an English soldier
The play is described by the Beggar who held prisoner by terrorists in an Irish brothel
presents it as a “fine moral tale”. It begins with and eventually murdered. Audiences were also
Peachum, a receiver of stolen goods, expressing drawn to the theatre by the wild speeches
horror that his daughter Polly has married the Behan used to make from the stage. Although
highwayman, Macheath. Peachum deals with Behan was now a celebrity he added little to
the situation by informing against his new son- his achievement, wasting his talents in
in-law. Macheath escapes, however, and goes raconteurship and self-destructive drinking
to a brothel where he is betrayed by Jenny bouts. A third play, Richard’s Cork Leg, was left
Diver, arrested, and sent to Newgate. Lucy unfinished at his death but performed in 1972
Lockit, the jailer’s daughter, becomes pregnant at the Abbey Theatre.
by Macheath and helps him escape. Lucy and
Polly argue about who is the rightful wife. This Behn, Aphra (1640–89) British
hardly disturbs Macheath who muses (in a playwright and novelist, probably the first
satire on Walpole, who married his mistress on Englishwoman to earn her living as a writer.
his wife’s death): She spent part of her youth in Guiana (now
How happy could I be with either, Suriname), where her father may have been a
Were t’other dear charmer away! colonial official. After returning to England
she married (1666) a wealthy Dutch merchant,
Macheath is again caught. He is about to be
who nevertheless left her in poverty on his
hanged when the crowd demands a reprieve.
death.
The Beggar tells the audience that the piece
To support herself, she worked briefly as a
must be realistic but then decides that a happy
British spy in the Netherlands – a position she
ending will ensure a longer run and a larger
acquired through the playwright and
profit; consequently a messenger enters with a
impresario Sir Thomas KILLIGREW. Thereafter
royal pardon for Macheath, who embraces
Polly. See also ORPHEUS OF HIGHWAYMEN. she turned to writing, producing some 15
plays in the remaining two decades of her life.
beginners Those performers who appear The first of these was the tragicomedy The
on stage at the beginning of a show or one of Forced Marriage; or, the Jealous Bridegroom
its acts. The CALL ‘Act one beginners!’ or presented at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in
‘Overture and beginners, please!’ has become a 1670 with Thomas Betterton in the lead role.
familiar cliché of the backstage musical. She made her name, however, with her
Behan, Brendan (1923–64) Irish comedies of intrigue, the first of these being
playwright, who produced only two complete THE ROVER; or, the Banished Cavalier (1677),
plays in his short turbulent life. Behan joined about exiled English cavaliers rampaging
the IRA at the age of 14 and spent much of his through Europe. The central character was
youth in borstal and prison. His inventive modelled upon the Earl of Rochester. Other
dramas show the influence of Brecht and are successful comedies included The Roundheads;
notable for their rich use of vernacular. His or, the Good Old Cause (1681), The City-
first play, The Quare Fellow (1954), originally Heiress; or, Sir Timothy Treat-All (1682), and
performed in a Gaelic version in Dublin, The Lucky Chance (1686).
found wide acclaim when produced, by Joan In 1687 Mrs Behn used the characters and
LITTLEWOOD’s Theatre Workshop in 1958. It conventions of the commedia dell’arte as the
ran for a total of 452 performances at the basis for a farce featuring Anthony Leigh
Theatre Royal, Stratford East, and at as Scaramouche and Thomas Jevon as
Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End. It tells Harlequin. It was the first of England’s many
the story of a ‘quare fellow’ awaiting execution HARLEQUINADES, the genre that evolved into
in an Irish prison; the title character is only PANTOMIME.
talked about and never appears on stage. The Mrs Behn also wrote a well-received novel
play is thought to have influenced the Oroonoko, or the History of the Royal Slave
campaign that led to the abolition of capital based on her early years in the West Indies; it
punishment in Britain. was adapted for the stage (by Thomas
Behan’s tragicomedy The Hostage (1957) Southerne) in 1695. Amongst her other
54 Beijing Opera

achievements, she introduced milk punch into recovered quickly after the Cultural
England. Revolution, during which only state-
sanctioned dramas on revolutionary themes
Beijing Opera or Peking Opera The
usual English name for the most popular form were permitted. Subsequent decades, however,
of traditional drama in China. Although the have seen a decline in audiences for traditional
tradition began in about 740 with the drama in China, prompting various attempts
founding of China’s first drama school, the to reform or modernize the genre.
Pear Garden, the style did not achieve cultural Belasco, David (David Valasco;
preeminence until the 19th century. 1854–1931) Flamboyant US actor-manager
The plays of the Beijing Opera combine and playwright. Perhaps his greatest
dialogue, orchestral music, song, dance, and contribution to the US theatre was his long
acrobatics. Works are classified as civil (weu) or successful fight (with Sarah Bernhardt and
military (wu), with the subject matter drawn others) against the monopoly of the
from mythology, history, and fiction. The THEATRICAL SYNDICATE.
melodramatic stories usually deal with the Belasco’s career began in San Francisco. In
triumph of good over evil. 1882 he moved to New York to become stage
The productions are presented on a bare manager at the Madison Square Theatre and
stage, using minimal props and furniture. from 1885 to 1890 held the same position at
Some props have traditional symbolic the Lyceum. His own plays included The Girl I
meanings: a table represents a bridge, three Left Behind Me (1893), the Civil War drama
chairs indicate a bed, a whip implies a horse, a The Heart of Maryland (1895), Madame
hat wrapped in red cloth means a decapitated Butterfly (1900), and The Girl of the Golden
head, and a folded red cloak on the floor is a West (1905); the latter two were turned into
corpse. Costumes follow similar conventions: operas by Puccini. In 1902 he acquired the
emperors wear yellow, important officials
Republic Theatre, renaming it the Belasco
wear red, and warriors have magnificent
Theatre, and in 1907 built and opened the
embroidered costumes and impressive
Stuyvesant Theatre, which likewise became the
headdresses.
Belasco Theatre in 1910.
There are four traditional types of role:
Belasco’s productions blended melodrama
male (sheng), female (dan), large males with
with realism. He was the first to conceal
painted faces (jing), and comedians (chou);
until 1911 female roles were taken by men. footlights in the search for naturalism. For The
The most famous female impersonator Governor’s Lady (1912) he built an exact
of modern times was Mei Lan-Fang replica of a restaurant on stage. To recreate a
(1894–1961), whose skill and renown greatly cheap theatrical boarding-house, he went to
enhanced the importance of the heroine’s role. one in New York and bought the entire
During the Chinese Civil War he refused to interior, even the broken gas fixtures.
act, letting his beard grow in protest. He was equally famous for his
The actors, who are trained to use very experimental lighting. In his production of The
little movement, improvise from an outline Darlings of the Gods one lighting effect lasted
script, somewhat in the manner of the seven minutes. For The Girl of the Golden West
European COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Their speech he experimented for three months to get the
is mostly delivered in a falsetto voice exact colours of a California sunset over the
accompanied by music. Character is indicated Sierra Nevada mountains.
by expressions drawn on the face, by props Belasco had many eccentricities and strong
(such as a fan for frivolity), by colours of dress opinions. He carried a briefcase inscribed in
(blue for good citizens and black for bad ones) gold letters: ‘The Play I Am Now Writing’. He
or make-up (red for courage, yellow for banned brightly coloured flowers, especially
strength, white for treachery, and blue for red ones, from his productions because he felt
ferocity). they caused a distraction. During rehearsals, he
In the early 1960s the Chinese National could be a tyrant. “He tortured his actors,”
Peking Opera Company made a successful said critic Brooks Atkinson, “He stuck a pin in
tour of Europe and Canada and it has since Frances Starr’s beguiling behind to make her
made frequent visits to America. Despite its scream dramatically.” He also kept a cheap
ingrained traditionalism, the Company watch always on hand to throw to the floor in
 Benedick 55

front of the actors and stamp on when Broadway’s My Fair Lady. The play’s
frustrated. producer, Binkie Beaumont, agreed to release
Once a playwright pestered Belasco at him in return for £25,000, along with 1.5% of
length to take his new play, finally begging, the Broadway and touring grosses, and the
“Isn’t there some way you can put it on stage?” British and Continental rights for My Fair
Belasco impatiently snapped, “Give me the Lady. The deal went through. If it had failed,
script.” He flipped it to an assistant and the part of Henry Higgins may well have gone
ordered: “Chop this up and use it as the to Cary Grant.
snowstorm tonight.”
Bells, The Leopold Lewis’s English
Belch, Sir Toby A reckless roistering adaptation of Le Juif polonais, a melodrama by
knight in Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT. Fond Erckmann-Chatrian. It was first performed in
of drinking, dancing, and singing, he is an 1871 at the Lyceum Theatre, London, when it
enemy of the censorious MALVOLIO. A darker made Henry IRVING famous overnight. Irving
side to his character is seen in his exploitation persuaded the theatre’s US manager, H. L.
of Sir Andrew AGUECHEEK. Bateman, to stage the piece after the Lyceum’s
season opened disappointingly. Its success
Belgrade Theatre A theatre founded in
established Irving as the leading tragedian of
Coventry in 1958 – the first new British
his time, made him the chief power in
theatre to be opened after World War II. It
Bateman’s company, and saved the theatre’s
was named in recognition of a gift of timber
fortunes.
from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, that was used in its
The plot involves Matthias, a respectable
construction. The Belgrade was the first of
burgomaster, who is haunted by the
Britain’s CIVIC THEATREs. Its resident company
undiscovered murder and robbery he has
presented a triannual staging of the Coventry
committed on a Polish Jew. Matthias has
Cycle of MYSTERY PLAYS until 1990.
horrid visions of the Jew and keeps hearing the
Bell, Book and Candle A comedy ringing bells of his sleigh. Irving’s insight into
about witchcraft in modern Manhattan by the this tortured character held his audience
British-born playwright John Van Druten spellbound, with his horror-stricken cry “The
(1901–57); it opened in New York in 1950. Bells! The Bells!” passing immediately into
The plot concerns Shep Henderson, a theatrical folklore.
publisher, who rents an apartment in the However, The Bells was also the final
house of the alluring Gillian Holroyd and her straw that broke his marriage to Florence
aunt. Both the women, it turns out, are O’Callaghan, who was a month away from
witches, and Gillian uses her powers to win giving birth to their child when the play
Shep away from his fiancée (and her enemy). If opened. They were returning home in a cab
she falls in love, however, she will blush and after the opening-night celebrations, when
cry, losing her magical ability. When she Florence, who hated the theatre, suddenly
reveals her powers to Shep, he storms out and asked him, “Are you going on making a fool of
gets another witch to break the spell. Later yourself like this all your life?” Irving stopped
when he returns to pay Gillian his back rent, the carriage, got out, and never once saw her
she blushes and starts to cry. He realizes that again.
they are in love. Irving later toured widely with the play,
The first London production was mounted making his New York debut in the piece in
in 1954 at the Phoenix Theatre and starred 1883; he even played the strenuous role during
Rex HARRISON and his then wife, Lilli Palmer. his last illness, despite doctors’ warnings. After
The theatre became a battleground when Irving’s death, the critic A. B. Walkley paid
Palmer found out about her husband’s new tribute to the man who “set our ears ringing
love (and wife-to-be) Kay Kendall. The two with the ‘chink-chink’ of the Polish Jew’s
stars had amazing rows backstage followed by sleigh bells….”
periods when they would only communicate
below See STAGE DIRECTION.
through notes passed back and forth by the
stage manager. None of this, however, affected Benedick A witty young gentleman of
their tender love scenes on stage. Padua in Shakespeare’s MUCH ADO ABOUT
It was during Bell, Book, and Candle NOTHING. Despite adopting the pose of a
that Harrison received the offer to star in confirmed bachelor with no interest in women
56 benefit

(“…would you have me speak after my National Theatre in 2004 and later transferred
custom, as being a profess’d tyrant to their successfully to Broadway, where it earned six
sex?”), he is easily manipulated into falling in Tony Awards. The National also premiered
love with BEATRICE. Bennett’s The Habit of Art (2009), which
centres on an imagined meeting between the
benefit A special performance of a play in
poet W. H. Auden and the composer
which the night’s receipts go to an actor or
Benjamin Britten.
theatrical personality (often ill or retiring) or
to a charity or other worthy cause. Benefits Bergner, Elisabeth (1900–86) Austrian
were first introduced in the 17th century, with actress, who made her name in Berlin in the
the proceeds generally going to an actor, 1920s before becoming a star in Britain and
playwright, or member of the staff. The first America. Born in Vienna, she made her stage
English recipient was the actress Elizabeth debut in Zürich and later worked under Max
Barry in 1687. David Garrick donated all Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theatre before
of the proceeds from his last appearance in moving into films. In 1933 she married the
1776 to his fund for destitute actors. Most producer-director Paul Czinner. When
modern benefits are for registered charities or Alexander Korda invited the couple to Britain
worldwide relief efforts. In 1991 Covent to make Catherine the Great, Bergner saw this
Garden held a special benefit for the ballet star, as an opportunity to avoid Hitler, who had
Dame Margot Fonteyn, who was destitute and just come to power: “I thought, good, I shall
suffering from cancer. See also BESPEAK go to England and when we return it will all
PERFORMANCE. have blown over.” When asked to tour the
English provinces she snapped, “What is
Bennett, Alan (1934– ) British actor
Birmingham?” Nevertheless, she made her
and playwright, who first came to prominence
British stage debut at the Opera House,
as a star of the Oxbridge revue BEYOND THE
Manchester, in 1933 and later that year
FRINGE. His reputation was firmly established
appeared in London to great acclaim. When
with the success of his first play Forty Years
she became ill, the producer C. B. Cochran
On (1968), in which John Gielgud starred
closed the theatre for three weeks.
as the retiring headmaster of a minor public
In 1936 she told J. M. BARRIE that her
school. Getting On (1971) investigated the
greatest artistic experience had been seeing
disillusionment of a Labour MP, while Habeas
Rembrandt’s painting David Playing the Harp
Corpus (1973), with Alec Guinness, was a
for Saul. Barrie was so moved that he wrote
farcical exposure of British sexual inhibitions.
The Boy David for Bergner, who hoped
The Old Country (1977), again with Guinness,
that playing the title role would change her
portrayed a British spy exiled in the Soviet
elfin image (she was then 36). The play,
Union.
Barrie’s last, flopped and Bergner fled to
Bennett consolidated his reputation as a
Switzerland, refusing to return for a COMMAND
keen observer of social mores, especially
PERFORMANCE.
amongst the respectable working classes in his
Bergner spent the war years in Hollywood
native north of England, with his writing for
and on Broadway. When she returned to
television. His greatest resource as a writer is
Britain in 1950 The Daily Telegraph noted
a shrewd ear for the oddities of everyday
sourly: “Five years after the last bomb has
speech, as demonstrated in the two series of
fallen, she has elected to return.” In 1963 she
monologues for TV known collectively as
was awarded the Schiller Prize “for outstanding
Talking Heads (1987, 1998). He has continued
contributions to the cultural life of Germany”.
to write for the stage, sometimes appearing in
Ten years later, at the age of 73, she was
his own plays. His later dramas have included
triumphant in Cat’s Play by Istvan Orkeny at
the double bill Single Spies (1988; A Question
the Greenwich Theatre; the critics still referred
of Attribution, An Englishman Abroad), in
to her “coy Peter Pan little figure”.
which he played the traitor Anthony Blunt,
The Madness of George III (1991, adapted for Berkoff, Steven (1937– ) British
the cinema in 1995), and The Lady in the Van playwright, actor, and director, who founded
(1999), based on a bizarre incident in his own (1968) the London Theatre Group. His early
life. THE HISTORY BOYS, a highly praised play work with the company included several
set in a boys’ grammar school, opened at the adaptations of Franz Kafka, notably
 Bernhardt, Sarah 57

Metamorphosis (1969), which Berkoff staged Peter Palitzsch and Peter Zadek) were called
using a striking variety of techniques, in to save the company from collapse; the
including mime and acrobatics. The play was Ensemble, formerly funded by the East
subsequently (1989) taken to Broadway and is German state, became a limited company. The
regularly revived by Berkoff at the Edinburgh current artistic director (since 2000) is Claus
Festival. Peymann.
Berkoff’s first completely original play,
Berlin, Irving (Israel Baline; 1888–1989)
East (1975), used blank verse and the trappings
US composer of songs, film scores, and
of high tragedy to depict life in London’s East
Broadway musicals. His masterpieces, both of
End; it was successfully transferred to the
which starred Ethel MERMAN were ANNIE GET
National Theatre. In Greek (1979) he gave a
YOUR GUN (1946) and CALL ME MADAM
feminist twist to the Oedipus myth, while in
(1950).
West (1983) he used the Beowulf story to
Berlin was born in the Siberian village of
attack the British class system. His other plays
Temun, the son of a rabbi; at the age of four
of the 1980s included Decadence (1981), Sink
he saw his family home burned down during a
the Belgrano! (1986), which invoked
pogrom. Within a year the Baline family had
Shakespeare’s Henry V to comment on a
arrived at New York’s Ellis Island and settled
controversial incident during the Falklands
into the city’s Lower East Side. Israel began
War, and Kvetch (1987), a comedy about a
to write songs while working as a newsboy
neurotic Jewish salesman. Massage (1997) saw
and singing waiter, finding success with
Berkoff appearing in drag, while Messiah
‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ in 1911. Later hits
(2000) was a re-examination of the Easter
included ‘White Christmas’ and ‘God Bless
story. The uncharacteristically gentle Sit and
America’.
Shiver (2006) drew directly on his own
Berlin’s first Broadway hit was Watch Your
experience of Jewish family life in the old East
Step (1914), in which he introduced ragtime to
End. As a profitable sideline, Berkoff has
the stage. This was followed in 1918 by Yip,
capitalized on his somewhat menacing
Yip, Yaphank, which included the popular
appearance to play villains in a series of
‘Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning’.
Hollywood films, notably the James Bond
In 1933 he wrote As Thousands Cheer, which
movie Octopussy (1983).
included ‘Easter Parade’.
Berkoff’s intensely physical and never
Berlin’s music also featured in revues,
knowingly understated form of theatre has
including the Ziegfeld Follies and The Music
found both admirers and detractors. His own
Box Revue staged at his own Music Box
contempt for the critics emerges vividly from
Theatre. He lived to be over 100, having
Free Association (1996), a memoir. That same
composed over 1,000 songs. The songwriter
year he set a legal precedent by successfully
Jerome Kern commented, “Irving Berlin has
suing the journalist Julie Burchill, who had
no place in American music…he is American
described him as “hideously ugly”.
music.”
Berliner Ensemble The German
Bernadon A stock character of the 18th-
theatre company founded by Bertolt BRECHT
century Viennese theatre. An impetuous
in East Berlin in 1949. The company,
youth, Bernadon was developed by the
established at the invitation of the East
Austrian actor Joseph Kurz (1715–84) from
German Government, became the focus for
the peasant clown HANSWURST. Kurz’s
much of the most important work then taking
improvised ‘Bernadoniades’ ran their course
place in European theatre, not least in its
within his lifetime.
productions of its founder’s own plays and its
assimilation of his theories of EPIC THEATRE. Bernhardt, Sarah (Henriette Rosine
After Brecht’s death in 1956 it was taken over Bernard; 1844–1923) One of the stage’s most
by his widow, Helene Weigel, and after her admired and tempestuous actresses. Born in
death in 1971 by their daughter, Barbara Paris, the illegitimate daughter of a courtesan,
Brecht-Schall. Subsequently the Ensemble’s Sarah was a sickly tubercular child, who
reputation declined sharply, with the considered becoming a nun. She changed her
interventionist style of Barbara Brecht-Schall mind after being taken to the COMÉDIE-
coming in for particular criticism. In 1992 five FRANÇAISE to see Racine’s Britannicus and
leading directors (including the West Germans subsequently spent two years training at the
58 Bertinazzi, Carlo

Conservatoire. She made her stage debut in Betterton, Thomas (1635–1710)

1862, taking the lead in Racine’s Iphigénie at English actor-manager usually considered the
the Comédie-Française. Always difficult, she leading figure of the Restoration stage. He
was dismissed for fighting with an actress adapted several of Shakespeare’s works and in
backstage. Sarah, noted for her romantic looks his day was unrivalled for his Hamlet, Lear,
and melodious voice, began a series of love and Sir Toby Belch. He created about 130 new
affairs with famous men, including Prince characters for the stage and was the first actor
Henri de Ligne, who gave her a son. buried in Westminster Abbey.
Her first great triumph came in 1868, The son of Charles I’s cook, Betterton
when she played in Dumas’s Kean at Paris’s became a member of John Rhodes’s company,
Odeon Theatre. Admirers would assemble which in 1660 reopened the Cockpit at Drury
outside the theatre to unfasten the horses from Lane. The next year he joined DAVENANT’s
her carriage and pull her home themselves. She company at Lincoln’s Inn Fields to appear in
Love and Honour; for his performance as
was becoming the most talked-about woman
Prince Alvaro, Charles II loaned Betterton his
in Paris and her parties drew such guests as the
coronation suit.
Prince of Wales and Oscar Wilde, who wrote
In the same year he first played Hamlet, a
Salomé (in French) for her. role he would return to with acclaim until the
This growing renown led to Bernhardt’s age of 74, making him the oldest Hamlet on
reinstatement at the Comédie-Française, record. Despite having small eyes, a low voice,
where in 1874 she gave the most sublime and an “ill figure…clumsily made”, Betterton
performance of her career as Racine’s Phèdre. was immensely powerful in the role. He was
She was one of the stage’s most versatile renowned for actually turning white when he
actresses, even playing Hamlet. Other famous met the Ghost in Act I. His fellow actor
roles included Marguerite Gautier in Dumas’s Barton Booth, playing the Ghost, was so
La Dame aux camélias. astonished by Betterton’s reaction that he was
Sarah gave her first London performance unable to continue for several moments.
in 1879 at the Gaiety Theatre, where she “Instead of my awing him,” Booth later
thrilled the British audience as Cleopatra. This recalled, “he terrified me.” Other actors were
was despite taking opium for a fever one similarly affected. Robert Wilks, playing in
evening and forgetting 200 lines. In 1880 she The Maid’s Tragedy with Betterton, was so
likewise conquered America, giving 157 struck by his dignity that he could barely say a
performances in 51 cities from Montreal to word.
New Orleans. At the age of 71 she had a Davenant died in 1668, and Betterton led
diseased leg amputated but continued to act, the company to the Dorset Garden Theatre; in
performing as the 18-year-old Joan of Arc with 1682 it merged with the company at DRURY
a wooden leg. LANE. In 1695 he successfully reopened the
theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields with the
Bertinazzi, Carlo See CARLIN. premiere of Congreve’s Love for Love. In 1705
Bertram, Count of Roussillon The he moved to the new Queen’s Theatre in the
young nobleman loved by HELENA, the heroine Hay, a building designed by John Vanbrugh,
of Shakespeare’s ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. whose play The Confederacy Betterton
Described by Dr Johnson as “a man noble produced there.
Betterton was a close friend of Archbishop
without generosity, and young without truth,”
Tillotson, who once asked him why his own
he has always been one of the least popular of
sermons could never move the congregation
Shakespearean heroes.
as much as the actor’s words affected the
bespeak performance A special audience. “That I think is easy to be accounted
performance of a play chosen by patrons, in for,” said the actor. “’Tis because you are only
which the night’s receipts go to someone telling them a story, and I am showing them
connected with the theatre or are shared facts.”
among the cast. Bespeak performances Betty, William (Henry West)
originated as a form of BENEFIT during the (1791–1874) Anglo-Irish child actor, whose
17th century and were especially popular performances convulsed the fashionable world
during the Victorian era. in 1804–06. After making his debut in Belfast,
 Bhagavata Mela 59

the 12-year-old Betty was brought to London story concerns two sons of the farmer James
by his ambitious father, who found him a Mayo. Andrew, the older, plans to marry their
position at Covent Garden. Here, to the childhood neighbour, Ruth Atkins, and take
chagrin of KEMBLE and other established actors, over the family farm. Robert, a dreamer,
he took leading roles in plays by Shakespeare, wishes to go to sea but first confesses his love
Sheridan, and others, to scenes of almost to Ruth, who surprises both families by
hysterical adulation. It is even said that a returning it. The brothers then find their
sitting of the House of Commons was fortunes reversed: Robert wins Ruth and stays
suspended to allow members to see the Young on the farm while Andy goes to sea, a
Roscius (as he was billed) in all his glory. departure that kills his father. However,
When Betty transferred to Drury Lane in 1805 Robert knows nothing of business and the
the loss of receipts was apparently so great that farm goes to ruin along with his marriage.
Covent Garden was brought close to When Andy returns, Ruth plans to reveal her
bankruptcy. Apart from his novelty value, love for him, but before she does so he
Betty’s greatest asset was his remarkable insensitively tells her that he never really loved
physical beauty; his acting talent seems to have her. Andy leaves the couple, who fall into
been genuine but unequal to the adult roles in despair as first Robert’s mother and then their
which he was placed. ‘Bettymania’ proved daughter Mary dies. When Andy next returns,
predictably short lived, as enthusiasm Robert too is dying. Andy is now left with
dwindled into indifference and finally into Ruth, but it is too late for happiness.
open contempt. After a short retreat from the
Bhagavata Mela An Indian form of
stage, a series of unsuccessful comebacks, and a
drama honouring the god Vishnu. It is
suicide attempt in 1821, Betty finally retired
performed annually in late April or early May
upon his considerable earnings. He would live
in the village of Melattur in the Tamil-
for another 50 years.
speaking region of Tanjore, although a few
between engagements See RESTING. nearby villages give short versions during
festivals. It first appeared in about 1502 in
Beyond the Fringe A satirical revue by
Andhra Pradesh, being derived from the
Oxbridge undergraduates that became a
KUCHIPUDI dance drama; subsequently
legendary hit in Britain and America and
Venkatarama Sastri (1759–1847) wrote about
launched its four performers as international
a dozen works in the style in order to spread
stars. It was co-written by Jonathan Miller,
Hinduism. The Bhagavata Puranas are epic
Peter Cook, and Alan BENNETT, who were
stories about the incarnations of Vishnu while
joined on stage by Dudley Moore. The short
a mela is a troupe of singers or dancers. The
memorable sketches, delivered by the four
plays combine dialogue, song, and dance.
wearing dark suits, satirized everything
The performance in Melattur before the
from church sermons and Shakespearean
Varadraja Perumala Temple honours Vishnu’s
productions to capital punishment; Cook also
violent man-lion incarnation. A stage is raised
performed a gruesome imitation of the then
in the street and the temple deity is carried in a
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Introduced
grand procession through the village. The
at the 1959 Edinburgh Fringe (hence the title),
performance begins in the morning, with the
the revue moved a year later to Edinburgh’s
entrances of the konangi, or clown, the
Lyceum Theatre and then in 1961 to London’s
musicians, and a boy wearing the mask of
Fortune Theatre. It subsequently ran for a year
Ganapatri, the elephant-headed god of good
at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway,
fortune. The actors, all men, then make
captivating US audiences. “It became a very
elaborate ritual entrances and perform classical
chic show in New York,” noted Cook. “Its
dances before the main action begins.
very Englishness gave it built-in snob appeal.”
The actor portraying Vishnu as man-lion
In London the revue ran for six years with a
fasts and prays before donning his magical
changing cast.
mask. On stage, he enters into a trance and
Beyond the Horizon A naturalistic must be restrained by attendants to protect
tragedy by Eugene O’NEILL. It was premiered other actors. After the performance ends in the
in 1920 in New York’s Morosco Theatre, and early hours, another temple is visited, where
established O’Neill’s reputation, winning the the actor removes his mask and falls into
Pulitzer Prize. Set in rural New England, the another trance until revived by water.
60 Bhamakalapam

Bhamakalapam The name of a play and dance, forming the bhaviyas, the first strolling
a theatrical genre found throughout the Indian players in Gujarat, who still perform the
state of Andhra Pradesh, where it is acted by Bhavai by hereditary right.
travelling troupes. Bhama is a shortening of The plays are performed at religious
Satyabhama, the beautiful but jealous wife of festivals, especially Navaratri, the festival of
Lord Krishna, and kalapam means ‘dialogue’ Bahucharaji, the patroness of Bhavai actors.
or ‘argument’. Siddhendra Yogi created it in Performances are held in a temple courtyard or
the 17th century as a devotional form for all- adjacent street. A torch is lit to symbolize the
male KUCHIPUDI companies. Although presence of the goddess and the performance
Bhamakalapam features the full range of begins with music featuring Bhavai’s unique
feminine dancing movements, or lasya, it bhungals, or copper pipes. In the preliminaries,
retains the tradition of using only male dances are performed by actors dressed as the
dancers. The form was long patronized by elephant-headed god Ganapatri, the goddess
local landowners but is now in danger of Kali, and a grotesque Brahmin priest who
disappearing from modern India. speaks obscenities and dances with clumsy
Although some scholars also refer to the movements. The regular drama follows.
genre as Vithi Natakam it is distinct from the Bibiena family An Italian family of
area’s street drama, Veedhi Natakam. theatre architects and scene designers. They
Bhand Jashna (Kashmiri: Clown were the most influential designers of the 18th
Festival) A form of rural theatre that has century, introducing towering perspective
existed for centuries in the Kashmir region of scenery and the baroque style to European
India and Pakistan. Improvised farces and opera houses.
satires are performed in Kashmiri with a The family’s association with the stage was
leavening of Hindustani, Urdu, Punjabi, and begun by Giovanni Maria Galli da Bibiena
other languages depending on the locality. (1625–65), known as Il Vecchio. His eldest
Although on the surface the plays are semi- son, Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657–1743),
historical works about folk heroes, in practice worked as a young man in the Teatro Farnese
the main purpose is to satirize everyone in in Bologna. There he introduced his angle
the village, from poor peasants to corrupt perspective (scena per angolo), which
government officials. revolutionized staging, replacing one vanishing
Performances are staged in the open air point with several. In 1708 he was summoned
and commence with a prayer, or poozapath, to Barcelona to direct festivities at the wedding
honouring Allah. The clowns, or maskharas, of the future Emperor Charles VI, who in
then make their entrances through the 1711 named him as court architect in Vienna.
audience to the accompaniment of music. There he also designed scenery for the opera.
Their costumes include colourful headdresses. He returned to Bologna in 1717 and built the
royal theatre at Mantua in 1731.
Bhavai A type of bawdy and satirical rural Ferdinando’s brother, Francesco Galli
theatre formerly popular in western India. Its Bibiena (1659–1737), worked throughout the
emphasis on humour makes it unique in the Continent before becoming the ducal architect
traditional Indian theatre. The stories depict at Mantua. His buildings include the grand
the vices and virtues of various types in village theatre in Nancy and the Teatro Filarmonico
society but usually centre on figures from in Verona (both 1708–09). In 1716 Francesco
history or Hindu mythology. The genre has and Ferdinando together designed settings for
been introduced to cities by urban troupes an outdoor celebration to mark the birth of a
who have successfully adapted its social and son to Charles VI. The stage was built over a
political satire, but the rural form now barely large canal and at one point divided to show
survives. gilded naval vessels floating on the water
According to legend, Bhavai was created below. “The theatre is so large that it is hard to
by the Brahmin priest Asaita Thakar in the carry the eye to the end of it” wrote Lady Mary
14th century. He was excommunicated for Wortley Montagu to Alexander Pope.
dining with a young Hindu woman; her Ferdinando’s eldest son, Alessandro Galli
Muslim captor, knowing this was forbidden, Bibiena (1687–1769), became in 1719 an
had agreed to release her only if such a meal architect and painter at the court of the elector
took place. Asaita then turned to song and of the Palatinate. A second son, Giuseppe
 bio-mechanics 61

(1696–1757), became the family’s most traditional rural values and the new thinking of
respected artist, working with his father on the towns.
designs for operas, plays, and dances. He seems
Big Four, the Nickname for two actors
to have been the first to introduce transparent
and two actresses who dominated the New
scenery lit from behind. Ferdinando’s third
York stage in the late 19th century. They were
son, Antonio (1697–c. 1774), designed the
John Drew (see DREW FAMILY), James Lewis, of
Teatro Communale at Bologna in 1755 and
whom little is known, Ada Rehan (Ada
the Teatro dei Quattro Cavalieri in Pavia in
Crehan; 1860–1916), who changed her name
1773. He followed his father as the Viennese
following a printer’s error and whose most
court architect.
famous role was Katharine in The Taming Of
Giuseppe’s son, Carlo Galli Bibiena
The Shrew (1887), and Mrs G. H. Gilbert
(1728–87), collaborated with his father on the
(Ann Hartley; 1821–1904), who specialized in
Bayreuth Opera House, and subsequently
playing eccentric spinsters. The four appeared
worked throughout Europe, including
regularly at DALY’S THEATRE.
London. One of his stage settings can still be
seen at the Drottningholm Theatre museum in Bill of Divorcement, A The first and
Sweden (see THEATRE MUSEUM). most successful play by Clemence DANE. A
sensitive study of a young woman’s fear of
Bickerstaffe, Isaac (c. 1733–c. 1812)
hereditary madness, it is also an attack on the
Irish dramatist; as a writer of light musical
British divorce laws for not admitting insanity
works Bickerstaffe was, in his day, considered
as sufficient grounds for divorce. First
to be the equal of John Gay, author of The
performed in 1921 in London, it made a star
Beggar’s Opera.
of Maggie Albanesi in the lead role of Sydney
In 1760 Bickerstaffe’s BALLAD OPERA
Fairfield; sadly, Albanesi died only two years
Thomas and Sally; or, the Sailor’s Return, with
later. It opened in New York in the same
music by Thomas Arne, was staged at Covent
year, providing Katharine Cornell with her
Garden. The two men collaborated again on
Broadway debut. The Hollywood film version
LOVE IN A VILLAGE (1762), which is probably
starred John BARRYMORE and introduced
the earliest example of an English comic opera.
Katherine Hepburn.
The Maid of the Mill (1765) and The Royal
Garland (1768), both with music by Samuel Billy Liar A comedy by Keith Waterhouse
Arnold, brought Bickerstaffe further success. and Willis Hall, based on Waterhouse’s earlier
He also wrote several works in collaboration novel. It was first performed in 1960 in
with Charles DIBDIN, including Lionel and London, with Albert Finney and Tom
Clarissa. Courtenay in the leading roles. The play
Bickerstaffe’s success was cut short in concerns Billy Fisher, 19, a lower-middle-class
1782, however, when he was forced to flee the lad who has big dreams of fame and fortune
country owing to allegations of sodomy, which but lacks the talent or gumption to realize
at that time was punishable by hanging. them. To survive his dull northern-English
Bickerstaffe fled to France, where it seems he life, he lies and fantasizes, causing grief to his
lived in poverty and obscurity for a further 30 family, friends, and employer (an undertaker).
years. The 1782 Biographia Dramatica stated In his daydreams he supposes himself to be
that Bickerstaffe was “…living at some place various important or glamorous figures,
abroad, to which a deed without name has including a general, a doctor, and a politician.
banished him…” When Billy becomes engaged to two girls at
the same time, he loses control. One of them,
Bidesia In India, a form of theatre
Barbara, comes to tea with his family to
performed in the villages of the northeastern
announce their wedding plans, but runs into
state of Bihar. Dating from the early 20th
his other fiancée, Rita, and a row ensues.
century, it was supposedly created by Bhikhari
Billy’s mate, Arthur Crabtree, warns him that
Thakur, a barber, who left his home and his
Rita’s brother is on the warpath, so Billy sets
profession to tour Bihar with a company of
off to become a television scriptwriter in
itinerant actors. A bidesia is a person who
London with a third girlfriend, Liz. However,
emigrates from his homeland. The plays deal
he misses the train.
with the everyday trials and tribulations of
villagers, including the constant clash between bio-mechanics A theatrical method
62 bird

developed by the avant-garde Russian director Birnam Wood The wood that moves to
V. E. MEYERHOLD, in which actors were totally Dunsinane Hill in Shakespeare’s MACBETH,
controlled by the director’s decisions. thus heralding the central character’s downfall
Meyerhold used no proscenium or curtain for as prophesied by the three witches.
his productions and created a bare forestage on The prophecy, which is fulfilled when
which he manoeuvred the players like puppets. Macduff’s men carry branches from the wood
He had been trained in the MOSCOW ART to conceal their numbers, has a close historical
THEATRE but subsequently rebelled against parallel in the fate of the evil Lord Soulis
the STANISLAVSKY school of acting by telling (d. 1320) of Hermitage Castle, in the Scottish
his actors to suppress their personal emotions Borders. He was warned by a spirit to “beware
in order to concentrate on gesture and of the coming tree” and, sure enough,
movement. They acted without make-up and was captured by his enemies who had
all wore blue overalls. camouflaged themselves with branches. He
Meyerhold first used bio-mechanics in a was subsequently boiled to death in lead.
production of Ferdinand Crommelynck’s The Birthday Party, The Harold PINTER’s
Magnificent Cuckold in 1922. In Gogol’s The first full-length play; it opened in 1958 at the
Government Inspector (1926) he went so far Arts Theatre, Cambridge, and transferred to
as to replace his actors with dummies in the the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. With its
last scene. The individualistic Meyerhold enigmatic dialogue, unrevealed motives, and
eventually fell into disfavour with the Soviet powerful suggestions of menace, the play is
authorities. In 1938 he and his wife were now considered one of Pinter’s best and most
arrested; both subsequently died in characteristic works. At the time, however, it
circumstances that have never been properly was savaged by most of the London critics and
explained. earned only £260 from its short run at the
bird. get the bird To be hissed off Lyric. Pinter blamed the production, by Peter
stage; the expression was originally to get the Wood. The Lyric staged a glittering 50th-
big bird, i.e. goose. anniverary revival in May 2008.
The story focuses on Stanley Webber
Birds, The The buoyant comedy by (originally played by Richard Pearson) who is
ARISTOPHANESthat is usually considered his the only resident at the boarding house run by
masterpiece. It was first performed in 414 BC Meg and Petey. One day they are visited by
in Athens, when the war against Sparta was two sinister strangers, Nat Goldberg and
going well. The play’s heroes, Peisthetaerus Seamus McCann, who tell Meg that it is
and Euelpides, leave Athens to create a utopia Stanley’s birthday. They present him with a
named Cloud-cuckooland between heaven and toy drum which he beats wildly. Stanley, who
earth with the help of the birds. They have fears the two men, tries to convince them that
abandoned their beloved city for one reason, as he is someone else. Later that evening, they
Euelpides says: remove his glasses, harshly question him, and
Aye, the cicalas chirp upon the boughs make him participate in a game of blind man’s
One month, or two; but our Athenians buff. The next morning, the men take a
chirp confused Stanley away. Petey watches them go,
Over their lawsuits all their whole life and later tells Meg what a fantastic birthday
long. party it has been.
The Birds is Aristophanes’s most gentle bis See ENCORE
work to survive, never mentioning the war or
attacking public policy. Some critics, however, Bishop of Broadway Nickname for
see a cleverly disguised political commentary, David BELASCO, the US actor-manager and
in which Peisthetaerus is the archetypal playwright who directed or produced over 300
manipulative politician and the birds are the Broadway plays. It reflects his flamboyant,
almost episcopal, style of dress.
public who are always duped. The play may
also criticize the Athenians for believing that Bitter Sweet Noël COWARD’s most
they can accomplish anything – with the popular musical, an operetta that opened in
utopia in the sky representing the defeat of 1929 at Her Majesty’s Theatre and transferred
Sparta. to the Palace Theatre for a total of 697
 black-out 63

performances. Unlike Coward’s nonmusical In 1954 the composer Sigmund Romberg

comedies, however, this sentimental romance retold the story of the staging of The Black
has enjoyed few modern revivals. Crook in his own musical, The Girl in Pink
The action begins in 1929, during a party Tights.
at the home of Sarah, the Marchioness Shayne.
Sarah is distressed to learn that one of the Black-Ey’d Susan A NAUTICAL DRAMA
guests, Dolly Chamberlayne, has fallen for an by Douglas Jerrold (1803–57), subtitled All in
orchestra leader despite being engaged to a the Downs. It was first staged in London in
peer of the realm. The scene then shifts to 1829 at the Surrey Theatre, running for 400
1880 to reveal that Sarah too once loved a performances. T. P. Cooke was acclaimed in
musician, the Austrian Carl Linden, leading the leading role of William, a sailor who
her to turn her back on her fiancé, a returns from the sea to find his faithful wife,
distinguished diplomat. Their simple life in Susan, pursued by his own captain. William
Austria came to an end when Linden was strikes the officer and is sentenced to death,
killed in a duel with a cavalry officer, who had but is saved by a last-minute reprieve.
tried to seduce her. She subsequently dedicated Black-Ey’d Susan was the first play
herself to performing his songs at nightclubs produced when the Royal Coburg Theatre
throughout Europe. The Marquis of Shayne reopened in 1833 as the Royal Victoria – soon
became entranced with her, and she married renamed the OLD VIC.
him for companionship. The last act returns to
1929. Blackfriars Theatre The name of two
Coward’s songs included ‘The Call of private theatres built in the ruins of Blackfriars
Life’, ‘I’ll See You Again’, ‘Zigeuner’, ‘Ladies Priory, near the north bank of the Thames in
of the Town’, ‘If Love Were All’, and ‘Tarara London. They were amongst the first candle-
Boom-de-ay’: lit indoor theatres in London, allowing
Tarara boom-de-ay, performances in bad weather and during the
Tarara boom-de-ay, winter.
We are the most effectual, The first small theatre was built in 1576 by
Intellectual Richard Farrant, master of the choirboys of
Movement of the day. Windsor. After his death in 1581 it was used
by other BOY COMPANIES until 1584, when the
Black Crook, The A work usually
space was leased as lodgings.
considered America’s first true musical. The
show underwent a strange transformation In 1596 James Burbage (see BURBAGE
FAMILY) attempted to open a second venue on
before opening in 1866 at Niblo’s Garden in
New York. It was originally meant to be a the site suitable for his company from the
serious Faustian melodrama but the theatre THEATRE. His plans were obstructed by
manager, William Wheatley, changed his mind officials, and he died before the work was
when the New York Academy of Music completed in 1600 by his sons Richard and
burned down just before a French ballet troupe Cuthbert Burbage, who leased the venue for
was scheduled to dance there. Wheatley took eight years to the Children of the Chapel
the scenery and the 100 girls, dressed them in Royal. Cuthbert eventually became co-owner
scanty corps de ballet outfits, and brought in of the rectangular theatre, which had benches
Giuseppi Operti to supply tunes; his for the audience and made use of special
melodrama became a melodrama-ballet- painted scenery. The King’s Men (see
musical. CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN) became the resident
Despite lasting more than five hours, this company in 1608 and lured the nobility with
rousing mixture of spectacle, dance, and plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont, and
drama proved a booming success, bringing in Fletcher. The theatre was closed in 1642 by
$1 million, running for 475 performances, and the Puritans and demolished in 1655.
becoming the most popular US production of
the 19th century. It played in New York off black-out Originally a theatrical term,
and on until 1903. Wheatley’s follow-up, The dating from the early 1920s, meaning to
White Fawn, was less successful, but he was extinguish the lighting to darken the whole
able to retire comfortably on the fortune stage. It is now largely associated with its
earned from The Black Crook. World War II use, when it was obligatory to
64 Blacks, The

cover all windows, etc., before dark so that no Kane’s intention – almost entirely lost in
gleam of light could be seen from outside. the media hoohah – was to dramatize the links
between casually racist and misogynistic
Blacks, The A play by Jean GENET.
attitudes at home and the horrors of the civil
Described by the author as “a clown show”, it
war then raging in the Balkans. As she herself
is a leading example of the Theatre of
put it, “the logical conclusion of the attitude
CRUELTY. The Blacks was first produced in
1959 in Paris, opening two years later in that produces an isolated rape in England is
London and New York, where it enjoyed a the rape camps in Bosnia, and the logical
long run. conclusion to the way society expects men to
Genet uses a violent play-within-a-play to behave is war.” This aspect of the play emerged
explore the nature of racial intolerance. From more clearly from the 2001 revival, mounted
an upper level, a group of Whites (Black actors some 18 months after its author’s suicide:
wearing masks or make-up) watch a group of critics now hailed Blasted as “a humane,
Blacks below performing their ritual dances. impassioned dramatic testament” and “a play
A Black master of ceremonies, Archibald with a fine moral purpose”. Subsequent
Absolom Wellington, introduces a drama in revivals have included the play’s New York
which Blacks rape and ritually murder a White premiere and a production mounted in the
woman. When news arrives that Blacks Leeds hotel where the play is set (both 2008).
everywhere are rising up against Whites, the Blin, Roger (1907–84) French actor and
Black players kill and mutilate the White director, who was originally drawn to the
audience on the platform. The dead Whites theatre because he believed that acting might
then get up to join the Blacks, and Archibald help him to overcome his stammer. During the
preaches on the foolishness of racial hatred. 1930s Blin worked with Charles Dullin,
The actors finally depart for hell. Antonin Artaud, and Jean-Louis BARRAULT;
blank See DRY. after the war he became closely associated with
the avant-garde, directing plays by ADAMOV,
Blasted The first full-length play by Sarah whom he virtually discovered, GENET, whom
KANE, a savage work that provoked anger and he greatly popularized, and BECKETT. The
disgust when performed at London’s Royal French language premiere of WAITING FOR
Court Theatre Upstairs in 1995. With its GODOT (1953), was directed by Blin, who also
scenes of anal rape, cannibalism, and eye- played the character of Pozzo. Blin was also
gouging, the play was condemned as noted for designing his own sets, a practice he
intellectually puerile as well as gratuitously considered integral to the directorial process.
unpleasant (one critic compared the experience
to “having your head held down in a bucket of Blithe Spirit Nöel COWARD’s comedy
offal”). The hysteria surrounding Blasted and about a troublesome ghost. It opened in 1941
its young author was such that Kane chose to at the Piccadilly Theatre and ran for four and a
submit a subsequent play under a false name. half years before enjoying a lengthy run in
The action takes place in a smart hotel New York. The original cast included
room in Leeds where Ian – a foul-mouthed, Margaret Rutherford, Kay Hammond, and Fay
cynical tabloid journalist – sets out to seduce Compton. The story focuses on Charles, a
Cate, a vulnerable young girl. When he is cynical writer who accidentally summons the
rebuffed, he rapes and humiliates her. The play ghost of his first wife, Elvira, at a séance. She
then takes a sudden swerve into expressionism tries to kill him but mistakenly kills his new
as a deranged soldier bursts into the room, wife, so Charles now has two ghosts to nag
waving a gun and ranting about the horrors of him. Some objected to the risque dialogue,
civil war. Realism is abandoned altogether including Graham Greene who found the play
when the hotel is blown apart by a bomb to “a weary exhibition of bad taste”.
reveal the outside world as a hellish war-zone. Coward underwent one of the most
The soldier rapes and blinds Ian before frustrating experiences of his career when CBS
committing suicide. In the last scene, the decided to broadcast a live production of Blithe
starving Ian is reduced to eating a dead baby. Spirit in 1955. The sponsor, Ford Motors,
The play ends on a faint note of hope when tried to censor the more risque lyrics and
Cate returns to share her food with the dying several lines. Neither did Coward like the
man. leading actress, Claudette Colbert, whom he
 Blood Wedding 65

found “bossy” and “extremely tiresome”. She Lyons adopts one baby, and they agree to keep
insisted on keeping one side of her face to the the two boys in ignorance since it is said that
cameras at all times, causing all scene twins parted at birth will die if they know the
groupings to be rearranged. After one truth. In later life Mickey Johnstone and
rehearsal, during which she repeatedly fluffed Edward Lyons meet and become ‘blood
her lines, she assured Coward that she knew brothers’. They both fall for the same girl,
them backwards. “And that’s exactly the way Linda, who marries Mickey. Edward attends
you are saying them this morning,” he fumed. college and becomes a councillor, while
At such moments, Coward thought of his CBS Mickey loses his job and is jailed after turning
cheque and murmured to himself “Thirty to crime. When released, he becomes addicted
thousand pounds, thirty thousand pounds, to tranquillizers. Edward finds him a job and a
thirty thousand pounds!” house, but Mrs Lyons informs Mickey that his
blocking A stage in the rehearsal process wife is having an affair with Edward. Mickey
during which actors are positioned on the set walks into a meeting his twin is attending and
and their movements are plotted, with special fatally shoots him before he in turn is shot by
attention to SIGHTLINE problems. Each the police.
movement is noted in the PROMPT BOOK with Russell’s songs include ‘Marilyn Monroe’,
a number in the ‘move column’ and the same ‘Shoes upon the Table’, and ‘My Child’.
number next to the word in the script when
blood tub Formerly, slang for a cheap
the move occurs. During blocking sessions, the
theatre or music hall that specialized in the
floor is marked out to indicate the size of the
stage and the position of furniture, doors, performance of violent melodramas. In
windows, etc. Blocking is done with actors Victorian times, the OLD VIC and its near
reading from the script. neighbour the Surrey Theatre were amongst
London’s most notorious blood tubs. See also
Blondin (Jean François Gravelet; TRANSPONTINE MELODRAMA.
1824–97) One of the most famous acrobats
of all time. His greatest feat was in 1859, when Blood Wedding A poetic tragedy by
he crossed the Niagara Falls on a tightrope, Federico GARCÍA LORCA, first performed in
embellishing the performance by repeating it 1933 in Madrid. It opened in New York in
blindfolded, wheeling a barrow, twirling an 1935 as Bitter Oleander and in London in
umbrella, and carrying a man on his back. 1939 as The Marriage of Blood; it was
He made a fortune by this feat and soon after translated as Blood Wedding by the poet Roy
settled in England, where he gave performances Campbell for revivals in London in 1947 and
until old age forced him to retire. New York two years later. The play was the
first of Lorca’s great trilogy of folk tragedies,
Blood and Flea Pit Local nickname for
being followed in 1934 by Yerma and in 1945
the Lyric Opera House in Hammersmith,
by The House of Bernarda Alba.
London, before Nigel Playfair relaunched it in
Based on a true news story, the play
1918 as the LYRIC THEATRE.
explores the conflict between love and duty. It
blood and thunder Sensational and opens on the eve of an arranged wedding
blood-curdling MELODRAMA. An originally US between Andalusian gypsies, as the
expression, dating from the mid 19th century. bridegroom’s mother recalls to her son how
Blood Brothers A long-running musical her husband and other son were murdered.
by Willy RUSSELL. Blood Brothers opened in She is fearful because the bride was once
1983 at the Liverpool Playhouse and engaged to Leonardo (the only named
transferred to London, where it initially found character), a member of the family who
no great success. However, the 1988 revival committed the murder. Leonardo still loves the
was hailed by the critics and is still running at bride although his wife is now pregnant. The
the Phoenix Theatre over 20 years later. next day, the couple are married but the bride
The plot is based upon that of Dion then flees with Leonardo; as they declare their
Boucicault’s popular melodrama THE doomed love a beggar gives them the ‘eye of
CORSICAN BROTHERS (1852). Mrs Johnstone, death’. Leonardo and the bridegroom kill each
a domestic, is expecting twins after being other; the bride then offers herself to the
deserted by her husband. Her employer Mrs mother to be killed.
66 blue

blue See BORDER. properties and scenery on and off stage. A

scissor stage contains two boat trucks that
blue bird of happiness The phrase
sweep in and out of the acting area, and a
derives from Maurice MAETERLINCK’s
wagon stage has rails and lifts for boat trucks
symbolist play L’oiseau bleu (1909), produced
to move across the stage or back and forth to
in London in 1910. A dream-like allegory, it the cellar.
tells the story of a boy and girl seeking ‘the
blue bird’, a symbol of happiness. Bobadil, Captain A military braggart in
Ben Jonson’s EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR. The
Blue Blouses Soviet workers’ theatre name was probably derived from Francisco
groups of the 1920s that toured with stylized de Bobadilla, the first governor of Santo
AGITPROP plays laden with official propaganda.
Domingo, who in 1500 sent Columbus home
The name referred to the loose blue smocks in chains.
worn by factory workers. Boris Yuzhanin
founded the first troupe in 1923 at the Bobèche and Galimafré The stage
Moscow Institute for Journalism. The names of the French comic actors Antoine
companies presented a type of LIVING Mandelot (1791–1840) and Auguste Guérin
NEWSPAPER, using songs and sketches to review (1790–1870) respectively. Bobèche wore a
current events from a communist perspective. red jacket and grey tricorn hat topped by a
By the mid 1920s more than 5,000 butterfly antennae. He was joined by
troupes of professional and amateur Blue Galimafré at a booth at the Boulevard du
Blouses existed with some 100,000 members. Temple fairground in Paris, where they revived
Plays were presented in factories, clubs, the 18th-century PARADEs; they also played in
government halls, and outdoor settings. The private homes. However, Napoleon was not
well-known playwright and poet Sergei amused by Bobèche’s topical political jokes,
Tretyakov (1892–1939) promoted the groups and the actor was forced into exile, returning
but spoke out against the heavy didacticism. In after the Restoration to a renewed but brief
1927 the Soviet authorities merged the Blue success. He subsequently moved into the
Blouses with the more conventional TRAM provinces as a manager. Galimafré retired from
drama organization. performing in 1814, joining the stage staff at
The Chinese workers’ theatres created in the Théâtre de la Gâité and then the Opéra-
1950 after the Russian example also included Comique in Paris. A play based on their lives
groups known as Blue Blouses. Even in was written by the Cogniard brothers and
America the workers’ theatre movement produced in 1837 at the Théâtre du Palais-
included one company named the Blue Royal.
Blouses. Bobo See PASO.
Blue Room, The See REIGEN. boffo A US slang term from the theatrical
boards, the The stage; the acting world meaning good or excellent. It apparently
profession. To go on the boards is to become derives from BOX OFFICE .
an actor or an actress. Bogdanov, Michael (1938– ) British
Boar’s Head Tavern The haunt of theatre director, noted especially for his
FALSTAFF, Prince Hal, and their low-life
exuberant productions of Shakespeare.
companions in Shakespeare’s HENRY IV plays. Bogdanov was born in South Wales, to
The tavern used to stand in Eastcheap, Russian and Welsh parents, and educated in
London. Although destroyed in the Great Fire, Ireland, Germany, and France. After several
it was rebuilt and hosted annual Shakespeare years working in television, he became (1971)
Dinners, at which the diners dressed as an assistant director at the Royal Shakespeare
Company, where his productions included an
characters from the plays, until 1784. It was
award-winning The Taming of the Shrew
demolished in 1831 to make way for a new
(1978). In 1980 he joined the National
approach to London Bridge. There are notable
Theatre, where he was immediately embroiled
essays about the tavern by Oliver Goldsmith
in controversy as the director of Howard
(1765) and Washington Irving (1820).
Brenton’s THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN. Owing to a
boat truck A wheeled platform, also scene in which two actors simulated anal rape,
called a truck or wagon, used to move the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse
 Bond, Edward 67

brought a private prosecution against disabled by a stroke. He was married (twice) to

Bogdanov for “procuring an act of gross the actress Sarah Miles (1941– ).
indecency”. The charges, which could have
Bommalattam A type of puppet theatre
resulted in Bogdanov being jailed for up to
only performed in south India, in Tamil Nadu
two years, were eventually dropped.
and in northern Karnataka. Its origin is
Bogdanov’s other productions of the 1980s
unknown, but performances are normally
included Hamlet at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin held at temple festivals or other religious
(1983), and the premiere of Stockhausen’s celebrations. The stories, mainly from the
extraordinary music drama Montag Aus Licht Puranas, are told in dialogue, song, and dance,
in Milan (1988). with time kept by a cymbal player and
In 1986 Bogdanov and the actor Michael drummer and music from a harmonium
Pennington (1943– ) became joint founders player. The ottu, a wind instrument, is also
of the English Shakespeare Company, a used in the Mysore plays.
touring ensemble created to bring lively and The puppets (which are sometimes used as
accessible productions of Shakespeare to the magic dolls to ward off evil and bring rain)
widest possible audiences. The company’s stand from one- to three-feet tall and resemble
trademark style, which involves the use of the more popular KATHPUTLI dolls of north
modern dress and deliberate anachronisms to India. They are manipulated by strings to the
bring home the modern ‘relevance’ of the head, back, arms, and legs, with rods
plays, was immediately established in the sometimes used for arms and legs. The
complete cycle of Shakespeare’s histories that it manipulators, who wear bells on their ankles,
presented in 1986–87. Subsequent stand behind and above the dolls; the acting
productions have included Twelfth Night area is created by black cloth stretched to form
(1991), which visited Japan and Korea, a PROSCENIUM ARCH.
Macbeth (1992), which toured some of the The genre is sometimes known as
remotest parts of Africa, and Richard III GOMBEYATTA, which is also the name of the
(1998), directed by Bogdanov’s son Malachi. shadow puppet theatre of Karnataka.
Since the mid 1990s the company has become
increasingly involved in educational work. Bond, Edward (1934– ) British
Bogdanov’s work for other companies has socialist playwright, whose unsparing works
included a revival of Hair (1993) at the Old have sometimes provoked outrage from
Vic and a critically mauled version of Goethe’s audiences, critics, and censors. His first play,
Faust (1996) for the RSC. Since 2003 he has The Pope’s Wedding (1962), was presented at
directed a series of productions for the Wales the Royal Court Theatre on a Sunday night
Theatre Company, notably Mal Pope’s without scenery. In 1965 SAVED was refused a
Amazing Grace (2005), a show that has been licence by the LORD CHAMBERLAIN, primarily
described as “the first great Welsh musical”. for an infanticide scene; the subsequent
dispute contributed to the abolition of
Bolt, Robert (Oxton) (1924–95) theatrical censorship in Britain. Bond’s Early
British dramatist and screenwriter, who first Morning (1968) was the last play to be banned
achieved success with his play Flowering Cherry by the Lord Chamberlain. The offending
(1957), starring Ralph Richardson and Celia scenes included one portraying a lesbian
Johnson, which ran for over 400 performances relationship between Queen Victoria and
at the Haymarket. Bolt’s reputation was Florence Nightingale. Threatened with
confirmed with the success of A MAN FOR ALL prosecution, the theatre gave only one more
SEASONS (1960), dealing with the life and performance after opening night – a ‘critics’
death of Sir Thomas More. Later works dress rehearsal’, with ‘guests’ admitted free
included VIVAT! VIVAT REGINA! (1970), which through a side door. Censorship was ended in
concerns the relationship between Elizabeth I 1968, and the following year the Royal Court
and Mary Queen of Scots, and State of revived both plays as part of an Edward Bond
Revolution (1977). Bolt also wrote a number of season.
works for children (including The Thwarting of In the 1970s Bond became accepted as an
Baron Bolligrew, 1966) and several screenplays important voice within the British theatre.
for the film director David Lean. In his later Particularly well received were Lear (1971), a
years he wrote little, having been severely savage reworking of Shakespeare’s play, and
68 book ceiling

Bingo (1973), in which he attacks Shakespeare wings or horizontally over the acting area. The
for failing to be more politically aware. In term is also used for the light itself.
1978 his work The Woman, based on a Greek
booth A portable or temporary theatre, as
tragedy, became the first new play to be
formerly used by itinerant actors throughout
premiered at the National’s Olivier Theatre.
Europe. They first came into common use in
Subsequent works included the commercially
the 15th century, when religious dramas were
successful Restoration (1981; revived 1988). In
often staged using a row of raised booths in
the later 1980s, however, Bond’s rather stern
which episodes from the Bible were enacted.
brand of left-wing didacticism seemed
With the advent of secular drama, booth
increasingly out of key with the times and few
theatres began to appear at marketplaces and
of his plays reached the London stage
country fairs, a tradition lasting until the 20th
(although he continued to be well respected in
century. The booth was often a large tent with
Europe). His more recent plays include In the
a small raised platform at the entrance, upon
Company of Men (1992), Coffee (1996), Have I
which a brief scene or entertainment (such as
None (2000), and The Window (2009).
the French PARADE) was performed to entice
book ceiling A stage ceiling made up of audiences into the tent. Miniature booths were
two flats hinged together. This device was also employed as puppet theatres for Punch
formerly used in a BOX SET. and Judy shows, etc.
book flat Two FLATs hinged together, Booth family A distinguished US
known in America as a two-fold. This theatrical family – father, three sons, and a
arrangement will stand without additional grandson – whose contribution to serious
support. To ‘book’ a flat means to close a book 19th-century drama was overshadowed by
flat. John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of President
Abraham Lincoln.
book-holder See PROMPTER.
The founder of the dynasty, Junius Brutus
booking office Another name for the Booth (1796–1852), was born in London, the
BOX OFFICE. The name arose because in earlier son of a lawyer, and joined a group of strolling
times tickets sold at booking offices were players while still in his teens. Despite a poor
written out and entered up in the books by physical appearance, he began to play
clerks. Shakespearean roles on the London stage from
1817, becoming a rival of Edmund KEAN, who
book-keeper In the Elizabethan theatre,
usually bested him. He led a tempestuous love
a member of the company whose primary
life, fathering two illegitimate children before
purpose was to keep and protect copies of the
he was 17. In 1821 he left his wife and
play from rival companies. In the absence of
emigrated to America with a flower-seller, by
copyright laws, the book-keeper would copy
whom he had 10 children. He repeated his
out an actor’s part and give him only his own
London successes with US audiences,
lines and the required cues. After a rehearsal or
becoming especially celebrated for his Richard
a performance, the actor returned the text to
III and Shylock. He later suffered from bouts
the book-keeper. This control of valuable
of madness and once yelled at a shocked
original texts by a few individuals is probably
Boston audience, “Take me to a lunatic
one reason why so many Elizabethan plays
asylum!” He continued to tour successfully
have been lost.
with his sons, however. He died from a virus
book, the In musicals, the basic script, after drinking water from the Mississippi.
not including the lyrics of the songs. The term Junius Brutus Booth Junior (1821–82)
is also applied to the script of any play. began acting in his father’s productions in
1835 and subsequently joined the Bowery
book wing A revolving device of attached
Theatre stock company. After his brother
wing flats, usually four, upon which different
assassinated Lincoln, Junius was arrested as a
scenes are constructed. These scenes can then
possible conspirator. He eventually went to
be changed by rotating the book wing like the
California to become a theatrical impresario.
pages of a book.
His son Sydney Barton Booth (1873–1937)
boom A BATTEN upon which stage lighting was also an actor and vaudeville star.
is mounted, positioned either vertically in the Edwin Thomas Booth (1833–93), another
 Bottom the Weaver 69

son of Junius Brutus Booth senior, won an President Lincoln on 14 April 1865, during a
international reputation for his performances production of Our American Cousin in FORD’S
in Shakespearean tragedy. He first appeared on THEATRE. Twelve days later he was cornered in
stage in 1849 at the Boston Museum, playing a burning barn and shot.
Tressel to his father’s Richard III. In 1851 his
border A narrow curtain, painted cloth,
father refused to perform one evening and
flat, etc. hung across the top of the stage
Edwin took his place, playing Richard III at
behind the PROSCENIUM ARCH. Borders
the age of 18. After his father’s death, Edwin
originated in Italy and by the 17th century
played many of Booth senior’s classic roles
were standard stage devices in England and on
before finally coming into his own in Boston
the Continent.
and New York. His most acclaimed roles
Originally known as a top drop, the
included Hamlet (which he once played for
overhead border concealed lighting and other
100 consecutive nights) and Shylock.
equipment from the audience’s view. When
Although he had a long-standing drink
the bottom edge is cut to shape and painted
problem, which sometimes cost him jobs,
like the sky, it is a sky border or a blue (see also
he became manager of New York’s Winter
CLOUDING). In the early 19th century this was
Garden Theatre in 1863 and appeared there
often replaced by such illusionistic devices as
with his brothers, Junius and John Wilkes,
the PANORAMA and DIORAMA. Other framing
in Julius Caesar (ironically, about the
pieces on stage include a tree border painted to
assassination of a national leader). When his
resemble foliage, and a border tail or leg,
brother assassinated Lincoln and was shot in
which is a cloth or narrow flat hanging down
turn, Edwin was devastated and retired for
at each end to mask the wing and help form an
nine months.
arch over the scene.
Edwin built Booth’s Theatre at 23rd Street
and Sixth Avenue in New York, opening it in border light See BATTEN.
1869 playing Romeo to the Juliet of his second
born in a trunk A proud theatrical
wife, Mary McVicker. His poor business sense,
description of the children of actors, especially
however, led to bankruptcy in 1873 and the
those who go into the profession themselves.
loss of the theatre. He recouped his fortune by
The image is of a constantly travelling troupe,
touring internationally. In 1882 he and Irving
whose offspring could well be born in a trunk
alternated in the parts of Othello and Iago at
in a hotel room, if not a railway station.
the Lyceum Theatre, London. Possibly his
most successful appearances were made in borscht belt or borscht circuit A
Germany in 1883. In 1888 he founded the string of hotels in the Catskill Mountains of
Players’ Club in New York and became its first New York state, which constitute a circuit for
president. summer holiday entertainers. Many of the
John Wilkes Booth (1838–65) was the hotels have a predominantly Jewish clientele,
most handsome and vivacious of the Booth to whom they serve borscht, a Russian soup
brothers. “I must have fame” he had declared made from beetroots.
as a youth. He made his debut as Richmond in
bottling In the Elizabethan theatre, the
Richard III in 1855 and achieved his first
practice by strolling players of taking a
triumph in The Apostate (1860), in which his
collection in a bottle or other container
acting was so reminiscent of his father that
from the audience rather than charging an
spiritualists suggested that Junius Booth’s spirit
admission price. This was the usual practice at
had returned. His intense style of acting caused
performances in London INNS. After James
a sensation when he played Richard III in
Burbage (see BURBAGE FAMILY) built the first
1882 in New York; he also broke all records at
permanent playhouse, the THEATRE, and began
the Boston Museum playing Pescara in The
to pay salaries, most professional companies
Apostate.
gave up bottling.
He was, however, constantly in trouble for
his Southern sympathies during the American Bottom the Weaver One of the
Civil War; he was frequently threatened with Athenian artisans who rehearse and present the
dismissal and once had to swear allegiance play of Pyramus and Thisbe in Shakespeare’s A
to the Union after cursing the government MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Shakespeare
while playing in St Louis. He assassinated presents him as ignorant and absurdly full of
70 Boucicault, Dion

himself but with a naive enthusiasm that is dramatization of Scott’s The Heart of
ultimately touching. When PUCK places an Midlothian. In 1888 her husband, whose many
ass’s head on his shoulders, TITANIA, queen of affairs she had ignored, claimed they had never
the fairies, who is also under a spell, falls in been legally wed. He then married Louise
love with Bottom and his “fair large ears”. Thorndyke, an actress 44 years his junior, in
The name is appropriate to a weaver, as what was probably a bigamous union. Agnes
one meaning of ‘bottom’ is a ball of thread. continued to act, making her final appearance
Boucicault, Dion (Dionysius Lardner in London in 1896 in a revival of Boucicault’s
Boursiquot; 1822–90) Irish playwright, actor, The Colleen Bawn.
and director. He wrote some 200 plays, Dot Boucicault (Darley George
becoming one of the great names of the 19th- Boucicault; 1859–1929), the elder son of Dion
century theatre on both sides of the Atlantic Boucicault and Agnes Robertson, acted in his
and a favourite of Queen VICTORIA. She wrote father’s company before becoming the actor-
in her diary, “Mr Boucicault, who is very manager of the Duke of York’s Theatre,
handsome and has a fine voice, acted very London (1901–15). He was especially
impressively. I can never forget his livid face acclaimed for his role as Sir William Gower in
and fixed look.” She later commissioned a Pinero’s Trelawney of the ‘Wells’. His wife was
watercolour of him for Windsor Castle. the actress Irene Vanbrugh.
Born in Dublin, Boucicault began acting Dot’s sister Nina Boucicault (1867–1950)
and writing as Lee Morton; his LONDON likewise began her career in her father’s
ASSURANCE, which opened in 1841 at Covent company, playing Eily O’Connor in The
Garden, became one of the century’s most Colleen Bawn in 1885. Her second role was as
popular comedies. He later provided Charles Kitty Verdun in the original production of
Kean with a great success with his adaptation Brandon Thomas’s Charley’s Aunt. In 1904 she
of THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (1852). became the first Peter Pan in Barrie’s famous
Boucicault then eloped to New York with play for children.
Kean’s ward, becoming a US citizen in 1873.
Boulevard theatres A series of theatres
In America he made his name with The
built on the Boulevard du Temple, Paris, from
Poor of New York (retitled wherever it played,
about 1760 onwards. A number of troupes had
so that in e.g. London it became The Poor of
previously occupied fairground locations there
London). He became the first writer seriously
to dramatize the lives of US Blacks with The (see FAIRGROUND ENTERTAINMENT). By the end
Octoroon (1859). The production included the of the century, such troupes as Audinot’s,
spectacular burning of a Mississippi riverboat – Nicolet’s, the Théâtre des Associés, and the
an example of what Boucicault termed Variétés-Amusantes had acquired elaborate
‘sensation drama’. His other works included buildings. The Ambigu-Comique opened in
plays with Irish settings including The Colleen 1769 as a children’s and marionette theatre,
Bawn (1860), based on the murder of an Irish the Variétés-Amusantes in 1779, and the
girl by a British officer, and The Shaughraun Porte-Saint-Martin, the largest of the
(1875), the most popular Irish play of the Boulevard theatres, in 1782.
century. During the 19th century the Boulevard
Boucicault was an innovator who theatres provided mainly popular melodrama;
pioneered the matinee performance, the BOX they later became more experimental in their
SET, and fireproof scenery. Despite his own production methods and were active in
plagiarism, he lobbied Congress for new promoting new playwrights. Later boulevard
COPYRIGHT protection, which became law in theatres included the Gaîté (1805), Gymnase
1856. He was an indefatigable worker who (1820), and Vaudeville (1868).
suggested his tombstone should read: “His first Famous boulevard actors incuded Mme
holiday”. Dorval (1798–1849) who specialized in
Boucicault’s second wife was the Scottish- melodrama at the Porte-Saint-Martin, Bocage
born actress Agnes Kelly Robertson (Pierre-François Tousez; 1797–1863), who
(1833–1916). After eloping with Boucicault played great lovers and eventually managed the
to America, she starred in most of his plays, Odéon, the pantomimist BAPTISTE, who
winning particular acclaim as Jeanie developed the character of Pierrot at the
Deans in The Trial of Effie Deans (1863), a Théâtre des Funambules, and FRÉDÉRICK, who
 Box and Cox 71

first appeared at the Variétés-Amusantes as a Henrietta was so modest that when she visited
pantomime lion. the opera she kept her eyes averted from the
The Boulevard, with its sideshows, stage to avoid seeing any ‘indecorous’ dancing.
fireworks, and cafés, was sometimes
Bowery Theatre A former New York
nicknamed the Boulevard of Crime, because
theatre that made the name of Edwin FORREST
of the violent crimes presented in the
and over the years presented such varied fare as
melodramas of Guilbert de Pixerecourt
classic drama, pantomime, melodrama,
(1773–1844), who became director of the
burlesque, and German-language works. This
Gaîté. In 1823 it was estimated that 151,702
was despite the Bowery burning down six
criminal acts had been displayed on the stages
times within a century (including three times
of the Boulevard theatres in the previous 20
in the nine years 1836–45).
years.
The theatre opened in 1826 as the New
Although the theatres were demolished
York Theatre, Bowery, managed by the actor
during a redevelopment of the Boulevard du
George H. Barrett and his partner Gilbert. Lit
Temple in 1862, the terms Boulevard theatre
by gas, it opened with Thomas Holcroft’s The
and Boulevard play continued to be used of
Road to Ruin before introducing its audiences
popular Parisian drama – especially the farces
to Forrest, who made his first appearance as
and domestic dramas of the early 20th century.
Othello.
Successful authors of Boulevard plays included
In 1828 the Bowery burned down but
Georges Feydeau (1862–1921), celebrated
reopened three months later under Thomas
for his numerous farces, Eugène Labiche
Hamblin, who introduced the first continuous
(1815–88), who turned out more than 170
runs of plays and remained there until 1850.
light comedies, and Marcel Achard (Marcel-
The Bowery burned down again in 1836,
Auguste Ferréol; 1899–1974) who wrote
1838, and 1845. In 1858 George L. Fox and
sentimental love stories.
James W. Lingard began to present their
Bowdler, Thomas (1754–1825) British melodramas and pantomimes at the Bowery.
physician and editor, who took it upon himself During the Civil War, it was occupied by
to produce an edition of Shakespeare’s plays, troops and presented circus acts. The venue
expurgated of all words and plots “which subsequently turned to BURLESQUE, before
cannot with propriety be read aloud in a closing in 1878; when it reopened a year later
family”. His 10-volume Family Shakespeare, it was as the Thalia Theatre, a home to
in which all profanities and obscenities were German-language works. Further fires
omitted, was published in 1818. Bowdler occurred in 1923 and 1929, when the theatre
believed that by such editing “the transcendant closed permanently.
genius of the poet would undoubtedly shine Another Bowery Theatre, later renamed
with more unclouded lustre”. Some plays the Stadt Theatre, opened in 1835 with circus
defied all Bowdler’s attempts to make them acts and later introduced drama and German
‘decent’; in Measure for Measure, for instance, operas. In 1859 Fox and Lingard opened the
he was obliged to print a warning about New Bowery Theatre, which enjoyed a notable
the language, whilst Othello defeated him success with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This theatre
entirely, prompting him to admit that it was was also destroyed by fire in 1866.
“unfortunately little suited to family reading”
box In the auditorium of a theatre, a small
and best transferred “from the parlour to the
semi-private compartment from which a
cabinet”. By 1838 the terms bowdlerize and
group of people can watch the performance.
bowdlerization had become widely used for all
Historically, boxes were reserved for the
similar expurgations. Bowdler’s own work was
aristocracy or other notables and offered
widely appreciated; in 1894 no less a poet than
the best views and most comfortable
Algernon Swinburne said of his efforts: “No
accommodation in the house. This sense of
man ever did better service to Shakespeare.” By
hierarchy has to some extent been maintained
1900 there were nearly 50 ‘gelded’ versions of
by the modern phenomenon of the corporate
Shakespeare’s plays in circulation, edited by
or hospitality box.
such luminaries as Lewis Carroll and Noah
Webster. The motivating force behind Dr Box and Cox An arrangement in which
Bowdler’s works is said to have been his two people take strict turns in occupying the
sister, Henrietta Maria Bowdler. Reportedly, same position, role, or the like. The phrase
72 box office

derives from a popular farce of this title by day (December 6) or during the New Year
J. M. Morton (1811–91). In the play Mrs Celebrations (when it was sometimes called the
Bouncer, a deceitful lodging-house landlady, Feast of Boys). In France it usually occurred as
lets the same room to two men, John Box and part of the FEAST OF FOOLS. The boys selected
James Cox, who unknown to each other their Boy Bishop, a dominus festi, to lead
occupy it alternately, one being out at work all processions and preside at feasts and burlesque
day, the other all night. Church services, usually in full episcopal dress.
box office The office in the foyer of a Latin plays were performed. The ‘Bishop’ held
theatre where tickets are purchased. Also called office for up to three weeks and other boys
the ticket office or booking office, it is served as his prebendaries. If he died in office
generally open from 10 a.m. until the evening he was buried in his vestments. The custom
performance and is run by the box-office may derive from the story of the boy Jesus
manager and his assistants. The term also refers sitting in the temple instructing the doctors.
to the evening’s receipts from ticket sales. A The custom was abolished by Henry VIII in
consistently successful play or performer may 1541, revived in 1552, and finally abolished by
be described as ‘good box office’ (see BOFFO). Elizabeth I. Some scholars link the Feast of
The earliest form of box office in Britain Boys to the beginnings of English secular
was the ‘pay box’ introduced in the 18th drama.
century. Most theatres had three of these small boy companies In the Elizabethan
cubicals to collect money from customers in theatre, companies of choir boys who acted
the pit, boxes, and gallery. semi-professionally and gained a great popular
box set A naturalistic set of a room following. The first such companies came from
comprising three continuous walls with usable the Chapels Royal in London and Windsor
doors and windows and possibly a ceiling. It and from St Paul’s Cathedral. They performed
was introduced to the English stage in 1832 by masques and disguisings at court until 1576
the manager of Covent Garden, Madame when Richard Farrant (d. 1580), master of the
VESTRIS, for W. B. Vernard’s The Conquering Windsor choirboys, adapted Blackfriars
Game. Flats replaced the painted backcloth Theatre for their use. The same venue was
with its wings and sky borders. This used by the Boys of St Paul’s, boys from
innovation inspired T. W. Robertson to pen OXFORD’S MEN, and by the Children of the
the first drawing-room dramas, such as Society Chapel.
(1865). Box sets continued to be popular in Boy companies soon acquired a quasi-
the first half of the 20th century, but their use professional status and at the turn of the
has since declined with the modern move away century their popularity often outstripped that
from the PROSCENIUM ARCH to a THRUST of adult companies. The irritation this caused
STAGE. is evident from Shakespeare giving Hamlet a
Cumbersome and elaborate box sets have line denouncing boy actors as “little eyases”.
caused actors much grief. Doors and windows The boys gave several first performances of
stick; walls collapse. Rex Harrison was nearly major plays, incuding Ben Jonson’s Cynthia’s
knocked into the orchestra pit during the New Revels (1600) and The Poetaster (1601) (both
York run of My Fair Lady (1956), when a of which starred Nathan Field and William
hoisted set fell and sent blocks of wood Ostler, who later became leading adult actors)
tumbling across the stage. Box sets also create and works by John Lyly, George Chapman,
additional backstage work. The record for and others.
opening and closing a sliding door apparently The public infatuation with child actors
goes to Julie Rutherford, stage manager of had run its course by 1615, although such
John Wells’s Anyone for Denis (1981) at groups as BEESTON’s Boys continued to
London’s Whitehall Theatre. She did this 54 perform into the Restoration era.
times in each performance, eventually logging
Boy Friend, The A musical by Sandy
up 20,592 openings and closings.
Wilson (1924– ). An affectionate parody of
Boy Bishop In medieval Europe, a boy the musicals of the 1920s, it was first
chosen to oversee festival merrymaking at performed in 1953 at the Player’s Theatre, a
schools, colleges, cathedral choirs, etc. In London theatre club, before transferring to
England this usually occurred on St Nicholas’s Wyndham’s Theatre for a run of more than
 Branagh, Kenneth 73

five years with 2084 performances. It opened Captain Hill, who had become besotted with
on Broadway in 1954 for another long run. In her, first attempted to abduct her and then
1967 it was revived in London with great murdered her colleague, the actor and
success. A film version was made by Ken playwright William Mountfort (1664–92), out
Russell (1971). of sheer frustration.
The story is set in Mme Dubonnet’s Although Mrs Bracegirdle was clearly an
finishing school, where every proper young accomplished flirt and may well have been the
lady requires a boyfriend. None exists for Polly mistress of William CONGREVE, she had a
Browne, however, because her wealthy father reputation for chastity that is almost unique in
considers all men fortune-hunters. The her profession and era. She created Congreve’s
Carnival Ball is approaching, and Polly Angelica (opposite Betterton’s Valentine) in
(pretending to be a secretary) invites Tony, a Love For Love (1695) as well as Millamant in
simple messenger-boy, to be her date. He his The Way Of The World (1700); probably,
accepts, not revealing that he is actually the she was also the first woman to play Portia in
Hon. Tony Brockhurst. After various The Merchant of Venice. She retired in 1707 as
confusions among the debutantes and their a gesture to the rising young actress Anne
beaux at the ball, Polly and Tony have their OLDFIELD, who succeeded her as Millamant
true identities revealed and are delighted to and in other roles. She lived quietly for
find that their growing love is socially another 40 years and was buried in
acceptable. Wilson’s songs include ‘The Boy Westminster Abbey.
Friend’, ‘Won’t You Charleston with Me?’, ‘I
Braithwaite, Dame (Florence)
Could Be Happy with You’, and ‘Sur le Plage’.
Lilian (1873–1948) British actress, noted
Boys from Syracuse, The A musical for her sentimental and light-comedy roles.
comedy by George ABBOTT (book), Lorenz She made her professional debut in South
Hart (lyrics), and Richard Rodgers (music) Africa and subsequently acted in Shakespeare
based on Shakespeare’s THE COMEDY OF with Frank Benson’s company and in lighter
ERRORS. It opened in New York in 1938 at the works with George Alexander’s company at the
Alvin Theatre. The Boys from Syracuse retained St James’ Theatre. Her most acclaimed roles
only two of the Bard’s original lines: included the society mother in Noël Coward’s
…the venom clamours of a jealous The Vortex (1924) and one of the murderous
woman old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace (1942). After
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s one wartime performance of the latter play, she
tooth. had to take refuge during a particularly
prolonged air-raid. Asked the next day if she
The plot, however, stays close to
was exhausted, Braithwaite replied, “Certainly
Shakespeare’s story of separated twins and
not. We were £50 up last night.”
multiple mistaken identities. The songs
She was playing a part based on Mrs
included ‘This Can’t Be Love’, ‘Falling in Love
Patrick CAMPBELL in Ivor Novello’s Party,
with Love’, and ‘Sing for Your Supper’.
when she ran into Mrs Pat herself, who was
bozze A type of early stage LIGHTING leaving on tour. “Oh, Lilian, I hear you are a
introduced in the 17th century for the Italian perfect tour de force playing me!” said Mrs
theatre. It consisted of a glass globe with Pat, “and here I am forced to tour!” But
handles containing a wick. Bozzi were Braithwaite had as quick a wit as Campbell. A
sometimes placed behind bottles or glasses young actress once expressed regret that
containing coloured liquid so that the light Braithwaite was in the matinee audience
would produce atmospheric colour effects such because “I always feel I must save myself for
as a sunset. the evening performance.” Braithwaite shook
her head: “I didn’t think you saved anything.”
Bracegirdle, Anne (1663–1748) One
Commenting on actress Yvonne Arnaud, who
of Britain’s first professional actresses. Anne
had put on weight, she noted, “It’s still the
was born in poverty and trained for the stage
dear little face we all loved so in By Candle
by Thomas BETTERTON. By 1688 she was
Light.” After a pause, she added, “But there’s
appearing at Covent Garden, where she began
another face round it.”
to acquire a reputation for comedy. She was
embroiled in scandal in 1692 when a certain Branagh, Kenneth (1961– ) British
74 Brand

actor and director, who at the age of 25 co- Thompson in 1995. More recent work for the
founded the Renaissance Theatre Company. stage includes Richard III in Sheffield (2001),
He was born in Belfast, where his father was a David Mamet’s Edmond at the National
joiner and his mother a mill worker. In 1970 Theatre (2003), and Chekhov’s Ivanov (2008)
the family moved to England; during summer with the DONMAR WAREHOUSE.
holidays the young Branagh hitchhiked with a
Brand A poetic tragedy by Henrik IBSEN,
tent to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the
published in 1866 and first performed in 1885
productions. In 1979 he won a scholarship to in Copenhagen. It was seen in New York in
the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (see 1910 and in London two years later. Ibsen
RADA).
originally wrote it as a narrative poem but later
Branagh acted on television before making adapted it for the theatre. The work, a bleak
his London debut in Julian Mitchell’s Another exploration of the Norwegian character,
Country at the Greenwich Theatre. For this he established Ibsen’s European reputation and
won two ‘most promising newcomer’ awards. earned him a state author’s annuity that gave
In 1983 he presented a one-man show, The him financial security.
Madness, which flopped disastrously at the The action, which takes place over several
Upstream Theatre Club in London. One years, is set in 19th-century Norway. Brand, a
performance saw only 12 customers in the courageous but fanatical pastor, will sacrifice
150-seat auditorium. “And six of them,” everything, including his family, for his
Branagh recalled, “were my family.” religious ideals. He urges his mother without
In 1984 he joined the Royal Shakespeare success to renounce her wealth, and when his
Company at Stratford, and received rave child becomes ill refuses to move to warmer
reviews as the lead in HENRY V (at 23 the climes as this would mean leaving his
youngest actor the RSC had ever cast in the congregation. When the child dies, Brand
role). As usual, Branagh took special pains to accepts this as God’s will. His wife Agnes never
grasp the part, even arranging a meeting with recovers and in time also dies. Brand builds a
Prince Charles to understand what it is like to new church but finding it insufficient leads his
be royal. During one performance when he flock into the mountains to seek a “church
reached for gloves at his belt and found them without limit.” However, the harsh weather
missing, he trudged about the stage ad-libbing, induces despair among the brethren, who soon
“I bethinkst myself that I did have some reject his leadership: some even stone him.
gloves…but see, alas, they are not here…” Brand has a vision of his wife begging him to
Eventually a stagehand produced them. compromise, but he cannot. He dies in an
In 1986 Branagh invested £25,000 to avalanche caused by a mad gypsy girl, who
found (with David Parfitt) the Renaissance believes that Brand is Christ.
Theatre Company. He called it “a company
that would fully exploit the actor’s imagination Break a leg! Traditional wish of good
and energy”. In 1988 the company presented luck among performers in the theatre, since a
Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and As You wish of ‘good luck’ is considered a jinx (see
TABOOS AND SUPERSTITIONS). There may be a
Like It in the provinces and the West End. It
also invited actors to direct, leading to connection to the old theatrical belief that it is
successful productions by Judi Dench, a good omen to stumble or fall over when
Geraldine McEwan, and Derek Jacobi. That making one’s first entrance. Another
year, the company made its first film, Henry V, suggestion is that the phrase alludes to the fate
starring and directed by Branagh. One critic of the actor turned assassin John Wilkes Booth
called his performance “comparable in stature (see BOOTH FAMILY), who broke his leg when
to Olivier’s”. The following year he made a he leapt from the box occupied by his victim,
highly publicized marriage to the actress President Lincoln, onto the stage of FORD’S
THEATRE.
Emma Thompson (1959– ) and published
his autobiography at the age of 28. His Brecht, Bertolt (1898–1956) German
subsequent films as actor-director include playwright, poet, and director; one of the most
Much Ado About Nothing (1993), in which he influential theatrical figures of the 20th
co-starred with Thompson, and a four-hour century.
version of Hamlet (1997) that opened to Brecht’s earliest dramas were written just
decidedly mixed reviews. He separated from after the end of World War I while he was a
 Brenton, Howard 75

medical student at Augsburg. The first of these Amongst Brecht’s other writings were
to reach the professional stage (though not the collections of poetry and essays upon the
first to be written) was Drums in the Night theatre, including the highly influential treatise
(1922). Telling the story of a soldier coming Organon für das Theater (1949), in which he
home from the war, the play was a success and expounded many of his theories.
subsequently transferred to Berlin. In Berlin,
Brecht became (1924), an assistant to Max breeches part A leading male role that is
REINHARDT and collaborated with Erwin played by an actress. In Britain, this was
PISCATOR at the DEUTSCHES THEATER. Brecht’s particularly common in the romantic comedies
next plays, Baal (1923) and In the Jungle of of the earlier 18th century. Roles in which
the Cities (1923), show the influence of female characters temporarily disguise
expressionism. MAN IS MAN (1926), marked the themselves as men (as ROSALIND does in As You
beginning of Brecht’s experiments with the Like It) are not strictly speaking breeches parts.
innovatory ALIENATION EFFECT and may be Celebrated English examples of actresses
seen as the first stage in the development of his playing breeches parts are Peg WOFFINGTON as
theory of EPIC THEATRE. Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar’s The Constant
In the late 1920s Brecht began to Couple and Mrs Mountfort as Macheath in
collaborate with Kurt Weill, resulting in the Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. In Victorian times,
classic musicals The Rise and Fall of the City of Madame VESTRIS was noted for playing male
Mahagonny (1927), THE THREEPENNY OPERA roles. The tradition survives in the convention
(1928), Happy-End (1929), and The Seven that the PRINCIPAL BOY in pantomime is
Deadly Sins (1933). His conversion to played by a young woman. See also FEMALE
Marxism during this period added an element IMPERSONATOR.
of rather bleak didacticism to such plays as He
Who Says Yes (1929), He Who Says No (1930), Breezy Bill Nickname for the popular
and The Measures Taken (1930). actor William TERRISS.
In 1932 Brecht was placed on the Nazi
Brentford. like the two kings of
Party’s list of decadent writers; the following
Brentford A phrase sometimes used of
year, when Hitler came to power, he and his
people who were once rivals, but have become
wife Helene Weigel fled to Denmark. After
some wandering they finally (1941) made their reconciled. The allusion is to THE REHEARSAL
way to America. During this unsettled period (1672), by George Villiers, Duke of
Brecht wrote most of his finest plays, including Buckingham. At one point in the absurd play-
GALILEO (1943, written 1938), THE GOOD within-a-play presented by BAYES “the two
PERSON OF SETZUAN (1943, written 1938–40), kings of Brentford enter hand in hand”.
MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN (1941, Moreover, the actors make them enter
written 1939), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo “smelling at one nosegay”.
Ui (1957, written 1941). The principal work Brenton, Howard (1942– ) British
of Brecht’s American period was THE dramatist, noted for his controversial political
CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (1948, written
plays of the 1970s and 1980s. The son of a
1944–45).
police constable turned Methodist minister,
In 1947 Brecht was summoned before a
Brenton originally intended to become an
meeting of the House Un-American Activities
archaeologist but began to write plays during
Committee and gave a cleverly evasive
performance. Brecht and his wife subsequently his time at Cambridge University. His first
left America, moving briefly to Zürich before full-length play to be professionally produced
returning to Berlin in 1949. In Berlin, Brecht was Revenge, staged at the ROYAL COURT
and Weigel were offered their own theatre as THEATRE in 1969. He became resident
well as a considerable subsidy; this enabled dramatist at the Royal Court in 1972,
them to form the BERLINER ENSEMBLE, to following on from David HARE. Brenton and
which Brecht devoted much of his remaining Hare collaborated on the writing of Brassneck
time. Following his death, the Ensemble, in 1973. Other significant plays from this
which had established a high European period include The Churchill Play (1973), a
reputation, continued to be managed by his fierce attack on the cult of the wartime leader,
widow. and Epsom Downs (1977), which uses the
76 bridge

occasion of Derby Day to present a critical play King of Nowhere, presented by the Old
panorama of British society. Vic Company at the New Theatre in 1938,
In 1980 Brenton found himself at the starred Olivier as a half-mad actor who escapes
centre of a major controversy when his play from an asylum and becomes the leader of a
THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN opened at the dangerous new political party.
National Theatre. The play, in which the Many of Bridie’s plays dealt with religion
British role in Northern Ireland is compared to and the supernatural and required unusual
the Roman occupation of Britain, caused special effects. In Jonah and the Whale, Jonah
outrage, largely as a result of a scene featuring a sat crosslegged in the belly of the whale under
male rape. In 1985 Brenton collaborated again a red light while a dozen amplifiers blasted the
with Hare on Pravda, a boisterous satire on the auditorium. Bridie’s stage direction states:
tabloid press, which opened at the National “The audience is to be deafened by the
Theatre with Anthony HOPKINS in the leading bellowing noise and hyptonised by the small,
role of Lambert La Roux, a megalomaniac impassive, red-lit figure on the stage.”
tycoon. His work of the 1990s, which was A late success came in 1949 when Edith
mainly low-profile, included Berlin Bertie Evans played Lady Pitts in his controversial
(1992) and a series of topical satires written Daphne Laureola. Reviewers on both sides of
with Tariq Ali. More recently, he returned to the Atlantic loved her performance and
the National with Paul (2005), a controversial disliked Bridie’s play.
examination of St Paul’s role in the formation For the 1950 Edinburgh Festival Bridie
of Christian doctrine, and Never So Good wrote The Queen’s Comedy, often considered
(2008), a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of his best work. He continued writing until the
the Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan. In year of his death.
Extremis, a retelling of the Abelard and Heloïse Bridie’s son, Ronald Mavor, was also a
story, was staged at Shakespeare’s Globe in playwright, best remembered for A Private
2006. Brenton is currently (2010) working on Matter (1973) about an author writing a
a play about Ann Boleyn for the same venue. biography against the wishes of his subject’s
Work for television includes episodes of the family. The production was one of the first to
glossy spy drama Spooks (2002–2006). Brenton feature full male nudity.
has also made several translations for the stage,
including Brecht’s Galileo and Büchner’s Brigadoon A musical fantasy by Alan Jay
Danton’s Death. Lerner and Frederick Loewe that opened on
Broadway in 1947. The cast, which included
bridge A platform used to work on Eli Wallach, attended Lee Strasberg’s METHOD
lighting and scenery. An extension of the FLIES, acting class during its run. The London
it can be raised and lowered and in the US is production opened two years later and a film
sometimes called an elevator. A catwalk is a was made in 1954. Brigadoon is the name of a
narrow bridge between the ‘fly floors’ over magical Scottish village that appears only once
each set of wings used to adjust scenery. a century. It is stumbled upon by two
Bridie, James (Osborne Henry Mavor; contemporary Americans, Tommy and Jeff,
1888–1951) Scottish doctor who became a who are told that the village will disappear
noted playwright and co-founder in 1943 of forever if a native leaves but that a stranger
the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre. A pioneer of may stay if he loves a villager. Although
the so-called ‘play of ideas’, Bridie greatly Tommy has become infatuated with the
invigorated the Scottish theatre with his 40-or- beautiful Fiona, both Americans decide to
so plays and in 1950 founded the College of return to New York. Tommy soon discovers
Drama in the Royal Scottish Academy of that he has made a mistake and leaves his
Music, Glasgow. His plays tended to suffer American fiancée to find the village again. His
from loose construction and weak final acts. strong love reawakens it long enough for him
He excused himself by stating “Only God can to enter.
write last acts, and He seldom does.” The songs, composed by Loewe with lyrics
His first great success, THE ANATOMIST by Lerner, include ‘Almost Like Being in
(1930), was followed by Tobias and the Angel Love’, ‘The Heather on the Hill’, ‘Come to
(1931), Jonah and the Whale (1932), and A Me, Bend to Me’, and ‘I’ll Go Home with
Sleeping Clergyman (1933). His anti-fascist Bonnie Jean’.
 Brook, Peter 77

Brighton Beach Memoirs A comedy the eccentric German dramatist Heinrich von
by Neil SIMON that was based on his own KLEIST. He finished the play in 1805, during a
youth in New York City. It was first sojourn in Switzerland, where he had intended
performed on Broadway in 1983 at the Eugene to become a farmer. The Broken Jug was a
O’Neill Theatre, which Simon owned; the play failure when first produced in 1808 by Goethe
became one of his most successful transfers to at the Weimar Court Theatre but is now
London, being seen at the National Theatre in regarded as one of the greatest comic works in
1986 and transferring the same year to the the German language. It has been seen in
Aldwych Theatre. English in a shortened version and there is also
The story, set in Brooklyn in 1937, a version in Scots titled The Chippit Chantie.
concerns a poor but respectable Jewish family. The story centres on Adam, a rogueish
The 14-year-old son, Eugene Jerome, is a village magistrate whose disregard for truth is
budding writer who is discovering sex with comparable to Falstaff’s. To his great concern,
advice from his big brother Stanley. Their he suddenly finds himself presiding over the
father, Jack, has to hold down two jobs at once trial of an innocent man accused of a crime
to support both his own family and his that he himself committed. In 1958 Sir
widowed sister-in-law Blanche and her Donald WOLFIT directed and played the
daughters Nora and Laurie. He finally has a leading role at the Lyceum Theatre,
minor heart attack. Stanley narrowly escapes Edinburgh, opposite George Curzon as a
being fired for his principles and then loses a visiting councillor. Wolfit was known both for
week’s wages in a game of poker. His father his penny-pinching and his horror of being
forgives him and promises to teach him the upstaged. At one point during the run the
game. Nora has been offered a Broadway actress Nan Munro, playing a witness, began
audition, but when her mother insists that she to eat an apple during some of Wolfit’s best
attend college instead she reluctantly agrees. lines. The next day he told his stage manager
Next comes good and bad news: the family’s not to buy any more apples: “Cut them. I’m
Polish cousins have escaped the Nazis, but all not paying three and six a week for her to go
seven will be moving into the house in a ‘Chwap-Chwap’ and kill my laughs!”
week’s time.
Brook, Peter (1925– ) British theatre
Eugene’s story was continued in Simon’s
director, noted for his strikingly original
Biloxi Blues (1985) and Broadway Bound
productions. The child of Russian emigrés,
(1986).
Brook made his debut at the age of 18 with a
bristle trap See STAR TRAP. production of Marlowe’s Dr Faustus. In 1945
Brook was invited to direct Paul SCOFIELD in
Broadway A term for New York’s
King John at the Birmingham Repertory
commercial theatre, equivalent to the WEST
Theatre, following this with a celebrated
END when referring to London theatre. The
production of Love’s Labours Lost (1946) at
name comes from the street that runs through
Stratford-upon-Avon (again with Scofield).
the heart of Manhattan and has been applied
Further successes included Anouilh’s Ring
to theatres clustering in side streets from West
Round the Moon (1950), Otway’s Venice
44th to 50th streets. All mainstream theatre in
Preserv’d (1953), Hamlet (1955), The Power
New York, however, is described as being ‘on
and the Glory (1956), and The Family Reunion
Broadway’.
(1956).
Broadway first became synonymous with
Brook was made a codirector of the newly
theatre in the 1850s. When extravagant
formed Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962,
lighting was introduced some 40 years later it
directing later that year a highly acclaimed
acquired the nickname the Great White Way.
production of King Lear (with Scofield once
The district had around 80 theatres when at
again). Other successes with the RSC included
the height of its prestige in the 1920s. More
Peter Weiss’s MARAT/SADE (1964), Seneca’s
recently it has specialized in large musicals or
Oedipus (1968), and a famous production of A
small comedies following the decline of serious
Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970), featuring
drama and the advent of competition from
an all-white set and the use of circus skills.
OFF-BROADWAY and OFF-OFF-BROADWAY. In
In 1970 Brook founded, with Jean-Louis
all, New York now has some 400 theatres.
BARRAULT, the INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
Broken Jug, The A one-act comedy by FOR THEATRE RESEARCH, a company of
78 Brooke, Gustavus Vaughan

international performers with whom he Browning Version, The A one-act play

toured extensively. Since 1974 the Centre has by Terence RATTIGAN, first performed in 1948
been based at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris. at the Phoenix Theatre, London. It was one of
Brook’s subsequent productions have included two plays presented under the title Playbill, the
a nine-hour adaptation of the Indian epic THE other being the short comedy Harlequinade
MAHABHARATA (1985), a pared down version (about actors rehearsing Romeo and Juliet for a
of Carmen (1989), and Qui est la? (1995), a tour of the provinces). Critics gave mixed
reworking of Hamlet. In 2004 Brook presented reviews to Harlequinade but hailed The
Tierno Bokar, a meditation on the life and Browning Version as a “70-minute
teachings of the title character, a Sufi mystic in masterpiece”.
French colonial Africa. When Rattigan offered the major role to
John GIELGUD during a walk in New York’s
Brooke, Gustavus Vaughan Central Park, the famous actor replied, “I’ll
(1818–66) Dublin-born actor known as the have to be so very careful about what I do
Dublin or Hibernian Roscius. After touring now, Terry, my dear. The public have seen me
the British provinces, he made his London in so much first-class stuff, do you think they
debut at the Olympic Theatre in 1848 and would accept me in anything second-rate?”
went on to play Othello, Hamlet, Richard III, Rattigan was shattered at having his work thus
and Shylock. His career was damaged by his described; in the event the role was
intemperance, which on one occasion landed triumphantly played by Eric Portman.
him in Warwick jail. He made successful tours The plot concerns Andrew Crocker-Harris,
of America and Australia; on the way to a an ill and unsuccessful schoolmaster, who is
second tour of Australia his ship sank in the asked by the headmaster to step down in
Bay of Biscay. His second wife was the US favour of a younger man. Crocker-Harris is
actress Avonia Jones (1839–67). hated by his students, who call him ‘The
Brooks Atkinson Theatre A New Himmler of the Lower Fifth’, and by his wife,
York theatre on West 47th Street between who is having an affair with a younger master.
Broadway and Eighth Avenue. It opened in One student, however, shows respect and
1926 as the Mansfield Theatre, its first major sympathy, presenting him with a copy of
production being Ansky’s The Dybbuk, Robert Browning’s translation of the
presented by the Moscow Habimah Players. In Agamemnon. Crocker-Harris comes to terms
1930 Marc Connelly’s The Green Pastures was with his failures, ignores his wife’s taunts, and
a great hit; later productions included two tells the headmaster that he will not yield his
London imports, Gordon Sherry’s Black position.
Limelight (1936) and Robert Ardrey’s Thunder Bruno, Giordano (1548–1600) The
Rock (1939). ill-fated Italian philosopher and scientist
During World War II the theatre was who wrote one play, Il Candelaio (The
converted into a production centre for radio Candlemaker), which was banned in his own
and television broadcasts. When it reopened in lifetime and not performed for nearly 400
1960 it was renamed the Brooks Atkinson years. The play, a satire attacking corruption,
Theatre to honour the New York Times critic, was finally given a professional performance in
who had just retired (see ATKINSON, BROOKS). Italy in 1965 in a shortened modernized
In 1961 Neil Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn version.
was a great success. Rolf Hochhuth’s Born at Nola near Naples, Bruno travelled
controversial play denouncing Pope Pius XII throughout Europe, publishing Il Candelaio in
for not helping the Jews during World War II, Paris and visiting London and Oxford where
The Deputy (Der Stellvertreter; seen in London he met the poet Sir Philip Sidney. On his
the previous year as The Representative) was return to Italy, he was arrested and imprisoned
mounted there in 1964. Subsequent for his unorthodox religious ideas, which
productions have included Bernard Slade’s included a belief in the harmony of the human
Same Time, Next Year (1975), Michael Frayn’s soul and nature. After seven years in prison he
Noises Off (1983), Ariel Dorfman’s Death and was burned at the stake when the Inquisition
the Maiden (1990), and a revival of Grease in Rome named him a heretic.
(2007). The theatre was refurbished in the Bruno’s philosophy is thought to have
early 2000s. influenced the writings of Shakespeare and
 Bunn, Alfred ‘Poet’ 79

Ben Jonson amongst others. His life was bonnet off, I scientifically scalped him in about
depicted in Morris West’s play The Heretic five seconds.”
(1970). Cody’s fame was largely based on The
Buffalo Bill Stories, five-cent novels that often
Bucco A stock character of the Roman took his heroic actions into the realm of
ATELLANA; he appears to have been a fat rustic
fantasy. He was a superb showman who
clown. Pomponius wrote two plays in which capitalized on the publicity in 1883 by
he was the main character. organizing a spectacular Wild West Show that
Büchner, Georg (1813–37) German travelled throughout the US; the show featured
playwright, who was a major influence on both cowboys and Indians, sharpshooters, and
NATURALISM and EXPRESSIONISM, despite
rodeo roughriders. Among the troupe’s
writing only three plays (one unfinished) performers was the markswoman Annie
before his death at the age of 23. Born at Oakley, the eponymous heroine of ANNIE GET
YOUR GUN.
Goddelau, the son of an army doctor, Büchner
studied medicine at Strasbourg and Giessen. bufo The Cuban and Caribbean version of
He was a political radical who founded a the Spanish SAINETE. Bufos blend comedy,
revolutionary society and had to flee to music, and satire and deal mainly with the
Strasbourg. In 1836 he began to teach natural working classes. The bufos cubanos were
science in Zürich but died a year later of generally political satires, often on the theme
typhoid fever. of illusion and reality. They enjoyed great
His plays, which reacted against the popularity at the turn of the century but had
romanticism of Schiller and others, are filled disappeared by the 1920s, being replaced by
with morbid pessimism, violence, and a deep the ZARZUELA. Some 30 years later, the genre
sympathy for the oppressed. His first work, was resurrected by Fidel Castro’s regime as a
Dantons Tod (DANTON’S DEATH), written in propaganda vehicle.
1835 but not staged until 1903 in Berlin, took Bugaku A form of Japanese mask play
a sombre look at the French Revolution. In with music and dancing that was imported
Britain, it enjoyed an impressive revival at the from China and India in the 7th century.
National Theatre in 1971 under the direction The subject matter is based on religious
of Jonathan Miller. Leonce und Lena was texts. Bugaku had a great influence on the
another attack on romanticism, written in development of the more varied Nō drama. It
1836, published in 1850, but not performed is a highly formal theatrical art, the movements
until 1885 in Munich. The incomplete of the performers, who wear the costume of
WOYZECK, written in 1836 and first performed the early period, being rigidly prescribed by
in 1913 in Vienna, has been acclaimed as the tradition. Until the post-war era performances
forerunner of the social dramas of the last were restricted to the royal court and certain
decade of the 19th century. The plot concerns religious festivals.
the insanity and eventual suicide of the title built stuff A theatre term for three-
character. dimensional objects built for a scene, such as a
ROSTRUM, a piece of furniture, a mantelpiece,
Buffalo Bill Nickname of William
or landscape features such as trees and rocks.
Frederick Cody (1846–1917), the American
The construction is often of chicken wire,
showman and frontiersman. He earned his canvas, and papier-mâché.
nickname after killing, at his estimate, 4280
buffaloes in 18 months, while supplying food bums on seats British theatre slang for
for labourers constructing the Kansas Pacific members of the audience, generally used in
Railway in 1867–68. Born in Iowa, Cody calculations of its size, as in “Olivier could
worked variously as a horse wrangler, pony- always put bums on seats”.
express rider, and prospector in the Pikes Peak Bunn, Alfred ‘Poet’ (1798–1860)
gold rush. During and after the American Civil British theatre manager, who became
War, he served in the US cavalry as a scout in notorious for his high-handed methods and
campaigns with General Custer. In 1876 Cody bumptious personality. His nickname
killed the Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hand, in a (courtesy of Punch) refers to the literary airs he
duel; he later commented “Jerking his war- adopted after penning several notably bad
80 Bunraku Puppet Theatre

opera libretti. Among much else, Bunn was Bunn’s most positive contribution to the
ridiculed for acquiring a position as a English stage was his tireless promotion of
gentleman-at-arms to the Queen, which opera in the 1840s and 1850s. His own libretti
entitled him to wear a scarlet uniform with a include those for Balfe’s The Maid of Artois
plumed helmet. (He is said to have taken this (1836) and The Bohemian Girl (1843) – the
step after learning of an obscure law that made latter containing the well-known lyric ‘I
members of this body exempt from arrest for Dreamt that I Dwelt in Marble Halls’. In his
debt.) later years ‘Poet’ Bunn produced three volumes
Bunn’s theatrical career began in 1819, of theatrical reminiscences and toured with a
when he was appointed manager of the one-man show of anecdotes and stories.
Theatre Royal, Birmingham. His tenure there
Bunraku Puppet Theatre An ancient
would be a troubled one; the theatre had to be
Japanese puppet theatre that is one of the
rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1820 and there
world’s most sophisticated and realistic forms
were continual disputes between Bunn and the
of puppetry. The genre began in the 11th
members of the company. In 1824 Bunn’s
century, reached its height of popularity in the
decision to stage Presumption, or the Fate of
18th century, but is now only performed at
Frankenstein provoked furious accusations of
one theatre in Osaka.
blasphemy from a Revd J. A. James. Although
Named after the puppet-master Vemura
this made for a good deal of publicity – so
Bunrakuken (1737–1810), the theatre uses
much so that Bunn was widely suspected of
dolls that are from one-half to two-thirds full
writing James’s pamphlets himself – the show
size. The stylized three-act dramas deal with
proved a total flop. Money problems meant
historical or domestic themes and are
that half the cast appeared without proper
performed on full-size stages complete with
costumes and, surreally, the avalanche that
scenery. A speaker stands at the right of the
buries the monster in the final scene had to be
stage to recite the joruri, or dramatic narrative;
represented by a canvas elephant left over from
this role is considered so exhausting that each
a previous production.
act has a different narrator. Located next to the
Despite this inglorious start, Bunn went on
speaker are samisen musicians.
to dominate the London stage in the 1830s
Each principal puppet character has three
and 1840s. In 1831 he became lessee and
visible manipulators on stage. The chief
manager of the Theatre Royal, DRURY LANE – a
operator wears a ceremonial samurai kimono
position that he would hold (with two short
and inserts his left hand into the puppet’s
breaks) until 1852. In 1833 he became
back, controlling the facial expression by
manager of the only other PATENT THEATRE,
means of a rod attached to the eyes, mouth,
COVENT GARDEN, giving him an effective
and eyebrows. The assistant operators are
monopoly of legitimate stage production in
dressed in black and wear black hoods. A lesser
London. Bunn’s abuse of this position made
character has only one manipulator.
him widely disliked within the profession and
The manipulators begin their training in
eventually led Parliament to abolish the patent
childhood, do not participate in plays until in
system. In 1836 Bunn’s tense relationship with
their twenties, and are not given major
William MACREADY, his chief tragedian at
characters to control until middle-aged. They
Drury Lane, reached breaking point when
must memorize numerous conventions: a
Macready read on a playbill that he was to star
woman puppet steps forward on her right foot
in “the first three acts of Richard III”.
but a man on his left; a puppet steps forward
Macready, who was known for his loathing of
to ask a question, back to refuse a request.
mutilated versions of Shakespeare, dutifully
The best-known playwright for the
performed the three acts but then marched
Bunraku was Chikamatsu (1653–1724), who
into Bunn’s office in full costume and struck
wrote plays for both the puppet theatre and for
the manager hard in the face. According to
the KABUKI, many being performed by both.
Macready, Bunn responded by savagely biting
One of Chikamatsu’s plays, The Double Suicide
the actor’s little finger and screaming “Murder!
(1703), caused so many double suicides in
Murder!” until help arrived. The incident
Japan that the government banned plays on
made Macready a hero in the theatrical world;
the theme.
he would succeed Bunn as manager of Covent
Garden in 1837. Burbage family The English actor-
 Burgtheater 81

manager James Burbage (c. 1530–97) and his character in Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair asks,
two sons, the actor-manager Cuthbert Burbage “Which is your Burbage now?…your best
(c. 1566–1636) and England’s first great actor actor?” Burbage was also an accomplished
Richard Burbage (c. 1567–1619). painter, and some attribute the Chandos
James Burbage began his career in about portrait of Shakespeare to him. The Bard left
1572 as a joiner and actor with Leicester’s Burbage a small remembrance in his will.
Men. In 1576 he leased land in Shoreditch, When Burbage died, Richard Flecknoe
London, and erected the THEATRE, England’s (d. 1678) wrote:
first permanent playhouse. In 1577 he built No more young Hamlet, old
a second theatre in Shoreditch called the Hieronymo;
Curtain (because it was constructed on land King Lear, the grieved Moor, and more
known as Curten Close or Courtein). The beside,
CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN, a cooperative of the That lived in him, have now for ever
Burbage family and the leading actors, died.
appeared there on a regular basis and some Emlyn Williams made Burbage a character in
scholars believe Romeo and Juliet was first his play Spring 1600 (1934). See also RICHARD
performed there in about 1595. III.
In 1596 Burbage converted part of a
former Dominican friary into the indoor Bürgerliches Trauerspiel (German:
BLACKFRIARS THEATRE. The local residents, bourgeois tragedy) A German theatrical genre
however, secured an injunction, and Burbage of the late 18th century, largely inspired by
died before it opened. His sons inherited English domestic tragedies, such as those of
Blackfriars and leased it to a boys’ company George Lillo (1693–1739). Lillo’s The London
(see BOY COMPANIES). Merchant; or the History of George Barnwell
Cuthbert Burbage began as an actor but (1731; see BARNWELL, GEORGE) had a direct
became involved in management when he and influence on the first important Bürgerliches
his brother inherited the theatres. A dispute Trauerspiel, LESSING’s Miss Sara Sampson
arose with the landowner when the Theatre’s (1755). Lessing later contributed Emilia
land lease expired in 1597, and Cuthbert led Galotti (1772) to the genre, while Schiller also
the fight. While the landlord was absent, the described his Love and Intrigue (1783) as a
brothers dismantled their theatre and used the Bürgerliches Trauerspiel.
wood to build the famous GLOBE THEATRE The genre treated the homes of the
on Bankside, forming a syndicate with German bourgeoisie, then increasing in status
Shakespeare and others. and power, as apt settings for heroic conflicts
Richard Burbage made his debut at the once restricted to aristocratic milieux. The
Theatre with the ADMIRAL’S MEN when aged Bürgerliches Trauerspiel thus foreshadowed the
about 18. Although short and stout, by plays of Henrik Ibsen, Gerhard Hauptmann,
1594 he was the leading actor with the and the naturalist playwrights of the latter half
Chamberlain’s Men. At the Globe, under of the 19th century.
his brother’s management, he created such Burgtheater Austria’s national theatre, in
Shakespearean parts as Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Vienna opposite the Rathaus (City Hall). It
and Othello. As Richard III (his first major maintains one of the leading companies in the
role) he became particularly celebrated for German-speaking world. In 1776 Emperor
his death scene. A Bosworth inn-keeper Josef II decreed the theatre would become the
supposedly took his guests to Bosworth Field home of a new Hof-und-Nationaltheater
and would point out the spot where Burbage company; this would perform serious drama
cried: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a instead of the popular comedy that had
horse!” reigned for more than 30 years (see ALTWIENER
Burbage also appeared in the first VOLKSTHEATER).
productions of works by John Webster, The Burgtheater’s first manager was Josef
including the role of the evil Ferdinand in The von Sonnenfels (1733–1817), who brought in
Duchess of Malfi, and Ben Jonson, Thomas new Austrian plays modelled on classical
Kyd, Francis Beaumont, and John Fletcher. French and German works, as well as such
His name was synonymous with acting during renowned actors as Germany’s Friedrich
his lifetime and for long afterwards. A SCHRÖDER. Sonnenfels built up an impressive
82 burla

reputation for the theatre during his 38 years of opera, Henry Fielding’s TOM THUMB
as manager, being succeeded in 1814 by Josef (1730), Henry Carey’s “most tragical tragedy”
Schreyvogel (1768–1832), who furthered his CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS (1734), and
reforms and discovered Austria’s greatest Sheridan’s THE CRITIC (1779), which satirized
Romantic dramatist, Franz GRILLPARZER. In both the amateur actor and heroic bombast:
1849 Heinrich Laube (1806–84) took over. Go call a coach, and let a coach be
Under his management the theatre pioneered called
the BOX SET and popularized the French WELL- And let the man who calls it be the
MADE PLAY. caller
The company moved to a new building in And in his calling, let him nothing call,
1888. Here the poet and playwright Anton But coach! coach! coach! Oh! for a
Wildgans (1881–1932) presented mainly coach, ye gods!
expressionist works between the wars. The
In the 19th century burlesque became
building was severely damaged during World
kinder and more frivolous, with works such as
War II but reopened after extensive restoration
H. J. Byron’s The Corsican ‘Bothers’; or, the
in 1955. Notable postwar directors of the
Troublesome Twins (1869), a gentle satire of
Burgtheater have included Achim Benning
Boucicault’s The Corsican Brothers.
(1976–86) and Claus Peymann (1986–1999).
The GAIETY THEATRE long thrived on the
burla A slapstick interlude of the talents of its famous burlesque quartet Nellie
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE that was longer than the Farren, Edward Terry, Kate Vaughan, and
LAZZO. It was usually unrelated to the plot and E. W. Royce, who first appeared together in
often involved a simple practical joke played Byron’s Little Don Caesar de Bazan (1876). In
on the fool by the clown. The words BURLETTA 1889 another Gaiety foursome – Fred Leslie,
and BURLESQUE were derived from burla. C. Danby, Ben Nathan, and Fred Storey –
appeared dressed as ballerinas for a pas de
Burleigh’s nod A nod or shake of the
quatre in Ruy Blas; or, the Blas Roué. Henry
head conveying great meaning without words.
Irving protested when he realized that one of
In Sheridan’s THE CRITIC a preposterous
the ‘girls’ was made-up to resemble himself;
tragedy called The Spanish Armada is presented
the make-up was subsequently changed.
by the author, Mr PUFF. The characters include
Other exponents of Victorian burlesque
Elizabeth I’s chief minister Lord Burleigh, who
included James Robinson Planche and W. S.
is supposedly too weighed down with affairs of
Gilbert, before his partnership with Sullivan
state to communicate with anything but a
helped to replace burlesque with light opera
portentous nod. Each time he moves his head
and musical comedy. It was deprived of many
Puff explains his meaning, for instance: “By
of its favourite targets when the new
that shake of the head he gave you to
naturalistic style of drama was introduced by
understand that…if there was not a greater
the playwright Tom Robertson. However,
spirit shown…the country would at last fall a
traces of the genre remain in the short scenes
sacrifice to the hostile ambition of the Spanish
of 20th-century REVUE and to a lesser degree in
monarchy”.
pantomime.
burlesque (1) English burlesque In the Closely related to the burlesque was the
English theatre of the late 17th and 18th EXTRAVAGANZA which had no particular target
century, a burlesque was a comic imitation of a for its satire but made fun of myths and folk
popular play or type of play. The parody was tales.
generally fairly crude, often involving a reversal (2) American burlesque US burlesque has
of expected roles, with heroes acting as no relation to the English variety. The genre
buffoons, etc. originated in 1868, when the English actress
The first English burlesque was the Lydia Thompson presented a show featuring a
comedy THE REHEARSAL (1671) by George chorus line of ‘British Blondes’. The chorus
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, which mocked line was used by Michael Bennett Leavitt
Dryden, Otway, and heroic Restoration (1843–1935) as the basis for burlesque shows
drama. In the 18th century burlesque works that set the pattern for the genre in America.
became crueller and more defamatory. The shows had a standard three-part
Examples include John Gay’s THE BEGGAR’S format, opening with songs and comic sketches
OPERA (1728), which ridiculed the conventions called ‘bits’, following this with an oilo
 Burton, Richard 83

(meaning ‘potpourri’) segment of variety acts employed Burrakatha for political purposes,
such as acrobats, magicians, ventriloquists, and and today the genre is used by both the
dog acts, and ending with more music as well government and by opposition parties. Most
as burlesque sketches on politics and current Burrakatha performers will work for any
plays (the only similarity with English political persuasion as a professional duty.
burlesque). The final number was always In the drama, the kathakudu, or lead
entitled the ‘Extra Added Attraction’. performer, dances and plays a tambura stringed
Burlesque was the training ground for instrument while reciting a story about a
many later stars, including the singer Al mythological, historical, or socio-political
Jolson, the comedian W. C. Fields, and the subject. He also keeps time with two hollow
comedienne Fanny Brice. Burlesque rings filled with metal balls. He is joined by
performers appeared in New York ‘burleycue’ two other performers who play dakki earthen
houses and on two national circuits that arose drums. The drummer on his right, the rajkiya,
after the turn of the century. makes comments on contemporary political
The genre’s staple was always beautiful and social issues. The one on the left, the
girls, whether as dancers or in comic skits, but hasyam, provides comic relief by telling jokes.
with the advent of STRIPTEASE in the 1920s sex The performance continues for up to three
gradually took over the programme. It was hours; longer works may take place over several
introduced to lure back audiences captured by evenings.
the fledgling cinema, and this it initially did
with such sophisticated performers as Gypsy Burton, Richard (Richard Walter
Rose LEE. Most stripping, however, was of the Jenkins; 1925–84) British actor, who took his
sleazy variety, and burlesque’s low reputation stage name from his guardian Philip Burton.
became even lower, leading to bans in many Born in Pontrhydyfen, South Wales, the
cities. Prohibition had already severely twelfth of 13 children of a miner, he made his
damaged the genre and it effectively came to stage debut at the Royal Court Theatre,
an end when New York banned burlesque Liverpool, in Emlyn Williams’s The Druid’s
houses in 1942. Some lingered into the 1960s, Rest (1944). During World War II the RAF
however, with anaemic programmes of sent him on a short course at Oxford
striptease, second-rate comics, and low-budget University, where he was discovered by the
films. don Nevill Coghill and appeared in an OUDS
production of Measure for Measure. When
burletta A type of comic opera or musical asked by the producer Binkie Beaumont if he
farce that provided a legal loophole for would return to acting after the war, Burton
unlicensed theatres in the mid-18th and 19th said, “I might go back to the mines. That’s
centuries. Under British law, any three-act play where I really belong.”
with a minimum of five songs was considered a Instead, he returned to the boards in 1949
burletta and could be performed in an to star in THE LADY’S NOT FOR BURNING at the
unlicensed theatre. Playwrights thus took any Globe Theatre. He was frequently in trouble
drama, including Shakespeare’s works, adapted with the management for his sexual escapades
the length and added enough songs and dances and practical jokes. The following year, he
to meet the criteria. The burletta disappeared made his Broadway debut with the play at the
from the playbills when the minor theatres Royale Theatre. In 1951 Burton joined the
were freed from strict licensing laws by the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company at
1843 Theatres Act. Stratford to play Prince Hal in Henry IV.
burrakatha (Hindi: tambura story) A “Burton is a still brimming pool, running
genre of 20th-century Indian drama, especially deep”, wrote the critic Kenneth Tynan (who
popular in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, was later knocked down by Burton after he
where more than 200 troupes exist. It evolved criticized an actress).
from the art of roving minstrels, or jangams, After making several films in Hollywood,
who sang of the god Shiva and later added he joined the Old Vic in 1953, giving
secular material. Burrakatha stories were audiences “a rugger-playing Hamlet” according
originally improvised but are now written to critic David Lewin. In 1955 his Henry V
down and learnt. In the 1940s the left-wing won the Evening Standard Best Actor Award
Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and in 1960 his Broadway performance as
84 business

King Arthur in the Lerner and Loewe musical pieces of business have been handed down by
CAMELOT won a Tony Award. tradition. The term is a shortened form of
He returned to Broadway in 1964 to star stage business. Comedians often refer to
in John Gielgud’s production of Hamlet, physical falls and feats as business or
giving a performance of “electrical power and knockabout business.
sweeping vitality” according to the New York busk To perform or rehearse without the
Times. This became the most profitable usual preparation; to improvise or AD LIB. The
Shakespearean production in Broadway’s term is related to ‘busker’, meaning a street
history, while Burton broke the record for singer or performer, and may derive ultimately
successive performances of Hamlet with 185. from BUSKIN. See also GAG; PONG.
In 1966 he appeared with his second wife
Elizabeth Taylor in an Oxford production of buskin An old term for tragedy. It alludes
Marlowe’s Dr Faustus to raise money for to the cothurnus, a high thick-soled boot worn
OUDS; Burton later gave a further £50,000 to by the Greek tragic actors to elevate their
renovate the Oxford Playhouse. Burton and stature. Sophocles is said to have introduced
Taylor were divorced in 1970 and remarried the custom to distinguish the principal actors
briefly in 1975. The two appeared together from the chorus, who wore low shoes. The
again in a disastrous Broadway revival of cothurnus somewhat resembled the later
Private Lives. European buskin, a sandal-like covering for the
Burton was once called “the Frank Sinatra foot and lower leg. Compare SOCK.
of Shakespeare” because of his celebrity status, Or what (though rare) of later age
but most critics felt he never lived up to his Enobled hath the buskin’d stage.
early promise and blamed this on his addiction JOHN MILTON: Il Penseroso
to alcohol. He often became bored on stage buttered slide A routine of the English
and claimed he only acted in Shakespeare as “a HARLEQUINADE, in which a slippery slide
kind of duty”. Once during his famous caused shopkeepers to fall headlong when
Broadway Hamlet, having been told that chasing shoplifters (who had previously
German adoption officials were in the prepared it). When the harlequinade was
audience, he began his “To be or not to be” reduced to being an AFTERPIECE to the new
soliloquy in German. During a performance of fairytale PANTOMIME this and similar routines
Camelot, seeing audience members leaving disappeared. Chambers’ Journal of 1864
early during a heavy snowfall, Burton came to complained: “Do you reflect upon the painful
the front of the stage and called, “Hey, book a fact the English Boys are now growing up
cab for me too, will you?” wholly ignorant of the nature and efficacy of
business or biz In theatrical parlance, a the Buttered Slide?”
piece of incidental action or by-play carried Buttons A stock character in the
out for dramatic or comic effect. In practice, pantomime of CINDERELLA. A page boy in the
it is often used to distract the audience’s house of Cinderella’s father, he traditionally
attention from the actor who is supposed to be appears in a jacket that is completely covered
the focal point of the scene. Business usually in small round buttons. In Britain, a ‘Buttons’
takes the form of fiddling with a prop or part was formerly a slang term for any page boy,
of a costume. It is generally the creation of the because of the buttoned jackets they often
actor who plays the part, although certain wore.
 café chantant 85

in 1929 and meets Sally Bowles, an English

C chanteuse who works in the Kit Kat Klub.

Cliff grows fond of her and tries to take her
away from the growing Nazi menace, but Sally
chooses to remain; he writes down the first of
cabaret A form of intimate nightclub his reminiscences as his train departs.
or restaurant entertainment, usually
accompanying a meal; it was especially popular Caesar and Cleopatra A history play
in Germany in the 1930s and in Britain and by George Bernard SHAW, first performed in
America in the 1960s. The word refers both to 1906 in Berlin and subsequently in New York.
the venue and to the entertainment or floor Shaw presents Caesar as a powerful man who
show. The performance usually combines succumbs to the cunning wiles of the 16-year-
music, dancing, comedy skits, and other forms old CLEOPATRA (a part written for Mrs Patrick
CAMPBELL, then in her early forties). In the
of light entertainment.
The term ‘cabaret’ originated in 17th- plot, Cleopatra flees to the desert to escape
century France, when it meant a drinking Caesar. When they meet at the Sphinx she at
house. Modern cabaret developed from MUSIC first mistakes him for an ordinary soldier.
HALL during the first boom in nightclubs and
When the Roman Pothinus tries to warn
cabarets just before World War I. A leading Caesar that Cleopatra will betray him, she has
London venue was the Hotel Metropole, him murdered. Caesar eventually pacifies her
where in 1922 the ‘Midnight Follies’ broke all by promising to bring the handsome Mark
cabaret records. British licensing laws Antony from Rome.
permitted an audience seated at tables to Shaw, who was in his forties when he
consume food and alcoholic drinks that could wrote the play, later said, “I think I was a trifle
not be served in a theatre auditorium. too young for the job, but it was not bad for a
London’s HIPPODROME became a cabaret juvenile effort.” He wrote it while recovering
restaurant in 1958, renaming itself the Talk of from an injured foot and broken arm on the
the Town. Isle of Wight, often lying on a clifftop with his
Between the wars, German cabaret drew crutches beside him to do so. The Sphinx
such leading artistic figures as Bertolt Brecht. scene was suggested by a French picture he had
The atmosphere of pre-war Berlin cabaret was seen 30 years before.
captured by Christopher Isherwood’s book He felt that Cleopatra was an easy part to
Goodbye to Berlin (1929). This was the basis play but not Caesar. “Whoever can play the
for John van Druten’s play I Am a Camera fourth act of it can play anything,” he noted.
(1951) and the Broadway musical CABARET. “Whoever can’t, can play nothing.”

Cabaret The groundbreaking musical by caf’ conc’ Shortened form of café concert,
Fred Ebb, John Kander, and Joe Masteroff a type of venue that presented VARIETY
entertainment in late 19th-century and early
that opened on Broadway in 1966 with Jill
20th-century Paris. It replaced the CAFÉ
Haworth as Sally Bowles, Joel Grey as the
CHANTANT in the 1860s, offering romantic
Master of Ceremonies, and Lotte Lenya in the
ballads and nonsensical choruses known as
role of Fräulein Schneider. The show, which is
scies. The typical venue was a long room with a
set in the decadent and dangerous world of
high stage. The two most popular, the
1930s Berlin, won the Tony award as Best
Eldorado and the Alcazar, presented such stars
Musical. Two years later the London
as Thérésa, Polin, and Mayol. In the mid
production with Judi Dench (who sang “with
1860s some caf’ conc’ houses became cafs
a voice like fractured glass”) won the Evening
spectacles, adding farces and operettas to the
Standard Award. The 1972 film, which differs
bill; by the turn of the century the largest had
significantly from the stage version, earned
assumed the English designation of ‘music
Oscars for Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. The
halls’. They died out in the 1920s.
songs, with lyrics by Ebb and music by
Kander, include ‘Cabaret’, ‘Willkommen’, café chantant The most popular type of
‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’, and ‘The Money venue for VARIETY entertainment in early 19th-
Song’. century France. In the 1770s Parisian taverns
The story concerns Clifford Bradshaw, a called musicos introduced singers; during the
young American writer, who arrives in Berlin Revolution they were licensed by the National
86 Calderón (de la Barca), Pedro

Assembly and multiplied in the districts to produce elaborate spectacles using the new
around the Palais-Royal and the Boulevard du Italian lighting and perspective scenery. In
Temple. When the theatres were suppressed 1648 he wrote his first ZARZUELA, the two-act
during the First Empire, the musicos were The Garden of Falerina, in which spoken and
replaced by cafs chantants, open-air summer sung dialogue alternate. His first opera, the
theatres that became immensely popular; Paris one-act The Purple of the Rose, was produced in
had about 200 by 1850. The performers, 1660.
however, had the legal status of fairground After being ordained in 1651, Calderón
entertainers and were forbidden to wear stage
announced that he would write no more plays.
costumes until 1867. The cafés chantants
The king, however, commanded him to write
expanded during the Second Empire but began
to be replaced in the 1860s by the cafs concerts for the court theatre; as a result he produced
(see CAF’ CONC’). The Daughter of Air (1653), dealing with the
conflict between passion and reason. In 1666
Calderón (de la Barca), Pedro Calderón became the king’s chaplain of
(1600–81) Spanish playwright, the chief honour and concentrated on writing auto
successor to Lope de VEGA. Calderón’s nearly sacramentales (66 have survived).
200 works are more cerebral and stylized than
Lope’s and many turn on the now remote Caliban In Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, the
concept of the pundonor (point of honour). grotesque half-human son of the devil Setebos
Nevertheless, he is usually considered the most and the witch Sycorax; he becomes a reluctant
important Spanish dramatist owing to his skill slave to Prospero. Both repulsive and pathetic,
in constructing plots, his intellectual power, he is given some of the play’s most memorable
and his ability to create outstanding characters. poetry.
His output encompassed comedies, tragedies,
CLOAK-AND-SWORD PLAYS, histories, romances, call A backstage term used in three different
philosophical dramas, and religious works. He ways. It usually means the call or warning that
has had a major influence on European drama: tells actors and stage crew how much time is
English adaptations include Wycherley’s The left before the curtain rises. Traditionally, calls
Gentleman Dancing-Master (1672), while are given half an hour, quarter of an hour, and
Goethe produced translations for the Court five minutes before curtain up. The term can
Theatre at Weimar. also mean a notice on the CALL BOARD and is
The son of a government official, Calderón sometimes used as a short form of CURTAIN
began to write plays at the age of 14. In 1623 CALL.
he abandoned his religious studies to turn out
works for the royal palace. Between 1625 and call. Don’t call us, we’ll call you
1640 he wrote his best comedies of intrigue A phrase supposedly used by casting directors
(see COMEDY OF INTRIGUE) and such tragedies to say goodbye to unsuccessful applicants at
as THE SURGEON OF HIS OWN HONOUR (1635), AUDITIONs. The implication, of course, is that
depicting the grimness of a society ruled by a no such call will be made. The phrase, which
rigid code of honour, and The Mayor of dates from the 1940s, is now often used in a
Zalamea (1640), about a father’s revenge on jocular way to get rid of anyone offering to sell
the seducer of his daughter. something or provide a service. It is often
In 1636 Philip IV made Calderón a shortened to ‘Don’t call us’.
Knight of the Military Order of St James. The
following years saw the production of some of call board A backstage notice board,
his finest religious plays, such as The Wonder- located near the STAGE DOOR, upon which
Working Magician (El mágico prodigioso; 1637), messages are posted for the cast and stage crew.
inspired by the life of St Cyprian, and the These include schedules for rehearsals and
AUTO SACRAMENTAL The Great Theatre of the other work sessions, as well as the dreaded
World (1641). Of his secular plays, Life is a ‘Notice’ announcing the end of the play’s run.
Dream (1638) is regarded as the best; it depicts
the mental state of a prince released from life- call boy A member of the stage crew
long imprisonment. employed to call actors in time for them to
When Philip IV’s newly built palace of appear on the stage. (The female equivalent is
Buen Retiro opened in 1640, Calderón began not usually referred to as a call girl.) In the
 Camelot 87

modern theatre such calls are generally given Beatrice Lillie. It has since presented an
by an electronic device known as a cue call. unusually varied programme, including drama,
revue, musicals, opera, ballet, and even Sunday
call doors See PROSCENIUM DOORS.
concerts. It hosted the Comédie-Française in
Call Me Madam A musical by Irving 1934 and the New London Opera Company
BERLIN, first performed in New Haven, from 1946 to 1948. The Cambridge has been
Connecticut, in 1950 with Ethel MERMAN in home to the new D’Oyly Carte Opera
the lead; it subsequently transferred to Company since 1988.
Broadway, where it ran for over 640 Successful productions have included
performances. The story, by Howard Lindsay William Douglas Home’s The Reluctant
and Russel Crouse, is suspiciously similar to Debutante (1955), which ran for 752
that of Victor Herbert’s 1904 musical It performances, Willis Hall and Keith
Happened in Nordland. It involves a Waterhouse’s Billy Liar (1960–62), the
Washington hostess, Sally Adams, who is Tommy Steele musical Half A Sixpence
appointed ambassador to the tiny country of (1963–64), Ingmar Bergman’s National
Lichtenburg, where she falls in love with the Theatre production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler
foreign minister, Cosmo Constantine. Sally is (1970), Jonathan Miller’s production of
recalled because of her outrageous behaviour at Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1976), and the
court, but Cosmo becomes prime minister and original London production of Chicago (1977).
pledges his love to her. More recent productions have included Return
President Harry Truman was a featured to the Forbidden Planet, which won the 1990
character in the musical, and Berlin was Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical and
prophetic in writing the song ‘They Like ran until 1993, and the hugely controversial
Ike’; two years later, Dwight Eisenhower Jerry Springer – The Opera, which won the
campaigned successfully for the US presidency 2003 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and
using the slogan ‘I Like Ike’. Other songs ran until 2005. A revival of Chicago transferred
included ‘It’s a Lovely Day Today’, ‘You’re to the Cambridge in 2006 and is still running
Just in Love’, and ‘The Best Thing for You’. (2010).
Cǎlus A ritual dance of Romania, in which Cambyses. King Cambyses’ vein
the all-male dancers fall into trances and A style of grandiloquent rhetoric. The term is
supposedly heal people who are possessed by used by FALSTAFF in Henry IV, Part I when
evil spirits. It is performed at Whitsuntide. In a explaining how he would give a passionate
Muntenian version, the dances alternate with speech. Shakespeare is referring to a
brief comic plays whose central character is a tragicomedy of the time, Cambyses King of
clown wearing a phallus. Although he is Persia (c. 1569) by Thomas Preston (fl. 1570),
described as a mute, the clown chatters away which is written in this manner. A second,
about such subjects as sex and money. During equally bombastic, play of the same title was
the period of performance, the dancers avoid written (c. 1667) by the Restoration dramatist
social contact and abstain from sexual Elkanah Settle.
intercourse.
Camelot A musical about King Arthur’s
Cambridge Theatre A London theatre Court by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick
in the Seven Dials area of the West End. It Loewe. It was first produced on Broadway in
opened in 1930 and was noted for the modern 1960 with Richard BURTON, who won a Tony
simplicity of its architecture and decor. The Award, as King Arthur, and Julie Andrews as
Stage commented: “The beautiful, if somewhat Guenevere. It opened in London’s Drury Lane
peculiar decorative scheme appears to be Theatre in 1964.
Teutonic, and is strangely reminiscent of the The story begins with the young Arthur
then strange futuristic sets in German films tumbling out of a tree onto Guenevere, the girl
immediately after the war of 1914–18.” The who has been chosen as his queen. They fall in
Cambridge, which seats 1273, was refurbished love. Some years later Arthur dreams up the
in 1950, leaving a few mementos from the idea of the Round Table and his motto of
1930s, such as the engraved mirrors in one bar. ‘Might for Right’. All goes well until the self-
The new theatre opened with a righteous French knight Lancelot du Lac falls
performance of Charlot’s Masquerade starring in love with the queen. Arthur is imprisoned
88 Campbell, Mrs Patrick

for a night by the fairy Morgan le Fey, leaving famous roles, her performances were
Guenevere and Lancelot alone. They notoriously uneven, especially in Shakespeare:
compromise themselves and Arthur reluctantly when she played Juliet at the Lyceum Theatre
sentences Guenevere to be burned at the stake, in 1895, she cut the difficult speeches.
in accordance with the law. Lancelot rescues Her temper was famous, and fellow actors
her from this grisly fate but slays a number of dreaded her tantrums and sharp tongue. She
knights doing so. Nevertheless, when Arthur said of Tallulah BANKHEAD’s popularity in
meets Lancelot on the battlefield, they London: “She’s always skating on thin ice, and
embrace. Lancelot leaves and Guenevere the British public wants to be there when it
departs for a nunnery. Arthur then meets a breaks.” When Alexander WOOLLCOTT
young boy, Tom of Warwick, and urges him introduced Mrs Pat to a rival actress, she held
to spread the word about the glory that had the woman’s hand and whispered audibly to
been Camelot. Woollcott, “I thought she was dead.” In later
The songs (music by Loewe, lyrics by years, Woollcott called her a “sinking ship
Lerner) include ‘In Camelot’, ‘Where Are the firing upon her rescuers”. One New York critic
Simple Joys of Maidenhood’, ‘If Ever I Should was less kind: “What chance does mere skill at
Leave You’, ‘I Loved You Once in Silence’, trivial comedy stand against the recollection of
and ‘What Do the Simple Folk Do?’. a once lovely woman become fat and yellow?”
The name ‘Camelot’ was applied
retrospectively to the administration If only you could write a true book
(1961–63) of US President John F. Kennedy, entitled WHY, THOUGH I WAS A
whose glamorous image and youthful vigour WONDERFUL ACTRESS, NO
had briefly inspired hopes of a golden age in MANAGER OR AUTHOR WOULD
America’s history. At the time of Kennedy’s EVER ENGAGE ME TWICE IF HE
inauguration, the Lerner–Loewe musical had COULD POSSIBLY HELP IT, it
recently opened on Broadway. Shortly after would be a best seller. But you
Kennedy’s assassination, his widow told an couldn’t. Besides, you don’t know. I
interviewer that the president had particularly do.
liked the title song: GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, letter to Mrs

Once there was a fleeting wisp of glory Patrick Campbell, 11 August 1913
Called Camelot… Can-Can A two-act musical by Cole
Don’t let it be forgot PORTER with book by Abe Burrows. It opened
That once there was a spot on Broadway in 1953 starring the French
For one brief shining moment that was actress Lilo and ran for nearly three years; the
known first London production was also a great
As Camelot. success. However, the 1981 Broadway revival
Campbell, Mrs Patrick (Beatrice Stella closed after only five performances, with a loss
Tanner; 1865–1940). British actress, who of more than $2 million. Superstitious cast
became famous overnight as Paula in Pinero’s members attributed the failure to the GYPSY
THE SECOND MRS TANQUERAY, presented at the ROBE, a good-luck charm that had been passed
St James’s Theatre, London, in 1893. She was from one Broadway musical to the next for
also the first Agnes Ebbsmith in Pinero’s The thirty years but disintegrated during Can-Can’s
Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith (1895) and the brief run.
original Eliza in SHAW’s PYGMALION (1914), a Set in turn-of-the-century Paris, the story
part she played when she was nearly 50. involves the handsome judge Aristide Forestier,
Although by this time she had lost her looks who is assigned to investigate the provocative
and become fat and slovenly, Shaw fell deeply can-can dancing at a nightclub. Predictably, he
in love with her. falls for the owner, La Mome Pistache, and
At the age of 19 she turned down a music arranges an investigative visit by a panel of
scholarship to marry Patrick Campbell. Her judges, with a view to legalizing the dance.
London debut was in 1890 in A Buried Talent Equally predictably, the judges are enchanted
at the Vaudeville Theatre; in 1900 she took by the young grisettes. The play ends, with
over the management of the Royalty Theatre monotonous predictability, with Forestier
for two years. Although MRS PAT (as she was marrying Pistache. The sub-plot includes a
always known) won great acclaim in her three farcical duel fought over the rooftops of Paris.
 Capitano, Il 89

The songs include ‘I Love Paris’, ‘C’est gossip and back-biter, she conceals her venom
Magnifique’, ‘Allez-vous En’, and ‘It’s All under an affectation of amiable frankness.
Right with Me’. Canterbury Music Hall One of the
Candida A comedy by George Bernard most popular music halls in late 19th-century
SHAW, first performed in 1895 at South Shields London. It was built in 1852 in Lambeth by
and subsequently (1900) at London’s Royal Charles MORTON on the site of a skittle alley
Court Theatre with Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER. belonging to his tavern, the Canterbury Arms.
The female lead was written for Janet Achurch; Morton began by presenting classical music
Shaw reneged on a promise to Ellen Terry (see and ballad singing, but switched to comedy
TERRY FAMILY) that she could play the role on
with such success that he was able to increase
the theatre’s size to seat 1500 people. He gave
alternate nights. Its successful revival at the
up the business in 1867. After reconstruction
Royal Court in 1904 began a partnership
in 1876 the theatre became known as
between Granville-Barker and J. E. Vedrenne Canterbury Hall; famous patrons included the
that produced a total of 10 Shaw plays there Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Many of
over the next three years. the great stars of music hall performed here.
Shaw said he wrote Candida in several However, the Canterbury faded with the genre
small notebooks on the top decks of London in the 20th century and was destroyed in 1942
buses. Although the play was much influenced by a wartime bomb.
by Ibsen, Shaw also took characters and ideas
from Charles Reade’s curtain-raiser Nance Čapek, Karel (1890–1938) Czech
dramatist, novelist, and essayist. The son of a
Oldfield, about the love between a poetic youth
country doctor, Čapek began writing in his
and a mother-figure. Shaw called his work
youth and was published by the age of 14.
“THE Mother Play” and added: “Candida is a After studying philosophy in Prague, Berlin,
work of genius though the Candidamaniacs and Paris, he settled, in 1917, in Prague, where
have always over-praised it. Every word of his first play, The Brigand, was performed in
Candida is written with my heart’s blood.” 1920. This was followed by the expressionist
It has often been revived, since it is the fantasy RUR (1921), which explored the
cheapest Shaw play to stage, having only one dangers of unconsidered technological
interior set and a cast of six. It is also probably escalation and introduced the word ‘robot’
his best constructed work. A 1937 production into the English language. THE INSECT PLAY
at the Globe Theatre ran for three months (1922), an allegorical piece written in
with Nicholas Hannen and his wife, Athene collaboration with his brother Josef, achieved
Seyler, in the lead parts. The 80-year-old Shaw international success, productions being
spent hours at rehearsals (though he was not quickly staged both in Britain and America. A
the director) making the actors repeat the lines sequel to RUR, Adam the Creator (1927), also
over and over again until they met with his written with Josef, dealt with man’s attempts
approval. In 1946 Marlon Brando and to rebuild the world after its virtual destruction
Katharine Cornell starred in a Broadway by robots. Two later plays, The White Scourge
production. (1937) and The Mother (1938), dealt with the
The play explores the conflict between subjects of war and dictatorship and expressed
Čapek’s fears about the rise of fascism in
romance and practical sense. Candida is the
Europe. Čapek did not live to see the
wife of the Reverend James Morrell, a
fulfilment of his worst fears, dying before the
benevolent but smug Christian Socialist. Her
outbreak of World War II and his brother’s
simple and parochial life is complicated when death in Belsen (1945).
the young poet Eugene Marchbanks falls
wildly in love with her. The poet seems easily Capitano, Il One of the earliest stock
the more fragile of the two men, but Candida, characters of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE.
recognizing the depth of his commitment to Sharing many characteristics of the braggart
poetry, chooses to support the weaker man – soldier of Roman comedy, the MILES
GLORIOSUS, Il Capitano was probably a
her husband.
caricature of the Spanish and French
Candour, Mrs A character in Sheridan’s mercenaries who overran Italy in the 16th
(1777). A terrifying
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL century. The character’s bombastic claims to
90 Captain Brassbound’s Conversion

military greatness and amatory prowess were his best known work. A three-hander, it was
often exposed as a sham through asides first performed in 1960 at the Arts Theatre
delivered by his squire. Although actors who Club, London, with Alan BATES as Mick, Peter
played the role would often make slight Woodthorpe as Aston, and Donald Pleasence
alterations to the Capitano’s name, costume, as Davies. It went on to enjoy a lengthy run at
and personality, the basic character remained the Duchess Theatre. The first of many
the same. See also SCARAMUCCIA. revivals was staged at the Royal National
Theatre in 1981.
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
The story revolves around the shabby old
A play by George Bernard SHAW, first
tramp Davies, who has been given somewhere
produced in 1900 by Harley Granville-Barker
to stay by Aston. The latter has recently had
at the Royal Court Theatre. Shaw wrote the
electroconvulsive therapy in a mental
part of Lady Cicely Waynflete for Ellen Terry
institution. Davies constantly invents new
(see TERRY FAMILY), with whom he had
excuses for not leaving and is caught looking
corresponded for years but never met. The role
through Aston’s personal belongings by Mick,
was therefore based on Terry’s personality as
Aston’s brother. Davies’s real relationship with
Shaw perceived it from their correspondence.
the brothers is mysterious: one minute Mick
When they finally met at rehearsals, they
accuses Davies of being an intruder and the
found they could not converse as easily as they
next calls him an old friend. Aston returns to
had written.
offer the tramp the job of caretaker. Davies
The disappointment seemed to carry over
tries to play the brothers off against each other
to opening night. According to the critic Max
and at one point threatens Aston with a knife.
Beerbohm (who had replaced Shaw at the
Eventually both reject his ploys and the play
Saturday Review): “Miss Ellen Terry was duly
ends with their apparent decision to turn him
vivacious last Tuesday. But she was, also, very
out.
nervous. I should not like those of the rising
generation who saw the performance to Carlin Nickname of the Italian actor Carlo
imagine that Miss Terry was within Bertinazzi (1713–83), who in 1741 joined
measurable distance of her best….” the COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE at the HÔTEL DE
The work was published as one of Shaw’s BOURGOGNE, Paris, succeeding Tommaso
Three Plays for Puritans, the others being The Vicentini (1682–1739) in the role of Arlequin.
Devil’s Disciple (1897) and Caesar and One of the few Italian actors still performing
Cleopatra (1906). The plot concerns Lady with the company at that time, he has been
Cicely Waynflete’s visit to Morocco with her called the last great Arlequin. His admirers
brother-in-law, Sir Howard Hallam. They are included David Garrick.
escorted by his nephew, the young pirate
Carmen Jones Oscar Hammerstein’s
Captain Brassbound. As Hallam has stolen the
1943 reworking of Bizet’s opera for an all-
estate of Brassbound’s father and caused his
Black cast. The setting is transferred from the
mother’s death, the pirate has him kidnapped.
cigarette factory in Seville to a wartime
When a rescue party arrives to seize
parachute factory in the Southern US; the
Brassbound, Cicely reveals the truth and he is
bullfighter Escamillo becomes a boxer named
freed. Brassbound decides to return to piracy
Husky Miller. The faithless Carmen is finally
and, although she has fallen for him, Lady
stabbed to death by Joe, her sweetheart,
Cicely is greatly relieved to see him go.
outside the boxing ring. The songs, many of
Captain Cauf’s Tail In parts of which are based on Bizet’s score, include ‘Beat
Yorkshire, the name given to the chief Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum’, ‘Dat’s Love’,
mummer who led his troupe from house to and ‘My Joe’.
house on PLOUGH MONDAY. His retinue
carnival The season immediately
included a fiddler, a man in women’s clothes,
preceding Lent that ends on Shrove Tuesday;
and others driving a plough without its share.
in Roman Catholic countries it is traditionally
The Captain would be adorned with brightly
marked by street parties and other
coloured ribbons and always had a genuine
amusements. The word probably derives from
calf’s tail fixed behind him.
the Latin carnis, flesh and levare, to remove,
Caretaker, The The play that established referring to the custom of abstaining from
Harold PINTER as a major playwright; it is still meat during Lent. A rival etymology links the
 carriage-and-frame system 91

term with Latin vale, farewell (‘farewell to which later (1994) enjoyed a long run on
flesh’). Broadway.
In some cities the celebrations involved The story is an adaptation of Ferenč
theatrical and acrobatic displays and the Molnár’s play Liliom (1909), about a carnival
wearing of elaborate masks and costumes. barker in Budapest. Apart from moving the
Byron described the spectacular Venetian setting to America, Rodgers and Hammerstein
carnival in Beppo: changed little. Billy Bigelow, a fairground
And there are dresses splendid, but barker, loses his job owing to his love for Julie
Jordan, a mill worker. Billy mistreats Julie,
fantastical,
sometimes physically, but vows to reform
Masks of all times and nations, Turks
when he hears that she is pregnant. However,
and Jews,
the need to support his new family draws him
And harlequins and clowns, with feats into an attempted robbery, during which he is
gymnastical… killed. In heaven Billy is given one day back on
See also FASTNACHTSSPEIL. earth to sort out the mess he has left behind.
Caroline drama English drama during He returns home and gives his daughter Louise
– now an unhappy teenager – a star that he has
the reign of Charles I (1625–49). Several of
stolen from heaven.
the so-called decadent playwrights of the
The last scene was called “an
JACOBEAN DRAMA continued to write into the
impertinence” by the US critic Eric Bentley,
new reign, notably John Ford, who produced who added: “I refuse to be lectured by a
such bloody tragedies as ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore musical comedy scriptwriter on the education
(1627). James SHIRLEY wrote both tragedies of children, the nature of the good life, and the
and comedies of manners, the latter including contribution of the American small town to
The Lady of Pleasure (1635), while Richard the salvation of souls.”
Brome, another Jacobean, contributed such
comedies as A Jovial Crew (1641). The veteran carpenter’s scene In the Victorian
dramatist Thomas Heywood had by this time theatre, a short scene acted in front of a
settled down as the writer of pageants for the backcloth while the stage crew changed the set
behind it. This was felt to be an improvement
Lord Mayor’s Show.
on the blackout introduced for scenery changes
Caroline drama is particularly noted for its
by David Garrick. It was no longer necessary
pastorals and elaborate court MASQUEs. Charles once the practice of lowering the front curtain
I and Henrietta Maria sometimes danced and between scene changes was standardized.
participated in these royal entertainments. Today the carpenter’s scene only remains in
Chloridia, the last collaboration between Ben the Pantomime or spectacular musical, where
Jonson and Inigo JONES was staged in 1631. it is often a short musical number.
There was little theatrical activity outside
London during Charles’s reign, although carpet cut A narrow slot in the stage floor
Milton’s masque COMUS was presented at to secure the edge of a carpet or stage cloth (by
Ludlow Castle in 1634. The theatres were hinged flaps) so actors will not trip over it.
closed by the Puritans in 1642 (see carriage-and-frame system A
INTERREGNUM, THE). method of changing scenery quickly (also
called the chariot-and-pole system) first used
Carousel RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’s
by Giacomo TORELLI in 17th-century Italy.
musical about love and death in a New WINGS or FLATS were suspended just above the
England fishing town. It opened on Broadway stage on a frame that projected below the floor
in 1945 as a THEATRE GUILD production. through a long slit. The frame rested on a
Hammerstein acknowledged it as his favourite wheeled platform or carriage on rails. As a
and critics generally agree, feeling that the piece of scenery was rolled off on the
integration of music, dancing, and story is underground rail, a duplicate carriage,
unequalled. The songs include ‘Carousel connected by ropes moving in opposite
Waltz’, ‘If I Loved You’, ‘June Is Bustin’ Out directions, brought on the replacement. This
All Over’, and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. was driven by a counterweight system that
Revivals include Nicholas HYTNER’s 1992 could be operated by “a single boy of 15
production at the National Theatre, London, years”. An operational carriage-and-frame
92 Cartel, the

system still exists at the Drottningholm and the cinema and in 2008 published his first
Theatre and Museum near Stockholm. novel, Supermarket Supermodel.
Cartel, the A loose association of four Caste A play by Tom ROBERTSON, first
French directors – Louis JOUVET, Gaston Baty performed in London in 1867 at the Prince of
(1885–1952), Charles Dullin (1885–1949), Wales’ Theatre. It is regarded as the best of
and Georges Pitoëff (1887–1939) – established Robertson’s CUP-AND-SAUCER DRAMAs, which
in 1927. The main object was mutual support introduced a new REALISM in the era of
in the face of hostile criticism and what they MELODRAMA. Caste was one of the short titles
saw as the increasing trivialization of the Robertson employed as a deliberate contrast to
French commercial theatre. All four had been more pretentiously named contemporary
successful in creating new directions for the works (see SHORTEST TITLES).
French theatre since World War I and their The play uses the story of Esther Eccles, a
work had an important influence on later ballerina who marries into the aristocratic
experimental drama. In 1936 Baty, Dullin, family of the Hon. George D’Alroy to attack
and Jouvet were appointed associate directors class prejudice. The couple live happily for six
of the Comédie-Française. months until George is stationed in India and
reportedly killed. His mother demands custody
Cartwright, Jim (1958– ) British
of her grandson from the now empoverished
playwright, director, and screenwriter. Born
Esther who refuses, saying she will return to
into a working-class family in Farnworth, near
dancing to support herself and the child.
Manchester, Cartwright left school at 16 and
George suddenly reappears, delighted to learn
trained as an actor at the Central School of
of his child and about Esther’s independence.
Speech and Drama in London. After a lengthy
Before the final curtain several characters have
period of unemployment, he returned to his
denounced the folly of snobbery.
home town where he wrote his first play Road,
about the inhabitants of an unnamed road (the cat-and-mouse dialogue See
name has fallen off the street sign) in a STICHOMYTHIA.
depressed town in the north of England. The catastrophe A Greek word that literally
play, which consists of a series of desperate, means a turning upside down (from kata
scabrous, and often wildly funny vignettes, was downwards; strephein, to turn). It was
staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1986 and originally used of the sudden change that
again in 1987 (latterly with rock singer Ian produces the denouement of a drama,
Dury in the role of the narrator). As well as especially a classical tragedy.
proving a popular hit, Road won a series of
awards; within 18 months productions had Pat! he comes like the catastrophe of
also been seen in Chicago and New York. the old comedy.
Cartwight’s subsequent plays included the SHAKESPEARE: King Lear (I, ii)
more abstract Bed (1989), which was produced cat-call A whistling noise sometimes made
at the Royal National Theatre, Two (1989), by theatre audiences, etc., to express
and the musical Eight Miles High (1991), impatience or displeasure.
which ran for over a year in Reykjavik. Music
I was very much surprised with the
was also a key element in what would become
great consort of cat-calls…to see so
Cartwright’s best-known work, The Rise and
many persons of quality of both sexes
Fall of Little Voice (1992), about a desperately
assembled together in a kind of
shy, downtrodden girl with an astonishing
caterwauling.
ability to sing in the style of Judy Garland,
JOSEPH ADDISON: The Spectator
Shirley Bassey, and other flamboyant divas.
Members of the audience would often
The play debuted at the National Theatre in a
equip themselves with pipes or whistles
production by Sam Mendes and made a star of
designed specifically to produce such a noise.
its lead, Jane Horrocks, who repeated her
In his Diary of 1660 Samuel Pepys recalls
triumph in the film version (1998).
buying such an instrument for two groats.
Cartwright’s more recent plays include I
Licked a Slag’s Deodorant (1996), which he also catharsis A concept defined by Aristotle
directed, and the somewhat poorly reviewed in his Poetics. Catharsis is the purging of the
Hard Fruit (2000). He has also written for TV emotions of an audience through the feelings
 Cavalcade 93

of pity and terror evoked by witnessing a Practical Cats are set to music and dance. First
tragedy. staged in a production by Trevor NUNN, it
opened at the New London Theatre in 1981
Cathleen ni Houlihan A one-act play
and won that year’s Evening Standard Award
by W. B. YEATS (with some help from Lady
for Best Musical. Cats began its 16th year at
GREGORY), first produced in 1902 in Dublin
the theatre in 1996, thereby becoming the
by the Irish National Dramatic Society. Two
world’s longest-running musical to that date.
years later it was one of three plays that opened
The show finally closed, after an astonishing
the ABBEY THEATRE, becoming a staple in its 8949 performances, in May 2002; its demise
repertory. Based in part on an old Irish ballad, has been attributed to the sudden fall in US
it aroused fervent nationalistic feeling with its visitors to London in the wake of the events
story of an old woman (a traditional symbol of of September 11, 2001. The Broadway
Ireland) who urges Michael, a young peasant, production likewise ran for a record 18 years;
to assist her in her struggle to reclaim the “four altogether Cats has been seen by some 50
green fields” that have been stolen from her by million people in 26 countries worldwide.
a stranger. At the end of the play Michael
decides to abandon his fiancée and follow catwalk See BRIDGE.
Cathleen to the death. In the play’s final lines Caucasian Chalk Circle A play by
Michael’s father asks another character if he Bertolt BRECHT written between 1943 and
has seen an old woman on the road and 1945, premiered in 1948 in Northfield,
receives the reply: Minnesota, and first performed in German by
I did not, but I saw a young girl, and the Berliner Ensemble in 1954. It has enjoyed
she had the walk of a queen. frequent revivals, including an acclaimed 1962
Yeats later worried about the inflammatory production by the Royal Shakespeare
effect the play may have had. In one of his last Company at the Aldwych Theatre in London.
poems he asked himself: In Britain it has proved the most popular of
Did that play of mine send out Brecht’s works with student and amateur
Certain men the English shot? groups.
W. B. YEATS: ‘Man and Echo’ The play, set in Caucasia in the aftermath
of World War II, shows the victory of love and
Cat on A Hot Tin Roof Tennessee expediency over the law. The plot concerns a
WILLIAMS’s drama about a troubled Southern group of villagers who decide to take over their
family bullied by its terminally ill patriarch. valley to grow fruit. To justify this, they enact
The play, which earned Williams a second the ancient story of the maid Grusche, who
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, opened on Broadway rescues and raises a child deserted by its
in 1955, in a production by Elia KAZAN. Its aristocratic mother. When the real mother
London run began in 1957 at the Comedy demands it back (for legal purposes), Grusche
Theatre. The plot centres on Big Daddy, a rich takes the case before a mysterious judge who
cotton-plantation owner, and his scheming applies the ‘chalk test’. He decides that the
mendacious family. His son, Brick, is an ‘true’ mother is the one who can pull the child
alcoholic who has become impotent because out of the chalk circle, and this turns out to be
his wife, Maggie ‘The Cat’, once seduced his Grusche. The moral is that just as the child
best friend, Skipper. Maggie desperately wants belongs to the woman who will truly cherish
to produce an heir for Big Daddy’s fortune; it, the valley belongs to the villagers.
the play ends with her attempt to arouse
Brick’s sexual interest. The 1958 Hollywood Cavalcade A patriotic (but anti-war) play
film starred Paul Newman and Elizabeth by Noël COWARD, first performed in 1931 at
Taylor as Brick and Maggie: Burl Ives reprised Drury Lane. It presents a panorama of British
life from 1899 to 1930 through the history of
his stage role as Big Daddy. There have been
the upper-class Marryot family. An enormous
several Broadway revivals, including an all-
cast was required for the spectacular
Black production starring James Earl Jones in
production. The songs included ‘Lover of My
2008.
Dreams’, ‘All the Fun of the Farm’, ‘Twentieth
Cats The phenomenally successful musical Century Blues’, and ‘The Girls of the C.I.V.’.
by Andrew LLOYD WEBBER in which poems King George V, who could seldom be
from T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of coaxed into a theatre, was lured by Queen
94 Cavittu Natakam

Mary to see Cavalcade; and he reluctantly debut in New York with a troupe of dancers
admitted that he actually enjoyed it. and, although plain in looks, won excellent
The 1932 film version won three Academy reviews for her graceful dancing. Three years
Awards but was denounced by the US critic later she opened in London in dancing and
Pauline Kael as “an orgy of British self- pantomime; she subsequently made the city
congratulation.” her home. Her first speaking part on the
British stage came in 1838. She often played
Cavittu Natakam (Tamil: step play) A
French characters, such as Madame Defarge in
form of Christian theatre in the south Indian
an adaptation of Dickens’s A Tale of Two
state of Kerala. It originated in the 16th
Cities (1860).
century and has survived with the support of
She was briefly a manager of London’s
the Roman Catholic Church. Most plays are in
Adelphi Theatre with the elder Ben Webster
Tamil, although members of the all-male
(see WEBSTER FAMILY). She gave her farewell
troupes speak Malayalam as their first
performance in 1874, returning four years later
language. The Cavittu Natakam incorporates
for one performance at Drury Lane, in which
elements of the martial arts and acrobatics,
she revived her acclaimed role of Miami in
with the actors stamping their feet in vigorous
John Buckstone’s The Green Bushes; or a
dancing movements. Costumes are colourful
Hundred Years Ago.
Indian versions of historical Western dress; evil
characters often wear sunglasses. Actors playing Celestina, La A dialogue novel that is the
kings come from selected Christian families only known work by Fernando de Rojas
and family status also determines other roles. (1465–1541); it was first published in about
An asan, or teacher, trains the actors and 1499 in 16 acts and expanded to 22 acts in
manages the productions. Cavittu Natakam is 1502. Subtitled “the Tragi-Comedy of Calisto
seldom seen today, except in central Kerala and Melibea”, it is usually considered the most
during the major church festivals from Advent important example of 15th-century Spanish
through to Easter. dramatic writing. La Celestina was one of the
The subjects are the historical or legendary first works to combine romance with an
heroes of Christian tradition, including saints, everyday domestic setting. It has been adapted
biblical figures, Charlemagne, and St George. for the stage in several languages. An English
One famous work, The Play of Charlemagne, version was produced in about 1530 by John
requires 80 characters to perform the story Rastell, whose An Interlude of Calisto and
over 15 nights. It was derived from Ariosto’s Melibea is one of the first English comedies.
Orlando Furioso and includes great battle He gave the story a happy ending. A century
scenes. later it was translated by James Mabbe
The stage is raised in a village or town near (1572–1642) as The Spanish Bawd (1631).
a church. At each end of the acting area are tall Modern revivals of de Rojas’s work include a
platforms reached by ladders, and from these 1993 production by the Actors’ Touring
lofty heights the kings hold court. Entrances Company.
are made from a door on the right and exits The plot tells how Calisto, a wealthy
through one on the left. A central opening gentleman, falls in love with the modest
reveals the chorus and musicians, who perform Melibea. To overcome her shyness, he employs
backstage. The main instruments are drums the old procuress Celestina to lure her from
and large bell-brass cymbals. During the her virtuous life. Celestina is later murdered by
performance the katiyakkaran, or clown, Calisto’s servants, Parmeno and Sempronio, in
amuses the audience and interprets the action order to steal her fee. The play ends with an
in Malayalam. He also makes sarcastic remarks orgy of death; Parmeno and Sempronio are
about the teacher, who remains on stage executed for their crime; and Calisto is killed
during the performance, setting the tempo while meeting secretly with Melibea, who
with hand cymbals and sometimes giving cues thereupon commits suicide.
with a whistle.
cellar The space beneath the stage. It is
Céleste, Madame The French dancer, used for storage and to house machinery used
pantomimist, and actress Céline Céleste to change scenery and create special effects.
(1814–82), who began as a successful child star The area is also employed to elevate and lower
in Paris. At the age of 13 she made her stage an actor through a TRAP. Since Continental
 Centres Dramatiques 95

theatres often had framed backgrounds that Beatrice Cenci’s trial and execution in 1599
had to be lowered beneath the stage, their for the murder of her father, Count Francesco
cellars were sometimes very deep; by Cenci. Shelley emphasized his wickedness and
comparison the average British cellar was the sufferings of Beatrice.
relatively shallow.
censorship For most of its history the
When the Ghost in Hamlet cries out from
theatre has been subjected to state censorship
beneath the stage, the Prince jokes nervously for political, religious, or moral reasons.
about “this fellow in the cellarage” (V, i). In Britain control of both plays and
Celle Castle A castle in the town of Celle, theatres was exerted through licensing (see
between Hannover and Hamburg, that LICENCE) until the Theatres Act of 1968. This
contains the oldest theatre in Germany. The system was controlled from 1494–1737 by the
baroque theatre seats 330 and was opened in MASTER OF THE REVELS and subsequently by
1674, mostly as a venue for opera. Plays were the LORD CHAMBERLAIN. Even in the 20th
presented for the Hannoverian Court each century, the heavy hand of the censor denied
summer until 1705. It was reopened in 1772, British audiences the chance to see works by
drawing such stars as Sophia Schroder Shaw, Ibsen, O’Neill, and Bond.
(1714–92). The theatre fell into general disuse The lowest point in English theatrical
during the 19th century but in 1935 was history was the Puritan INTERREGNUM
restored with an expanded stage and modern (1642–60), during which all the theatres were
scenery; it escaped damage during World War closed. After the licence of the Restoration
II. In 1950 a permanent repertory company period a new era of timidity was ushered in
took up residence. See also ČESKÝ KRUMLOV. by Jeremy COLLIER’s A Short View of the
Immorality and Prophaneness of the English
Cenci, The A tragedy in verse by Percy Stage (1698).
Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). Published Although America has never had an office
in 1819, it was banned by the LORD of national censorship or any legislation
CHAMBERLAIN and first performed in 1886 dealing specifically with drama, the state and
in Paris. In 1888 it was given a single private local police are empowered to act on
performance in London by the Shelley Society, complaints about obscenity under laws
with Alma Murray as Beatrice. Although covering literary works. The tradition of
Shelley provided some of the best dramatic BURLESQUE was eventually killed by repeated
verse since the Jacobeans, the play was never a police raids after STRIPTEASE began to
great success, owing to its lack of dramatic dominate the fare.
action and a style and construction that The Russian theatre has a long history of
provoked unflattering comparisons with suppression, censorship being particularly
Shakespeare (although Shelley said his main heavy during the reigns of Catherine II
influence was CALDERÓN). (1762–96) and Alexander I (1801–25) as well
Despite this, it has often been revived, as under the Soviet regime. Leading theatrical
notably by Sybil THORNDIKE in 1922 and figures to perish during the Stalinist terror
again in 1926. The former production was included V. E. MEYERHOLD.
the first at the New Theatre under the
management of Thorndike and her husband Centre 42 A cultural organization
Lewis Casson. It was during one of the intended to make the arts more widely
matinees that George Bernard SHAW, wanting accessible, primarily through trade-union
to write a drama about Joan of Arc, saw support and involvement. It was founded in
Thorndike in the trial scene and told his wife, 1961 by Arnold WESKER, who was also its
“I’ll write the play now. I’ve found the woman artistic director until his decision to dissolve
who can play it.” A year later she became the organization in 1970. Centre 42 staged
famous in the title role of Saint Joan (1923). In productions in the ROUNDHOUSE, a former
railway building in Camden, London, from
the Cassons’s 1926 production of The Cenci,
1968.
they gave the 18-year-old Laurence OLIVIER the
minor role of Orsino’s servant (27 words) after Centres Dramatiques A number of
Olivier’s father asked them to keep an eye on theatre companies set up in the French
his son. provinces after 1945 under a government-
The plot is based on the true story of sponsored scheme known as Décentralisation
96 centrestage

Dramatique. The first centres were opened in Urdemalas, while the best interludes are El
1947 in Strasbourg and St-Étienne. Some of viejo celoso and El retablo de las maravillas. He
the leading companies have been Jean Dasté’s also wrote (c. 1580–90) the Senecan tragedy El
Comédie de St-Étienne, the Comédie de cerco de Numancia, a patriotic piece about a
l’Ouest based in Rennes, the Compagnie de Spanish city resisting a siege by the Roman
Caen, and the Grenier de Toulouse, which army, and a true account of his experiences
celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1969 by with the pirates, El trato de Argel. Cervantes
moving into a new theatre in the city. said his own favourite work was the CLOAK-
The establishment of regional theatre AND-SWORD PLAY La Confusa.
centres gave a much needed boost to provincial Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the
drama in France. The companies are usually same day, 23 April 1616.
based in university towns and draw talent from Český Krumlov A castle in the Czech
local amateur groups. They tour the region Republic that contains one of Europe’s oldest
and perform classic French plays as well as theatres. Built in 1766 in the baroque style, the
contemporary and foreign works. Although the small theatre has a proscenium and four traps
Centres Dramatiques have made a significant in the floor. It has 10 sets, painted by the
impact on the nation’s theatre, modern French Viennese artists Jan Wetschela and Leo
dramatists prefer to open in Paris and new Markla, that are apparently the oldest
plays are seldom performed in the regions. surviving scenery in the world. The scenes,
centrestage The middle area of a stage, which use perspective effects developed by the
usually defined as the middle third from left to BIBIENA FAMILY, provide general backgrounds
right. The middle part moving from front to such as a palace, forest, and harbour. Many
back is known as midstage. Figuratively, ‘to be items of the original stage machinery, such as
centre stage’ means to be the centre of ropes and winches for quick scenery changes,
attention. See also UPSTAGE; DOWNSTAGE. still survive. Despite its fragile condition, the
theatre is occasionally used for productions.
Cervantes (Saavedra), Miguel de See also CELLE CASTLE.
(1547–1616) Spanish novelist and playwright.
Although he wrote more than 30 plays, he is chairman In British MUSIC HALL, the
best known for his satirical romance Don master of ceremonies who introduced the acts
Quixote de la Mancha (1605–15). It has been with a bang of his gavel accompanied by lively
adapted for the stage on numerous occasions: a patter and witty comments to the audience.
1694 version by Thomas D’Urfey included The role had mostly disappeared by the end of
incidental music by Purcell, an 1895 the 19th century.
adaptation by W. G. Wills starred Henry Chairs, The A one-act tragic farce by
Irving, the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Eugene IONESCO. It was first performed in
Mancha ran for three years, and in 1969 the 1952 in Paris and produced in London in
National Theatre produced James Saunders’s 1957. The play’s theme, according to Ionesco,
The Travails of Sancho Panza. is nothingness. The curtain goes up on two
Cervantes was the fourth of seven children empty chairs in a large empty room; we later
of an apothecary-surgeon. He served in the learn that this is situated high up in a tower
army and began writing after being wounded surrounded by water. The only characters to
in his left hand (“to the greater glory of the appear are an Old Man, an Old Woman, and a
right”) during the battle of Lepanto (1571). deaf-mute Orator. The elderly married couple
Four years later he was captured by pirates and talk about their meaningless lives and the
held as a slave in Algiers for five years. people they have known, adding further empty
Cervantes’s early plays were too literary to chairs for ‘characters’ that are never seen or
be theatrical. For many years he gave up heard. The Old Man chats to his childhood
writing for the stage, but returned to drama girlfriend, and the Old Woman flirts with an
late in life. Only 18 of his plays survive, all but engraver. An invisible Emperor also comes in
two of which were published in a volume of and finally the visible but mute Orator who,
eight comedies and eight comic interludes the Old Man informs his unseen guests, will
(entremeses) in 1615. The latter were his save mankind. The elderly couple then leap off
greatest contribution to Spanish drama. the tower to their deaths. Left alone, the
The full-length comedies include Pedro de Orator writes nonsense on a blackboard, bows
 Champagne Charlie 97

to the audience, and exits, leaving the stage In 1624 the company’s production of
crowded with empty chairs. Middleton’s A Game of Chess was banned and
the players admonished after a complaint by
Chaita Ghoda Nata In India, a simple
the Spanish ambassador. On the death of
improvised drama about mythological figures
James I (1625) the King’s Men came under the
that is acted by the fishermen of the eastern
patronage of his successor, Charles I, who
state of Orissa. The evening entertainment,
protected them from a Puritan attempt to close
which includes humorous episodes, takes place
Blackfriars Theatre. Queen Henrietta Maria
in the spring under a full moon. All the roles
was an especially keen supporter of the
are performed by three actors; the rauta who is
company, who made court appearances at the
the main singer and comments on the stories,
indoor Cockpit-in-Court at Whitehall and
the rautami, a female impersonator who also
elsewhere. Philip Massinger became their main
sings and dances, and a performer who dances
dramatist and was succeeded on his death
as a horse. They are accompanied by two
(1640) by James Shirley. In 1642 the King’s
musicians playing the drums and cymbals.
Men disbanded when the Puritans closed the
Chamberlain’s Men The Elizabethan theatres (see INTERREGNUM, THE).
theatre company for which SHAKESPEARE acted
Chambers of Rhetoric (Rederijkers
and wrote most of his plays; he was also a
Kamers) Associations of rhetoricians in the
leading shareholder. Founded in 1594, the
Low Countries during the 15th to 17th
company became the most successful troupe of
centuries, who organized festivals and
its day with Richard Burbage (see BURBAGE
performed in the equivalents of the English
FAMILY) as its leading actor; they were
MYSTERY PLAY and MORALITY PLAY. The idea
originally based at the Theatre, which had
for such associations originated in the 12th
been built by Richard’s father, James Burbage.
century in northern France; the Chambers of
The comedians William Kempe and Robert
Rhetoric showed this French influence most
Armin created most of Shakespeare’s clowns
clearly in their guild-like organization. During
and fools.
the 15th century the emphasis was on farce;
In 1599 the company moved to the new
only one play with a romance theme by a
GLOBE THEATRE. Two years later, they risked
Rederijker survives, Colijn van Rijssele’s Spiegel
serious political consequences by performing
der Minnen.
Shakespeare’s RICHARD II (about the deposition
Local towns commissioned Chambers of
of a king) at the time of the Earl of Essex’s
Rhetoric to organize religious and secular
unsuccessful rebellion. They escaped with an
festivals. They also ran national festivals and
admonishment and probably toured the
drama competitions. A winner in 1470 was
provinces for a while. The company quickly
Pieter Doorlant’s morality play Elckerlyc, the
returned to favour, playing at the court of
basis for the English EVERYMAN (1500). The
Elizabeth I shortly before her death. In 1603
miracle play Mariken van Nieumeghen (1500)
they were renamed the King’s Men after the
is one of the earliest works to feature a play-
accession of James I. They took over the
within-a-play; it deals with a sinful woman
second Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 but
who is converted by an outdoor pageant.
continued to play at the Globe until 1613,
when it burned down after a performance of Champagne Charlie The nickname of
Shakespeare’s HENRY VIII. It was rebuilt the George Leybourne (Joe Saunders; 1842–84),
following year, enabling the company to stage the music-hall performer who popularized
Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. a song of the same title. He first sang it in
After Shakespeare’s death in 1616 and 1867 at the Canterbury Music Hall, London.
Burbage’s in 1619, many of the actors moved When J. J. Poole, musical director of the
to other companies. In 1623 two members, Metropolitan Music Hall, saw his performance
John Heminge and Henry Condell, collected there, he dubbed Leybourne “a regular lion of
36 of Shakespeare’s plays together and a comic”, thereby coining the music-hall term
published the famous FIRST FOLIO. The two LION COMIQUE.
men also acted as the company’s business Although Leybourne himself was a
managers, in which role they were succeeded Midlands mechanic who first sang in East End
in about 1630 by Joseph Taylor and John taverns, his stage character was a whiskered
Lowin. man-about-town with monocle and fur collar.
98 Champmeslé, La

His songs praised the delights of drink and “Can you weep Fate from its determined
he lived the part off-stage, drinking only purpose?” he asks her. “So soon may you weep
champagne, dressing extravagantly, and me.” Beatrice submits and subsequently
driving a carriage-and-four. marries Alsemero. To disguise the fact that she
By the 1880s Leybourne’s popularity and is not a virgin, she has her maid take her place
health were declining. His last years were spent on the wedding night. Although De Flores
managing and chairing smaller halls; he was murders the maid to prevent exposure, he and
sometimes joined on stage by his daughter, Beatrice are overheard conferring and brought
Florrie, for a short routine. before the governor; De Flores mortally
The character in the song was suggested by wounds Beatrice before committing suicide.
the original Champagne Charlie, the 4th and The play’s title comes from the comic
last Marquess of Hastings. He was the most subplot (written by Rowley) in which Antonio
notorious spendthrift and wastrel of the mid- and Franciscus pretend to be changelings
19th century. One night he lost three games of (madmen) in order to make advances to
draughts for £1,000 a game. He then cut a Isabella, wife of the doctor of a lunatic asylum.
pack of cards for £500 a cut, and lost £5,000 Chapman, George (1560–1634)
in an hour and a half. He paid both debts English poet and dramatist, also noted for his
before he left the room. translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey (which
Champmeslé, La (Marie Desmares; inspired Keats’s sonnet ‘On First Looking into
1642–98), One of France’s first tragic Chapman’s Homer’). Chapman, who is
actresses, famous for creating the traditional thought to have served as a soldier in his
‘touching voice’ of the Paris stage. She became youth, began to write plays for the Admiral’s
the mistress of RACINE and, according to Men in the 1590s; his earlier works include the
contemporary gossip, several of the nobility. comedy An Humorous Day’s Mirth (1597),
She began acting at the Théâtre du Marais in which influenced Ben JONSON’s Every Man in
Paris and in 1665 married the actor Charles His Humour (1598). Most of Chapman’s
Chevillet Champmeslé (1642–1701), who had surviving plays date from the first decade of
written several light comedies. In 1670 both the 17th century, the tragedy Bussy D’Ambois
joined the Théâtre de l’HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE. (1604) and its sequel The Revenge of Bussy
La Champmeslé created many famous D’Ambois (1610) being usually considered his
roles, including the heroines of Racine’s best work.
Bérénice (1670) and Phedre (1677). She was In 1605, in collaboration with Ben Jonson
particularly celebrated for her beautiful voice. and John Marston, Chapman wrote EASTWARD
One contemporary wrote that “She shows so HO!, a play that King James I found so
much art in the use of it…her heart really offensive to his fellow Scots that he had
seems to be full of the passion which is only in Chapman and Marston imprisoned for their
her mouth.” In 1680 the Champmeslés were part in it. Chapman was also threatened with
founding members of the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE, imprisonment in 1613 for Chabot, Admiral
where she became the leading lady, playing of France, which offended the French
opposite Michel Baron (1653–1729) until her Ambassador. Eastward Ho! has proved to be
death. Chapman’s most frequently revived work,
although Jonathan Miller directed a revival of
Changeling, The A tragedy by Thomas Bussy D’Ambois at the Old Vic in 1988.
MIDDLETON and William Rowley. It was first Although little is known for certain about
performed in 1622 in London but not Chapman’s life and character, his somewhat
published until 1653. The plot is based on shadowy relationships with other writers of
John Reynolds’s God’s Revenge against Murther the period have prompted much speculation.
(1621). The main character is Beatrice, whose In particular, he has often been identified as
father, the governor of Alicant, orders her to the ‘rival poet’ alluded to in Shakespeare’s
marry Alonzo de Piracquo. Before the Sonnets and as the model for both the pedant
wedding, however, she falls for a visiting Holofernes in Love’s Labours Lost (1594) and
nobleman, Alsemero, and arranges for the ugly the scurrilous Thersites in Troilus and Cressida
servant De Flores to murder Alonzo. When (1601). Chapman has also been associated
this is accomplished she offers him gold but, to with the so-called ‘School of Night’, a
her disgust, De Flores demands her instead: supposed coterie of freethinkers and occultists
 Cheek By Jowl 99

that also included Christopher MARLOWE and to the girls but has to dodge the attentions of
Sir Walter Raleigh. Intriguingly, Chapman Amy’s uncle Stephen. The action becomes
claimed that his translations of Homer had more confused when the real Aunt Donna
been inspired and guided by the poet’s ghost. Lucia suddenly shows up under an assumed
name.
chariot-and-pole system See
The phrase still running – like Charley’s
CARRIAGE-AND-FRAME SYSTEM.
Aunt was formerly applied to anything or
charivari In the 18th century, a procession anyone that showed a stubborn longevity.
of noisy street dancers, singers, maskers, and
drummers. The participants included the wild Chauve-Souris A highly successful revue
man Hellequin, whose name evolved into produced by the Russian theatre director
HARLEQUIN, dissolute monks who exposed
Nikita Balieff; it was first performed in 1908 at
their behinds, and demons beating on pots the Chauve-Souris Club in Paris. The revue
and pans (still part of the FASTNACHTSSPIEL was brought to London in 1921 by Charles B.
COCHRAN and opened in New York the
performed in Basel, Switzerland).
The charivari began in the 14th century as following year. Chauve-Souris consisted of
the ‘chalvaricum’, a loud disturbance organized burlesques, songs, and pantomime; many of
to show the community’s displeasure at the sketches were mimes based on popular
irregular or unconventional marriages (such as ballads, prints, and engravings. The
those between partners of unequal status). In production was richly designed and costumed
England, a similar uproar occurred at the in the style of a Russian ballet. The title
weddings of butchers, when it was performed (literally ‘bald mouse’) is a French word for a
good-naturedly by their co-workers, who bat.
created a racket with cleavers and marrow- Cheek By Jowl British touring company
bones. Soon society weddings were demanding established in 1981 by two Cambridge law
this unique ceremony. graduates, director Declan Donnellan
In 1832 Charles Philipon founded a (1953– ) and designer Nick Ormerod
French daily publication Le Charivari with the (1951– ). Their declared aim was to present
intention of ridiculing the foibles of society. Shakespeare and other, less familiar, classics in
The name was adopted as a subtitle by the sparse, stripped-down productions that
English magazine Punch when it began avoided both stale conventions on the one
publishing in 1841. hand and conceptual gimmickry on the other.
The word itself is French, from a Late This aim was realized triumphantly in a series
Latin word meaning ‘headache’. of plays that included the British premieres of
Charley’s Aunt A farce by Brandon Racines’s Andromache (1985), Corneille’s Le
Thomas, first performed in London in 1892 at Cid (1986), and Ostrovsky’s A Family Affair
the Royalty Theatre in Soho. It ran for four (1988), as well as fresh interpretations of
years and 1466 performances with W. S. Shakespeare, including an all-male As You Like
Penley as the cross-dressing Lord Fancourt It (1991). In the late 1980s Cheek By Jowl
Babberley. Many years later the play provided began a long association with Lev Dodin’s
the first professional role for the 19-year-old MALY THEATRE of St Petersburg; this Russian
Rex HARRISON; in 1927 he earned £8 a week connection culminated in 2000, when
playing the girl-crazy Jack Chesney in a 16- Donnellan and Ormerod formed a sister
week touring version. Frank Loesser turned company of Russian actors in Moscow (known
Charley’s Aunt into the successful Broadway informally as ‘Cheek By Jowlski’). Donnellan
musical Where’s Charley? and Ormerod – who are domestic as well as
The story follows two scheming Oxford artistic partners – have taken other
undergraduates, Jack Chesney and Charles opportunities to work together outside the
Wykeham, in their attempts to lure a pair of context of Cheek By Jowl, notably on the
girls, Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue, into West End musical Martin Guerre (1996).
their rooms to meet “Charley’s aunt” from More recent work by the company has
Brazil “where the nuts come from”. The aunt, included Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul
however, is a male friend, Lord Fancourt- (2002), a production of Othello (2004) that
Babberly (played in a 1955 production by toured 14 countries on five continents, and a
Frankie Howerd). ‘Babbs’ enjoys getting close stark Macbeth (2010), presented as part of a
100 Cheeky Chappie

three-year residency at London’s Barbican years of Chekhov’s life the Moscow Art
Centre. Theatre also staged UNCLE VANYA (1899), a
The company takes its name from a line in reworking of The Wood Demon, THREE SISTERS
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the (1901), and THE CHERRY ORCHARD (1904),
furious Lysander tells his rival Demetrius shortly after the production of which Chekhov
“Nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl!” died. Within ten years of his death Chekhov’s
plays were being staged to considerable critical
Cheeky Chappie The nickname
interest in both Britain and America, though it
of the music-hall comedian Max Miller
was not until the mid 1920s that they became
(1895–1963). The epithet, which appeared on
commercially successful. With their depiction
bills advertising his act from 1924, alluded to
of the ennui and inconsequence of much of
the risqué nature of his performance, in
daily life, their unobtrusive symbolism, and
particular his use of the double entendre.
their blend of comedy with an underlying
‘Clean’ gags were described as coming from his
sense of anguish, Chekhov’s four late
‘white book’ and ‘dirty’ gags as coming from
masterpieces have had a profound influence on
his ‘blue book’; according to his biographer,
20th-century Western drama.
however, the books themselves were only
notional. Cherry Orchard, The CHEKHOV’s last
play, generally regarded as his masterpiece.
Chekhov, Anton (1860–1904) Russian
The tragicomedy was first staged in 1904 at
dramatist and short-story writer. The grandson
the Moscow Art Theatre under STANISLAVSKY,
of a serf and son of a failed grocer, Chekhov
whose influential production emphasized
began writing humorous sketches and articles
the vein of melancholy in the play to the
as a medical student at Moscow University.
detriment of the comedy. The first London
After his graduation in 1884 he began to
production was put on by the Stage Society in
practise medicine but continued to produce
1912.
short stories and journalism, acquiring
The story concerns the ineffectual attempts
something of a lowbrow following.
of Madame Lyubov Ranevskya and her family
Chekhov began to make his name in the
to save their estate, with its glorious cherry
theatre with a series of successful one-act
orchard, from bankruptcy. They are horrified
farces, including The Bear and Swan Song
when Lopakhin, a suitor to her stepdaughter,
(both 1888); he claimed to have written the
suggests levelling the orchard to develop a
latter in just over an hour. His earliest full-
holiday resort. Other plans fail, however, and
length plays, the gloomy IVANOV (1887) and
the estate is auctioned. Surprisingly, Lopakhin
The Wood Demon (1889), were, however,
is the buyer, and the family prepares to move
notably unsuccessful. This failure to become a
out. In the final scene workmen begin to chop
serious dramatist may have influenced his
down the orchard. The play is sometimes seen
decision to undertake a 6000-mile journey
as a parable about the doom of the Russian
across Siberia to report on the notorious penal
landowning class.
settlement of Sakhalin in 1890.
One memorable revival was the Old Vic’s
In about 1892 Chekhov bought an estate
1933 production directed by Tyrone Guthrie
at Melikhovo, about 50 miles outside Moscow.
and starring Charles Laughton, James Mason,
During his six years at Melikhovo Chekhov
Elsa Lanchester, and Flora ROBSON. The
produced many of his finest short stories as
production suffered a near disaster when
well as his first mature dramatic work, THE
Robson tripped over a rug and fell flat on her
SEAGULL. When produced in 1896 at the
face. She quickly got back on her feet but the
Alexandrinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, The
audience showed no reaction. Later in her
Seagull proved a catastrophic failure; Chekhov,
dressing room, she asked visiting Hollywood
distressed by this experience, vowed to stop
producer James Whale why nobody had
writing for the stage. The following year he
laughed. “But why?” he shrugged. “We all
suffered a lung haemorrhage and tuberculosis
thought, ‘How very Russian’.”
was diagnosed. In 1898, however, he was
persuaded to allow the recently formed Chestnut Street Theatre One of
MOSCOW ART THEATRE to revive The Seagull. the earliest US theatres. It was built in
The production was as successful as the first Philadelphia by the US actor Thomas Wignell
had been disastrous. In the remaining five for a company he had brought over from
 Chicano theatre 101

England and opened in 1794. The theatre was wounded, taken prisoner, and awarded
a copy of the Theatre Royal at Bath and the the Croix de Guerre. It was during his
first in America to incorporate the English imprisonment that he learned English, from a
style of proscenium. In 1816 it became one of British sergeant. In 1919 he made his London
the first theatres to be lit by gas. The company, debut in the revue Hullo, America!. During the
which produced a series of successful light 1920s and 1930s he made frequent trips to
comedies, included three members of the Hollywood to make films. After World War II
JEFFERSON FAMILY. Life magazine named Chevalier as a Nazi
After Wignell’s death, the theatre was collaborator, although little evidence was
managed by William Wood (1779–1861) and provided. It is true that he had sung on the
the elder William Warren (1767–1832). Fire German-controlled radio in Paris, but he also
damage closed it from 1820 to 1822 and six entertained French prisoners.
years later, when Wood retired, it went Chevalier enjoyed his greatest international
bankrupt. This was mostly due to competition success with his role in Lerner and Loewe’s
from the WALNUT STREET THEATRE (opened film musical Gigi (1958), released when he was
1811) and Mrs John Drew’s Arch Street 70. At 82 he unsuccessfully attempted suicide.
Theatre (see DREW FAMILY). The Chestnut
chew up the scenery A phrase
Street Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1855
meaning to overact. It originally appeared in
and rebuilt in 1863: it closed in 1910 and was
a 1930 theatre review by Dorothy Parker
finally demolished in 1917.
(1893–1967), the US writer and wit, who
The Chestnut Street was one of the two
described one actor as “more glutton than
US theatres known as Old Drury (the other
artist…he commences to chew up the
being New York’s PARK THEATRE).
scenery.” When the director Harold French
Chevalier, Albert (1861–1912) British saw Rex Harrison in Heroes Don’t Care (1936),
music-hall performer, whose popular cockney he commented: “I thought he did chew up
songs earned him the nickname the coster’s the scenery a bit that night, probably the
laureate. He began his music-hall career at the overconfidence of an actor knowing the run is
London Pavilion in 1891, having previously nearing its end.” The phrase has now entered
acted in burlesque and melodrama. His best- the general language, meaning to dramatize
known songs included ‘Knocked ’Em in the events or oneself inappropriately.
Old Kent Road’. See also OLD DUTCH.
Chicano theatre Drama by and for US
Chevalier, Maurice (1888–1972) citizens of Mexican origin. Plays may be in
French music-hall artist and actor whose Spanish, English, or a mixture of both. The
talent, sly charm, and deliberately exaggerated plots focus on the experiences of Mexican-
French accent won him international fame and Americans, especially their problems in
regular performances in London and New adjusting to a White English-speaking country.
York. He gave his 1949 autobiography the title Issues dealt with include racial discrimination,
The Man in the Straw Hat, a reference to the unemployment, drug abuse, education, and
tilted boater he frequently sported. housing. The troupes are often made up of
Chevalier was born in the Parisian slum of students from colleges and universities.
Ménilmontant, where his mother was a poor Spanish-language drama in North America
Flemish lacemaker. He began singing bawdy can be traced back to the arrival of the
songs in disreputable Paris cafes at the age of conquistadors, who staged religious plays for
13 and then moved into music hall. In 1907 the natives. Such a performance took place in
he toured the halls with the writer Colette, 1598 in present-day El Paso, Texas, during an
who later described him as an isolated person expedition led by Juan de Oñate. After the
who sacrificed everything for his performance. United States was established, the Spanish-
From 1909 to 1913 he appeared on the stage language theatre continued in the southwest,
of the Folies-Bergères with the actress and with centres in California (Los Angeles and
singer MISTINGUETT who, though 13 years his San Francisco) and Texas (San Antonio, El
senior, became his lover. Other famous ladies Paso, and Laredo). By World War II it had
with whom he is said to have had relationships spread to New York, Chicago, and other major
include Marlene Dietrich. cities, where specialist venues presented
During World War I Chevalier was Spanish plays and ZARZUELAs.
102 Chichester Festival

The current Chicano theatre was a product Greenwood, John Neville, Nicholas Hannen,
of the 1960s civil rights movement. The and his wife Athene Seyler.
director and playwright Luis Valdéz Despite this array of talent, the Festival
(1940– ) is credited with its foundation. A began disastrously. The first production,
student activist and a member of the San Buckingham’s farce The Chances, drew poor
Francisco Mime Troupe, Valdéz joined César reviews. Worse notices followed the second
Chávez during his nationally publicized offering, The Broken Heart, which featured
migrant farmworkers’ strike in the vineyards Olivier as a jealous nobleman. Half the seats
of Delano, California, in 1965. Valdéz used went unsold and the critic Kenneth Tynan
improvised political theatre to support wrote an open letter to Olivier blaming his
the cause, presenting a series of one-act management and saying, “all is not well with
revolutionary works called actos. He went on your dashing hexagonal playhouse, something
to establish the company El Teatro Campesino has clearly gone wrong.”
(Farmworkers’ Theatre). In 1978 his Zoot Suit The third try, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya,
was premiered in Los Angeles and became the began just as badly with missed cues and
first Chicano offering to transfer to Broadway. mismatched sound effects. Joan Greenwood,
El Teatro Campesino provided a model for pregnant under a heavy costume, burst into
other troupes, such as Adrian Vargas’s Teatro tears after a hiss from the audience. Sybil
de la Gente in San Jose, California (1967), the Thorndike and Lewis Casson suffered one
Teatro de los Barrios in San Antonio, Texas night from the lack of a curtain. When
(1969), and Joe Rosenberg’s Teatro Bilingue Thorndike got up to leave the scene with
in Kingsville, Texas (1972). In 1971 a national Casson, she noticed him asleep in his chair.
Chicano theatre organization called TENAZ “Waffles, Waffles,” she called, using his
(El Teatro Nacional de Aztlán) was created to character’s name. When he continued to
sponsor annual festivals for companies from slumber, she yelled, “Lewis! Wake up you silly
the US and Latin America. old fool!”. He leaped up fearfully and they
Chicano theatre is a part of the broader exited.
category of Hispanic American theatre, which Just as it seemed that the Festival itself was
has expanded rapidly since the 1960s. There in jeopardy, great reviews appeared and Uncle
are now over 100 Hispanic companies active in Vanya became the hit of the season. Olivier,
the United States; some 30 of these are however, became drunk at the cast party and
Chicano, the rest being mainly Puerto Rican railed at Evershed-Martin, calling him a rich
or Cuban. The best known New York “theatrical ignoramus” who had founded
companies include the Puerto Rican Traveling Chichester to get a knighthood.
Theatre, INTAR, and Repertorio Espagnol. The second season was a thorough success,
opening with Shaw’s Saint Joan and featuring a
Chichester Festival An annual summer
revival of Uncle Vanya. Olivier, who became
drama festival in Chichester, Sussex, inspired
director of the National Theatre in 1963, was
by the Shakespeare Festival Theatre in
succeeded at Chichester by John Clements,
Stratford, Ontario. It was organized by
who was followed by Keith Michell in 1974.
Chichester’s ex-mayor Leslie Evershed-Martin,
Subsequent directors have included Patrick
an amateur actor. Local citizens had pledged
Garland (1981–84, 1991–94) and Jonathan
£42,000 by the time Laurence OLIVIER
Church (2005– ).
accepted the appointment as the first director.
Hits transferring from the Festival to the
He was offered £5,000 a year but only
West End have included Peter Shaffer’s 1964
accepted £3,000.
epic The Royal Hunt of the Sun, T. S. Eliot’s
The theatre, built in 1962, seats 1394 on
The Cocktail Party in the 1968 production
three sides of a hexagonal auditorium (which
with Alec Guinness, a nightmarish Macbeth
Olivier helped to design). It was Britain’s first
(2007) with Patrick Stewart, and Lucy
large open-stage theatre. The Festival opened
Prebble’s ENRON (2009).
that year with a 10-week season. Olivier
starred in the productions and assembled a Chicken Soup with Barley The first
repertory company that was to provide the of Arnold WESKER’s trilogy of plays about an
nucleus for the National Theatre: Sybil East End Jewish family, the Kahns. It was first
Thorndike, her husband Lewis Casson, performed in 1958 at the Belgrade Theatre,
Michael Redgrave, Fay Compton, Joan Coventry, and subsequently transferred to the
 children’s theatre 103

Royal Court Theatre in London. The other York and two years later in London; the film
plays of the trilogy are Roots (1959) and I’m version (1961) starred Shirley MacLaine and
Talking About Jerusalem (1960). Audrey Hepburn.
Chicken Soup with Barley follows the Set in New England, the story involves
disintegration of the Kahn family and their Karen and Martha, two friends who run a
political ideals over the 20 years from 1936 to small boarding school for girls. Their neurotic
1956. Sarah is energetic and emotional, a student Mary Tilford runs home to her
passionate Communist, while her friendly grandmother, Amelia Tilford, and justifies this
husband, Harry, is lazily apolitical. Sarah fights by accusing the two women of being lesbians.
a long losing battle as Harry’s apathy slides Mrs Tilford withdraws Mary and other parents
into senility. Their daughter Ada inherits do the same as the rumour spreads. Karen’s
Sarah’s romantic idealism but Ronnie, their fiancé, Dr Joseph Cardin, is able to find
son, becomes disillusioned in the wake of the inconsistencies in Mary’s story, but she
Soviet invasion of Hungary. blackmails a fellow pupil into corroborating
her lie. The school goes bankrupt and closes.
Children of the Chapel One of the
Dr Cardin proposes to Karen but she now has
famous BOY COMPANIES of the Elizabethan
doubts about her sexual preferences. Martha,
theatre. Its young actors, who included Ezekiel
suffering from the same doubts, commits
Fenn, Nathan Field, and Salathiel Pavy, gave
suicide. Mrs Tilford finally discovers the lie
the first performances of major works by
and offers Karen money, but it is too late.
Jonson, Middleton, Beaumont, and Marston.
The choirboys of the Chapels Royal of children’s theatre Drama productions
Windsor and London were first organized into staged specifically for young people, a feature
an acting company by William Cornish of the 20th-century theatre. The British
(fl. 1509–23) to amuse the young Henry VIII. director and theatre manager Caryl Jenner
A later master was the playwright Richard (1917–73) was the first to establish a
Edwardes (c. 1523–66), who wrote the professional theatre for children in this
tragicomedy Damon and Pithias (1565). In country. She formed several touring companies
1576 Richard Farrant, deputy master of the under the title of the English Theatre for
Chapel Children, created an indoor theatre for Children and in 1962 established the Unicorn
the company in the ruins of the Blackfriars Theatre for Young People at the ARTS
monastery (see BLACKFRIARS THEATRE). Under THEATRE, London. Plays presented there
the dramatist John Lyly, who took over in included Marged Smith’s The Wappy Water
1580, the company performed several plays Bus (1965), John Arden’s The Royal Pardon, or
with the rival Boys of St Paul’s, including the Soldier Who Became an Actor (1967), and
Lyly’s own Campaspe and Sapho and Phao. In The Meg and Mog Show (1981) with Maureen
1601 the company was drawn into the so- Lipman. The Unicorn Theatre has also
called ‘war of the theatres’ on the side of Ben organized workshops for children in such
Jonson, when they performed in his play The subjects as clown skills and scenery painting.
Poetaster, which ridiculed John Marston. The In 2005 it moved to a new purpose-built
latter responded with satires performed by the theatre on the South Bank of the Thames.
Boys of St Paul’s. Britain’s NATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE,
The company began to fall out of favour founded in 1955, established the Shaw Theatre
with James I in 1605, after performing Jonson, Company in 1971 to perform plays suitable
Chapman, and Marston’s EASTWARD HO!, for young audiences. The YOUNG VIC was
which contained some rude remarks about the opened in 1970 as a theatre specifically for
Scots. The Children of the Chapel moved to young audiences.
the Whitefriars Theatre in 1609 before Children’s theatre has also flourished in
disbanding in 1615. America and Continental Europe. The famous
BARTER THEATRE in Abingdon, Virginia has set
children’s companies See BOY
aside a building for productions for children.
COMPANIES.
In France, Léon Chancerel’s short-lived
Children’s Hour, The The first play by Théâtre de l’Oncle Sebastien (1935–39) had a
the US dramatist Lillian HELLMAN, dealing particularly impressive record. Chancerel was
with the then controversial subject of later the moving force behind the International
lesbianism. It was premiered in 1934 in New Association for Theatre and Young People
104 Chips with Everything

(ASSITEJ), established in Paris in 1965; the In the ATHENIAN DRAMA of the 5th and 4th
organization is now active in over 70 countries. centuries BC the role of the chorus was
See also TIE. gradually reduced and that of the principals
enhanced. AESCHYLUS reduced the chorus from
Chips with Everything A play about
50 to 12, while SOPHOCLES limited its role to
life in the RAF by Arnold WESKER. It was first
commenting on the main action. The chorus
performed in London in 1962 at the Royal
contributed bawdy songs and lively dancing to
Court Theatre, directed by John Dexter, and
the plays of the OLD COMEDY; for some works,
opened on Broadway a year later. Wesker uses notably ARISTOPHANES’s The Birds and The
the division between the officers and the other Frogs, it was elaborately costumed. In later
ranks in the Royal Air Force as a microcosm of Greek drama the chorus was sometimes
the British class system and shows the damage replaced by interludes featuring singers and
it does to individuals. dancers. Roman plays usually had no chorus.
Set in an RAF station, the plot focuses on In Greece the expense of training and
an educated upper-class man who rebels outfitting the chorus was met by the
against the system by joining the ranks. CHOREGUS, a wealthy Athenian citizen who
Although the officers attempt to humiliate and was elected to this position of honour. Like the
break him, Pip steadfastly remains with his principal actors, members of the chorus
mates who eat “chips with everything”. Pip enjoyed various privileges including exemption
finally gives in when the officers accuse him of from military service.
seeking power and status among the lower The chorus survived into the later
classes. He rejoins the establishment and European theatre in various forms. In
successfully averts a rebellion by the airmen Elizabethan drama the role was frequently
against their poor treatment. undertaken by a single actor. Shakespeare used
choregus The patron of the CHORUS such a chorus to great effect in Henry V
in the ancient Athenian drama. See also (c. 1599) while in The Spanish Tragedy (1592),
CORYPHAEUS; LITURGY. Thomas Kyd used the characters of Revenge
and a Ghost as choruses to comment on the
choreography The art of devising and action. In the 20th century, T. S. Eliot revived
directing dances for the ballet or musical the Greek chorus for his MURDER IN THE
theatre. Choreography developed alongside the CATHEDRAL (1935), in which the Women of
art of ballet, one of the best known early Canterbury comment on the meaning of the
exponents being Charles Louis Beauchamp at action. The Stage Manager in Thornton
the court of Louis XIV. One of the most Wilder’s OUR TOWN (1938) is effectively a one-
original and controversial choreographers of man chorus.
modern dance was the American Martha In musical shows the chorus appears in
Graham, whose work greatly affected the choreographed numbers and crowd scenes.
dancing seen in plays and films. The modern The ‘chorus line’ of beautiful women dancing
energetic style of stage dancing was introduced in unison was introduced in America in the
to the US theatre with Rodgers and late 19th century (see BURLESQUE). The US
Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA!. In 1957 Jerome MUSICAL comedy gave the chorus a major role.
Robbins combined classical ballet with jazz Many non-Western theatrical traditions
rhythms in his choreography for West Side have made use of choruses. In the Japanese Nō
Story. play the chorus of six to ten persons (who wear
chorus A group of actors who support the traditional samurai costume) serve virtually the
principal performers and enhance the same function as the Greek chorus.
audience’s understanding of the play by Chorus Line, A A Broadway musical by
explaining the action, expressing opinions, or Marvin Hamlisch (music) and Edward Kleban
asking questions. (lyrics) that became a great success despite
The ancient Greek drama developed having virtually no plot and only one
from choral lyrics performed in honour of memorable song. The first production was in
DIONYSUS. These DITHYRAMBs, performed by a 1975 at the New York Public Theatre. This
chorus of 50 actors, are first mentioned in the won a Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for
7th century BC. THESPIS was supposedly the Best Musical despite one New York critic
first actor to detach himself from the chorus. declaring on opening night, “The paltriness of
 Chronomastix 105

the music was hideously apparent.” The show despite the fact that they were divorced in
also triumphed in London’s West End, 1928 and she subsequently married the
winning the Evening Standard Award. Sir archaeologist Max Mallowan. In 1926 Christie
Richard Attenborough made a film adaptation disappeared from view for several weeks,
of the musical in 1985. leading to a nationwide police hunt. She was
The slim plot involves dancers auditioning finally found in a health resort, apparently
for the chorus line of a Broadway show. After suffering from amnesia. A full explanation of
reducing the candidates to 17 for eight parts, this episode has never been given; some
the director-choreographer Zach asks them to regarded it as a publicity stunt, others as a
talk about themselves, which they do in genuine attack of amnesia, perhaps brought on
energetic song and dance. Among the winners by her failing marriage.
is his ex-girlfriend Cassie, of whom he has
Christy Minstrels The troupe of black-
been especially critical.
faced minstrels organized by the US musician
Christie, Dame Agatha (1890–1976) Edwin Pearce Christy in 1843. To an
British writer of detective stories, who accompaniment of various stage-Negro antics
produced over 20 works for the stage. She has they sang plantation songs while Bones,
earned a place in theatre history by writing the Sambo, and other stock characters of the
world’s longest continuously running play, MINSTREL SHOW cracked punning jokes.
THE MOUSETRAP, which opened in 1952 and Stephen Collins Foster provided their best-
was still going in 2006. known songs, which included ‘Beautiful
The first of her works to be staged was The Dreamer’ and ‘Old Folks at Home’ (‘Swanee
Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), adapted in River’). After the original troupe disbanded in
1928 as Alibi for the Prince of Wales’ Theatre. 1855 there were numerous offshoots, all
Her first original play, Black Coffee, opened in claiming the ‘Christy’ name. In Britain, one of
1930 at the Embassy Theatre. In 1943 she these developed into the famous Moore and
adapted Ten Little Niggers (1939) for the St Burgess Minstrels, who performed at London’s
James’s Theatre. She said it “set me on the St James’s Hall for 35 years.
path of being a playwright as well as a writer of Q: Why is it almost certain that
books”, although The Times claimed, “This is Shakespeare was a broker?
not a play. It is a kind of theatrical game.” It A: Because he furnished so many stock
ran for 260 performances in London and a quotations.
former 425 performances on Broadway. The Merry Book of the Moore and Burgess
Christie’s playwriting career hit a low Minstrels.
when her 1946 adaptation of Death on the Nile
(1937) ran at New York’s Plymouth Theatre Chronomastix A character in Ben
for only 12 performances (as Hidden Horizon). JONSON’s masque Time Vindicated to Himself
The critic Brooks Atkinson called it “dull in and to his Honours (1623), intended as a satire
theme, dull in story, dull in the acting”. This upon the poet George Wither. Wither, who
failure was followed by a great hit, the 1949 was often in trouble for his outspoken satirical
adaptation of The Murder at the Vicarage (by verses, seems to have been characterized by an
Moie Charles and Barbara Toy) which ran for irrepressible self-esteem. Although his song
1776 performances at the Playhouse, London. ‘Shall I, Wasting in Despair’ has been much
Christie had another hit with her admired, he was also the author of poems
adaptation of the short story The Hound of notorious for their insipid awfulness.
Death (1933), renamed Witness for the Memorable stanzas include:
Prosecution. Critics called it her best piece of She would me ‘Honey’ call,
stagecraft. “I can safely say that that was the She’d – O she’d kiss me too.
only first night I have enjoyed” she later wrote. But now alas! She’s left me
Her last work for the stage, produced in 1972 Falero, lero, loo.
when she was 82, was Fiddlers Three, a The Puritan tone of his later writings was also
comedy-thriller that opened in Guildford but controversial and the chief element satirized by
never transferred to the West End. Jonson. When the Civil War came, Wither
Her private life created its own mystery. In sold his house to pay for a troop of horse,
1914 she married Archibald Christie, whose which he led until captured in 1639. His
name she used throughout her writing career, execution seemed inevitable until Sir John
106 Chrononhotonthologos

Denham, the Royalist poet and playwright Hassan, the robber chief, and made a personal
(who had himself lost land to Wither’s troops) profit of more than £200,000 on a production
intervened. As Denham explained to the King, that cost £5,356.
it was not fellow feeling for a writer in distress The story is about the clever robber, Abu
that had prompted his charity but simply “that Hassan, who disguises himself to gain entry
so long as Wither lived, Denham would not be into rich homes. He is welcomed into Kasim
accounted the worst poet in England.” Baba’s house in the guise of Chu Chin Chow,
a rich Chinese merchant. Kasim’s brother, Ali
Chrononhotonthologos A
Baba, eventually finds Abu Hassan’s secret cave
BURLESQUE by the English dramatist Henry
of treasures, Sesame, and robs it. Hassan tries
Carey (d. 1743), first produced in 1734. It was
to recover his fortune by smuggling his men
subtitled The Most Tragical Tragedy that ever
into Ali Baba’s house in jars of oil, but the plot
was Tragediz’d by any Company of Tragedians.
fails.
The bombastic title character is the King of
The songs included ‘I Am Chu Chin
Queerummania; his name has sometimes been
Chow of China’, ‘Marjanah’s Song’, ‘Open
applied to any self-important person with a
Sesame!’, and ‘The Cobbler’s Song’.
taste for inflated rhetoric. Two other characters
are the pompous Aldiborontiphoscophornio Churchill, Caryl (1938– ) British
and the jovial Rigdum-Funnidos. playwright, whose innovative works have
achieved both critical and commercial success.
Chuanju The opera of Sichuan province,
The daughter of a political cartoonist and a
China. Its origins can be traced back to the
model, Churchill was born in London but
17th century. The music blends various
spent much of her youth in Canada. She wrote
regional styles while the drama combines
her first plays while studying at Oxford in the
elements of KUNQU from the main Chinese
1950s but thereafter wrote mainly for BBC
theatre with the truly native dengxi, a folk
radio while bringing up her three sons at
drama with mask dances. At the beginning of
home. Her first full-length stage play, the anti-
the 20th century extensive reforms were made
capitalist satire Owners (1972), was produced
by the actor and instructor Kang Zhilin
by the ROYAL COURT THEATRE, which has
(1870–1931). He managed the Sanqing
premiered most of her subsequent work.
(Three Celebrations) Company, the most
During the 1970s she also worked extensively
famous Sichuan Opera troupe, formed in
with the Joint Stock Company and the radical
1912. The genre has received support from the
feminist group Monstrous Regiment, whose
communist regime (except during the Cultural
methods of COLLECTIVE CREATION greatly
Revolution). Since 1983 the Sichuan Province
influenced her plays of this period. These
Chuanju Research Institute has maintained
include the historical plays Vinegar Tom and
more than 2000 texts of plays.
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (both 1976)
Although some Sichuan stage techniques
and Cloud Nine (1979), an uproarious comedy
were introduced to the BEIJING OPERA, the
that uses cross-gender casting and a dislocated
Chuanju retains a number of unique traditions.
time scheme to make points about colonialism
One of these is the acrobatic move in which an
and sexual stereotyping. In Top Girls (1982),
actor touches his forehead with his foot,
another formally daring work, a modern career
leaving a third ‘eye’ there.
woman discusses her lot with female characters
Chu Chin Chow One of London’s from a range of different cultures and periods.
longest running musical comedies, written by Churchill enjoyed the greatest commercial
Oscar Asche with music by Frederic Norton. It success of her career with Serious Money
opened in 1916 at His Majesty’s Theatre and (1987), an exuberant Jonsonian satire set in
ran for 2238 performances over nearly five the City of London during the frenzied boom
years. Asche devised the plot, a retelling of Ali year that followed ‘Big Bang’. Having opened
Baba and the Forty Thieves (see ALI BABA), in a at the Royal Court, the play went on to enjoy a
Manchester hotel room and completed the long run in the West End, where it played to
play three weeks later. When Beerbohm Tree, packed houses of the very City traders it
manager of His Majesty’s, first saw the satirized. It opened on Broadway just after the
revealing costumes during a rehearsal, he stock-market collapse of October 1987.
shook his head and commented, “I see – more In Churchill’s subsequent plays, formal
navel than military.” Asche played Abu experiment has been accompanied by a
 Cibber family 107

pronounced move away from any kind of Howard BRENTON’s The Churchill Play (1974)
realism. Her plays of the 1990s include Mad opens with Churchill rising from his coffin at
Forest (1990), a work inspired by a visit to his lying-in-state, while Rolf HOCHHUTH’s
Romania in the wake of the revolution there, controversial Soldiers (1967) has Churchill
The Skriker (1994), a dream-like piece conspiring to murder the Polish General
involving music, dance, and mime, and Blue Sikorski. Perhaps most outrageous is the role
Heart (1997), a curious double bill that Churchill plays in Joe Orton’s WHAT THE
divided the critics. More recently, Far Away BUTLER SAW (1969). Early in the play, a statue
(2000), an apocalyptic fable about a world in of the wartime leader is damaged by an
permanent conflict, enjoyed a sell-out success exploding gas main. As the play ends the cast
off-Broadway in the wake of September 11, gather reverentially round as the demented
while the award-winning A Number (2002) psychiatrist Dr Rance opens the cigar box in
addressed the issue of human cloning. Less which the statue’s private parts have been
well received was Drunk Enough To Say I Love preserved:
You (2006), an oblique meditation on the How much more inspiring if, in those
‘special relationship’ between Britain and dark days, we’d seen what we see now.
America. Instead we had to be content with a
In 2009 the Royal Court presented cigar – the symbol falling far short, as
Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children, a brief, we all realize, of the object itself.
highly stylized piece inspired by Israel’s
military action in Gaza; this has proved much See also EMPIRE PROMENADE.
the most controversial of Churchill’s plays, Cibber family The British actor-
provoking charges of antisemitism and equally manager, playwright, and poet laureate Colley
fierce rebuttals. Cibber (1671–1757) and his children, the
Churchill, Sir Winston (1874–1965) actor Theophilus Cibber (1703–58) and
British statesman and leader of the free world the actress Charlotte Charke (1710–60).
in its opposition to Nazi Germany. Churchill, Theophilus’s second wife Susanna Maria Arne
for most of his life, had other preoccupations (1714–66) was also an actress.
than the theatre. However, in the late 1920s, Colley Cibber was born in London, the
when Churchill was out of office, George son of a Danish sculptor, and in 1690 joined
Bernard SHAW sent him two tickets for the first Thomas BETTERTON’s company at Drury Lane.
night performance in London of his play Saint In one of his first roles, as a messenger to
Joan. With the tickets came a note: “I enclose Betterton, Cibber became so nervous that he
two tickets, one for yourself and one for a spoilt the whole scene. Betterton demanded
friend – if you have one”. Churchill sent a note that Cibber forfeit part of his salary. Told that
back regretting that he had a previous Cibber was paid nothing, Betterton replied,
engagement on that evening. “Would it be “Then put him down 10 shillings a week and
possible”, he added, “for you to let me have forfeit him 5 shillings.”
tickets for the second night – if there is one”. Cibber’s first great success was in his
Churchill also had a family connection own play Love’s Last Shift (1696), usually
with the theatre. His daughter Sarah was a considered the first sentimental comedy. He
successful actress, and for a time was married also played in Vanbrugh’s The Relapse (1697),
to the entertainer Vic Oliver, of whom a sequel to this play. His successes as a writer
Churchill disapproved. It is said that on one included The Careless Husband (1704), in
occasion Oliver asked Churchill if he admired which Anne OLDFIELD made her name.
any of his wartime enemies. “Yes”, growled He also produced numerous adaptations,
Churchill, “Mussolini – he had the courage to including a version of RICHARD III (1700)
have his son-in-law shot”. (Count Ciano, that held the stage until Irving restored the
husband of the Duce’s daughter, was convicted original in 1871. Cibber’s version contained
of treason and executed in 1944.) the infamous line, “Off with his head! So
Numerous plays have made use of much for Buckingham!” In 1710 he became
Churchillian images or of extracts from his part of the famous TRIUMVIRATE that managed
wartime speeches to establish period. In others, Drury Lane.
Churchill himself has appeared, notably in the Cibber was generally disliked because of
less than successful 1980s musical Winnie. his rudeness. After speaking the line “I was
108 Cid, Le

then in Rome” in one performance, he culminated in the play’s suppression, came to

suddenly went blank and waited for the be known as the querelle du Cid. Nevertheless,
prompter’s aid. When none came, he dragged the play established Corneille as the leading
the man by the collar to the footlights dramatist of the day. In the first production
growling, “Hang you, you scoundrel, what was the great actor MONTDORY played the title role
I doing in Rome? Why don’t you tell me?” (his most acclaimed part) at his Théâtre du
He was appointed (a much ridiculed) POET Marais.
LAUREATE in 1730 and retired from the stage The play was based on Las mocedades del
four years later. His autobiography Apology for Cid, a chronicle play about the exploits of the
the Life of Mr Colley Cibber, Comedian (1740) Spanish hero by Guillen de Castro y Bellvis.
gives a valuable description of theatre life The plot, in which a son avenges an insult to
during his time. his elderly father by killing his fiancée’s father,
Theophilus Cibber began to act at the age is typical of the Spanish pundonor (point of
of 16 and came to specialize in Irish and honour) drama, in which action is emphasized
eccentric roles. He was notorious for his over character and morality is black and white.
unreliability and dissolute behaviour. On one The historical El Cid was Roderigo or Ruy
occasion he fought a harmless duel with his Diaz de Bivar (c. 1040–99), also called El
fellow actor James ‘Bellower’ QUIN. On Campeador, the champion of Christianity
another he fled abroad to escape creditors but against the Moors. His exploits, real and
was bailed out by his long-suffering wife, legendary, form the basis of many Spanish
Susanna Arne. His career later declined and he romances and chronicles. The title is a
sank into poverty. In 1758, while sailing to corruption of seyyid, Arabic for lord.
make an appearance at Dublin’s Smock Alley
Theatre, he was drowned in a shipwreck. Cinderella A fairy tale of ancient, possibly
His wife, Susanna Maria Arne, was the Eastern, origin, found in Italian literature in
sister of the composer Thomas Arne. In 1736 the 17th century and popularized by Perrault’s
her budding career as an actress was almost Tales of Mother Goose (1697). In Britain
destroyed by scandal, owing to a bizarre plot the story has been a favourite subject for
by her husband, who deliberately led her into PANTOMIME since the 1820s.
an affair with her friend, William Sloper, and Cinderella is obliged to work as a drudge,
then brought an action against them both. while her stepsisters go to fine balls. At length,
Nevertheless, she went on to become an her fairy godmother enables her to go to the
acclaimed tragic actress and one of Garrick’s prince’s ball; the prince falls in love with her,
leading ladies at Drury Lane. She also excelled and she is found again by means of a glass
in comedy, making her final performance as slipper which she drops, and which will fit no
Lady Bute in Vanbrugh’s The Provok’d Wife. foot other than hers.
Charlotte Charke, Colley Cibber’s The pantomime version adds such
daughter, was a wild and rebellious child. She characters as Baron Stonybroke, Dandini, and
apparently took to the stage to avoid her cruel the page BUTTONS; the two Ugly Sisters
husband. Renowned for her eccentricities, she (played by men) are the main source of
often imitated her father on stage and once comedy.
rubbed fish over his face during a performance. cinematographic A term used in the
She preferred male roles, such as Captain early 20th-century British theatre to describe
Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera. Once, she the new fashion for realism on stage. It alludes
disguised herself as a man and robbed her to the advent of the first motion pictures. Max
father at gunpoint on the highway. Her BEERBOHM, reviewing the first production of
autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. John Galsworthy’s JUSTICE in 1910, wrote in
Charlotte Charke, appeared in 1755. the Saturday Review: “‘Cinematographic’ they
Cid, Le A tragicomedy by CORNEILLE. Its call it. So it is, in a sense. We really do, in
first performance in 1637 in Paris is usually seeing it, have the sensation of seeing
considered the inception of the classical French reproduced exactly things that have happened
theatre. The play’s success provoked fierce in actual life. In the first act of Justice we do
attacks from Corneille’s rivals and critics, not feel that we are seeing an accurate
ostensibly because he took liberties with the presentment of the humdrum of a lawyer’s
UNITIES; the ensuing pamphlet war, which office: we are in a lawyer’s office. We are
 Circle-in-the-Square 109

haunted by it all afterwards as by an actual appreciated his 10% royalty but was not
experience…” interested in seeing the play again.
The action takes place at a party, at which
cine-variety A mixed bill of variety acts Lord Champion-Cheney meets Kitty, the wife
and films offered in the late 1920s in Britain. who deserted him 30 years ago and destroyed
The short-lived scheme was devised to keep his political career. She is still accompanied by
stage comedians in work during the early Lord Portreus, her lover. Although Lord
heyday of talking films. Champion-Cheney has enjoyed his carefree
Cinthio, Il Popular name for the Italian unmarried life, he is worried because his son’s
novelist, poet, and playwright Giovanni wife, Elizabeth, seems ready to repeat history
by eloping with a young businessman. With
Battista Giraldi (1504–73), derived from his
the help of his wife and her lover he convinces
academic name of Cynthius. His moralistic
Arnold that he should give Elizabeth her
works supplied plots for at least two of
freedom, this being the best way to bring
Shakespeare’s plays, while his habit of adding her to her senses. Elizabeth and her lover
happy endings to his tragedies virtually created disappear, and the audience are left wondering
the genre of TRAGICOMEDY. A native of if Lord Champion-Cheney’s cleverness will pay
Ferrara, Giraldi assumed the chair of rhetoric off.
there in 1541, later moving to Turin and
Pavia. Circle-in-the-Square A name given to
Giraldi’s first play was the Senecan horror three New York theatres, two of which
continue to use it. The original Circle-in-the-
tragedy Orbecche (1541), premiered in his own
Square was a THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND that
home before the Duke of Ferrara and his
opened in 1951 at 5 Sheridan Square (hence
court. He later moved towards a more
the name) to provide a venue for Jose
romantic style of tragedy in Didone (1542), Quintero’s Loft Players. The opening play was
L’Altile (1543), Cleopatra (1543), and Epizia Richardson and Berney’s Dark of the Moon;
(1547), the last supplying Shakespeare with subsequent successes included Tennessee
the plot for Measure for Measure. The Bard Williams’s Summer and Smoke (1952) and
also took the story of Othello from Giraldi’s Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp (1953). The
Disdemona and the Moor. Shakespeare’s theatre closed in 1954 as a fire hazard but
contemporaries Robert Greene and James reopened in 1956 with a revival of O’Neill’s
Shirley similarly borrowed ideas, as did The Iceman Cometh, directed by Quintero.
playwrights in France and Spain. Some critics thought it superior to the original
The plots of Giraldi’s plays were among production and the Circle-in-the-Square
the 112 short stories that he collected in his became a popular OFF-OFF-BROADWAY venue.
Hecatommithi (1565), a work in the tradition The theatre was demolished in 1960,
of Boccaccio’s Decameron. forcing the company to move to the second
Circle-in-the-Square, a remodelled music hall
circle In British theatres, a level of seating on Bleecker Street. The opening play was
above the main area of the auditorium but Genet’s The Balcony. Later productions
below the GALLERY; it is often subdivided into included Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood
the DRESS CIRCLE and upper circle. (1961), Thornton Wilder’s Three Plays for
Bleecker Street (1962), and Athol Fugard’s
Circle, The A “perfectly serious comedy”
Boesman and Lena (1970). In 1972 the
by W. Somerset MAUGHAM, often considered
company moved to the new Joseph E. Levine
his best play. First produced in 1921 in
Theatre on Broadway and 51st Street, which
London, it has often been revived, notably in was renamed the Circle-in-the-Square: the
John Gielgud’s 1944 repertory season at the Bleecker Street venue is now known as the
Haymarket, when it proved the year’s most Circle-in-the-Square, Downtown. Successes at
popular play. Yvonne Arnaud played Lady the Broadway Circle have included the musical
Kitty Champion-Cheney, Cecil Trouncer was I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on
her deceived husband, Gielgud her priggish the Road (1978), As Is (1981), one of the first
son, and Leslie Banks her ageing lover. dramas to deal with AIDS, and the musical
Maugham wrote a note from America to the The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,
producer, Binky Beaumont, saying he which ran from 2005 until 2008.
110 circuit

circuit A group of theatres regularly visited permanent buildings, close associations with
in turn by touring companies. Such circuits the theatre were retained. In the 18th century
grew up in the early 18th century when AQUATIC DRAMA and DOG DRAMA were
most provincial towns could not support a developed in Paris while EQUESTRIAN DRAMA
permanent theatre. Each company developed was highly popular in Britain.
its own circuit of towns easily reached from The horse remained the mainstay of the
their home base. The circuits were known by circus until the mid 19th century, when
the names of their counties or major cities, menageries were added. The flying trapeze,
such as Aberdeen, Manchester, Newcastle, and invented in 1859, soon became a regular
Suffolk. feature.
The circuit system served as a training The late 19th century saw an increase in
ground for actors and developed many spectacular shows. The US showman P. T.
outstanding provincial managers. Tate BARNUM went into the circus business in 1870;
Wilkinson (1739–1803) managed a company ten years later he combined with James Bailey
for 30 years on the York circuit (which and in 1881 the two introduced the first three-
included Hull and Leeds); his autobiography ringed circus. The Greatest Show on Earth, as
was titled The Wandering Patentee (1795). The it became known, toured Europe between
company run by Sarah BAKER virtually made 1899 and 1902 with a 60-coach circus train.
the Kent circuit its own in the late 18th Acts included trapeze artists, acrobats, jugglers,
century, to the extent that Baker built a theatre wire-walkers, stilt-walkers, clowns, performing
at each of the 10 stops of her troupe. horses, elephants, lions and tigers, sea lions,
VAUDEVILLE circuits developed in America dogs, and other animals. Barnum and Bailey’s
in the late 19th century, taking the names was bought by their main competitor, the
of the conglomerates that had theatre Ringling Brothers Circus, in 1907. In 1956
monopolies; these included the Orpheum Ringling’s gave up its vast ‘Big Top’ tent for
circuit from Chicago to California and the permanent buildings.
Keith-Albee circuit in the eastern and Recent protests about the use of
midwestern states. performing animals have led to some circuses
using only human acts, such as juggling and
circus An entertainment featuring acrobats
acrobatics. The late 1980s and 1990s also saw
and other skilled performers, clowns, and
the advent of ‘alternative’ circus, as represented
animals. In ancient Rome the word circus
by the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil and
(meaning ring) referred both to the arena and
the anarchic French troupe Archaos.
to the athletic contests, chariot races,
gladiatorial combats, acrobatics, wrestling, etc., citizen comedy Elizabethan and
that took place there. Wild animals were first Jacobean plays that satirized the manners,
exhibited in 186 BC at the Circus Maximus social customs, and financial dealings of
and were soon employed to fight one another London’s new prosperous merchant class.
or humans. This popular genre attracted such leading
When the modern circus developed in playwrights as Thomas Dekker, Philip
Britain in the late 18th century the main Massinger, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton,
emphasis was on equestrian feats. The famous Thomas Heywood, Francis Beaumont, and
bareback rider Philip Astley found that riding John Fletcher.
in a circle created a centrifugal force that aided The period was one of economic and
balance. He devised the horse ring and in 1769 social upheaval in which a trading class of
opened ASTLEY’S AMPHITHEATRE in London, entrepreneurs developed into an established
soon adding clowns and acrobats. The name middle class. Accordingly, citizen comedy is
‘circus’ was first used in the modern sense in characterized by plots about social-climbing
1782, when the Royal Circus was established and greed, with characters marrying for
by Charles Hughes, a former rider at Astley’s. money, tricking heirs out of their fortunes, and
John William Ricketts opened America’s dreaming up schemes to get rich quickly.
first circuses in 1793 in Philadelphia and New There is much good-natured moralizing.
York. When travelling fairground performers Typical examples of the genre include THE
saw the popularity of this new entertainment, SHOEMAKER’S HOLIDAY (1599) and Old
the first tented circuses were created. In Fortunatus (1600) by Dekker, EASTWARD HO!
Europe, where circus managers preferred (1605), a collaboration between Marston,
 claque 111

Jonson, and Chapman Beaumont’s THE Louis Lekain (1729–78) in such plays as
KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE (1607), and VOLTAIRE’s L’Orphelin de la Chine (1755), in
Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside which she wore a simple robe with loose
(1611). sleeves in an effort to reform stage costumes.
The political conflict between Charles I In the 1750s Marmontel persuaded Madame
and Parliament led to darker themes in citizen Clairon to drop her declamatory style of
comedy and its decline prior to the Civil War acting for a more natural delivery, which she
and INTERREGNUM. accomplished after tutoring from the
City Dionysia See DIONYSIA. encyclopedist and critic Denis Diderot
(1713–84).
civic theatre In Britain, a system (also Madame Clairon retired from the stage in
called municipal theatre), by which theatres 1766 after refusing to perform in a play with a
managed by a trust receive public funds from disgraced actor – a dispute that led to her
local government in order to enrich the spending five days in prison. She survived with
cultural life of the community. help from Voltaire and in 1773 was invited to
Britain’s first civic theatre, the BELGRADE the court of the Margrave of Anspach where
THEATRE in Coventry, was established in 1958 she wrote her Mémoires et réflexions sur l’art
by the city council and leased to an dramatique (1799). She died in poverty.
independent trust mostly made up of city
councillors. The Lyceum, Edinburgh, which Clandestine Marriage, The A
opened in 1883, became Scotland’s first civic comedy by David GARRICK and George
theatre in 1965. Most such theatres are given Colman the Elder (see COLMANS, THE), first
total artistic freedom despite their subsidies. performed in 1766. A row developed between
Many are now kept in business by a the two authors when Garrick refused to play
combination of local government funding, the role of Lord Ogleby. The part was created
Arts Council grants, and money raised by the by Tom King (1730–1804) and became a
theatre; in 1993 the Greenwich Theatre, much sought-after role. The 1975 Chichester
London, for example, received £140,000 from Festival saw an acclaimed revival with Alistair
local authorities, £185,000 from the Arts Sim in his last role; the production went on to
Council, and raised £700,000 itself. become a big hit in the West End.
Other civic theatres include Manchester’s The story concerns the secret marriage of
Library and Forum Theatres, owned and Fanny Sterling and her father’s clerk, Lovewell.
operated as repertory theatres by the city Her wealthy father has arranged a marriage
council, the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, between Fanny’s sister and Sir John Melvil, the
established as a regional centre for touring nephew of Lord Ogleby. Melvil and Ogleby
companies by the local authority, and The arrive to make arrangements, but Melvil now
Playhouse, Nottingham, a theatre built with expresses his love for the more attractive
funds loaned by local government. Fanny. Fearing to reveal her marriage, she
In America the term usually refers to fends him off and appeals to Ogleby who,
publicly funded amateur groups, such as the mistaking this for an advance, proposes
LITTLE THEATRES. marriage himself. When Lovewell is discovered
in Fanny’s bedroom, however, Lord Ogleby
Clairon, Mlle Stage name of Claire- defends the couple and brings about a happy
Josèphe-Hippolyte Léris de la Tude ending.
(1723–1803), the leading French actress of her
day. The illegitimate daughter of a poor claque A body of hired applauders at a
seamstress, she began as a singer and minor theatre, etc. The practice was first systematized
performer at the Comédie-Italienne, where she by a Monsieur Sauton, who in 1820
drew praise from David Garrick. In 1743 she established in Paris an office to secure the
made an acclaimed debut with the Comédie- success of dramatic performances. The
Française in the title-role of Racine’s PHÈDRE. manager ordered the required number
Five years later she made a success of the weak of claqueurs, who were divided into
tragedy Denys le Tyran by Jean-François commissaires, who committed the piece to
Marmontel (1723–99), whose mistress she memory and noisily pointed out its merits;
became. She subsequently performed as rieurs, who laughed at the puns and jokes;
leading lady to the celebrated actor Henri- pleureurs, chiefly women, who held their
112 Cleopatra

handkerchiefs to their eyes at the emotional substitute entered, the furious audience began
parts; chatouilleurs, whose role was to keep the chanting “Shuter! Shuter!”. Each time Weston
audience in good humour; and bisseurs, who attempted to speak his lines, the cries
were to cry bis or encore. redoubled: “Shuter! Shuter!”. Finally the
Claque is also the French for an opera-hat, hapless actor pointed at the patient Kitty, and
and the word was sometimes used in this sense asked, “Why should I shoot her? She plays the
by 19th-century English writers. part very well.” The house rippled with
Cleopatra (69–30 BC) Queen of Egypt, appreciative laughter and respectfully let him
who came to the throne with her brother (and continue.
husband) Ptolemy Dionysius in 51 BC. She When Kitty retired in 1769 her admirer
was driven from the throne by Ptolemy in 48 Horace Walpole presented her with a small
but reinstated in 47 by Julius Caesar, by whom house called ‘Clive’s Den’ at Strawberry Hill
she had a son. In 41 Mark Antony fell under near Twickenham. There her charm and wit
her spell and repudiated his wife Octavia. were relished by such devotees as Dr Johnson.
When he was defeated at Actium by Octavius cloak-and-sword play (comedia de
(the future emperor Augustus), he committed capa y espada) A type of 17th-century Spanish
suicide. Cleopatra followed suit, supposedly by play characterized by romantic adventure,
means of the bite of an asp. intrigue, and duelling. No matter how tragic
The most famous and fascinating woman the main plot, there was always a comic
of the ancient world, Cleopatra has appeared subplot. Spanish dramatists who contributed
on the stage in numerous guises. The “infinite to the genre included Lope de VEGA and Tirso
variety” of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra – a woman de Molina.
of fleeting moods and ambiguous motives who Originally, the cloak and sword signified
nevertheless achieves tragic grandeur in death – no more than the rank of the chief characters.
makes this perhaps the most challenging However, the characters often disguised
female role in the English theatre (see ANTONY themselves with their cloaks and became
AND CLEOPATRA). Cleopatra also appears as a involved in intrigues, revenges, and plots that
leading character in Samuel Daniel’s Senecan necessitated frequent use of their swords.
tragedy Cleopatra (1594), Dryden’s ALL FOR There was often a final duel. Because of this, in
LOVE, and Shaw’s CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, in France (and through French influence in
which she is presented as a spoilt teenager. England) a cloak-and-sword play came to
Clive, Kitty (Catherine Raftor; 1711–85) denote a play of swashbuckling adventure. The
British actress, who excelled in farce, plays were also sometimes called cloak and
burlesque, and low comedy. She made her dagger plays. By association, the term ‘cloak
debut as a singer at Drury Lane. Colley Cibber and dagger’ came to denote the undercover
(see CIBBER FAMILY) discovered her comic and often melodramatic activities of those
talents in 1729, when she played Phillida in his involved in espionage, etc..
Love in a Riddle. closed. We never closed Slogan
Kitty became a famous comedian and associated with the WINDMILL THEATRE,
wrote several short farces herself. Her portrait London, which, under its proprietor Vivian
was painted by such leading artists as Hogarth. Van Damm, was the only London theatre to
She remained at Drury Lane for most of her remain open throughout the Blitz. Pedants
career, enjoying a sweet-and-sour relationship might argue that the famous boast was not
with David GARRICK. Although they admired strictly true, as the Windmill, like all other
each other’s acting, he angered Kitty by London theatres, was closed by government
refusing to let her play high comedy and order for three weeks after the declaration of
tragedy. She was once seen standing in the
war in September 1939. Owing to the nature
wing cursing Garrick’s acting, which had just
of the Windmill’s productions at this time, a
brought tears to her eyes. Suddenly angry at
popular joke had it that the slogan should be
her emotions, she rushed off thundering,
spoken with a lisp.
“Damn him, he could act a gridiron.”
On another occasion she was in a play with closet drama A play intended for reading
the celebrated Ned Shuter, who one evening rather than performance on stage. SENECA’s
had to be replaced by Thomas Weston. As the dramas were probably written to be read aloud
 coarse acting 113

and include extravagant scenes that would be Come from old Ocean’s unchangeable
very difficult to stage. bed,
During the Romantic and Victorian era Come till the mountain’s green
many established poets wrote closet dramas (see summits we tread,
POETIC DRAMA); some have actually been Come to the peaks with their
produced, with varying degrees of success. landscapes untold,
Laurence OLIVIER had a crashing failure in Gaze on the Earth with her harvest of
1928 with Tennyson’s verse play Harold, gold…
published during the poet’s lifetime but never The Clouds also contains a curious example
before performed. When Olivier, then 20, of the parabasis, or choral address to the
appeared in the play wearing a long blonde wig audience. At one point the chorus steps
he was anxious to make an impression in his forward to berate the audience for its poor
first leading London role; however, Tennyson’s taste in withholding first prize from some of
“tediously undramatic text” doomed his best Aristophanes’s plays in previous contests.
efforts.
clown The clown of circus and
closure of the theatres See PANTOMIME, in his baggy costume, whitened
INTERREGNUM, THE. face, grotesque red lips, and odd little tuft of
cloth A large section of canvas or similar black hair, probably derives ultimately from
material that hangs from the flies as painted the devil as he appeared in medieval miracle
scenery. It is called a sky cloth when coloured plays. He is also the descendant of many
blue to represent the sky. A ceiling cloth is COURT FOOLS and jesters and of the characters
used to create a ceiling for a BOX SET (in which of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Of all the
role it superseded the BOOK CEILING). A clowns, Joseph GRIMALDI (1779–1837) and the
backcloth is suspended at the rear of a scene Swiss GROCK (1880–1959), were outstanding.
while a frontcloth usually hangs far downstage, In the plays of Shakespeare and the
where it is often used to hide a scene change. A Elizabethans the term ‘clown’ is usually
cloth was formerly called a drop in Britain and reserved for a slow-witted buffoon, such as the
sometimes still goes by this name in America. anonymous clowns in Othello and Antony and
Cleopatra and the gravediggers in Hamlet.
Cloud-cuckooland See BIRDS, THE. Purveyors of witty sophisticated humour, such
clouding A BORDER painted with a cloudy as Feste in Twelfth Night and Touchstone in As
sky. In England they were frequently used in You Like It, are called fools.
17th-century court masques such as Inigo clowns. send in the clowns A
JONES’s Salmacida Spolia (1640), which phrase said when something goes wrong,
employed ‘side-clouds’ as well. Cloudings meaning ‘keep things going’ or ‘the show must
continued to be used into the mid-18th go on’. It comes from the circus where, if there
century. They could often be moved sideways was an accident, backstage drama, or other
by hooked poles to reveal a bright sky behind. problem, the clowns were sent into the ring to
Clouds, The A comedy by ARISTOPHANES, divert the audience. The expression dates from
first performed in 423 BC in Athens. It is an the 1930s. ‘Send in the Clowns’ is the title of
attack on ‘modern’ education and the morals an evocative song by the US composer Stephen
taught by the sophists. In the play Socrates and SONDHEIM, first heard in his 1973 musical A
his pupils are ridiculed and their school, the Little Night Music.
Phrontisterion (‘Thinking Shop’) is eventually Coal Hole See SONG-AND-SUPPER ROOMS.
burned to the ground. Scholars have often
wondered why Aristophanes chose Socrates as coaling Theatrical slang for telling phrases
an example of a false philosopher; some believe and speeches, as in ‘My part is full of coaling
he was selected simply because of his fame. lines.’ The expression may derive from ‘cole’,
The chorus’s entrance song is considered an old cant term for money, such a part being
one of Aristophanes’s finest lyrics; in the profitable.
translation by B. B. Rogers (1916) it runs: coarse acting The type of crude amateur
Clouds of all hue, acting anatomized by the British humorist
Rise we aloft with our garments of Michael Green in his definitive The Art of
dew. Coarse Acting (1964). According to Green’s
114 Coates, Robert ‘Romeo’

masterclass, there are only six basic emotions York (1920). His revues emphasized wit as well
that need to be expressed on stage and luckily as dancing and spectacle; Noël Coward wrote
most of these can be signified by a single “all- three pieces for him, including Cochran’s 1931
purpose coarse expression”. The ultimate Revue.
coarse actor is the one who “remembers the More high-brow productions included
lines but not the order in which they come” or, London’s first Eugene O’NEILL play, Anna
even better, “the pauses but not the lines”. Christie (1925). This led to his bankruptcy,
Following the book’s success, a number of but Cochran bounced back by producing
coarse acting competitions were held under the seven of Coward’s most successful plays,
aegis of the Questors Theatre, the London- including Private Lives (1930) and Cavalcade
based amateur dramatic society of which (1931). After World War II Cochran had a hit
Green himself is a keen member. Green has with the musical comedy Bless the Bride (1947)
also published several volumes of plays for but otherwise failed to keep up with changes in
coarse actors, including parodies of public taste. He published several volumes of
Shakespeare, Pinter, and Agatha Christie memoirs including Cock-a-Doodle-Do in 1941.
amongst others. Cochran was generous to his actors. When
Elisabeth Bergner became ill during her
Coates, Robert ‘Romeo’ See ROMEO London debut in 1933, he closed Escape Me
AND JULIET.
Never for three weeks and paid the company
Cochran, Sir Charles B(lake) throughout. When Private Lives moved from
(1872–1951). The leading British impresario Edinburgh to its London opening, the trip was
of his day and the most famous producer of “swathed in luxury” by Cochran, with first-
revues between the wars. His shows ranged class railway carriages and hotels for the
from boxing to the Diaghilev ballet. He company.
advanced the careers of Noël Coward, Beatrice Cochran’s attitude to young actresses
Lillie, Gertrude Lawrence, and Jack Buchanan, supposedly created the term ‘casting-couch’.
and introduced Londoners to HOUDINI, Young girls who attracted him would be given
Elisabeth Bergner, Sarah Bernhardt, and a ‘special audition’ in his office where he had
Eleonora Duse, amongst others. He was installed a large comfortable sofa behind his
knighted in 1948. desk.
Cochran, universally known as Cockie, When things were good, he resembled
enjoyed taking a high profile. His rival a rooster; when bad, a benign bishop.
impresario, Binkie Beaumont, once said, “I VIVIAN ELLIS
love anonymity. I haven’t the temperament to
be a Cochran.” The 1973 musical comedy Cockaigne An imaginary country of
Cockie by Peter Saunders was based on laziness and luxury, also known as Lubberland.
Cochran’s life and opened in London at the The concept dates back to the early Middle
Vaudeville Theatre. The impresario was played Ages. In this shirkers’ paradise salaries are paid
by Max Wall. for sleeping, rivers flow with wine, houses are
Cochran made his stage debut at the Royal made of cake and sugar, buttered birds fall
Clarence Music Hall, Dover, at the age of 16; from the sky, and pigs run around with forks
his one song was so bad that the manager already inserted. Cockaigne has provided
refused to pay him. Two years later he went to themes for European folk dramas and
New York and wore the sole off a boot seeking carnivals, and many playwrights have
work. His first US job was playing seven parts mentioned it. In Jonson’s BARTHOLOMEW FAIR
in the revue Round the World in Eighty Days. (1614), for instance, one character asks
another how she expects to find a pig without
In 1897 he produced Ibsen’s John Gabriel
looking for it: “Will it run off o’ the spit into
Borkman on Broadway. He returned to
our mouths, think you? As in Lubber-land?”
London in 1902.
Cochran’s first revue was the intimate Cockpit Theatre A theatre in Drury
Odds and Ends (1914) at the Ambassadors Lane, London, originally built for cockfighting
Theatre. After the war he mounted a series of in 1609. Christopher BEESTON turned it into a
lavish productions at the London Pavilion with private theatre in 1616 by adding a roof and
his chorus of ‘Young Ladies’; these included As renovating the interior. His company planned
You Were (1918) and London, Paris and New to move there in 1617, but the Cockpit was
 Cohan, George M(ichael) 115

destroyed by fire when apprentices on a riotous seeks salvation as a missionary in the East,
Shrove Tuesday spree set it ablaze. where she is crucified on an anthill by
Beeston rebuilt the venue and renamed it tribesmen. The psychiatrist sees the death as a
the Phoenix, subsequently leasing it to several predestined event and does not blame himself
companies, including in 1635 the strolling at all:
players of the French actor Floridor. Beeston’s You will have to live with these
own company of boy actors, Beeston’s Boys, memories and make them
moved into the theatre following his death in Into something new. Only by
1638. During the Puritan INTERREGNUM acceptance
the theatre staged illegal performances and Of the past will you alter its meaning.
was raided by soldiers in 1649. William
DAVENANT, however, won official approval to Cocteau, Jean (1889–1963) French
stage ‘plays with music’, such as The Cruelty of writer who won acclaim as a playwright, critic,
the Spaniards in Peru (1658) and Sir Francis poet, novelist, film director, and artist. His
Drake (1659). plays ranged from classical tragedy to romantic
On the Restoration the theatre was melodrama but usually dealt with themes of
reopened by John Rhodes, a former prompter love and death. The son of two wealthy
at Blackfriars Theatre who had been appointed lawyers, Cocteau served as an ambulance driver
Keeper of the Cockpit in 1644. His small in World War I. In his early twenties he
company included Thomas BETTERTON and responded to a challenge from Diaghilev by
other young players who later became famous, collaborating on a work for the Ballet Russe in
but his licence was withdrawn after one year Paris, and thereby helped to create Parade,
when the PATENT THEATRES came into being. which opened in 1917.
Thereafter the theatre lost audiences to the Cocteau found acclaim in 1922 with his
new Drury Lane. It closed in 1665. adaptation of Sophocles’s ANTIGONE, directed
There was also a private Cockpit-in-Court by Charles Dullin with a set by Picasso. This
theatre in Whitehall, so called because it was was followed by Orphée (1924) directed by
converted from a cockpit in about 1604. The Georges Pitoëff. The next decade saw his
King’s Men (see CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN) and powerful MONODRAMA La Voix Humaine
other companies performed there for the court (1930), La Machine Infernale (1934), based on
and later for the public (until 1664). the story of Oedipus and directed by Louis
Jouvet, and Les Parents Terribles (1938; seen in
Cocktail Party, The T. S. ELIOT’s verse London in 1951 as Intimate Relations).
drama about marital illusions. It was first Cocteau’s greatest international success was
performed at the 1949 Edinburgh Festival the romantic costume drama, L’Aigle à deux
with Alec GUINNESS as the Harley Street têtes (1946), which opened in Paris with
psychiatrist Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly and Edwige Feuillère in the role of the Queen.
opened in London the next year with Rex Later that year it enjoyed a long run at the
HARRISON. Guinness played the role with
Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, where Eileen
austerity and Harrison with warm charm. Herlie made her name in the same part. It was
When Harrison confessed to the director, also successful on Broadway.
Martin Browne, that he could not grasp what After World War II, Cocteau concentrated
some of Eliot’s lines meant, Browne told him on writing for the cinema. He died of a heart
not to worry because the audience would not
attack after hearing that his friend Edith Piaf
understand them either. Eliot himself was
had died earlier that day.
deeply concerned about the play’s symbolism,
even asking that Harrison keep his arms down Cohan, George M(ichael)
to 45 degrees to “avoid the crucifixion (1878–1942) American actor, songwriter,
suggestion.” dancer, playwright, and manager. The pint-
Based in part on the Alcestis of EURIPIDES, sized entertainer was US vaudeville’s greatest
the play is set at a cocktail party hosted by showman and the embodiment of brash flag-
Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne, both of waving patriotism. In 1940 President
whom have lovers. The psychiatrist shows the Roosevelt presented him with a Congressional
couple and Edward’s lover, Celia, how they Medal, the nation’s highest civilian award, for
have all lived an illusion. Following his advice, writing the wartime songs ‘Over There’ and
the Chamberlaynes are reconciled and Celia ‘It’s A Grand Old Flag’, and in 1959 New
116 Coliseum

York erected a statue to him at the corner of Pip Simmons Theatre Group (1968), and
Broadway and 46th Street. Welfare State International (1968).
His other songs included ‘I’m A Yankee Collective creation was probably practised
Doodle Dandy’ and ‘Give My Regards To to some degree by the 16th-century COMMEDIA
Broadway’. He could not write music and had DELL’ARTE troupes and Elizabethan companies.
to whistle his tunes to a transcriber. Cohan The modern movement was pioneered by New
also needed peace and quiet to compose; after York’s LIVING THEATRE, formed in 1947 by
he became famous, he would sometimes hire Julian Beck and Judith Malina. The reaction
a carriage on a train to work overnight, not against commercial and bureaucratic methods
caring what the destination was. of production gathered pace during the 1960s,
Cohan was born on July 3 but always gave when small alternative theatre groups
the date as July 4, Independence Day. As a proliferated. Improvisation became fashionable
child, he appeared on stage with his parents and collective creation was an apt way of
and sister as ‘The Four Cohans’ and soon catering for it.
began writing songs and skits. He made his Experimentation on stage was a strong
adult debut at the Savoy Theatre in his own point with such groups as the Performance
play, The Governor’s Son (1901). Later hits Group in New York (1967) and the Mabou
included Little Johnny Jones (1904), about an Mimes in Nova Scotia, Canada (1970). Other
American jockey in England, George companies had explicit political aims, such as
Washington, Jr (1906), Over There (1917), El Teatro Campesino (1965), which supported
an all-star revue to raise money for the Red Chicano migrant farm workers (see CHICANO
Cross, The Song and Dance Man (1923), and THEATRE), and the Free Southern Theatre
American Born (1925). He opened his own (1963) of New Orleans, which advocated
George M. Cohan theatre in 1911. Black civil rights. In the 1970s and 1980s
Late in his career, he starred as Nat Miller collective creation became the norm for
in Eugene O’Neill’s AH! WILDERNESS (1933) Feminist Theatre companies such as At the
and upset the playwright by interpolating new Foot of the Mountain in Minneapolis and the
lines of his own each night. In 1968 Joel Grey Women’s Experimental Theatre in New York.
starred in George M, a Broadway musical based
on Cohan’s life, while the 1943 film musical Collier, Jeremy (1650–1726) English
Yankee Doodle Dandy starred James Cagney as clergyman, who in 1698 published a bitter and
the entertainer. influential condemnation of the Restoration
Cohan often wondered about the causes of theatre. His Short View of the Immorality and
his success: Profaneness of the English Stage accused such
As a dancer, I could never do over leading playwrights as Dryden, Vanbrugh, and
three steps. As a composer I could Otway of mocking the Church and using
never find use for over four or five profane language.
notes in my musical numbers. As a The outburst touched a nerve with the
violinist, I could never learn to play public and several of the accused were goaded
above the first position. I’m a one-key into publishing defences of their work; the
piano player, and as a playwright, most resulting controversy lasted for more than
of my plays have been presented in two 10 years. Dryden was obliged to print a
acts for the simple reason that I could ‘confession’ of his faults and d’Urfey and
seldom think of an idea for a third act. CONGREVE were prosecuted. The actor
Thomas Betterton and the actress Mrs
Coliseum See LONDON COLISEUM. Bracegirdle were fined and the protests of all
collective creation A method of the victims were swept away on a tide of public
creating new plays through the collaboration indignation. Perhaps the chief sufferer was
of actors and other company members with a Congreve who, after issuing a reply to Collier’s
dramatist. Some collective groups have a criticisms in which he described playwriting as
director who makes final decisions, but the full “a difficult and thankless study”, wrote
company’s ideas are considered throughout the virtually nothing more for the stage. Collier’s
play’s development and staging. British attack, and the ensuing controversy, helped to
companies based on collective creation have bring about the demise of the Restoration
included the People Show (founded in 1966), tradition and to usher in a new era of timid
 Comedians 117

gentility on the stage. Over a century later unstable both financially and in his personal
Byron was to lament in Don Juan: life, having secretly married Clara Morris, a
The days of Comedy are gone, alas! young actress, in 1784. He was nevertheless
When Congreve’s fool could vie with appointed Examiner of Plays in 1824 and
Molière’s bête: remained in the post until his death,
Society is smooth’d to that excess, demonstrating a surprisingly strict sense of
That manners hardly differ more than propriety in judging new works for the stage.
dress. Colosseum The great AMPHITHEATRE of
Collier, John Payne See OLD ancient Rome; its name is thought to refer to
CORRECTOR, THE. the colossal statue of Nero that stood nearby.
It was begun by Vespasian in about 70 AD and
Colmans, the George Colman the elder for 400 years was the scene of gladiatorial
(1732–94) and his son George Colman the contests, mock battles, and other public
younger (1762–1836), both of whom were spectacles. The name has since been applied to
playwrights and theatre managers. other large theatres such as the LONDON
The elder Colman was a friend of David COLISEUM. Compare PALLADIUM.
GARRICK, whose name appeared on the title
page of Colman’s first play, the farce Polly colour wheel A metal wheel attached to
Honeycombe. It was first performed in 1760 at the front of a spotlight and rotated manually
Garrick’s Drury Lane, and Colman admitted or automatically to change circles of coloured
writing it the following year, after the success gel and project different colours of light onto
of his play The Jealous Wife. His most the stage.
acclaimed work was the comedy The Columbine A stock character in the
Clandestine Marriage (1766), cowritten with English HARLEQUINADE (and later the
Garrick, who caused a rift with Colman when PANTOMIME), deriving ultimately from the
he refused to act in it. COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, in which she was a
Colman and three partners bought the comic serving girl. In the Harlequinade she
patent to COVENT GARDEN in 1767. During his was the daughter of PANTALOON and the
management Oliver Goldsmith’s only two sweetheart of HARLEQUIN; like him, she was
plays were premiered: The Good-Natured Man supposed to be invisible to mortal eyes. In
was coolly received in 1768, but She Stoops to Italian Columbina, meaning dove-like, is a pet
Conquer was a great success in 1773. Three name for a lady-love.
years later Colman took over the HAYMARKET
and ran it for some 12 years until his final comedia In the 17th-century Spanish
descent into mental illness. During that time theatre, any full-length play.
he produced several plays by his son, including comedia a fantasia See TORRES
the successful comic opera Inkle and Yarico NAHARRO.
(1787).
The younger Colman became effective comedia a noticia See TORRES
manager of the Haymarket during his father’s NAHARRO.
illness and took it over on his death. His own comedia de capa y espada See
plays included The Iron Chest (1796), based
CLOAK-AND-SWORD PLAY.
on Godwin’s gothic novel Caleb Williams;
Edmund Kean revived it in 1816, finding a Comedians A play by the British
great tragic part in the character of Sir Edward dramatist Trevor GRIFFITHS, first performed in
Mortimer. 1975 at the Nottingham Playhouse in a
Colman was also a successful writer of production by the young Richard EYRE.
comedy, creating such memorable characters as Griffiths uses a story about aspiring stand-up
Dr Pangloss in The Heir-at-Law (1797) and comedians making their first public appearance
Dennis Brulgruddery in John Bull; or, The at a bingo hall to explore the social function of
Englishman’s Fireside (1803). In 1817 he wrote humour.
The Actor of all Work; or, First and Second The student comedians arrive at their
Floor, a drama with an innovative set that Manchester classroom to receive last words of
showed two rooms simultaneously. wisdom from their teacher, Eddie Waters,
Colman was known to be extravagant and before moving on to the hall. The group
118 comedian’s graveyard

includes an insurance agent, a milkman, an renowned of Europe’s state-subsidized theatres,

Irish docker, and a Jew. Performing between it is also known as the Théâtre-Français and
bingo sessions, the comedians have uneven La Maison de Molière. Louis XIV founded it
success with their jokes; some deliberately by decree in 1680, and a company was formed
pander to the racial and sexual prejudices of by merging the troupes from the HÔTEL DE
the audience. By contrast, the radical Gethin BOURGOGNE and the Théâtre du Marais (with
Price presents a strange politically aggressive which MOLIÈRE’s Théâtre de Guénégaud had
act that involves dummies and blood. When already merged). The new company converted
the group returns to class for evaluation, the a tennis court into a theatre and used this
judge Bert Challoner berates Price for his for their performances until 1770. They
“repulsive” act. After everyone else departs, subsequently played at the Salles des Machines
Price and Waters stay behind to discuss what in the Tuileries until 1789, when they moved
humour means and how it should be used. to their new theatre, the Odéon, on the Left
Bank.
comedian’s graveyard Nickname for In the same year, however, the French
the Glasgow Empire, a venue that was Revolution split the company in two: the
notoriously tough on English comedians. The conservatives, under François-René Molé,
joke name became reality in 1918 when Mark became the Théâtre de la Nation, while the
Sheridan, a singer of comic songs (‘I Do Like more revolutionary became the Théâtre de la
to Be Beside the Seaside’), received such a poor République under François-Joseph TALMA.
reception that he walked to Kelvin Grove Park The two groups reunited in 1803 at Talma’s
after the show and shot himself. Théâtre de la Révolution.
The comedian Eric Morecambe said he Following a decree issued by Napoleon in
knew top English performers who would 1812, the Comédie-Française was reorganized
“rather have open-heart surgery than face along lines proposed by Molière in 1658.
Glasgow”. His partner Ernie Wise recalled: These make it a cooperative in which the
I can remember coming off at Glasgow actors hold shares. A new member is hired at a
one night to the sound of our own fixed salary on probation as a pensionnaire; he
footsteps! And the fireman said: or she may become a sociétaire only when a full
“They’re beginning to like you”. member dies or resigns. Sociétaires are eligible
Other famous names to have played at the for a pension upon retirement. The Comédie-
Empire include Charlie Chaplin and W. C. Française underwent some reorganization in
Fields. 1945, with the administrative head now being
appointed by the minister of education.
comédie-ballet A 17th-century French Although the theatre’s repertory is based
genre in which scenes of dialogue alternated on the French classics, modern plays are
with ballet and music. It became especially also produced. The Comédie-Française is
popular during the 1660s at the court of Louis acclaimed for its splendid ensemble
XIV, where courtiers participated in the performances led by the nation’s most famous
entertainment. An extravagant example was actors; in the 20th century these have included
Pleasures of the Enchanted Island (1664), for Sarah BERNHARDT and Jean-Louis BARRAULT.
which the palace of the enchantress Alcine was More recently foreign directors have
constructed on a stage in the middle of a lake sometimes been invited to give the company a
at Versailles and then destroyed by fire as part more international outlook, including the
of the performance. Englishman Terry Hands who since 1972 has
MOLIÈRE refined the comédie-ballet by directed such works as Richard III, Twelfth
enlarging the role of the dialogue in such Night, and Murder in the Cathedral.
works as The Bores (1661) and The Forced
Marriage (1664). Another leading exponent of Comédie-Italienne A general name
the genre was the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully used from about 1680 for companies
presenting the Italian COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE in
(1632–87), who subsequently founded the
France. Italian troupes had first come to Paris
French opera. Operetta and opera eventually
in the 16th century, performing at the Salle du
superseded the comédie-ballet.
Petit-Bourbon and the Palais-Royal before
Comédie-Française The French settling into the HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE in
national theatre. The oldest and most 1680. Louis XIV subsequently gave permission
 Comedy of Errors, The 119

for the Italian companies to act in French, Becque’s Les Corbeaux (1882), an exposure of
despite strong opposition from the Comédie- greed, and La Parisienne (1885), which focuses
Française. The French playwrights Charles- on the amorality of the main character.
Rivière Dufresny and Jean-François Regnard Ancey’s contributions included Les Inséparables
wrote a series of comedies (often in (1889), in which two friends share a mistress
collaboration) for the Comédie-Italienne from and L’Écoles des veufs (1889), in which the
1688 onwards. same mistress is shared by a father and his son.
The Comédie-Italienne companies were The plays were mainly staged using amateur
banished from France in 1697 for offending actors and naturalistic scenery.
Madame de Maintenon, the king’s mistress, The notoriety of the comédies rosses gave
with their production of La Fausse Prude. After the Théâtre Libre a bad name and generally
Louis’s death in 1715, they returned to the helped to discredit the burgeoning naturalist
Hôtel de Bourgogne under Lélio (Luigi movement with the general public (see
Riccoboni) and created a new style of acting NATURALISM). Even liberal playgoers were
that combined Italian exuberance with French repelled by the tone of some of the works and
elegance. In particular, the companies excelled the way in which vice went unpunished and
in the sophisticated comedies of MARIVAUX. By virtue unrewarded. At the same time they
this time, however, the companies had become helped to liberalize attitudes concerning what
Italian in little more than name, the last Italian was permissible on the stage. Now considered
actor being CARLIN (1713–83). uninspired, the plays are very rarely revived.
In the mid 18th century they began to
comedy A work characterized by humour
exploit the fashionable new genre of opera
and a happy ending. The term (Greek: komē-
buffa (comic opera). Carlo GOLDONI, who
ōdē) originally meant a village song, referring
wrote over 200 plays, settled in Paris to direct
to Greek rustic merrymakings. Greek comedy
the Comédie-Italienne in the 1760s. In 1783
appears to have originated from such village
the company moved to a new theatre on the
revels and from festivities connected with the
street now known as the Boulevard des
worship of DIONYSUS. The use of a CHORUS
Italiens; they merged with the Théâtre Feydeau
may have derived from the practice of revellers
to form the Opéra-Comique in 1801.
masquerading as birds, frogs, etc.
comédie larmoyante (French: Greek comedy is traditionally subdivided
sentimental comedy) A type of sentimental into three periods; the boisterous OLD COMEDY
comedy that became fashionable in the 18th- of ARISTOPHANES, the transitional MIDDLE
century French theatre. It was popularized COMEDY, and the NEW COMEDY of MENANDER.
by Pierre Claude Nivelle de La Chausée The latter was the main influence on the
(1692–1754) in some 40 moralistic dramas development of the COMEDY OF INTRIGUE
that included La Fausse Antipathie (1733), Le during the early Roman era. The tradition of
Préjugé à mode (1735), and Mélanide (1741). classical comedy disappeared during the
His usual formula was to place ordinary medieval period (although many mystery plays
characters in an unhappy situation that contain elements of rough farce) to be revived
nevertheless works out happily. at the Renaissance in the COMMEDIA
La Chaussée’s plays were translated into DELL’ARTE. In the 16th and 17th centuries
German, Italian, Dutch, and English. The writers such as SHAKESPEARE, Lope de VEGA,
influence of comédie larmoyante was especially and MOLIÈRE, raised the genre to the highest
strong in Germany. It Britain it influenced the level of literary art, blending poetry and wit
milder comedy of sentiment that superseded with a profound moral and psychological
the witty and outrageous COMEDY OF MANNERS insight. See also TRAGEDY.
of the Restoration era.
Comedy of Errors, The An early
comédie rosse A type of bitter comedy comedy by SHAKESPEARE. It was probably first
staged by André Antoine (1858–1943) at his performed in 1594 at Gray’s Inn Hall,
THÉÂTRE LIBRE, a private theatre club in Paris, London, where records refer to “a company of
in the late 19th century. Many were written by base and common fellows” that probably
the dramatists Henri Becque (1837–99) and included the Bard. With 1777 lines, it is his
Georges Ancey (Georges Mathevon de shortest play. Theodore Komisarjevsky
Curnieu; 1860–1917). Examples include directed a modern-dress version at Stratford in
120 comedy of humours

1938, while Trevor Nunn mounted an The 17th-century Spanish theatre saw
acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company numerous plays about the romantic intrigues
production at The Warehouse in 1976. The of young adventurers (see CLOAK-AND-SWORD
play was made into a Broadway musical PLAY). The genre was further developed in
comedy in 1938 by George Abbott, Lorenz France by Molière and in England by
Hart, and Richard Rodgers as THE BOYS FROM Shakespeare and the writers of Restoration
SYRACUSE. Comedy. English examples include Aphra
The plot derives from Plautus’s Behn’s topical comedy The Feign’d Curtizans;
Menaechmi, which was itself based on an or, A Night’s Intrigue (1678).
earlier Greek model. The story begins when comedy of manners A form of
the elderly Aegeon from Syracuse puts ashore sophisticated comedy, usually set among the
in Ephesus; because there is enmity between fashionable upper classes, in which the
the cities, he is sentenced to die unless he finds characters’ machinations are veiled by their
the money for a ransom by nightfall. Asked elegant manners and elaborate repartee. The
why he came to Ephesus, Aegeon explains how genre can be traced back to the Greek NEW
he lost his wife and one of their identical twin COMEDY but in its modern form was essentially
sons years ago in a storm at sea, together with created by MOLIÈRE in such plays as Les
one of a pair of twin servants. More recently, Précieuses ridicules (1658) and Le Médecin
his remaining son and the remaining servant malgré lui (1666).
had set out to find their brothers only to go In England the genre flowered after the
missing themselves. So Aegeon had followed. Restoration, following the success of George
Unknown to him, both sons and both servants Etherege’s The Comical Revenge; or, Love in a
are now in Ephesus. The existence of two sets Tub (1664). English examples include
of twins with the same names in the same city Wycherley’s THE GENTLEMAN DANCING-
causes multiple confusions before the entire MASTER (1671), Vanbrugh’s THE PROVOK’D
family is reunited and Aegeon is freed. WIFE (1697), Congreve’s THE WAY OF THE
comedy of humours A form of WORLD (1700), Farquhar’s THE BEAUX’
comedy based on the ‘humours’ or fixed STRATAGEM (1707), Goldsmith’s SHE STOOPS
personality traits of the characters. The genre TO CONQUER (1773), and Sheridan’s THE
became popular in the late 16th century. The SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL (1777). In the last, Lady
best-known English examples are Ben Teazle berates her husband for denying her
JONSON’s Every Man in his Humour (1598) “little elegant expenses”:
and Every Man out of his Humour (1599). LADY TEAZLE For my part, I should
Other English playwrights to attempt the think you would like to have your wife
comedy of humours included Francis thought a woman of taste.
Beaumont in such works as The Woman-Hater SIR PETER Aye – there again – taste!
(1606), John Fletcher in The Scornful Lady Zounds! madam, you had no taste
(1613), and Thomas Shadwell in The Sullen when you married me!
Lovers; or, The Impertinents (1668). LADY TEAZLE That’s very true, indeed,
The term ‘humours’ refers to the medieval Sir Peter…
belief that an individual’s character was The elegant wit of the comedy of manners
determined by the proportion of four cardinal was revived in the late 19th century by Oscar
humours or fluids in his body: blood, phlegm, Wilde in such plays as Lady Windermere’s Fan
choler or yellow bile, and melancholy or (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest
black bile. Hence the expressions sanguine, (1895). In the 20th century some of the plays
phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. of Noël Coward, such as Private Lives (1930),
belong to this genre.
comedy of intrigue A form of comedy
in which the humour flows from complicated comedy of morals A form of comedy
relationships and contrived situations. It that highlights and condemns behaviour that is
originated in the classical Roman theatre, considered socially unacceptable. Moral
where a typical comedy might involve a noble didacticism was a feature of classical Roman
youth caught up in an impossible love affair comedy, especially in the fabula togata (see
with a slave girl, only to find that she was FABULA). Ben JONSON described comedy as
swapped as a child and is actually of his class. being “a thing throughout pleasant and
 commedia erudita 121

ridiculous and accommodated to the commedia dell’arte A comic theatrical

correction of manners.” Molière was of the genre that evolved in 16th-century Italy
same opinion; his TARTUFFE (1664), a satirical and went on to enjoy success throughout
attack on religious hypocrisy, is perhaps the Europe. Performances, which consisted of
epitome of the comedy of morals. improvisations based around skeletal scenarios,
Comedy Theatre A small London employed stock characters such as PANTALOON,
IL CAPITANO, IL DOTTORE, and the ZANNI, all
theatre in Panton Street in the West End.
Until its redecoration in 1954, the Comedy of whom were distinguished by masks and
boasted London’s oldest Victorian auditorium, emblematic costumes. Players, who usually
designed by Thomas Verity in a French specialized in one role, would often make
Renaissance style with rich moulding finished slight alterations to masks and costumes in
in white and gold. Today the Comedy seats order to customize the character.
780 in a cosy drawing-room atmosphere. It The first troupes emerged around the mid-
opened in 1881 with Audran’s The Mascotte. 16th century performing (in contrast to the
COMMEDIA ERUDITA) comedy suited to popular
In 1956 the New Watergate Theatre Club
was formed to present unlicensed plays at the taste in the commonly spoken language of the
theatre; these included Tennessee Williams’s time. The first famous commedia dell’arte
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1957) and Peter company was the GELOSI, who began
Shaffer’s Five Finger Exercise (1959). Male performing in 1568. The next 50 years saw the
nudity featured in Fortune and Men’s Eyes emergence of other notable troupes, including
(1968) and female nudity in Steaming (1981). the DESIOSI, the CONFIDENTI, the ACCESI, and
In 1969 There’s a Girl in my Soup continued its the FEDELI. Commedia dell’arte troupes are
record run of 2547 performances at the known to have toured France in the early
Comedy, having transferred from the Globe. 1570s, and the Gelosi, who were summoned to
More recent productions include revivals of play before the Royal Court at Blois in 1577,
Pinero’s Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1992), Pinter’s are known to have played in Paris. The Italian
The Caretaker (2000; with Michael Gambon), companies proved sufficiently popular in
the farce Boeing-Boeing (2007; with Mark France for a permanent home to be established
Rylance), and Molière’s The Misanthrope for them at the HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE, Paris,
(2009; in the version by Martin Crimp). in 1680 (see COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE). The
commedia dell’arte also flourished in Spain,
command performance A Eastern Europe, Germany, and England, and
performance of a play, solo act, or other influenced the development of the comic
entertainment requested by a monarch or head drama in most European countries. In
of government. Although many kings and England its influence can be seen in the works
queens enjoyed theatrical presentations at of JONSON and SHAKESPEARE, as well as in the
court, it was Queen VICTORIA who formalized development of the PANTOMIME and PUNCH
the command performance; in 20 years AND JUDY show. By the end of the 18th
(1881–1901) she arranged some 30 private century the genre had lost much of its vitality,
events at Windsor Castle. Today command having become somewhat over stylized and
performances are normally given to raise funds divorced from everyday life; consequently it
for charities. drifted out of fashion. The 20th century,
Command performances are not restricted however, has seen a revival of interest in the
to the legitimate theatre. The Royal Command genre, possibly as a reflection of discontent
Variety Performance at the PALLADIUM theatre with naturalistic theatre.
in London has always included popular
entertainers. The tradition began in 1912, commedia erudita In 16th-century
when the theatre manager Oswald Stoll Italy, a more scholarly version of the
arranged a variety performance at the LONDON COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Unlike the latter, it was
COLISEUM for King George V and Queen performed to educated audiences and used
Mary. The performers included Harry TATE, written scripts, many derived from the
‘the one-eyed Kaffir’, LITTLE TICH, and Vesta comedies of Plautus and Terence. A
TILLEY. When the latter made a daring representative play is Machiavelli’s La
appearance in trousers, Queen Mary averted Mandragola (1520), a satire on Florentine
her eyes from the stage. society in which a corrupt priest helps a
122 community theatre

woman’s husband, lover, and mother to betray style of theatre in which mime, acrobatics, and
her. puppetry are as important as the spoken word.
Other writers in the genre were Bernardo Celebrated productions include a revival of
Bibbiena, whose La Calandria (1506) was Dürrenmatt’s The Visit (1989) starring
adapted from Plautus’s Menaechmi, Pietro Kathryn Turner, Bruno Schulz’s The Street of
Aretino, who based his Il Marescalco (1533) on Crocodiles (1992), which transferred from the
Plautus’s Casina, Giambattista Della Porta, National to the West End, the remarkable
who wrote over 30 plays of this kind, and the Mnemonic (1999), a powerful Measure for
poet Lodovico Ariosto. Measure (2004), and A Disappearing Number
(2007), which won the Olivier Award for Best
community theatre A theatrical Play. The company’s internationalist approach
organization or type of drama designed to cater emerges in its commitment to foreign writing
to audiences alienated by or disenfranchised and its constant overseas touring: Complicite
from the conventional and commercial theatre. productions have been seen in over 40
Community theatre emerged in the 1960s in countries to date.
an attempt to attract a wider and more
disparate audience and to create a forum in composite setting See MULTIPLE
which subjects ignored by mainstream drama SETTING.
could be debated. Some organizations, such as comstockery The strenuous suppression
the London based Inter-Action, concentrated of plays, books, and other writings deemed to
upon taking the theatre to schools, factories, be “obscene, lewd, or lascivious”, as advocated
and remote areas of the country. Other by the New York Society for the Suppression
organizations, such as Gay Sweatshop and of Vice under Anthony Comstock
Black Theatre Co-Operative, concentrated on (1844–1915). The word was coined by George
addressing issues affecting particular groups, Bernard SHAW after the New York production
such as homosexuals or racial minorities. of his play MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION had
In the late 1970s another form of been closed down at Comstock’s instigation.
community theatre arose based on the idea of A fanatical campaigner, Comstock claimed
the community play. Pioneered in the Dorset that his activities had caused the destruction of
area by the dramatist Ann Jellicoe, a founder of 15 tons of books, 4,000 arrests, and 15
the Colway Theatre Trust, the community suicides.
play involves the creation of a dramatic work
based on some aspect of a community’s local Comus A MASQUE by John Milton, first
history. These works are usually produced presented before the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord
using local people as performers and technical President of Wales, at Ludlow Castle in 1634.
assistants, though often under the guidance of The title character is the god of revelry and
a professional director and playwright. Notable sensual excess, a son of Bacchus and Circe: the
community plays commissioned by Jellicoe name derives from Greek komos, carousal. The
include Howard Barker’s The Poor Man’s action concerns Comus’s unsuccessful attempt
Friend (1981), and David Edgar’s Entertaining to lure the Lady (played by the Earl’s daughter,
Friends (1985), set in Dorchester. Lady Alice Egerton) away from the path of
In America the term community theatre abstinence and virtue.
is virtually synonymous with the LITTLE concert party In the early 20th century,
THEATRES. a summer family variety programme in Britain,
Complicite A London-based theatre especially one presented at seaside resorts or in
ensemble founded in 1983 by Simon public parks. The show featured popular
McBurney (1957– ), who remains its artistic songs, dances, and comedy sketches. In 1980s
director. The company’s name – originally business jargon the term came to mean an
Théâtre de Complicité – reflects the illegal combination of two or more persons
who buy or sell shares in a company to
collaborative nature of its productions, which
influence its market value.
are generally ‘devised’ through exploratory
workshops rather than conventionally written Conchobar In ancient Irish legend, a king
and directed. In its 20-year existence of Ulster at the start of the Christian era. He
Complicite has become associated with a was the guardian of CUCHULAIN and also
highly physical but at the same time austere responsible for the upbringing of DEIRDRE; his
 Congreve, William 123

passion for her eventually led to her flight and the Restoration era. Congreve wrote five plays
death. He is said to have died of anger on before he was 30. His first, THE OLD
hearing of Christ’s crucifixion. He appears BACHELOR, was an enormous success at Drury
as a character in several works of the Irish Lane in 1693, in a production starring
Dramatic Renaissance, including plays by Thomas Betterton and Mrs Bracegirdle.
Yeats, Synge, and AE. The authentic According to Congreve he wrote the play to
pronunciation of the name is disputed amuse himself during a convalescence.
(‘Conohore’ and ‘Crohore’ being amongst the The Double Dealer (1694) was not so well
most popular suggestions). See also DEIRDRE OF received but in 1695 he produced another hit,
THE SORROWS. LOVE FOR LOVE (again with Betterton and Mrs
Bracegirdle), to open the new LINCOLN’S INN
Confidenti An Italian COMMEDIA
FIELDS THEATRE. Its success secured his
DELL’ARTE company founded in 1574 that
reputation and earned him a share in the
toured Italy, France, and Spain for many years.
theatre. His promise to write at least one play a
From about 1580 it was led by Giovanni
year for the theatre of which he was now a part
Pellesini (1526–1612), famous for his role as
owner, was unfortunately not fulfilled.
Pedrolino. In 1604 some members of the
Congreve’s only tragedy, The Mourning
GELOSI troupe joined after the death of Isabella
Bride (1697), was his most popular work
Andreini. By 1610 Falmineo Scala, known
during his lifetime but is now rarely seen. It
as Flavio, had led the Confidenti back to
starred Mrs Bracegirdle as Almeria, a part that
Italy under the patronage of Giovanni de
Medici. The troupe was disbanded in 1621, became much coveted by tragic actresses.
whereupon some members returned to Paris In 1700 THE WAY OF THE WORLD, – a
to join the FEDELI company. See COMÉDIE- highly sophisticated and complex work now
ITALIENNE.
considered his masterpiece – met with a cool
reception. This failure, together with his
Confrérie de la Passion An amateur continued discomfort at having been attacked
theatre company founded in Paris in 1402 to in Jeremy COLLIER’s influential pamphlet A
perform religious plays. It came to exert a Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of
virtual control over Parisian drama for most of the English Stage (1698), persuaded him to
the 16th and 17th centuries. The company, retire. (Congreve had replied to Collier with
who performed works such as the ACTS OF THE little effect in Amendments of Mr Collier’s False
APOSTLES in a disused hall outside the walls of and Imperfect Citations.)
Paris, were granted a theatrical monopoly in Voltaire later visited him and accused him
the city in 1518. This would prove a major of wasting his genius. Congreve told him he
obstacle to the expansion of professional wished to be visited as a gentleman, not as an
theatre in Paris. author. To this Voltaire replied that if Mr
By 1748 the company had built a new Congreve were only a gentleman, he would
theatre on the ruins of the palace of the Dukes not have bothered to call upon him.
of Burgundy; this would become the famous Congreve was by all accounts a warm man
Théâtre de l’HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE. As they who won the love and respect of his many
were on the point of moving in, however, the friends. John Dryden called him the equal of
Church finally reacted to the company’s Shakespeare, Alexander Pope dedicated his
sometimes irreverent productions and banned translation of the Iliad to him in 1715, and
it from presenting the religious works that John Gay called him an “unreproachful man.”
formed its traditional repertory. The Confrérie When he died he left nearly all of his £10,000
de la Passion stopped producing its own plays estate to his mistress, Henrietta, the second
in about 1570 and leased the theatre to other Duchess of Marlborough, who arranged for his
groups, including Valleran-Lecomte’s burial in Westminster Abbey. Congreve was
company. It would not allow other companies said to be the father of her second daughter.
to settle permanently in Paris, however. The
The charms of his conversation must
Confrérie lost its monopoly in 1675 and
have been very powerful, since nothing
disbanded a year later.
could console Henrietta Dutchess of
Congreve, William (1670–1729) Marlborough, for the loss of his
English playwright, the most sophisticated company, so much as an automaton,
exponent of the COMEDY OF MANNERS during or small statue of ivory, made exactly
124 Connection, The

to resemble him, which every day was George rebuilt the theatre again in 1876
brought to table. A glass was put in the and sold up three years later when he left for
hand of the statue, which was supposed an ill-fated tour of America, during which he
to bow to her grace and to nod in was crippled in a stage accident. In 1881 he
approbation of what she spoke to it. took over the Surrey Theatre in Lambeth,
THOMAS DAVIES: Dramatic Miscellanies where he continued to present his own
(1784) sensational melodramas and Christmas
pantomimes with great success. When he died
Connection, The A controversial play by
his eldest son George, who excelled as a
the US dramatist Jack Gelber (1932–2003),
pantomime dame, ran the Surrey for three
which helped to create the OFF-BROADWAY
years before selling it. His younger brothers
theatre of the 1960s. A partly improvised play
were both noted ANIMAL IMPERSONATORS, Fred
about drug addiction, it was first produced in
being famous for his pantomime Goose, and
New York in 1959 by the LIVING THEATRE.
Arthur for his music-hall performances as
The story, such as it is, concerns the
Daphne, the chimpanzee.
making of an avant-garde documentary film,
also called The Connection. The producer and Constant Wife, The A comedy by W.
scriptwriter have gathered in a slum apartment Somerset MAUGHAM, first performed in 1926
to meet a group of drug-users and a jazz in New York and opening in London a year
combo, all of whom will feature in the film. later for a run of 264 performances. An
They wait for Cowboy, their supplier, who acclaimed 1974 revival in London starred
finally arrives with a stash of heroin; one Ingrid Bergman.
character takes an overdose that puts him into A year later John GIELGUD was weighing
a coma, from which the others help to revive up an offer to direct the play in New York
him. Eventually the producer, anticipating the when he received a good omen at a second-
reaction of the theatre audience, complains hand bookshop in Manhattan. While he was
about the lack of action, saying that he should browsing through the titles, a book toppled off
have brought some girls. The original the top shelf and landed at his feet. He picked
production used a number of devices to break it up and discovered The Constant Wife. He
the traditional barriers between the audience read it quickly and accepted.
and the action, including having the supposed The play, which has been called
drug addicts beg from theatregoers during the Maugham’s wittiest and most modern, focuses
interval. on the marriage of Constance Middleton, who
knows that her husband, John, is having
Conquest family The English actor-
an affair with her friend but takes it
manager Benjamin Conquest (Benjamin
philosophically. When the friend’s husband
Oliver; 1805–72), his son George Augustus
angrily confronts John, she skilfully defuses the
Conquest (1837–1902), who was a playwright,
situation with a lie. Constance goes into
acrobat, pantomimist, and manager, and
business by herself, becomes financially
George’s sons, the comedians George
independent, and announces that she is going
Conquest (1858–1926), Fred Conquest
on holiday to Italy with Bernard, a former
(1871–1941), and Arthur Conquest
sweetheart. She adds, however, that she still
(1875–1945).
loves her husband: “I may be unfaithful, but I
In 1851 Benjamin Conquest took over
am constant.”
London’s Grecian Theatre, previously a venue
for light opera. After losing money producing constructivism The use of abstract
Shakespeare, he staged more than 100 multilevel settings for a drama. The term was
melodramas written by his son George, who taken from the visual arts, having been first
was educated in France and adapted many applied to abstract sculpture in about 1912. In
works from the French theatre. George also the theatre constructivism was developed
collaborated with Henry Spry on nearly 50 between 1922 and 1925 by the Soviet actor
pantomimes noted for their flying ballets, and director Vsevolod MEYERHOLD at the
acrobatic effects, and stage mechanics (one MOSCOW ART THEATRE. He removed the front
play used 30 traps). He helped to manage the curtain and replaced naturalistic sets with a
Grecian, which was rebuilt in 1858, and practical “machine for acting” consisting of
inherited it on his father’s death. platforms, ramps, and rotating wheels. A
 Cooper, Dame Gladys 125

typical example was his 1922 production of removed the body to a new burial place in the
Molière’s Le Cocu imaginaire, which features a city and erected a monument. He also
constructivist machine-age setting by the removed a toe-bone from the actor. When his
designer Lyubov Popova. Drury Lane company met him on his return,
he commanded: “Behold! Fall down and kiss
Contrast, The A work by the US
the relic! This is the toe-bone of the greatest
playwright Royall Tyler (1757–1826), usually
creature that ever walked the earth.” Each fell
considered the first American comedy. It
upon his knees and kissed it. Kean preserved
introduced the stock character of the rural the hallowed toe for years until one day his
Yankee who considers himself superior to wife, in a pique, tossed it out of the window
other men. It was produced with great success into a well. He rebuked her more in sorrow
by the AMERICAN COMPANY at the John Street than in anger: “Mary, your son has lost his
Theatre, New York, in 1787. When it played fortune. In possessing Cooke’s toe-bone he was
in Tyler’s hometown of Boston, it had to be worth £10,000, now he is a beggar.”
disguised as a “moral lecture in five parts” This was not the only part of Cooke’s
because of prejudice against the theatre. anatomy to enjoy a posthumous celebrity.
George Washington was a subscriber when According to the terms of Cooke’s will, his
The Contrast was published in 1790. skull had passed to one Dr Francis, an
The play is a light comedy that shows the American friend, who gave it to a company of
influence of both Sheridan and Goldsmith. It players. So it was that, for many years after his
contrasts the devious behaviour of Dimple, death, Cooke continued to make regular
who deserts his fiancée for a wealthy woman, appearances in the graveyard scene from
with the simple native honesty of Dimple’s Hamlet.
brother.
Cooper, Dame Gladys (1888–1971)
Cooke, George Frederick British actress. She made her debut at the age
(1756–1812) British actor, whose brilliance on of 17 in the lead role of Seymour Hicks’s
stage was obscured by his reputation for Bluebell in Fairyland. A year later she became a
drunkenness and erratic behaviour. After 20 GAIETY GIRL, earning £3 a week for playing
years languishing in the provinces, he suddenly small singing and dancing parts. Her first
found success in 1800 playing Richard III at serious acting role on the London stage came
Covent Garden. When John Philip Kemble in 1906 with The Belle of Mayfair.
(see KEMBLE FAMILY) saw the performance, he In 1917 Cooper became joint-manager of
vowed never again to play the part. Cooke the London Playhouse with Frank Curzon (the
remained at the theatre for a decade but was only other woman running a London theatre
constantly in trouble, in debt, or in jail. at that time was Lilian Baylis at the Old Vic).
During one performance in Charles Macklin’s She presented and acted in four Somerset
Love à la Mode, he was too drunk to act and Maugham premieres and enjoyed a great
the show went on without anyone in the lead. success in J. M. Barrie’s PETER PAN. From the
Cooke was one of the first British stars to mid 1930s she worked mainly in America,
be exported to America. He travelled to New making some 30 Hollywood films between
York in 1810 to escape his reputation, 1940 and 1967. She became Dame Gladys in
appearing at the Park Theatre to great acclaim. 1967.
His unreliability, however, wrecked his second Cooper always maintained that Peter Pan
New York season. On his own benefit evening, was for adults, not children. “Hook is a
he tried to play Cato after a prolonged terrifying character,” she pointed out, adding
drinking bout and bewildered the audience by “When children are asked ‘Do you believe in
roaring out lines from Shakespeare interspersed fairies?’ they are egged on to call out ‘Yes’ by
with his own incoherencies. Afterwards he the elders.” When one small boy visited her
explained, “I always have a frolic on my benefit dressing room after the show he looked at her
day. If a man cannot take a liberty with his suspiciously for some moments and then
friends, who the devil can he take a liberty commanded: “Well, now fly.” Noted Cooper,
with?” “There absolutely does not seem to be any
Cooke later toured America and often adequate answer to that sort of demand.”
spoke publicly on the evils of alcohol. He died Gladys Cooper was the mother-in-law of the
in New York. Edmund KEAN, a great admirer, actor Robert Morley (1908–92).
126 Co-Optimists

Co-Optimists One of the most famous eventually, that he had been duped. The
PIERROT TROUPES, who successfully revived the documents were an elaborate practical joke by
old style of seaside show at the APOLLO David Burke, the actor who played Bohr in the
THEATRE, London, from 1921 to 1927. They original production. Burke and Frayn later
were led by Davy Burnaby (1881–1949). collaborated on a book about the deception,
Celia’s Secret.
Copenhagen Michael FRAYN’s dazzling
play about quantum physics, moral copyright In the theatre, the legal
responsibility, and the uncertainties of human protection afforded to the owner of a dramatic
motivation. Copenhagen focuses on one of the work, who is entitled to a royalty fee if his play
most mysterious incidents in modern scientific is performed or published. Most countries
history: the clandestine visit that Werner recognize a copyright lasting at least 50 years
Heisenberg, the German physicist charged after the author’s death. Any infringement is a
with developing an atom bomb for the Nazis, civil offence that can lead to an injunction or
paid to his former mentor, the half-Jewish an action for damages.
Niels Bohr, in occupied Denmark in 1941. In Shakespeare’s time a playwright who
Over the years, many reasons have been published his work lost control of it to the
suggested for this inconclusive visit: did printer. Throughout the 17th century the
Heisenberg mean to warn Bohr about the dramatist received no money from his work
Nazis’ atomic weapons programme, recruit after its first run (which was rarely more
him to it, or fish for information about than three performances), even if the work
developments on the Allied side? In Frayn’s remained in a company’s repertory.
play Bohr and Heisenberg re-enact several The first English Copyright Act, passed
possible versions of the meeting in what in 1709, granted copyright for 14 years,
appears to be some kind of post-death limbo. renewable for 14 more. However, playwrights
The presence of a third character, Bohr’s wife usually sold this to the theatre or a publisher
Margrethe, ensures that the technical points of for a small sum and throughout the 18th
their discussion are explained in terms that are century depended upon BENEFIT performances
just about intelligible to a lay audience. for adequate income.
Gradually, the concepts of ‘uncertainty’ and Efforts by the Dramatic Authors’ Society
‘complementarity’ devised by the two men in led in 1833 to England’s first copyright law
their work on quantum theory emerge as applying specifically to plays. This was
radical metaphors for human experience. followed by a detailed Literary Copyright Act
Copenhagen was first staged at the National in 1842. However, as acting rights to printed
Theatre’s intimate Cottesloe Theatre in 1998, plays still belonged to the publisher, dramatists
in a starkly effective production by Michael usually tried to keep their works out of print.
Blakemore: Heisenberg was played by Until the late 19th century the right of
Matthew Marsh, Bohr by David Burke, and ‘copyright performance’ was traditionally
Margrethe by Sara Kestleman. Perhaps considered lost if a play was published before
surprisingly for a play on such an abstruse being performed. This led George Bernard
topic, it played to full houses for eight months Shaw and others to hire actors for public
before transferring to the West End, where it readings in a hall or other public place, usually
ran for another two years. Copenhagen enjoyed without costumes or scenery. Such ‘copyright
a comparable triumph on Broadway, where it performances’ have led to confusion in dating
won the Tony Awards for Best Play and Best the premieres of many works.
Director. The Berne Convention of 1886 established
The play has a curious (if oddly fitting) the International Copyright Union, amended
sequel. While Copenhagen was still running at in 1896 and 1908 and revised at Stockholm in
the National, Frayn received a parcel of 1967. Additional protection came from the
yellowing papers from a woman named Celia Universal Copyright Convention signed at
Pryce-Jones. These had supposedly been found Geneva in 1952.
at the house in which Heisenberg was interned In Britain the Copyright Act of 1911
at the end of the war and seemed to shed new gave full protection to works intended for
light on his actions and motives. Hugely performance. The Copyright Act of 1956 was
excited, Frayn threw himself into months of a revision to cover such modern media as
speculation and research only to discover, films, records, radio, and television. Following
 Corneille, Pierre 127

the European Single Market Act (1992), celebrated production at the National Theatre
copyright protection in EU countries was with Ian McKellen in the title role (1984).
harmonized at 70 years after death. With his aristocratic pride and bitter
US copyright law derives from the British contempt for the common herd, Coriolanus
Act of 1709. The first US Act was passed in has divided opinion amongst critics and
1790. The US dramatist George Henry Boker playgoers, provoking much debate about
(1823–90) worked particularly hard to secure Shakespeare’s own political views. Bertolt
full legal protection for playwrights. An 1856 Brecht gave the play a Marxist slant when he
copyright act provided for registration of adapted it as Coriolan (1962) while John
works in local courts (later the Library of Osborne rewrote it as A Place Calling Itself
Congress). The US Copyright Act of 1909 Rome (1973).
remains in effect today with amendments. Corneille, Pierre (1606–84) French
Cordelia The youngest of KING LEAR’s poet and playwright, considered the father of
three daughters. In the play’s first scene she is French classical tragedy. His reputation earned
disinherited for her inability to express her him the informal title le grand Corneille in his
sincere love for her father in sufficiently own lifetime.
Born into a family of lawyers, Corneille
flattering terms. She later rescues him from the
worked from 1628 to 1650 as crown counsel
ill-treatment of her sisters GONERIL and REGAN.
in a local government office in Rouen. The
When she is hanged, Lear dies of grief.
success of his first play, the farce MÉLITE
Coriolanus A tragedy by SHAKESPEARE, (1629), encouraged him to concentrate on
written c. 1605–08; no record of a Jacobean comedy for the next six years. In the 1630s he
performance has survived. became one of a team of playwrights employed
The plot is taken from Plutarch’s Lives. by Cardinal Richelieu, but the two men fell
When the Roman general Caius Marcius out in 1635, apparently because Corneille
captures Coriol from the Volscians, led by demanded an increased share of the takings.
Tullus Aufidius, he is dubbed Coriolanus in The same year saw the production of Médée,
honour of his victory and receives a hero’s his first experiment in tragedy.
welcome in Rome. He is soon offered the Corneille’s great tragicomedy LE CID
consulship but his unwillingness to court the achieved instant success at the Théâtre du
favour of the populace (together with the Marais in 1637. Ironically, the play that is now
plotting of the tribunes) leads instead to his considered to have founded the French
banishment. Enraged, he travels to Antium, classical theatre was denounced by critics for
where Aufidius is living, and offers to join the disregarding the UNITIES. Following a critical
report by the Académie Française (under
Volscians in an attack on Rome. Coriolanus
Richelieu), the play was suppressed.
soon has the city at his mercy and only relents
Le Cid was followed by a series of tragedies
when his wife and mother, Volumnia, plead
in the new classical style, the most notable
for peace. On his return to the Volscians,
being HORACE (1640), Cinna (1641), and
Aufidius accuses him of treason and he is Polyeucte (1643), a story of Christian
stabbed to death. martyrdom. The plays, written mainly in
One of the most acclaimed modern rhyming Alexandrines, are remarkable for their
performances was that of OLIVIER at the Old formal symmetry and stylized rhetoric. There
Vic in 1958. Laurence Kitchin wrote of the is little external action, the main emphasis
scene in which Coriolanus confronts the falling on the moral dilemmas of the heroic
Roman mob, “There was the bizarre protagonists.
impression of one man lynching a crowd.” Despite his reputation as a tragedian,
During this unlucky production, Edith Evans Corneille continued to write in other genres.
(playing Volumnia) was involved in a car crash His finest comedy, Le Menteur, was produced
and Olivier missed six nights after hurting his in 1643 with Floridor in the lead, while the
leg. He was replaced by the young Albert spectacle play Andromède (1650) gave a
Finney, who each day was fed a steak by the starring role to Giacomo TORELLI’s stage
worried management. Olivier gave another machinery at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon.
brilliant performance in Peter HALL’s 1959 Psyché, a COMÉDIE-BALLET produced in 1671,
Stratford production. Hall also mounted a was written in collaboration with Molière.
128 Corneille de l’Isle

After the failure of Pertharite in 1651 Cornell’s appetite for touring was prodigious.
Corneille wrote nothing for the stage for seven In the 1933–34 season, for instance, she
years. In the 1660s he found himself rivalled covered 75,000 miles to visit 77 US cities and
by the young Jean RACINE, who gradually perform to half a million people. She was
overtook him in public estimation. He died in joined by Edith Evans, Orson Welles, Brian
comparative poverty. Aherne, and Basil Rathbone for the three
Even in his declining days, however, plays, Romeo and Juliet, Candida, and The
Corneille knew the power of his reputation. Barretts of Wimpole Street. In 1934 she played
When Molière and the actor Michel Baron Juliet on Broadway with Maurice Evans as
admitted during rehearsals for Titus and Romeo and Ralph Richardson as Mercutio;
Bérénice (1670) they did not understand a Brooks Atkinson called the performance “a
passage, Corneille confessed that neither did high plane of modern magnificence”.
he. “Just say the lines as written,” he shrugged. Later roles included that of Mrs Patrick
“There will be some in the audience who CAMPBELL in Jerome Kilty’s Dear Liar (1960);
won’t understand yet will deeply admire she retired the following year. She wrote two
them.” autobiographies, I Wanted to be an Actress
Corneille is to Shakespeare…as a (1939) and Curtain Going Up (1943). See also
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
clipped hedge is to a forest.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Corn is Green, The A play by Emlyn
WILLIAMS, first performed in London in 1938
Corneille de l’Isle The name adopted
by the poet and playwright Thomas Corneille at the Duchess Theatre. Williams himself
(1625–1709), Pierre CORNEILLE’s younger directed and played the young Morgan Evans
brother (by nearly 20 years). Thomas wrote to Sybil Thorndike’s Miss Moffat, his
more than 40 successful comedies and indomitable schoolteacher. It opened two years
romantic tragedies before abandoning the stage later in New York with Ethel Barrymore (see
BARRYMORES, THE) as the teacher.
for lexicography.
The London producer Binkie Beaumont,
Cornell, Katharine (1893–1974) US Williams’s friend and fellow Welshman,
actress who dominated the New York stage turned down the play, on the grounds that
between the world wars and vied with Helen “Nobody wants to go to the theatre to see
HAYES for the title of First Lady of the plays about people going to school.” In fact,
American Theatre. the drama proved a great success, transferring
Cornell grew up in Buffalo, New York, to the Piccadilly Theatre and completing a run
where her father managed a theatre. She made of almost two years. The story was based on
her Broadway debut with the Washington Williams’s close relationship with Miss Cooke,
Square Players in Bushido at the Comedy the teacher who had discovered and nourished
Theatre. In 1921 she found acclaim with her his writing ability. For the first production
performance as Sydney Fairfield in Clemence Williams, then 35, dyed his hair black to play
Dane’s A Bill of Divorcement at the George M. the 18-year-old schoolboy. The play provoked
Cohan Theatre. She subsequently married its Kenneth Tynan to write, “The most startling
director, Guthrie McClintic, and they worked feature of the current theatre is plays by Emlyn
together for the remainder of her career. Williams, for Emlyn Williams, and about
Her other successful roles included the title Emlyn Williams.”
part in Shaw’s Candida (1924) at the 49th The story shows Miss Moffat setting up a
Street Theatre and Iris Fenwick in The Green school in the Welsh village of Glansarno. She
Hat (1925) at the Broadhurst Theatre. During is impressed with Morgan Evans’s ability to
the latter’s run, she showed Leslie Howard write about life in the mining community and
how to make his face flush with false insists that he attend university. Morgan,
excitement before entering a tense scene by however, becomes involved with a young girl,
placing his hands on his knees and breathing who announces that she is pregnant by him as
heavily (see SHAKING THE LADDER). he awaits the results of his Oxford entrance
Cornell’s best known role was that of examination. Although Morgan decides to do
Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Rudolf Besier’s the honourable thing by the girl, Miss Moffat
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931). It ran at frees him to take up his Oxford place by
the Empire Theatre for a year and then toured. adopting the child.
 Costard 129

Cornish Rounds Ancient open-air Corsican Brothers, The A spectacular

theatres in Cornwall that were used to perform melodrama by the British dramatist Dion
annual medieval MYSTERY PLAYS. They were BOUCICAULT. An adaptation of a French play,
carved into hill slopes to allow a large number it was first performed at the Princess’s Theatre,
of spectators to face the central acting area. An London, starring Charles KEAN, who played
unusual feature was a trench used by actors for twin characters. The play introduced the so-
quick entrances. Documents suggest that the called Corsican Trap, a variation of the GHOST
eastern end of the ‘playing-place’ was used to GLIDE. It was during a revival of The Corsican
represent Heaven while Hell was to the north. Brothers at the LYCEUM THEATRE in 1880 that
Cornish Rounds were used for performances Henry IRVING introduced the practice of
until the 17th century. In 1968 the cycle of making scenery changes behind a curtain.
Cornish mystery plays was given at the Piran The story concerns the twins Louis and
Round, Perranporth, by drama students from Fabien dei Franchi; Louis is killed in a duel
Bristol University, who used original staging and Fabien avenges his death. H. J. Byron
methods. (1834–84) later burlesqued the piece in his
The Corsican ‘Bothers’; or, the Troublesome
corpse Originally, actor’s slang meaning to
Twins, while Willy Russell adapted the story
cause chaos on stage through any kind of
unprofessional behaviour. It is now applied for his hit musical BLOOD BROTHERS.
almost exclusively to cases in which an actor coryphaeus The leader of the CHORUS in
falls out of character by laughing at an Greek dramas, who spoke for the rest; hence
inappropriate moment. Actors notorious for figuratively, the leader or spokesman of any
corpsing included the young Laurence OLIVIER. organization, etc. The coryphée is the lead
corrales de comedias (Spanish: play dancer in a ballet troupe.
yards) The open courtyards used as public Costantini, Angelo (1655–1729)
theatres during the Golden Age of Spanish Italian actor of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. In
drama. The first recorded use of such a venue 1683 he joined the COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE in
for plays was in 1565 in Madrid. Nine years Paris meaning to share the role of ARLECCHINO
later Zan Ganassa’s COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE with Giuseppe Biancolelli (1637–88). Instead,
company constructed an innovative covered he enlarged the role of the character
stage in a corral. Madrid’s two principal MEZZETINO, creating a distinctive red and
theatres were the Corral de la Cruz founded in white costume. He also wrote and published
1579 and the Corral del PrÍncipe opened in (1695) a somewhat inaccurate biography of
1582. The corrales declined from the middle of his fellow actor, Tiberio Fiorillo, who had
the 17th century as purpose-built theatres in developed the role of SCARAMUCCIA. When the
the Italian fashion replaced them. Court exiled the Italians from Paris in 1697,
A theatre-goer had to pay to enter the Costantini settled in the duchy of Brunswick;
corral and again to be seated. At one end of the he was imprisoned for some 20 years after
yard was a projecting stage with trapdoors and winning the heart of a woman also beloved by
devices for lowering divine characters; the back the Elector of Saxony.
wall contained doors and windows and a Angelo’s brother, Giovan Battista
curtained INNER STAGE. The theatre’s patio, or Costantini (d. 1720), was also a member of the
pit, had benches around the sides, while the Paris company, playing the role of Cintio, a
aposentos, or boxes, were window seats in young lover.
houses overlooking the courtyard. Although
men and women sat together in the best boxes, Costard A slow-witted rustic in
the remainder of the audience was divided by Shakespeare’s LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST. He apes
sex, with the uneducated women confined to the court wit of the other characters but
their own gallery. commits solecisms like DOGBERRY or Mrs
MALAPROP.
The companies, usually of from 12 to 14
actors, began their seasons at Easter. The The name is an archaic term for a type of
continuous entertainment included music, large apple and, metaphorically, the head:
dance, the loa, or prologue, and the comedia Take him on the costard with the hilts
itself, with interludes (see ENTREMÉS; SAINETE) of thy sword.
between the acts. SHAKESPEARE: Richard III (I, iv)
130 costumbrista

costumbrista In the early 19th-century demanded that actors play MACBETH wearing a
Spanish theatre, a term for the technique of tail wig and 18th-century army officers’
reproducing on stage the colour and customs uniform, VOLTAIRE and the actor Henri-Louis
of a specific region and its natives’ accent and LEKAIN campaigned for greater realism. In
style. Costumbrista later became a characteristic 1789 François-Joseph Talma made a great
of drama in the Spanish areas of Central and innovation by appearing in Voltaire’s Brutus
South America. wearing a toga with bare legs and arms. The
brief costume was not well received by the
costume The clothing worn by an actor or
audience but by the end of the century realistic
other stage performer. Throughout the history
classical costume had become acceptable.
of the theatre, fashions in costume have
During the early 19th century, the
alternated between contemporary dress,
dramatization of Sir Walter Scott’s novels
attempts at historical representation, and
established a fashion for historical accuracy in
symbolic costume.
costumes. For Charles Kemble’s 1823
The ancient Greeks introduced the
production of King John, James Robinson
wearing of MASKS, which allowed actors to play
Planche dressed the king in clothes based on
several parts, with long robes being worn for
medieval manuscript illuminations.
tragedy and short tunics for comedy. Simple
However, by the beginning of the 20th
symbolic devices, such as the winged shoes of
century this trend had itself become restrictive.
Hermes, were used to distinguish stock
The modern theatre has embraced a variety of
characters. The chorus often dressed
approaches to costume, ranging from the
symbolically to represent elders, townspeople,
naturalistic to the wholly symbolic or abstract.
or birds or animals. Roman actors wore
The fashion for setting older works in fantasy
elaborate costumes for tragedy, using high
worlds or historical periods other than that
boots, masks with high foreheads, and body
from which they originate has been used to
padding to make themselves literally larger
particularly striking effect in Shakespearean
than life. Actors in comedies wore ordinary
productions. See also WARDROBE.
clothes. Stock characters had their own
colours, with royalty being dressed in purple, cothurnus See BUSKIN.
slaves wearing red wigs, and prostitutes
counterweight system A system for
wearing yellow.
raising and lowering scenery by means of an
In medieval Europe elaborate costume was
arrangement of lines and weights. A theatre so
used to emphasize the supernatural aspects of
equipped (sometimes called a counterweight
the MYSTERY PLAYs. The faces of angels were
house) does not require a fly floor (see FLIES).
painted red and those of the damned black.
The most spectacular counterweight
God appeared in gold cloth, Adam and Eve in
system was that devised in 1641 by Giacomo
leather suits, and the devil in grotesque masks.
TORELLI for La festa teatrale della finta pazzia at
Less is known about the use of costume during
Venice’s Teatro Novissimo. Counterweights
the Renaissance. Elizabethan costume was a
were connected to eight pairs of wings that
confused mixture of contemporary dress with
could be changed simultaneously by one
occasional attempts to suggest historical
person. A similar system can still be seen at the
period. The early 17th-century English court
Drottningholm Theatre and Museum,
masques were notable for the ornate costumes
Sweden. See also HAND-WORKED HOUSE.
of Inigo JONES.
In the Restoration period wildly Country Girl, The A play by the US
exaggerated versions of the lavish fashions of dramatist Clifford ODETS that provided his last
the day were used in the comedies of Etherage great hit. First performed in 1950 in New
and Congreve. Eighteenth-century costume York, it was seen in Britain two years later as
was generally elaborate and fanciful until Winter Journey. The 1954 film version starred
David GARRICK led a return to more Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.
naturalistic styles. Attempts at historical The country girl, Georgie, is married to
accuracy remained fairly notional, however. the actor Frank Elgin, once a great star but
When portraying an ancient Greek in 1758, now an alcoholic. Although he blames her for
Garrick wore the costume of a Venetian his failure, she adores him. When a director
gondolier, arguing that such men were usually gives Frank the lead in a new play, the pressure
of Greek origin. In France, where convention induces the actor to go on a lengthy binge
 Covent Garden 131

during the pre-Broadway tryouts. Although Thomas More’s fool, Henry Paterson, used
Georgie is attracted to the director, she to challenge his master’s stance on papal
remains faithful, and Frank is acclaimed on supremacy after supper. Paterson appears in
opening night in New York. Holbein’s famous portrait of the chancellor.
Country Wife, The William Shakespeare’s interest in fools can be dated
WYCHERLEY’s robust Restoration comedy. First from 1599, when the comedian Robert
performed in 1675 at Drury Lane, it was his Armin joined the Chamberlain’s Men as a
greatest triumph and probably the last play he replacement for Will Kempe. Armin was an
wrote (although The Plain Dealer was staged a expert on court fools and had a fund of stories
year later). The Country Wife became known as about them, later collected in Foole Upon Foole
one of the lewdest plays in the language and, (1605) and The Nest of Ninnies (1609). It was
although popular in its day, was later Armin who created the roles of Touchstone in
supplanted by Garrick’s bowdlerized version, As You Like It (1599), Feste in Twelfth Night
The Country Girl (1766). No producer had the (1601–02), and the Fool in KING LEAR (1605).
nerve to touch Wycherley’s original until In the latter the Fool is a full participant in the
1924, when it was staged at the Phoenix tragic events, rather than a source of light
Society nightclub in London. It is now relief.
admired for its clever construction and The fool lost his central role at court in
mordant wit. the 17th century; thereafter his place was
The play concerns the libertine Mr sometimes taken by bands of rollicking
Horner, who feigns impotence in order to gain
grotesques, such as those who followed Marie
unrestricted access to women. Soon society
Antoinette. The last court fool in England was
women are flocking in droves to admire his
‘china.’ Mr Pinchwife, who has married the Charles I’s Muckle John. As late as 1728 Swift
lusty country girl Margery, has not heard of wrote an epitaph on Dickie Pierce, the Earl of
Horner’s supposed affliction and makes futile Suffolk’s fool, who is buried in Berkeley
attempts to keep his young wife away from Churchyard, Gloucestershire. See also FOOL.
temptation. court theatre (in England) Although
coup de théâtre (French: stroke of the England never had an official court theatre to
theatre) An unexpected turn in a drama compare with that of Louis XIV at Versailles
producing a sensational effect; an astonishing or Goethe’s Court Theatre at Weimar, the
piece of stagecraft; or an enormous theatrical English royal household had a long history of
success. More generally, the phrase is used of welcoming players. In the Elizabethan era
anything planned for effect, such as a dramatic many new works were first presented at court,
political intervention, etc. including Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Halls
court fool In medieval and Tudor times, and other large rooms were adapted for the
a member of the royal household given special entertainments and if necessary the plays were
licence both to amuse the monarch and to tell altered to fit the available space.
the truth, however unflattering. Certainly he In the early 17th century the elaborate
was never simply a clown; his other roles court MASQUEs favoured by the Stuart kings
included mascot, whipping boy, counsellor, were held in more specialized venues, such as
poet, leader of revels, pet, and clairvoyant. the Banqueting Hall and Masquing House in
Famous court fools in England included Whitehall and the Great Hall at Hampton
Edward IV’s John Scogan, Henry III’s Ralph Court. In 1604 Inigo JONES converted the
Simnel (who appears in Robert Greene’s play Cockpit-in-Court into an intimate theatre.
Frier Bacon and Frier Bungay), Henry VIII’s Although Charles II was a keen theatregoer
Will Somers (“his plainness mixed with a kind the custom of presenting new works for purely
of facetiousness, and tartness with pleasantness, royal pleasure declined after the Restoration;
made him very acceptable into the companies the era of English court theatre had effectively
of all men”), and Elizabeth I’s Richard ended.
TARLTON. According to tradition, Rahere, the
founder of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Covent Garden The familiar name of a
London, was Henry I’s fool. Some wealthy theatre in Bow Street in the Covent Garden
noblemen also kept a household fool. Sir district of London; it is now known officially
132 Coward, Sir Noël

as the Royal Opera House, home of the Royal somewhat, until it was saved by the popularity
Opera and Royal Ballet. of Charles Kemble’s actress daughter, Fanny.
Covent Garden is a corruption of In 1833 Edmund KEAN made a dramatic
Convent Garden, from the former garden final appearance while playing Othello to his
and burial ground of the convent or Abbey son Charles’s Iago. Suddenly taken ill, he
of Westminster. A famous fruit, flower, and rested his head on his son’s shoulder and
vegetable market was held in the district from whispered, “I’m dying, speak to them for me.”
the 17th century until 1974, when it moved to He was carried from the stage and died weeks
Battersea. In the 17th and 18th centuries the later.
area was the stamping ground of the Mohocks In 1837 Charles MACREADY became
and other semi-fashionable ruffians, and its manager in succession to his bête noir, the
coffee houses, bagnios, and taverns the notorious ‘Poet’ BUNN; his innovations
favourite resorts of poets, actors, and artists. included restoring the full texts of
The present theatre is the third on the Bow Shakespeare’s plays and introducing LIMELIGHT
Street site. The first, the Theatre Royal, to the theatre. He was succeeded in 1839 by
Covent Garden, was built in 1732 by John Madame VESTRIS and her husband Charles
Rich the Harlequin (see RICHES, THE). For the Mathews. In 1847 the theatre was reopened as
next 100 years Covent Garden and Drury the Royal Italian Opera House and in 1856 it
Lane were the only fully licensed theatres in again burned down.
London (see PATENT THEATRES). Plays and The present opera house, designed by Sir
operas (including several by Handel) alternated Edward M. Barry, opened in 1858. Sir
at the venue. Peg Woffington made her Thomas Beecham was musical director in
debut there in 1740 and gave her farewell 1919–20 and artistic director from 1933 until
performance in 1757. Goldsmith’s She Stoops World War II. In 1946 the venue became the
To Conquer received its premiere at Covent home of the Covent Garden Opera, renamed
Garden in 1773 as did Sheridan’s The Rivals the Royal Opera Company in 1968, and of the
two years later. Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company, renamed the
In the 18th century Covent Garden Royal Ballet in 1956. A major reconstruction
audiences were notoriously unrestrained. was carried out between 1996 and 2000 at a
cost of some £200 million; the house is now
On one night alone, a riot started because
regarded as having perhaps the most
“gentry in the upper gallery” demanded an
sophisticated staging facilities in Europe.
unscheduled hornpipe, two playgoers fought a
duel with swords, and an orange thrown at an Coward, Sir Noël (1899–1973) British
actor “dented the iron of his false nose and playwright, composer, producer, and actor,
drove it into his head.” who began his theatrical career at the age of
John Kemble (see KEMBLE FAMILY) became 11, when his ambitious mother answered an
manager in 1803 and appeared frequently with advertisement for child actors in the Daily
his sister, Sarah Siddons. Other leading Mirror. The result was that Noël, so called
attractions included the child prodigies Miss because he was born just before Christmas,
Mudie (see THEATRICAL PHENOMENON) and appeared in The Goldfish at Crystal Palace’s
Master BETTY, known as the Young Roscius. In Little Theatre. Thereafter, he became a
1808 the theatre was destroyed by a blaze in successful child actor, although in his own
which 23 firemen died; also lost were Handel’s view he was:
organ and some of his original scores. A new …when washed and smarmed down a
theatre, modelled on the Temple of Minerva, bit passably attractive, but one of the
opened in 1809. With its capacity of 3013 it worst boy actors ever inflicted on the
was said to be the largest in Europe. paying public.
The great clown Joseph GRIMALDI After World War I he began to write his own
appeared regularly from 1806 to 1823. Sarah plays while continuing to appear in revues and
Siddons made her farewell appearance in 1812 comedies. His first major success as both actor
and William MACREADY his debut four years and author came with THE VORTEX (1924), a
later. In 1817, the year the theatre was lit by domestic drama reflecting some of the
gas, the management passed to John Kemble’s desperation of postwar London society. It was,
brother Charles. The theatre then declined however, with HAY FEVER (1925) that Coward
 Crazy Gang 133

discovered his talent for writing and where he designed a memorable production of
performing sharp social comedies. PRIVATE Otway’s Venice Preserv’d, influenced Max
LIVES (1930; filmed 1931), DESIGN FOR LIVING REINHARDT, and had an affair with the dancer
(1933; filmed 1933), BLITHE SPIRIT (1941; Isadora Duncan. Two years later he settled in
filmed 1945), and PRESENT LAUGHTER (1943) Florence, where he founded The Mask, a
followed in this vein. Meanwhile Coward was theatre journal, and ran a school of acting. In
also writing musicals, including BITTER SWEET 1912 he provided the designs for Stanislavsky’s
(1929; filmed 1933) and the patriotic Hamlet at the Moscow Art Theatre. From
CAVALCADE (1931; filmed 1932). During the 1929 he lived in France. He was made a
1930s Coward performed on both sides of the Companion of Honour in 1955 but could not
Atlantic, appearing with such stars as Alfred afford the trip to London to accept it.
LUNT and Lynn Fontanne and Gertrude Craig’s theories were initially controversial
LAWRENCE, usually in his own plays. After – he was once labelled ‘half-mad’ – but many
World War II, while much in demand as a had become accepted internationally by the
cabaret star, he never managed to achieve his end of World War I. In particular, he
former eminence as a writer: Relative Values advocated a new kind of ‘total theatre’ created
(1951), Nude with Violin (1956), and Suite in by a master-artist combining the roles of
Three Keys (1946), in which he made his director and designer. To Craig, a play was
farewell appearance, have not entered the primarily a visual rather than a literary
repertory. experience. He denounced playwrights for
Coward, often referred to as the MASTER, overemphasizing the role of words, and star
was a prominent personality on the theatrical actors for their self-importance. His most
scene for over 50 years. His image – the controversial idea was that actors should be
dressing gown, silk scarf, and long cigarette reduced to the status of ÜBER-MARIONETTES, or
holder – now seems to epitomize Europe’s last super-puppets, in the hands of the master-
attempt at frivolous sophistication before the artist.
onslaught of World War II. Craig’s designs were characterized
Many anecdotes are told of him, most by simple nonrepresentational sets and
reflecting his skill at repartee. On one dramatic effects of light and shade. He also
occasion Laurence Olivier’s young son was experimented with moving screens, rostrums,
accompanying the two theatrical giants on a and stairways. These ideas were set out in his
walk along the front at Brighton, not far from book On the Art of the Theatre (1911); other
St Dunstan’s, the home for the blind. Noticing publications include a biography of his mother
two dogs copulating, the young Olivier asked and an autobiography, Index to the Story of My
what they were doing. Coward replied: Days, 1872–1907.
Edith Craig also began acting with Ellen
It’s like this, dear boy, the poor little Terry at the Lyceum. She managed her
dog in front is blind and the kind one mother’s 1907 US tour but soon afterwards
behind is pushing him all the way to St left the theatre to study music in London and
Dunstan’s. Berlin. From 1911 until 1921 she directed the
Craig family The stage designer Gordon Pioneer Players, also designing the costumes
Craig (1872–1966) and his sister, the actress and scenery.
and director Edith Craig (1869–1947); they Crazy Gang A group of British
were the children of the actress Ellen Terry comedians. Their comedy and variety act,
and the architect E. W. Godwin (see TERRY which involved mixing with the audience and
FAMILY). riotous impromptu routines, enjoyed success
Gordon Craig joined his mother on stage for some 30 years. The Gang comprised three
at the LYCEUM THEATRE when he was 16. His double acts: Bud Flanagan (1896–1968) and
ego made him unpopular with fellow actors, Chesney Allen (1894–1982), famous for their
who enjoyed landing blows on him during many songs, including ‘Underneath the
battle scenes. The first production he directed Arches’; Jimmy Nervo (1890–1975) and
and designed was Alfred de Musset’s On ne Teddy Knox (1896–1974); and Charlie
badine pas avec l’amour in 1893. Naughton (1887–1976) and Jimmy Gold
Craig spent much of his career on the (1886–1967). They first appeared together on
Continent. In 1904 he travelled to Berlin, the stage of the London Palladium in 1932
134 Creditors

and starred there almost continuously until were Fausto Maria Martini (1886–1931) and
1940. After the war Chesney Allen retired, and Cesare Vico Lodovico (1885–1968). The
the Gang reformed at the Victoria Palace in former is noted for his satires on middle-class
1947, with the eccentric ‘Monsewer’ Eddie attitudes, such as The Black Lily (1913), and
Gray (1897–1969). They disbanded in 1962. Laugh, Clown, Laugh! (1919), while the latter
dealt with the failure of human beings to
Creditors A short tragicomedy by August
communicate in such Chekhovian works as
STRINDBERG, given a single performance at
Nobody’s Woman (1919) and The Flaw, or Isa,
his Scandinavian Experimental Theatre,
Where Are You Going? (1937).
Copenhagen in 1889. Four years later Lugné
Poë, founder of the Théâtre Nouveau in Paris, cresset In the Elizabethan theatre, a crude
revived the play with himself in the leading form of stage lighting consisting of an iron
role. cage or basket holding a knot of burning tarred
Strindberg described the play – an original rope. The cresset was usually mounted on the
variation on the theme of the eternal triangle – top of a pole or suspended from the ceiling.
as “humane, good-humoured, with all three The word comes from the Old French craisse,
characters sympathetic”. Others have found it grease.
cynical and bitter. Like MISS JULIE, written in In Shakespeare’s HENRY IV, PART I the
the same year, it deals with the psychological bombastic Owen Glendower announces:
battle between the sexes and reflects the At my nativity
collapse of Strindberg’s marriage to the actress The front of heaven was full of fiery
Siri von Essen. In particular, it reflects his shapes,
dread of ridicule for failing as a husband. He Of burning cressets.
wanted Siri to play the role of the destructive (III, i)
wife, Tekla, but this was not to be.
Crimp, Martin (1956– ) British
The play’s dialogue is frequently sardonic,
playwright, whose works are noted for their
as in this exchange between Tekla and her
spare dialogue, experimental approach to
husband:
narrative, and bleak view of human nature.
TEKLA My sweet idiot, don’t talk such Crimp was born in Kent, the son of an
nonsense! engineer, and by his own account became
ADOLF You know it’s risky to go round “addicted” to all things theatrical while still a
thinking everyone’s an idiot but boy. He began to write for the stage while
yourself. studying at Cambridge and gradually
TEKLA Well, everyone does. established a following in the 1980s, with a
Cremorne Gardens A famous London series of plays written for the Orange Tree
pleasure garden that opened in 1845 as a rival Theatre in Richmond upon Thames; these
to VAUXHALL GARDENS; it was sited in Chelsea, included Living Remains (1982), A Variety of
on land formerly belonging to Thomas Death-Defying Acts (1985), and the disturbing
Dawson, Viscount Cremorne. Attractions psychological drama Dealing With Clair
included a theatre, an orchestra, and a (1988). With their enigmatic dialogue and
banqueting hall; as well as fêtes and sense of underlying menace, these early works
entertainments of all kinds, the riverside show the influence of Harold PINTER and other
gardens hosted spectacular firework displays writers in the absurdist tradition. In the 1990s
and ascents by balloon. They were closed in Crimp achieved a higher profile with a number
1877 after complaints about their use by of works for the Royal Court Theatre,
including No One Sees the Video (1990) and
prostitutes. See also RANELAGH GARDENS.
the extraordinary Attempts on Her Life (1997),
Crepuscolari, I An artistic movement in one of the most discussed plays of the last
early 20th-century Italy that found expression 20 years. The play consists of a series of
in a number of dramatic works. The disconnected speeches, none of which is
movement, which took its name from the assigned to a specified character, about a
Italian word for twilight, was characterized by woman named Anne, who is variously talked
nostalgia, melancholy, and a pessimistic about as if she were a terrorist, a refugee, and a
attitude to life. porn star, amongst other contradictory
The leading playwrights of the Crepuscolari identities. Subsequent works have included
 criticism 135

The Country (2000), Fewer Emergencies (2005) opened in late 2006 and is still running in
– another very abstract piece about a school 2010.
shooting incident – and The City (2008).
Critic, The A burlesque by SHERIDAN, first
Crimp has also created a number of performed at Drury Lane in 1779. Subtitled ‘A
translations for the stage, including works by Tragedy Rehearsed’, it is much the best of the
Marivaux, and Ionesco and an updated version many satires of the theatrical world inspired by
of Molière’s The Misanthrope (1996). Buckingham’s THE REHEARSAL. Sheridan was
Crispin In French comedy, a clever also writing from bitter experience as the
unscrupulous valet. The part derived manager of Drury Lane. His main targets were
ultimately from the character of SCARAMUCCIA the vogue for heroic and sentimental drama, as
in the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, who became represented in particular by the plays of
Scaramouche in the French theatre. Paul Richard Cumberland (1732–1811), and the
Scarron introduced Crispin in his play sorry state of contemporary theatrical criticism.
L’Écolier de Salamanque (1654) while Jean- The main action takes place at a rehearsal
Francois Regnard made him the main figure in of The Spanish Armada, a ludicrous work by
his works. In the 1650s the part was played by the irrepressible Mr PUFF, who is also the
Raymond Poisson (1630–90) of the HÔTEL DE producer. The play-within-a-play features
BOURGOGNE; his characterization retained historical characters such as Sir Walter Raleigh
some features of the traditional braggart soldier and Lord Burleigh (see BURLEIGH’S NOD) as
but added a new comic shrewdness. His son, well as a romantic subplot concerning the love
Paul Poisson (1658–1735), completed the between Tilburina of Tilbury and the Spaniard
transformation of Crispin into a quick-witted Don Ferolo Whiskerando. Also at the rehearsal
rogue. are the amateur critics Dangle and Sneer and
the writer Sir Fretful PLAGIARY, a character
Criterion Theatre A London theatre based on Cumberland. Their inept comments
that was constructed below street level at on the action provide one of the main focuses
Piccadilly Circus (then called Regent Circus) for Sheridan’s satire.
in the 1870s. Originally planned as a large
criticism
restaurant containing a small concert hall,
it was converted into a theatre during See Hebrews 13:8.
construction. Uniquely, the upper circle is ROBERT BENCHLEY: review of the long-
reached by descending stairs. Contemporary running play Abie’s Irish Rose. The
press reports warned that it would be necessary biblical text is: “Jesus Christ the same
to pump in air “to save the audience from yesterday, and today, and for ever.”
being asphyxiated”. The subterranean feature People laugh at this every night, which
allowed the BBC to use the Criterion as a explains why a democracy can never be
studio during the Blitz. a success.
Today the theatre seats 602. It has ROBERT BENCHLEY: on a popular
beautifully preserved Victorian tiles and wall comedy
decorations, and renovations in the late 1980s Listen, dear, you couldn’t write ‘fuck’
uncovered remarkable murals. on a dusty venetian blind.
The Criterion, managed by the actor CORAL BROWNE: to a Hollywood writer
Charles Wyndham until 1899, opened with who had criticized Alan Bennett
H. J. Byron’s comedy An American Lady.
Two things should be cut: the second
Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears
act and the child’s throat.
opened in 1936 and ran for 1039
NOËL COWARD: referring to a play
performances, while Ray Cooney’s 1982 farce
featuring a child actor
Run for Your Wife logged more than 2000
performances. From 1996 until 2005 it was He played the King as though under
home to the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s momentary apprehension that
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare someone else was about to play the ace.
(Abridged), in which the Bard’s complete EUGENE FIELD: referring to Creston
oeuvre was presented in 97 minutes. A stage Clarke’s performance as King Lear
adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps Funny without being vulgar.
136 critics

W. S. GILBERT: referring to Sir Henry course I do not like green cheese: I am

Irving’s Hamlet very fond of brown sherry.”
I have knocked everything except the G. K. CHESTERTON
knees of the chorus girls. Nature Tynan said I only had two gestures, the
anticipated us there. left hand up, the right hand down.
PERCY HAMMOND What did he want me to do, bring out
A bad play saved by a bad my prick?
performance. SIR JOHN GIELGUD: on a hostile review
STANLEY KAUFMANN: on Gertrude by Kenneth Tynan
Lawrence’s performance in Skylark Asking a working writer what he thinks
I could eat alphabet soup and shit about critics is like asking a lamp-post
better lyrics. how it feels about dogs.
JOHNNY MERCER: describing a British CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON
musical You may abuse a tragedy, though you
She ran the whole gamut of the cannot write one. You may scold a
emotions from A to B. carpenter who has made you a bad
DOROTHY PARKER: referring to a table, though you cannot make a table.
Broadway performance by Katharine It is not your trade to make tables.
Hepburn SAMUEL JOHNSON

It had only one fault. It was kind of Drama criticism should be concerned
lousy. solely with dramatic art, at the expense
JAMES THURBER: remark made about a of bankrupting every theatre in the
play country.
G. J. NATHAN
A strange, horrible business, but I
suppose good enough for Shakespeare’s Show me a critic without prejudices,
day. and I’ll show you an arrested cretin.
QUEEN VICTORIA: giving her opinion of G. J. NATHAN
King Lear The greatest part of critics are parasites,
I saw it at a disadvantage – the curtain who, if nothing had been written,
was up. would find nothing to write.
WALTER WINCHELL J. B. PRIESTLEY

The scenery was beautiful, but the A good drama critic is one who
actors got in front of it. perceives what is happening in the
ALEXANDER WOOLCOTT theatre of his time. A great drama critic
also perceives what is not happening.
critics KENNETH TYNAN
Critic, n. A person who boasts himself Why don’t you just retire? It can’t be
hard to please because nobody tries to all that pleasant to devote a whole
please him. lifetime to earning a living from the
AMBROSE BIERCE
dead flesh of a living literature which
A critic is always serving the theatre you devour.
when he is hounding out ARNOLD WESKER: to critic Harold
incompetence. If he spends most of his Hobson
time grumbling, he is almost always
right…he will see far more Critique de l’Ecole des Femmes, La
incompetence than competence in his A comedy written by MOLIÈRE to answer the
theatre-going. storm of protest provoked by his earlier play
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES (L’Ecole des femmes).
PETER BROOK
The controversial play was still running in
Like an attempt to tattoo soap bubbles. Paris when Molière staged his reply in 1663.
JOHN MASON BROWN: of drama critism La Critique de l’Ecole des femmes reassembled
A great deal of contemporary criticism the characters of the first play to discuss both
reads to me like a man saying: “Of the merits of the work and the critical and
 Cuckoo in the Nest, A 137

moral attitudes of the day. A few months later of his neighbours. Abigail disappears from
Molière presented L’IMPROMPTU DE town and Proctor is hanged.
VERSAILLES, another defence of L’Ecole des
Cruelty, Theatre of A theory of drama
femmes.
proposed by the French director, actor, and
Crown Tavern A tavern in the writer Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) in his
Cornmarket in Oxford, where the playwright book The Theatre and its Double (1938).
William DAVENANT was born in 1606. Artaud was a follower of surrealism and sought
Davenant’s father was the innkeeper there and to combine its theories with elements of
one of the regular guests was SHAKESPEARE, Eastern dance drama to create a violent and
who is said to have stayed at the tavern on his ritualistic form of theatre. This was intended
journeys between Stratford-upon-Avon and to be in direct opposition to the realistic
London. Shakespeare became William theatre of the dominant rationalist culture. His
Davenant’s godfather but, according to the aim was to shock his audiences into an
antiquaries John Aubrey and Anthony Wood, awareness of basic human nature by releasing
their relationship was even closer; it was feelings usually repressed in conventional
popularly believed that Shakespeare was in fact society. “Tragedy on the stage is not enough
the child’s natural father. Although the truth for me,” Artaud once said. “I’m going to bring
of this has never been generally accepted, it into my life.” He was certified insane and
Davenant himself made great capital out of his confined to psychiatric hospitals from 1937
claim to being Shakespeare’s son. One well- until 1946, dying of cancer two years after his
known anecdote has the young Davenant release. After Artaud’s death playwrights such
hurrying home from school on being told that
as Jean GENET and Fernando Arrabal, amongst
Shakespeare had arrived at the inn. When an
others, experimented with the idea of a theatre
acquaintance of the family asked where he was
of cruelty. Peter BROOK’s 1964 production of
going in such haste, the boy said: “To my
Peter Weiss’s MARAT/SADE, presented as part of
godfather, Shakespeare.” “Fie, child,” came the
a Theatre of Cruelty season at the Aldwych
other’s reply, “Have not you learned yet that
Theatre, London, is generally considered the
you should not use the name of God in vain?”
definitive application of Artaud’s theory.
Crucible, The Arthur MILLER’s play about
the notorious witchcraft trials in Salem, crush bar A bar in a theatre that serves
Massachusetts (1692). It was first performed in drinks during the intervals. A crush room is an
1953 at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York old term for a room in a theatre or opera
and seen two years later at London’s Royal house, etc., where the audience could collect
Court Theatre in a production by George and talk during intervals, wait for their
Devine. The Salem trials resulted in some 20 carriages, and so on.
executions and the indictment of scores of Cuchulain or Cú Chulainn A legendary
innocent people; Miller drew an easy parallel Irish hero. He was brought up in the court of
with McCarthyism and the investigations of King CONCHOBAR of Ulster, whose kingdom
the US House Un-American Activities he defended single-handed against the armies
Committee, then at their height. There have of Queen Medb of Connacht. His heroic life
been numerous revivals, most notably perhaps and death provide the subject matter for a
Dominic Cooke’s London production with the cycle of plays by W. B. YEATS, including On
RSC (2006). Baile’s Strand (1904), At the Hawk’s Well
When a number of Salem girls are seen (1916), and The Death of Cuchulain (1939).
dancing in the forest by the prim Reverend
Parris, he suspects them of practising Cuckoo in the Nest, A The first of the
witchcraft. Among the group is Abigail ‘Aldwych farces’ written by Ben TRAVERS for
Williams, the former servant of John and the ALDWYCH THEATRE in London (although
Elizabeth Proctor; to save herself she confesses his Tons of Money had transferred there two
to witchcraft and begins to accuse others. years earlier from the Shaftesbury Theatre).
Because Abigail is in love with John, she names First produced in 1925, Cuckoo in the Nest
his wife as a witch. The investigators eventually established Travers’s reputation for madcap
indict John Proctor as well, along with many comedy and encouraged him to write another
138 cue

eight plays for the theatre. A filmed version curtain and must by law be lowered once
was released in 1933. during a performance. See IRON CURTAIN.
In the 1820s and 1830s the act drop was
cue A word, line, piece of business, etc.,
often lowered when the actors had frozen into
that notifies an actor that it is time to speak a
a tableau (see LIVING PICTURE). This is the
particular line or perform a particular action.
origin of tableau curtains or tabs. The term
The origin of the word is uncertain, but it may
later came to be used of any theatre curtain
derive from the first letter of Latin quando
and was often misapplied to a CURTAIN SET.
(‘when’) or qualis (‘of what kind’).
Towards the end of the 19th century the
When my cue comes, call me, and I traveller or running curtain appeared; this was
will answer. drawn across the back of a stage so that scenery
SHAKESPEARE: A Midsummer Night’s could be changed behind it while the play
Dream (IV, i) continued in front. At about the same time the
cue call See CALL BOY. ADVERTISEMENT CURTAIN was introduced to
carry information about the theatre’s sponsors;
cup-and-saucer drama In the late this practice did not last beyond the early 20th
19th century, a realistic DRAWING-ROOM century.
DRAMA that dealt with contemporary social The advent of curtains introduced new
issues. The term was first applied to the works scope for onstage disaster. Most actors have
of Tom ROBERTSON, whose play Society (1865) experienced curtains that failed to open,
introduced a new realism to the London stage rose at the wrong time, or fell unexpectedly,
in the era of melodrama. The popularity of his sometimes upon the performers. When in
Caste (1867) helped to ensure that a more 1936 Terence RATTIGAN’s first play, French
naturalistic style of acting would permanently Without Tears, received rousing applause on its
replace the bombastic delivery and sweeping first night, the author was hurried onto the
gestures of the earlier Victorian stage. stage to thank the audience. A stagehand, not
The story of Robertson’s conversion to expecting a first-night speech, lowered the
cup-and-saucer drama provided the basis for curtain unceremoniously on his head.
Pinero’s play Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1898), in The practice of lowering the house curtain
which the character of Tom Wrench is closely at the end of a theatrical performance has
based on Robertson. given rise to the phrase to let or bring down
curtain In a theatre with a PROSCENIUM the curtain, meaning to bring a matter to an
ARCH, a cloth that screens the stage from the end.
audience’s view before and after a performance Let down the curtain, the farce is over.
and between acts. It is either lifted vertically FRANÇOIS RABELAIS: reported last words
into the flies or divided centrally and drawn to
curtain call After the end of a play, the
the sides (sometimes the top outer corners).
reappearance of the cast to take a bow in
Curtains were introduced to the stage by
acknowledgement of the audience’s applause.
the Romans in the first century AD but were
not used in early European theatres. In the On opening night, the playwright and director
Elizabethan theatre small curtains were used to may also appear on stage. In earlier days
hide DISCOVERY SPACEs but the house curtain curtain speeches were also expected from stars.
or front curtain was not introduced until the One actor who excelled at this was Fred Terry
advent of the proscenium arch in the 17th (see TERRY FAMILY), whose speech often
century. By the mid 18th century the act drop included these words:
was being used to mark the end of an act and If there is anything an actor values
as a background for entertainments between more than your applause, it is your
acts. Henry Irving first used a curtain to hide silent attention to detail that enables us
scenery changes at his LYCEUM THEATRE in to give you of our best.
about 1880. In the 18th century the great actors like
The first safety curtain was installed at Garrick and Kean began to take curtain calls
Drury Lane in 1794. Such a curtain is made of after every scene (including death scenes), an
fireproof material (such as iron) in order to absurd practice that lasted into the 1930s.
prevent a stage fire from spreading into the Donald WOLFIT would shake the curtain from
auditorium. It hangs in front of the house behind to encourage applause before stepping
 Cymbeline 139

out, while Marlene Dietrich allowed 20 cut-and-thrust dialogue See

minutes for her curtain calls. John Gielgud STICHOMYTHIA.
recalled how the ballerina Anna Pavlova, after
cut-cloth A CLOTH cut for decorative
taking endless bows and receiving a mass of
purposes or to reveal scenery behind it. In
flowers, would suddenly bound into the wings America this is usually called a cut-drop.
to reappear at once in a quite different part of
the stage: cyclorama A curved curtain, cloth, or
other screen used to close off the back of the
The applause would grow more and
stage and part of the wings and create an
more frantic as she floated on and off,
impression of three-dimensional space.
running, tiptoeing, or leaping,
Sometimes called a cyc for short, it is hung to
surprising the enraptured audience
stage level and lit from top to bottom by
with every reappearance. floodlights. Since rigidity and an unbroken
curtain-raiser In the early 19th-century surface are essential, some theatres have
British theatre, a brief scene performed before permanent plaster or cement cycloramas.
the principal play. By mid-century the Partial and movable cycloramas have also been
introduction of matinées had pushed the time created with some success. The cyclorama was
of the main performance back until after developed in Germany where it is called a
dinner; as a result there was no longer time for Rundhorizont (round horizon).
such pieces. Cymbeline A tragicomic romance by
curtain set A simple set consisting of an SHAKESPEARE, first performed in about 1610 at
arrangement of curtains, usually without the Globe Theatre. One of his last plays, it
FLATS. This type of setting, popular with draws its plot from legendary British history
amateurs and LITTLE THEATRES, involves the and an episode in Boccaccio’s Decameron. The
use of a backcloth, BORDERs, and side curtains. play’s curious blend of fairytale, black comedy,
In America it is sometimes called a drapery and patriotic chronicle has provoked mixed
setting. responses. Tennyson loved it so much that he
asked to be buried with his copy. Shaw,
curtain-tune See ACT-TUNE. however, described the work as “stagey trash of
Cushman, Charlotte (1816–76) The the lowest melodramatic order” and rewrote
the last act as Cymbeline Refinished (1936).
first great US-born actress. She was tall and
Famous actresses drawn to the role of Imogen
rather plain, having masculine features and a
have included Ellen Terry (1896), Peggy
rough voice, a combination that made her a
Ashcroft (1957), Vanessa Redgrave (1962) and
natural for BREECHES PARTS. Acceptance in
Judi Dench (1979).
feminine roles was slower in coming, but after
In the plot Cymbeline, King of Britain,
five years on the London stage, she returned to opposes the marriage of his daughter, Imogen,
America in triumph, winning Walt Whitman’s to Posthumus, a Roman soldier, and banishes
accolade as “the best living player.” him. Posthumus travels to Rome, where he
Charlotte, who had originally intended to unwisely boasts of Imogen’s purity to the
be an opera singer, made her acting debut in treacherous Iachimo. In order to win a bet,
1836 at the Bowery Theatre, New York, as Iachimo visits Britain and steals her ring as
Lady Macbeth, a role she repeated in London proof of Imogen’s ‘faithlessness’. Posthumus
with William Macready. Other outstanding becomes insanely jealous and hatches a plot to
roles included Queen Katharine in Henry VIII kill her. Imogen puts on male dress and flees to
and the intriguingly named Lady Gay Spanker Wales, where she lives in a cave with two
in Boucicault’s London Assurance. Her male young men who turn out to be her long-lost
roles included Hamlet and Romeo; both brothers, stolen from court as infants.
productions also featured her beautiful Posthumus returns to Britain and saves
younger sister Susan (1822–59), as Ophelia Cymbeline’s life in a battle between the British
and Juliet respectively. and the invading Romans. He and Imogen are
In 1907 a Charlotte Cushman Club was reconciled and a peace treaty concluded
established in Philadelphia; its clubroom between Britain and Rome. The play contains
contains paintings of the actress and many of the celebrated lyric ‘Fear No More the Heat o’
her theatrical relics. the Sun’.
140 Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac A heroic comedy Laurence OLIVIER and Ralph RICHARDSON

by Edmond Rostand, first performed in 1897 when they planned the 1947 Old Vic season
in Paris with the elder Constant-Benoît together. Olivier wanted to play Cyrano on
Coquelin in the title role. Although a lengthy stage as a prelude to making a Hollywood
verse play requiring a large cast, it has enjoyed film of the play with his wife, Vivien Leigh.
numerous revivals. A film version starring Richardson, however, had first choice of
Gérard Depardieu (1991) also enjoyed roles, and took the part for himself. Olivier,
international success. Some, however, have believing that the other actor really coveted
found the play insubstantial. The critic James the part of Lear, made that his own choice –
AGATE wrote: “Cyrano is the Crystal Palace of not because he wanted to play it, but in
poetry. In this play, Rostand says nothing with the hope of making a deal. Richardson
unexampled virtuosity.” declined, however, leaving Olivier to play
The play is based very loosely on the life of the demanding role of Lear when he had little
the historical Cyrano, a flamboyant soldier and wish to do so. After this, the two men never
writer famous for his enormous nose. Because acted together on the same stage.
of the latter, he hides his love for his cousin, When Robert Loraine played the part
Roxane, who loves the handsome but brainless in 1927 in London, his rudeness to the
Christian de Neuvillette. Cyrano helps stagehands during rehearsals caused
Christian to court Roxane, even composing resentment. In revenge, they deliberately left
the tender love letters that thrill her with their unfastened the cleats that secured the tree
heartfelt eloquence. When Cyrano is fatally under which Cyrano sits in the final scene.
wounded, Roxane belatedly finds out that he Loraine suddenly found that in addition to
was their author. acting the emotional death scene he had to
The play was the cause of a rift between hold up the leaning tree with his back.
 Daly’s Theatre 141

where it earned ten Tony Awards. Both

D productions are still running in 2010. Other

recent work for the stage has included a return
to the Royal Court with Caryl CHURCHILL’s
Far Away (2000), which later triumphed off-
daddy See VICTORIAN THEATRE SLANG. Broadway, and the same author’s A Number
Daldry, Stephen (David) (1961– ) (2002). He has also directed two futher David
British theatre director. Daldry was born in Hare monologues, Berlin and Wall (both
Dorset, the son of a bank manager and a 2009).
professional singer. After training, which Daly, Augustin (1839–99) US theatre
included a year spent in Italy as an apprentice owner, manager, director, playwright, and
to a clown, he began his directing career at the critic, who achieved fame on both sides of the
Crucible Theatre, Sheffield (1984–88). He Atlantic (see DALY’S THEATRE. As a manager,
then became artistic director at the GATE Daly encouraged Bronson Howard, America’s
THEATRE, Notting Hill, while still in his first playwright to live by his craft, by staging
twenties. his first play, Saratoga, in 1870. As a dramatist,
In 1992 Daldry made his name with a he wrote Westerns and melodramas such as
remarkable expressionist-style revival of Under the Gaslight; or, Life and Love in These
Priestley’s AN INSPECTOR CALLS that shed a Times (1867) as well as adapting some 90
radical new light on a piece long regarded as plays, including many classics. In 1885 Daly
staid and over-familiar. The production earned broke up a Chicago pirating ring, an action
Daldry a clutch of best director awards that led to the formation of a society to protect
(including the Olivier), ran for ten years in the the rights of playwrights, publishers, and
West End, and made a highly successful managers. In the same year he defeated the
transfer to Broadway. Critical superlatives also infamous ‘ticket scalpers’ (operators who
came Daldry’s way for his next National bought blocks of seats to resell on the street at
production, a revival (1993) of the neglected up to 100% profit) by issuing unnumbered
expressionist drama Machinal by Sophie slips of paper that could subsequently be
Treadwell. Like An Inspector Calls this featured exchanged for real tickets prior to the
the stunning designs of Ian MacNeil, Daldry’s performance.
partner at the time.
By this time Daldry had been appointed Daly’s Theatre (1) A former theatre off
artistic director of the ROYAL COURT THEATRE Leicester Square, London, which opened in
in London. During his six-year tenure 1893. It was owned by and named after the
(1992–98) the theatre maintained its US producer Augustin DALY. The theatre
reputation for controversy with productions opened with a production of The Taming of
that included Mamet’s OLEANNA (1993) and the Shrew featuring the stars of Daly’s US
Sarah Kane’s ultra-violent BLASTED (1994). repertory company, Ada Rehan and John
Plays directed by Daldry himself included Drew (see DREW FAMILY). Subsequent
an ambitious revival of Wesker’s The performers there included Eleonora Duse and
Kitchen (1995), which required a complete Violet Vanbrugh.
remodelling of the theatre’s interior (including In 1895, discouraged that his British
the removal of all the stalls), and David HARE’s venture was not proving as successful as its
one-man show Via Dolorosa (1998). From New York counterpart, Daly sold the theatre
1996 he oversaw the lottery-funded rebuilding to its manager, George EDWARDES, who made
of the Royal Court at a cost of some £26 it a fashionable venue for musical comedy.
million. This tradition continued after Edwardes’s
Since leaving the Court, Daldry has found death in 1915.
a wider audience directing for the cinema. In In 1927 the theatre witnessed scenes of
particular his first feature, the hugely popular uproar on the first night of Noël Coward’s
Billy Elliot (2000), won over 40 awards Sirocco (see FLOP). After this failure, Daly’s
worldwide. A stage version of Billy Elliot, with quickly returned to musical comedies but
music by Elton John, opened in the West End found little further success, eventually closing
in 2005 under Daldry’s direction and in 1937.
subsequently (2008) transferred to Broadway, (2) A New York theatre that opened as
142 dame

Banvard’s Museum in 1867 (changing its dancing, and loosely connected dramatic
name to Wood’s Museum the following year). episodes on religious and moral themes.
At first the majority of productions were
Dandy Dick A farce by Arthur Wing
VARIETY and BURLESQUE, although more
PINERO, first performed in 1887 at London’s
serious works were offered after 1872, when
old Royal Court Theatre. The play has been
Laura Keene made her farewell performance in
revived with great success. The story involves a
The Sea of Ice. After being remodelled by
dean, the Revd Augustin Jedd, and his
Augustin Daly it reopened in 1879 as Daly’s
extravagant daughters, Salome and Sheba, all
Theatre, becoming one of New York’s most
of whom require money. The dean’s sister,
fashionable venues. Georgiana, an ex-bookie, places the girls’
In the 1880s Daly established one of savings on her horse Dandy Dick, a “certain
America’s last great repertory companies there, winner”. To save his church even the dean
headed by John Drew and Ada Rehan. One of makes a bet, via his butler, Blore. However,
their biggest hits was an 1887 revival of The when he is found in the stables carrying a
Taming of the Shrew; other successes included bottle of lotion, the dean is arrested for trying
the comedy The Railroad of Love (1888). to nobble Dandy Dick (Blore, having bet on
Another of Daly’s stars was Clara Morris, the another horse, has tampered with the lotion).
Canadian-born US actress, who won particular Through the intervention of his friend, Sir
acclaim as Lady Macbeth and in Wilkie Tristram Mardon, the dean avoids custody.
Collins’s Man and Wife (1872). Once a letter Dandy Dick wins the race, Sir Tristram weds
arrived for Morris from the rival Wallack’s Georgiana, and Salome and Sheba pay off their
Theatre Company. Daly hid the letter, offered debts with their winnings.
the actress a $20 rise if she immediately signed
a new contract, then replaced the letter in her Dane, Clemence (Winifred Ashton;
box. Although the rival offer was double Daly’s 1888–1965) British playwright and novelist.
salary, Clara remained with him for many She started acting under the stage name Diana
years. Cortis in 1913, and published her first play, A
Daly managed the theatre until his death BILL OF DIVORCEMENT, in 1921. This sensitive
in 1899. Although it became a cinema in study of a woman’s fear of hereditary madness
1915, the venue retained his name until its received instant acclaim, and led Dane to turn
demolition in 1920. to writing full time. Later works include Will
Shakespeare (1921), Naboth’s Vineyard (1926),
dame In English PANTOMIME, a comic and Wild Decembers (1932), a portrayal of the
female role that is traditionally played by a Brontës. However, none matched the success
man. The best-known such roles include of her first play. She took her pseudonym from
Mother Goose, Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters, the name of her favourite church, St Clement
Dame Trot, and Aladdin’s mother WIDOW Danes in London’s Strand.
TWANKEY (described in 1844 as “a Among her large circle of theatrical
washerwoman with mangled feelings”). Dames acquaintances, Dane was known for her
became especially popular in the late 19th eccentric and unworldly manner. Noël
century when music-hall performers began Coward, for example, is said to have used her
working in pantomime. Famous Dames have as the model for the absurd medium Mme
included Dan Leno, George Robey, and Arcati in Blithe Spirit. Dane’s essential
Arthur Askey, who played numerous such innocence was especially obvious in her use of
parts in a panto career that lasted until he was language. As her friend Arthur Marshall
82. In 2004 Ian MCKELLEN fulfilled a long- recalled:
standing ambition when he played Widow
When wishing to describe herself as
Twankey in the Old Vic’s Aladdin.
being full of life and creative energy,
Dandanata An Indian theatrical genre she chose, not really very wisely, the
from the northeastern state of Orissa, thought word ‘randy’. To hear a large and
to be one of the oldest forms of drama in the imposing woman of fifty announcing
world. Various mythological characters are to a roomful of actors that she felt
impersonated including Shiva, Krishna, Jogi, randy was really something. She never
and the Gopis. Performances take place at cottoned on to the fact that the name
night in an open arena and comprise music, ‘John Thomas’ had a hidden
 Daskathia 143

significance, and she was heard one day France, he wrote and staged the mystery play
expatiating about the different sides to Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien in 1911 (for
a person’s nature: “Yes, every man has which Debussy composed incidental music).
three John Thomases – the John During World War I D’Annunzio served
Thomas he keeps to himself, the John first in the army and then in the air force. After
Thomas he shares with his friends, and the war he became a vociferous nationalist and
the John Thomas he shows to the in 1919 led some 3000 volunteers to capture
world.” the Croatian port of Rijeka (Italian name
Dangerous Corner A play by J. B. Fiume) for Italy. D’Annunzio proclaimed
PRIESTLEY, first performed in London in 1932. himself commandant of “the Italian regency of
One of Priestley’s ‘time plays’, it begins with the Carnaro”, but abdicated 15 months later
Robert and Freda Caplan and their well-heeled when his headquarters were bombarded. He
guests listening to a radio play about a suicide. subsequently abandoned politics and retired to
Conversation turns to Robert’s brother, his villa on Lake Garda.
Martin, who is believed to have committed Danton’s Death A historical play by the
suicide after stealing money from his German dramatist Georg BÜCHNER, written in
employers. A chance remark leads one of the 1835 but not performed until 1903 in Berlin.
men to admit that he himself committed the The play uses the struggle between Danton
theft, while one of the women reveals that and Robespierre during the French Revolution
Martin was in fact shot as he attempted to rape to present a strikingly modern, if largely
her. Following these and other revelations, pessimistic, view of political life. Danton is
Robert runs upstairs and shoots himself. The portrayed as disillusioned by the mass
stage lights briefly fade and the drama restarts executions that have resulted from his zeal for
with the group again listening to the radio liberty and seems psychologically unable to
play; this time, however, someone switches to a resist the machinations of his enemies. In
music programme and the couples begin writing the play, Büchner (who had been
dancing. In this parallel version of events, it is forced to flee Germany for his revolutionary
implied, the characters will continue with their views) was expressing his own disenchantment
charmed lives, undisturbed by the truth. with contemporary politics.
When Dangerous Corner was seven months Despite its length and complexity – there
into its run, Priestley was approached by the are some 40 speaking parts – Danton’s Death
producer Binkie Beaumont, who suggested has been performed successfully in many
that he write a play with a particular star in countries, enjoying revivals in Berlin (1927),
mind. Priestley responded vehemently to this in New York (1939) by Orson Welles’s
suggestion: “I don’t write vehicles, I write Mercury Theatre, and in London (1971),
plays. And I’ve no time for bloody stars or the where Christopher Plummer won acclaim as
star system. If I had my way, we wouldn’t have Danton. In English-speaking countries it is
them. Just a lot of good actors.” often performed in the adaptation by Howard
D’Annunzio, Gabriele (Gabriele Brenton (1982).
Rapagnetta; 1863–1938) The flamboyant darling In the theatre, a habitual term of
Italian playwright, poet, and novelist. In 1894 greeting and address that may or may not
he became the lover of the actress Eleonora imply genuine affection. Although widely
DUSE, who helped to arrange the 1897 Paris
ridiculed outside the profession (see LUVVIE),
production of his first play The Dream of a this form of address is still used quite casually
Spring Morning, as well as Italian performances and indiscriminately within it.
of two of his tragedies, La Gioconda (1899)
and Francesca da Rimini (1901). Daskathia An Indian theatrical genre
D’Annunzio’s dramas are noted for their found only in the northeastern state of Orissa.
intensity of language and feeling, which many The three-hour mythological drama uses two
now find excessive. His finest work, The performers, the Gayaka, or main singer, and
Daughter of Jorio (1904), reveals a genuine and the Palia, who chants refrains about the epic
sensitive love of nature. D’Annunzio led an hero Rama. The performers, who wear royal
extravagant life and was forced to leave Italy in costumes and ankle bells, play several roles
1910 to escape his creditors. After settling in each and accompany themselves with cymbals
144 Davenant, Sir William

and castanets. They also tell humorous stories your sight ever fail you, you must borrow a
and make satirical comments about society. Nose of your Neighbour to hang your
Spectacles on.”
Davenant, Sir William (1606–68)
English playwright, poet, and manager who Davidge’s Snake Shop A nickname
claimed variously to be either the godchild or for the Philadelphia Museum Theatre, where
illegitimate son of William Shakespeare (see actor-manager William Davidge kept a display
CROWN TAVERN). Davenant’s first play, The of stuffed reptiles in the foyer. The US actor
Cruel Brother, was staged in 1627; during the Otis Skinner (see SKINNERS, THE) made his
1630s he produced a number of MASQUEs for debut at this rather shoddy venue, playing a
the court, several plays, including The Wits Black character in Woodleigh (1887).
(1633), and a volume of poetry, Madagascar
(1638). In 1638 he also succeeded Jonson as Day in the Death of Joe Egg, A
the poet laureate. The first stage play by Peter NICHOLS. First
Davenant supported King Charles during produced at the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre in
the Civil War, being knighted for his services 1967, it subsequently ran for several months in
to the royalist cause in 1643. While staying London with Joe Melia and Zena Walker
with the exiled Stuart court in France, he heading the cast. There have been several
began to write his epic Gondibert. Having been revivals, including a 2001 production in which
sent by Queen Henrietta Maria on a mission the part of Bri was played by Eddie Izzard.
to America, Davenant was captured by the The play concerns the attempts of Bri and
Parliamentarians and suffered a spell of Sheila to care for their daughter, Josephine
imprisonment in the Tower of London. He (nicknamed Joe Egg), who has cerebral palsy.
was released in 1654, according to tradition Because they have different ways of coping
through the intervention of John Milton. Two with the heart-rending strain of the child’s
years later he staged The Siege of Rhodes, a play disability, their marriage begins to suffer,
that evaded the Puritan ban on drama by being especially as Bri begins to suspect his wife of
set to music; it thus became the first English having an affair. Bri eventually has a
opera. breakdown and half-heartedly attempts to let
Following the Restoration, Davenant and Joe die of exposure. Sheila promises to find a
Thomas KILLIGREW obtained royal patents nursing home for their child.
from Charles II, which effectively gave them a The play, which is notable for its bitter
theatrical monopoly in London. Killigrew comedy, draws on Nichols’s own experience of
moved his company to Drury Lane, while caring for a severely disabled child. Documents
Davenant moved his Duke’s Company, which show that the LORD CHAMBERLAIN’s office was
included the young BETTERTON, into the worried by the upsetting subject matter and
LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS THEATRE. It was in this even suggested, grotesquely, that Joe should be
former tennis court that Davenant installed the played by a ventriloquist’s dummy rather than
first PROSCENIUM ARCH to be seen in a London a real child.
theatre. His later works include several dead-heads Theatrical slang for those
adaptations of Shakespeare, amongst them an (such as critics and holders of complimentary
operatic version of The Tempest (1667) written tickets) admitted to theatres without payment
in conjunction with DRYDEN. He planned to – because they are considered ‘dead’ for the
move his company to the DORSET GARDEN purposes of box-office receipts.
THEATRE but died before the building was
completed. Death of a Salesman Arthur MILLER’s
As a young man Davenant contracted Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy, first performed
syphilis from a prostitute, one physical in New York in 1949, with Lee J. Cobb in the
consequence of this being the loss of his nose. role of Willy LOMAN. Later that year the play
His misfortune became the subject of many opened at the Phoenix Theatre, London, with
jokes. On one occasion he was accosted by a Paul Muni in the lead and Elia Kazan
beggarwoman who repeatedly expressed hope directing. In 1963 it was one of a quartet of
that the writer’s eyesight would never fail. plays that opened the first season at the
When Davenant asked why she was so Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. Other
concerned about his eyesight, she replied: “Ah! memorable revivals include the 1979 National
good Sir! I wish you never may, for should Theatre production with Warren Mitchell in
 Deirdre of the Sorrows 145

the lead and the 1984 Broadway production Maurice in order to increase his prestige with
starring Dustin Hoffman. Yeux-Verts.
Having been fired by his company at the
Deburau, Jean-Gaspard See BAPTISTE.
age of 63, Willy Loman, a once-successful
salesman, is trying to come to terms with his Décentralisation Dramatique See
life, which he regards as a failure. In their CENTRES DRAMATIQUES.
different ways Willy, his wife Linda, and their Deep Blue Sea, The A play by Terence
sons Biff and Happy try to maintain a fantasy RATTIGAN, first performed in 1952 in London,
of success and to avoid the reality of their where it ran for 513 performances. The play
situation. Willy’s flight from reality is won immediate critical approval, with
dramatized through a series of flashbacks and Kenneth Tynan proclaiming it the most
imaginary conversations with his successful striking new English play of the decade. Peggy
brother, Ben. Eventually Willy’s self-esteem Ashcroft starred in the 1952 production, while
collapses and he takes his own life in order to the Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner toured
raise insurance money for the family. Miller’s Germany and Austria in the role two years
success in creating a tragedy from what appears later. However, there would be no West End
to be an insignificant life has been much revival until 1993, when a highly praised
admired. production at the Almeida Theatre led to a
Deathtrap A thriller by the US playwright major revaluation of Rattigan’s work.
Ira Levin (1929–2007). First performed on The plot concerns Hester Collyer, the
Broadway in 1958, the play terrified its estranged wife of a High Court judge, who
original audiences with its realistic gore-and- now lives with her younger lover, Freddie Page
grime resurrection of a ‘corpse’ on stage. The (played in the first production by Kenneth
first London production was staged in 1979 at More). When Freddie accepts an overseas job,
the Garrick Theatre. Hester refuses to accept that their relationship
The plot involves Sidney Bruhl, a writer of is over, and tries, unsuccessfully, to commit
thrillers who has run out of ideas. When an suicide. A second attempt at suicide is
excellent script arrives from his protégé, interrupted by a neighbour, a struck-off
Clifford Anderson, Sidney jokes with his wife, doctor; he tells her of his own experiences and
Myra, about killing Cliff to steal his plot. his conclusion that life can be borne, even
Sidney invites Cliff to his home and garrotes without hope. Hester manages to come to
him in the living room. Myra’s fragile heart terms with her life and accept Freddie’s
begins to act up as Sidney buries Cliff, and departure.
when the dead man subsequently returns from Deirdre of the Sorrows An
the grave covered in blood, the shock is too unfinished tragedy by J. M. SYNGE, who wrote
much for her and she dies. The ‘murder’ is it while dying of Hodgkin’s disease. It was first
revealed as a set-up by Sidney and Cliff, who performed at the ABBEY THEATRE, Dublin
are both gay. Cliff soon becomes careless, (1910), a year after Synge’s death.
however, suggesting that Sidney write a book The plot is drawn from Irish mythology.
based on the ghastly affair. Sidney decides that King Conchubor (see CONCHOBAR) becomes so
he has to murder Cliff who, in turn, resolves to obsessed with the beauty of his ward Deirdre
strike first: both make several attempts to kill that he keeps her sequestered until she is old
the other and both end up dead. enough to marry him. Deirdre, however, falls
Deathwatch A one-act play by Jean in love with the young warrior Naisi who,
GENET, first produced by Marcel Herrand in helped by his brothers, elopes with her to
Paris (1949); it was subsequently seen in New Scotland. Conchubor lures them back and
York (1958) and London (1961). Naisi is slain: Deirdre commits suicide. Synge’s
Set in a prison, Deathwatch reflects Genet’s play is remarkable for its lyrical prose:
experience of being incarcerated for burglary in Little moon, little moon of Alban, it’s
1942 at Fresnes. The plot involves three lonesome you’ll be this night, and
cellmates, the murderer Yeux-Verts and two tomorrow night, and long nights after,
small-time crooks, Lefranc and Maurice, who and you pacing the woods beyond
aspire to emulate him. Lefranc eventually kills Glen Laoi, looking every place for
146 Delicate Balance, A

Deirdre and Naisi, the two lovers who Cleopatra at the National Theatre opposite
slept so sweetly with each other. Anthony Hopkins. In her characteristically
The same story inspired W. B. YEATS’s play self-effacing style she told the director, Sir
Deirdre (1907). Peter Hall, at rehearsals, “I do hope you know
what you’re up to, casting a menopausal dwarf
Delicate Balance, A A play by Edward
as Cleopatra.” The production went on to
ALBEE, first produced in 1966 in New York’s
complete a record 100 performances.
Martin Beck Theatre with Jessica Tandy and
In over 40 years with the RSC Dench has
her husband, Hume Cronyn, in the leading
played every major Shakespearean role for
roles. The play opened in London in 1969 at
the Aldwych Theatre with Peggy Ashcroft in women – including, most recently, the
the lead and Peter Hall directing. It combines Countess in All’s Well That Ends Well (2003).
social comedy with suggestions of allegory. Since the mid-1980s she has taken a growing
Set in 1960s America, the story focuses on number of cinema roles and has also turned to
Agnes (Mommy) and Tobias (Daddy), a directing, staging Much Ado About Nothing in
retired couple. When Agnes accuses her 1988 and a summer production of Romeo and
husband of having an affair with her alcoholic Juliet at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in
sister Claire, Tobias responds by recalling how 1993. In that year she played a vengeful wife in
he once killed a cat who failed to love him. the RSC production of Peter Shaffer’s three-
Harry and Edna, their best friends, arrive hour The Gift of the Gorgon, a role she later
asking to spend the night because of a described as the most demanding of her career.
nameless dread of returning to their home. Other highlights of Dench’s more recent career
Agnes is fearful of letting the couple stay but have included Desirée in Sondheim’s A Little
Tobias extends the invitation. Over the next Night Music (1995), Esme in David Hare’s
day, it becomes clear that Harry and Edna Amy’s View (1997), and Judith Bliss in
intend to move in permanently and that the Coward’s Hay Fever (2006). In 2010 she
other characters have no idea what to do about played Titania in Peter Hall’s production of A
this. When they finally agree to leave, Agnes, Midsummer Night’s Dream, reprising a role she
who believes herself close to madness, smiles had last played 48 years earlier. Dench was
sweetly: presented with a special Laurence Olivier
Award for her outstanding contribution to
AGNES Don’t become strangers. British theatre in 2004.
EDNA How could we? Our lives are the Dench also starred on television in the
same. situation comedy A Fine Romance, in which
Dench, Dame Judi (1934– ) British she appeared with her husband, Michael
actress, renowned internationally for her Williams (1935–2001). Her daughter Finty is
Shakespearean and other roles. Initially also an actress.
interested in set design, Dench was persuaded Dennis, John See APPIUS. See also at
to attend London’s Central School of Speech THUNDER.
and Drama by her brother, the actor Jeffrey
Dench. She made her debut with the Old Vic designer A creative artist responsible for
in London (1957), playing Ophelia to John designing costumes, makeup, and scenery for
Neville’s Hamlet. After giving an acclaimed stage productions; he or she often handles the
performance as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s lighting, sound, and other technical aspects
1960 production of Romeo and Juliet, Dench as well. The designer needs to work closely
joined the Royal Shakespeare Company to play with the director, and to have a thorough
Anya in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the understanding of his or her idea of the text;
Aldwych Theatre (1961). In 1968 Dench for this reason some directors in the modern
made her musical debut as Sally Bowles in theatre assume the designer’s role themselves.
Cabaret at the Palace Theatre. Subsequent The role of the designer developed
successes included Grace Harkaway in principally in the courts of France and Italy. In
Boucicault’s London Assurance (1970), Juno in the late 16th century Antoine Caron created
O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock (1976), and festivals for Catherine de Medici in France,
Brecht’s Mother Courage at the Barbican while Tomaso Francini (1571–1648) was later
(1984). brought to Paris to recreate the Italian scenic
In 1987 she was cast to play Shakespeare’s innovations at the French court. Georges
 Desire Under the Elms 147

Buffequin was the leading scenic designer of Design for Living A comedy by Noël
the first half of the 17th century in France. COWARD, first produced in 1933 at the Ethel
Giacomo TORELLI became Italy’s most Barrymore Theatre, New York, where it ran
celebrated scene designer with his productions for a limited season of 135 performances. The
at the Teatro Novissimo in Venice from 1645 play was written for the LUNTS, who appeared
onwards. In Paris the designer Gaspare with the author in the Broadway production.
Vigarani (1586–1663) built the largest theatre In Britain, the play’s subject matter (a
in Europe, the Salle des Machines, to display ménage à trois) caused some difficulties with
his work. For the opening production, the the LORD CHAMBERLAIN. Coward, however,
opera Hercules in Love (1662), he designed used his influence in Establishment circles to
machines to suspend the entire royal family get the play performed at the Haymarket in
and their attendants above the stage. Jean 1939. In London, the leading men included
Berain père (1637–1711) produced ornate Rex HARRISON and an Austrian refugee, Anton
designs for the court and opera in the last 20 Walbrook, described by Harrison as “not, in
years of his life, a role in which he was my opinion, God’s gift to the comedy stage.”
succeeded by his son. The artist and stage The relationship between the two men was not
designer Philippe James de LOUTHERBOURG helped by the fact that Walbrook had been
(1740–1812) became the scenic director at involved in an affair with the actress Coral
Drury Lane in 1773 under David Garrick, for Browne, who had previously rejected
whom he created naturalistic details and Harrison’s advances. Knowing Walbrook’s
invented new machines for SOUND EFFECTS. preference for German classical music,
Designers in the early 20th century sought Harrison played jazz records each night in the
unity of effect. The Swiss-born Adolph
adjacent dressing room. Of Diana Wynyard in
Appia (1862–1928) attempted this with a
the part of Gilda, Coward moaned, “Gilda
combination of simple three-dimensional
needs to have a touch of the gipsy. She needs
units, such as steps, ramps, platforms, and
to be a bit common. Oh, if only Gertie
skilfully deployed lighting. The most
[Gertrude Lawrence] was available.”
influential British designer of this period,
E. Gordon Craig (see CRAIG FAMILY), worked Desiosi An Italian COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE
on the Continent and made a great impression company of the late 16th century. It was
on German, Austrian, and Russian designers. probably founded by the actress Diana da
Craig advocated the creation of a position of Ponti and included among its actors Tristano
‘stage director’, an all-powerful figure who Martinelli, the famous ARLECCHINO. The
would design the scenery and costumes before company appeared in Paris in 1601 and when
fitting in the actors and action. it disbanded some years later many of its
The 20th century has seen a general members moved to the ACCESI company.
movement towards more abstract stage
designs. For his Moscow production of The Desire Under the Elms A tragedy by
Life of Man, a symbolistic drama by Leonid Eugene O’NEILL, first performed in 1924 in
Andreyev (1871–1919), STANISLAVSKY used an New York, where the play’s treatment of incest
arrangement of black curtains and white rope and infanticide provoked a police raid.
to represent walls, windows, and doors. Originally banned in Britain, the play opened
Vsevolod MEYERHOLD experimented with non- in 1931 at the Gate Theatre Club, London,
naturalistic costumes and plain white furniture with Eric Portman and Flora Robson.
in a pioneering production of Ibsen’s Hedda Set on a New England farm in the 1850s,
Gabler. Later Peter BROOK used a plain white the play focuses upon the triangle of the farmer
set for his famous 1970 production of A Ephraim Cabot, his son Eben, and his new
Midsummer Night’s Dream, employing coiled wife, Abbie. Eben hates his father for depriving
metal springs attached to fishing rods to him of his dead mother’s farm. When Abbie
suggest the forest and putting the actors on arrives on the scene, Eben begins an affair with
trapezes to represent flying. One of the most her, resulting in the birth of a child that must
celebrated contemporary designers is the Czech be passed off as Ephraim’s. When told that the
Josef SVOBODA, who has experimented with farm will now go directly to the baby, Eben
FLEXIBLE STAGING, screens, mirrors, and decides to leave for California. Abbie, however,
cinematic projection. tries to prove her love for Eben by smothering
148 detail scenery

the child to death. The lovers are arrested, and devil among the tailors A phrase
Ephraim abandons the farm. used to describe a furious argument. It is said
to have originated from a BENEFIT night given
detail scenery Small items of movable
in about 1805 for the actor William Dowton
scenery such as BUILT STUFF, pictures, and
(1764–1851). The performance, a burlesque
chairs.
piece by Samuel FOOTE called The Tailors: a
deus ex machina (Latin: god out of a Tragedy for Warm Weather, resulted in a fracas
machine) In a play, the unexpected appearance outside the Haymarket Theatre among a large
of a new character, who easily resolves the crowd of tailors, who considered the play a
plot’s main dilemma. The term derives from slight on their trade.
the ancient Greek theatre, in which the deus
Devils, The A successful historical play by
ex machina was traditionally a god who
the British dramatist John Whiting (1917–63),
descended from Mount Olympus. The
first performed in 1961 by the Royal
machine, or MECHANE, was a crane used to
Shakespeare Company in London. Based on
lower and raise the god. Modern playwrights
Aldous Huxley’s novel of sexual hysteria The
generally shun any suspicion of a deus ex
Devils of Loudun (1952), the play is set in a
machina.
17th-century French nunnery. Sister Jeanne,
deuteragonist See PROTAGONIST. the prioress, invites the sensuous priest Urbain
Grandier to become the convent’s spiritual
Deutsches Theater A theatre group
adviser: when he declines, the prioress and
established in 1883 in Berlin to promote the
nuns develop hysterical symptoms and are
performance of new works. It was founded
assumed to have become possessed by demons.
by the playwright Adolf L’Arronge, who
After their exorcism, Grandier is condemned,
assembled a company under Josef KAINZ and
tortured, and executed. Ken Russell’s
Agnes Sorma (1865–1927). The group began
extraordinary film version (1970), a work
by producing historical dramas in a realistic
variously regarded as a lost classic or a farrago
style using techniques pioneered by the
of bad taste, is based only loosely on the
MEININGER COMPANY. Otto Brahm took over
original play.
the troupe in 1894 when his FREIE BÜHNE
company was merged into it. The actors, who Devil’s Disciple, The George Bernard
included Albert Basserman, were subsequently SHAW’s comedy satirizing MELODRAMA, first
trained in the naturalistic principles of performed in Albany, New York (1897), then
STANISLAVSKY. days later at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New
With the MOSCOW ART THEATRE, the York. The play was produced by the US actor
Deutsches Theater became one of the two Richard Mansfield, who also played General
leading European companies of the early 20th Burgoyne, one of Shaw’s wittiest characters (see
century. From 1906 onwards Max REINHARDT GENTLEMAN JOHNNY). Set in New Hampshire
experimented with the idea of combining during the War of American Independence,
music, ballet, and mime with mainstream the play tells the story of Dick Dudgeon, who
drama. Reinhardt’s most famous star was has a reputation as a villainous free-thinker
Alexander Moissi, who was noted for his (the devil’s disciple of the title); in fact, it
Shakespearean roles. transpires that he is both generous and self-
The theatre disbanded briefly at the onset sacrificing. When he is arrested by the English,
of World War II but was revived by Heinz who mistake him for the local minister, he
Hilpert (1890–1967), who maintained its declines to save his life by pointing out the
popularity with German audiences during the error. This altruistic gesture wins the heart of
war. In 1946 it became the National Theatre Judith, the minister’s wife. The minister,
of East Berlin. From 1961 until 1969 it was however, turns soldier and, rescuing Dick from
run by the Swiss director Benno Besson the gallows at the last minute, wins back his
(1922–2006), who produced works ranging wife.
from Aristophanes to Offenbach. The theatre Though Mansfield had great success with
underwent major reorganization following the The Devil’s Disciple (taking it on tour after a
reunification of Germany. In 2009 Bernd long New York run), he had an abiding dislike
Wilms, artistic director since 2001, was for Shaw as both man and author. When a
succeeded by Ulrich Khuon. senator suggested that Mansfield ought to
 Dibdin family 149

thank God each night for finding such a play, Franz Moor in Schiller’s Die Räuber. A
he replied that he did, but always with the decision to assign him only comedy roles
addition, “Why, O God, did it have to be by contributed to his later descent into
Shaw?” alcoholism.
Karl Devrient began acting in 1819; he
Devine, George Alexander Cassady
performed at the Court Theatre in Dresden
(1910–66) British actor and theatre director,
(1821–35) and at Karlsruhe (1835–39) before
who headed the original Young Vic and helped
moving to Hanover. He was acclaimed in
to found the ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY in
works by Schiller, Goethe, and Shakespeare.
1955. A member of the OUDS while at
Karl’s son Max Devrient made his debut in
Oxford, Devine made his professional debut in
1878 in Dresden and later appeared in both
The Merchant of Venice at the Old Vic (1932).
tragedy and comedy at the Vienna Burgtheater
After a spell with John Gielgud’s company at
and throughout Germany.
the Queen’s Theatre, he worked with Michel
Eduard Devrient began as an opera singer
Saint-Denis on the staff of the London
in Berlin but from 1844 to 1852 worked at the
Theatre Studio from 1936 until the outbreak
Court Theatre in Dresden as an actor and
of World War II. After war service he worked
director. In 1852 he became director of the
with Saint-Denis at the Old Vic School before
Court Theatre at Karlsruhe where he
taking responsibility for the Young Vic
concentrated on the German classics. In 1874
(1946–51).
Eduard published the first history of the
As an actor, Devine won particularly good
German stage, Geschichte der deutschen
reviews for his Tesman in a 1954 production
Schauspielkunst. Eduard trained his son Otto
of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (in which he played
Devrient, who acted at Karlsruhe, Stuttgart,
opposite Peggy Ashcroft); he also appeared in
Berlin, and Leipzig before becoming stage
plays by Brecht and Ionesco. In 1955 Devine
director at Karlsruhe in 1863; ten years later he
directed Gielgud in a celebrated production of
went to Weimar as a director and dramatist
King Lear with a Japanese setting. As artistic
(writing three tragedies). In 1876 Otto
director of the English Stage Company (from
produced a controversial version of Goethe’s
1956) he was responsible for staging new
Faust in the style of a mystery play.
works by an entirely new breed of British
Emil Devrient began acting at Brunswick
dramatists. Look Back in Anger by OSBORNE,
in 1821 and achieved some success before
Chicken Soup with Barley by WESKER, and
joining the Court Theatre in Dresden in 1831,
Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance by ARDEN, just three
where he remained until his retirement. He
of the plays Devine put on at the ROYAL
was highly praised for his performances as
COURT THEATRE in the 1950s, changed the
Goethe’s Tasso and Egmont, and as Hamlet, a
face of the British theatre.
role that he played in London in 1852 and
In 1966 the George Devine Award was
1853.
instituted to recognize outstanding work by
young people in the theatre. Dhanu Jatra An Indian drama,
performed at Baragarh in the eastern state of
Devrient family The great German
Orissa, that depicts events in the life of
actor Ludwig Devrient (1784–1832); his eldest
Krishna. Large replicas of palaces and other
nephew, the actor Karl August Devrient
settings are erected on the outdoor stage. A
(1797–1872) and his son Max Devrient
special feature of the Dhanu Jatra is the
(1857–1929); another nephew, the opera
participation of playgoers in the processions
singer, actor, and director Eduard Devrient
and dramatic scenes.
(1801–77) and his son Otto Devrient
(1838–94); and a third nephew, the actor Emil Dibdin family The British actor-
Devrient (1803–72). manager, comedian, playwright, and composer
Ludwig Devrient has been called the Charles Dibdin (1745–1814) and his
greatest tragedian of the Romantic stage in illegitimate children by the actress Harriet Pitt,
Germany. Ludwig, whose style has often been Charles Isaac Mungo Pitt (1768–1833), a
compared to Edmund KEAN’s, performed at playwright and manager, and Thomas John
the Court Theatre in Dessau before moving to Pitt Dibdin (1771–1841) an actor-manager,
Berlin in 1814. Among his famous roles were playwright, and songwriter.
Shakespeare’s King Lear and Richard III and Noted especially for naval ballads such as
150 didascalia

‘The Lass that Loved a Sailor’ and ‘Tom is biblical, occurring in both Old and New
Bowling’, Charles Dibdin wrote around 1000 Testaments.
songs, as well as BALLAD OPERAs like The
dimmer An electrical or mechanical device
Waterman (1774), which became part of the
used to dim the lighting on stage. Early
repertory of the Toy Theatre. Dibdin
expedients included the use of currents of air
established his reputation as an actor in 1768,
to extinguish candles and placing opaque
playing Mungo in Isaac Bickerstaffe’s The
screens in front of the lights. The first electric
Padlock (for which he also composed the
dimmers consisted of metal plates immersed in
music). In 1796 he built the Sans Souci
barrels of a brine solution (which apparently
Theatre in Leicester Square, where Edmund
Kean performed as a boy acrobat. For many gave off a bad odour). In the modern theatre a
years Dibdin performed in the popular one- central computerized dimmer board is used,
man show The Whim of the Moment, a enabling the operator to connect lights to
miscellany of songs, anecdotes, and comic dimmer switches in any required combination
monologues. (a practice known as patching). Memory
Thomas Dibdin made his stage debut at controls can also now be used to preset light
the age of four, playing Cupid to the Venus of levels in advance. See also GRAND MASTER
CONTROL.
Sarah Siddons at Drury Lane. Following a
period as an upholsterer’s apprentice, Thomas Dionysia Annual spring festivals in ancient
ran away to act in the provinces. He later Greece honouring DIONYSUS; originally
found success as an author of stirring naval involving simple processions and rites, they
dramas such as The Mouth of the Nile (1798) evolved into drama festivals at which prizes
and Nelson’s Glory (1805). After briefly were offered for the best plays. The City
managing the Haymarket, Thomas took over Dionysia, or Great Dionysia, held in Athens
at Covent Garden; in 1806, following the in late March and early April lasted five or six
defection of the theatre’s resident clown to a days with up to a dozen sets of plays being
rival company, he hired Joseph GRIMALDI to performed. Playwrights would submit a
appear in his popular pantomime Harlequin TETRALOGY consisting of three linked tragedies
and Mother Goose. Grimaldi remained at and a burlesque satyr play. Performances were
Covent Garden for 17 years, during which supervised by the archon, or chief magistrate,
time he became recognized as the king of with costs borne by rich citizens. Judges were
clowns. Thomas married the actress Nancy chosen from a panel by drawing lots. The
Hilliar and their four children, who used their names of victorious poets, actors, and chorus
grandmother’s name of Pitt, all worked in the leaders were inscribed on clay tablets. See also
British and US theatre. LENAEA.
Charles Pitt, given the middle name of The Rural Dionysia were local religious
Mungo from his father’s most famous role, festivals, held annually in December, during
managed Sadler’s Wells and wrote several which dramas were performed by troupes of
successful plays, pantomimes, and songs. In travelling players. Many rural governments, or
1826 he published the valuable History of the ‘demes’, constructed permanent theatres for
London Theatres. the festival. One of the most important demes
didascalia A term used in the ancient for drama was Piraeus, where Euripides is
Greek theatre to mean a teacher of drama, a thought to have presented a play. According to
theatrical production, or a catalogue of Plato, the festivals were held on different days
dramatic works. Surviving examples of such in different areas to allow people to see plays at
catalogues (all fragmentary) contain the names more than one of them. Some scholars believe
of the dramatists, their plays, and the dates of the Rural Dionysia provided an outlet for
production. works turned down by the City Dionysia and
Lenaea.
die the death or die To meet with a
total lack of response from one’s audience, Dionysus The Greek god of fertility, wine,
especially when attempting comedy. This and ecstasy, also called Bacchus or Iacchus,
appears to be variety slang, dating from the whose worship gave rise to the earliest form of
early 20th century. The phrase ‘die the death’ Greek drama. According to Aristotle, the cult
 discovery space 151

reached Greece from the Near East, though MNOUCHKINE in France, Leopold Jessner
this has been disputed. (1878–1945), Erwin PISCATOR, Bertolt
The rites of Dionysus were characterized BRECHT, Peter Zadek (1926– ), and Peter
by wild music, ecstatic dancing, and STEIN in Germany, Giorgio STREHLER in Italy,
uninhibited sexuality. The antics of the god’s V. E. MEYERHOLD, Konstantin STANISLAVSKY,
attendants possibly mark the beginning of the and Yuri LYUBIMOV in Russia, and Otomar
SATYR-PLAY, while the wearing of symbolic Krejča (1921– ) in the Czech Republic.
phalluses survived as a tradition of Greek Methods of directing can be either
comedy. The DITHYRAMB, a hymn to the god autocratic or democratic. In the 18th century
sung by a chorus of 50 actors at the DIONYSIA, David GARRICK happily deleted and added
provides perhaps the strongest direct link scenes to the plays he staged, while GOETHE
between the rites of Dionysus and the drama drew up a detailed list of rules for his actors.
proper. See also ARTISTS OF DIONYSUS. OLIVIER once said:
I expect my actors to do exactly what I
diorama A type of PANORAMA popular in
tell them to do and do it quickly, so I
the 19th century that created a three- can see my own mistakes immediately
dimensional effect through such devices as the if I have gone wrong. Arguing about
TRANSPARENCY, cut-out scenery, and special
motivation and so forth is a lot of rot.
lighting and gave the impression of movement.
In 1823 a diorama was opened in Regent’s Others, such as Peter Brook, believe that a
Park, London, by Daguerre and Bouton, who director should consult with the actors and
put scenery on rollers to create moving other workers at all stages of the production.
backgrounds. Popular attractions included a Since the 1960s workshop sessions have
representation of the changing view from a developed to ensure this company input (see
COLLECTIVE CREATION).
steamer sailing from Dover to Calais.
In recent years so-called director’s theatre
director The person who has overall has come under attack from those who feel
responsibility for a stage production. His or that an undue emphasis on the role of the
her major tasks include interpreting the work director stifles the creativity of actors and can
in theatrical terms, rehearsing the actors, and lead to unbalanced and eccentric
coordinating the efforts of designers, interpretations.
technicians, and other workers. Until 1956, Theatre director: a person engaged by
when the US terminology was officially the management to conceal the fact
adopted, a director was known as a producer in that the players cannot act.
Britain. JAMES AGATE (attrib.)
Until the 20th century the responsibilities
of the present-day director were usually Dirty Linen and New Found Land A
undertaken by an author, manager, or leading double bill of comedies by Tom STOPPARD that
actor. AESCHYLUS was a famous director in opened in 1976 at the Arts Theatre Club and
Athens in the 5th century BC. In medieval ran for 1667 performances. Dirty Linen, in
Europe the ‘master of ceremonies’ would often which a Parliamentary Committee discusses
move about the stage during performances of moral standards in public life, began as a salute
miracle or mystery plays. In the COMMEDIA to Ed Berman, a US dramatist and director
DELL’ARTE the most experienced actor often
who became a naturalized British citizen.
assumed the role of director. Stoppard then added the one-scene New Found
The ACTOR-MANAGERs of the 18th and Land, in which two Home Office officials
19th centuries were gradually superseded by discuss an American’s application to become a
independent professional directors in the early British subject; one of them eventually delivers
years of this century. a comically impassioned eulogy on America.
Famous directors of the last 100 years discovery space In the Elizabethan
include Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER, Joan theatre, a space or spaces on the stage where
LITTLEWOOD, Peter HALL, and Peter BROOK in concealed characters could be revealed or
Britain, Lee STRASBERG, Elia KAZAN, and ‘discovered’. The discovery space was at the
Harold Clurman (1901–80) in America, back of the stage, though scholars disagree as
Jacques Copeau (1879–1949), Georges Pitoëff to its nature. It may have been a pavilion
(1887–1939), Jean VILAR, and Ariane structure, a medieval ‘mansion’, or a miniature
152 diseuse

proscenium stage screened by a curtain that theatrical songs. Ironically, the tune that gave
would be opened for the discovery (see INNER the South a nickname and became the
STAGE). Large props and set pieces were unofficial anthem of the Confederacy during
probably stored there when not in use. the American Civil War was written by a
Discovery scenes abound in Elizabethan and northerner, Daniel Emmett of Ohio, in 1859.
Jacobean drama; one of the best known occurs Still more ironically, recent research suggests
in the last act of Shakespeare’s The Tempest that Emmett may have stolen the song from an
(1611), when Ferdinand and Miranda are obscure Black performer. The song became
‘discovered’ playing chess. The Cockpit in the famous in the South following its inclusion in
Court Theatre, London, had five entrances a burlesque drama, Pocahontas, at New
apparently serving as discovery spaces. The Orleans’ Varieties Theatre in 1861. It acquired
Corral del Principe in Spain (see CORRALES DE its patriotic status after being played at the
COMEDIAS) had a central opening nine feet inauguration of Confederate President
deep at the rear of the stage for this purpose. Jefferson Davis (18 February 1861).
The day after General Robert E. Lee
diseuse An actress who performed surrendered his Confederate troops, Abraham
dramatic recitals, including pieces sung or Lincoln shocked White House celebrants by
spoken to music. This popular Victorian asking the Marine Band to play ‘Dixie’, which
entertainment continued into the 20th he called “one of the best tunes I have ever
century, when the US actress Cornelia Otis heard.” Four days later he was assassinated.
Skinner became a celebrated diseuse on both
sides of the Atlantic. The equivalent term for a Docteur amoureux, Le The farce by
male is a diseur. MOLIÈRE that proved the turning point of his
career. Molière’s troupe presented the partly
disguising A form of dramatic improvised piece to the 20-year-old King Louis
entertainment at the English court in the 15th XIV in 1658, following a performance of
and 16th centuries. It involved the wearing of Corneille’s solemn Nicomède. Molière
masks, music and dancing, and the exchange introduced the surprise offering as one of the
of gifts. Participants included both actors and little pieces that had earned him some
nobility. In the 16th century, as Italian and reputation in the provinces. The performance
French influence on the form grew, the word had the king crying with laughter and led to
‘disguising’ was gradually replaced by ‘mask’ or the company’s adoption by his brother,
MASQUE. Phillippe, later duc d’Orléans. The king
dithyramb In the ancient Greek theatre, a allowed the troupe to establish itself in Paris
hymn sung and danced to the god DIONYSUS. and move into the Théâtre du PETIT-
It was first recorded in the 7th century BC. BOURBON.
According to Herodotus, the dithyramb was Dr Faustus, The Tragical History of
developed into a regular poetic form in about A blank-verse tragedy written (c. 1590) by
600 BC by Arion of Lesbos, who has been Christopher MARLOWE, which is probably the
called the father of dithyrambic poetry. The first dramatization of the FAUST legend.
early form, which was improvised, dealt only Spurred on by his lust for power and
with the life of Dionysus; it later expanded knowledge, the scholar Faust turns from
in scope to include stories of heroes. conventional learning to the study of the
Competitions for the composition of forbidden arts. He summons up the demon
dithyrambs were a feature of the DIONYSIA. Mephostophilis, who promises to gratify his
The most celebrated composer of dithyrambs every desire for 24 years if Faust will surrender
was Lasus of Hermione; only fragments remain his soul to the Devil at the end of that time.
of works by other writers. The climax of the play comes when the Devil
In his Poetics Aristotle states that tragedy arrives to claim Faust for his own.
evolved from the dithyramb. It seems that FAUSTUS O lente, lente, currite noctis
the chorus leader became a soloist, the equi!
PROTAGONIST, and that his exchanges with the
The stars move still, time runs, the
CHORUS led to the beginnings of dramatic
clock will strike,
dialogue.
The Devil will come, and Faustus must
‘Dixie’ One of the most famous US be damned.
 documentary theatre 153

O’ I’ll leap up to my God! Who pulls audience did not realize that anything was
me down? amiss but Vivien Leigh was horrified. When
See, see where Christ’s blood streams the nervous understudy, Geoffrey Edwards,
in the firmament! was called for, he was so unprepared that he
The earliest known performance was given by had to read his part on stage. Cusack was
the Admiral’s Men in 1594, when Edward dropped.
ALLEYN took the lead. Despite these problems, the production
According to that redoubtable enemy of was a success, largely owing to Leigh’s recent
the theatre William Prynne (see NOTORIOUS fame from Gone With the Wind – a film that
WHORES), Alleyn’s conjuration of the Shaw refused to see on the grounds that “Life
devil during one early performance had is too short. I really can’t afford to waste four
consequences he could hardly have bargained hours of it watching a young woman winning
for: in response to his words, an actual devil the American Civil War single-handed.”
suddenly appeared on the stage “to the great After Tyrone Guthrie saw Michael
amazement of both the actors and spectators”. Langham’s 1947 revival of the play, he noted,
Preposterous as this story no doubt is, the play “All you can do with Shaw is to fan the actors
has a sinister reputation amongst actors second out in a semicircle, put the speaker at the top,
only to that of Macbeth (see SCOTTISH PLAY). It and hope for the best.”
is said, for example, that actors appearing in The story, set in London in 1903,
the play will sometimes have the impression concerns Jennifer Dubedat, whose husband,
that there is one more performer on the stage Louis, is dying of consumption. The family
than can be accounted for, and that this doctor, Sir Colenso Ridgeon, decides to treat a
unannounced extra will subsequently disappear fellow doctor instead of Dubedat and hands
without ever having been identified. the case to a colleague, who administers the
Although versions of the Faust story wrong injection, killing the patient. Ridgeon
continued to be staged during the three subsequently admits to Jennifer that he refused
centuries after Marlowe’s death, this was to treat her husband because he hoped to
invariably in forms that owed little to the marry her after his death. She reacts furiously
Tragical History. For example, the 1685 Dorset and informs him that, at her husband’s last
Garden production interpolated “the humours request, she has already remarried.
of Harlequin and Scaramouche” and
documentary theatre or theatre of
concluded with a scene in which the dead
fact A genre of play based directly on
Faustus suddenly revives to give the audience a
historical and documentary records. Created in
song and dance. Regular revivals of Marlowe’s
Germany in the 1950s, the form was much
play had to wait until the 20th century, when
influenced by the US LIVING NEWSPAPER. The
it provided a vehicle for (amongst others)
first work in the genre to attract international
Orson Welles (1937), Richard Burton (1966),
attention was The Case of J. Robert
and Ian McKellen (1974).
Oppenheimer by Heinar KIPPHARDT, which
Doctor’s Dilemma, The George opened in 1964 in Berlin in a production
Bernard SHAW’s tragicomedy satirizing the directed by Erwin PISCATOR. The play dealt
medical profession, first performed in 1906 at with the development of the atomic bomb and
the Royal Court Theatre, London. When a the allegations of disloyalty made against the
1941 Broadway revival starring Katharine nuclear scientist Oppenheimer during the
Cornell was a great hit the 85-year-old Shaw McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s.
gave his permission for a London revival at the Other pioneers of the form were Peter
Haymarket starring Vivien LEIGH. Shaw told Weiss (1916–82) and Rolf HOCHHUTH.
the producer that the role of the doctor’s wife Weiss’s play The Investigation, about the
was a difficult one. “Jennifer Dubedat is the Frankfurt trials of perpetrators of the
sort of woman I really dislike,” he said. Auschwitz atrocities, was produced
“Perhaps you’ll warn the young lady of this.” simultaneously at 14 German theatres in 1965.
In the event, the problem was the leading man, His documentary about the Vietnam War,
Cyril Cusack. Feeling ill after a few drinks one Vietnam Discourse, was produced in 1968 in
evening, Cusack forgot his lines and began Frankfurt. Hochhuth denounced Churchill for
quoting from the only play he could recall, the bombing of Dresden in Soldiers, which had
Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World. The its first English-language production in 1968
154 Dodin, Lev

in Toronto, then played Broadway and at Chelsea, takes about 30 minutes. The coat is
London. In Britain, Peter BROOK presented the a red livery jacket with a silver badge.
experimental documentary work US, about US Doll’s House, A Henrik IBSEN’s classic
intervention in Vietnam, in 1966. When it drama about a woman driven to leave her
opened at the Aldwych Theatre it was husband to seek fulfilment; it was first
described as “the ultimate non-play so far”. produced in 1879 at Copenhagen’s Royal
Recent years have seen a notable revival of Theatre. Shaw, writing in 1897, saw the play’s
documentary theatre with such productions as final scene as representing the end of the old
the Tricycle Theatre’s The Colour of Justice sexual order: “the slam of the door behind her
(1999), which dramatized the enquiry into the is more momentous than the cannon of
murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence, Waterloo.”
David Hare’s The Permanent Way (2001), The plot concerns Nora Helmer, a young
which was based on interviews with those wife and mother, who has secretly forged the
involved in the privatization of Britain’s signature of her husband, Torvald, to help him
railways and survivors of the disastrous in his financial troubles. Nils Krogstad, a man
accidents at Ladbroke Grove and Potters Bar, her husband had sacked, threatens to expose
and Lucy Prebble’s ENRON (2009), about the Nora unless he is reinstated. When she informs
scandal surrounding the collapse of the giant Torvald of her deed he is horrified and only
US energy company. forgives her when Krogstad backs down. Nora,
however, cannot forgive his lack of support;
Dodin, Lev See MALY THEATRE. realizing that she has been nothing to her
Dogberry The ignorant, meddling, and husband but an amusing doll, she leaves him
self-satisfied constable in Shakespeare’s MUCH and sets off for a new independent life. At the
ADO ABOUT NOTHING. The character is famous first German production in 1880, the actress
for his preposterous verbal solecisms: Hedwig Niemann-Raabe refused to perform
Comparisons are odorous the final scene, and Ibsen quickly wrote a
happy ending in which the wife remains at
Much Ado About Nothing (III, v)
home, sinking to the floor of her children’s
According to John Aubrey, the character bedroom as the curtain falls.
was drawn from a real constable of Grendon The Austrian feminist writer Elfriede
Underwood in Buckinghamshire, where Jelinek (1946– ) continued the story in her
Shakespeare often stayed on his way between play What Happened after Nora Left her
London and Stratford. This man was still alive Husband (1978).
in 1642. See also MALAPROP, MRS.
Don Juan Don Juan Tenorio, the
dog drama A 19th-century genre in legendary antihero of many plays, poems,
which dogs appeared on stage as part of the stories and operas, is said to have been based
cast. Originating in France, it became popular on the son of a noble family in 14th-century
in London at Drury Lane and other theatres. Seville. The story goes that he killed the
The most successful play of this type was Le commandant of Ulloa after seducing his
Chien de Montargis; ou, le Fôret de Bondy daughter. He then jokingly invited a statue of
(1814) by Guilbert de Pixérécourt. the dead man to a feast, at the end of which
Other notable parts written for dogs the sculptured figure indeed arrived to deliver
include Crab in THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF him to hell.
VERONA, Flush in THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE His name is synonymous with rake, roué,
STREET, and Sandy in the musical ANNIE. and aristocratic libertine; in Mozart’s opera
Don Giovanni (1787; libretto by Da Ponte)
Dogget’s Coat and Badge The prize the Don’s servant claims that his master had
awarded in an annual rowing race for Thames “in Italy 700 mistresses, in Germany 800 …
watermen now held in late July. The name and in Spain 1003.” The story first appeared
comes from Thomas Dogget (c. 1670–1721), on the stage in Tirso de Molina’s El Burlador
an actor of Drury Lane, who instituted the de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra in 1630; in
race in 1715 to mark the accession of George this work the Don is presented as a troubled
I. The race, held over about 4½ miles from the man who knows that his desires are sinful but
Swan Steps at London Bridge to the Swan Inn remains unable to control them. Plays followed
 Dorset Garden Theatre 155

by MOLIÈRE, CORNEILLE, Shadwell, GOLDONI, Shakespeare Company from 1977 until its
DUMAS and Rostand amongst others. George move to the Barbican in 1982. From the mid
Bernard Shaw’s MAN AND SUPERMAN is an 1980s it presented touring productions by
ironic reworking of the legend in which Don some of the country’s leading fringe
Juan Tenorio becomes the English freethinker companies, as well as a range of musical
Jack Tanner. The character also appears in entertainments. After a short period of closure,
Tennessee Williams’s fantasy play Camino Real the Donmar entered a new era under the
(1953). In one of the most recent updatings of dynamic leadership of Sam MENDES, who
the story, Patrick Marber’s Don Juan in Soho became its director in 1992. With brilliantly
(2006), the priapic ‘DJ’ keeps a record of his innovative productions ranging from
numerous conquests on a BlackBerry. Sondheim’s Assassins (1992) to Tennessee
Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (1995) and
Donkeys’ Years A comedy by Michael
David Hare’s The Blue Room (1998), the
FRAYN about a college reunion, first performed
Donmar established itself as one of the most
in 1976 at the Globe Theatre, London. The
exciting venues in London. Mendes directed
play won the Society of West End Theatres’
award-winning productions of Twelfth Night
Award for Comedy of the Year. There was a
and Uncle Vanya (both 2001) before handing
notable revival at London’s Comedy Theatre
over to Michael Grandage (1962– ) in 2002.
in 2006.
Under Grandage’s leadership the Donmar
Set at a lesser Oxford college, the play
initiated (from 2004) a national touring
shows how a group of former students have
programme, taking its version of Pirandello’s
changed over 20 years and then, as the
Seven Characters in Search of an Author to
evening wears on, how they revert to their
several provincial centres. Another landmark
undergraduate ways.
occurred in 2005, when the company staged a
The story introduces such old boys as the
much praised revival of Guys and Dolls at the
government minister C. D. P. B. Headingly
Piccadilly Theatre – the first Donmar
and the Reverend R. D. Sainsbury. Welcoming
production to go directly into the West End
them back are a new lecturer, W. R. Taylor,
without first appearing at the Warehouse. In
and the Master’s wife, Lady Driver, who is
September 2008 Grandage launched Donmar
desperately searching for her former lover, the
West End, a year-long season of plays at
rough-and-tumble Roddy Moore. Moore has
Wyndhams’s Theatre, with an acclaimed
not turned up, however, and Lady Driver finds
production of Chekhov’s Ivanov starring
his old room occupied by K. Snell, who
Kenneth Branagh. The West End season
boarded out while in college and now wants to
continued with productions of Twelfth Night
make up for lost opportunities. During the
starring Derek Jacobi and Hamlet with Jude
evening, the returnees become increasingly
Law (both 2009).
drunk; indeed Snell becomes so wild that he
suffers a breakdown and has to be taken to the Donnellan, Declan See CHEEK BY JOWL.
local mental hospital. The others pack and
Dorset Garden Theatre A former
leave, but not before Lady Driver and the
theatre situated on the north bank of the
surgeon D. J. Buckley have planned an
Thames, just off Fleet Street, London. Its
assignation.
design has sometimes been ascribed to Sir
Donmar Warehouse An intimate Christopher Wren.
theatre in the Covent Garden district of The theatre was planned by William
London, noted since 1992 for its innovative DAVENANT, who died before its completion.
productions of both new plays and classics. Although it had an impressive proscenium
The late Victorian building began life as the arch, acting took place in front of it;
hop warehouse for a local brewery and productions had the advantage of the latest
subsequently became a ripening depot for scenic effects, though the theatre’s narrow
bananas. In 1961 the impresario Donald auditorium made it somewhat cramped.
Albery converted it into a rehearsal studio The Dorset Garden opened in 1671 under
for the dancer Margot Fonteyn, whom he the management of Thomas BETTERTON, the
managed – thus giving the Donmar its first production being a revival of Dryden’s Sir
current name. As the Warehouse, it served Martin Mar-All. From 1672 to 1674 it was the
as a London studio theatre for the Royal only theatre open in London, as Drury Lane
156 Dossenus

was being rebuilt following a fire. The Dorset right and ‘downstage left’ is to his left. See also
Garden’s reputation for musical works began UPSTAGE; CENTRESTAGE.
with two adaptations of Shakespeare: D’Oyly Carte, Richard (Richard Doyle
Davenant’s musical Macbeth in 1673 and McCarthy; 1844–1901) British impresario,
Thomas Shadwell’s The Enchanted Island, a best known for his association with GILBERT
retelling of The Tempest, in 1674. Two works AND SULLIVAN. The son of the musical-
by Dryden received their premiere here; The instrument maker who first imported the
Kind Keeper; or, Mr Limberham (1678) and saxophone into Britain, D’Oyly Carte studied
The Spanish Friar; or, The Double Discovery composition and was later appointed manager
(1680). of the Royalty Theatre in London’s Soho. As a
In 1682 financial pressures led the concert agent he began promoting Gilbert and
company to merge with that at Drury Lane, Sullivan with his production of Trial By Jury at
which became their headquarters. Dorset the Royalty Theatre in 1875. He subsequently
Garden was subsequently used mainly for rented the OPERA COMIQUE to present other
opera, being renamed the Queen’s Theatre in early works by Gilbert and Sullivan and
1687 after Queen Mary II. Its popularity continued to encourage the partnership, the
subsequently declined and it became a home success of which enabled him to build the
SAVOY THEATRE in 1881. His own D’Oyly
for circus acts and wild animal shows before
being demolished in 1709. Carte Opera Company was formed in 1878 for
the production of HMS Pinafore.
Dossenus A stock character of the Roman His flair for promotion and business made
ATELLANA of the 1st century BC. He is assumed all three men wealthy, although D’Oyly Carte
to have been a hunchbacked slave, the name became the richest. Much of his time was
Dossenus probably being derived from dorsum spent smoothing over quarrels between his two
(Latin: back). He shared some of the traits of stars; he generally favoured the even-tempered
the greedy character MANDUCUS. Sullivan, who was best man at his wedding.
Following the first performance of The
Dottore, Il A stock character of the Gondoliers in 1889, D’Oyly Carte charged
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, usually played as a £140 for carpeting to a joint account. Gilbert
verbose physician or lawyer with the name of contested this and went to court, only to find
Graziano. Generally dressed in a black Sullivan testifying for D’Oyly Carte, who won
costume with a white ruff, the character often the case.
functioned as a counterpart to PANTALOON. In 1891 D’Oyly Carte built the Royal
Graziano’s son, ARLECCHINO, and Pantaloon’s English Opera House (now the PALACE
daughter, Colombina, became the lovers THEATRE) at London’s Cambridge Circus. It
Harlequin and Columbine in the English opened with Sullivan’s opera Ivanhoe, which
HARLEQUINADE. Graziano himself never ran for 155 performances, a record for grand
reached the English stage, although the opera. The theatre, however, was poorly
character was further developed in the French designed for opera and D’Oyly Carte lacked a
theatre by Molière. full repertoire. Consequently the project failed,
losing its instigator a fortune.
double take The actor’s device, often
drag artist See FEMALE IMPERSONATOR.
used for comic effect, of looking away from a
person who has addressed a remark to you, and drama school Courses provided by a
then looking back quickly as though the theatre, academy, university, etc., to train
meaning of the remark has just sunk in. In the actors, directors, and those involved in other
so-called double take and fade away the areas of stagecraft. Until specialist schools
startled reaction is followed by a slow drawing began to be founded in the 18th century,
back of the head. virtually all training came from actual
theatrical experience. One of the first great
downstage The area of a stage closest to drama schools was the École de Déclamation,
the audience, usually the front third. The word established in 1786 in Paris, and subsequently
is also used as a STAGE DIRECTION, meaning to renamed the Conservatoire National d’Art
move towards the audience. When an actor Dramatique. The Conservatoire has had strong
faces the audience, ‘downstage right’ is to his ties with the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE for more
 Dream Play, A 157

than 200 years. Famous graduates include in such works as Le Pè re de famille (1761) and
Rachel and Sarah Bernhardt. Le Fils Naturel (1771).
Britain’s first drama school, the London The drame, which developed from the
Academy of Music and Dramatic Art COMÉDIE LARMOYANTE and from the tragédie-
(LAMDA), now in Cromwell Road with its bourgeoise of Voltaire, usually ended agreeably
own theatre, was founded in 1861 by T. H. with scenes of repentance and reconciliation.
Yorke-Trotter. The Royal Academy of
drapery setting See CURTAIN SET.
Dramatic Art (see RADA) was established in
1904 by Beerbohm TREE in his theatre, His Drawcansir A character in Buckingham’s
Majesty’s; it is now in Gower Street. The THE REHEARSAL (1671), a parody of DRYDEN’s
Central School of Speech and Drama was heroic drama Almanzor and Almahide (1670).
opened two years later by the actress Elsie Drawcansir’s opening speech:
Fogerty (1866–1945) at the Royal Albert Hall He that dares drink, and for that drink
(it subsequently moved to the Embassy dares die,
Theatre in Hampstead). And knowing this, dare yet drink on,
The AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC am I.
ARTS was founded in 1884 in New York by The Rehearsal (IV, i)
Steele MACKAYE, Franklin Sargent, and others sends up Almanzor’s:
as the Lyceum Theatre School of Acting. He who dares love, and for that love
Today it is associated with the State University must die,
of New York. Michael Chekhov, who had And, knowing this, dare yet love on,
worked with STANISLAVSKY at the MOSCOW ART am I.
THEATRE, opened a noted acting school in Almanzor and Almahide (IV, iii)
New York in 1938. Stanislavsky’s principles See also BAYES.
were also the inspiration for Lee Strasberg’s
ACTORS’ STUDIO, which became the main drawing-room comedy An often
training centre for the techniques of METHOD derogatory description of a type of play that
acting in the 1950s. dominated the British stage in the early-to-
In Russia most major theatres have acting mid-20th century. It alludes to the elegant
schools. The Lunacharsky State Institute of upper middle-class settings favoured by
Theatrical Art (GITIS) was founded in 1878 authors such as Noël COWARD and Terence
RATTIGAN. The term came to embody
and named in 1934 for the playwright and
Soviet official Anatoli Lunacharsky. It has everything most disliked by the ANGRY YOUNG
MEN of the later 1950s.
supplied many actors to the Moscow Art
Theatre. drawing-room drama A late Victorian
The Carnegie Institute of Technology in genre characterized by respectable domestic
Pittsburgh became the first US university to settings and the examination of middle-class
offer courses for actors and directors in 1914. concerns and values. Similar works written by
In Britain the first university to provide such a Tom ROBERTSON became known as CUP-AND-
course was Bristol in 1946 (with Manchester, SAUCER DRAMAs. Other British playwrights
Hull, and Birmingham following in the early associated with the genre included Arthur
1960s). Wing Pinero and H. A. Jones.
dramatic unities See UNITIES. Dream Play, A A fantasy play by August
STRINDBERG, first performed in Stockholm in
dramatis personae The characters of
1907. Strindberg wrote the play in 1902
a play, film, novel, etc. It is sometimes used by
during his ‘spring in winter’ marriage (his
extension to mean the personalities involved
third) to the Norwegian actress Harriet Bosse
in a particular situation or event. See also
(who left him in 1904).
PERSONA.
The play, a passionate phantasmagoria that
drame In 18th-century France, a form of calls for a cast of 46 and such effects as an
domestic drama that combined elements of advocate’s office that turns into a church and
comedy and tragedy while emphasizing then into Fingal’s Cave, is rarely performed.
middle-class moral concerns. The genre was A highly poetic exploration of the unreality
named by Denis Diderot, who popularized it of existence, it has been called the first
158 dress circle

outstanding work of EXPRESSIONISM. The play photographs are often taken at the dress
ends with Strindberg’s oft-quoted line: rehearsal.
Mankind’s to be pitied. Drew family The US actress-manager
dress circle In a British theatre, the lower Louisa Lane Drew (1820–97), her husband the
Irish comedian John Drew (1827–62), their
of two CIRCLEs in the auditorium, the other
son the actor John Drew (1858–1927), and
being the ‘upper circle’ or, formerly, ‘family
their daughter the actress Georgiana Drew
circle’. The dress circle was so named because
(1856–92).
evening dress was once required there. In Louisa Lane Drew was born (as Louisa
1878, a correspondent for the North American Lane) into a London family with theatrical
Review marvelled at a London audience: connections going back to the Elizabethan
“There they sit in splendid array in the dress theatre. A child star who once appeared with
circle, close to the royal box.” Macready, Louisa was taken by her widowed
dresser A person employed to assist mother to America where, aged seven, she
members of the cast as they dress for a played in Richard III at the Walnut Street
performance or change costumes during it. In Theatre, Philadelphia. As an adult Louisa
the past, many leading actors would have appeared with many famous actors, including
employed their own dresser, whose role was Edwin Booth and Edwin Forrest. She had a
akin to that of a valet or manservant. Ronald strong personality and was singled out by the
Harwood’s play The Dresser (1980) explores critic T. Allston Brown for her lofty intellect,
passionate devotion to her art, and highly
the complicated relationship between ‘Sir’, an
cultivated mind.
ACTOR-MANAGER of the old school, and
In 1850 Louisa married the Dublin-born
Norman, his devoted personal dresser. In the
actor John Drew, who specialized in comic
late 1950s Harwood himself spent several years Irish characters. John had made his New York
working as dresser to the ageing Donald debut in 1842 and the following year took out
WOLFIT.
a lease on Philadelphia’s ARCH STREET
dressing room In a theatre, a backstage THEATRE. From 1859 he concentrated on
room where actors don costumes and put on touring, leaving Louisa to run the venue,
make-up. Actors may also rest in the dressing which she continued to do until 1892. The
room when not on stage and greet well-wishers first US woman to manage a major theatre, she
there before and after a performance. presented several important plays as well as
Worst dressing room’ stories are a favourite doing much of the all-round stage work,
subject of conversation amongst actors and including carpentry, herself. From 1880
other performers. The Australian ballet dancer, onwards she toured almost constantly in
actor, and director Sir Robert Helpmann Sheridan’s The Rivals, with the third Joseph
Jefferson (see JEFFERSON FAMILY).
(1909–86) endured his worst backstage
The younger John Drew made his debut at
experience when touring America with the
his mother’s theatre in Cool as a Cucumber
ballet A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For one
(1873). Two years later he made his New York
performance, in a baseball stadium, he was debut in Augustin DALY’s The Big Bonanza. In
given the ‘star’ accommodation of the umpire’s 1879 John joined Daly’s new company, in
changing room; Helpmann found he had to which he played opposite Ada Rehan
stand precariously on a chair balanced on a (1866–1916), also from his mother’s theatre.
table in order to face the single light bulb so In the 1880s Drew became a matinee idol
that he might put his eye make-up on. See also popularly known as the First Gentleman of
DUEL OF ANGELS. the Stage. In 1893 he and Rehan opened
dress parade See PHOTO CALL. Daly’s Theatre, London, with The Taming of
the Shrew. John’s last performance was in
dress rehearsal A rehearsal during Pinero’s Trelawny of the ‘Wells’. See also
which the cast members wear their costumes BEERBOHM, SIR MAX.
and make-up as for a performance. Usually the Georgiana Drew, known as Georgie, made
last rehearsal before the opening night, it her debut in 1872 at the Arch Street Theatre,
allows the cast to discover any problems with before also joining Daly’s company. In 1876
their costumes, furniture, or props. Publicity she married the British actor Maurice
 Drury Lane 159

Barrymore; their children, Ethel, John, and some criticism by turning the Christmas
Lionel all later became stars (see BARRYMORES, productions over to the great music-hall stars,
THE). Georgiana continued to act until her including knockabout comedians. In 1891 he
early death at the age of 36. Following her was knighted – not for his work in the theatre
performance in The Senator in 1890, one critic but because he was a sheriff of the City of
had noted: “An actress to her fingertips, she London during a visit by the German kaiser.
captivated the audience at once and kept them Drury Lane The shortened name for the
in roars of laughter and applause.” Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the oldest and
droll A type of brief comic sketch that most famous of London’s theatres. The
developed in England during the Puritan thoroughfare itself takes its name from Drury
INTERREGNUM. Since plays were too long and House, built in the time of Henry VIII by Sir
elaborate to perform in secret, excerpts from William Drury. Drury Lane and Covent
well-known works, called droll humours or Garden are Britain’s only PATENT THEATRES,
drolleries, were presented, usually followed by Drury Lane’s charter having been granted in
a dance. 1662 by Charles II.
Robert Cox (d. 1655) was the most famous The original theatre was opened by
exponent of drolls, adding juggling, conjuring, Thomas KILLIGREW in 1663, the first
and rope-dancing to the performance. Cox performance being Beaumont and Fletcher’s
appeared in London and at country fairs before The Humorous Lieutenant. Nell Gwynn made
being arrested and imprisoned in 1653 for her debut there in 1665. It burned down in
presenting a droll at the Red Bull Theatre in 1672 and was rebuilt to a design by Sir
Clerkenwell. Christopher Wren, reopening in 1674 with
John Dryden as resident playwright.
drop See CLOTH. In 1682 Thomas BETTERTON’s company
drum-and-shaft An early system for occupied Drury Lane but poor management
moving scenery, widely used in the by Christopher RICH provoked a move to
Renaissance and Baroque theatre. Articles of Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1695. Stability was
scenery were attached by ropes to a shaft that achieved from 1711 onwards under the
could be rotated either by a lever or, for a triumvirate of Colley CIBBER, Thomas
steadier effect, another rope wound around a Doggett, and Robert Wilkes. David GARRICK
barrel attached to the end of the shaft (hence took over in 1746 to manage with distinction
the mechanism’s alternative name, the barrel for 30 years. In 1775 Robert Adam renovated
system). In this way, several pieces of scenery the interior and two years later R. B. SHERIDAN
could be moved simultaneously. Articles of became manager and staged the premiere of his
scenery could also be made to move at own The School for Scandal. Sarah Siddons and
different speeds by attaching drums of her brother John Kemble became stars there in
different diameters to the shaft and winding the 1780s.
the ropes from the scenery around these The third Drury Lane, seating 3611,
instead of the shaft itself. The system was opened in 1794 with a concert. One
gradually superseded by more sophisticated memorable first night was that of Pizarro,
equipment capable of moving several articles of adapted by Sheridan from the German, in
scenery independently of each other. 1799. Sheridan was so behindhand with his
translation that the actors, who included
Druriolanus, Augustus The nickname Siddons, Kemble, and John Barrymore, were
of a 19th-century manager of Drury Lane, obliged to perform the fourth act as Sheridan
Augustus Henry Glossop Harris (1852–96). sat upstairs completing the fifth. They then
It is a humorously Latinized version of the had to attempt to memorize the new dialogue.
theatre’s name on the model of CORIOLANUS. The play did not finish until midnight; only
The son of Augustus Glossop Harris 39 members of the exhausted audience
(1825–73), who managed Covent Garden for remained for the farce that followed.
27 years, the younger Harris took over Drury Sheridan was virtually ruined when the
Lane in 1879 and managed it until his death. theatre burned down again in 1809. The
Although Harris opened with Henry V, he fourth building was opened in 1812 with a
soon turned to spectacular melodramas and prologue by Lord Byron; gas lighting was
extravagant annual pantomimes. He incurred installed in 1817. Although successful seasons
160 dry

were given by Edmund KEAN and William reopening of the theatres at the Restoration;
MACREADY, Drury Lane declined under the his first attempt, the comedy The Wild
management of the egregious ‘Poet’ BUNN in Gallant, was presented in 1663 at Drury Lane.
the 1830s and the patent monopoly was The success of his heroic drama The Indian
abolished in 1843. In 1878 F. B. Chatterton Emperor in 1665 established him as a leading
closed the theatre lamenting “Shakespeare playwright.
spells ruin, and Byron bankruptcy.” It Another heroic drama, Almanzor and
reopened in 1879 under Augustus Harris, who Almahide (1670), was burlesqued in
enjoyed success with melodramas and an Buckingham’s THE REHEARSAL (1671), which
annual pantomime starring Dan LENO. ridiculed the play, the genre, and Dryden
Henry IRVING appeared at Drury Lane himself. When an actress paused with a
from 1903 until his last London season in distressed look after speaking Dryden’s line,
1905. He was known for attaching flints to “My wound is great – because it is so small,”
swords to create flying sparks. When electricity Buckingham is said to have risen in his box
arrived, he wired up the weapons, and during and added sarcastically, “Then ’twould be
one performance Romeo and Tybalt turned greater, were it none at all.” This roused the
into livewires to the audience’s enthusiastic audience to hiss the woman from the stage.
cheers. Thereafter Irving insulated the weapons Following AURENG-ZEBE (1675), perhaps his
with rubber handles. best heroic work, Dryden abandoned the use
In the 1930s the theatre staged a series of of rhyming couplets, producing the oft-revived
musicals by Ivor Novello. It became the blank-verse tragedy ALL FOR LOVE (a retelling
headquarters of ENSA during World War II and of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra) in
survived a bombing in 1940. After the war, it 1677.
presented a string of successful Broadway Dryden was the first to write drama
musicals: Oklahoma! (1947), South Pacific criticism in an informal modern style and the
(1951), The King and I (1953), My Fair Lady first to attempt a history of English drama in
(1958), which ran for 2281 performances, A his essay Of Dramatick Poesie (1668). He
Chorus Line (1976), and 42nd Street (1984). eventually tired of playwriting, admitting in
The run of hit musicals has continued with 1675 that “many of my Predecessors have
Miss Saigon (1989), which ran for a decade, excell’d me in all kinds; and some of my
and Mel Brooks’s The Producers, which played Contemporaries…have out-done me in
from 2004 to 2007. A £12.5 million Comedy.” His final plays, such as the
adaptation of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings tragicomedy Love Triumphant (1694), were
opened in 2007 and ran for some 14 months, written to relieve financial problems after his
when it was succeeded by the Cameron fortunes fell with the abdication of James II.
Mackintosh revival of Oliver! (still running in See also LISIDEIUS.
2010). See also GHOSTS. If Dryden’s plays had been as good as
their prefaces he would have been a
dry To find oneself unable to speak the next dramatist indeed.
line of a part. This may be owing to simple HARLEY GRANVILLE-BARKER: On
memory failure or, more alarmingly, to stage Dramatic Method
fright or some even stranger aberration. Other
graphic terms for this terrifying experience – His mind was of a slovenly character –
every actor’s nightmare – include to blank fond of splendour, but indifferent to
(literally, to feel one’s mind go blank) and to neatness. Hence most of his writings
freeze (implying physical as well as mental exhibit the sluttish magnificence of a
paralysis). Russian noble, all vermin diamonds,
dirty linen, and inestimable sables.
Dryden, John (1631–1700) English poet, LORD MACAULAY: ‘John Dryden’ in the
critic, and dramatist, responsible for nearly 30 Edinburgh Review (1828)
plays. He was noted both for his elegant
ducats See VICTORIAN THEATRE SLANG.
comedies and his heroic verse dramas, which
introduced the principles of French Duchess of Malfi, The A tragedy by
neoclassicism to England (see NEOCLASSICAL John WEBSTER (1580–1634), first performed in
DRAMA). London in about 1619. It is a violent and
Dryden turned to drama following the horrific work set in Renaissance Italy. The play
 Duenna, The 161

describes the fate of the widowed duchess who, Emlyn WILLIAMS’s Night Must Fall, in which
contrary to the wishes of her two brothers, the he also starred, opened in 1935 and ran for
cardinal and Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, over a year. Later successes included works by
secretly weds her steward, Antonio, by whom Noël Coward, Terence Rattigan, and Agatha
she becomes pregnant. Her brothers place in Christie. Kenneth Tynan’s nude revue Oh,
her service a spy, Bosola, who keeps them Calcutta! transferred from the Royalty Theatre
informed of events. Antonio and the duchess in 1974 and ran until 1980. Another long run
separate and flee. Captured by Ferdinand, the was enjoyed by Marc Camoletti’s comedy
duchess and her children are murdered by Don’t Dress for Dinner (1992–97). In 2003 the
Bosola with every refinement of cruelty. Duchess staged Gyles Brandreth’s show Zipp!,
Bosola, now remorseful, realizes his master’s which presented highlights of 100 musicals in
wish to be rid of him; he kills Antonio and the 90 minutes (including all of Lloyd Webber in
cardinal, but is himself slain by the now insane 60 seconds). A revival of Buddy - The Buddy
Ferdinand. Ferdinand is, in turn, killed by Holly Story ran from 2007 until 2009. The
friends of Antonio. theatre now forms part of the Nimax Group of
Perhaps the most memorable modern West End theatres.
production of The Duchess of Malfi opened in
Duel of Angels (Pour Lucrèce) Jean
1946 in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with
GIRAUDOUX’s last play, written in 1944 and
Elisabeth BERGNER in the title role. In 1980 performed in 1953 in Paris without great
the play was successfully revived by Adrian success. Christopher Fry’s English translation
Noble at the Royal Exchange Theatre, opened in 1958 at the Apollo Theatre,
Manchester, with Helen Mirren as the London, with Vivien LEIGH as the evil Paola,
duchess. who drives the virtuous Lucille to suicide by
I suppose you could define a pessimist convincing her that she has committed
as a man who thinks John Webster’s adultery.
Duchess of Malfi a great play; an As was her custom during a London run,
optimist as one who believes it actable. Leigh moved numerous personal items from
RONALD BRYDEN: ‘Blood Soaked her home – pictures, small furniture, even her
Circus’, The Observer, 18 July 1971 dog and cat – into the dressing room to give it
Duchess Theatre A theatre on a cosy familiar look. For this reason, her room
Catherine Street, London, that opened in was the only one fitted with a lock. Her
1929 under the joint management of Jack de dresser, Roy Moseley, recalled how one night
Leon and his sister, Delia. The exterior of the she let the entire cast change there, because
building, designed by Ewan Barr, has been they were worried about the risk of infection
described as ‘Modern Tudor Gothic’. after discovering that someone was letting their
The Duchess has an unfortunate place in dressing rooms out to prostitutes after the
theatre closed at night. Leigh welcomed the
theatrical history, having staged London’s
other cast members into her pure quarters with
shortest ever running show, The Intimate Revue
great amusement.
(1930), which closed before the end of the first
performance. The individual sketches required Duenna, The A comedy by Richard
so much scenery that it took about 20 minutes Brinsley SHERIDAN, with music by his father-
to change sets. A critic for The Times noted: in-law, Thomas Linley. During their
“Each time the curtains parted, squads of collaboration Sheridan somehow managed to
scene-shifters might be seen in action or in conceal the nature of the show’s plot, which
horrid precipitate flight.” The Duchess also was inspired by his own elopement with
drew the world’s shortest review, the show A Linley’s daughter, Elizabeth, a year earlier.
Good Time receiving the one-word critique: Opening in 1775 at Covent Garden, the work
“No.” ran for 75 performances, exceeding the
In the 1930s J. B. PRIESTLEY became previous record of 68 set by Gay’s The Beggar’s
associated with the theatre, which presented a Opera (1728). Indeed, the show was so
number of his plays including Eden End successful that Sheridan was able to buy a
(1934) and Time and the Conways (1937). controlling interest in DRURY LANE from David
Priestley’s wife, Mary Wyndham Lewis, Garrick with the proceeds.
redesigned the interior of the theatre in 1934. The story involves the ill-tempered Don
162 Duke of York’s Theatre

Jerome, who wants his daughter Louisa to wed Dumas fils (1824–95), also a playwright and
the rich Isaac Mendoza. Louisa, however, loves novelist.
the poorer Antonio. The duenna (governess The son of a Napoleonic general, Dumas
and chaperon) acts as a go-between for Louisa père adopted the surname of his grandmother,
and Antonio; when Don Jerome discovers this a Black San Domingan. In 1829 the Comédie-
he dismisses her and confines Louisa to the Française produced his Henri III et sa cour, the
house. Louisa escapes disguised as the duenna, first triumph of the Romantic movement on
who stays behind in her place. Mendoza is the French stage. He followed this with a series
then tricked into marrying the duenna. of historical melodramas, including Napoléon
Bonaparte (1831) and Antony (1831). The
Duke of York’s Theatre A theatre on
latter was produced at the Porte-Saint-Martin
St Martin’s Lane, London. It opened in 1892
Theatre, as was his most successful play, the
as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, a name that
drama of terror La Tour de Nesle (1832). This
was shortened to the Trafalgar Theatre two
led to a lawsuit and a harmless duel with
years later. It received its present name in 1895
Frédéric Gaillardet, whose manuscript Dumas
in honour of the future King George V. From
had rewritten.
1897 it was managed by Charles Frohman,
Dumas père also enjoyed success with
Marie Tempest, Gerald Du Maurier, and Irene
Kean, ou Desordre et genie (1836), a play about
Vanbrugh, all of whom acted in productions.
the great English actor that provided
Frohman produced several of J. M. Barrie’s
FRÉDÉRICK with one of his most memorable
plays, including Peter Pan (1904), which was
roles. The producer Dartois offered Dumas
revived each Christmas until 1914. Other
2,000 francs if it took in 60,000 francs by its
Barrie plays first staged at the Duke of York’s
30th performance. On the appointed night,
included The Admirable Crichton (1902) and
Dartois came smiling to announce the total as
What Every Woman Knows (1908).
59,993 francs. Dumas, claiming he was broke,
From 1923 to 1928 the venue was
borrowed 20 francs from Dartois; five minutes
managed by Violet Melnotte, who presented
later three more playgoers rushed into the
the revue London Calling, written mostly by
orchestra seats and Dumas won the bet.
Noël Coward. The Duke of York’s was
He is now mostly remembered for his
occupied by The People’s National Theatre
novels, especially two that were subsequently
from 1933 to 1936. The theatre’s longest run
adapted for the theatre, The Three Musketeers
was Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary?,
(1844) and The Count of Monte Cristo
which opened in 1944 for 980 performances.
(1844–45). Both were produced at Dumas’s
Later successes have included Frank Marcus’s
own Théâtre Historique, whose eventual
The Killing of Sister George (1965), Alan
failure left him near bankruptcy. His later
Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking (1967), and
liaison with a US circus girl created a scandal;
Arthur Miller’s The Price (1969).
he died at Puys in the house of Dumas fils, his
In 1979 the Duke of York’s became the
son by a Parisian dressmaker.
first London theatre to be owned by a
Although Dumas fils is sometimes credited
commercial radio station when Capital Radio
with originating the realistic-social drama, he
purchased it during the run of Michael Frayn’s
remains best known for dramatizing his own
comedy Clouds and closed it for refurbishment.
romantic novel THE LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS
The theatre, which reopened in 1980, is now
(1852). The character of the consumptive
owned by the Ambassador’s Theatre Group.
Marguerite Gautier, based in part on Dumas’s
Recent successes include Conor McPherson’s
mistress Marie Duplessis, provided a bravura
THE WEIR (1997–2000), the Gaiety Theatre,
role for such actresses as Sarah Bernhardt and
Dublin’s production of Stones in His Pockets
Eleonora Duse.
(2001) by Marie Jones, and Tom Stoppard’s
His later moralizing dramas were
Rock ‘n’ Roll (2006), which transferred from
sometimes known as the useful theatre:
the Royal Court.
Dumas said that if he could persuade people to
Dumas père and fils The French discuss a social problem and achieve a change
Romantic playwright and novelist Alexandre in the law he had “done his duty as a man.” Le
Dumas (Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie; Demi-monde (1855) gave the French and
1802–70), known as Dumas père, and his English languages a name for the social group
illegitimate son, Alexandre Dumas, known as it portrayed. Le Fils Naturel (1858) dealt with
 Dürrenmatt, Friedrich 163

the stigma of illegitimacy, as did Un Père Hallam’s retirement, Dunlap and Hodgkinson
Prodigue (1859), which included an accurate opened the PARK THEATRE, New York, with a
portrait of his father. production of As You Like It. Dunlap used the
theatre to produce many of his own plays and
dumb show See MIME.
adaptations including André, the first US
Dumb Waiter, The A one-act play for tragedy, which dealt with the War of
two characters by Harold PINTER. It was first Independence. He also leased the Haymarket
performed, as part of a double bill with The Theatre in Boston, to which many of his plays
Room, in 1960 at the Hampstead Theatre Club transferred.
in London. Both works later transferred to the In 1805 Dunlap was declared bankrupt,
Royal Court Theatre. but continued his involvement with the
Set in a basement room in Birmingham, theatre, first as an assistant stage manager at
the play concerns two hit men, Gus and Ben, the Park Theatre and later touring with his
who are waiting for orders. They pass the time own plays again. In 1832 he published a
with tense small talk about how they will History of the American Theatre.
handle the assignment. An envelope is slid
under the door but it is empty. The dumb duologue or duodrama A short
waiter (service lift) descends bearing orders for presentation or scene for two speaking
a meal that the two men cannot supply. Gus characters (although other non-speaking actors
uses a speaking tube to apologize to the may be present on stage). Duologues became
unknown man upstairs. popular as part of triple bills in Germany in
Ben finally receives instructions on the the late 18th century.
tube, but Gus has gone outside for a glass of Durante, Jimmy See SCHNOZZLE.
water. When Gus returns he has been stripped
of his jacket, waistcoat, and revolver; the two Dürrenmatt, Friedrich (1921–90)
men stare at each other for a long time in Swiss dramatist and writer, considered one of
silence as the curtain falls. The implication is the most important German-language
that Gus is the target. playwrights of the post-war era. His first play,
It Is Written (1947), demonstrated his
dundrearies A Victorian nickname for indebtedness to the methods of Brecht and the
long side-whiskers. The term came into expressionists. Subsequently he established his
usage in 1861, during performances at the reputation with a series of black comedies on
Haymarket of Tom Taylor’s play Our such themes as human greed, hypocrisy, and
American Cousin, in which the US actor E. A. cruelty. The Blind Man (1948), Romulus the
Sothern (see SOTHERN FAMILY) sported the style Great (1949), and The Marriage of Mr
in his role as Lord Dundreary. Mississippi (1952) shared the same sense of
Dunlap, William (1766–1839) US futility and desperation as other absurdist plays
dramatist and theatre manager. As a young (see ABSURD, THEATRE OF THE), but were
man, Dunlap was sent to study art in England, distinguished by their clever use of theatrical
where he developed his enthusiasm for the technique, which made them popular
theatre and became a great admirer of Kemble attractions in New York and London.
and Sarah Siddons. He returned to America His best-known plays are THE VISIT (Der
in 1787 and began to write plays. The first Besuch der alten Dame; 1956), about a rich old
of his works to be performed, The Father; or woman’s revenge on her hometown for wrongs
American Shandyism, was produced at the done to her many years before, and The
John Street Theatre in 1789. Physicists (1962), a grotesque tragicomedy in
Several of his comedies were performed which several fugitive scientists hide themselves
by the AMERICAN COMPANY and in 1796 in a lunatic asylum.
he entered into a partnership with the From the late 1960s Dürrenmatt turned
company’s managers, Lewis Hallam and John increasingly to the novel, publishing a number
Hodgkinson. Dunlap boosted the company’s of experimental works that incorporate
fortunes by introducing Joseph JEFFERSON as speculative essays on politics, philosophy, and
the leading actor. The company dominated science. His other writings include several
the US stage for some twenty years under treatises upon the theatre, plays for radio, and
Dunlap’s management. In 1798, after a number of detective novels.
164 Duse, Eleonora

Duse, Eleonora (1859–1924) Italian Revels, one of the BOY COMPANIES. The play
tragic actress. Born into a family of poor has enjoyed several successful revivals.
strolling players, Duse had played Juliet by the The youthful Freevill, having become
age of 14. In 1878 she began touring with the engaged to the virtuous Beatrice, wishes to end
great tragedian Ernesto Rossi (1827–96); three his relationship with Franceschina, the Dutch
years later she acted in Russia, winning the courtesan. Freevill introduces Franceschina to
admiration of Chekhov. his puritanical friend Malheureux, who
Duse’s first London appearance was at the becomes infatuated with her. Franceschina
Lyric Theatre in 1893 in The Lady of the agrees to become his mistress if he will murder
Camellias, a play she subsequently took to New Freevill and, as proof, bring her the ring that
York. In 1895 Duse and her great rival Sarah Beatrice gave him. Malheureux informs
BERNHARDT both appeared in London as
Freevill, who agrees to help by staging a bogus
Magda in Sudermann’s Heimat, Duse playing quarrel, giving him the ring, and disappearing.
When Malheureux gives Franceschina the ring
the role in Italian and Bernhardt in French.
she immediately informs the fathers of Freevill
Critical opinion was divided, with George
and Beatrice. Malheureux is arrested for the
Bernard Shaw preferring Duse and Clement
murder and sentenced to death. He is freed,
Scott Bernhardt. Duse’s acting style was
however, when Freevill suddenly reappears;
naturalistic, her costumes simple, and she wore
Franceschina is flogged and imprisoned. The
no make-up, being noted for her ability to main plot is supported by rude farce involving
blush at will. The critic James Agate noted, the prankster Cocledemoy.
“Her features have the placidity of long grief;
so many storms have broken over them that dwarfs In Europe, dwarfs or midgets were
nothing can disturb against this sea of calm popular until the 18th century as court fools
distress.” or favourites. In later times they were often
Her finest roles were IBSEN’s Rebecca West exhibited as curiosities at circuses and
and Hedda Gabler, Zola’s Thérèse Raquin, exhibitions. Famous dwarfs include Lucius
and SARDOU’s Tosca, Fedora, and Theodora. (fl. 10 BC; 2 ft), the dwarf of the Emperor
In 1894 Duse appeared in La Locandiera at a Augustus, Xit (fl. 1550), the dwarf of Edward
command performance for the elderly Queen VI, John Jarvis (1508–56; 2 ft), page of
honour to Mary I, Copernin (fl. 1730), the last
Victoria at Windsor Castle. That same year she
court dwarf in England, the Corsican Madame
fell in love with the Italian poet Gabriele
Teresia (2 ft 10 in), exhibited in London in
D’ANNUNZIO, who wrote several florid
1773, Wybrand Lolkes (2 ft 3 in), exhibited at
melodramas for her, including La città morta
Astley’s Amphitheatre in 1790, the Italian
(1898) and Francesca da Rimini (1902). Duse’s Caroline Crachami (1 ft 8 in), exhibited in
performances in D’Annunzio’s plays made him London in 1824, the so-called Fairy Queen (1
famous but dimmed her own reputation. She ft 4 in), exhibited in London in 1850, the
retired in 1913 but returned to the stage eight celebrated General TOM THUMB (1838–83),
years later: she died whilst touring America. and the Zarate sisters (both under 2 ft),
Mussolini, whom she hated, declared her a exhibited in London as the Midgets in 1881.
national hero and had her body returned for a
state funeral in Rome. dying words
ADDISON, JOSEPH (playwright and
Dust Hole A disparaging nickname for
essayist): See in what peace a Christian
the Queen’s Theatre, a former venue on
can die.
Tottenham Street, London (subsequently
replaced by the SCALA THEATRE). Owing ALFIERI, V. A.(playwright): Clasp my
largely to its unfashionable location, the hand, dear friend, I am dying.
Queen’s was not a great success. The nickname BANKHEAD, TALLULAH (actress):
refers to its bleak and generally uncrowded Codeine ... bourbon ...
interior. BARNUM, P. T. (showman): How were
Dutch Courtesan, The A comedy by the receipts today at Madison Square
John MARSTON first performed in 1605 in Garden?
London by the Children of the Queen’s BARRYMORE, JOHN (actor): Die? ... No
 dying words 165

Barrymore would allow such a HAZLITT, WILLIAM (critic): Well, I’ve

conventional thing to happen to him. had a happy life.
BEHAN, BRENDAN (playwright; on IBSEN, HENRIK (playwright; on being
having his pulse taken by a nursing told by the nurse that he was feeling
nun): Bless you, Sister. May all your better): On the contrary!
sons be bishops! KEAN, EDMUND (actor; quoting from
BYRON, LORD (poet and playwright): I Richard III): A horse! A horse! My
must sleep now. kingdom for a horse!
CHARLES II (English monarch; referring O’NEILL, EUGENE (playwright): Born in
to his mistress the actress Nell Gwynn) a hotel room – and God damn it –
Do not, do not let poor Nelly starve. died in a hotel room.
PALMER, JOHN (actor; a line in the last
CHEKHOV, ANTON (playwright): It’s
been so long since I had champagne. play in which he performed): There is
another and a better world.
COOPER, DAME GLADYS (actress; on
QUIN, JAMES ‘BELLOWER’ (actor): I
looking into her mirror): If this is what
could wish this tragic scene were over,
viral pneumonia does to one, I really
but I hope to go through it with
don’t think I shall bother to have it becoming dignity.
again.
SAROYAN, WILLIAM (playwright):
COWARD, SIR NOËL (playwright): Good
Everybody has got to die, but I have
night, my darlings, I’ll see you in the always believed an exception would be
morning. made in my case. Now what?
DIDEROT, DENIS (playwright and critic): SCARRON, PAUL (playwright): Ah, my
The first step towards philosophy is children, you cannot cry for me so
incredulity. much as I have made you laugh.
DUNCAN, ISADORA (dancer; waving SCHILLER, FREIDRICH (playwright):
goodbye to friends from her car shortly Many things are growing plain and
before her scarf caught the wheel and clear to my understanding.
strangled her): Adieu my friends, I go TASSO, TORQUATO (poet and
on to glory! playwright): Lord, into Thy hands I
FROHMAN, CHARLES (actor): Why fear commend my spirit.
death? It is the most beautiful VOLTAIRE (writer): Do let me die in
adventure in life. peace.
GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON WILDE, OSCAR (dramatist;
(playwright and poet): Light, more contemplating the room in Paris in
light!. which he lay): Either that wallpaper
GWENN, EDMUND (actor; on being goes, or I do.
asked if dying was difficult): It’s tough, ZIEGFELD, FLORENZ (showman): The
but not as tough as doing comedy. show looks good, the show looks good!
166 Earth Spirit

product of a theatrical background, Edgar

E began to write in earnest in the wake of the

student rebellions of 1968, in which he took
an active role. His reputation was established
when Destiny (1976), which examines racist
Earth Spirit A play by Frank WEDEKIND, and fascist elements in British culture, was
first performed in 1902 with Wedekind’s performed in a production by the Royal
actress wife Tilly Newes (Mathilde Newes; Shakespeare Company. His other works of the
1886–1970) in the role of Lulu. 1970s and 1980s include Wreckers (1977), the
Earth Spirit was one of several dramas by documentary plays Mary Barnes (1977) and
Wedekind on the theme of repressed sexuality The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1978), the epic
and its dangers. The plot centres on the Maydays (1983), which explored the changes
beautiful and amoral Lulu, whose admirers in British society since the mid 1950s, and
always seek to change her and always fail. That Summer (1987). In 1980 he enjoyed
Wedekind continued her story in PANDORA’S enormous critical and commercial success with
BOX, first produced in 1905. an eight-hour adaptation of Dickens’s Nicholas
The British playwright Peter Barnes Nickleby staged by the RSC.
(1931–2004) adapted and merged the two More recent plays include a loose trilogy
plays in Lulu (1970). exploring the political changes in Eastern
Eastward Ho! A CITIZEN COMEDY by Europe since the end of the Cold War: The
George CHAPMAN, John MARSTON, and Ben Shape of the Table (1990) was followed by the
JONSON, first performed by the Children of
highly praised Pentecost (1994) and The
the Revels at Blackfriars Theatre in 1605. Prisoner’s Dilemma (2002). Similarly ambitious
Characters include the apprentices Golding were Albert Speer (1999), an epic drama about
and Quicksilver and the adventurer Sir Hitler’s architect, and Continental Divide
Petronel FLASH. (2003), a linked pair of plays that examines a
The play is now mainly remembered for gubernational election in a US state from both
the trouble it caused to its authors. Unluckily the Republican and the Democratic sides.
for them, a brief diatribe against the Scots in Playing with Fire (2005), a play dealing with
Act III was not well received at the court of the local politics and ethnic tensions in a northern
new king, the Scottish-born James I. Chapman town, marked a return to the large-scale state-
and Marston were flung into the Old of-the-nation dramas of Edgar’s early career.
Marshalsea prison to await sentence; to show Less characteristically, Testing the Echo (2008)
solidarity Jonson (who did not work on the was a fast-paced ensemble piece about a group
passage in question) voluntarily joined them of people taking a class in British citizenship.
there. Rumours then circulated that the three Edgar has also been involved with
COMMUNITY THEATRE projects, most notably
authors would have their ears and noses split
A Time to Keep (2007), a play set in 18th-
as punishment; only representations by
century Dorset that he cowrote with his wife,
influential friends secured their pardon and
Stephanie Dale.
release.
Jonson was so relieved to escape this Edinburgh Festival A major
punishment that he threw a banquet for his international festival, held annually in the
friends and family to celebrate. In the middle Scottish capital for three weeks, usually from
of the party his old mother allegedly showed mid-August to mid-September. It was founded
him some poison she had acquired; if the in 1947 by the Austrian-born Rudolph Bing,
punishment was to have been carried out, she general manager of the Glyndebourne Opera
had planned to mix the potion in her son’s Festival.
drink and, being “no churl”, to drink the The Edinburgh Festival has shown the
remainder herself. premieres of such works as T. S. Eliot’s THE
COCKTAIL PARTY (1949), The Confidential
ecclesiastical drama See LITURGICAL
Clerk (1953), and The Elder Statesman (1958),
DRAMA.
and Thornton Wilder’s THE MATCHMAKER
Edgar, David (1948– ) British (1954). It offers productions by major British
playwright and journalist, whose works are companies, including the Royal Shakespeare
known for their strong political content. The Company, the English Stage Company, and
 Eidophusikon 167

the National Theatre Company, as well as the creator of the GAIETY GIRLS, a chorus line
foreign troupes, such as the Comédie- famous for their beauty.
Française, the Théâtre National Populaire, and In 1893 Edwardes opened DALY’S THEATRE
the Piccolo Teatro Della Città Di Milano. in London for the American manager Augustin
In the 1950s the Edinburgh Fringe (see Daly (1839–99), and made it another home
FRINGE THEATRE) grew up beside the official for musical comedy, achieving success with
festival, attracting professional and amateur such productions as A Country Girl (1902) and
groups from around the world. The Fringe is The Merry Widow (1907).
now many times larger than the official Ten years later he opened his own new
festival. Works made famous by the Fringe Gaiety Theatre, his greatest success there being
include the revue BEYOND THE FRINGE (1960) Our Miss Gibbs, which had its premiere in
and Tom Stoppard’s ROSENCRANTZ AND 1909 and ran for 636 performances.
GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (1966). The 2009 Edward II A tragedy by Christopher
Fringe featured a record 34,000 performances MARLOWE, sometimes considered his
of over 2000 shows in 260 venues, making the masterpiece; it was a major influence on
62nd Edinburgh Festival the world’s largest Shakespeare’s RICHARD II. First performed in
ever arts festival. 1593 in London, it paints a bleak picture of
Educating Rita A popular comedy by power and human relationships.
the Liverpool playwright Willy RUSSELL. Edward II was the first English play to
Educating Rita opened in 1980 at the Donmar feature homosexuality. The weak king is fond
Warehouse Theatre and transferred later that of the flatterer Gaveston, who has been forced
year to the Piccadilly Theatre, where it enjoyed into exile in Ireland. Queen Isabella hopes that
a record run. her husband will now pay more attention to
her, but he refuses unless she uses her influence
The play has only two characters: Rita, a
to bring Gaveston back to court. When
bright but uneducated hairdresser with a desire
Gaveston is executed Edward shifts his
to widen her horizons, and her Open
affections to a new favourite, Spenser. The
University English-literature tutor Frank, a
Queen and her lover, Mortimer, rebel against
cynical 50-year-old who has failed in his
the king, who is eventually deposed and
ambition to become a poet. Their tutorial
murdered.
sessions result in Rita leaving her husband and
In 1969 Ian McKellen played the roles of
finding a better job; however, her new
Marlowe’s Edward II and Shakespeare’s
independence drives Frank to even heavier Richard II on alternate nights at the Mermaid
drinking and he is ‘banished’ by his university Theatre, London.
to a two-year teaching assignment in Australia.
Before he departs, Rita’s last act is to snip off eggs Sardou See LOBSTER THERMIDOR.
his unruly locks of hair. Eglinton Tournament A replica of a
Russell later adapted the play for the medieval tournament staged at Eglinton
cinema; the film version (1983) starred Julie Castle, Scotland, in August 1839. The ladies
Walters and Michael Caine. wore fashions of the 14th and 15th centuries
Edwardes, George (1852–1915) and the gentlemen, who included the future
British theatre manager, known as the Napoleon III of France, appeared in the role of
Guv’nor, who pioneered the MUSICAL. knights. The occasion, which attracted some
Edwardes was business manager at the Savoy 100,000 spectators, is described in Disraeli’s
Theatre before taking over, with John novel Endymion (1880).
Hollingshead (1827–1904), the old GAIETY Eidophusikon A moving dioramic
THEATRE in 1885. In 1886 Edwardes became exhibition, presented in 1871 in London by
sole manager of the Gaiety and began to Philip James de LOUTHERBOURG who used it
replace the burlesque shows with works in the chiefly to demonstrate atmospheric lighting
new genre of musical comedy. He staged his effects. Pieces of silk and glass were passed in
first musical, In Town, at the Gaiety in 1892; front of lamps to create drifting clouds, falling
the following year he produced A Gaiety Girl rain, and changing seasons. The scenic
at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre. Edwardes was entertainment, which included dramatic
168 Ekhof, Konrad

music, was given for two successful seasons on Electra is the eponymous heroine of tragedies
a stage only six feet wide. by Sophocles and Euripides and also features
The highlight of the show was a storm at in Aeschylus’s ORESTEIA, on which Eugene
sea. Clouds, painted on canvas, were hurried O’Neill’s trilogy MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA
over the ocean by a winding machine while is based.
lightning flashed and the waves (carved in In psychoanalytical theory the term
wood and varnished every night to reflect the ‘Electra complex’ is sometimes used of the
lightning) rose menacingly and collapsed into situation in which a daughter’s attraction
foam, dimming as they receded. Another towards her father is accompanied by hostility
popular scene was a view of Greenwich, with towards her mother (i.e. a female equivalent of
the distant heights of Hampstead and other the Oedipus complex).
London high points in the background.
Eleusinian Mysteries The religious
Ekhof, Konrad (1720–78) German actor rites in honour of Demeter and Persephone
and director, who greatly influenced the held originally at Eleusis in Attica and later at
development of the German dramatic Athens. They were abolished by the Emperor
tradition. Born in Hamburg, Ekhof joined Theodosius around the end of the 4th century
Johann Friedrich Schönemann’s company in AD. Originally an agrarian cult, the rites
1739 and remained with it for 17 years. included feasting, processions, and religious
During this period he introduced the new dramas; the initiated supposedly obtained a
naturalistic style of acting in adaptations of happy life beyond the grave. As participants
French plays and in such works as George had to swear a vow of secrecy, little is known
Lillo’s The London Merchant and Lessing’s Miss about the chief rites. See also DIONYSUS.
Sara Sampson.
elevator See BRIDGE.
In 1753 Ekhof opened an Academy of
Acting at Schwerin; amongst the subjects Eliot, T(homas) S(tearns)
discussed was the social responsibility of the (1888–1965) US-born British poet, dramatist,
actor. In 1767 he joined Konrad Ackermann and critic. Born in St Louis, Missouri, he
in his attempt to establish a German National studied philosophy at Harvard before leaving
Theatre in Hamburg but left because of for Europe in 1914. In 1915 he decided to
professional rivalry with Ackermann’s stepson, settle in the UK after marrying an English
the actor Friedrich SCHRÖDER. woman. Working first as a schoolteacher and
Ekhof subsequently toured for several years then as a bank clerk, he managed to establish
with Abel Seyler (1730–1801) before joining himself in his spare time as perhaps the most
the Court Theatre in Weimar where he acted significant poet of the age; by the mid-1920s
under GOETHE; Ekhof was able to give the he had also become the poetry editor of Faber
writer anecdotal material about the theatrical and Faber and the founder-editor of The
profession to use in Wilhelm Meister. In 1775 Criterion (a literary journal).
Ekhof became chief actor and director for the Despite a long interest in the stage, it was
new Court Theatre at Gotha, inviting the 16- not until the 1930s that Eliot’s first important
year-old August IFFLAND to join his company. plays appeared. The poetic dramas MURDER IN
Ekhof’s farewell performance was as the Ghost THE CATHEDRAL (1935), about the martyrdom
in Schröder’s version of Hamlet. of Thomas à Becket, and THE FAMILY REUNION
(1939) were not immediately accepted into the
ekkyklema In the ancient Greek theatre,
repertoire of the commercial theatre. In the
a movable platform that could be used to bring
1950s, however, his prestige as a major poet
actors on stage. It may have been a wheeled
entitled his three post-war plays THE COCKTAIL
platform, a couch on wheels, a pivoting
PARTY (1950), The Confidential Clerk (1954),
turntable, or simply the opening of double
and The Elder Statesman (1954) to prestigious
doors in the centre of the stage wall to reveal a
West-End productions. All Eliot’s plays reflect
group of actors. The ekkyklema was often used
his preoccupation with religion (he became an
by Euripides.
Anglo-Catholic in 1927) and his own personal
Electra In Greek legend, the daughter of sense of guilt (largely connected with the
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who incited mental illness of his first wife, their separation
her brother Orestes to kill Clytemnestra in in 1933, and her death in 1947). In the
revenge for the latter’s murder of Agamemnon. decades since Elliot’s death, however, those
 Eltinge, Julian 169

plays have been given very few revivals. Indeed, James Burbage, Richard’s father. Others
it seems ironic that Eliot’s best-known quickly followed: the Curtain Theatre in 1577,
contribution to the stage is now the libretto of the Rose Theatre in 1587, the Swan Theatre in
Andrew LLOYD WEBBER’s musical CATS (1981), 1594, and the famous GLOBE THEATRE, at
which is based on the light-hearted verse which many of Shakespeare’s works were given
contained in his Old Possum’s Book of Practical their first performances, in 1599. The average
Cats (1939). audience capacity was 2000 to 3000 people.
In 1984 Eliot’s tortured marital life The venues were classified as ‘liberties’ beyond
became the subject of the controversial play the city’s jurisdiction.
Tom and Viv by Michael Hastings.
Elsinore A town in Denmark (Danish
Elizabethan drama English drama name Helsingør), which provides the setting
during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). for the story of HAMLET. Elsinore’s Kronborg
England’s first great era of the theatre was Castle has been the site since 1937 of an
crowned by the emergence of the world’s most annual Shakespeare Festival in which
renowned dramatist, William SHAKESPEARE. international companies perform only that
Other prominent writers of the Elizabethan play.
age included the UNIVERSITY WITS – The Old Vic company appeared in the
Christopher MARLOWE, Thomas KYD, John festival’s inaugural year, with Laurence OLIVIER
Lyly, and others – whose work for the stage as Hamlet. Although married, he was having
shows the influence of ancient Greek and an affair with the actress Vivien Leigh (his
Roman playwrights, especially SENECA. future wife), who persuaded him to give her
The first English tragedy, GORBODUC, was the role of Ophelia, replacing the excellent
written and performed by law students of Cherry Cottrell. The production, which also
London’s Inner Temple in 1562 with included Alec Guinness as Osric, was to be
Elizabeth in the audience. The first extant staged on the castle ramparts and terraces
English comedy, RALPH ROISTER DOISTER by before the Danish royal family. On the day of
Nicholas Udall, was performed around 1563. performance, however, torrential rain forced
Distinct genres to emerge during the era the players into the ballroom of the Marienlyst
include REVENGE TRAGEDY and the CITIZEN Hotel for a THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND
COMEDY. production. Olivier improvised a new stage
Some 21,000 Londoners, or one-eighth of production that sometimes involved him
the population, attended the theatre at least moving into the audience. The critic J. C.
once a week. Elizabeth herself saw only about Trewin called this “the performance of a
five professional productions a year, for which lifetime – so new, astonishing and exciting”.
she paid each company about ten pounds.
She banned plays about religious or political Eltinge, Julian (William Dalton;
subjects because these had been used as 1881–1941) US actor who became the most
propaganda in earlier reigns; the MYSTERY PLAY famous FEMALE IMPERSONATOR of his day.
was also prohibited. Eltinge specialized in playing glamorous
As unlicensed actors were classified as women in extravagant gowns but his most
vagabonds, they often sought the patronage of popular sketch was one in which he appeared
noblemen; among the companies supported in as a bathing beauty. Offstage, Eltinge
this way were the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN and the tried hard – perhaps too hard – to quash
ADMIRAL’S MEN, together with several BOY rumours that he was gay, engaging in such
COMPANIES. During plague periods, the ostentatiously ‘manly’ pursuits as boxing, cigar
London theatres closed and actors went on smoking, and brawling in bars.
gruelling tours of the regions in order to Eltinge first appeared in drag at the age of
survive. Many actors became famous, however, 10 with the Boston Cadets but his first
such as Richard Burbage (see BURBAGE FAMILY), professional success came in 1905 with the
Edward Alleyn, and William Kempe, while musical Mr Wix of Wickham. He subsequently
those who had financial interests in the toured with a Minstrel Show before winning
theatres in which they performed also became great acclaim in the dual roles of Hal Blake
wealthy. and Mrs Monte in The Fascinating Widow
The first permanent public playhouse in (1910), a musical comedy written especially for
England, the THEATRE, was opened in 1576 by him. He starred in musicals and vaudeville
170 Empire Promenade

throughout the 1920s, made a few silent films, This formally perfect but utterly bleak
and effectively retired in 1930. Although by work is famously the play that Beckett himself
now badly overweight and a heavy drinker, he declared he “disliked least” of all his works.
made a brief comeback in 1940 in Billy Rose’s
Enemy of the People, An A play by
Diamond Horseshoe Jubilee; his death is
Henrik IBSEN, first performed in 1882 in Oslo.
thought by some to have been suicide.
It was a combative answer to public and press
Empire Promenade A once-famous criticism of his previous play, GHOSTS: in An
feature of the former Empire Theatre, Enemy of the People Ibsen defends the avant-
Leicester Square, London, consisting of an garde minority and reveals his distrust of
open space behind the dress circle where politicians and the blindly held beliefs of the
prostitutes would regularly parade. In 1894 majority. He also draws a distinctly
Mrs Ormiston Chant of the London County unflattering picture of a liberal newspaper.
Council campaigned for the closure of the The plot centres on the attempts of the
Empire Promenade and its adjoining bars. physician Dr Stockmann to expose a pollution
This led to the erection of canvas screens scandal in the spa town in which he lives. The
between them, but these were soon demolished local newspaper suppresses the story and when
by a riotous crowd, a prominent member of Stockmann appeals to a public meeting he is
which was the young Winston CHURCHILL. shouted down by the commercially minded
Brick partitions were subsequently built. citizens. He calls them fools – and they call
Thus the temples of Venus and him an enemy of the people.
Bacchus, though adjacent, would be Ibsen admitted that the brave but arrogant
separated, and their attack on human and muddle-headed doctor had “certain
frailities could only be delivered in a characteristics which will permit people to
successive or alternating and not in a tolerate certain things from his lips which they
concentrated form. might not accept so readily had they issued
WINSTON CHURCHILL: My Early Life
from mine”.

encore A cry of enthusiastic admiration, Enfants Sans Souci (French: children

calling for a repeat or supplementary without care) A medieval French society of
performance. The term is also applied to the actors, mainly young men of good family, who
extra performance itself. devoted themselves to the production of the
SOTIE, a type of comedy that ridiculed public
Although it is a French word (meaning
‘again’ or ‘another’), encore is not used in this characters and the manners of the day. The
way in France, where the audience cries bis head of the ‘Care-for-Nothings’ was called
(twice) for a repeat performance. ‘The Prince of Fools’ (Prince des Sots), an
office held for years by Pierre Gringore
Endgame A one-act play by Samuel (c. 1475–1539).
BECKETT. The original French version, Fin de
English Aristophanes, the A
partie, received its first performance in London
nickname bestowed on the British actor-
in 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre; the
manager and playwright Samuel FOOTE
English version was published a year later.
(1720–77), who wrote sharp satirical sketches
The play has four characters: the
about contemporary manners.
domineering Hamm, blind and wheelchair-
bound, is nursed by his servant and foster son, English Comedians Wandering troupes
Clov; his legless parents, Nagg and Nell, of English actors who travelled the Continent
whom he continually berates, are stuffed in during the 16th and 17th centuries. Their
dustbins and talk in repetitive circles as they repertoire of Elizabethan comedies and
slowly disintegrate. Clov announces from time tragedies, usually abridged and always in
to time that he is leaving but Hamm’s English (sometimes interpreted), included a
influence prevents him from doing so. Beckett popular burlesque version of Hamlet (Die
depicts with grim irony this pitiful group, cut bestrafte Brudermord) that later became an
off from the dying world outside (which seems essential part of the repertoire of German
to have suffered some kind of apocalyptic companies. The plays were supported by
disaster) and trying to come to terms with music, dancing, and comic sketches; the
their own impending doom. general comedy was broad enough to appeal to
 Enron 171

their foreign audiences. English clowns were Ronald Duncan in 1957 and BOND’s Early
popular, especially Robert Reynolds as Morning in 1968.
PICKELHERING (upon whom the German
Enron Lucy Prebble’s dazzling
clowns HANSWURST and THADDÄDL were
DOCUMENTARY DRAMA about the scandalous
modelled).
collapse of the US energy company Enron.
An early troupe performed in 1586 under
Widely considered one of modern capitalism’s
William Kempe in Holland and Denmark,
great success stories, Enron suddenly filed for
before moving on to Dresden and other
bankruptcy in 2001 with debts of some $60
German towns. The first company of English
billion – most of which had been rendered
Comedians to achieve great acclaim and
invisible by fraudulent accounting. Leading
renown was led by Robert Browne, who
figures in the company, including CEO Jeffrey
produced plays in Leiden in 1591 and the next
Skilling, received long gaol sentences for fraud
year took the group to the Frankfurt fair where
they performed biblical plays, works by and conspiracy.
Marlowe, and GAMMER GURTON’S NEEDLE. Despite its sometimes forbidding subject
Shortly afterwards, Thomas Sackville took a matter – the play is much concerned with the
company to Wolfenbüttel and established it in arcana of off-balance-sheet accounting – Enron
the Court Theatre of Heinrich Julius, Duke of thrilled the critics when first seen at the
Brunswick, who was a playwright: the duke’s Chichester Festival in August 2009 and went
extant plays show the influence of the English on to enjoy a sold-out run in the West End.
Comedians’ repertoire. This owed much to the brilliantly inventive
The overall effect of these travelling actors direction of HEADLONG THEATRE’s Rupert
was to bring action and passion to a German Goold, who developed the show in
theatre preoccupied with lengthy speeches. By collaboration with Prebble (1981– ). Enron’s
1630 the printed repertoire of the English depiction of crazed greed and hubris in the
Comedians contained many works of German corporate world also caught the public mood
origin. They continued to play in Europe in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008–09.
despite the Thirty Years’ War, and returned The play combines documentary with
in greater numbers during the Puritan expressionist and Brechtian elements, using
INTERREGNUM, although there is no record of bold visual metaphors to explain the recondite
them after 1659. financial practices involved. Notably, the
shadow companies in which Enron’s debts
English Shakespeare Company See were hidden appear as ‘raptors’, dinosaur-
BOGDANOV, MICHAEL. headed creatures literally eating dollar bills.
English Stage Company A London Similarly, the Lehman Brothers appear as
theatre company founded in 1955 by George Siamese twins crammed into one business suit
DEVINE to promote modern and experimental and a group of market analysts perform as a
drama and encourage young playwrights. “A close-harmony quartet. A constantly spooling
theatre must have a recognizable attitude,” ticker tape shows the rise and fall of Enron’s
Devine stated. “It will have one, whether you share price.
like it or not.” Samuel West gave a bravura performance
The company made its permanent home at as Skilling, charting his progress from geekish
the ROYAL COURT THEATRE, opening in 1956 ideas man to swaggering tycoon and final,
with Angus Wilson’s The Mulberry Bush. An pathetic crack-up. Tim Pigott-Smith played
appeal by Devine for new scripts brought in Ken Lay, the company’s avuncular golf-loving
750 entries, including John Osborne’s LOOK founder, and Tom Goodman-Hill was Andy
BACK IN ANGER, which was staged that same Fastow, the financial whiz-kid responsible for
year and set a new direction for British drama. hiding the company’s debts.
Other playwrights launched by the company Following its triumph at Chichester, Enron
include Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Edward transferred to the Royal Court in London and
Bond, and David Storey. subsequently to the Noël Coward Theatre. A
The ESC’s controversial offerings created Broadway production opened in April 2010
an uneasy relationship with the LORD but proved notably unsuccessful, closing after
CHAMBERLAIN, who banned The Catalyst by 15 performances.
172 ENSA

ENSA Entertainments National Service to convey a story of murder and sexual

Association. A British theatre organization perversion.
established in 1938 to provide troops and war The plot centres on the amoral 19-year-old
workers with entertainment ranging from plays Mr Sloane, who takes lodgings in a house
to music and variety performances. It was occupied by the three other characters. He
managed by Basil Dean, who had organized inspires desire in Kath and her brother Ed, but
similar shows during World War I, from disgusts their father Kemp. Sloane and Kath
offices in Drury Lane. The financial side was establish a sexual relationship, but the lodger
administered by the Navy, Army, and Air avoids Ed’s advances. When Kemp finally
Force Institute (NAAFI). realizes that Sloane is the killer of his former
All actors not called to active service were employer, Sloane murders him too. This
required to give six weeks to ENSA. These allows Kath, now pregnant, and Ed to
included John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Vivien blackmail Sloane, who is obliged to serve the
Leigh, Emlyn Williams, and Beatrice Lillie. two of them as a sexual plaything.
ENSA remained in business immediately after entremés In 16th-century Spain, a brief
the war, when Laurence Olivier toured camps entertainment presented during a banquet;
in Germany with the OLD VIC. later, a comic piece (often ending in a dance)
ENSA concerts greatly helped to boost between the acts of a full-length play. Derived
morale during World War II, despite the joke from Corpus Christi processions in Catalonia,
among theatre people that ENSA stood for the entremés became a respected genre adapted
Every Night Something Awful. by such playwrights as Lope de Vega and
enter See STAGE DIRECTION. Cervantes. It was similar to the English
INTERLUDE and the Italian INTERMEZZO.
Entertainer, The A tragicomedy by John
OSBORNE, first performed in 1957 at the Royal environmental theatre A form of
Court Theatre with Laurence OLIVIER in the theatre that emerged in the late 1960s,
title role of the seedy music-hall comic Archie inheriting many ideas from the HAPPENING.
RICE. Olivier’s decision to play the part The new term was popularized by the US
represented a deliberate attempt to extend his director and critic Richard Schechner
range beyond the dignified classical roles in (1934– ). In 1968 he published the axioms
which he had previously excelled. When of environmental theatre, placing it between
Olivier took the play to Broadway’s Royale traditional theatre on the one hand and public
Theatre two years later, the New York critic events and demonstrations on the other; his
Brooks Atkinson wrote, “If anyone doubts that examples of environmental theatre included
Laurence Olivier is a versatile actor, consider the Polish Laboratory Theatre (see POOR
THEATRE), the LIVING THEATRE, and the OPEN
the subject closed.” Olivier went on to star in
THEATRE.
the film version (1960). There was a major
revival at the Old Vic in 2007, staring Robert The environmental theatre required no
Lindsay. text, and its main feature was a mingling of
Osborne’s story is set in 1956 in an actors and spectators. Schechner said “all the
English coastal resort. The Rice family space is used for performance; all the space is
struggles along as Archie continues his used for the audience”: members of the
blatantly bad comic routines in the local halls. audience were both ‘scene-makers’ and ‘scene-
watchers’, as bystanders are part of the street
The play reflects the decline of Britain’s
scene they view.
political and economic roles and the rise of
In 1967 Schechner formed his own
new forms of popular entertainment.
company, the Performance Group, which was
Entertaining Mr Sloane An anarchic housed in a converted garage filled with towers
comedy by Joe ORTON, first performed in and platforms used by actors and spectators.
1964 in London. It was Orton’s first play and The following year he produced and directed
established his reputation, receiving the their first offering, Dionysus in 69, an
Evening Standard Award for the best play of adaptation of Euripides’s THE BACCHAE. In
the year. Audiences, however, were shocked by 1973 the group presented Sam Shepard’s The
the author’s use of witty and elegant language Tooth of Crime, and in 1975 Bertolt Brecht’s
 equestrian drama 173

Mother Courage and Her Children. Schechner John DRYDEN was an accomplished writer of
left the company in 1980. epilogues. At the end of his Tyrannic Love
(1669), he specified that the epilogue should
Epic Theatre A form of political drama
be “spoken by Mrs Ellen [Nell GWYNN] when
intended to appeal to reason rather than the
she was to be carried off dead by the bearers”.
emotions. Epic Theatre replaced the UNITIES
In the role of Valeria, slain daughter of the
with an episodic structure; an important
Roman Emperor Maximin (who has executed
feature was the ALIENATION EFFECT, in which
St Catharine of Alexandria), Nell says to the
actors and audiences were discouraged from
bearer:
identifying with the characters or scenes
Hold, are you mad? you damned
depicted. The name and theory were derived
confounded dog,
from Aristotle and pioneered in Germany in
I am to rise, and speak the epilogue.
the late 1920s by Bertolt BRECHT and his
associate Erwin PISCATOR (1893–1966). Both The poem ends with Nell directly informing
were avowed communists who sought an ideal the audience that she will trust no poet to
theatre with social and political relevance that write her own epitaph, but will do it herself:
would stimulate playgoers into both thought Here Nelly lies, who, though she lived
and action; Theatre of Commitment, Theatre of a slattern,
Social Action, and Theatre of Social Conviction Yet died a princess, acting in St
were alternative names for the genre. Brecht’s Cathar’n.
MAN IS MAN (1926) is usually considered the See also PROLOGUE.
first Epic Theatre play; Piscator’s offerings Epiphany play See LITURGICAL DRAMA.
included a dramatization of Tolstoy’s War and
Peace. The tradition was continued by many of episode Originally, the passages of
the left-wing playwrights of the 1960s and dialogue that were interpolated between the
1970s. choric songs in Greek tragedy. It was
subsequently applied to an adventitious tale
Epidaurus The oldest surviving and best introduced into the main story, or an incident
preserved ancient Greek theatre, located at the that stands by itself but is part of a wider series
town of this name in Argolis on the Saronic of events.
Gulf. It was designed by the architect
Polycleitus and built in about 340 BC. Partially equestrian drama A type of drama,
restored in the late 19th century and now popular in 19th-century London, in which
completely renovated, the theatre is used for an horses were a key element of the production.
annual summer festival of drama. The most famous stage horse of the late
The theatre once contained a raised stage Victorian era was the mare Lily, who appeared
and a SKENE. The circular orchestra is about 66 as Richard III’s horse White Surrey. John
feet across, and the seating area, or cavea, Martin-Harvey, who rode her in this role, said
accommodated some 14,000 spectators. “I suppose few leading ladies had played a
Radiating from the orchestra are 24 flights of wider range of parts than Lily.” The only actor
steps; there are 32 lower tiers of seats separated she allegedly refused to carry, for no known
from 20 upper tiers by a wide passage, or reason, was Beerbohm Tree.
diazoma. The main London theatre for equestrian
dramas was ASTLEY’S AMPHITHEATRE; its chief
epilogue A brief scene, speech, or short equestrian was Andrew Ducrow, who became
poem at the end of a play. It often explains the joint owner in 1825. Other venues were
moral of the drama or begs the audience’s Covent Garden and Drury Lane, with such
indulgence for any shortcomings, – a function actors as Henry Irving, who was no horseman,
made fun of in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer taking equestrian roles.
Night’s Dream, where Theseus appeals to The most famous equestrian production
Bottom at the end of the play-within-a-play was Mazeppa, based on a poem by Lord Byron
PYRAMUS AND THISBE: and first performed in 1823 at the Coburg
No epilogue, I pray you; for your play Theatre, London. Adah MENKEN played the
needs no excuse. Never excuse; for title role “in a state of virtual nudity” in 1863
when the players are all dead, there in California and the following year at Astley’s.
need none to be blamed. Horses continued to occupy the early
174 Equity

20th-century stage: a chariot race in a 1902 in the leading roles. The following year it
production of Ben Hur employed four opened in New York, where it ran for two
treadmills and a rapidly revolving background. years and earned Tony Awards for Best Play
In 1904, at the newly opened London and Best Director (John Dexter). Richard
Coliseum, six horses collided on a revolving Burton, one of several actors to play the role of
platform and an actor was killed. Dysart on Broadway, starred in the film
version (1977) with Peter Firth and Jenny
Equity (1) Actors’ Equity Association
Agutter. There was a much publicized revival
(America). The US trade union for
at London’s Gielgud Theatre in 2007, when
professional actors, founded in 1913. It was
Daniel Radcliffe (cinema’s Harry Potter), took
officially recognized in 1919 after calling a
the role of Alan.
strike for better working conditions, and in
A psychological drama, the play explores
1924 it became a closed shop. The union the conflict between rational and instinctive
gained a minimum-wage scale for its members behaviour. The plot involves the efforts of a
in 1933; a strike in 1960 resulted in further psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, to cure a
improvements in members’ contracts, and the delinquent stable boy, Alan Strang, who has
following year brought a commitment to racial wilfully blinded six horses as part of a quasi-
equality in the theatre. religious ritual. Dysart goads Alan into
Other US theatrical unions include the confronting traumas from his childhood and
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage his first love affair; Alan relives his
Employes (sic: recognized in 1910) for relationships with horses, first worshipping
technicians and the Dramatists Guild (formed them and then mutilating them. The
in 1912) for playwrights. psychoanalytical sessions uncover the sources
(2) Actors’ Equity Association (Great of his violence, and Alan becomes calmer.
Britain). The trade union for Britain’s However, Dysart comes to wonder whether
professional actors. The strict rules Alan’s life of demented passion may not be
surrounding membership have made the preferable to his own drily rational existence.
Equity card much sought-after. The
association was formed in 1929 to deal with In London, Equus caused a sensation
such important concerns as pay and conditions because it displayed cruelty to horses,
of employment. It also subsidizes professional in New York, because it allegedly
companies in need of financial assistance, displayed cruelty to psychiatrists.
PETER SHAFFER
protects its members from an influx of foreign
actors seeking work in Britain, and conducts Erté The pseudonym adopted by the
research: in the 1990s an Equity survey found French artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff
that actresses earn an average of 50% less than (1892–1990), noted in particular for his
actors and even those actresses with top billing extravagant costumes and designs for the Folies
earn 30% less. One of the hazards for aspiring Bergères in Paris. He derived it from the
British actors is that they need an Equity card French pronunciation of the first letters of his
to be given their first speaking part in a stage Christian name and surname.
production; however, in order to obtain their
Equity card they need to be able to show that Etherege, Sir George (1634–91). The
they have had professional engagements in the first major Restoration playwright and the
theatre. creator of the English COMEDY OF MANNERS.
His nickname, Easy Etherege, reflects his idle
The first actors’ union was the Actors’
way of life and studiedly insouciant manner.
Association founded in 1891 by the actor-
Etherege’s first play, much influenced by
managers H. B. Irving and Seymour Hicks,
MOLIÈRE, was the tragicomedy The Comical
partly in response to the hiring of actors for
Revenge; or, Love in a Tub, which was
parts rather than as members of a company.
produced in 1664 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
Another organization, the Variety Artists’
Theatre and took £1,000 in one month. The
Federation, began in 1906 but merged with
tragic main plot (including a duel and suicide)
Equity in 1968.
was in verse, while the farcical subplot
Equus A play by Peter SHAFFER, first (including the imprisonment of a French valet
produced in 1973 at the National Theatre, for impertinence) was in prose.
London, with Alec McGowan and Peter Firth In 1668 Etherege’s SHE WOULD IF SHE
 Evans, Dame Edith 175

COULD, considered the first pure comedy of Cyclops. His tragedies include MEDEA, his
manners in English, was produced at Lincoln’s masterpiece THE BACCHAE, the anti-war THE
Inn Fields. His masterpiece THE MAN OF TROJAN WOMEN, and ELECTRA (413 BC) and its
MODE, featuring the character Sir Fopling sequel Orestes (408 BC). Other works include
Flutter, the Prince of Fops, was performed tragicomedies, such as Iphigenia in Tauris (414
with great success in 1676 at the Dorset BC), the comedy Helen (412 BC), and the
Garden Theatre. The witty character of pageant play Phoenician Women (411 BC).
Dorimant was said to be based on the Earl of Euripides’s innovations included the DEUS
Rochester and that of Bellair on Etherege EX MACHINA and the formal PROLOGUE. He
himself. used simple everyday language, bringing a new
In 1668 Etherege was sent to Turkey as realism to the stage. Although contemporaries
secretary to the ambassador, returning three accused him of killing tragedy, he humanized
years later to take up the life of a man-about- drama by adding elements of sentiment,
town in London. In 1676 he was involved in a romance, and even comedy. He was the first
riot in which one person was killed. He to argue against the social inferiority of
married a wealthy widow, Mary Arnold, and women, and the first to show women in
was knighted in 1680. From 1685 until 1689 love. He was also the first to explore such
he was an envoy of James II in Regensburg but subjects as madness and repression, thereby
apparently took a nonchalant attitude to his foreshadowing the psychological dramas of
duties. He was equally casual about his Seneca and the NEW COMEDY of Menander.
marriage; he had affairs with a number of Euripides is believed to have been trained
actresses and is said to have had a daughter as an athlete by his father after an oracle
(who died young) by Elizabeth BARRY. He predicted that he would win contests. (He later
eventually followed James II to Paris and died made fun of both athletes and oracles.) A
there a Jacobite exile. recluse, he shunned Athenian civil and social
affairs, and in later life would sit all day in a
Ethiopian opera In the 19th-century cave on Salamis overlooking the sea as he
MINSTREL SHOWS, a blackfaced burlesque of contemplated and wrote “something great and
opera or of Shakespearean drama. Often high”. In 408 BC Euripides was exiled for his
derived from routines by T. D. Rice, unorthodox views to Macedonia, where he
Ethiopian opera became a standard feature of died less than two years later. According to
the minstrel shows’ third and final section. tradition, when the Spartans arrived to burn
Euripides (484–406 BC) Greek dramatist. Athens, they desisted after a reminder that this
The last major tragic playwright of the classical was Euripides’s city.
world, he has also been called “the first Evans, Dame Edith (1888–1976)
modern”. Euripides was not highly successful Outstanding British actress, who for over 60
in his lifetime, winning the first of only five years enchanted audiences in the theatre and
victories at the DIONYSIA at the age of 43. the cinema both in comedy and high drama.
While Aristotle called him “the most tragic of She made her London debut in 1912, as
the tragic poets”; Aristophanes accused him of Cressida in William Poel’s production of
teaching Athenians “to think, see, understand, Troilus and Cressida; her last appearance, at the
suspect, question everything”. By the end of Haymarket Theatre in 1974, was in an evening
the 19th century, however, Euripides was the entitled Edith Evans and Friends. Between
most acclaimed Greek playwright. Elizabeth these two milestones she acted in many
Barrett Browning summed up the reasons for productions of Shakespeare’s plays (including
his popularity: two spells at the Old Vic), a number of
Our Euripides, the human, Restoration comedies, and a great variety of
With his droppings of warm tears, modern works, including the first production
And his touches of things common of Shaw’s HEARTBREAK HOUSE in 1921. Her
Till they rose to touch the spheres. performance as the haughty Lady Bracknell in
When the Royal Shakespeare Company Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, has
presented a ten-play cycle The Greeks in 1980, been a favourite with two generations: she first
seven of the works were by Euripides. appeared in the stage play in 1939 but gave a
He wrote 92 plays of which 17 tragedies memorable reading in Anthony Asquith’s 1952
survive, along with the only extant SATYR-PLAY, film. Kenneth Tynan wrote of Dame Edith
176 Evans, Maurice Herbert

speaking the lines in “a voice which had Shakespeare recital (at the age of 72) at the
lorgnettes implicit in every dragged and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Evans
devastating syllable.” ‘retired’ to Britain but continued to appear on
stage and screen well into his eighties.
Evans, Maurice Herbert (1901–89)
British-born US actor who was praised for his Evans’s Supper Room One of the
performances in the plays of Shakespeare and best-known centres of London night life in the
Shaw. He was also well-known for his film and 19th century, situated on the corner of King
television roles, which included a warlock in Street, Covent Garden. The premises were
the long-running TV series Bewitched. opened as a hotel (1773) and subsequently
Evans made his professional debut in 1926 occupied by the Star Dinner and Coffee
as Orestes in the Oresteia of Aeschylus at the Room, much frequented by the nobility. The
Festival Theatre, Cambridge. His first notable name ‘Evans’s Supper Room’ derives from
success came in 1928, as Lieutenant Raleigh in W. H. Evans, a member of the chorus at
R. C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End at the Apollo Covent Garden, who acquired the venue in the
Theatre, with Laurence Olivier as Captain early 1840s. Evans’s soon became the most
Stanhope. When Olivier was subsequently famous SONG-AND-SUPPER ROOM in London
offered the lead in Beau Geste, Evans turned with a reputation for ‘blue’ entertainment and
down a part in the same production to avoid bawdy songs. Women were only permitted to
working with him again so soon in a attend if they gave a full name and address at
supporting role. When Olivier played Romeo the door, and were obliged to watch the show
in 1940 on Broadway, US critics compared from behind screens. The performer ‘Paddy’
him unfavourably to Evans. Green took over in 1844 and built a splendid
In 1934 Evans joined the Old Vic new hall with a platform at one end.
company, playing the leads in Richard II and a Evans’s is generally regarded as the most
full-length Hamlet, known to the company as important precursor of the MUSIC HALL. The
‘Hamlet in its eternity’. The US director Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) was a
Guthrie McClintic was in the audience, frequent visitor in the 1860s. From 1934 until
seeking a Romeo to play opposite his wife, 2002 the premises were occupied by the
Katherine Cornell; as a result Evans made his PLAYERS’ THEATRE, which specialized in
Broadway debut in 1935 in this role. He won presenting full-dress recreations of early
his best reviews ever in 1937 for Richard II, Victorian music hall.
which ran for 171 performances at the St
James Theatre: the Drama League named him Everyman The best surviving example of
the best actor of the year, and the critic John the English MORALITY PLAY. Written by an
Mason Brown wrote “It is one of the finest unknown author, it was apparently derived
Shakespearian performances the modern from the Dutch drama Elckerlyc (1495),
theatre has seen.” The British critic James although some scholars have suggested that the
Agate, however, thought Evans too boyish for English version came first. There is no original
tragedy. manuscript, but it was first performed in 1500
In 1941, the year he became a US citizen, and first printed about thirty years later.
Evans played Macbeth in a high-profile New The play is an allegory in which each
York production; bizarrely, some blamed the character’s significance is defined by his name,
famous curse of the SCOTTISH PLAY when the such as Everyman, Confession, Kindred, etc.
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a few weeks Its rough humour lies in the haste with which
later. Undeterred, Evans took the play to Everyman’s false friends and relatives abandon
Hawaii in 1943 in a special ‘Uncle Sam him once he is summoned by Death. He then
production’; all the supporting roles were falls back on such virtues as Strength, Beauty,
played by serving US soldiers. During the war Intelligence, and Knowledge, who also fall
Evans would also entertain the troops with his away as he approaches the grave. The only
simplified G.I. HAMLET. His postwar work virtue he retains is Good Deeds, the moral
included four Shaw roles, including John being that man can take nothing from the
Tanner in Man and Superman (1947) and world but what he has given.
Captain Shotover in Heartbreak House (1959). Everyman was unperformed for centuries
In 1961 he won an Emmy for his television before William Poel’s Elizabethan Stage
performance as Macbeth. After giving a solo Society revived it in 1901. It is still performed
 extravaganza 177

for religious purposes: John Gielgud recalled include ‘Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina’ and
watching one such production in the 1940s ‘Another Suitcase in Another Hall’.
“on a very hard uncomfortable pew at a church
exit See STAGE DIRECTION.
off Regent Street”.
expanded cinema A type of film show
Every Man in His Humour A comedy
in which live actors and musicians interact
by Ben JONSON, first performed in 1598 at the
with the film being projected as part of a
Theatre, London, by the Chamberlain’s Men
MIXED MEDIA performance.
with Shakespeare in the role of Knowell. The
play centres on a group of riotous young men expressionism A movement in the early
visiting the home of the merchant Thomas 20th-century theatre that sought to replace
Kitely, who has a humour of jealousy (see REALISM with a type of drama in which
COMEDY OF HUMOURS) and therefore suspects various antirealistic techniques are used to
his visitors’ intentions towards his young wife express the inner life of the characters. It was
and his sister Bridget. One of the young men, foreshadowed in the works of STRINDBERG at
Edward Knowell, has indeed fallen for Bridget. the turn of the century and in the grotesque
Others in the group, each of whom has his plays of Frank WEDEKIND. It continued to
own particular humour, include the blustering dominate the stage until the 1930s, when
but cowardly Captain BOBADIL, the gruff playwrights took a renewed interest in realism.
squire George Downright, and Edward’s Expressionism began with a reaction
disguised servant Brainworm. A series of against realistic stage design, in which scenic
practical jokes, fights, and other disturbances detail sometimes seemed to reduce the
bring them all before kindly old Justice significance of the actors. Realistic acting came
Clement, who bestows peace and goodwill, under attack next: writers played down the
allowing Edward and Bridget to marry. Jonson individualism of their characters, and W. B.
followed this success with Every Man Out of YEATS went so far as to hide his actors behind
His Humour (1599). generalized masks.
Expressionism underwent its greatest
Evita A musical by composer Andrew
development around 1910 in Germany, in the
LLOYD WEBBER and lyricist Tim Rice, that won
works of Georg KAISER, Ernst TOLLER, and
some 40 international awards. It was first
others; it also influenced Brecht’s development
performed in London in 1978 at the Prince
of EPIC THEATRE. In Britain such writers as
Edward Theatre, directed by Hal Prince and
W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot were influenced
starring Stephanie Lawrence and John Turner.
by the movement, as were Thornton Wilder
When it moved to Broadway, it won the 1980
and Tennessee Williams in America.
Tony Award with a cast headed by Elaine
Although pure expressionism went out
Paige and Joss Ackland. Alan Parker’s film
of fashion before World War II, many
version appeared in 1996, with Madonna in
playwrights have found commercial success
the title role. A highly praised revival starring
by mingling it with realism; elements of
Elena Roger opened in the West End in 2006.
expressionism can be found in the works of
The story follows the brief career of the
Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett,
glamorous and manipulative MarÍa Eva de
Jean-Paul Sartre, and Eugene Ionesco.
Perón (1919–52), who was born in poverty
and rose to become the wife of President Juan extravaganza In the 19th-century
Perón of Argentina. Evita’s charitable work, British theatre, a lavish entertainment
beauty, and early death all helped to create a resembling the BURLESQUE but based on a
popular myth around her name. The story, myth or folk tale. Although satire was not the
told in flashbacks by the cynical revolutionary main aim of the extravaganza, a satirical
Che Guevara, describes Eva’s use of men to element was often included along with the
become a successful model, broadcaster, and music and elaborate costumes. A leading writer
film actress, before she meets Colonel Perón of extravaganzas was James Robinson Planche
and inspires him to run for the nation’s highest (1796–1880), whose work influenced the
office. In her last hours, images of her life flow librettist W. S. Gilbert. The actor H. J. Byron
by and she wonders if she would have been (1834–84) also wrote many extravaganzas and
happier as an ordinary person. The songs burlesques.
178 Eyre, Sir Richard

Eyre, Sir Richard (1943– ) British staged a series of major works by David HARE,
theatre and film director; artistic director of including the state-of-the-nation trilogy Racing
the National Theatre (subsequently the Royal Demon (1990), Murmuring Judges (1991), and
National Theatre) from 1987 to 1997. Eyre The Absence of War (1993). Other highlights
was educated at Cambridge University and included Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of
served his theatrical apprenticeship in Leicester Youth (1994), Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman
and Edinburgh. In 1973 he became artistic (1996) with Paul Scofield, and an award-
director at the Nottingham Playhouse, where winning King Lear (1997) with Ian Holm. In
he made his name with productions of 1997 he ended his reign at the National – an
Brenton’s The Churchill Play (1974) and experience he has compared to “11 years of
Griffiths’s COMEDIANS (1975); the latter toothache” – with a masterly production of
transferred successfully to the West End and Stoppard’s The Invention of Love. Subsequent
became – with Eyre again directing – a work has included a Broadway revival of
powerful TV drama (1979). During the early Miller’s The Crucible (2002), a much praised
1980s he directed frequently for the Royal Hedda Gabler (2005) at the Almeida Theatre,
Court Theatre, where his productions included the blockbuster musical Mary Poppins (2005),
Hamlet (1980) with Jonathan Pryce and David and a return to the National with Nicholas
Mamet’s Edmond (1985). Wright’s The Reporter (2007). In recent years
Eyre’s first production for the National Eyre has worked increasingly in the cinema,
Theatre was his now legendary revival of the directing such films as Iris (2001) and Stage
musical GUYS AND DOLLS (1982); this became a Beauty (2004), about the Restoration actor
huge West End hit and has been credited with Ned KYNASTON. His publications include
saving the financially beleaguered theatre in National Service (2004), a volume of diaries
the 1980s. As director of the National he written during his years at the National.
 false proscenium 179

Saint-Laurent, built in 1721, was later

F demolished for the construction of the Opéra-

Comique theatre in 1761. See also BOULEVARD
THEATRES.
In England, fairs never played such an
fabula In the ancient Roman theatre, the important role in the early theatre, although
general term for a play. There were many there were notable exceptions. In the early
subdivisions. One of the oldest native genres 18th century BARTHOLOMEW FAIR in London
was the ATELLANA, a short impromptu farce, included Mrs Minn’s BOOTH, where the well-
the name of which came from the town of known dramatist Elkanah Settle (1648–1724)
Atella. Two similar forms were the saltica, in performed as “a dragon in green leather”. The
which the text was sung by a chorus, and the fairs at Smithfield and Southwark offered
riciniata; both were mime plays. everything from puppet shows to theatrical
The PALLIATA was a work of Greek NEW plays.
COMEDY translated into Latin. Evolving from In Germany, the fair at Leipzig presented
this genre in the 2nd century BC, the TOGATA performances by the influential Caroline
or tabernaria featured bawdy satire of the Neuber (1697–1760) while one at Frankfurt
everyday life of the lower classes. became the virtual home of the ENGLISH
The praetexta was an original Latin COMEDIANS.
play based on Roman legend or history, or
dealing with contemporary themes. Naevius Fallen Angels A comedy by Noël
COWARD, first performed in 1925 at the Globe
created the form, while other exponents
included Accius, Ennius, and Pacuvius. Theatre, London, when it became one of four
The rhinthonica was a Roman burlesque Coward plays running simultaneously in the
of a Greek tragedy named after the Greek West End (the others being Hay Fever, On
playwright Rhinthon of Tarentum (4th With the Dance, and The Vortex). Fallen Angels,
century BC). which starred Tallulah Bankhead, created a
sensation with its story about two married
fairground entertainment European women visited by their ex-lover. The last
fairs featured entertainers such as acrobats, night’s performance was attended by a
jugglers, dancers, freaks, and trained animals crusader for public morality, Mrs Charles
from the 16th century onwards. In late 17th- Hornibrook, who stood up in her box at the
century Paris a stronger link began to develop end of the second act and announced: “Ladies
between fairs and dramatic entertainment with and Gentlemen, I wish to protest. This play
the presentation of COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE should not go unchallenged.” The audience
plays. After the expulsion of Italian actors from hooted, the orchestra struck up with ‘I Want
Paris in 1697 (see COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE) more To Be Happy’, and Mrs Hornibrook was
permanent theatres were established at the fairs gently ejected from the theatre.
of Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent in the When it was revived in 1949 in Plymouth
early 18th century. with Hermione Gingold and Hermione
To avoid the licensing laws, which forbade Baddeley, Coward was in the audience and
them to use spoken dialogue, the fair recorded, “I have never yet in my long
companies created new dramatic forms experience seen a more vulgar, silly, unfunny,
involving music. By 1714, the Paris Opéra was disgraceful performance.” When it proved to
in such dire financial straits that it agreed to be a hit, he wrote, “Fallen Angels a terrific
allow fair companies to produce comic opera success. Livid.”
for a fee. Fairground troupes were suppressed
falling flap A device formerly used for
in 1718 but resumed performances after the
quick changes of scene, consisting of a hinged
young Louis XV attended a play. In 1762 the
flat or canvas with scenes painted on both
Comédie-Italienne gained a monopoly on
sides. The hinged section, kept up by catches,
comic opera, so fairground performers
fell to reveal the other scene when these
returned to using songs set to popular tunes, a
catches were released. Falling flaps were used
form they renamed comédies-en-vaudevilles or
in TRANSFORMATION SCENEs in the English
VAUDEVILLE. By the 18th century, the
PANTOMIME.
fairground playhouses remained open when
the fairs were closed. The Théâtre de la Foire false proscenium A construction of
180 Falstaff, Sir John

wings, flats, or cloths, used with a top border elements borrowed from Greek theatre, which
to reduce the size of the PROSCENIUM. The include a chorus of aunts and uncles and the
framework is painted to resemble draped appearance of the Eumenides, or avenging
curtains and can be employed with a furies. The British actor Alec McCowen, who
CYCLORAMA to reduce the amount of scenery starred in the 1966 TV version, has described
required. It is also called a false pros or inner the play as splendid, sombre, and very
proscenium; the term portal opening is innocent, “obviously written by a man who has
usually used in America, and le manteau no knowledge of psychiatry”.
d’Harlequin in France. Peter BROOK directed a revival at the
Phoenix Theatre starring Paul Scofield in
Falstaff, Sir John The corpulent self-
1956. The critic Philip Squire noted in Plays
indulgent knight, full of wit and exaggeration,
and Players that Scofield “brings a vibrant
who encourages Prince Hal to lead a dissolute
intelligence to Harry and speaks the character’s
life in Shakespeare’s HENRY IV, PARTS I and II
mind as freely as the play allows though the
(1596–98). His death is movingly described in
blank verse occasionally halts for it.”
Henry V while he also appears in diminished
form in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. The Fanny’s First Play The play that
character was distantly based upon Sir John proved the first great commercial success for
Oldcastle (d. 1417), a friend of Henry V, who George Bernard SHAW; it was first staged
was eventually executed for involvement in (anonymously) in 1911 in London and went
a Lollard plot against the king. Objections on to enjoy a long run on Broadway. The
from the Oldcastle family apparently led story centres on a satirical play-within-a-play
Shakespeare to change the character’s name; written by Fanny O’Dowda, a Cambridge
the new name was derived from that of Sir undergraduate. This follows the son and
John Fastolf (1378–1459), a knight who was daughter of two respectable middle-class
once unjustly suspected of cowardice and families who both marry across the class divide
became a benefactor of Oxford and after serving short prison sentences. In
Cambridge. Shakespeare made clear the addition to the play’s satire on conventional
difference between his Falstaff and Sir John social values, Shaw maliciously lampooned
Oldcastle in the Epilogue to Henry IV, Part II: four contemporary London drama critics.
“Oldcastle died a martyr and this is not the Because of these contemporary allusions, the
man.” play is seldom revived.
Other traits of Falstaff may have been
farce A play characterized by broad
taken from Adrian Gilbert, the younger
humour and a complicated and improbable
brother of the navigator Sir Humphrey Gilbert
plot. The word comes from the Latin farcire
and half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. He
meaning ‘to stuff’, which was originally used to
seems to have been similar in physique to
refer to the explanatory sentences added to the
Falstaff – “a gorbellied rascal” – and given to
liturgy, then in the theatre to the extra material
practical joking. John Aubrey called him “the
interpolated into a play to delight and amuse.
greatest Buffoon of the Nation”. Remains of
Early types of farce included the ancient
Sir John Fastolf’s house in London were
Greek SATYR-PLAY and the Roman ATELLANA
unearthed in an archaeological dig in the
with its stock clown characters. Later Roman
1980s.
dramatists such as PLAUTUS and TERENCE
DRYDEN called Falstaff “the best of comical
included farce in their works. It was also a
characters…not properly one humour, but a
characteristic feature of medieval and church
miscellany of humours or images”.
drama, such as The Second Shepherds Play by
Family Reunion, The A poetic drama the 15th-century Wakefield Master. Secular
in two acts by T. S. ELIOT, first performed in farces in the Middle Ages dealt with such
1939 in London without great success. Based subjects as marital infidelity and hypocrisy, the
upon THE ORESTEIA of Aeschylus, it describes oldest surviving example being a 13th-century
the predicament of Harry, a contemporary Flemish work, The Boy and the Blind Man.
man, who is obsessed with guilt about his The roots of French farce can be found in the
wife’s mysterious death at sea. Despite the SOTIE, a political or religious satire in which all
quality of Eliot’s verse, critics have felt that the the characters were fools, and in the
domestic drama does not blend well with COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, which influenced
 Father, The 181

MOLIÈRE. Early German farces were called supposedly had an affair. The following year
‘Shrovetime plays’ with many of the best Farquhar, with “not one shilling” in his
written by Hans Sachs (1492–1576). pocket, was encouraged by Wilks to produce a
Farce did not emerge as a distinct genre hastily written play. The next day Farquhar
until the 16th century. In England an early delivered the plot for The Beaux’ Stratagem,
example is John Heywood’s Johan Johan which was presented on stage within six weeks.
(c. 1520), but English farce did not really He died from tuberculosis after the third
come into its own until Edward Ravenscroft performance, which included these lines in the
adapted Molière for The Careless Lovers (1673). Epilogue:
In the 18th and 19th centuries short farces Forbear, you fair, on his last scene to
were presented in the British and US theatres frown,
as light entertainment after a tragedy. France’s But his true exit with a plaudit crown
master of the genre Georges FEYDEAU wrote Then shall the dying poet cease to fear
some 40 in his lifetime. Famous examples of The dreadful knell, while your
early full-length English farces were Arthur applause he hears.
Wing PINERO’s series in the 1880s for the
Royal Court Theatre and Brandon Thomas’s Fart Fanatic, the See PÉTOMANE, LE.
CHARLEY’S AUNT (1892).
Fastnachtsspiel (German: carnival play)
The term is now most often applied to the In medieval Germany, a type of one-act play
BEDROOM FARCE, in which sexual innuendo is
that developed separately from the LITURGICAL
a major ingredient. Famous 20th-century
DRAMA during the 15th century and was
British examples are the Aldwych farces of the
usually performed on Shrove Tuesday by
1920s and 1930s by Ben Travers, and the
craftsmen or students in the open air. The
Whitehall farces of the 1950s and 1960s
plays were crude comedies and ribald farces
featuring Brian RIX.
featuring as their main character a fool known
Farce is the essential theatre. Farce as the NARR. Favourite subjects included the
refined becomes high comedy: farce relationships between churchmen and their
brutalized becomes tragedy. female parishioners, and doctors and their
GORDON CRAIG: The Story of My Days patients. The genre sometimes contained
Farquhar, George (1678–1707) Irish- elements of the MORALITY PLAY. Many
born British playwright of the Restoration Fastnachtsspiele were written by Meistersinger,
period (see RESTORATION DRAMA). During his such as Hans Sachs and Hans Rosenplüt (see
ten-year career, he produced two brilliant MEISTERSÄNGER).
comedies, THE RECRUITING OFFICER in 1706 fate drama (Schicksaltragödie) An early
and THE BEAUX’ STRATAGEM the following year. 19th-century German genre, initiated by
The son of a clergyman, he studied at Zacharias Werner’s The 29th of February
Trinity College, Dublin, before briefly (1809). Typically, the lead character commits
working as an actor at the Smock Alley murder or some other heinous crime when
Theatre in that city. Following an accident destiny seems to leave no other choice. Other
during a stage fight, when he mistakenly used a examples include Franz Grillparzer’s first play
real sword and wounded a fellow actor so The Ancestress (1817).
badly that he almost died, Farquhar renounced
acting. Encouraged by his fellow actor Robert Father, The A tragedy by August
Wilks, he took up the pen and settled in STRINDBERG, written in 1887 and first
London. His first play Love and a Bottle was performed in Berlin in 1890. It marked the
well received at Drury Lane in 1698. The transition from his early works, which are
following year, The Constant Couple; or, A Trip mainly rural farces and historical dramas, to
to the Jubilee was an even greater hit with the major plays in which he explores the
Wilks in the lead. depths of sexual conflict. In doing so it
After Sir Harry Wildair (1701), a sequel to prepared the way for his masterpiece, MISS
The Constant Couple, and The Twin-Rivals JULIE. Written during the first of Strindberg’s
(1702), he wrote his first great play. The first three unhappy marriages, the misogynistic
production of The Recruiting Officer starred drama portrays Laura’s callous manipulation of
Anne OLDFIELD, with whom Farquhar her husband, the Captain, in order to gain
182 father of…

custody of their daughter. This eventually magician, alchemist, and astrologer (c. 1480–
causes the Captain to become insane. c. 1540), whose life gave rise to a legend that
has inspired many plays and other works, most
father of… Amongst the many luminaries
of the theatre to be hailed in this way are: notably Marlowe’s DR FAUSTUS and Goethe’s
FAUST. In 1587 The History of Dr. Johannes
father of drama — THESPIS Faustus was published by Johann Spies at
father of tragedy — AESCHYLUS Frankfurt. This established the main outline of
father of comedy — ARISTOPHANES the story, in which Faust sells his soul to the
father of modern acting — David GARRICK
Devil in return for 24 years of further life,
father of modern drama — Henrik IBSEN
during which he is to have every pleasure and
father of the halls — Charles MORTON
all knowledge at his command. At the end of
father of vaudeville — Tony PASTOR
that time, the Devil arrives to claim his
father of 20th-century British theatre —
bargain. Many other accounts followed and
Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER
father of political theatre — Erwin PISCATOR the Faust theme was developed by writers,
artists, and musicians over the centuries.
Faust A play in two parts by GOETHE. Notable amongst musical works inspired by
Although it is usually considered his the story are Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust
masterpiece, it is too vast in concept to be (1846), Gounod’s Faust (1859), and Busoni’s
conventionally staged. Disillusioned with his Doktor Faust (1925).
humdrum life of scholarship, Faust makes a
pact with the demon Mephistopheles in order Feast of Fools or Feast of Asses
to taste hedonistic pleasures. However, unlike Festivities performed on the feasts of
the hero of Marlowe’s DR FAUSTUS, Goethe’s St Stephen (26 December), St John
character is not a mere pawn in the struggle (27 December), and Holy Innocents
between the forces of good and evil, neither (28 December) by the lower clergy in many
does he forfeit his soul. Goethe’s real theme is European cathedrals and collegiate churches in
the restless striving of modern man, which, in medieval times. Apparently related to ancient
conjunction with the power of love, ensures Roman revels, it began in France in the 12th
his salvation. century and soon spread throughout Catholic
Goethe’s less complex first draft, Europe. In England it became a tradition at
completed in about 1775, was discovered more the cathedrals of Lincoln, Salisbury, and St
than a century later to be published in 1887 as Paul’s, among others.
the Urfaust. Many modern producers prefer During the festivities, the minor clergy
this manageable version to the completed assumed the roles of their superiors and elected
work. Part I of the latter, which reflects the their own dominus festi, a King of Fools or BOY
influence of the STURM UND DRANG, was BISHOP, who later evolved into an Abbot of
published in 1808; Part II, containing the Unreason or LORD OF MISRULE. The crude
blinding of Faust along with much satire and drama included a procession in which the King
scientific speculation, appeared posthumously rode on an ass while wearing donkey’s ears. An
in 1832. The complete drama was first staged extant 13th-century manuscript of the Festa
in 1876 in Weimar. Only one unabridged Asinaria at Beauvais Cathedral records the
staging has taken place in modern times – at welcoming of the ass through its doors. The
the Expo 2000 in Hanover, under the clergymen would feast and drink, sing ribald
direction of Peter Stein. songs to the tunes of hymns, play dice at the
STANISLAVSKY harboured a fearful altar, perform burlesques of sacred services in
superstition about performing the play. When which braying often took the place of the
encouraged by Vladimir Nemirovitch- customary responses, and act out licentious
Dantchenko (with whom he co-founded the caricatures of bishops.
Moscow Art Theatre) to play the role of In 1207 Pope Innocent III banned these
Mephistopheles, Stanislavsky smiled and told revels and later in the 13th century the Bishop
him, “I’ve wanted to play Mephistopheles of Lincoln called them “a vain and filthy
quite a number of times, but each time I tried recreation hateful to God and dear to devils.”
it some kind of misfortune took place in my
The English Church finally suppressed the
family.”
Feast of Fools in 1500, but it lingered on for
Faust, Johann or Georgius German two more centuries in France. See also FOOL.
 Fescennine verses 183

Fedeli One of the later COMMEDIA was based on stories of classical mythology.
DELL’ARTE companies, formed at the beginning The fantastic elements in the feerie derived
of the 17th century by a group that included largely from 18th-century fairground
the famous Giovann Andreini (1579–1654), pantomimes.
known as Lelio, and Tristano Martinelli The first feerie to achieve great success was
(1557–1603) who played the character of Le Pied du mouton, presented at the Théâtre de
ARLECCHINO. It soon became a significant la Gaîté, Paris, in 1806. A later hit was Les
force, tempting players away from the GELOSI Pilules du diable at the Cirque Olympique in
and ACCESI companies. The Fedeli, whose 1839. The stage illusions and transformation
patron was the Duke of Mantua, continued to scenes required a large stage, limiting most
tour Italy until about 1650, when they feerie productions to such venues as the
disbanded. Théâtre de la Port Saint-Martin, which were
able to accommodate them.
Federal Theatre Project (FTP) The
US government scheme that created work for female impersonator A male actor
more than 10,000 out-of-work actors, who plays female roles. The intention may be
directors, playwrights, designers, stage hands, either a realistic impersonation or a broad
musicians, and others during the Great caricature of femininity, as in the traditional
Depression. The Project produced more than DAME of English Pantomime. A female
1000 amateur and professional plays, as well impersonator is sometimes called a drag artist
as operas, ballets, and puppet shows, plays because the women’s costumes dragged along
for children, ethnic works, pageants, and the stage.
vaudeville performances; all tickets were either In the classical theatre the female roles
free or low-priced. were almost always played by boys or men.
The FTP began in 1935 as part of The Roman actor Bathyllus is one of the
President Roosevelt’s New Deal within earliest impersonators whose name is recorded.
the framework of the Works Progress Female impersonators have always been a part
Administration (WPA). Hallie Flanagan of drama in Japan (see ONNAGATA) and in
(1890–1969), director of the Experimental China (see PEKING OPERA). In France, Alizon
Theatre at Vassar College, was appointed the (1610–48) was famous for playing comic
director and worked through regional elderly maids. In the Elizabethan theatre,
assistants operating theatres in 40 states. She where it was illegal for women to appear on a
quickly made the FTP a pioneer of socially public stage, Edward KYNASTON was the most
relevant drama and encouraged both new plays famous boy actor to take female roles. The first
and experimental revivals. Orson WELLES and professional actress in England, Margaret
John Houseman produced an all-Black Hughes, did not appear on stage until 1660.
Macbeth in 1936, a Black company presented More recent examples of female
Swing Mikado in 1939, and Sinclair Lewis and impersonation in the legitimate theatre include
John Moffitt’s It Can’t Happen Here (1939) Alec Guinness’s portrayal of the transvestite
received its premiere simultaneously in 21 ‘Mrs Artminster’ in Simon Gray’s Wise Child
cities. in 1967 at Wyndham’s Theatre. That same
The most controversial arm of the FTP year Anthony Hopkins, Ronald Pickup,
was the LIVING NEWSPAPER, a form of Charles Kay, and Richard Kaye played Phoebe,
documentary theatre blending political satire Rosalind, Celia, and Audrey in Shakespeare’s
and historical fact. Largely owing to the Living As You Like It at the National Theatre. The
Newspaper, Flanagan was accused of being a tradition of male performers playing
communist, and increased political pressure Shakespeare’s female characters has since been
forced the FTP to close abruptly in 1939. revived at the rebuilt Globe Theatre. Famous
drag artists in revue and on television include
feerie In 19th-century France, a spectacle
Julian ELTINGE, Danny La Rue, Barrie
drama that used elaborate machinery to
Humphries (‘Dame Edna Everage’) and Paul
produce illusions. The dream-like plots were
O’Grady (‘Lily Savage’). See also BREECHES
based on fairy tales and romances and the feerie
PART.
was a major influence in the development of
BURLESQUE and the MUSICAL. An earlier type of Fescennine verses In early Roman
extravaganza, the 17th-century pièce à machines times, verses of a scurrilous personal nature
184 Feydeau, George

that were extemporized by performers at fairs Theatre starring Topol, who also appeared in
and festivals. The tradition of Fescennine the film version and a 1983 stage revival.
verses (perhaps named after Fescennium, in When the play was being tried out in
what is now Tuscany) is thought to have Detroit before moving to Broadway, Variety
contributed to the early development of reported “No smash, no blockbuster”. The
Roman drama. show subsequently won the Tony Award as
Best Musical and ran for eight years and 3242
Feydeau, George (1862–1921) French performances, establishing a new record for
dramatist remembered for his FARCEs, mostly musicals (broken by Grease in 1972).
on the traditional themes of adultery, mistaken Set in a Russian village in 1905, the play is
identity, and misunderstanding. He is widely based on Sholom Aleichem’s short story Tevye
regarded as a master of plot and dialogue. Noël the Milkman. It follows the fortunes of a
COWARD, who adapted his Occupe-toi d’Amélie Jewish community facing great social upheaval.
(1908) as Look After Lulu (1959), thought The disintegration of the traditional way of life
otherwise, however: is reflected in the crisis faced by Tevye, whose
daughters rebel against the old way of
M. Feydeau is a very untidy playwright. arranging marriages; one of the girls marries a
He leaves characters about all over the young intellectual revolutionary and follows
place and disposes of them without him into exile in Siberia whilst another elopes
explanation. with a gentile. When Cossack soldiers arrive to
Diaries (1982) enforce a pogrom against the Jews, the
The best known of his nearly 40 plays are community fragments, with many leaving to
perhaps L’Hôtel du libre échange (1894; known seek a new future in Palestine and America.
in English as HOTEL PARADISO), La Dame de The songs include ‘Matchmaker,
chez Maxim (The Lady from Maxim’s; 1899), Matchmaker’, and ‘If I Were a Rich Man’.
and La Puce à l’oreille (A FLEA IN HER EAR; Figaro The daring, cunning, and witty
1907). His later plays were less successful. servant in THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (1775)
Feydeau himself designed the elaborate – and THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (1784) by
sometimes split-stage – sets required by his BEAUMARCHAIS. The character gave his name
works. He died of syphilis in a lunatic asylum. to the famous Parisian newspaper, which first
fiabe A type of fairytale play created appeared in 1826.
in 18th-century Italy by Carlo Gozzi Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be A
(1720–1806), who was attempting to revive musical by Lionel Bart with the book by Frank
and reform the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. He Norman. It was first performed in 1959 by
retained the stock characters and comic Joan LITTLEWOOD’s Theatre Workshop at
improvisation, but used mythological subjects Stratford East, subsequently transferring to the
and added an element of fantasy. His work, Garrick Theatre, where it ran for 897
more respected in Germany and France than performances and won the London Evening
his native country, influenced such German Standard Award as the year’s best musical.
writers as GOETHE and SCHILLER. The plot concerns a middle-aged gangster,
L’Augellino belverde (1764) is usually Fred Cochran, who runs an illegal gambling
considered to be Gozzi’s best work. Turandot den in Soho with his lover, an ex-prostitute
called Lil. When Fred is suddenly able to
(1765) provided the libretto for an opera by
revamp and upgrade the club after a lucky win
Puccini, and The Love of Three Oranges (1761)
on the horses, he antagonizes an old criminal
inspired Prokofiev’s opera of that name. His rival, who sends in his gang to teach Fred a
The Stag King (1761) was produced by the lesson. Fred manages to outwit them and
Young Vic in 1946. decides to go straight and marry Lil.
Fiddler on the Roof A record-breaking Meanwhile the local sergeant takes over the
musical by Joseph Stein (book), Jerry Bock club and looks forward to a new life of crime.
(music), and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics). It was The songs include ‘Fings Ain’t Wot They
first performed in 1964 in New York with Used T’be’ and ‘Big Time’.
Zero Mostel in the lead. The London Finney, Albert (1936– ) British actor,
production opened in 1967 at Her Majesty’s who became known for his highly physical
 fireworks 185

style of acting in the early 1960s. The son of a society permitted, and even condoned, the rise
Salford bookmaker, he studied at RADA and of the Nazis in prewar Germany.
began his career in 1956 at the Birmingham
fires In its earlier history the theatre was
Repertory Theatre. In 1958 he went to
regularly plagued by fires, especially in the eras
Stratford-upon-Avon, where he played Edgar
of candle, oil, and gas lighting. The first great
to Charles Laughton’s King Lear and took over
loss was Shakespeare’s GLOBE THEATRE, which
as Coriolanus after Laurence Olivier was was destroyed by fire in 1613 during a
injured (see UNDERSTUDY). He also appeared in performance of Henry VIII, when a shot from
London with Charles Laughton in Jane a stage cannon set fire to the thatched roof. It
Arden’s The Party (1958). was subsequently rebuilt with a tiled roof.
In 1960 Finney became widely known for London’s patent theatres have both burned
creating the title role in Keith Waterhouse and down twice; Drury Lane in 1672 and 1809
Willis Hall’s Billy Liar. The following year he (although an iron safety curtain had been
took the lead in John Osborne’s Luther at the installed 14 years earlier) and Covent Garden
Royal Court Theatre, later taking the play to in 1808, when 23 firemen lost their lives, and
the Théâtre des Nations in Paris and (in 1963) again in 1856.
to New York. He joined the National Theatre A fire in a Liverpool theatre in 1878
in 1965, the year in which he created the role prompted the passing of an act licensing
of John Armstrong in ARDEN’s Armstrong’s Last English provincial theatres, but this did not
Goodnight. prevent the worst fire disaster in the British
In 1967 he co-starred in Peter Nichols’s A theatre, which occurred nine years later at the
Day in the Life of Joe Egg in London and New Theatre Royal, Exeter, when 186 people died.
York. He was an associate artistic director at The same venue had burned down two years
the Royal Court Theatre from 1972 to 1975 earlier.
and performed as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Fires were also a prominent feature in the
Tamburlaine during the National Theatre’s early history of the US theatre. In 1798
first season on the South Bank (1975–76). In Boston’s Federal Street Theatre burned down.
1973 Finney had been Laurence Olivier’s first During the next 78 years 75 major theatre fires
choice to succeed him as director of the were recorded. One, in 1811 in Richmond,
National – an invitation he declined. Virginia, cost 70 lives when the candles of the
Finney directed and starred in a revival of stage chandelier set fire to the scenery. In
Armstrong’s Last Goodnight at the Old Vic in 1876, 300 people, including two actors, died
1983, and the following year directed and at the Brooklyn Theatre, and this led to the
starred in Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance at introduction of stringent safety regulations.
the same theatre. Later successes include major America’s worst loss of life, however, came in
roles in Lyle Kessler’s Orphans (1986), the 1903 at the supposedly fireproof Iroquois
musical Chicago (1991), and Yasmina Reza’s Theatre in Chicago. About 600 people died
Art (1996), which brought him an Evening after a panic in the standing-room area, despite
Standard Award. attempts by the performer, Eddie Foy, to calm
Finney has also found success in films and the audience.
on television. Elsewhere theatre fires have caused even
Fire-Raisers, The A black comedy by greater loss of life. In 1837 some 800
Max FRISCH, considered one of the most theatregoers were killed in a fire in St
significant works of the Theatre of the ABSURD. Petersburg, Russia, and ten years later a similar
The play, originally meant for the radio, was number lost their lives in Karlsruhe, Germany.
first performed in Zürich in 1958 and opened The worst-ever disaster occurred in 1845 in
at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1961. China, when 1670 people died. The
It was produced two years later in New York as introduction of electricity, fireproof scenery,
and strict safety regulations have virtually
The Firebugs.
eradicated the risk of serious fires, although
The play attacks moral complacency
London’s Savoy Theatre was closed for
through the figure of Biedermann, a typical
refurbishment after a fire in 1991.
good citizen who nevertheless allows arsonists
to start a fire in his attic. It is often interpreted fireworks Fireworks have played a part in
as an allegory of the way in which respectable the theatre since the 14th century, when they
186 First Dancer

were used in religious dramas to emphasize the Folio is currently between £20 and £30
terrors of Hell. In the 16th century they were million.
shot from wooden figures during plays for the
First Singer See STOCK COMPANY.
Feast of St John and the Assumption in Siena
and Florence. But fireworks have always been Fiske, Minnie Maddern (Marie
dangerous, and by the 18th century the Augusta Davey; 1865–1932) US actress, who
COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE in Paris was one of the championed Henrik IBSEN’s plays in New
few companies still using them indoors. In York. At a time when Ibsen was shocking
Britain they were mostly used in pleasure America, Mrs Fiske called him “the genius of
gardens or in pageants such as the Lord the age”.
Mayor’s show, in which actors representing the Born in New Orleans, she began acting at
Green Man carried clubs spouting fire. By the the age of three under her mother’s name of
19th century they were considered somewhat Maddern. By the age of five she had made her
old-fashioned. New York debut; at 13 she began to play adult
The British actor Ralph RICHARDSON loved parts. She retired in 1890 on her marriage to
fireworks. As a young actor, he was placed her second husband, Harrison Grey Fiske
beneath the stage with a stick of dynamite to (1861–1942), the wealthy owner of the New
help simulate a wartime Zeppelin raid. The York Dramatic Mirror. However, she soon
cue for the explosion was to come from the reappeared in a charity production of Ibsen’s
actor F. R. Gowcott tapping on the stage with A Doll’s House (1893), returning to the
a stick. Richardson, however, mistook his professional stage the following year in her
tapping walk for the signal and before husband’s play Hester Crewe. She again played
Gowcott could deliver his opening line, in A Doll’s House in 1894 and took the title
Richardson had blown him some 20 feet off role in Hedda Gabler the following year. Her
the stage. reputation was firmly established by her
performance in Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbevilles
First Dancer See STOCK COMPANY. in 1897. In 1899 she played the title role in
First Folio The first complete collection of Becky Sharp, a dramatization of Thackeray’s
SHAKESPEARE’s 36 plays. Under the title Mr Vanity Fair, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre.
William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Because she fought with the all-powerful
THEATRICAL SYNDICATE, who controlled the
Tragedies, they were published in 1623 for 20
shillings by his fellow actors Henry Condell theatre, they evicted her in the middle of the
(d. 1627) and John Heminge (1556–1630). successful run. In 1901 her husband bought
Both were shareholders in the BLACKFRIARS the Manhattan Theatre, where Minnie played
in Hedda Gabler (1903) and in Ibsen’s
THEATRE and GLOBE THEATRE. They added 20
Rosmersholm (1904). They left the Manhattan
plays to the 16 that had already been printed
three years later.
in quarto during Shakespeare’s lifetime,
In 1915 Harrison Fiske became bankrupt
ensuring that his works would survive (for
and she was forced to tour. His subsequent
none of his manuscripts have). No indication
infidelity effectively ended the marriage and
is given of the dates of composition.
she devoted the rest of her life to the theatre
The First Folio included Ben JONSON’s
and animal rights’ campaigning.
poem declaring that Shakespeare “was not of
Although Mrs Fiske was greatly admired
an age, but for all time” and a title-page for the intensity she brought to her roles, her
engraving by Martin Droeshout (1601–50), delivery was sometimes criticized, as noted by
thought to be the only authentic likeness. Franklin Pierce Adams:
It also included an invaluable list of
Somewords she runstogether
contemporary performers who appeared in the
Some others are distinctly stated,
plays. Condell and Heminge also edited the
Somecometoofast and s o m e t o o
plays, dividing them (somewhat arbitrarily)
slow
into five acts in imitation of Ben Jonson (who
And some are syncopated,
was following Horace’s advice). The number And yet no voice – I am sincere –
of copies published is unknown, but a second Exists that I prefer to hear.
printing was not ordered until 13 years later;
See also WOOLLCOTT, ALEXANDER HUMPHREYS.
two more printings were made in the 17th
century. The auction price of a 1623 First Five Finger Exercise Peter SHAFFER’s
 Fletcher, John 187

first play; a critical and commercial success, it (1605) by George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and
established his reputation as a dramatist. It was John Marston. A rogue who marries for
first performed in 1958 at the Comedy money, Sir Petronel dupes everyone until his
Theatre, London, in a production by John downfall by shipwreck (on his way to Virginia)
Gielgud, and opened on Broadway the on the Isle of Dogs.
following year. The plot concerns tensions in
flat A piece of stage scenery consisting of a
the middle-class Harrington family. A German
wooden frame covered with stretched canvas,
orphan, Walter Langer, is hired to tutor the
hardboard, or other material. It was introduced
daughter of the family, to which he becomes
in the 17th century and has been in constant
closely attached. The son is jealous of the
use ever since. Flats normally stand 18 feet
intrusion of this outsider and untruthfully
high and up to eight feet wide, being
informs his father that his mother and Walter
supported by weights and braces (see STAGE
are having an affair. Giving up hope of being
BRACE). A saddle-iron (sill-iron in America) is
adopted, Walter attempts suicide.
a metal strip fastened across the bottom of a
Five Ps, the A nickname for William flat to provide support. When standing alone,
Oxberry (1784–1824), because he was Player, a flat may have a small extension, a FLIPPER, for
Printer, Poet, Publisher, and Publican. He added strength.
published the Dramatic Mirror and wrote the Flats can be used in various combinations.
farce The Actress of All Work (1819). His son, A BOOK FLAT consists of two flats hinged
William Henry Oxberry (1808–52), was also together. A French flat is several flats battened
an actor, playwright, and publisher. together to create a back wall that can be
‘flown’ in one piece. A backing flat is placed
Flare Path A play by Terence RATTIGAN,
outside a door, window, or other opening in a
which opened in 1942 at the Apollo Theatre,
set to screen off the backstage area from the
London, and ran for 670 performances.
audience. A tormentor is a narrow flat or
Rattigan drew on his wartime experiences in
curtain that masks the wings, and a return is
the RAF to depict the tensions felt by aircrew
an additional piece to screen off areas not
and the women they love on the night of a
covered by the tormentor. Flats have also been
bombing raid against Germany. The
put on rollers to create moving backgrounds.
patriotism of the piece provided a considerable
The stage directions for J. R. Planché’s Paris
boost to the war effort in Britain; it was also
and London (1828) instructed: “Deck of the
well received in America, where Alec Guinness
steamer – Moving Panoramic View from
starred in the first Broadway production.
Calais to Dover by various Painted Flats to the
A curious footnote to the story of Flare
Scene.”
Path involves Dr Keith Newman, a maverick
psychiatrist whom Rattigan had adopted as his Flea in Her Ear, A A farce by Georges
guru and mentor. Newman was in one sense FEYDEAU, first performed in 1907 in Paris.
the begetter of the play, as it was he who had John MORTIMER provided the translation for
urged Rattigan to seek active service in the the 1966 National Theatre production
RAF as a cure for depression. When Flare Path directed by Jacques Charon at the Old Vic; he
opened in London, Newman conceived the also wrote the screenplay for the 1967 film
singular project of watching every performance version starring Rex HARRISON and Rachel
with the original leads in order to see what Roberts. Mortimer changed Harrison’s part
psychological or other insights this afforded slightly after the actor pleaded, “I don’t think
him. The result was his book 250 Times I Saw audiences would like a totally impotent man as
a Play. When G. B. Shaw was sent a copy he the hero. They wouldn’t accept me. Couldn’t I
noted that such an experience “would have be made just a little impotent now and then?”
driven me mad” and wondered whether The plot involves the love affairs, real and
Newman had not come out of it with “a slight imagined, of the confused household of
derangement”. These words proved sadly insurance agent Victor Emmanuel Chandebise.
prophetic: Newman suffered a complete Tragedy looms but is averted when the
mental breakdown in 1945 and ended his life misunderstandings and mistaken identities are
in an institution. cleared up.
Flash, Sir Petronel The penniless Fletcher, John (1579–1625) English
adventurer in the comedy EASTWARD HO! dramatist, who collaborated with Francis
188 flexible staging

BEAUMONT on at least six plays. They began three pairs. Large theatres often had a higher
working together in about 1607 and had their fly tower to contain the flies.
first success in 1609 with Philaster; or, Love flipper A brace for a FLAT, usually hinged
Lies Bleeding. According to one tale, the two and attached at right angles.
were sharing a bottle in a public house and
float See FOOTLIGHT.
dividing up their writing assignments for a
new play, when Fletcher was overheard to say: flop A play or musical that fails to run.
“You manage the rest and I’ll undertake to kill Even the most famous playwrights have
the king.” The two were overheard and suffered humiliating disasters of this kind. At
immediately arrested; it was some time before the height of his popularity, Noël COWARD
they could convince the authorities of their suffered a major embarrassment with Sirocco,
produced at Daly’s Theatre, London, in 1927.
innocence.
Although the leading actress, Frances Doble,
After Beaumont’s retirement in 1613, gave a quivering curtain speech calling it the
Fletcher became chief playwright for the happiest night of her life, the entire cast was
King’s Men (see CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN); in booed for ten minutes.
addition to writing his own plays, he Some playwrights and actors throw in the
apparently collaborated with Shakespeare on towel. When the audience began booing
three works, THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN, HENRY Charles Lamb’s farce Mr H at Drury Lane in
VIII, and a lost play, The History of Cardenio. 1806, he joined in. Afterwards he explained
He also collaborated with Nathan Field, that he booed and hissed so nobody would
William Rowley, and Philip Massinger, who know he was the author. On one occasion
succeeded him to the post in 1625. Ralph Richardson stopped acting in mid-
scene; walking towards the audience he asked,
His own plays included the pastoral The
“Is there a doctor in the house?” When one
Faithful Shepherdess (1608), the tragedy stood up, Richardson said: “Doctor, isn’t this
Bonduca (1613), and the comedies Wit play awful?”
Without Money (1614), The Wild Goose Chase Expensive musicals are by no means
(1621), and The Chances (1625), which was exempt. Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can
revived at the Chichester Festival Theatre in Whistle ran on Broadway for only eight nights
1962. His work remained enormously popular in 1964; those who saw it are said to hold an
until the end of the 17th century. annual reunion to analyse the disaster. The
1975 rock opera Lieutenant, about the My Lai
flexible staging A system of staging in massacre, came off after nine performances
which different acting areas can be created by (featuring such songs as ‘Kill’ and ‘Massacre’).
moving platforms or other devices. The Czech Yul Brynner starred in a musical version of The
designer Josef SVOBODA (1920–2002) created a Odyssey entitled Home, Sweet Homer, which
totally flexible stage system based on platforms ran for only one night in 1976. In 1981 a
and steps that can be moved freely in several Broadway revival of CAN-CAN ran for five
directions. performances and lost over $2 million. The
RSC’s Carrie, a musical based on the Stephen
flies The space above the stage where King shocker, closed after four performances
scenery, lighting, and other equipment can be in 1988, while Oscar Wilde (2004), with words
suspended by ropes, out of sight from the and music by the British disc jockey Mike
audience. Scenery hung in this manner was Read, came off after a single disastrous night.
called flown scenery. In the former HAND- The list of theatrical flops is long and
WORKED HOUSE, a stagehand known as a
distressing.
flyman stood in the flies on a high fly floor or Flotsam and Jetsam A variety double
fly gallery along each side of the stage. He act comprising the English composer and
moved between the fly floors by means of a pianist B. C. Hilliam (1890–1968), who took
catwalk (see BRIDGE); the flying lines, or ropes, the name Flotsam, and the Australian bass
were usually tied on a rail on the PROMPT SIDE. singer, Malcolm McEachern (1884–1945),
British theatres normally had only a pair of fly who took that of Jetsam.
floors, but the larger European ones had up to flourish In the Elizabethan and Jacobean
 Fo, Dario 189

theatre, a fanfare of trumpets announcing the articles required by the flyman in the play
ceremonial entrance of a monarch or ruler. concerned.
The term is now mainly familiar from the flyting A stylized exchange of insults in
stage directions to Shakespeare’s plays (see, for prose or verse. In Italian carnival plays, a
example, Henry VI, Part 3, V. v and V. vii). contrasto a braccio is a contest in satirical
Flower Drum Song A lesser-known stanzas, in which pairs of competitors take
musical by RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN. Set in opposite sides of an argument, such as city
San Francisco’s Chinatown, it explores versus country or wine versus water. The
intercultural tensions through the love affairs winner may be decided by a panel of judges.
of two Chinese-American women (played in Flyting also occurs in the INTERLUDES
the original production by Japanese actresses). of the English dramatist John Heywood
It was first performed in New York in 1958 (c. 1497–1580) and the plays of the German
Hans Sachs (1494–1576).
and received unanimously bad reviews. The
British critic Kenneth Tynan (remembering focus lamp A stage spotlight that uses a
the film The World of Susie Wong) called the lens to focus and adjust the beam. It is also
Flower Drum Song “the world of woozy known as a lens spot and in Germany as a
song”. Nevertheless, the show ran for 601 Linsenscheinwerfer. In most large theatres, the
performances and closed in the black. focus lamp has been superseded by the
The songs included ‘Grant Avenue’, ‘I FRESNEL SPOT.
Enjoy Being a Girl’, and ‘Sunday, Sweet Fo, Dario (1926– ) Italian actor,
Sunday’. manager, and dramatist, whose political
flown scenery See FLIES. comment has enraged both conservatives and
communists. Fo’s theatrical career began in
fly floor or fly gallery See FLIES. amateur theatre groups in Milan and
flying effect The illusion of flight on the continued with cabaret performances (from
1953) with his wife, the actress Franca Rame.
stage. The ancient Greek theatre introduced
The couple formed their own company in
the practice of lowering actors playing gods to
1957, for which Fo wrote his first farces,
the stage using ropes or wires, as well as the
including Archangels Don’t Play the Pin-Tables
impressive DEUS EX MACHINA, which was (1959), Stealing a Foot Makes you Lucky in
operated by a form of crane. In Britain writers Love (1961), and Seventh: Thou Shalt Steal a
of the Restoration period often mention Little Less (1964). Although these early farces
theatrical ‘flyings’, while the early 20th century contain a degree of political comment, they
even produced Kirby’s Flying Ballet. More were written to appeal to conventional middle-
recently, the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang class audiences. From the mid 1960s, however,
Bang (2004) featured a spectacular flying car. Fo’s work began to acquire a controversial
Perhaps the most famous flight on the reputation for its highly partisan comment on
British stage occurs in J. M. Barrie’s PETER PAN society, government, and the role of the
(1904). Scores of leading ladies playing Peter Catholic Church.
have swooped across the stage suspended by Encouraged by the general political
wires attached to a special harness. When discontent of 1968, Fo abandoned the
Gladys COOPER played Peter Pan, she mainstream theatre and formed a new
squabbled with the stagehands; their revenge company, the Compagnia Nuova Scena. With
came during the performance when, instead of this company he toured factories and halls
lowering her down gently into the Darlings’ with an increasingly political repertoire. In
nursery, they bounced her off the walls “like a 1968 he presented The Great Pantomime and
wrecking-ball on a building site”. the following year Mistero Buffo, a unique one-
man show designed to exploit his talents for
flyman Formerly, a sceneshifter who comedy and mime. Fo has frequently revived
worked in the FLIES, i.e. the gallery over the Mistero Buffo and the show has toured widely
proscenium from which the curtains, scenery, in Europe. When it was televised in Italy in
etc., were controlled. He was also known as the 1977 the Vatican called it “the most
linesman because he operated the ‘lines’ or blasphemous spectacle in television history.”
ropes. The flyman’s plot was the list of all the In 1970 Fo founded another company in
190 FOH

Milan, La Comune, to specialize in left-wing playwright and actor manager, whose satirical
drama. La Comune’s first success was with his comedies earned him the nickname the
own ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST English Aristophanes. He has also been called
(1970). This play, based upon the actual death ‘the Father of the Burlesque’.
of an anarchist railway worker while in police Foote began acting in 1744 and three years
custody, has been widely translated and later took over the HAYMARKET. In 1749 he
performed in many countries. Fo’s subsequent inherited a fortune and quickly spent it in
works include Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! (1974), in Paris, returning to the Haymarket as actor-
which high prices provoke public unrest, manager and playwright. His first successful
Trumpets and Raspberries (1982), and The farces were The Englishman in Paris (1753) and
Open Couple (1987; with Franca Rame), about its sequel The Englishman Returned from Paris
the failure of a modern marriage. In 1997 Fo (1756). His best work The Minor, a satire on
was a surprise winner of the Nobel Prize for the Methodist movement, opened in 1760.
Literature, an award that caused great As manager, Foote used clever subterfuges
controversy in Italy. Despite suffering a severe to evade the Licensing Act of 1737. Although
stroke, he has continued to write and perform the Haymarket had no licence to present plays,
such provocative works as The Two-Headed he would invite ‘guests’ for tea or chocolate
Anomaly (2003), a vicious satire on the during which an entertainment would be
government of Silvio Berlusconi that led to given. In 1766 he obtained a limited patent
€1 million libel suit from a member of the for summer performances, as compensation
ruling party. In 2006 he campaigned for the loss of his leg in a practical joke
unsuccessfully to become mayor of Milan. perpetrated by the Duke of York and others.
He built a new Haymarket the following year.
FOH Abbreviation for FRONT OF HOUSE. Foote had a gift for bitter mimicry that
folk theatre In Europe, a type of early made him feared. A frequent target of his wit
drama that was performed by villagers at was David GARRICK, known for his love of
various agricultural festivals; in England these money. Foote once showed Samuel Johnson a
included PLOUGH MONDAY and MAY DAY, when bust of Garrick that he kept on his bureau.
ROBIN HOOD PLAYs were performed. Other folk
“You may be surprised that I allow him to be
festivals were held at the advent of spring, so near my gold,” he said, “but you will
harvest home, and the winter solstice. observe he has no hands.” Foote never
Although few written records exist of the ridiculed Johnson, for reasons the doctor
earliest folk plays, they influenced the well- explained to Boswell: “Sir, fear restrained him;
he knew I would have broken his bones. I
documented MUMMERS’ PLAYS and the
would have saved him the trouble of cutting
tradition of LITURGICAL DRAMA. Folk theatre
off a leg; I would not have left him a leg to cut
also encompasses such ritual dances as
off.”
England’s MORRIS DANCE.
Foote’s career came to an abrupt end when
follow spot A spotlight that is he upset the Duchess of Kingston with his
manoeuvred by hand to keep its beam upon a mockery of her in A Trip to Calais (1776). The
moving actor or object on stage. Duchess used her influence to have the play
closed down and scared Foote into premature
Fontanne, Lynn See LUNTS, THE.
retirement by threatening to prosecute him for
fool In medieval Europe, a clown who sodomy (a capital offence). He died on the way
appeared in the FEAST OF FOOLS and similar to France, after selling his patent to George
festivals and in various kinds of FOLK THEATRE. COLMAN the elder. His epitaph reads:
He wore a particoloured suit, known as Foote from his earthly stage, alas! is
motley, with a hood to which bells, horns, or hurled;
asses ears were attached, and he carried a Death took him off, who took off all
marotte or bauble made from a miniature fool’s the world.
head on a stick. The fool played an important See also DEVIL AMONG THE TAILORS.
part in the MUMMERS’ PLAY and the MORRIS
footlight One of the row of floodlights
DANCE. Similar in dress, but with a different
positioned on the floor across the front of the
role, was the COURT FOOL or jester.
stage. Another British term is float. Once a
Foote, Samuel (1720–77) British major source of illumination, these lights are
 Ford, John 191

virtually unused today except for special 1737 the abolition of the footman’s gallery at
effects, such as casting shadows around the Drury Lane provoked riots.
eyes of an actor. The phrase ‘the footlights’ is
fops’ alley or fops’ corner In the
also used to refer to acting and the theatre in
Restoration theatre, an area of the PIT or
general.
forestage, so called because the fops would
Footlights Club A small theatre group at gather there, in full view of the rest of the
Cambridge University, which has placed more audience, to show off their finery and discuss
performers on the professional stage than any the play.
other student organization. It was founded in Forbes-Robertson, Sir Johnston
1883 in a clubhouse at 5 Falcon Yard and (1853–1937) British actor-manager noted for
maintains a membership of 80. Women have his bearing and beautiful voice. Trained by the
been admitted since 1957, Eleanor Bron being Shakespearean actor Samuel Phelps, he made
the first female to be accepted. his debut in 1874 and became a member of
The Footlights Club presents an annual Irving’s company at the LYCEUM THEATRE in
REVUE in May Week, has performed regularly 1882. After touring America, he took over the
at the EDINBURGH FESTIVAL fringe (most management of the Lyceum and played
notably with its contribution to the revue Romeo to Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL’s Juliet. This
BEYOND THE FRINGE in 1960), and tours both led to an affair between them: after she
nationally and internationally. Former eventually rebuffed him, he stunned her by
Footlights members include Graham marrying a younger actress. In the same season
Chapman, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Russell he gave an outstanding Hamlet, playing him as
Davies, Jimmy Edwards, Michael Frayn, the archetypal “sweet prince” of tradition. His
David Frost, Stephen Fry, Eric Idle, Clive greatest commercial success came playing the
James, Jonathan Miller, Trevor Nunn, Bill Stranger in Jerome K. Jerome’s The Passing of
Oddie, Griff Rhys-Jones, and Emma the Third Floor Back (1908). He retired in
Thompson. It has also been the source of the 1913, having been knighted during his last
television series That Was the Week that Was week at Drury Lane.
and Monty Python’s Flying Circus, both of Forbes-Robertson wrote in his
which became British institutions. autobiography that he was only happy when
Cleese, noting that he spent much of his he was a painter in his youth and that he left
last two Cambridge years at the club because the theatre with “intense relief”. He added,
he enjoyed the company, said: “Never at any time have I gone on the stage
We were rather in awe of the proper without longing for the moment when the
actors who wore jeans and black curtain would come down on the last act.
leather jackets and talked about Rarely, very rarely have I enjoyed myself in
motivation and Brecht. Someone a bit acting.” However, he was noted for his
like this directed me in my first revue. imperturbability. He was once nearly killed
But he supported Ipswich Town and during rehearsals for Caesar and Cleopatra in
was really quite nice. His name was Liverpool, when a carpenter dropped a
Trevor NUNN. I always wondered what hammer from the grid during one of his
happened to him. speeches. It missed the actor by inches, and he
paused, looked up, and before continuing his
footlights trap In the 19th-century speech, said quietly, “Please don’t do that
theatre, a long rectangular opening in the stage again.”
floor in front of the curtain into which the His daughter, Jean Forbes-Robertson
footlights could be lowered. This was done to (1905–62), became a well-known actress,
dim or darken the scene, as well as to trim, appearing in Uncle Vanya (1926), The
clean, or repair the lamps in the cellar. The Constant Nymph (1928), and Time and the
trap was controlled by a mechanism in the Conways (1937). She also played Peter Pan for
PROMPT CORNER. eight seasons.
footman’s gallery In the 18th- and Ford, John (1586–1639) English
19th-century theatre, a GALLERY reserved for playwright, whose works have often been cited
footmen and other servants of those attending as examples of the ‘decadence’ of CAROLINE
the play, who were usually admitted free. In DRAMA. In the 19th century he was admired by
192 Forde, Florrie

Charles Lamb but attacked by William Hazlitt Tom Taylor’s play, Our American Cousin,
and others, who accused him of lacking a sense Booth entered his box and fired a Derringer
of morality. However, many 20th-century pistol into the back of the President’s head.
critics have praised his insight into character Waving a knife, the assassin leapt upon the
and his skill in writing dialogue. Ford was stage and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis! The
captured in verse by a contemporary, William South is avenged!” He escaped from the
Hemminge: theatre but was found in hiding 12 days later
Deep in a dump Jack Ford alone was and shot.
got Ford’s Theatre had opened three years
With folded arms and melancholy hat. earlier in a former church as Ford’s Atheneum.
Ford was born in Devonshire and trained It assumed its present name after rebuilding in
as a lawyer. He wrote poetry and some 1863 but closed after Lincoln’s death. It was
pamphlets before turning to the stage at 35, designated a National Monument in 1932 and
when he seems to have collaborated with a meticulous restoration in 1968 has returned
William Rowley and Thomas Dekker (c. the interior to the way it looked on the fatal
1570–1632) on The Witch of Edmonton night. Visitors enjoying current productions
(1621). He subsequently worked with Dekker can also see the basement museum, which is
on other plays, such as The Sun’s Darling devoted to Lincoln’s life. Items on show
(1624). From 1625 to 1628 he wrote mostly include the clothes he wore to the play,
for the private theatres, working at a time Booth’s diary, and the pistol used in the
when drama was in decline. assassination. Across the street is Petersen
His best-known play is the bloody tragedy House, also open to the public, where the
’TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE (1627). Other president died the next morning. See also
works include Love’s Sacrifice (1627), the BREAK A LEG!.
tragicomedy The Lover’s Melancholy (1628), forestage See APRON.
and Perkin Warbeck (1634), described by T. S.
Eliot as “one of the very best historical plays in forgeries See COPENHAGEN; IRELAND
the whole of Elizabethan and Jacobean FORGERIES; OLD CORRECTOR, THE;
drama”. SHAKESPEAREANA.
Several of Ford’s plays were lost for ever formal stage A setting for a play in
owing to the activities of WARBURTON’S COOK. which the basic scene is left virtually
Forde, Florrie (Florence Flanagan; unchanged throughout the performance,
1876–1940). The popular music-hall although items of DETAIL SCENERY are
performer often described as the ‘Australian changed.
Marie LLOYD’. She made her debut in 1894 at Forrest, Edwin (1806–72) The most
the Polytechnic, Sydney, singing ‘He Kissed renowned US tragedian of the 19th century.
Me When He Left Me and Told Me To Be Despite being acclaimed on both sides of the
Brave’. She joined Harry Rickard’s company Atlantic, he also made many enemies with his
there before settling in London in 1897. aggressive character, becoming a bitter and
Florrie’s large figure became famous in the lonely man. The critic William Winter
halls; she earned a reputation as a vivacious described him as “a vast animal, bewildered by
singer who could get even the most timid a grain of genius”.
audience to explode into rousing renditions of Forrest, who first appeared on stage at
such songs as ‘Hold Your Hand Out, You the age of ten, made his adult debut at
Naughty Boy’, ‘Down at the Old Bull and Philadelphia’s WALNUT STREET THEATRE in
Bush’, and ‘Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly?’ On
1820, playing Young Norval in John Home’s
one occasion an audience had her repeat a
Douglas. In his many Shakespearean roles he
popular tune 33 times. She also appeared as a
became known for his powerful and resonant
principal boy in pantomime.
voice, his expressive features, and grand style.
Ford’s Theatre The theatre in Forrest’s offer of cash prizes for scripts by
Washington, DC, in which President US-born authors resulted in a number of parts
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on 14 April that enhanced his reputation – particularly (in
1865 by the actor and Southern sympathizer 1829) the title role in Metamora by John
John Wilkes BOOTH. While Lincoln watched Augustus Stone, and (in 1831) the part of
 fourth wall, the 193

Spartacus in Robert Montgomery Bird’s The specialized in revue with Joyce Grenfell Requests
Gladiator. the Pleasure (1954), At the Drop of a Hat
In 1836 Forrest made his London debut (1957), and the highly successful BEYOND THE
with great success; however, on a second visit FRINGE (1961).
in 1845 he received bad reviews, which he Subsequent successes included Anthony
attributed to the jealousy of the British actor Shaffer’s Sleuth (1973), a revival of Agatha
William MACREADY. The critic John Forster Christie’s Murder at the Vicarage (1976), and
(Macready’s friend) wrote of Forrest’s The Brothers Karamazov (1981). By contrast,
Macbeth, “our best comic actors do not often an attempt to present plays from provincial
excite so great a quantity of mirth”. The two and fringe theatres in the early 1980s proved
actors’ public quarrel culminated in the financially disastrous. In 1989 The Woman in
infamous ASTOR PLACE RIOT of 1849 in New Black, a supernatural chiller adapted by
York, when 22 people were killed. Stephen Mallatratt from Susan Hill’s novel,
In 1851 Forrest tried unsuccessfully to opened at the Fortune; it is still running over
divorce his wife. A year later he virtually 20 years later.
retired from the stage, retreating to his large
Philadelphia home from which he continued ’47 Workshop The influential
to launch appeals against the court’s decision playwriting laboratory at Harvard University
for nearly 20 years. He gave his last founded by George Pierce Baker (1866–1935),
performance in 1872, playing in Edward Harvard’s first professor of dramatic literature.
Bulwer-Lytton’s Richelieu at the Globe It was a spin-off from his playwriting course
Theatre, Boston. ‘English 47’, which began in 1905. The
workshop staged plays written by his pupils,
Fortune Theatre (1) A popular who included Eugene O’NEILL, Edward
Elizabethan theatre in Cripplegate, London. It SHELDON, and George ABBOTT.
was modelled on the GLOBE THEATRE, and In 1925 Baker moved to Yale University
took its name from a statue of the goddess of where he founded the department of drama.
fortune that stood over the entrance. It opened His courses always emphasized practical
in 1600 with a performance by the ADMIRAL’S construction and creativity. He retired in
MEN, whose home it was for several years. 1933, having become one of the most
Timber-built and brightly painted inside, it is influential figures in the modern theatre both
the only Elizabethan playhouse whose in America and Europe.
dimensions are known (because its building
contract has survived). The Fortune’s site was foul papers In the Elizabethan theatre,
80 sq ft (24.4 sq m) and the inner space was the original manuscript of a play. To avoid
55 sq ft (16.8 sq m) with the stage being 43 ft plagiarism, the dramatist sold his ‘foul copy’ to
(13 m) wide. his company, which would produce a
The first Fortune burned down in 1621 ‘scrivener’s copy’ from it. This would then be
but reopened two years later, having been endorsed and licensed on its last page.
rebuilt in brick. After the theatres were closed Four Ps, The A “merry interlude” by John
by the Puritans in 1642 (see INTERREGNUM, Heywood, written in about 1520. The four
THE), the Fortune was one of several venues
main characters, a Palmer, a Pardoner, a
used for illegal performances; it was partially Potticary (apothecary), and a Pedlar, have a
dismantled by Commonwealth soldiers in dispute as to which of them can tell the
1649. In 1661 it was totally demolished. greatest lie. When the Palmer says he has never
(2) The first London theatre constructed seen a woman lose her temper the other three
after World War I. It was opened by Laurence immediately concede defeat. The piece is
Cowen in 1924 in Russell Street, Covent considered an important link between the
Garden, on the site of the Albion Tavern,
medieval and Elizabethan dramas. See
which had been frequented by actors in
INTERLUDE.
Georgian and Victorian times. Cowen took the
name from the Elizabethan Fortune Theatre in fourth wall, the A convention of acting
Cripplegate. in which the actors take no cognizance of the
During its first decade, the Fortune audience; the ‘fourth wall’ is an imaginary
presented works by O’Casey, Galsworthy, and barrier sealing off the proscenium. The
Lonsdale. After World War II, the theatre convention was advocated by the French
194 fox

playwright and critic Denis Diderot jealous of his son’s success, shot him dead
(1713–84), who argued that it would create a during a fit of insanity.
more natural interaction amongst performers Fragson began as a pianist and went to
and thus create greater realism. Diderot’s On Paris to become a café concert singer before
Dramatic Poetry noted in 1758: moving on to the halls. He was the first music-
Imagine a wall across the front of the hall singer to accompany himself; his best-
stage, dividing you from the audience, known song was ‘Hullo Hullo, Who’s Your
and act precisely as if the curtain had Lady Friend?’ He performed in Paris using his
not risen. Cockney accent and switched to a French
The idea was enthusiastically adapted by André accent for his London appearances. He was a
Antoine (1858–1943) for his naturalistic plays well-known figure in PANTOMIME at Drury
at the THÉÂTRE LIBRE. Actors were instructed Lane; when he played Dandini in Cinderella
to behave as if an audience did not exist, and the character was renamed ‘Dandigny’ in
Antoine would even construct his sets with allusion to his popularity on both sides of the
four walls before deciding which one should be Channel.
removed. Frayn, Michael (1933– ) British
fox See VICTORIAN THEATRE SLANG. playwright, journalist, and novelist, who made
his reputation with a series of dark comedies.
fox wedge On a raked stage (see RAKE), a He served in the Royal Artillery and
wooden wedge that is positioned under a FLAT Intelligence Corps before reading philosophy
to adjust for the slant. at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he
Foy, Eddie (Edwin Fitzgerald Foy; joined the FOOTLIGHTS CLUB. In 1957 he
1856–1928) Popular US VAUDEVILLE star and became a columnist on the Guardian, joining
entertainer noted for his offbeat humour, the Observer in 1962.
strange mannerisms, lisp, and clown make-up. Frayn made his theatrical debut in 1970,
Born in New York, he danced as a child in the when the Garrick Theatre presented four short
city streets to help support his family. Around plays under the title of The Two of Us, starring
1878 he travelled West with a MINSTREL Lynn Redgrave and Richard Briers. Later
troupe, entertaining in boom towns and comedies include Alphabetical Order (1975),
mining camps. From 1888 to 1894 he set in a newspaper library, DONKEYS’ YEARS
appeared in Chicago in such extravagant (1976), a tragicomedy about a college reunion,
variety shows as Bluebeard Jr (1890) and Little and Clouds (1976), starring Tom Courtenay as
Robinson Crusoe (1893). Foy was playing in a journalist in Cuba. After a 1978 flop with
Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre in 1903 when it Balmoral, Frayn was again successful in 1980
caught fire (see FIRES). with Make and Break, about a businessman at
From 1904 to 1913 Foy starred on a German trade fair, which won the Evening
Standard Best Comedy Award. In 1982 his
Broadway in several musicals, including Up
NOISES OFF, which skilfully parodies the
and Down Broadway (1910). He took
conventions of farce, ran successfully at the
vaudeville by storm in 1913 when he appeared
Savoy Theatre.
with his seven children billed as ‘Eddie Foy
In 1984 Benefactors won the Evening
and the Seven Little Foys’. He retired in 1923
Standard Best Play Award and the Laurence
but returned to the family act in 1927; he died
Olivier Award for Play of the Year. It involves
a year later in Kansas City while on a farewell
four characters, who exist in different times
tour.
and hold different philosophies of life,
Foy’s son, the comedian Eddie Foy Jr,
addressing the audience and each other. More
impersonated his father in the 1943 film
recent plays include the somewhat poorly
Yankee Doodle Dandy; this told the story of
received Look Look (1990), Here (1993), and
George M. COHAN, his father’s main
the hugely successful COPENHAGEN (1998),
competitor. Bob Hope subsequently played
which explored the moral dilemmas faced by
Foy in a film about his life.
the nuclear physicists Niels Bohr and Werner
Fragson, Harry (Harry Potts; Heisenberg during World War II. Frayn
1869–1913) Anglo-French MUSIC HALL enjoyed another triumph with Democracy
entertainer, whose career was brought to a (2004), a play about Cold War intrigues in the
tragic end when his father, who was apparently Germany of Willy Brandt that won the
 Fresnel spot 195

Evening Standard Award for best play and ran Romanticism to realism. Although he
successfully in the West End. By contrast continued to revive his earlier roles to the end
Afterlife (2008), about the Austrian actor- of his life, he would die virtually destitute.
director Max REINHARDT, was widely
freeze See DRY.
considered a failure. Frayn has also won high
praise for his translations of Chekhov, a writer Freie Bühne (German: Free Theatre) A
with whom he evidently feels an affinity. Berlin theatre club founded in 1889 by Otto
Frédérick (Antoine-Louis-Prosper Brahm with Theodor Wolff and Maximilian
Lemaître; 1800–76) Flamboyant actor, who Harden, all of whom were influenced by the
created some of the great Romantic roles of the French naturalistic dramatists and the director
French theatre. Frédérick began his career in André Antoine (1858–1943). Freie Bühne,
the small theatres of the Boulevard du Temple which was modelled on Antoine’s THÉÂTRE
LIBRE in Paris, presented the works of
(see BOULEVARD THEATRES), where he made his
debut as the lion in a pantomime version of Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, Bjørnson,
Pyramus and Thisbe. From 1816 he was Anzengruber, and Zola, and published its own
appearing in harlequinades at the Théâtre des newspaper. The actress Agnes Sorma, who won
FUNAMBULES with the Pierrot BAPTISTE – an great acclaim as Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House,
association immortalized in the Marcel Carné was a member of the club.
film Les Enfants du Paradis (1945). Although a Brahm also influenced other experimental
few ‘straight’ roles materialized, Frédérick writers, for example Johannes Schlaf who
spent most of the 1820s starring in popular wrote Master Olze (1890), and collaborated
melodramas at the Théâtre de l’AMBIGU. It was on The Selicke Family (1890) with Arno Holz.
while appearing in one of the silliest of these, In 1894 the Freie Bühne merged with the
L’Auberge des Adrets (1824), that Frédérick Deutsches Theatre.
scored an outrageous coup by exaggerating the Freie Volksbühne See VOLKSBÜHNE.
villainy of his character, Robert MACAIRE, to
the point that the play became a spoof on French Without Tears A light comedy
itself. The character of Macaire became a huge by Terence RATTIGAN that opened in 1936
popular success, and one that Frédérick would at the Criterion Theatre, London. The
continue to exploit for the rest of his career. production made a star of Rex HARRISON,
From 1827 the now famous Frédérick establishing his suave throwaway style of
appeared regularly at the Porte-Saint-Martin, delivery; it also featured Kay Hammond and
the Paris theatre chiefly associated with the Trevor Howard.
Romantic revolution in French drama. It was French Without Tears was a great success
here that he gave electrifying performances in despite disastrous rehearsals, a torrential
Thirty Years of a Gamester’s Life (1827), a downpour on the opening night, and Rattigan
sensational piece about the dangers of being hit on the head by the descending
gambling, and Victor HUGO’s Lucrèce Borgia curtain when he took a curtain call. The play is
(1833), in which he appeared opposite Mlle set in a French resort, where five young
GEORGE. His other leading roles of the 1830s, Englishmen are taking a crash course in French
many of which were created especially for him, to enhance their professional prospects.
included the title parts in DUMAS’s Napoleon Rattigan makes fun of the art of translating
Bonaparte (1830) and Kean; or Disorder and idiom, having one character render “She has
Genius (1836) and Hugo’s Ruy Blas (1838). ideas above her station” as “Elle a des idées au-
In 1840 Frédérick’s career suffered a dessus de sa gare”. Harrison played the part of
sudden check when he starred as the title the Hon. Alan Howard, whose portrait of an
character, a master criminal, in Balzac’s ideal woman runs:
Vautrin; largely because Frédérick had made First of all, she must not be a cow.
himself up to resemble the unpopular King Secondly, she will be able to converse
Louis Philippe, the play was immediately
freely and intelligently with me on all
banned and the Porte-Saint-Martin shut
subjects…Thirdly, she will have all the
down. From the mid 1840s his career went
masculine virtues and none of the
into a decline from which it never recovered,
feminine vices.
owing to his failure to find suitable new
vehicles and the general change of taste from Fresnel spot A versatile spotlight able to
196 Friel, Brian

produce a beam that is bright but softer than a one-act Performances (2003), and The Home
PROFILE SPOT. Often used in combination with Place (2005).
other lights, Fresnels can be adjusted using
fringe theatre Innovative and radical
shutters (called BARNDOORS) or by changing
theatre that takes place outside the commercial
the lamp’s distance from the lens; the 1000-
mainstream; the phrase is the equivalent of the
watt version can be used for lighting the
US OFF-OFF-BROADWAY. The term probably
FRONT OF HOUSE. The spot was named after
derives from the growth of unconventional
Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788–1827), the
theatrical productions on the ‘fringe’ of the
French inventor of the Fresnel lens.
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL during the 1950s. In
Friel, Brian (1929– ) Irish playwright, 1960 the Cambridge Footlights team appeared
born in Northern Ireland. The product of a at the Edinburgh Festival in the satirical
strongly Catholic and Nationalist background, BEYOND THE FRINGE. The first true fringe
Friel trained briefly for the priesthood before theatre was the Traverse Theatre, an
becoming a teacher and beginning to write. Edinburgh studio venue that gave both Tom
When the Northern Irish troubles erupted in STOPPARD and C. P. Taylor their start in 1963.
the late 1960s he moved across the border to Fringe theatre, which included student and
Co. Donegal, where much of his work is set. amateur productions, brought a new vitality to
Although his plays generally avoid direct British drama in the 1960s. Plays were
political statements, they show a profound performed in pubs, parks, halls, universities,
concern with the conflict in the province, and other public places as well as in more
particularly with its historical origins and the conventional venues. Most productions were
questions of cultural identity it raises. In critical of the Establishment and appealed to
Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1965), his first younger audiences.
major play, and The Gentle Island (1971), Friel The abolition of stage CENSORSHIP in 1968
explores the plight of those who feel driven to gave a further impetus to fringe theatres, which
exile from Ireland; The Freedom of the City soon increased in number. By the 1970s the
(1973) and The Volunteers (1975) deal more fringe companies began to receive grants from
directly with political violence and its human the ARTS COUNCIL and from local authorities.
cost. More than 50 London fringe theatres existed
Friel’s interest in the way in which the by the early 1980s, when a ticket agency was
same events can be interpreted from widely established for them at the CRITERION
different perspectives emerges most fully in THEATRE. Well-known fringe groups have
The Faith Healer (1979). The play uses four included the Pip Simmons Theatres,
interlocking monologues to unfold the story of Shoestring, Bubble Theatre, Tricycle Theatre,
the title character, an itinerant healer; in doing Theatre of Black Women, the Portable
so it explores wider themes of memory, Theatre (co-founded by the playwright David
illusion, belief, and betrayal. Translations Hare), the King’s Head, the Monstrous
(1981) illustrates the clash of Irish and English Regiment, the People Show, the Hull Truck
cultures through the Royal Engineers’ attempts Theatre Company, the 7:48 Touring
to conduct a Survey of Ireland in the 1830s; by Company, the GATE THEATRE (Notting
the end of the play it is clear that this failure of Hill), the Hampstead Theatre Club, and
communication holds the key to Ireland’s COMPLICITE.
future problems. In 1980 Friel was a A variety of venues have housed the fringe
cofounder of the Irish cultural organization groups: the Half-Moon Theatre is in a former
Field Day; he was later nominated to the Irish synagogue, while the Bush Theatre in
Senate but did not take an active role. Shepherd’s Bush, London, and the Orange
Friel’s masterpiece is Dancing at Lughnasa Tree Theatre, Richmond are above pubs.
(1990), one of the most acclaimed English- Other venues for experimental productions
language plays of the last 20 years. A poignant include the ICA Theatre at the Institute of
depiction of a family of sisters in pre-war Contemporary Arts, the Riverside Studios
Donegal, it is Friel’s fullest treatment of his Theatre, the Theatre Upstairs at the ROYAL
most distinctive theme – the supreme value COURT THEATRE, the Pit at the BARBICAN, and
but final untrustworthiness of memory. the Cottesloe Theatre at the ROYAL NATIONAL
Subsequent plays include Wonderful Tennessee THEATRE.
(1993), Give Me Your Answer Do (1998), the Fringe successes that have gone on to enjoy
 Frohman brothers 197

major success in the West End include Athens needs the old-fashioned Aeschylus,
Accidental Death of an Anarchist in 1979 and who had represented it in its heyday.
Educating Rita in 1980. Arguably, the The Frogs, a gentle play for Aristophanes,
distinction between the fringe and the anticipates MIDDLE COMEDY. It includes
commercial theatre has become less clear in memorable comic scenes between Dionysus
recent years, with the success of such venues and his slave Xanthias as well as clever parodies
as the ALMEIDA THEATRE and the DONMAR of Aeschylean and Euripidean tragedy.
WAREHOUSE. Frohman brothers Three US theatre
Frisch, Max (1911–91) Swiss playwright managers: Daniel Frohman (1851–1940),
and novelist, who emerged as one of the Gustave Frohman (1855–1930), and the
impresario who dominated Broadway for a
leading writers in the German language in the
quarter of a century, Charles Frohman
late 1940s. He wrote his first play, Now You
(1860–1915).
Can Sing, an exploration of individual guilt Daniel Frohman began as business
during wartime, in 1945 while working as an manager of New York’s Fifth Avenue Theatre
architect in Zürich. The plays that followed, and the Madison Square Theatre, where he
which established his reputation for witty and employed David BELASCO as his stage manager.
socially challenging drama, included The Great Then, in 1885, Daniel and Gustave Frohman
Wall of China (1946), When the War was Over took over the LYCEUM THEATRE on Fourth
(1949), Overland (Graf Öderland; 1951), and Avenue and created an outstanding company
THE FIRE-RAISERS (1958), a major contribution that performed plays by such British dramatists
to absurdist theatre which remains his best- as A. W. Pinero and H. A. Jones. The venue
known work (see ABSURD, THEATRE OF THE). It was demolished in 1902, and Daniel built a
attacks the moral complacency of Swiss society new Lyceum on 45th Street. He also managed
through the figure of Biedermann, a typical DALY’S THEATRE from 1899 to 1903 and was
good citizen who nevertheless fails to prevent president of the Actor’s Fund of America.
arsonists from starting a fire in his attic. Charles Frohman worked on newspapers
Subsequent plays included Andorra (1961), before managing a tour for the Wallack
which aroused controversy with its portrayal of Theatre Company in 1883. On one disastrous
the growth of anti-Semitism in a small and western journey, cowboys began to shoot at
peaceful country, Triptychon (1979), and Jonah their train on the Northern Pacific Railroad;
only when Frohman persuaded his actors to
and his Veteran (1989), a drama about military
give a performance on the prairie did they
service in Switzerland.
calm down.
Frisch’s novels include Stiller (1954), an His first success was the production
exploration of the problems of personal of Bronson Howard’s civil-war drama
identity, and Homo Faber (1957). He also Shenandoah in 1888. In 1893 he built and
published several volumes of diaries and opened the Empire Theatre on Broadway, with
literary sketchbooks. John Drew (see DREW FAMILY) as the star of his
Frogs, The A comedy by ARISTOPHANES stock company. In 1896, he led theatre
produced in 407 BC at the LENAEA, when it owners, producers, and agents in forming the
THEATRICAL SYNDICATE, which held a virtual
won the first prize and was given the unusual
monopoly on bookings in major US cities for
honour of a repeat performance. The story
about 16 years.
centres on the god DIONYSUS, in whose honour
In 1893 Frohman took over the DUKE
all Athenian tragedy was written. Since Athens OF YORK’S THEATRE, London, where he
no longer has a worthy tragic poet, Dionysus established a repertory company whose
travels to the underworld to bring back successes included Barrie’s PETER PAN (1904).
EURIPIDES, but he meets AESCHYLUS there who When Frohman first read Peter Pan he was so
insists that it is he who should return since his excited that he would stop people in the streets
achievements are greater. Euripides and and act out parts. Barrie, however, was so
Aeschylus engage in an absurd poetic debate. doubtful about “this dream-child of mine” that
Dionysus sides with Euripides as the modern he wrote Frohman a second play, Alice-Sit-By-
tragedian who best captured the city’s mood the-Fire, to make up for the expected failure of
during its decline, but eventually decides that Peter Pan.
198 frontcloth

When Barrie informed Frohman that the theatre in front of the stage, including the
child actor who was to play Peter was ill, auditorium, bars, foyer, and the box office.
Frohman boomed, “If the boy can’t come to These are the areas used by the audience. Just
the play, we’ll take the play to the boy.” He as the backstage area has a stage manager, so
assembled as many props as possible in the there is a front-of-house manager. The PROMPT
boy’s sick room and had the cast perform it BOOK direction ‘On FOH clear’ indicates that
for him, apparently the only instance of a the play can begin when the audience has
professional play presented in a child’s cleared the foyers etc. and is seated.
bedroom.
Fry, Christopher (Christopher Harris;
Frohman died in the sinking of the
1907–2005) British playwright, a leading
Lusitania. During his lifetime he is credited
exponent of POETIC DRAMA in the late 1940s
with making many stars, including Ethel
and early 1950s. “Poetry,” Fry said, “is the
Barrymore (see BARRYMORES, THE) and Maude
language by which man explores his own
Adams.
amazement.”
frontcloth See CLOTH. His first play, The Boy with a Cart, retold
the story of St Cuthbert: it was given an
frontier theatre In 19th-century
amateur performance in 1937 and received its
America, the theatre troupes that existed on
first professional production 12 years later at
the fringe of the western territory. Theatrical
the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, starring
life began in America soon after settlements
Richard Burton.
were established on the eastern coast; by the
In 1940 he became director of the Oxford
1790s, drama was firmly established in such
Playhouse and in 1946 enjoyed his first success
places as Philadelphia (the dominant theatrical
as a dramatist with the one-act fantasy A
centre from 1794 to 1815), Boston, and
Phoenix Too Frequent. Hope for a revival of
New York. Few performances were given
poetic drama came with the popular success of
west of the Allegheny Mountains before 1815,
Fry’s THE LADY’S NOT FOR BURNING, which
when Samuel Drake (1769–1854) took his
opened in 1948 at the Arts Theatre, and later
company overland from Albany, New York, to
transferred to the Globe; it starred John
Pittsburgh and down the Ohio to Kentucky.
GIELGUD, Pamela Brown, Richard BURTON,
The plays in their repertory were all rewritten
and Claire Bloom. Burton’s audition was so
for the company’s ten actors, who also doubled
stumbling and confused that he had to be
as stagehands. In the Mississippi Valley,
given a second chance to calm his nerves. The
from St Louis to Nashville, the early theatre
work opened in New York in 1950.
was dominated by James H. Caldwell
The same year saw the premiere of Fry’s
(1793–1863), an English light comedian, who
tragicomedy Venus Observed; this was a work
emigrated to America in 1816. Most western
written for Laurence Olivier, who starred as
theatres were located on rivers, and the
the Duke of Altair, an astronomer who learns
SHOWBOAT became an important part of the
that his son is his rival in love. A Sleep of
frontier scene, especially along the Ohio and
Prisoners (1951) questioned the need for war
Mississippi rivers.
through its story of four soldiers sheltering in a
A year after the discovery of gold in
bombed church in enemy territory. It was first
California in 1848, the first professional
seen at the University Church in Oxford and
English-language performances were given at
later staged at churches in London and New
the Eagle Theatre in Sacramento. The first
York (with a British cast).
theatre in San Francisco, which later became
In 1954 The Dark Is Light Enough (“Or
the western centre for drama, was opened in
The Light is Dark Enough,” mused Noël
1850, the year the Mormons began to produce
Coward. “It comes to the same thing.”) was
plays in Utah; they built the Salt Lake Theatre
less successful, despite the outstanding
in 1862. The transcontinental railway was
performance of Edith Evans. In the later 1950s
completed in 1869, enabling many more
the trend turned in favour of the KITCHEN-
troupes to travel west. Eastern actors playing
SINK dramas of John OSBORNE and others and
the frontier included Edwin FORREST, Junius
Fry’s reputation went into a decline from
Brutus Booth, and his son Edwin Booth (see
which it has never fully recovered. His 1961
BOOTH FAMILY).
drama Curtmantle, about Henry II and Becket,
front of house (FOH) All the areas of a opened in Tilburg, The Netherlands, in
 Futurism 199

Dutch, before being produced, rather permanent theatre were mostly circus acts or
unsuccessfully, by the RSC in London a year harlequinades. From 1816 the pantomimist
later. A Yard of Sun was produced at the Jean-Gaspard Deburau (see BAPTISTE) appeared
Nottingham Playhouse in 1970 before there as Harlequin with the young FRÉDÉRICK.
transferring to London for a week’s run. Later Thereafter the theatre became known for its
works included translations and screenplays. pantomimes, which were unrivalled for their
Fugard, Athol (1932– ) South African elaborate technical effects. Deburau went on to
playwright and director, whose work is largely replace the character of Harlequin with his
concerned with the social and racial problems own version of PIERROT, which remained the
of that country. The son of an Afrikaner star attraction until his death in 1846. The
mother and an Irish father, he served as a venue was demolished during the rebuilding of
merchant seaman before entering the theatre as Paris in 1862.
a stage manager. His early plays, which include Futurism A 20th-century movement in
No Good Friday (1959) and The Blood Knot theatre and the other arts that glorified the
(1961), explore the lives of Black workers and dynamism of the machine age. It was launched
the everyday injustices of the apartheid system: in 1909 in Italy by Filippo Tommaso
the latter play led the government to confiscate Marinetti (1876–1944), who coined the term.
his passport for four years. The movement, which reached its peak in the
In the early 1960s Fugard and his actress 1920s, called for the destruction of all libraries
wife, Sheila Meiring, formed an amateur and museums and praised war as an example of
theatre company of Black actors in New supreme energy. It finally lost any intellectual
Brighton, a township of Port Elizabeth. respectability by endorsing the Fascist and
Amongst the plays he directed there were Nazi philosophies of aggression.
works by Sophocles, Machiavelli, and Brecht. Many of the Futurists’ works were
In his own work for the company, he explored produced by Anton Guilio Bragaglia
the ideas of improvisation and COLLECTIVE (1890–1960), who managed Rome’s Teatro
CREATION. This approach resulted in several degli Independenti from 1922 to 1936.
acclaimed productions, notably Sizwe Bansi Is Advocates of Futurism rejected all former stage
Dead, which found success in London and practices, denouncing traditional productions
New York, and Statements After an Arrest as too static and lengthy. Instead they
Under the Immorality Act (both 1972). proposed compressing a dramatic situation
Fugard’s subsequent work includes the into a brief ‘synthetic drama’. They also felt
semi-autobiographical Master Harold ... and that the theatre of the future should
the Boys (1982), My Children! My Africa! incorporate the energy of music hall and
(1990), The Captain’s Tiger (1999), and circus. Enrico Prampolini (1894–1960), the
Sorrows and Rejoicings (2002). In 2010 Fugard main exponent of the genre in the 1920s,
directed his latest play, The Train Driver, at aimed to produce semi-religious dramas in
the newly opened Fugard Theatre in Cape which actors would be replaced by luminous
Town. forms, and moving ‘stage architecture’
Funambules, Théâtre des A theatre substituted for painted scenery. Many of the
on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris built in innovations of the 1960s, such as the
1816 on the site of a former booth used by intermingling of actors and audience and the
acrobats. Funambulus is the Latin word for a use of new technology to create MIXED MEDIA
rope-walker and the first productions at the performances, had their roots in Futurism.
200 gaff

production of In Town, one of the first musical

G comedies. The theatre was demolished in 1903

for the widening of the Strand, but a new
Gaiety was built in Aldwych and opened in the
same year. It closed in 1939 and was finally
gaff Formerly, slang for a cheap public demolished in 1957. See also EDWARDES,
theatre or a low-class MUSIC HALL; such venues, GEORGE.
which were often called penny gaffs from the (3) A Manchester theatre that became the
price of admission, were once common on the home of England’s first REPERTORY company,
south side of the Thames in London (see founded by Annie HORNIMAN in a former
TRANSPONTINE MELODRAMA). They often music hall in 1908. In the 1910s it was closely
specialized in the performance of violent associated with the works of the MANCHESTER
melodramas (see BLOOD TUB). SCHOOL. Financial problems forced its closure

gag (1) An expression or piece of BUSINESS in 1917 and the building became a cinema in
that does not appear in the text of a play but is 1921.
interpolated by the actors. When Shakespeare (4) A theatre on Broadway, New York,
makes Hamlet direct the players to “speak no which opened in 1908. Those to make their
more than is set down” (III, ii) he cautions names there included the young John
them against gagging. (2) A joke, especially a Barrymore (see BARRYMORES, THE). In 1932 the
snappy one-liner. venue became a burlesque house and cinema;
it was renamed the Victoria Theatre in 1943
gaiety. the gaiety of nations This and finally demolished in the 1990s.
well-known phrase derives from Dr Johnson’s
galanty show See SHADOW PUPPETS.
words on the death of his friend David
GARRICK, the greatest actor of the age: galère. Que diable allait-il faire
I am disappointed by that stroke of dans cette galère? Literally, what the
death which has eclipsed the gaiety of devil was he doing in that galley? A quotation
nations and impoverished the public from MOLIÈRE’s comedy Les Fourberies de
stock of harmless pleasure. Scapin (1671) that has become semi-proverbial
The Lives of the English Poets in France. Hoping to bamboozle the elderly
(1779–81) Géronte out of his money, the rogue SCAPIN
tells him that his son, Scapin’s master,
Gaiety Girl One of the chorus for which unwisely accepted an invitation to go on board
the old GAIETY THEATRE in the Strand, a Turkish galley and will be sold as a slave
London, was famous in late Victorian and unless a ransom of five hundred crowns is
early Edwardian times. Such productions as produced. The phrase is Géronte’s anguished
The Shop Girl (1894) and The Circus Girl reply. It is applied to anyone who finds himself
(1896) were designed to give full reign to the in difficulties through being where he ought
singing and dancing talents of the chorus, as not to be, or to express astonishment that he
well as to display their good looks. Several of should be found in such bad company, such a
the Gaiety Girls, many of whom came from strange situation, etc.
humble origins, married into the peerage.
Galileo A play by Bertolt BRECHT,
Gaiety Theatre (1) An intimate based on the life of the scientist Galileo
playhouse that opened in Dublin in 1871. It (1564–1642). Premiered in 1943 in Zürich,
came under the auspices of the Irish Literary the play concentrates upon the astronomer’s
Theatre from 1900 to 1901. The theatre was struggle to maintain his integrity when his
renovated in 1955, having been saved from endorsement of the Copernican system leads
demolition by the TV presenter Eamonn to persecution by the church.
Andrews. Following the dropping of the atomic
(2) A London theatre in the Strand, which bomb on Hiroshima, Brecht revised the play
opened in 1864 as the Strand Musick Hall. to cast the scientist in a less purely heroic light
It reopened after rebuilding in 1868, later (“Overnight the biography of the founder of
becoming the first theatre to be lit by the new system of physics read differently” he
electricity on the outside. The chorus of wrote). This revised version of the play
GAIETY GIRLS first appeared in 1893 in a (translated by Brecht and Charles LAUGHTON)
 Game of Love and Chance, The 201

opened at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles later say that he learned most of his acting
in 1947, the same year Brecht left America from the four years he spent watching Olivier
after having to testify before the House Un- at work. From the late 1960s Gambon
American Activities Committee. A year later appeared regularly in the theatre and on
Laughton enjoyed a great success with the play television but his career seemed to lack
on Broadway. direction. Despite his craggy looks – he has
There have been many successful revivals, been described as having a head like a large
including productions by the National Theatre cabbage – he was often cast as the romantic
in 1980, 1994, and 2006. In the English- lead and in 1970 was even considered for
language theatre the play is now often the role of cinema’s James Bond. His
performed in a streamlined version by David breakthrough came in a comic role – that of
Hare. the slow-witted vet in Ayckbourn’s The
Norman Conquests (1975). Any doubts as to
gallery The highest rows of seats in a his range were then dispelled by a truly
theatre, above the BALCONY and the CIRCLE. formidable performance as Brecht’s Galileo at
This is the cheapest area of the auditorium as the National (1980), followed by powerful
the seating tends to be uncomfortable and the readings of Lear and Antony at the RSC
view of the stage poor. The reaction of the (1982–83). Household-name status finally
audience seated there was traditionally arrived with his performance as the stricken
considered to be a measure of popular taste. In central character in Dennis Potter’s TV serial
Elizabethan playhouses, however, gallery seats The Singing Detective (1986). Subsequent
were more prestigious and expensive than triumphs in the theatre have included Miller’s
places in the PIT. A View from the Bridge (1987), Jonson’s
In the 18th century the occupants of the Volpone (1995), Pinter’s The Caretaker (2000),
gallery were nicknamed the gods, because of and Beckett’s Eh Joe (2006), in which the
the elevated position of the seats and because central character does not speak. Cinema work
blue sky, representing heaven, was painted on has included The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and
the ceilings of many theatres; similarly, the her Lover (1989) and the later instalments of
gallery in French theatres was known as the Harry Potter series, in which he took over
paradis. the role of Dumbledore.
To play to the gallery is to appeal Writing about Gambon can be a perilous
deliberately to the less discriminating part of business, owing to the actor’s penchant for
one’s audience, like an actor seeking popularity making entirely false statements to journalists
from those in the cheapest seats in the theatre (chiefly, he has said, from boredom). These
(the gallery) by an exaggerated display. include the claims – all of which have made it
See also FOOTMAN’S GALLERY; PEANUT into print – that he began his career at the
GALLERY; WOMEN’S GALLERY. Royal Ballet, that he used to be gay, and that
Gambon, Sir Michael (1940– ) Burly he is a close friend of Robert de Niro. Gambon
British actor. Gambon was born in Dublin, is also known for his love of fast cars: a corner
the son of an engineer, but moved to London of the Dunsfold Park racing track is now
with his family while still young. Having left named Gambon Corner after a spectacular
school without qualifications, he served a incident (2002) in which he clipped it in a
seven-year apprenticeship with the engineering Suzuki Liana during time trials for the BBC’s
company Armstrong Vickers; he is still a Top Gear programme.
skilled metal engraver with a hobby of Game of Love and Chance, The A
restoring antique clocks and watches. romantic comedy by Pierre MARIVAUX, first
During this period he also formed a performed in Paris in 1730 by the Comédie-
passionate interest in the theatre and began to Italienne. It is often considered Marivaux’s
take amateur roles. Despite his lack of finest work, providing perhaps the best
experience, Gambon managed to bluff himself example of his skill in portraying the fine
into a position at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, details of psychology and sentiment (a style
and gave his first professional performance in now known as marivaudage).
1962. A year later he was hired by Laurence The story centres on the marriage of Silvia
OLIVIER to play minor roles in the first and Dorante, prearranged by their parents on
National Theatre Company; Gambon would the condition that the young couple are willing
202 Gammer Gurton’s Needle

to accept each other. The boy and girl, having to England and led the movement away from
never met, are sceptical about the match and the coarseness of RESTORATION DRAMA. He was
each decides independently to observe the also the author of more than 40 plays.
other in secret. Consequently Silvia disguises In 1737 the young Garrick travelled to
herself as her maid, Lisette, and Dorante London with his friend Samuel Johnson,
changes places with his valet, Arlequin. After intending to study law. Instead, he became a
numerous confusions the couple fall in love wine merchant near Covent Garden, only later
without knowing each other’s true identities. drifting into playwriting and acting. Drury
Gammer Gurton’s Needle The Lane produced his first comedy Lethe, or Esop
earliest extant English comedy apart from in the Shades in 1740; he made his acting
RALPH ROISTER DOISTER. It was written in
debut there in 1742, playing 19 parts –
verse, probably by one William Stevenson, in including Lear and Hamlet – in his first
the early 1550s but not published until 1575. season. Standing a mere 5 ft 4 in, he was an
The lively comedy closes with the discovery of intensely active man, described by George III
Gammer Gurton’s missing needle in the seat as “a great fidget who could never stand still”.
of her servant Hodge’s breeches. In 1747 he became the artistic and
administrative director of DRURY LANE. In this
García Lorca, Federico (1898–1936) role Garrick is said to have been a harsh critic
Spanish poet and dramatist, who is now and a hard taskmaster. Playing opposite a new
regarded as one of the greatest masters of the leading lady, whose delivery he considered too
Spanish language. A composer in his youth, deadpan, he savaged her in rehearsal: “Can you
García Lorca believed that poetry was a form chop cabbage?” he responded to her most
of music and began by performing rather than passionate line, mimicking her lack of
publishing his early verse. Literary fame was intonation. Under his management, Drury
finally secured with the publication of the Lane competed fiercely with COVENT GARDEN;
collection of Gypsy ballads Romancero gitano the theatres continually attempted to poach
(1928). His first play El malificio de la each other’s actors and on one occasion staged
mariposa (Butterfly’s Evil Spell) was produced Romeo and Juliet simultaneously, with Garrick
in 1920 at the Teatro Eslava, Madrid, by claiming victory as his production lasted one
Martinez Sierra, but was only performed once. day longer. His management was not without
It was followed by Mariana Pineda (1927) and its disasters. In 1755 mobs wrecked the theatre
Amor de Don Perlimplin con Belisa en su jardin after Garrick presented a French ballet when
(1931). In 1932 he founded La Barraca, a Britain and France were on the verge of war.
state-funded educational travelling theatre More riots followed in 1762, after he abolished
company, and thereafter served as its director, the traditional admission reductions for those
composer, and playwright. who came late or left early.
With his hauntingly lyrical and
Offstage, Garrick had a reputation for
experimental plays García Lorca opposed the
extreme parsimony – he had known real
contemporary fashion for REALISM. His works
poverty in his youth – and often exasperated
depict peasant life in his native Andalusia,
his friends with his vanity, social climbing, and
concentrating in particular on the conflict
love of praise. One friend, Oliver GOLDSMITH,
between love and honour and the frustrations
wrote:
of women in a highly traditional society. His
best-known work is the trilogy comprising On stage he was natural, simple,
BLOOD WEDDING, THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA affecting.
ALBA, and YERMA. ‘Twas only that when he was off he
At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, was acting.
García Lorca was executed without trial by Retaliations
Nationalist partisans and buried in an Garrick is buried in the POETS’ CORNER in
unmarked grave. Westminster Abbey.
Garrick, David (1717–79) An Garrick Club A London club in which
extraordinary actor and director who ruled the “actors and men of education and refinement
British stage for some 30 years and who has might meet on equal terms”. The Duke of
been called “the first modern superstar”. He Sussex established it in 1831 in honour of
introduced a more naturalistic style of acting David GARRICK. It houses an extensive library,
 Gate Theatre 203

theatrical memorabilia, and a collection of smaller auditorium in the ABBEY THEATRE)

theatrical portraits, including the painting by before moving to its own venue in the
John Zoffany of Garrick and Susanna Cibber Rotunda Buildings in 1930.
(see CIBBER FAMILY). In 1931 the Sixth Earl of Longford
Membership of the Garrick Club is (Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham; 1902–61),
restricted to 700, and is only open to men. an Irish playwright and director, became
Among the first members were Charles associated with the Gate and in 1936 he
Kemble, William Macready, and Charles formed Longford Productions to stage classic
Mathews; later members included Henry dramas there. MacLiammóir performed in
Irving, Beerbohm Tree, Johnston Forbes- such Shakespearean roles as Hamlet, Romeo,
Robertson, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Othello. The Gate actively encouraged
and Alec Guinness. Irish playwrights while also producing modern
plays from Britain, Europe, and America. After
Garrick Theatre A London theatre, off
World War II, Lady Longford ran the theatre
Charing Cross Road, designed by Walter
whose fortunes declined through the 1950s
Emden and decorated in the Italian
and 1960s; it was awarded a state renovation
Renaissance style. Built by W. S. Gilbert, the
subsidy in 1969. After the death of
Garrick was partly underground, and initially
MacLiammóir in 1978, it was taken over by
had the problem of an underground river
new management. In recent decades the Gate
seeping into the foundations. After acquiring
has been particularly associated with the plays
the site Gilbert is reported to have said that he
of Brian FRIEL, a retrospective of whose work it
could never decide whether to build a theatre
presented in 2005. Other recent productions
or to lease the fishing rights. The theatre
include a stripped-down version of Sondheim’s
opened in 1889 with PINERO’s The Profligate.
Sweeney Todd (2007).
The first manager, John Hare, enjoyed a
(2) A small club theatre in central London
great success with the first production of
founded by Peter Godfrey (1899–1971), a
Pinero’s The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith (1895),
variety performer and Shakespearean actor. It
featuring Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL in the title
opened in 1925 on the top floor of a converted
role. In 1903 Arthur Bourchier, whose ghost is
warehouse in Floral Street, Covent Garden.
said to roam the theatre, became the first
Finding himself unable to secure a licence for
manager in Britain to ban a critic, A. B.
the venue, Godfrey made the Gate into
Walkley of The Times.
a private club giving performances of
Later successes included a production of
noncommercial and foreign dramas.
Walter Greenwood’s Love on the Dole, which
In its first nine years Godfrey produced
ran for 391 performances and made the
over 350 plays, gaining an international
reputation of Wendy Hiller, and Frank
reputation as the principal exponent of
Norman’s Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be
EXPRESSIONISM in Britain. His productions
(1960). From 1967 onwards Brian Rix
employed stylized acting before black drapes,
presented a popular series of farces at the
with unusual lighting effects.
theatre, while Ira Levin’s shocker Deathtrap
The Gate opened with Bernice by Susan
drew large audiences in 1978. More recent
Glaspell and had its first success the following
productions include Brian FRIEL’s Dancing at
year with From Morn to Midnight by the
Lughnasa (1992), which won all London’s
German expressionist playwright Georg Kaiser.
major awards as Best Play, Stephen DALDRY’s
In 1927 it moved to Villiers Street near
long-running revival of Priestley’s An Inspector
Charing Cross, where it occupied part of the
Calls (1995), This Is Our Youth (2002) with
old Hungerford Music Hall (later home to the
Matt Damon, and an acclaimed revival of
PLAYERS’ THEATRE). Godfrey also used his club
Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (2009).
to stage such banned plays as Eugene O’Neill’s
A previous Garrick Theatre existed at
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS, presented in 1931
Leman Street in Whitechapel from 1831 to
with Eric Portman playing Ebon Cabot and
1881.
Flora Robson as Abbie Putnam.
Gate Theatre (1) A theatre company The subsequent decline in its fortunes was
formed by Hilton Edwards and Michéal halted when Norman Marshall (1901–80)
MacLiammóir in Dublin in 1928. The took over the management in 1934; he
company played at the Peacock Theatre (a presented Toller’s Miracle in America that
204 gatherer

same year. Marshall subsequently produced his wife Isabella (1562–1604), who developed
several banned works, including Laurence the role of the inamorata, the company was
Housman’s VICTORIA REGINA (1935), Lillian attached to the household of the Duke of
Hellman’s THE CHILDREN’S HOUR (1936), and Mantua (who later supported the FEDELI
Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1939). troupe). The Gelosi played in France in 1571
Marshall, who also revived the annual Gate and in 1577 were summoned to performances
Revue, managed the venue until 1940. In at Blois for Henry III. The company
1941 the theatre was badly damaged by subsequently played in Paris, heralding the
bombing and was not reopened. later invasion of Italian companies that was to
(3) A tiny theatre in Notting Hill, west have a profound influence upon the character
London, that has acquired an international of the French theatre (see COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE).
reputation with its ambitious and challenging The Gelosi toured Europe almost constantly,
productions. The Gate, which normally seats returning to perform in Paris in 1602. In
about 70 people, was established in a room 1604, on their return journey to Italy, Isabella
above the Prince Albert pub by its first died in childbirth in Lyons; her husband was
director, Lou Stein, in 1979. Despite severe so distraught that he disbanded the company.
physical and financial restraints, the venue General Utility See STOCK COMPANY.
quickly made its mark as the only London
theatre to concentrate on international work género chico Another name for the
(with a special focus on Eastern Europe). In TEATRO POR HORAS.
the mid 1980s Stein’s successor, Giles Croft, Genesius, St See PATRON SAINTS OF THE
introduced the themed seasons that have THEATRE.
continued to be a feature of the Gate’s activity.
Subsequent directors have included the young Genet, Jean (1909–86) French
Stephen DALDRY (1989–92), Mick Gordon playwright, novelist, and poet. His works for
(1998–2000), and Thea Sharrock the stage shocked audiences with their blend of
(2004–2006). Some particularly notable violence, lyricism, sexual perversity, and quasi-
productions include Jim Allen’s controversial religious ritual.
Perdition (1998), which had been cancelled by Genet, born illegitimate and subsequently
the Royal Court, Femin Cabal’s Tejas Verdes abandoned, spent much of his early life in
(2005), an account of torture and repression in reformatory and prison. His first play, THE
Pinochet’s Chile, and a gripping adaptation of MAIDS (1947), was produced in Paris by Louis
Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata (2009). Regular Jouvet and performed five years later in French
payment of actors and stage crew was not in London; an English version opened in
introduced until 2003, when a special New York in 1955. The Maids introduced
agreement with Equity was concluded; on Genet’s idea of a play as a ritual, analogous
certain nights, a limited number of ‘pay what to the Mass, in which the performers and
you can’ tickets are still available to playgoers. the audience unite to share a transforming
experience.
gatherer In the Elizabethan theatre, a These notions were further developed in
man or woman who collected admission DEATHWATCH (1949), a play about the
money at the entrances to the three main areas complex relationship between fellow-prisoners.
of the auditorium: the pit, public galleries, and THE BALCONY, a disturbing work about sex,
private boxes. fantasy, and power set in a brothel, received its
gauze See TRANSPARENCY. première in London in 1957. The critic
Kenneth Tynan commented: “For all its faults,
gel A colour filter for a stage light; they it is a theatrical experience as startling as
were originally made of gelatine but are now anything since Ibsen’s revelation 76 years ago
usually made from plastic. The gel was that there was such a thing as syphilis.” THE
traditionally held in front of the light by a gel BLACKS (1959) was a perverse study in
frame. prejudice and exploitation. Genet’s last play
The Screen (1966) dealt with the politically
Gelosi One of the earliest and most famous
explosive situation in Algeria, thus ensuring a
of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE companies.
controversial opening at the Odéon in Paris.
Headed by Francesco Andreini (1548–1624),
who created the character of IL CAPITANO, and Geneva A didactic play by George Bernard
 Gershwin, George 205

SHAW, first produced in 1938 at the Malvern manager of a theatre in Angers went further,
Festival. Written during the years of Hitler’s advertising her as “the most beautiful woman
rise to power, Geneva has as its theme the in Europe”.
idea that tyrants should face an international Mademoiselle George made her debut at
court of human justice; it also exposed the the Comédie-Française as a 15-year-old and
inadequacies of the League of Nations in went on to win particular acclaim as Lady
dealing with Nazi Germany. Macbeth. In 1808 she eloped with a dancer to
Russia, where she joined a French company
Gentleman Dancing-Master, The
and became a bitter rival to the actress
A comedy by William WYCHERLEY, first
Yekaterina Semyonova (1786–1839). She
performed in 1671 at the Dorset Garden
returned to the Comédie-Française five years
Theatre, London. The play was revived in
later, but her furious temper and notorious
1925 by the Phoenix Society, and in 1950 at
rivalry with another actress, Mlle Duchesnois,
Edinburgh’s Gateway Theatre.
caused so much trouble that she was forced to
The story concerns Gerrard’s attempts to
leave in 1817. In the early 1830s her career
win the hand of the beautiful Hippolita, who
took on a new lease of life when she starred in
is being courted by her pretentious cousin.
the romantic dramas of Dumas and Hugo,
Gerrard poses as her dancing-master but,
whose Lucrèce Borgia (1833) supplied her with
because of his clumsiness, is nearly discovered.
one of her most famous roles. However, her
However, Gerrard and Hippolita are
buxom beauty was by this time degenerating
eventually united and all ends happily.
into the obesity that eventually made her a
Gentleman Johnny The nickname, figure of ridicule. Howls of laughter are said to
acquired as a result of his elegance, of the have greeted an emotional moment in Hugo’s
British general and playwright John Burgoyne Marie Tudor when the former Queen of
(1722–92). Following several undistinguished Beautiful Actresses fell to her knees – and was
works, Burgoyne wrote The Heiress, a highly quite unable to get up again.
successful comedy, which was produced at As a young woman, Mlle George’s
Drury Lane by Sheridan in 1786. Burgoyne is lovers are said to have included Napoleon,
probably better remembered, however, for his Talleyrand, and Metternich. Many years later,
defeat at Saratoga (1777) during the American when she asked Arsene Houssaye to help her to
War of Independence. He appears as a write her memoirs, he could not control his
character in George Bernard Shaw’s THE curiosity about her supposed affair with the
DEVIL’S DISCIPLE. emperor:
gentlemanly melodrama A type of HOUSSAYE Is it true that he sent for you
19th-century MELODRAMA designed to appeal long after midnight and that he forgot
to a sophisticated audience; it was intended that you were there until morning,
to encourage the upper classes to return to absorbed as he was in the map of
the English theatre. Until around 1840, Europe?
melodrama was the favourite fare for the MADEMOISELLE GEORGE Pure slander.
less well-educated playgoers. Gentlemanly His map of Europe! I was his map of
melodrama was introduced by Sheridan Europe.
Knowles (1784–1862) and was firmly
Gershwin, George (1898–1937) US
established by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
composer of Broadway musicals, often with his
(1803–73). William MACREADY, who had
brother, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983), as
starred in some of Knowles’s plays, encouraged
lyricist.
the genre while managing Covent Garden and
Born in Brooklyn the son of Jewish-
Drury Lane. He produced Bulwer-Lytton’s
Russian immigrants, Gershwin first worked in
works and even suggested material for such
a music publishing house. In 1919 his song
plays as The Lady of Lyons (1838).
‘Swanee’ became highly successful as sung by
George, Mademoiselle (Marguerite- Al JOLSON: that same year he also wrote his
Josephine Weymer; 1787–1867). French tragic first Broadway show, La La Lucille. From 1920
actress, a famous beauty who was billed as to 1924 Gershwin contributed music to five
“Queen of Beautiful Actresses – the most editions of George White’s Scandals, including
beautiful woman at present on the stage”. The such well-known songs as ‘Somebody Loves
206 ghost

Me’. After working with several lyricists, the theatre ‘going dark’ (i.e. closing). The real
Gershwin collaborated with his brother Ira on explanation probably has more to do with
the the successful jazz-orientated Lady, Be safety concerns: with its ropes, traps,
Good! in 1924. Encouraged by this success, constantly changing scenery, and sudden drop
they rapidly produced a string of musicals, into the pit, a completely darkened stage
including: Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face would present a daunting combination of
(1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), and Girl hazards to the unwary. See also TABOOS AND
Crazy (1930). SUPERSTITIONS.
In 1931 the Gershwin brothers wrote Of
ghosts Some of the best-known and most
Thee I Sing, which won the Pulitzer Prize for
visible of all ghosts seem to haunt London
drama. Four years later they presented PORGY
theatres. Many sightings have been described
AND BESS, a ‘folk opera’ written in the jazz
in detail, such as that of the spirit that “flew up
idiom for Black singers. Their last musical
to the ceiling, made his way through the tiling,
collaboration, Porgy and Bess was not a
and tore away one-fourth of the house” after
financial success during George Gershwin’s
lifetime. Since then it has acquired immense the final presentation at Lincoln’s Inn Theatre
popularity and the status of a modern classic. in 1732. In most theatres, tradition says that a
Following George’s death in 1937, Ira sighting is a good omen for the play currently
produced the lyrics for only another three being performed.
shows. The most famous of DRURY LANE’s several
ghosts is the so-called man in grey. This is said
ghost. the ghost walks An to be the spirit of an actor who was stabbed to
expression used by theatre people to mean that death during a stage fight in the 18th century.
salaries are about to be paid. The phrase is an (When the theatre was demolished in 1791, a
allusion to Shakespeare’s HAMLET (I, i), where body was found bricked up in a wall with a
Horatio addresses the ghost: knife in the ribs.) The man in grey is a brazen
…if thou hast uphoarded in thy life daytime ghost who frequents matinées; he has
Extorted treasure in the womb of been seen in the upper circle and on stage.
earth, Drury Lane is also home to a screaming
For which, they say, you spirits oft woman often heard backstage, and the spirit of
walk in death… the actor Clifford Heatherley, who died during
According to one theory, the usage arose the run of Crest of the Wave (1937).
from the fact that Shakespeare, who played the Vying with the man in grey as London’s
role of the ghost in Hamlet, was also most recognizable ghost is John Buckstone at
responsible for paying the wages of the cast. the Haymarket Theatre. Buckstone (1802–79)
had a long association with the theatre as actor,
ghost glide In the 19th-century, a TRAP playwright, and manager; popular sentiment
used to create the illusion of a ghost rising says he simply remained behind because of his
from the stage floor and drifting across it. An love for the place. He has been seen by many
actor would stand on a wheeled platform, actors, including Margaret Rutherford, while
which was pulled along an inclined cut in the others have heard him rehearsing his lines in a
stage floor; as the truck ascended, the actor dressing room. Buckstone is said to appear
would glide into view. A refinement known
only when a production is going well.
as the Corsican trap was introduced in
A sadder ghost is that of the actor William
Boucicault’s THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (1852).
TERRISS, who appears dressed in a frock coat
This involved covering the trap with SCRUTO,
and top hat in the Adelphi Theatre, the scene
which would slide away as the truck moved
of his murder in 1897.
through and then close again behind it.
Three ghosts roamed the ROYALTY
ghost light A small light, traditionally THEATRE in Dean Street before it was
mounted on a pole, that is left burning on demolished in 1955. A lady in Queen Anne
stage when all the other lights are switched off dress used to descend the stairs and disappear
and the theatre is locked up. The usual in the middle of the vestibule, a gypsy girl with
explanation for this custom tends to be either a tambourine would appear when the orchestra
(i) that it appeases the theatre GHOST, who played, and the 19th-century actress Fanny
may otherwise begin to play tricks; or (ii) that Kelly used to wander unconcernedly through
it reflects management’s ever-present fear of the theatre in the daytime.
 Gielgud, Sir (Arthur) John 207

The resident ghost at the Bristol Old Vic is Only Hummel and Mummy, the Colonel’s
the great 18th-century actress Sarah SIDDONS, wife, know that the Colonel’s much-loved
whose lover hanged himself there. The actor daughter was actually fathered by Hummel.
Frank Barrie once felt a tap on his shoulder During a dinner at the Colonel’s home,
after a rehearsal and turned around to see her Hummel reveals to the other guests that their
sitting in a box at the edge of the stage. host is as phoney as his military rank.
Perhaps the most unexpected of London’s Mummy, however, exposes Hummel’s
theatrical ghosts is that of Flipper, a dolphin deceitfulness and he commits suicide; their
who perished during an acquatic performance daughter is placed behind a ‘death screen’ to
at the Royalty Theatre (now the Peacock). The wither and die.
creature is said to make a pathetic squawking
Ghost Train, The A comic thriller by
sound, rather like that of a tiny baby.
Arnold Ridley (1896–1984), first performed in
Ghosts Henrik IBSEN’s most controversial 1925 at the St Martin’s Theatre, London. It
work, a tragedy that uses sexually transmitted was successfully revived in 1993 at the Lyric
disease as a symbol of inherited and collective Theatre, Hammersmith, and has become a
guilt. The play, a great landmark in the staple of the amateur repertoire.
development of realist drama, was first The plot involves a group of travellers,
performed in 1882 in Chicago before an including two young honeymooners, who miss
audience of Scandinavian immigrants. their train and are forced to spend the night in
Although presented earlier by the Independent a remote, and apparently haunted, Cornish
Theatre Society, the play did not have a railway station. It transpires, however, that the
licensed production in Britain until 1914, ghost train is an elaborate hoax to cover up a
when it was staged at the Theatre Royal, Bolshevik plan to smuggle weapons into
Haymarket; the Daily Telegraph critic Clement Britain. The plan is thwarted by one of the
Scott described Ibsen’s play as “an open drain, travellers who, it emerges, is a secret agent.
a loathsome sore, an abominable piece, a The original production was noted for its
repulsive and degrading work”. elaborate SOUND EFFECTS; milk churns, garden
The plot concerns Helen Alving, a wealthy rollers, and whistles were amongst the devices
widow, and her painter son Oswald, who has used to create the effect of the ghost train.
just returned from Paris. As a result of his The author is now mainly remembered for
father’s debauchery, Oswald now suffers from playing the aged Private Godfrey in the classic
a congenital disease. It also transpires that TV comedy Dad’s Army.
Regine, the woman with whom he has been
Gielgud, Sir (Arthur) John
having an affair, is his illegitimate half-sister.
(1904–2000) British actor and director,
Upon learning of her parentage, Regine
noted especially for his interpretations of
decides to leave Oswald, whose brain is
Shakespeare. Gielgud’s noble presence on the
beginning to be affected by the disease. As the
stage prompted OLIVIER to describe him as
curtain falls Oswald pleads with his mother to
“always the poet, head upturned towards the
give him a fatal dose of pills.
stars”. At RADA, however, he had been
Ghost Sonata, The A one-act drama criticized for walking like “a cat with rickets”.
by August STRINDBERG, first performed in He was knighted in 1953 and appointed OM
Stockholm (1908) as one of five ‘chamber in 1997.
plays’ (Kammarspel) written for his Intima Gielgud’s mother was the daughter of the
Teatern. The work has many ‘grotesques’ and actress Kate Terry-Lewis and a niece of Ellen
dreamlike interruptions, thus anticipating Terry (see TERRY FAMILY). He was taken to the
many of the techniques associated with theatre from an early age and soon became
EXPRESSIONISM. The play also influenced stage-struck. He made his debut in 1921 as the
Eugene O’NEILL and the playwrights of the herald in Henry V, having the one line “Here is
Theatre of the ABSURD. the number of the slaughter’d French.” In
The central theme of the work is the 1924 he joined the repertory company at the
conflict between truth and pretence. The plot Oxford Playhouse and five years later moved
involves the plan of an embittered old man, to the Old Vic, taking a large salary cut in
Hummel, to destroy a Colonel who, as a return for the chance to play Shakespeare. His
young rival, had taken the woman he loved. great Shakespearean roles included Romeo,
208 Gielgud Theatre

Macbeth, and especially Hamlet, which he Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not for Burning
would play more than 500 times in his career. (1949), with John GIELGUD, Robert Bolt’s A
In 1934 his performance of the part at Man for All Seasons (1960) with Paul Scofield,
Wyndham’s Theatre inspired Sybil Thorndike Terence Frisby’s There’s A Girl in My Soup
to describe his interpretation as “hauntingly (1966), and Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage
beautiful”. When Olivier played the part in (1987) with Maggie Smith. The Globe was
1937, Gielgud went backstage and said, renamed the Gielgud Theatre, in honour of
“Larry, it’s one of the finest performances I Sir John Gielgud, in 1996. Subsequent
have ever seen, but it’s still my part.” productions have included Sir Peter Hall’s
During World War II Gielgud entertained staging of Wilde’s An Ideal Husband (1997),
the troops in Malta, Gibraltar, and Burma the RSC’s revival of Miller’s The Crucible
with plays by Noël Coward and others. After (2005), and a new production of Shaffer’s
the war he developed as a director, presenting Equus (2007) starring Daniel Radcliffe.
works ranging from Tennessee Williams’s The gigaku A Chinese Buddhist dance drama
Glass Menagerie (1948) to Berlioz’s opera The imported to Japan in 612 by the Korean
Trojans (1957). In 1949 his production of dancer, Mimaji. The performances consisted
Christopher Fry’s THE LADY’S NOT FOR of processions followed by comic scenes
BURNING ran for 294 performances at the performed on a temporary outdoor stage.
Globe, during which time Gielgud directed Some 250 gigaku masks have been preserved in
four other plays. Between 1956 and 1964, he temple collections.
successfully took his one-man Shakespearean A typical performance of gigaku in the
anthology, The Ages of Man, around the world. 13th century began with ritual Buddhist music
His roles in contemporary British plays (netori), followed by a procession (gyodo) of
included the headmaster in Alan Bennett’s chanting monks masked as Buddhas. Ten or
Forty Years On (1968), Harry in David Storey’s more actors representing stock characters such
Home (1970), and the depressed poet, as a king, a Chinese woman, an Indian
Spooner, in Pinter’s No Man’s Land (1975). Brahman, and a lion tamer would then process
He also appeared in numerous films, usually before mounting the stage to enact a series of
in supporting roles; in 1981 he won an Oscar skits warning against various sins.
(at the age of 77) for his performance as a By the 12th century, gigaku had lost
supercilious valet in the comedy Arthur. imperial support and was thereafter gradually
A potentially scandalous incident from replaced by BUGAKU.
Gielgud’s private life – in 1953 he was arrested
for “importuning for immoral purposes” in a G.I. Hamlet A simplified version of
gents’ lavatory – forms the basis for Nicholas Shakespeare’s HAMLET, as performed by the
de Jongh’s 2008 play Plague Over England. actor Maurice EVANS for US troops during
World War II. “We are giving you,” he
I have three besetting sins, both on and informed the audience, “a Hamlet without the
off the stage; impetuosity, self- intellectual trimmings.” The condensed drama,
consciousness, and a lack of interest in also known as the ‘Jeep Version’ made Hamlet
anything not immediately concerned a decisive man of action rather than the
with myself or with the theatre. hesitant dreamer of tradition. The play proved
SIR JOHN GIELGUD: Early Stages so popular with the troops that Evans
Gielgud Theatre A theatre in performed it in 1946 at the Columbus Circle
Shaftesbury Avenue, London, that opened as Theater, New York, for 131 performances and
the Hicks Theatre in 1906. Designed by then took it on tour.
W. G. R. Sprague, it was named after the Gilbert and Sullivan The playwright
actor-manager Seymour Hicks, who and lyricist Sir William Schwenk Gilbert
commissioned it with Charles Frohman. The (1836–1911) and the composer Sir Arthur
theatre enjoyed its first hit with Brewster’s Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900), who
Millions in 1907 and was renamed the Globe collaborated on a series of light operas between
in 1909. A riot took place in 1917, when the 1871 and 1896.
French music-hall artiste Gaby Deslys Gilbert, the son of a retired naval surgeon,
appeared. The theatre’s successes have included claimed he had been kidnapped as a child in
Terence Rattigan’s While the Sun Shines (1943), Naples and ransomed for £25. As a young man
 Giraudoux, (Hippolyte) Jean 209

he briefly practised law while becoming PIRATES OF PENZANCE (1879). Patience (1881)
increasingly involved in writing burlesques and was the first of the so-called SAVOY OPERAS
extravaganzas for the theatre. Gilbert’s more presented at the purpose-built SAVOY THEATRE.
serious plays included The Palace of Truth It was followed by further successess including
(1870), Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), and IOLANTHE (1882), Princess Ida (1884), THE
Dan’l Druce, Blacksmith (1876). After his MIKADO (1885), Ruddigore (1887), THE
collaboration with Sullivan had made him YEOMAN OF THE GUARD (1888), and THE
rich, Gilbert invested some of his profits in the GONDOLIERS (1889).
building of the GARRICK THEATRE. Although The adjective Gilbertian is often applied to
he wrote for other composers, only his libretti any humorously confused situation, such as
for Sullivan have survived. those depicted in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert’s notorious rudeness is said to have operas.
kept Queen Victoria from knighting him at Gingold, Hermione (Ferdinanda)
the same time as Sullivan; the honour was (1897–1987) British actress, who appeared
finally granted after her death. Gilbert had a successfully in revues on both sides of the
fascination with water and often spoke of Atlantic. She first appeared on stage at the age
dying in his garden on a summer’s day; on of 11 and six years later played Jessica in The
29 May 1911, when a visiting girl found Merchant of Venice at the Old Vic. In 1936 her
herself in trouble swimming in the lake beside skill as a comedienne was revealed when she
his house in Harrow Weald, on the outskirts appeared in Herbert Farjeon’s revue Spread it
of London, Gilbert gallantly plunged in to save Abroad at the Saville Theatre, London.
her. Unfortunately the shock was too much for Gingold subsequently became one of the
the 75-year-old man, who suffered a fatal heart leading stars of intimate revue, appearing in
attack. the Gate Revue of 1938 and Swinging the Gate
The son of a theatre clarinettist, Sullivan in 1940 before performing in the series of
was selected for the Chapel Royal Choir and Sweet and Low revues at the Ambassadors
won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Theatre (1943–47). In 1949 she appeared with
Music. He later studied in Leipzig where he her arch rival Hermione Baddeley in a revival
was a classmate of Grieg’s and also met Liszt of Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels. Coward
and Schumann. Following a visit to Rossini in commented in his diary: “Gingold at moments
Paris, Gilbert decided to compose for the showed signs that she could be funny.
stage. His first success came with a version of Baddeley was disgusting…” Gingold made her
Cox and Box, which was performed privately in New York debut in revue in 1951 and toured
London in 1866. He also composed ‘Onward, in America with Fallen Angels. In the 1950s
Christian Soldiers!’, ‘The Lost Chord’, and and 1960s she appeared in a number of
other familiar Victorian songs. Sullivan Hollywood musicals, including The Music
collaborated with several other dramatists Man and Gigi. Her son, the actor and director
before being introduced to Gilbert in 1871. Stephen Joseph (1927–67), created Britain’s
A warm host, gracious friend, and first permanent THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND, the
enthusiastic gambler at fashionable casinos, Victoria Theatre at Stoke-on-Trent in 1962.
Sullivan was welcomed into London society.
In this milieu he met Mary Ronalds, a Giraldi, Giovanni Battista See
CINTHIO, IL.
beautiful, but married, American who became
his mistress for the last 24 years of his life. Giraudoux, (Hippolyte) Jean
The relationship between the irritable (1882–1944) French novelist, playwright, and
Gilbert and the gentle Sullivan was prolific and essayist, whose work combines fantasy with
highly successful – it was not, however, realism; his plots were often drawn from
without its tensions. Their first collaboration biblical and mythological stories. Giraudoux
was in 1871 with Thespis; or, the Gods Grown served as a diplomat and wrote several
Old, an operatic extravaganza produced at the successful novels before trying his hand at
Gaiety Theatre. It was only after the first of drama. His first play, Siegfried, produced in
their light operas, Trial by Jury (1875), that Paris in 1928 when he was 45, initiated a long
Richard D’OYLY CARTE commissioned further collaboration with the actor and director Louis
work. Their joint reputation was established by JOUVET.
HMS PINAFORE (1878) and consolidated by THE Giraudoux followed this with the highly
210 giving out

successful Amphitryon 38, a work based on actress Laurette Taylor (1884–1946) with her
Plautus’s Amphitruo (see AMPHITRYON). An last major part.
adaptation of this work by S. N. Behrman The story, about the emotional tensions
for the LUNTS enjoyed successful runs on within an isolated Southern family, reflects
Broadway (1937) and in London (1938). Williams’s own relationship with his mother
La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lien, which and sister. The main characters are Amanda
addressed the causes and dilemmas of the Wingfield, her grown son Tom, and her shy
Trojan War, was first performed in Paris in disabled daughter, Laura. The mother’s chief
1935. Christopher FRY’s translation TIGER AT mission in life is to see Laura marry well, but
THE GATES, with Michael Redgrave as Hector, this pressure is driving the sensitive girl insane.
had a successful London run in 1955 before Laura finally breaks down completely when
transferring to New York’s Plymouth Theatre, her mother asks Tom to bring home a fellow
where it won a New York Drama Critics’ employee, whom she pushes at Laura.
Circle Award.
Ondine, based on the legend of a water- Globe Theatre Four theatres bearing this
nymph who falls in love with a human, had its name have existed in London. The original
premiere in Paris in 1939; it was presented in Globe, a thatched three-galleried structure, was
London by the Théâtre National de Belgique built by Richard and Cuthbert BURBAGE in
in 1953 and revived by the Royal Shakespeare 1599. It was constructed from timber
Company in 1961. originally used by their father, Thomas
Giraudoux’s THE MADWOMAN OF Burbage, to build the THEATRE in 1576. The
CHAILLOT was performed in Paris in 1945, Theatre’s landlord complained that the
opening three years later on Broadway with Burbage brothers had
the British actress Martita Hunt in the lead. …ryoutously assembled themselves
Elisabeth Bergner revived the part in together, and there armed themselves
Düsseldorf and returned to it at the Yvonne with dyvers and many unlawfull and
Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, in 1967. Two offensive weapons…attempted to pull
years later a Broadway musical version, Dear down the sayd Theater…and…carrye
World, flopped. away from thence all the wood and
Another play to be given a posthumous timber thereof unto the Bancksyde…
first performance was Pour Lucrèce (1953), and there erected a newe play-house
translated by Christopher Fry as DUEL OF with the sayd timber and wood.
ANGELS. Shakespeare, a shareholder in the Globe, acted
giving out In the English theatre, the there with the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN, who
custom of announcing the next production at performed many of his plays at the theatre. In
the end of a performance. This practice died 1613 the theatre was destroyed by fire, during
out in the first half of the 19th century. a performance of Henry VIII, but it was
rebuilt within a year with funds from a royal
glass crash A theatrical SOUND EFFECT to grant and from public subscriptions. The
simulate the breaking of a pane of glass. Before Puritans closed the theatre in 1642 (see
sound effects were recorded, this was normally INTERREGNUM, THE) and two years later it was
achieved by pouring pieces of broken glass and demolished.
china from one bucket into another. The live The second Globe Theatre opened in
method is still used in some productions. Aldwych in 1868. Owing to their unstable
Glass Menagerie, The Tennessee appearance, the Globe and the Opera
WILLIAMS’s first successful play, produced in Comique next door were popularly known as
1945 in New York. This semi-autobiographical the Rickety Twins. The 1800-capacity theatre,
work, described by Williams himself as a designed, built, and managed by Sefton Parry,
“memory play”, won a New York Drama had successes with two transfers, Charles
Critics’ Circle Award; its language prompted HAWTREY’s The Private Secretary (1884) and
the critic Stark Young to write: “Behind the Brandon Thomas’s Charley’s Aunt (1893). In
Southern speech in the mother’s part is the 1902, following a revival of Sweet Nell of Old
echo of great literature…It has the echo and Drury Lane with Fred Terry and Julia Neilson,
the music of it.” The role of Amanda, the the theatre was demolished for the Strand
emotionally fragile mother, provided the US improvement scheme.
 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 211

London acquired its third Globe Theatre Humber”. Born in Yorkshire, the son and
in 1909, when the Hicks Theatre on grandson of miners, Godber trained as a
Shaftesbury Avenue took the name. The venue teacher and became head of drama at his old
was renamed the GIELGUD THEATRE, in honour secondary school in Minsthorpe. Students at
of Sir John, in 1996. Minsthorpe were thus the first to present many
In the 1970s the US actor Sam of Godber’s early plays, which won a series of
Wanamaker embarked on a personal crusade awards at the National Student Drama
to reconstruct Shakespeare’s Globe on its Festival.
original site beside the River Thames. This was In 1984 Godber became artistic director
widely seen as quixotic and met with of the Hull Truck Theatre, a position he
considerable opposition from Southwark continued to hold until 2010. Faced with
Council. The plans (by Theo Crosby) called financial crisis, Godber made an attempt to
for the first all-wooden building in London woo local audiences with his first play for Hull,
since the great fire of 1666. Nevertheless, the comedy Up ‘n’ Under (1984). The play,
construction work proceeded and a German- which deals with the struggles of an inept
language performance of The Merry Wives of Rugby League team, is typical of Godber’s
Windsor was staged in the theatre to mark the work in its populist approach, its focus on a
429th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth in tight-knit if ill-assorted social group, and its
1993. Since its official opening in 1997, combination of physical with observational
Shakespeare’s Globe has rapidly become one humour. This runaway success was followed by
of London’s leading tourist attractions. The a long string of hits, including Teechers (1987),
theatre offers an annual season of plays by On the Piste (1990), The Office Party (1992),
Shakespeare and his contemporaries in a Gym and Tonic (1996), and Perfect Pitch
manner that is as close to the original (1998), about a group of caravanning
performance style as practicalities permit (the enthusiasts. In the mid 1990s a government
main difference being the use of modern stage arts document reported that Godber had
lighting). Despite the misgivings of many become the third most performed playwright
critics, the Globe’s artistic director Mark in the country, after Shakespeare and
RYLANCE showed that such an approach was by Ayckbourn. His most popular work by far has
no means incompatible with a fresh and proved to be Bouncers, a comedy about four
challenging approach to the works. Rylance doormen at a down-market nightclub that he
was succeeded by Dominic Dromgoole in first wrote in 1977 but subsequently reworked
2004. for performance in the 1980s and 1990s; it has
glory In RENAISSANCE DRAMA a tableau been calculated that the play is performed on
depicting a god descending to the stage in a an almost weekly basis by amateur and student
shower of light. A DRUM-AND-SHAFT system groups across Britain. More recent plays, such
would be used to lower the actor, who stood as On a Night Like This (2000) and Sold
on one of several platforms painted to (2007), which deals with the issue of people
represent the heavens. trafficking, have been judged bleaker and less
ebullient than earlier work. Godber has also
gobo A cut-out masking device used to directed and adapted plays by other authors, as
create special lighting effects on stage. The well as writing widely for television.
gobo is placed in a PROFILE SPOT to shape the
beam, creating such atmospheric effects as soft gods See GALLERY.
dappled woodland light, etc. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Various unconvincing derivations (1749–1832) Germany’s greatest literary
have been offered for the term, including figure, much of whose writing was for the
suggestions that it is an acronym of ‘gel over theatre. The son of a lawyer, Goethe first
blackout’ or that it was devised by a lighting- became interested in drama after watching
man named Bo.
plays performed by French Army companies
Godber, John (1956– ) British and enjoying the local marionette theatre
playwright and director, known for his (where he saw a piece that would later inspire
boisterous comedies; his work with the Hull his masterpiece FAUST).
Truck Theatre over 25 years has lead to his In 1765 he attended the University of
being dubbed “the true mouth of the Leipzig to study law, but suffered a physical
212 Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich

breakdown. While convalescing, he read, when the duke’s mistress took control of the
and was greatly influenced by, the plays of company in 1817 he resigned. Goethe
Shakespeare and the contemporary writings of continued to work on the second part of Faust
the German dramatist G. E. LESSING. When he until a few months before his death in 1832.
had recuperated, Goethe left Leipzig to The work, a drama of mankind’s indomitable
complete his studies at the University of spirit, was his crowning achievement.
Strasbourg, where he met the writer Johann
Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich
Gottfried Herder, in whose company Goethe (1809–52) Russian playwright and novelist, a
saw his first Shakespeare play. pioneer of realism in the Russian theatre. Born
Soon after graduating, he published his in Ukraine, the son of a petty landowner, he
first play, the historical drama GÖTZ VON acted in plays and wrote for magazines while at
BERLICHINGEN (1773). Despite its extreme
school. When he failed to secure an acting job
length (54 scenes), the play created a sensation at the St Petersburg state theatre, he decided
with its emotional intensity and racy plot; it is to emigrate to America using funds embezzled
usually considered the first drama of the from his parents, but only reached Germany
STURM UND DRANG movement. Two years
before changing his mind. In 1831 he found
later, Goethe settled in Weimar at the behest sudden fame with a volume of short stories
of the 18-year-old duke, where he directed and formed an important friendship with
entertainments, led the town’s amateur the poet Alexander Pushkin, who suggested
theatrical group, and acted in his own works. the plots for both the novel Dead Souls (1842)
In 1786 Goethe visited Italy, and returned and Gogol’s most successful play, THE
nearly two years later with a changed outlook GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (1836).
on life and art; he had renounced youthful Gogol’s early works include the comedies
romanticism in favour of a more measured The Gamblers (1832) and An Utterly Incredible
classicism. His drama of humanity and Affair (1835) and a historical play, Alfred the
reconciliation Iphigenie auf Tauris, originally Great (1835), which portrayed the English
written in 1779 but recast in verse in 1787 king as an ideal ruler. He abandoned his first
(see IPHIGENIA), is evidence of this changed attempt at a satire on Russian bureaucracy
outlook. Friedrich SCHILLER called the work from fear of censorship, later destroying the
“astonishingly modern and un-Greek”. manuscript. His satirical masterpiece The
Meanwhile Goethe fell in love with Christiane Government Inspector survived mainly owing to
Vulpius and the couple created a scandal by the support of Tsar Nicholas I, who enjoyed its
living together for 18 years and having several performance in 1836. The play was attacked so
children before eventually marrying in 1806. severely by others, however, that Gogol left
They remained together until Christiane’s Russia for 12 years abroad, most of which he
death 10 years later. spent in Rome. He returned in 1848 in poor
In 1790 Goethe published the first physical and mental health. Among the works
fragment of Faust, a play he had already been written during this period abroad was Marriage
working on for some 20 years. The following (1842; produced in London in 1956 as The
year, the duke appointed Goethe as director Marriage Broker). The novel Dead Souls was
of his new state theatre. With Schiller’s dramatized in 1928 by STANISLAVSKY at the
encouragement, Goethe drew up a set of 91 Moscow Art Theatre and performed in 1964
rules to improve the resident company’s acting in Russian at London’s Aldwych Theatre as
technique and worked with individual actors part of the WORLD THEATRE SEASON. Gogol’s
for months before rehearsals. The result was last years were clouded by his failed attempts
the most integrated ensemble of the era and to produce a sequel to his great novel and an
the creation of a new and influential style of ever deepening religious mania.
acting (the so-called WEIMAR STYLE). In 1959 the Moscow Transport Theatre
Schiller, who became co-director at the was renamed the Gogol Theatre in honour of
theatre, urged Goethe to finish the first part of the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Faust, which he did in 1808. Goethe produced
going up Theatrical jargon for the
most of his friend’s plays and when Schiller
beginning of a performance, as in ‘We’re going
died in 1805, lamented that he had lost “half
up in five minutes.’
of my existence.” Subsequently Goethe’s
enthusiasm for the theatre diminished, and Golden Boy A play by Clifford ODETS
 Goldsmith, Oliver 213

that opened in 1937 at the Belasco Theatre, wrote 16 new plays to illustrate his dramatic
New York, for a run of 250 performances; it theories.
was presented a year later in London. A The son of a Venetian doctor, Goldoni ran
successful musical version was staged on away from school with a troupe of actors when
Broadway in 1964, starring Sammy Davis Jnr. he was 14; in 1725 he was expelled from the
The plot concerns Joe Bonaparte, a talented Collegio Ghislieri, Pavia, for writing a satire
violinist who turns to boxing to finance his about local ladies. He later studied law and
musical career, despite his fear of injuring his practised in Venice and Pisa. In 1734 he
hands. He decides to return to music after joined the Imer company in Venice, who
killing an opponent in the ring, but he and his later that year produced his first play, the
girlfriend die in a car crash before this can be tragicomedy Belisario.
accomplished. From about 1738 onwards Goldoni began
to replace the traditional improvised comedy
Golden Foghorn, the Nickname of
of the commedia dell’arte with written parts.
Ethel MERMAN, the US singer and actress
This was resisted by senior actors, as was his
known for her ability to be heard in the next
abandonment of the use of masks. Through
block.
these and other reforms Goldoni created a new
Golden Rump, The A play, by author or comedy of character and social criticism
authors unknown, which helped to usher in comparable to Molière’s. In works such as La
tighter theatrical CENSORSHIP in Britain. Since vedova scaltra (1748) and Il cavaliere e la dama
the late 1720s Robert Walpole, the prime (1749) he similarly replaced traditional risqué
minister, had been subjected to a series of farce with a more moral comedy of manners.
lampoons in the public theatres, notably in In 1746 Goldoni began a highly
Gay’s THE BEGGAR’S OPERA. In 1737, Henry productive period writing for the company of
Gifford, then manager of Goodman’s Fields Girolamo Medebac at the Teatro Sant’ Angelo.
Theatre, informed Walpole of a particularly His realistic Il teatro comico (1750), presented
scurrilous manuscript he had received from on a bare stage, depicts a troupe of actors
an anonymous source. Walpole quoted about to rehearse. A year later he wrote his
extensively from the play in parliament, using comic masterpiece La locandiera, which
it as a pretext to demand increased theatrical includes the coquettish role of Mirandolina.
censorship. The play, The Golden Rump, called The character became popular throughout
for a striking piece of scenery – a huge pair of Europe and became famous again in 1891
golden buttocks from between which the when Eleonora DUSE revived it for her world
various political figures being satirized would tours.
appear and disappear. Goldoni subsequently moved to Francesco
As a result of Walpole’s use of the play in Vendramin’s company at the Teatro San Luca
parliament, a new Licensing Act was brought (now the Teatro Goldoni). However, this
in that caused the closure of some minor venue proved too large for his intimate works
theatres and gave the LORD CHAMBERLAIN’s and his reforms were strongly resisted by rivals
office the power to demand the removal from including Carlo Gozzi. In 1762 Goldoni
plays of passages deemed offensive. Gifford accepted an invitation to direct the COMÉDIE-
received £1000 reward for his actions, ITALIENNE in Paris; during the next two years
although his theatre subsequently lost its he produced French versions of his own works
licence. The manuscript of The Golden Rump as well as new works in French. Despite wide
disappeared, provoking speculation that acclaim Goldoni still found much opposition
Walpole himself may have commissioned the amongst the old school and in 1764 he retired.
play to serve his political purpose. Thereafter he taught Italian to the French
princesses and composed librettos for the opera
Goldoni, Carlo (1707–93) Prolific
buffa. Despite his many successes Goldoni died
Italian playwright, who made important
in poverty in Paris, having lost his pension
reforms in the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE and
following the French Revolution.
played a major role in the development of
modern Italian drama. His works, written in Goldsmith, Oliver (1730–74) The
Italian, Venetian dialect, and French, include Irish-born poet, playwright, novelist, and
more than 150 comedies, 10 tragedies, and 83 journalist, whose two plays have outlived the
librettos. During the 1750–51 season alone he efforts of all his contemporaries except
214 goliard

SHERIDAN. Dr Johnson described him as “a goliards pledged allegiance: it may derive

very great man”, while Goethe would later ultimately from an Old French word for a
write, “To Shakespeare, Sterne, and Goldsmith glutton. See also JONGLEUR.
my debt has been limitless.”
goloshans See MUMMERS’ PLAY.
Goldsmith’s youth gave little promise of
his future achievements. After attending Gombeyatta A genre of shadow puppet
Trinity College, Dublin, he abandoned plans theatre performed in the Indian state of
to be ordained. He thought of emigrating to Karnataka. As many as 300 families are
America but missed his ship. He then briefly involved in producing these shadow plays
studied medicine before travelling through which are mainly based on stories in the
Europe, partially supporting himself by Ramayana and the MAHABHARATA. A
busking. On his return, he earned a meagre Gombeyatta troupe usually consists of the main
living by translating and reviewing; it was in puppeteer, his wife who plays the harmonium
this period that he emerged as an essayist of and sings, other male family members who
talent. help in manipulating the puppets, and a tabla
Goldsmith’s first play, The Good-Natured (drum) player. The companies, who perform
Man, was turned down by Garrick; the elder on religious holidays, are generally associated
Colman (see COLMANS, THE) subsequently with a particular Hindu temple.
produced it at Covent Garden (1768) though The chief puppeteer often has over 100
with only mild success. Goldsmith made his figures under his control and may use as many
name as a playwright with the comedy SHE as 50 in one performance. Several puppets can
STOOPS TO CONQUER (1773), in which two be used to represent the different moods of a
men mistake a private house for an inn (a single character. The social rank of the puppets
mistake the playwright had himself once is usually indicated by their size, with the
made). In rehearsal, Goldsmith berated an largest being about 30 to 40 inches tall.
actor for playing the part of Young Marlow (an Categories of puppet include gods, demons,
Englishman) with an Irish accent. “Sir,” humans, clowns, animals, and natural objects
replied the actor, “I spoke it as nearly as I such as trees.
could to the manner in which you instructed The BOMMALATTAM puppet theatre of
me, except that I did not give it quite so strong southern India is also sometimes called
a brogue.” Gombeyatta.
Goldsmith’s only novel The Vicar of
Gondoliers, The The happiest of
Wakefield (1766) was successfully adapted for
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN’s Savoy Operas.
the stage in 1878 with Ellen Terry (see TERRY
Subtitled The King of Barataria, the work was
FAMILY) in the role of Olivia, a part later played
first performed in 1889 at the Savoy Theatre,
on tour by her sister, Florence Terry.
London. The two men worked together
Goldsmith’s Irish impudence and
amicably enough on the piece but fell out
inconsequential style of chat often irritated his
irretrievably shortly afterwards, a fact that
London contemporaries. Horace Walpole
probably explains the failure of their
called him “an inspired idiot” while Samuel
subsequent works.
Johnson commented “No man was more
Set in Venice, the story involves Marco
foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or
and Giuseppe, two gondoliers whose weddings
more wise when he had.”
take place while the Duke of Plaza-Toro
goliard In medieval Europe, a wandering is visiting the city with his daughter. The
clerk or scholar attached to a band of travelling Duke’s daughter, Casilda, had 20 years earlier
entertainers. Noted for their obscene ballads been married by proxy to the infant Prince
and short satirical plays, the goliards were of Barataria, who was abducted shortly
infamous for their licentious behaviour. Many afterwards. The circumstances suggest that one
of their poems about wine and women appear of the two gondoliers is in fact the prince,
in the Carmina Burana, a manuscript although it is not clear which. When informed,
collection first published in the late 19th Marco and Giuseppe leave their new wives
century. The goliards also specialized in to share the throne of Barataria. Casilda
religious satire, leading the Church to forbid intends to marry the true king as soon as he
clerics to act in 1281. The name comes from is identified by an old nurse. The nurse,
the mythical Bishop Golias, to whom the however, reveals that she had switched her own
 Gorboduc 215

child for the prince before the kidnapping. chances, Fenwick’s family arranged for
The true king is therefore Luiz, Casilda’s Goodman to be abducted and rowed across the
attendant. The royal couple are united, and English Channel with a knife held to his throat
the gondoliers return delighted to their wives. all the way. He died in Paris.
The Gondoliers was written four years after
Good Person of Setzuan, The A
the publication of the second part of Marx’s
play by Bertolt BRECHT, written between 1938
Das Kapital (1885), allowing Gilbert to
and 1940 and first performed in Zürich in
lampoon the idea of communism in several
1942. It is a complex parable about the role of
verses:
individual goodness in a greedy and heartless
The Aristocrat who banks with Coutts, world. Kenneth Tynan’s review noted, “A
The Aristocrat who hunts and shoots, fallacy has been exposed: that of seeking to be
The Aristocrat who cleans our boots – perfect in an imperfect society.”
They all shall equal be! The play was first produced in 1956, as
Goneril The eldest of KING LEAR’s three part of the English Stage Company’s first
daughters. Having received her portion of season at the Royal Court Theatre. Peggy
Lear’s kingdom, she first curtails the old man’s Ashcroft, who took the leading role of a
retinue, then drives him from her home. woman who finds it necessary to impersonate a
Compare CORDELIA; REGAN. (fictitious) male cousin, found the play “an
adventure”, having to sing and act half the
Goodman, Cardonell ‘Scum’ time in a mask. Other members of the cast
(1649–99) English actor and adventurer, included Joan Plowright and John Osborne.
whose exploits made him one of the most Brecht’s widow, the actress Helene Weigel,
notorious rogues of his era. The son of a visited London during the rehearsals and
clergyman, Goodman first went on the stage returned in 1965 with the BERLINER ENSEMBLE
after being sent down from Cambridge. He is to perform a German-language version of the
said to have acquired his unsavoury nickname play.
as a boy. As an actor, he is mainly remembered The play begins with three gods seeking
for stabbing a fellow actor named Griffin in a shelter in the province of Setzuan, China. The
sword fight. Apparently, the two men were so only person willing to take them in is Shen Te,
poor that they had only one decent shirt a warmhearted prostitute, to whom the gods
between them; the altercation erupted when gratefully give enough money to start a
Goodman, who had a date with a mistress, tobacco factory. Despite her benevolent
insisted on wearing it out of turn. By the mid intentions, Shen Te finds that she can only
1770s he had become the lover of the Duchess protect her interests by occasionally adopting
of Cleveland, a discarded mistress of Charles the persona of a rough male cousin, Shui Ta.
II, apparently sharing her favours with At one point the ‘cousin’ sings, “You can only
playwright William WYCHERLEY. After the help one of your luckless brothers by trampling
Duchess gave birth to his son, Goodman down dozens of others.” She later falls in love
conspired to poison her sons by Charles, a with a young aviator, until he admits to her
crime for which he was merely fined. In a ‘cousin’ that he only wants Shen Te’s money.
desperate attempt to solve his cash-flow The aviator becomes foreman of the factory
problems ‘Scum’ then turned highwayman but and, when Shen Te mysteriously disappears, he
was immediately caught, only escaping the has Shui Ta arrested and accused of murdering
gallows through the clemency of James II. her. Shen Te is forced to reveal her deception.
Goodman’s villainies took a more serious The three gods listen sympathetically to her
turn after the Glorious Revolution, when he problem but are unable to offer any practical
became involved in a dangerous plot to murder solution.
William III and restore the Stuarts. When the
Goold, Rupert See HEADLONG THEATRE.
plot’s ringleader, Sir John Fenwick, was
arrested but evidence against him seemed Gorboduc The earliest known English
lacking, sympathizers took the precaution of tragedy and the first to be written in blank
offering Goodman a large bribe to keep quiet. verse; the result of a collaboration by Thomas
Characteristically, ‘Scum’ pocketed the bribe Norton (1532–84) and Thomas Sackville, later
and promptly offered to testify against first Earl of Dorset (1536–1608), it was first
Fenwick. Determined to take no further performed on Twelfth Night in 1561. The
216 Gorki, Maxim

play, which has the alternative title The failure. On his release, he spent several years in
Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex, warns of the exile in Italy. Although initially a supporter of
dangers to a nation of an unclear succession. It the Bolshevik Revolution, he soon came to
was seen by the childless Elizabeth I, although distrust the new regime and from 1921 he
what she thought of it is not recorded. The again chose to live abroad. When he finally
title character, a legendary King of Britain, returned in 1931, at the personal invitation of
provided the basis for the figure of Gorbogud Stalin, he was feted as a national hero and
in Spenser’s The Fairie Queene. Shakespeare became a leading apologist for the dictator’s
also mentions King Gorboduc in Twelfth rule. His last major work for the stage was a
Night. trilogy about the fall of the Russian bourgeoisie
Among his other official duties, Sackville comprising Yegor Bulychov and Others (1932),
was a commissioner at state trials – in which Dostigayev and Others (1933), and the
capacity he conveyed the death sentence to uncompleted Somov and Others. Having
Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567. incurred Stalin’s suspicion, Gorki spent his last
years living under a form of unofficial house
Gorki, Maxim (Alexei Maximovich
arrest and many have concluded that his death
Pyeshkov; 1868–1936) Russian playwright,
was caused by poison; both Stalin and
novelist, short-story writer, and poet, who
Molotov were pallbearers at his funeral. The
championed the cause of the socially outcast.
Grand Gorki Theatre in St Petersburg, which
Gorki, whose pen name means ‘bitter’, was
opened in 1919, is named in his honour.
one of the few Russian dramatists to find
Gorki’s birthplace, Nizhny-Novgorod, was also
success in both the Tsarist and Soviet eras.
renamed after him in 1932 but reverted to its
An orphan, Gorki was brought up by his
original name in 1991.
grandparents and spent much of his youth
living as a vagrant and working in menial jobs. Gospel of Nicodemus An apocryphal
These experiences provided material for his book of uncertain origin, probably dating from
early writings, which brought him sudden about the 4th century. The book, which
celebrity in the late 1890s. His first play Scenes provides elaborate descriptions of the trial,
in the House of Bersemenov was staged at the death, and resurrection of Jesus, was much
MOSCOW ART THEATRE in 1902 at the behest used by writers of MYSTERY PLAYS and other
of Chekhov. Later that year STANISLAVSKY medieval dramas. Unlike the canonical
directed the same company in THE LOWER Gospels, it names the two thieves and Pilate’s
DEPTHS, Gorki’s most influential work. It is a wife and provides details of Christ’s descent
masterpiece of NATURALISM set amongst into hell. The book is also known as The Acts
derelicts in a Moscow flop house. The Lower of Pilate.
Depths opened in 1903 in London and in Götz von Berlichingen The first play
Berlin, where Max Reinhardt’s production ran by Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE, historically
for over 500 performances. That same year, important as the first German drama to be
Chekhov wrote: influenced by Shakespeare. Goethe wrote the
Gorki is the first in Russia and in the play shortly after seeing several Shakespeare
world at large to have expressed plays performed in Strasbourg in 1770. It was
contempt and loathing for the petty first produced in 1773 in Berlin by Friedrich
bourgeoisie and he has done it at the SCHRÖDER’s company.
precise moment when society is ready The play gives a melodramatic picture
for protest. of the life of the medieval robber baron
Between 1902 and 1915 Gorki wrote another Gottfriedens von Berlichingen (1480–1562),
13 plays, including Summerfolk (1904), who is idealized by Goethe as a just man in
Children of the Sun (1905), Enemies (1906), rebellion against tyranny. It did much to
which was not produced in Russia until 1933, inspire the developing STURM UND DRANG
and The Zykovs (1913), which enjoyed a movement, and to end the era of French
successful revival at the Aldwych Theatre in classical domination of the German stage. The
1976, starring Mia Farrow and David Jones. play was widely imitated by other German
An ardent reformer, Gorki took a playwrights, including Friedrich von SCHILLER,
prominent role in the abortive revolution of who followed nine years later with his equally
1905 and was briefly imprisoned after its intense and bloody DIE RÄUBER (The Robbers).
 Granville-Barker, Harley 217

The historical Götz was known as Iron intrigue, Gracioso corresponded loosely to the
Hand after losing his right hand at the siege of fool of the Elizabethan stage. The character
Landshut (1505) and having one made of steel derived from Bobo, the clown of Lope de
to replace it. Goethe’s play was translated and Rueda’s PASOs, or short farcical interludes. In
adapted by John ARDEN as Iron Hand (1965). Lope de Vega’s works the sharp-witted
Gracioso was used to burlesque or parody the
Goulue, La The stage name of Louise
Weber (1860–1919), a famous cancan dancer activities of his master. In the comedies of
at the MOULIN ROUGE from 1889 to 1895; she Augustin de Moroto (1618–69), his main
appears in several paintings of the venue by function was to create complicated intrigues
Toulouse-Lautrec. A former washerwoman, and a sense of mounting confusion.
the highly paid star became infamous in grande See ZARZUELA.
theatrical circles for her frightening temper and
lesbian affairs. Following her years at the Grand Guignol See GUIGNOL.
Moulin Rouge, she worked variously as a belly- grand master control A device added
dancer and lion-tamer, before finally to a DIMMER board that allows simultaneous
succumbing to alcoholism. changes of lighting, either throughout a set or
Government Inspector, The in one part of it. In recent years, this operation
(Rivizor) A satirical comedy by Nikolai GOGOL, has been greatly enhanced by the introduction
written in 1835 and first performed the of more sophisticated computerized lighting
following year at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in systems, such as the Strand Lighting Console
St Petersburg. Although the play was banned and the Strand System CD.
by the censors Tsar Nicholas I overruled them, Granville-Barker, Harley
having enjoyed its ridicule of government (1877–1946) British actor, director,
bureaucracy. “Everyone has caught it,” the tsar playwright, and critic, who exerted a major
said of Gogol’s satire, “but I have caught it influence on British theatre in the early 20th
more than anyone.” century. He began his career as an actor,
Attacks on the play prompted Gogol to touring the provinces with various companies
write a defence of his work in which he stated: and appearing with William Poel and Mrs
“Some of us who are ready to have a good Patrick Campbell amongst others. In 1900 he
laugh at a man’s crooked nose, have not the appeared as Marchbanks in the London
courage to laugh at a man’s crooked soul.” In premier of CANDIDA, thus beginning a life-long
response to criticism that the play lacked a association with the works of George Bernard
single honest character, Gogol claimed that SHAW. In the same year he directed the first
there was one: “laughter”. Nevertheless, major production of one of his own plays, The
continuing criticism led him to leave Russia in Marrying of Ann Leete. In 1904, with J. E.
1836. Vedrenne, he took over the ROYAL COURT
The plot concerns a petty clerk, Ivan THEATRE, where they staged a successful season
Khlestakov, who is mistaken for a government of Shaw’s plays together with works by Ibsen
inspector by the corrupt officials of a small and Yeats. The Royal Court seasons of
provincial town. They smarten up the town 1904–07 were largely responsible for
and load him with bribes and gifts. By the establishing Shaw as a major force in the
time the mistake is discovered, Khlestakov has British theatre. Granville-Barker’s own plays,
gone and the humiliated officials are left to which include THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE
face the real inspector. (1905), WASTE (1907), and The Madras House
The comedy was later interpreted by Soviet (1910), are written in a social-realist style
officials as criticism of the Tsarist regime, much influenced by the early Shaw.
rather than as an attack on Russia’s perennially By 1907 he had largely abandoned acting
inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. The to concentrate on directing. He was
Government Inspector had its London premiere
particularly admired for his productions of
in 1920 and opened on Broadway three years
Shakespeare, which were more than usually
later as The Inspector-General.
faithful to the original texts. After marrying a
Gracioso A popular character in Spanish wealthy divorcée in 1918, Granville-Barker
drama of the Golden Age. A comic servant retired from the stage and devoted himself to
who was used as a vehicle for satire and writing and lecturing. In 1919 he helped to
218 Gray, Simon (James Holliday)

found the British Drama League, of which he forced him to dry out in 1997, his 60-a-day
was chairman for 13 years. His many works of smoking habit continued unabated, as detailed
criticism include his famous Prefaces to in his scathingly funny memoir The Smoking
Shakespeare (1927–46). Diaries (2004). Gray’s last works included The
Old Masters (2004), a play about the art expert
Gray, Simon (James Holliday)
Bernard Berenson, and The Last Cigarette
(1936–2008) Prolific British playwright,
known for his witty but often painful (2008), another volume of diaries.
comedies. The son of a doctor, Gray was born Graziano See DOTTORE, IL.
in Hampshire but spent the war years with
relatives in Canada. After graduating from Grease A musical by Jim Jacobs and
Cambridge University, he pursued an Warren Casey. The show opened in Chicago
academic career, chiefly at the University of in 1971 but was radically rewritten before its
London, where he taught for over 20 years. Broadway debut a year later. Despite mixed
Having published several novels as a young reviews, it would become one of Broadway’s
man, Gray drifted into the theatre almost by longest running musicals, logging up a then-
accident; in 1967 a planned television play, record 3388 performances before closing in
Wild Child, was rejected by the BBC and 1980. It also enjoyed an international success,
ended up on stage in the West End with being known as Glease in Tokyo, Vaselina in
Alec Guinness as the central character, a Mexico, and Brilliantine in Paris. The original
transvestite. He established himself in the songs include ‘Summer Nights’, ‘Look at Me,
theatre with Butley (1971), an acerbic comedy I’m Sandra Dee’, and ‘Beauty School
of academic life that introduced the archetypal Dropout’.
Gray protagonist – a clever, articulate, but The show takes an affectionate but
emotionally arrested male whose failings bring unsentimental look at the rock ’n’ roll youth
pain to those around him. Both the play’s star, scene of the 1950s. A reunion for Rydell
Alan BATES, and its director, Harold PINTER High School’s Class of ’59 prompts much
became close friends of Gray and would reminiscing. Most prominent are memories of
collaborate with him on many future projects. romances between the Burger Palace Boys and
Bates starred again in Otherwise Engaged the Pink Ladies, especially that between Danny
(1975) – this time as Simon, a suave, music- Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski; subsequent
loving publisher whose attempts to avoid scenes return to the late 1950s and chart
emotional engagement and find solace in his Sandy’s transformation from a naive teenager
beloved Wagner lead only to disaster. The play into a leather-clad sex bomb. The hugely
proved particularly successful on Broadway, successful 1978 film version, which starred
where it ran for five years and was garlanded John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John,
with awards. Other notable plays of the 1970s introduced several new songs but sanitized
and 1980s included Stage Struck (1979), much of the stage show’s sexual frankness.
Quartermaine’s Terms (1981), The Common There have been several revivals, most of which
Pursuit (1984), and Melon (1987; later have followed the film rather than the original
rewritten as The Holy Terror) show. In 2007 leads for the new productions
In 1995 the London production of Gray’s in both New York and London were chosen
Cell Mates foundered when its star, Stephen via reality TV shows in each country.
Fry, went AWOL and fled abroad, apparently greasepaint See MAKE-UP.
suffering from some kind of breakdown. Gray
published a vituperative diary of this fraught Great Collaborator, the An epithet of
time in Fat Chance (1995). Aspects of Gray’s the US playwright George S. KAUFMAN,
own life are reflected in The Late Middle because of his numerous collaborative works.
Classes (1999), which draws on his parents’ Great Dionysia See DIONYSIA.
marriage, and Japes (2001), which was
suggested by the death of his brother from Greatest Show on Earth The billing
alcoholism. A long-term alcoholic himself, for P. T. BARNUM’s gigantic travelling show. A
Gray claimed to have drunk three or four combination of CIRCUS, menagerie, and freak
bottles of champagne every day for most of his show, it was exhibited across America from
adult life and to have written many of his best 1871 and merged with a similar enterprise run
plays while drunk. Although near-fatal illness by his chief rival, James Bailey, a decade later.
 Greeks Had a Word for It, The 219

The show was presented at the London copied Greek dramatic form, theatre design,
Olympia in 1889 and sold to the Ringling costumes, and masks, and even used Greek
Brothers in 1907. actors. The first scripted Roman plays were
translations from Greek by Livius Andronicus
Great Magician, the (Il Gran Stregone)
(c. 284–04 BC). Even SENECA, who lived in the
Nickname of the Italian architect and stage
1st century AD reworked Greek tragedies.
designer Giacomo TORELLI, in reference to the
Roman comedy derived largely from the plays
spectacular illusions created by his stage
of MENANDER, with playwrights such as
machinery.
PLAUTUS and TERENCE managing to get laughs
Great Piazza Coffee House A former out of their admissions that they borrowed so
coffee house, located at the northeast corner of much. Despite its great debt to the Greek
the Covent Garden piazza, that opened in theatre, however, Roman drama reflects the
1756. It was from here that the playwright tastes, attitudes, and preoccupations of its own
Richard SHERIDAN (1751–1861) watched a fire society.
destroy the DRURY LANE Theatre, of which he
Greek drama The theatre of ancient
was manager. He remarked at the time: “A
Greece, the fountainhead of the entire Western
man may surely be allowed to take a glass of
dramatic tradition. The earliest Greek drama is
wine at his own fireside.” The disaster ended
thought to have developed during the 6th
his theatrical career. The building became a
century BC from imitative religious magic
hotel in 1840 and was pulled down in 1865.
associated with the worship of DIONYSUS. The
See also FIRES.
golden age of ATHENIAN DRAMA (the 5th and
Great White Way A once popular 4th centuries BC) saw the emergence of the
nickname for BROADWAY, the street running genres of TRAGEDY and COMEDY and the
through the theatrical district of New York production of the great works of AESCHYLUS
City. The name originated in the late 19th (c. 525–456 BC), SOPHOCLES (c. 496–406 BC),
century because of the brilliant lighting used and EURIPIDES (c. 484–406 BC). ARISTOPHANES
outside the theatres. (c. 448–385 BC) was the greatest comic
playwright. The most important development
Greco-Roman drama The theatre of
of the later 4th century was the emergence of
the Greco-Roman world between the close of
the NEW COMEDY of MENANDER. Although the
the golden age of ATHENIAN DRAMA in about
Athenian tradition was in serious decline by
300 BC and the later ROMAN DRAMA of the 1st
about 300 BC, its influence had already spread
century AD.
to other parts of the Mediterranean world
Many aspects of ancient Greek culture
(see GRECO-ROMAN DRAMA).
were adopted by the Romans, who had
The first Greek plays were performed in a
enormous respect for Greek intellectual and
circular dancing area known as an ORCHESTRA.
literary achievements. Greek colonists had
Later a raised stage was added behind this
lived in southern Italy and Sicily (where Greek
area while a tent (SKENE) behind the stage
theatres still stand today) since at least the 6th
functioned as both a stage set and a dressing
century BC and it was through these channels
room. Scenery became more elaborate and
that the expanding Roman empire first came
such devices as the EKKYKLEMA and the
into contact with the Greek dramatic
mechane for the DEUS EX MACHINA were added
traditions. By the time of the Roman conquest
during the 5th century.
of Greece in the 2nd century BC NEW COMEDY
The influence of Greek theatre persists in
and romances had become popular, writers
the manifold translations, adaptations, and
such as AESCHYLUS, EURIPIDES, SOPHOCLES,
updatings that have appeared since the
Plato, and Aristotle were revered historical
Renaissance. It also appears in numerous major
figures, and Athens was established as an
and minor conventions of the Western stage;
educational and cultural centre visited by
the issuing of a ticket (metal token) for each
Roman tourists.
seat, and the habit of applauding to denote
The Romans adopted Greek mythology
approval, and whistling to express disapproval
and were happy to retell Greek stories in both
were all originally Greek customs.
literature and drama. As the earliest Roman
theatre consisted of little more than festival Greeks Had a Word for It, The The
pageants and bawdy village rituals, the Romans title of a play by the US poet and playwright
220 green, the

Zoë Akins, first produced in 1929. The phrase found that his onstage persona followed him
was originally included in the dialogue but was out of the theatre, often being called upon to
retained only as the title of the final version. use his healing powers and baptize the children
The word alluded to is ετερο (hetero, other, of his admirers.
different), describing certain characters in the Connelly’s fable, which he also directed,
play with rather outlandish personalities; it is was set in a Black Louisiana church in which
not a reference to their sexual proclivities. the preacher retells Bible stories in the simple
The phrase became popular in the 1930s, language of his congregation. God becomes a
when it was used of anything unusual or tall cigar-smoking Black man who encourages
unconventional. his people to live it up, instructing Noah to
green, the Archaic slang for the stage, take a barrel of liquor onto his ark and telling
first recorded in the early 20th century. It is Moses to lead his people to “de choice piece of
probably rhyming slang from ‘greengage’. property”.
green baize See TRAGIC CARPET. green room A backstage room in a
London theatre set aside for use by the cast
greencoat In the early Restoration and stage crew. The term was introduced in
theatre, a stagehand who changed furniture, the late 17th century. Large theatres had
scenery, and props between scenes. This was several such rooms for relaxation, conversation,
carried out in full view of the audience. The and the reception of visitors before and after a
name comes from the stagehands’ green livery. performance. Such areas were traditionally
green-eyed monster Shakespeare’s painted green, though it is also possible that
personification of jealousy in OTHELLO: the phrase was a corruption of the name ‘scene
O! beware my lord, of jealousy; (i.e. scenery) room’. The Drury Lane theatre
It is the green-ey’d monster which and several other theatres still have a green
doth mock room.
The meat it feeds on. The Green Room Club is a social club
Othello (III, iii) founded in 1886 by members of the Junior
The phrase is probably based upon an GARRICK CLUB. Its members, who have mostly
analogy between jealousy and jaundice – a been actors and actresses, met in the vaults
disease that causes a yellowy-greenish tinge in under the Adelphi development from the
the whites of the eyes. Just as sufferers from 1950s until 2000.
jaundice were supposed (erroneously) to see green umbrella A US theatrical term
everything tinged yellow or green, so those for a prop, mannerism, or other detail that
afflicted with irrational jealousy are presumed
gives an actor a sudden insight into the
to find evidence of their suspicions in
characterization of a particular role. The phrase
everything they look upon.
originated with the US actor Alfred LUNT, who
The Dublin actor Thomas Layfield
was having difficulty interpreting the role of
(fl. 1750) once brought a performance of
Professor Higgins in Shaw’s Pygmalion (1927).
Othello to a sudden halt by declaiming:
According to his wife, Lynn Fontanne, her
O! beware my lord, of jealousy;
husband suddenly sat up in bed one night,
It is a green-eyed lobster.
exclaiming “I’ll carry a green umbrella!” In
This was the first sign of the madness that Noël Coward’s version of the story, the
led to his spending his last years in a Dublin umbrella was Fontanne’s suggestion.
asylum. Whatever the origin of the phrase, Lunt
Green Pastures, The Mark Connelly’s continued to use it. In 1937 during rehearsals
Black folk drama, first produced (with a Black for Giraudoux’s Amphitryon 38 at the Shubert
cast) in New York in 1930. The work, which Theatre on Broadway, Lunt called the cast
won a Pulitzer Prize, had the distinction of together to announce that the play was off
being the first US play to put God on stage, an because “I can’t find the green umbrella.”
innovation that earned it an automatic ban Fontanne, who was sitting near the footlights,
from the LORD CHAMBERLAIN in Britain. The reassured the mystified cast, “Don’t worry,
role of God was played by a 62-year-old we’ll go on, and he will find it.” Half an hour
theatrical novice, Richard B. Harrison, who later, Lunt returned to announce delightedly
 Griffiths, Trevor 221

that the umbrella had been found and the character comes face to face with the residents
show would go on. of the high-rise housing complex he designed,
and The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the
Gregory, Lady (Isabella) Augusta
Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet
(1852–1932) Irish playwright, who with W. B.
Union (1999), which interweaves the plight of
YEATS cofounded Dublin’s ABBEY THEATRE.
two Russians adrift on a forgotten space station
The first plays presented at the Abbey (on
with the stories of several more earthbound but
27 December 1904) were her own one-act
still drifting characters in modern Scotland.
comedy Spreading the News and Yeats’s On
Like many of Greig’s works, both were first
Baile’s Strand. A daughter of the Anglo-Irish
staged at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre.
ascendancy who had been converted to
Subsequent plays have included Outlying
nationalism and the Irish movement in the
Islands (2002), The American Pilot (2005), and
arts, she wrote her first play at the age of 51.
Damascus (2007), a tragicomedy of cultural
Her best works were dialect comedies about
misunderstandings based partly on Greig’s
Irish peasant life, including Hyacinth Halvey
own experience of teaching creative writing in
(1906) and The Gaol Gate (1906), although
the Middle East.
her tragedy Dervorgilla (1907) was also much
Greig is now best known, however, for
acclaimed. As a director of the Abbey, she
Dunsinane (2010), an audacious ‘sequel’ to
championed the works of J. M. Synge, George
Shakespeare’s MACBETH that appears to draw
Bernard Shaw, and Sean O’Casey. The success
parallels between the English occupation of
of the venture owed much to her formidable
Scotland and the contemporary war in
capacity for getting things done or persuading Afghanistan. The play was hailed as an instant
others to do them. In the cause of the Abbey classic when first seen in an RSC production at
she fought censors, braved rioting mobs, and, the Hampstead Theatre (one writer has even
in the 1920s, obtained the first state subsidy facetiously described MACBETH as “the prequel
for a theatre in the English-speaking world. to Dunsinane”). A prolific writer, Grieg has
Lady Gregory also translated Molière’s also created English versions of plays by
plays into Irish dialect as well as contributing Strindberg, Euripides, and others, as well as
to several works by Yeats, including The Pot of the adaptations Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin
Broth (1902) and the fervently patriotic (2005) and Peter Pan (2010).
CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN (1902).

If the audience was poor, she would go Grenfell, Joyce (Irene) (1910–79)
out by the stage door when the curtain British diseuse, whose one-woman show
was up and come round to the front consisted of songs and sketches gently
hall to enter the auditorium in the dark satirizing contemporary social mores. She
and pass as a new arrival, thus made her debut in The Little Revue (1939)
encouraging a thin attendance. She with a selection of monologues and mimicry.
After World War II, during which she toured
knew every aspect of her theatre…
hospitals, she appeared in a series of West End
down to the bit of worn carpet leading
revues by Noël Coward – Sigh No More
to the stalls, the bit that must be cut
(1945), Tuppence Coloured (1947), and Penny
out and have another sewn in because
Plain (1951). In 1945 she made her first
there wasn’t enough money to buy a
appearance in New York in Joyce Grenfell
new carpet. The Abbey was the centre
Requests the Pleasure and subsequently toured
of her life, and because of her, and her
worldwide. Her books include Nanny Says
partnership with Yeats, it survived.
(1972), Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure
ULICK O’CONNOR: Celtic Dawn
(1976), and George, Don’t Do That (1977).
Greig, David (1969– ) Scottish
grid Short for gridiron, the framework of
playwright and director, known for his
pipes or BATTENs over the stage from which
ambitious and intricately structured works.
lighting equipment and scenery is hung. The
Greig was born in Edinburgh but grew up
acting area is also divided into a grid for the
mainly in Nigeria; after studying drama in
purpose of working out the positioning of the
Bristol he became a cofounder (1990) of the
lights.
Suspect Culture Theatre Company in
Glasgow. His earlier plays include The Griffiths, Trevor (1935– ) British
Architect (1996), in which the troubled title playwright, whose works express a strong
222 Grillparzer, Franz

socialist commitment. Several of Griffiths’s became famous after transferring to the

early one-act plays were presented by the 7:84 Theater an der Wien.
Company, while his first full-length work, Grillparzer’s other plays include Des
Occupations, was produced by the Royal Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (1831), which
Shakespeare Company in 1970. Among his retells the story of Hero and Leander with a
better-known works are The Party (1973), a psychological insight that anticipates the work
dramatized political debate first seen at the of Ibsen, and his adaptation (1834) of
National Theatre with Laurence Olivier in the Calderón’s Life is a Dream.
lead, and COMEDIANS (1975), which explores Grillparzer’s only comedy, Weh’ dem,
the political implications of humour. In 1978 der lügt! proved a failure when produced
he collaborated with Howard Brenton, David at the Burgtheater in 1838. Following this
Hare, and Ken Campbell on Deeds (1978). experience, he withdrew from the theatre and
Subsequent work for the stage has been much wrote only for his own amusement. After his
more sporadic. The Gulf Between Us (1992), a death, three completed plays were found and
dream-like fantasy inspired by the Gulf War, produced, including the philosophical Libussa
was Griffith’s first wholly original work for the (1874), one of his finest works.
theatre for 17 years. A similar interval then Grimaldi, Joseph (1778–1837),
elapsed before Shakespeare’s Globe staged A Britain’s most famous clown. He played an
New World: A New Life of Thomas Paine important role in the development of English
(2009). He is currently said to be working on a PANTOMIME from the HARLEQUINADE by
stage play about the great Lancashire comedian emphasizing verbal comedy and introducing
Frank Randle (1901–57). the now traditional story lines derived from
Griffiths’s numerous works for television nursery rhymes and fairy tales. His first success
and the cinema include a dramatization of as a writer was Harlequin and Mother Goose or
D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and the The Golden Egg, performed in 1806 at COVENT
series Bill Brand (1976), about a maverick GARDEN, a venue he was to dominate for the
Labour MP. next 17 years. Grimaldi also created the
Grillparzer, Franz (1791–1872) traditional clown-look of a white face with red
Austria’s greatest 19th-century dramatist and a cheeks, a bald wig with tufts of hair, and loose
major figure in the European Romantic breeches. Clowns are often named Joey in his
movement. Grillparzer began to study law at honour.
the University of Vienna but financial The illegitimate son of a Drury Lane ballet
problems forced him to become a tutor and master, Grimaldi became a child actor at
then a government clerk. The pessimistic Sadler’s Wells before moving into pantomime
outlook of his 12 tragedies reflects the at Drury Lane. His famous routines included
unhappy events of his own life, in particular opening an oyster, riding a giant carthorse,
the early death of his father, his mother’s grasping a red-hot poker, devouring a
suicide, and his own romantic failures. pudding, picking a pocket, and sneezing.
His first play, Die Ahnfrau, was produced One contemporary wrote that “neither the
in 1817 at the Theater an der Wien by the wise, the proud, the fair, the young, nor the
director Josef Schreyvogle (1768–1832), who old were ashamed to laugh till tears coursed
discovered and nurtured Grillparzer’s talents. down their cheeks at Joe and his comicalities.”
This was followed by Sappho (1818), a tragedy He became a gifted mime artist, acrobat,
about the difficulty of reconciling art and life, dancer, and singer, and even tried serious
and two years later by The Golden Fleece, a acting, appearing in Hamlet in 1800 and
pessimistic reworking of the Greek legend in 1805. Grimaldi damaged his health through
which Medea proclaims that life is not worth overwork and retired at the peak of his career
living. at Christmas 1823. Following a further decline
in his health and the death of his son from
Grillparzer’s masterpiece, the historical
alcoholism in 1832 he described himself as
play König Ottokars Glück und Ende, was
“grim all day”.
written in 1823 but banned by the Metternich
regime for two years because its leading Grock The stage name of Charles Adrien
character resembled Napoleon. The play Wettach (1880–1959), a Swiss-born clown
received its premiere at the Burgtheater and who became a star of the British music halls.
 Group Theatre 223

Grock’s mostly mute act was built around a Laboratory Theatre and embarked on a new
series of calculated disasters and his ability to programme of practical research, in which he
play over a dozen musical instruments. explored the techniques of the theatre with
The son of a watchmaker, Grock was actors and students but no audience. He spent
performing acrobatics on the stage at the age of his last years in France.
12. After arriving in Britain he teamed up with
another clown named Brick, but performed ground and lofty tumbling An
alone from 1911. Grock was one of the few 18th-century phrase for an acrobatic
clowns to be successful both on the music-hall performance that took place both on the
stage and in the circus. He returned to the ground and on a tightrope.
Continent in 1924. groundlings In the Elizabethan and
When Kaiser Wilhelm I was introduced to Jacobean theatre, those members of the
Grock, he complimented him by saying, “I audience who stood in the open area around
think you are even more famous than I am.” the stage rather than occupying seats in the
The clown nodded appreciatively and replied, galleries. As this was the cheapest way to see a
“Why not? I’m funnier.” play, the groundlings were generally the
grooves system A method of changing poorest and least sophisticated part of the
WINGS or FLATS that made use of wooden audience, with a reputation for heckling,
channels along which the pieces could slide. brawling, and drunkenness. The frustrations of
The system was introduced by Inigo JONES in having to cater to such an audience are
his court masques and remained in use in the expressed in Hamlet’s advice to the players:
British theatre until the mid-19th century. The O, it offends me to the soul to hear a
grooves system had the disadvantage of being robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a
noisy, however, and occasionally a flat would passion to tatters, to very rags, to split
stick in the channel. The end of the system was the ears of the groundlings, who for
hastened by the installation of the Continental the most part are capable of nothing
CARRIAGE-AND-FRAME SYSTEM at Covent
but inexplicable dumb-shows and
Garden. Irving removed the last remaining noise…
grooves in London from the Lyceum Theatre
Hamlet (III, ii)
in 1880.
After some 350 years the tradition of
Gros-Guillaume See TURLUPINADES. standing in the open to watch a play has been
revived at the reconstructed GLOBE THEATRE
Grotowski, Jerzy (1933–99) Polish
on London’s South Bank.
director, whose avant-garde ideas had a wide
influence on European drama in the 1960s groundrow A long irregularly shaped
and 1970s. As director of the 13 Rows Theatre FLAT that stands on the stage floor, usually to
in Opole (1959–64) he gained a reputation for mask the lights illuminating the lower part of a
his experimental work, which often involved CYCLORAMA or CLOTH. It is normally painted
audience participation. In 1965 he established to show such ground features as rocks or a
the Institute for Research on Actor’s Method horizon with hills or mountains. A groundrow
Laboratory Theatre in Wrocław, which toured depicting waves is called a sea row or water
Europe and America with established works, row. The term is also used for the row of lights
such as Wyspiański’s Akropolis and Calderón’s masked by a scenic groundrow.
El Principe Constante, as well as experimental
pieces such as Apocalypsis cum figuris. Group Theatre (1) A private society
In the late 1960s Grotowski became founded in 1933 to produce experimental
celebrated for his concept of POOR THEATRE, plays on a noncommercial basis at the
which involved using the most basic settings Westminster Theatre, London. Rupert Doone
and lighting in an attempt to break down (1904–66) directed the productions, which in
barriers between performers and audience. He 1935 included a double bill of T. S. Eliot’s
won the admiration of many contemporary Sweeney Agonistes and W. H. Auden’s The
directors, notably Peter BROOK, who wrote the Dance of Death. Stephen Spender’s Trial of a
preface to Grotowski’s book Towards a Poor Judge was presented in 1938. Benjamin Britten
Theatre (1968). wrote incidental music for some works. The
In 1976 Grotowski disbanded the Group Theatre closed during World War II
224 Grundy, Mrs

but was revived for a while in the early 1950s, Grundy with not dissimilar views – including a
when performances included Sartre’s The Flies. deep loathing of the theatre – lived nearby; her
(2) A New York theatre company founded husband, Judge Felix Grundy, later became US
in 1931, originally as an offshoot of the attorney-general.
THEATRE GUILD. The cofounders were Lee
Guerin, Auguste See BOBÈCHE AND
STRASBERG (1901–82), Harold Clurman
GALIMAFRÉ.
(1901–80), and Cheryl Crawford (1902–86).
They sought to present serious plays that Guignol A character in a popular 18th-
would not otherwise be seen on Broadway, century French puppet-show that involved
while remaining commercially viable. The macabre and gruesome incidents. The name
company was committed to ensemble acting subsequently came to be attached to short
and social realism and helped to popularize the plays of a similar nature. The Grand Guignol
theories of STANISLAVSKY. was the name of a theatre in Montmartre,
The Group Theatre’s first independent Paris, that specialized in presenting sensational
production was in 1932 with Maxwell fare of this kind; hence the use of the term
Anderson’s Night Over Taos; the following Grand Guignol to describe any bloody or
year it enjoyed its greatest hit with Sidney horrifying entertainment.
Kingsley’s Men in White, which ran for 351
Guinness, Sir Alec (1914–2000) One
performances. The playwright Clifford ODETS
of the English theatre’s most versatile talents,
began his career with the company, who
who also enjoyed a distinguished career in
mounted the first productions of his Awake
films. He was knighted in 1959.
and Sing! (1935), Waiting for Lefty (1935), and
At 18 he joined an advertising agency but
Golden Boy (1937). Other writers whose works
found the work so boring that he telephoned
were performed by the Group Theatre
John GIELGUD, then unknown to him, to ask
included William Saroyan, Irwin Shaw, Paul
his advice on becoming an actor. After taking
Green, and Robert Ardrey. Actors in the
voice lessons, Guinness won a scholarship to
company included John Garfield, Elia Kazan,
the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art.
J. Edward Bromberg, Stella Adler, and Luther
His first professional appearance was as a
Adler.
junior counsel in Libel (1934). Gielgud gave
The Group Theatre disbanded in 1941,
him several minor parts in his production of
much of its talent having defected to the
Hamlet (1935), despite having fired him
commercial theatre.
during rehearsals. “You’re terrible,” Gielgud
Grundy, Mrs A character in Thomas had told him one day, “I don’t want to see you
Morton’s play SPEED THE PLOUGH (1800), again.” When Guinness asked him if he was
whose name has become a byword for narrow- sacked, the director spluttered “No! Yes! No,
minded bigotry. Although Mrs Grundy never of course not. But go away. Come back in a
actually appears in the play, she is frequently week. Get someone to teach you how to act.”
referred to by other characters, who anxiously Guinness was also unceremoniously dropped
ask: “What will Mrs Grundy say? What will from the cast of the Old Vic’s 1936 revival of
Mrs Grundy think?” So notorious did her Wycherley’s The Country Wife, at the behest of
name become that Herbert Spencer was the US actress Ruth Gordon. Despite these
prompted to remark in On Manners and setbacks and a severe stage fright that afflicted
Fashion: “The tyranny of Mrs Grundy is worse him with crippling pain in his knees and back,
than any other tyranny we suffer under.” Guinness showed considerable promise in
Thackeray wrote: “Who scorns? Who several Shakespearean roles and went on to
persecutes? Who doesn’t forgive? – the take the lead in Hamlet (1938).
virtuous Mrs Grundy. She remembers her During the war Guinness was a lieutenant
neighbour’s pecadilloes to the third and fourth with the Royal Navy. While his ship was being
generation, and, if she finds a certain man repaired in New York, he would rush nightly
fallen in her path, gathers up her affrighted to Broadway to play Flight-Lieutenant
garments with a shriek, for fear the muddy, Graham in Rattigan’s Flare Path. After the war
bleeding wretch should contaminate her, and he returned to the Old Vic, where his self-
passes on.” When a performance of Speed the effacing style, weary pale face, and general air
Plough was unexpectedly well received in of frailty became increasingly familiar to the
Nashville it transpired that a real-life Mrs public in a range of Shakespearean and other
 Guys and Dolls 225

roles. Many of his greatest triumphs were on made his debut in 1924 in a student
the US stage. In 1950 he was voted Best Actor production of Henry IV at Oxford. From 1929
in the New York Drama Critics Poll for his to 1930 he worked as a director at the Festival
appearance in T. S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party Theatre, Cambridge, before directing his first
at the Henry Miller Theatre. He returned to London play, James Bridie’s The Anatomist,
New York in 1964 to play Dylan Thomas in which opened the Westminster Theatre in
Dylan at the Plymouth Theatre, earning three 1931. He became the Old Vic’s youngest
Best Actor awards, including a Tony. director in 1933 and was the administrator of
In Britain, he created the role of T. E. both the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells Theatre
Lawrence in Rattigan’s Ross (1960), and made during World War II. After the war he passed
impressive work of playing the blind father in the management of the Old Vic to Olivier,
John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father Ralph Richardson, and John Burrell.
(1971). He returned to the stage at the age of In 1944 Guthrie gave Olivier what the
70 to play Shylock in The Merchant of Venice actor later called “the most priceless advice
(1984). I’ve ever had from anybody”. Olivier was
Guinness’s many films include David complaining about his role of Sergius, a
Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) tediously conventional character in Shaw’s
and Lawrence of Arabia (1962); he also Arms and the Man. Guthrie reproved him with
appeared in several Ealing comedies, including the words “Well, of course, if you can’t love
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which he Sergius, you’ll never be any good in him, will
played eight parts. His best-known television you?”
role was as the inscrutable spymaster George Guthrie’s celebrated Shakespearean
Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) productions at the Old Vic included Measure
and Smiley’s People (1981–82). for Measure (1933) with Charles Laughton and
Olivier…ransacks the vaults of a part Hamlet (1937) with Laurence Olivier. His
with a blowlamp, crowbar, and production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt with Ralph
gunpowder; Guinness is the nocturnal Richardson and Sybil Thorndike opened the
burglar, the humble Houdini who first season of the revived Old Vic at the New
knows the combination. Theatre (subsequently the Albery, now the
KENNETH TYNAN: Harper’s Bazaar, Noël Coward) in 1944.
1952 In 1953 Guthrie helped to found the
STRATFORD FESTIVAL in Stratford, Ontario, at
guisards or guisers See MUMMER.
which he directed works until 1957. In
Guthrie, Sir (William) Tyrone Stratford he indulged his love for the thrust
(1900–71) British actor, director, and stage by codesigning the Shakespeare Festival
producer, known for his innovative Theatre (with Tanya Moiseiwitsch). He also
productions of Shakespeare and other classics designed the Minneapolis Theatre, which
at the OLD VIC. His hallmarks included the use opened in 1963, and worked as a director there
of a THRUST STAGE and the creation of a until his death, when the venue was renamed
swirling crowd movement within a scene. the Guthrie Theatre in his honour.
During his career Guthrie worked in several
other countries, including Canada, America, Guys and Dolls A musical by Jo
Germany, and Israel. He was awarded a Swerling and Abe Burrows with songs by
knighthood in 1961. Frank Loesser. The show opened on Broadway
Guthrie, known to all as Tony, once said in 1950 and won the Tony award for Best
that the director’s duty was “to make each Musical; three years later it enjoyed further
rehearsal so amusing that the actors will look success at the London Coliseum. Among its
forward to the next one”. Laurence OLIVIER, many revivals was a 1976 version with an all-
however, described him as “shy of great human Black cast and a famous London production
emotion”. Directing Olivier and Jessica Tandy by Richard EYRE (1982; revived 1996) that has
in Henry V, Guthrie told them “You two go been credited with saving the National
and do the love scene by yourselves, will you. I Theatre. In 1955 it was made into a film
can’t be bothered with that”. starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, and
The great-grandson of the American actor Jean Simmons. The critic Kenneth Tynan
Tyrone Power (see POWER FAMILY), Guthrie once described Guys and Dolls as the greatest
226 Gwynn, Nell

work of American drama after Miller’s Death and bore the first of his sons before giving her
of a Salesman. last performance, as Almahide in Dryden’s
The plot, based on stories by Damon Almanzor and Almahide. The king gave her a
Runyon, involves the attempts of Sister Sarah, house in Pall Mall, where Nell, still the
a Salvation Army officer, to convert New illiterate street girl, mixed with court society,
York’s gangsters to Christianity. Two apparent gave extravagant parties and lobbied
lost causes are Nathan Detroit and Sky successfully to have her son made duke of
Masterson. Nathan bets Sky he cannot lure St Albans. She was in serious debt when
Sarah away on a romantic trip to Havana. Sky Charles II died in 1685 but his deathbed wish
accepts the challenge and offers Sarah “a dozen to “Let not poor Nelly starve” was honoured
genuine sinners” if she agrees to come. Fearful by James II.
that her mission may be forced to close, she Hard by the Mall lives a wench call’d
accepts, not realizing that the 12 sinners are Nell,
really seeking a place to hold a crap game. King Charles the Second he kept her.
Goodness prevails, however, when the gang She hath got a trick to handle his
renounce their wicked ways at the mission, Sky pr—-,
joins the Salvation Army and marries Sarah, But never lays hands on his sceptre.
and Nathan weds his fiancée of 14 years. All matters of state from her soul does
Loesser’s songs include ‘Sit Down, You’re she haste,
Rocking the Boat’, ‘Luck be a Lady’, and ‘I’ve And leave to the politic bitches.
Never Been in Love Before’. The whore’s in the right, for ’tis her
delight
Gwynn, Nell (Eleanor Gwynn, Gwyn, or To be scratching just where it itches.
Gwynne; 1650–87) The beautiful English ANON
actress whose brief stage career ended when she
became the mistress of Charles II and bore him gypsy Theatrical slang for a hard-working
two sons. The English public, starved by years anonymous member of the CHORUS line in a
of Puritanism, adored ‘Pretty witty Nell’ with big Broadway musical.
her open indiscretions, high spirits, lovely Gypsy Robe A white satin dressing gown
heart-shaped face, and delicate but shapely that came to be considered a lucky charm on
figure. Broadway. The robe’s original owner was
Nell was also renowned for her profanity Florence Baum, a ‘gypsy’ in Gentlemen Prefer
and bawdy humour. Samuel Pepys visited Blondes (1949). During the show another
her dressing room after one ill-attended dancer, Bill Bradley, sometimes wore it
performance and recorded, “But to see how backstage for good luck; when the show was a
Nell cursed for having so few people in the pit, great hit he lent it to a friend opening in Call
was pretty.” Me Madam (1950). Call Me Madam was also a
Her father died in a debtors’ prison and great success and a superstition was born.
her mother kept a brothel. Nell began her The robe subsequently passed from
working life serving brandy to customers in company to company, always being presented
Covent Garden and selling oranges in the to a member of the chorus who regarded it as
King’s Theatre. She subsequently became the a great honour. The recipient either wore it
mistress of the well-known actor Charles Hart, when the cast assembled or donned it for
who trained her for the stage. After making her ritual visits to each dressing room before a
debut in 1664 as the courtesan Paulina in performance. Eventually the robe became so
Thomas Killigrew’s Thomaso, she became the covered with souvenirs (photos, a piece of
leading comedienne of the King’s Company, costume, a programme, etc.), that it began to
during which time she was mistress to Lord disintegrate. Although a wardrobe mistress for
Buckhurst (later the 6th earl of Dorset). She the revived CAN-CAN (1981) tried desperately
also won praise as Cydaria in Dryden’s Secret to repair the robe, she failed and the show
Love (1667) and Jacinta in his An Evening’s closed within a week. The robe was then
Love (1668). presented to the drama collection at New
She became the king’s mistress in 1669, York’s Lincoln Center.
 Hall, Sir Peter 227

Age of Aquarius’, ‘Let the Sunshine In’, and

H ‘Good Morning Starshine’.

After three decades in which Hair seemed
to have been relegated to the status of a curious
period piece, a spate of revivals occurred in the
Habimah (Hebrew: stage) A Jewish theatre 2000s. These include an updated version
company, founded in 1917 in Moscow to (references to the Iraq War replacing the
produce plays in Hebrew (an earlier company original allusions to Vietnam) staged at
with the same name was formed in 1909 in London’s Gate Theatre in 2005 and the Public
Bialystok, Poland). The second Habimah Theatre’s much praised Broadway revival of
gained the support of Maxim Gorki and 2009.
Konstantin Stanislavsky and became affiliated
Hall, Sir Peter (1930– ) British director
with the MOSCOW ART THEATRE. Its first
and theatre manager. Hall, who began directing
director was Eugene Vakhtangov (1883–1922),
as a student at Cambridge, made his name by
a former pupil of Stanislavsky and director of presenting the first English-language production
the Moscow Art Theatre; Vakhtangov’s most of Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT (1955) at
acclaimed Habimah production (in 1922, the the Arts Theatre, London. He then found
year of his death) was The Dybbuk by Salomon acclaim as an interpreter of Shakespeare, with
Ansky. productions of Love’s Labour’s Lost (1956) and
In 1926 Habimah toured Europe and Coriolanus (1959) at Stratford-upon-Avon. In
America with Jewish plays, such as Karl 1960 he established the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE
Gutzkow’s Uriel Acosta, and mainstream COMPANY at the SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL
classics, such as Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. THEATRE, Stratford. He added modern plays
The group went on to tour Palestine in 1928 to the repertoire and extended the season from
and finally settled there in 1932. Habimah was six months to all year round by leasing the
named as Israel’s official National Theatre in Aldwych Theatre in London. He also
1958 and reorganized in 1970, when it moved strengthened the company by introducing
into a modern building, which it opened with long-term contracts: his first contract players
a Hebrew production of Thomas Dekker’s included Peggy Ashcroft, Peter O’Toole, and
comedy The Shoemaker’s Holiday. Other Dorothy Tutin.
notable productions include Naomi Ragen’s Other changes made by Hall included the
Women’s Minyan, which premiered in 2002 introduction of a simplified realism, influenced
and ran for six years. Habimah joined the by Bertolt Brecht and emphasized by the sparse
Union of the Theatres of Europe in 2006. sets of John Bury (1925–2000). Among his
most successful productions were THE WARS OF
Hair The celebrated rock musical by
THE ROSES cycle (1963–64), Harold Pinter’s
Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and Galt The Homecoming (1965), and Macbeth (1967),
MacDermot that brought collective NUDITY to a production subsequently taken to Moscow.
the stage during the hippie era. It was first In the same year, Hall resigned to become
performed in 1967, at the opening of Joseph director of the Royal Covent Garden Opera
PAPP’s Anspacher Theatre, New York; a year
Company.
later it transferred to Broadway, where it ran In 1973 Hall replaced Laurence Olivier as
for 1750 performances. In 1969, just after the head of the National Theatre (see ROYAL
abolition of theatrical censorship in Britain, it NATIONAL THEATRE). A noted early production
began a run of 1997 performances at the was Beckett’s HAPPY DAYS (1974). Beckett, who
Shaftesbury Theatre, London. attended rehearsals, felt that the stage was not
The musical has little plot, instead kept empty and open enough to show the
presenting a series of vignettes from the hippie characters’ isolation. The following year Hall
culture of New York’s East Village. One of the directed the company’s last play at the Old Vic,
hippies, Claude, is drafted to fight in Vietnam a production of Hamlet starring Albert Finney.
and his friends lament the disaster. The anti- In 1976 the National Theatre finally
establishment stance of the show, blatantly moved into its new home on the South Bank.
pro-drug and anti-draft, was as controversial as Hall was frequently criticized for the delay in
the brief nude scene. relocation; his diary entry for a meeting with
The more memorable songs include ‘The the royal family in 1975 noted:
228 Hallam family

As we were presented, the Queen asked including the notorious spy Major John André.
me when the National Theatre would After the war, Hallam co-managed the
open. I said I didn’t know. The Queen company at the John Street Theatre, which
Mother asked when the National was visited several times by George Washington.
Theatre would open. I said I didn’t The elder Hallam’s youngest daughter,
know. The Prince of Wales asked me Isabella Hallam (1746–1826), was left behind
when the National Theatre would in London when the family emigrated to
open. I said I didn’t know. America. She was brought up by an actress
Hall’s successes at the new venue included such aunt and first appeared on stage at the age of
varied works as Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom five, making her adult debut as Juliet in 1761.
Farce (1977), Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus (1979), She married a provincial actor-manager,
and Aeschylus’s The Oresteia (1981). His George Mattocks, and became known for
diaries, published in 1983, give a fascinating light comedy, specializing in the role of
picture of his often troubled tenure at the chambermaid. Her last performance was in
theatre. He resigned in 1988, following 1808 as Flora in Mrs Centlivre’s The Wonder,
criticism of his outside activities, to create his A Woman Keeps A Secret.
own transatlantic company. This employed ham actor An inferior actor, especially
actors from Britain and America in productions one who overacts (hence the phrase to ham it
that transferred between London and New up). There are a number of suggested origins:
York, including The Merchant of Venice (with the use of ham fat to remove theatrical make-
Dustin Hoffman) and A Streetcar Named up in the 19th century; a popular US minstrel
Desire (with Jessica Lange). Hall disbanded the song, ‘The Ham-Fat Man’, about a third-rate
company in 1998, following his failure to actor; a certain Hamish McCullough
secure Arts Council backing, and for the next (1835–1885) who toured with his company,
decade worked largely in the USA; his known as ‘Ham’s actors’, in Illinois; and the
productions there included the 10-hour epic claim of every indifferent actor to have
TANTALUS (2000), a cycle of plays about the
performed the role of Hamlet in better days.
Trojan War. In 2008 he was appointed artistic
director (subsequently director emeritus) of the Hamburg style A realistic style of acting
new ROSE THEATRE in Kingston upon Thames, pioneered at the Hamburg National Theatre
a thrust-stage theatre modelled partly on its under Friedrich SCHRÖDER, who managed the
Elizabethan namesake. company from 1786 to 1798. In the 19th
century Hamburg style was considered the
Hallam family A family of British and opposite of the formal WEIMAR STYLE of acting
US actors and actresses. Lewis Hallam and the earlier LEIPZIG STYLE introduced by
(1714–56), the son of the actor Adam Hallam, Johann Gottsched (1700–66).
worked on the London stage before emigrating
to America in 1752 with his family and a Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
company of ten actors, who performed at SHAKESPEARE’s classic REVENGE TRAGEDY,
Williamsburg, Virginia, in Shakespeare’s almost certainly the best-known play in the
The Merchant Of Venice and Jonson’s The English language. It was written and first
Alchemist. In 1753 Hallam created a company performed in about 1600; according to
at the Nassau Street Theatre in New York. He tradition, Shakespeare himself played the
died on a tour to Jamaica, and his widow GHOST of Hamlet’s father.
married David Douglass, who founded the The plot is derived from a story told by
AMERICAN COMPANY. the 12th-century Danish historian Saxo
Hallam’s son and namesake, Lewis Hallam Grammaticus and expanded in François de
(1740–1808), became the leading actor with Belleforest’s Histoires Tragiques (1582). There
Douglass’s American Company in 1758 in was also an earlier Elizabethan play on the
New York. He won acclaim in 1767 as Arsaces subject, now lost, which may have been by
in the first professionally produced play, Thomas KYD. Shakespeare’s play centres on the
Thomas Godfrey’s The Prince of Parthia. The enigmatic, inward-looking character of Hamlet
American War of Independence drove the and his struggle to avenge his father’s death by
company to the West Indies; during this killing Claudius, his father’s brother and
period its New York home, the John Street murderer, now married to Hamlet’s mother
Theatre, was used for plays by British officers, Gertrude. Actors, directors, and critics have
 Hampton, Christopher 229

differed fundamentally in their interpretations Walter Scott was present and said the audience
of Hamlet’s character and the events of the thought the play much improved. See also G.I.
play; for example, while many have found the HAMLET.
main interest of the drama in Hamlet’s
Hampton, Christopher (1946– )
psychological inability to carry out his revenge,
British playwright and screenwriter, noted
others have found no evidence of undue
especially for his numerous translations and
‘delay’. Likewise, there is no consensus about
adaptations. The son of an engineer, Hampton
whether Hamlet feigns madness (as he himself
spent much of his childhood in the Middle
claims) or becomes really mad, and no
agreement about why he is so horrible to his East; the family’s precipitous flight from
sweetheart Ophelia, who goes mad and Egypt during the Suez Crisis provides the
drowns. The tragedy ends with the deaths of background to his semiautobiographical play
Gertrude, Ophelia’s brother Laertes, Claudius White Chameleon (1991).
(killed at last by Hamlet), and Hamlet himself. Hampton’s writing career got off to a
The role of Hamlet is the longest (1530 flying start when his first play, When Did You
lines) and most coveted in the Shakespearean Last See Your Mother? (1964), was staged at the
canon. Max Beerbohm called it “a hoop Royal Court while he was still at Oxford. The
through which every eminent actor must, play, a coming-of-age drama set at a public
sooner or later, jump”. Those who have school, soon transferred to the Comedy
jumped include David Garrick, Edwin Booth, Theatre, making Hampton, at 18, the
Richard Burbage, Henry Irving, John Gielgud, youngest writer ever to have a play produced in
Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Ian the West End. Hampton went on to become
Charleson, and David Tennant. Thomas writer-in-residence at the Royal Court, which
Betterton took on the role in his seventies; produced his next four plays; these included
Alec Guinness played it with a beard in 1951 The Philanthropist (1969), a riposte to
to cries of outrage. Sarah BERNHARDT’s Moliére’s The Misanthrope that brought him
performance as Hamlet in 1899 caused the commercial success in both London and New
Punch critic to remark that all the production York, and Savages (1973), an atypically
needed for perfection was Irving as Ophelia. political piece about the genocide of Brazilian
Edmund Tearle (1856–1913) was the fattest Indians.
Hamlet, “a mastodon in tights”, who always After a period spent in Hollywood,
raised a laugh when he soliloquized, “O, that Hampton returned to the stage with Tales from
this too, too solid flesh would melt.” Hollywood (1982), about the clash of cultures
According to John GIELGUD, who played arising when Brecht, Thomas Mann, and other
the part more often than any other actor, exiled European writers met the US film
“Hamlet is not a role that an actor should industry. The play is usually considered
ever be asked to portray for a hundred Hampton’s best original piece. It was followed
performances on end.” His 1934 London by the work for which he is best known, a
production, however, ran for 155 consecutive spectacular adaptation of Les Liaisons
performances, beating all records since Irving. Dangereuses (1985), the epistolary novel of
A playbill issued in 1793 by the manager sexual intrigue by Choderlos de Laclos. This
of the Theatre Royal, Kilkenny, announced RSC production proved a huge success, as did
“Hamlet by Mr Kearns who, between the the later film version scripted by Hampton.
acts, will perform several solos on the patent Other works adapted or translated for the stage
bagpipes … Ophelia by Mrs Prior, who will by Hampton include Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
introduce several favourite airs in character, (1971), George Steiner’s novella The Portage to
particularly ‘The Lass of Richmond Hill’.” San Cristobal of A.H. (1982), Yasmina Reza’s
The phrase it’s (like) Hamlet without the big hit ART (1996), and Embers (2006), from
Prince (of Denmark) is used when the person the novel by Sándor Márai. A prolific
who was to have played the principal role in screenwriter, Hampton has also provided the
some situation is bizarrely absent. Shakespeare’s words for a number of musical productions,
play was performed without the Prince in ranging from Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard
1787 at the Richmond Theatre, when an (1993) to Philip Glass’s Waiting for the
inexperienced actor named Cubit suffered an Barbarians (2005). His only original stage play
anxiety attack and refused to go on stage. Sir in recent years has been The Talking Cure
230 Handke, Peter

(2002), about the difficult relationship at the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE, where his

between Freud and Jung. productions included several plays by
Shakespeare. In 1978 he was appointed joint
Handke, Peter (1942– ) Austrian
artistic director of the RSC with Trevor NUNN,
playwright and novelist, whose work dispenses
becoming sole artistic director and chief
with the usual dramatic conventions in order
executive in 1987, a position he relinquished
to highlight the problems of language and
in 1991. His subsequent productions have
communication. Handke’s first play, the
included Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great
provocative Offending the Audience (1966), (1992), Hamlet (1994) in his own French
did just that. In his subsequent works, translation, and a Broadway production of
Handke further examined the difficulties of Macbeth (2000) starring Kelsey Grammer.
communication; Kaspar (1968), for instance, Since 1997 he has been director of Clwyd
revolves around a central character who is Theatre Cymru, a touring company based in
completely unable to speak, while The Ride North Wales.
Across Lake Constance (1971) seeks to show
how people can become imprisoned by hand-worked house A theatre that
language; the work presents a group of continued to raise and lower scenery by
characters whose only means of expression is the old-fashioned method of manually
through stale and sterotypical phrases. They are adjusting the ropes after the advent of the
Dying Out (1974) which examines the effect COUNTERWEIGHT SYSTEM. Earlier terms for
upon a personality of pursuing a business a theatre using the manual system were rope
career, is slightly more conventional in form house and hemp house.
and content. Handke has also written a Hanswurst A stock comic character in
dramatic monologue about his mother’s 18th-century Viennese theatre. Hanswurst’s
suicide, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (1977). His coarse mannerisms derived from the ZANNI of
more recent work includes The Hour In Which the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE and from the clown
We Knew Nothing of Each Other (1994), which Pickelhering, the fool Jan Bouschet, and other
features some 300 characters (played by a cast characters of the ENGLISH COMEDIANS.
of 35) and has no dialogue at all: the text A later version was originated by the actor-
consists of 60 pages of stage directions. It was manager Joseph Stranitzky (1676–1726), who
described by one critic as “the most eloquent changed Hanswurst from a simple peasant to a
evening at the theatre … in Berlin today”. sly knave. The character became even more
In the mid 1990s Handke caused sophisticated when played by Stranitzky’s
considerable controversy with his public successor, the actor Gottfried Prehauser
defence of Serbia’s role in the Balkan conflict. (1699–1769), and eventually appeared in all
In 2006 he gave an oration, in Serbo-Croat, at sorts of genres, disrupting the plot with
the funeral of Slobodan Miloševiç. improvisations. Hanswurst was subsequently
Hands, Terry (David) (1941– ) transformed by Joseph Kurz (1715–84) into
British director, a cofounder of the Everyman the character of BERNADON.
Theatre in Liverpool (1964), and sole artistic happening A type of improvised artistic
director of the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY event that became popular in the 1960s. The
(RSC) from 1986 to 1991. Hands joined events were spontaneous or made to appear so
the RSC as a director for the touring and usually involved a good deal of audience
Theatregoround Company in 1966. The participation. They tended to be deliberately
following year he was appointed as an associate outrageous and confrontational in style.
director of the RSC, being entrusted with the The form was based on ideas introduced
direction of several works at Stratford. Notable earlier in the century by the futurists, dadaists,
productions included Genet’s The Balcony and surrealists. A pioneer of happenings was
(1971), T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral the US painter Allan Kaprow (1927–2006),
(1972), and Arbuzov’s Old World (1976). He who presented a MIXED MEDIA ‘18 Happenings
is particularly noted for his productions of in 6 Parts’ in an art gallery in 1959.
Shakespeare’s history plays, having presented Happenings often took the form of
all of them by 1980. unannounced street theatre, which spectators
From 1975 to 1977 Hands enjoyed the could mistake for a real event. The Brazilian
rare honour of working as a consultant director playwright Augusto Boal specialized in this
 Hare, Sir David 231

type of happening with his TEATRO INVISIBLE. films during the war years. In 1945 he directed
Both the term and the concept are now dated. Gertrude Lawrence in a New York revival of
Pygmalion. After a season with the Old Vic in
Happy Days A tragicomedy by Samuel
London he returned to America, spending
BECKETT, first performed in 1961 in New
most of the 1950s on Broadway, where he gave
York. In the first act the main character,
a highly acclaimed performance in Don Juan in
Winnie, is buried up to her waist in the sand
Hell (1951). His last great success was as
of a desert but carries on an animated and
Koichi Asano in the love story A Majority of
happy monologue addressed to Willie, her One, which ran for 556 performances on
taciturn husband. The second act is much the Broadway and later toured the states.
same, with the difference that Winnie is now “I can’t act,” Hardwicke once claimed, “I
buried up to her chin. have never acted. And I shall never act. What I
Peter HALL directed Peggy Ashcroft in the do is to suspend my audience’s power of
role of Winnie in 1975 and again in 1976, in judgment till I’ve finished.”
the opening production for the National
Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre. While Hall was Hare, Sir David (David Rippon;
rehearsing the play, Beckett himself suddenly 1947– ) British playwright and director,
appeared on stage, concerned about a parasol noted for his critical examination of post-war
that was supposed to burst into flames British society. In 1968 he became a founder
during the performance but which usually of the travelling fringe company, Portable
malfunctioned. Under pressure from the fire Theatre, which performed some of his early
authorities and theatre managers, the plays. The following year he became resident
playwright decided that the parasol should playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, which
merely melt. gave the first performance of his play Slag
Other actresses to play the part of Winnie (1970), about three teachers at a girls’ school
include Billie Whitelaw (1979) and Rosaleen who decide to abstain from sex.
Linehan (1996, 2001). In 1973 Hare became resident playwright
at the Nottingham Theatre, where he
Hardwicke, Sir Cedric (1893–1964) collaborated with the playwright Howard
British actor and director, best known for his BRENTON on Brassneck (1973). The following
character roles. He was celebrated on both year he became a cofounder of the Joint Stock
sides of the Atlantic as the quintessential Company, for which he adapted William
Englishman and was knighted in 1934. Hinton’s Fanshen (1975).
Hardwicke’s theatrical ambitions began With the National Theatre’s production of
in childhood, when he learnt pages of PLENTY (1978), the best known of his earlier
Shakespeare by heart. He claimed to have plays, Hare began a long association with the
developed his distinctive voice by walking for company. In 1984 he was appointed an
miles on Hampstead Heath bellowing King associate director of the National, which a year
Lear against the wind. His first appearance was later produced Hare and Brenton’s Pravda, a
in a minor role in The Monk and the Woman vigorous satire on the tabloid press. In 1986
(1912) at the Lyceum Theatre. After sevice in Hare presented King Lear at the National, his
World War I, he joined the Birmingham debut as a Shakespearean director.
Repertory Company, where he enjoyed a Hare’s major work of the early 1990s was a
major success in Eden Phillpotts’s comedy The much-praised trilogy of plays about British
Farmer’s Wife (1924). He went on to score institutions; this began in 1990 with Racing
consecutive hits in the musical Show Boat Demon, about the Church of England,
(1928) at Drury Lane and the premiere of continued in 1991 with Murmuring Judges,
Shaw’s The Apple Cart (1929) at the Malvern about the judiciary, and concluded with The
Festival. Shaw, who had written the part of Absence of War (1993), about the Labour
King Magnus for him, called Hardwicke his Party. Subsequent work includes the award-
fifth-favourite actor “after the Marx Brothers”. winning Amy’s View (1996), which examined
From the mid 1930s Hardwicke appeared the role of live theatre in an age of digital
regularly in New York, where he won rave media, Via Dolorosa (1998), a one-man show
reviews as Canon Skerritt in Shadow and in which Hare also starred, and The Permanent
Substance (1938). His success prompted a Way (2004), a DOCUMENTARY DRAMA about
move to Hollywood, where he made a string of the consequences of rail privatization in
232 Harlequin

Britain. Stuff Happens (2004) offered a Broadway production of MY FAIR LADY (1956)
compelling interpretation of the political and the subsequent (1964) film.
events leading to the outbreak of the Iraq War A debonair and charming man, Harrison
in 2003. Debates about the morality of that was at his best in comedy; after seeing him in
conflict also intersect with the characters’ Blithe Spirit (1945), Noël COWARD is reputed
twisted private lives in The Vertical Hour to have said to him: “After me, you’re the best
(2008), the first of Hare’s plays to be light comedian in the world.” According to
premiered on Broadway. In 2009 the National some accounts he added: “If you weren’t, all
Theatre staged Hare’s The Power of Yes, a you’d be good for would be selling cars in
documentary drama about the financial crisis Great Portland Street.”
based on interviews with City figures. That He married six times, his wives including
same year Hare himself returned to the stage in the actresses Lili Palmer, Kay Kendall, and
Rachel Roberts.
the paired monologues Berlin and Wall.
Harris, Sir Augustus See DRURIOLANUS,
Harlequin An acrobatic mischief-making
AUGUSTUS.
character in the English HARLEQUINADE and
thereafter in PANTOMIME. He was usually Hart, Moss (1904–61) US dramatist and
supposed to be invisible to all eyes but those of director who collaborated on a number of
his sweetheart COLUMBINE. successful plays with George S. KAUFMAN.
Traditionally, Harlequin wore a tight- At the age of 15 Hart began working as an
fitting particoloured dress and a mask. The office boy for the Broadway producer Augustus
character derives from ARLECCHINO, a stock Pitou, Jr, known as ‘King of the One-Night
character of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, whose Stands’. His first play, The Beloved Bandit,
name probably originated as that of a sprite or written in 1922 and produced by Pitou, had a
goblin (one of the demons in Dante’s Inferno is disastrous opening night in Chicago. The
curtain jammed, the set buckled, and a
called Alichino).
window came off in an actress’s hands. At one
The prince of Harlequins was the actor
point the Irish star Joseph Regan tripped and
John Rich (see RICHES, THE).
fell destroying the fireplace; on his next
harlequinade A forerunner of the entrance he came through the hole where the
English PANTOMIME. It evolved from John fireplace had been, uttering the cryptic and
Weaver’s ITALIAN NIGHT SCENES, which unscripted line, “Every day’s Christmas when
derived in turn from the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE the Irish come to town.”
tradition. Hart survived this debut to become the
The harlequinade began with a CURTAIN- entertainment director for the BORSCHT BELT
RAISER, in which two lovers were transformed in the Catskill Mountains. His first successful
by a fairy into Harlequin and Columbine. In play, the satire Once in a Lifetime, was
the main part of the entertainment they had to extensively rewritten by Kaufman before being
escape from Columbine’s father, PANTALOON, produced in 1930. Together they wrote a series
of light comedies, including You Can’t Take It
and his servant PIERROT.
With You (1936), which won the Pulitzer
In 19th-century pantomime the curtain-
Prize, and THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER
raiser gradually became a full story featuring
(1939).
fairytale characters and the antics of Harlequin Among Hart’s own works were Winged
were reduced to a short AFTERPIECE. The Victory (1943), Christopher Blake (1946), Light
harlequinade sequence was finally dropped Up the Sky (1948), and The Climate of Eden
during the early 1940s. (1952). He directed most of his plays and
Harrison, Rex (1908–90) British actor. several hits by others, such as the famous
In the 1930s he pursued a successful career on Lerner and Lowe musicals MY FAIR LADY
the London stage, in such plays as Rattigan’s (1956) and CAMELOT (1960). In 1959 he
French Without Tears and Eliot’s The Cocktail published an excellent account of his early
Party; his prewar films included The Citadel theatrical life, Act One.
(1938) and Major Barbara (1940). After Hassan A spectacular oriental melodrama
wartime service in the RAF he returned to by the poet James Elroy Flecker (1884–1915).
acting; the highlight of his careeer was the It was first produced in 1923 by Basil Dean at
 Havel, Václav 233

His Majesty’s Theatre, London (which had highlight the cost of industrialization, The
enjoyed a run of hit plays on oriental themes, Weavers was the first tragedy in which the
including CHU CHIN CHOW in 1916). With its crowd assumed the role of hero; as such it was
lavish costumes and scenery and incidental highly influential on later writers. The play
music by the composer Frederick Delius, the received its premiere in New York in 1915 and
play proved a great success. It was revived was powerfully revived in the 1960s. Other
unsuccessfully at the Cambridge Theatre, works by Hauptmann notable for their social
London, during the 1951 Festival of Britain. comment include The Rats (1911), a
depressing play set in the slums of Berlin, and
Hathaway, Anne (c. 1555–1623) The
the satirical anti-Prussian comedy The Beaver
wife of William SHAKESPEARE. Little is known
Coat (1893).
of her life apart from the fact that she married
Although mainly naturalistic,
Shakespeare – eight years her junior – in
Hauptmann’s work occasionally veered
November 1582 and gave birth to Susanna
towards symbolism. His ‘dream play’ The
(b. 1583) and the twins Hamnet and Judith
(b. 1585); the marriage may have been Assumption of Hannele (1893) similarly
occasioned by her pregnancy. prefigured EXPRESSIONISM. The romantic The
There has been much speculation about Sunken Bell (1896) opened in New York in
Anne’s character. While many have 1900 and London in 1907, while his mystical
conjectured that Shakespeare’s marriage was fairy drama And Pippa Dances (1906) was
unhappy, the actor and songwriter Charles successfully performed throughout Europe.
Dibdin credited her with divine charms: Hauptmann’s final work was Die Atriden
(1945), a belated condemnation of Nazism. In
She hath a way so to control 1962 Erwin PISCATOR produced this four-part
To rapture the imprisoned soul dramatic cycle as one work, using a translucent
And sweetest Heaven on earth display, stage lit from below and screens with back
That to be Heaven Ann hath a way; projections.
CHARLES DIBDIN: ‘Love’s Ditty’.
Haupt- und Staatsaktionen In the
Hauptmann, Gerhart (1862–1946) German and Austrian theatres of the 17th and
German playwright, novelist, and poet. A 18th centuries, vernacular plays about violent
major figure in European NATURALISM, he was and dramatic deeds in high places. These crude
arguably the most notable German dramatist extempore performances were given by the first
since Schiller. A native of Silesia, Hauptmann German-speaking professional actors. The
attended art school and worked as a sculptor in plots, derived from plays presented by the
Rome before devoting himself to writing. His ENGLISH COMEDIANS, combined melodrama
best work was done before World War I, with comic interludes supplied by the clown
earning him the Nobel Prize for literature in PICKELHERING, later replaced by HARLEQUIN
1912. In the 1930s he initially condemned and HANSWURST. Although the critic Johann
Nazism but eventually aligned himself with it, Gottsched (1700–66) and the actress-manager
leading the British critic Eric Bentley to
Carolina Neuber (1697–1760) attempted to
remark, “What Hauptmann lacks is the moral
reform the Haupt- und Staatsaktionen by
and intellectual stature of a great artist”.
eliminating Harlequin, the older form
Hauptmann became an overnight success
remained popular throughout the 18th
with his first play Before Dawn, produced in
century.
1889 by Otto Brahm and his Freie Bühne in
Berlin. The play shocked theatregoers with its Havel, Václav (1936– ) Czech
frank depiction of alcoholism in a newly playwright, essayist, and politician; president
enriched peasant family. With its absence of a of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and subsequently
hero and lack of plot, Before Dawn was hailed of the Czech Republic (1993–2003).
as a new landmark in German drama and Having been denied entry to a university
established Hauptmann’s main theme of drama course because of his ‘bourgeois’
compassion for suffering. background, Havel began his career in the
Hauptmann’s most famous work, The theatre as a stagehand and lighting technician;
Weavers (1892), was a historical drama written eventually he worked his way up to become
in his native Silesian dialect. Using the case of the resident playwright at the Balustrade
a failed revolt by Silesian weavers in 1844 to Theatre in Prague, for which he wrote
234 Hawthorne, Sir Nigel

exclusively until 1968. Early absurdist dramas writer C. S. Lewis; the latter transferred to
staged at the Balustrade included The Garden Broadway a year later, earning Hawthorne a
Party (1963), The Memorandum (1965), a coveted Tony Award. In 1992 Hawthorne
satire on bureaucracy, and The Increased enjoyed a personal triumph in the theatre
Difficulty of Concentration (1968). Following when he starred in Alan Bennett’s The Madness
the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 of George III at the National. His mastery of
Havel’s plays could no longer be staged this demanding role was recognized with both
publicly in his own country, although they Olivier and Evening Standard awards. The
continued to be produced in the West. He did, production toured in Europe and America and
however, write a number of pieces for private in 1994 was converted into a successful film
performance, including the trilogy of one-act that earned Hawthorne an Oscar nomination
plays Audience, Protest, and Unveiling as Best Actor. Other film roles included
(1975–78). Clarence in the Ian McKellen Richard III
Havel’s support of the Committee for the (1995) and Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1996).
Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted led to his
being imprisoned from 1979 until 1983, by Hawtrey, Sir Charles (1858–1923)
which time he had become recognized as a British actor-manager, the leading British
figurehead for the opposition movement in comedian of his day. He made his debut in
Czechoslovakia. Samuel BECKETT wrote the 1881 at the Prince of Wales’ Theatre in The
play Catastrophe (1982) in his honour and the Colonel. Two years later he raised £1,200 from
international writing community showered friends to produce his own adaptation of Von
him with awards. Moser’s comedy The Private Secretary with
Despite a further spell of imprisonment Beerbohm Tree in the lead. He became
and almost constant surveillance, Havel manager of Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1885 and
continued to write; Largo Desolato and of the Comedy Theatre in 1887.
Temptation both appeared in 1985 and were One of Hawtrey’s most successful roles was
produced successfully in the West. After the Lord Goring in WILDE’s An Ideal Husband
collapse of communism and his election to the (1895). With Charles Brookfield, who also
presidency, Havel continued his literary played in An Ideal Husband, he helped to
output, writing several books of essays. In round up witnesses to testify against Wilde in
2007 Leaving, his first new play in some 18 the homosexuality trial of 1895.
years, was staged in Prague. In 1911 Hawtrey taught stage techniques
to the child actor Noël Coward, who was
Hawthorne, Sir Nigel (1929–2001) among the cast of Where the Rainbow Ends.
British actor. Hawthorne was born in the Coward always acknowledged his debt to
English Midlands but educated at Catholic Hawtrey’s training: “I remember him standing
schools in South Africa. Having become a over me at rehearsal, in front of the whole
professional actor in 1950, he returned to company, and saying, ‘Now, boy, you’ve got to
Britain and appeared in supporting roles for laugh.’”
over 25 years without attracting special Off stage, Hawtrey was a renowned
attention. This changed in 1978, when his gambler and bon vivant who always dressed
performance in Peter Nichols’s Privates on immaculately. An extravagant spender, he was
Parade earned several awards. Stardom constantly pursued by creditors. He once
followed with his depiction of the senior civil received a writ-server in his office, offering the
servant Sir Humphrey in BBC television’s Yes, bewildered man his best cigars and insisting
Minister (1980–83, 1985–86) and Yes, Prime that he accept free tickets for a show. Hawtrey
Minister (1986–87). This clever but mostly disappeared into an adjoining office and
rather gentle satire had the distinction of being returned with an envelope: “There you are, my
Margaret Thatcher’s favourite programme
dear chap, two for tonight.” Only after the
(Hawthorne was appointed CBE in 1987).
man had stammered his gratitude and departed
Owing to his new celebrity, Hawthorne
did he open the envelope and find the writ
was able to claim his first leading roles in the
inside.
theatre. In 1983–84 he took the lead in both
Peer Gynt and Tartuffe with the RSC. West Hayduk In the Bulgarian theatre, a genre
End successes include Hapgood (1988) and comprising stories about the hayduks,
Shadowlands (1989), in which he played the Bulgarian outlaws who were considered
 Haymarket 235

freedom fighters against Turkish rule. The Barrymore). She played there in 1958 in
plays, which were among the first works Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet.
written in the modern Bulgarian language, In 1961 she toured 28 countries sponsored
inspired the nationalist movement of the 19th by the US State Department, and the next year
century and also led to a reaction against the joined the Shakespeare Festival Theatre in
authority of the Greek clergy. Stratford, Connecticut, for Shakespeare
Writers for the Hayduk theatre included Revisited which then toured America. Two
Lyuben Karavelov (1834–79), whose realistic years later she founded the Helen Hayes
works centred on small-town everyday life, and Repertory Company to present Shakespeare
Konstantin Velichkov (1855–1907). In the readings at universities. She retired from live
20th century the genre continued to glorify theatre in 1971, having developed an allergy to
Bulgaria’s folk history, despite efforts by the stage dust; her farewell performance was given
communist authorities to suppress its intense in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.
nationalism. When the Helen Hayes Theatre was
Hayes, Helen (1900–93) Diminutive US demolished in 1982, she was said to be proud
actress, known as the First Lady of the that “I’ve outlasted all that brick and stone and
American Theatre. Hayes made her debut at steel”.
the age of five and appeared on Broadway aged Hay Fever A comedy by Noël COWARD. It
nine in the musical Old Dutch. (“I have never opened in 1925 in London, where it ran
yearned to be an actress,” she wrote in her simultaneously with three other Coward plays
autobiography, “because I always was one.”) (Fallen Angels, On with the Dance, and The
As a young woman she won acclaim in Vortex), thus equalling the record set by
Kaufman and Connelly’s 1922 hit To the Somerset MAUGHAM. Coward commented:
Ladies but got mixed reviews in the THEATRE “Everyone but Somerset Maugham said I was a
GUILD production of Shaw’s Caesar and second Somerset Maugham.”
Cleopatra (1925), in which she played The play is set in the country house of
the queen as a 1920s flapper (one critic Judith Bliss, a fading actress who has invited a
commented on her “fallen archness”). To fan to stay for the weekend. Unknown to her,
enhance her stage technique, which was three other members of her eccentric family
initially too dependent on a sweet manner and have also invited guests – a diplomat, a
a clear pleasant voice, she studied boxing and giggling flapper, and a vamp. The hosts’
fencing. Great success came in the role of unconventional treatment of their ill-assorted
Maggie in J. M. Barrie’s WHAT EVERY WOMAN guests results in their hasty departure the
KNOWS (1926), a part she returned to some 12 following day.
years later. When she became pregnant during Kenneth TYNAN, who revived Hay Fever for
the run of Coquette (1929) and wished to leave the National Theatre in 1964, was walking
the show, the producer Jed Harris sued and through Mayfair one day when a Rolls pulled
lost, leading to a clause in contracts that up beside him; Coward wound down the
defines pregnancy as an ‘act of God’. In 1931 window and drawled: “Bless you, dear boy, for
Hayes went to Hollywood to make the first of admitting that I’m a classic.”
her dozen films. At rehearsals, Dame Edith EVANS kept
Although she was highly praised as Mary, expanding the line “On a clear day you can see
Queen of Scots in Maxwell Anderson’s Mary of Marlow” to “On a very clear day you can see
Scotland, her greatest role came in 1935 when Marlow.” Coward eventually interrupted:
she played Queen Victoria, in Laurence “Edith, on a very clear day you can see
Housman’s VICTORIA REGINA which ran for Marlowe and Beaumont and Fletcher.”
969 performances. Hayes never found the In 1968, as another revival was planned,
courage to play her two royal parts in Britain
Coward wrote in his diary, “Good old Hay
but in 1948 finally made her London debut
Fever certainly has been a good friend. Written
in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.
and conceived in exactly three days … What a
In 1955, when she celebrated her 50th year
profitable weekend that was.”
on the stage, the Fulton Theatre on 46th
Street was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre Haymarket The popular name for the
in her honour, making her only the second Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, a long-
US actress so honoured (the first was Ethel standing favourite of playgoers and the last
236 Headlong Theatre

theatre to be lit by candles. Built on the site of new works and classics; under the artistic
an old inn, it dates from 1721 when it was directorship of Rupert Goold (1972– ) it has
named the Little Theatre in the Hay and become associated with a multimedia approach
presented amateur performances. At that time, making crucial use of movement, music, and
only Drury Lane and Covent Garden held the visual arts.
patents to present public entertainment. Henry Headlong has its origins in Anvil
Fielding, who became manager in 1735, defied Productions, formed in 1974 as the resident
this by staging his own satires, causing the company at the Oxford Playhouse. When the
theatre to be closed in 1737. In 1747, Samuel Playhouse closed (temporarily) in 1987, Anvil
FOOTE circumvented the law by charging only became a touring troupe under the name of
for ‘refreshments’; he was later granted the Oxford Stage Company, a title it retained
permission to open when the two other even though it was latterly based in London.
theatres were closed for the summer. George In 2006 Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director
COLMAN, who took over in 1776, obtained a since 1999, moved on to Shakespeare’s Globe
full licence in 1777. and Goold, a young director based in
Foote’s shadow continued to haunt the Northampton, took over. That same year saw
theatre 28 years after his death, when his play the company change its name to Headlong
The Tailors was revived in 1805. Its portrayal (partly, according to Goold, because its mail
of the profession caused a riot of hundreds of was constantly being sent to Oxford). Notable
London tailors that had to be suppressed by productions have included revivals of The
troops (see DEVIL AMONG THE TAILORS). Cherry Orchard (2003) and Rookery Nook
The architect John Nash redesigned the (2005), both directed by Dromgoole, Sarah
theatre in 1821, adding its present Corinthian Kane’s brutal Cleansed (2005), and Goold’s
portico. John Poole’s comedy Paul Pry was adaptations of Milton’s Paradise Lost (2006)
produced in 1825, and Julia Glover caused a and Marlowe’s Faustus (2006), the latter
sensation in 1833 as Falstaff in The Merry rewritten to include parts for the artists Jake
Wives of Windsor. J. B. Buckstone was manager and Dinos Chapman. In 2009 the company
from 1853 to 1878, and his ghost is said to enjoyed its biggest success to date with Lucy
still haunt the theatre (see GHOSTS). In 1855 Prebble’s ENRON, a documentary drama about
the venue became known as the Theatre Royal. the collapse of the scandal-ridden US energy
Gas lighting and London’s first ‘picture frame’ company. The play garnered numerous
stage were later installed; the Haymarket was awards, including the Evening Standard Award
given its present regal look, inspired by the for Goold as best director.
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, in 1879.
Heartbreak House A sombre comedy
Beerbohm TREE, manager from 1887 to
by George Bernard SHAW, first performed in
1896, presented the first performances of
1920 in New York and in 1921 at the Royal
Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance
Court Theatre, London. Set during World
(1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895). Tree
War I, it depicts the boredom and frustration
used profits from the Haymarket production
of the wealthy, who lack ideals and a purpose
of Trilby in 1895 to build Her Majesty’s
in life. The play shows the strong influence of
Theatre across the road. The Haymarket was
CHEKHOV.
again remodelled in 1904 and between 1939
A number of friends gather at the house of
and 1941.
88-year-old Captain Shotover, a mad inventor
The longest run at the Haymarket was
of devices to annihilate the human race.
Terence Rattigan’s ROSS, which opened in
(Cedric HARDWICKE greatly impressed Shaw
1960 and ran for 763 performances. In recent
when he played the role in 1922.) Shotover’s
decades, the Haymarket has been associated
daughter Hesione brings a young friend, Ellie,
mainly with star vehicles and transfers from
who becomes enamoured with her host; other
other West End theatres. Recent successes have
guests include Hesione’s husband, Hector
included the Victoria Wood musical Acorn
HUSHABYE, and her sister, Lady Utterword.
Antiques, which enjoyed a sellout run in 2005,
The play ends with an air raid.
and the acclaimed Ian McKellen/Patrick
The role of Hesione was inspired by Mrs
Stewart version of Waiting for Godot (2009).
Patrick CAMPBELL, but because of her on-and-
Headlong Theatre British touring off-again love affair with Shaw she was not
company, noted for its productions of both allowed to play it.
 Heiress, The 237

When the play was produced in 1929 at conceives a bitter jealousy of Eilert Loevborg,
the MALVERN FESTIVAL, Shaw complained the rival of her academic husband, Jorgen
during rehearsals that the explosion in the last Tesman. When Loevborg carelessly loses the
act was not loud enough. The stage manager manuscript of his important new book,
promised to provide an opening-night bang to Tesman finds it and gives it to Hedda for
remember, and warned the cast. When the cue safekeeping. Finding Loevborg distraught,
came, Edith Evans (as Lady Utterword) spoke Hedda encourages him in his despair, even
her line and covered her face but no sound giving him a pistol with which to commit
effect was heard. The play had ended and the suicide. She then destroys the book. In the
audience was leaving when the ceiling event, Loevborg dies in a messy accident and
suddenly collapsed with a roar, sending two Tesman dedicates himself to reconstructing the
theatregoers to hospital. Noted Cedric manuscript from notes. At the end of the play
Hardwicke later, “Shaw for once seemed Hedda discovers that her dangerous meddling
happy.” See also HUSHABYE, HECTOR. has become known to her admirer, the ruthless
‘Hearts of Oak’ A jingoistic sea song Judge Brack, and that she is now in his power.
from Harlequin’s Invasion, a pantomime by Finding this unendurable, Hedda uses the
GARRICK with music by William Boyce. It was pistol to end her own life.
written in 1759, the year that saw victories The complex, wilful, self-destructive
over the French at Quiberon Bay, Quebec, and character of Hedda has inspired widely varying
Minden; hence the allusion in the opening interpretations; actresses to excel in the role
lines: have included Minnie Maddern Fiske, Alla
Come, cheer up my lads! ’tis to glory Nazimova, Diana Rigg, and Cate Blanchett.
we steer, When the Italian actress Eleonora DUSE played
To add something more to this Hedda in London, critic Max Beerbohm was
wonderful year. more impressed with the performance given by
The title of the song refers to the timber the prompter: “While Signora Duse walked
from which the ships were built: through her part, the prompter threw himself
into it with a will.” The oddest interpretation
Hearts of oak are our ships,
was perhaps that given by Jenny Agutter in
Jolly tars are our men…
Charles Marowitz’s free adaptation at the
Heavens, the In the Elizabethan theatre, Round House in 1980: Agutter’s Hedda was
the canopy or roof over the stage (the below- so sexually potent that one critic renamed her
stage area was known as the Hell). Also called ‘Hedda Gobbler’.
the Shadow, it protected the open stage from
rain and housed machinery and other devices Heiress, The A play by Ruth and
for special effects. Such sound effects as Augustus Goetz, based on Henry James’s novel
thunder were created within the attic space, Washington Square. It was first produced in
and flying props were lowered from there. 1947 in New York and two years later at
Sometimes the underside of the Heavens was London’s Haymarket, when John Gielgud
painted with the sky, sun, moon, stars, and directed a cast that included Peggy Ashcroft,
signs of the zodiac. In many theatres, such as Ralph Richardson, and Donald Sinden.
the Swan, the roof was supported by two Harold Hobson wrote of Ashcroft in the
pillars, but at the Hope it was cantilevered so Sunday Times: “For her performance all
that the stage could be removed for other superlatives are pale and feeble things.” A film
entertainments. version in 1949 starred Olivia de Havilland.
Set in New York in 1850, the story centres
heavy In theatrical parlance, an actor who on Catherine Sloper, plain and unmarried,
specializes in playing villains, especially in who lives in Washington Square with her
melodrama. See STOCK COMPANY. widowed father, Dr Sloper, and her aunt.
Hedda Gabler A play by Henrik IBSEN, Morris Townsend charms Catherine and
first produced in 1890 in Munich. The first courts her for her inheritance; when Sloper
London production, the following year, was at threatens to disinherit his daughter, Townsend
the Vaudeville Theatre with Elizabeth Robins fails to turn up for their midnight elopement.
in the title role. Two years later Townsend returns penniless
Hedda, a bored and lonely woman, from California. Catherine agrees to elope with
238 Helena

him as before, but when he knocks at the door again.” Having been informed who Hellman
it is her turn to reject him. was, Shubert entered into a brief exchange:
The play was originally given a happy SHUBERT This play could land us in
ending, in which Catherine called Townsend jail.
back with the line “Morris, come home, you’re HELLMAN I’m eating a frankfurter, and
home at last!” This was so mercilessly I don’t want to think about jail. Would
lampooned by the opening-night audience as you like a piece of it?
they left the theatre that the authors went SHUBERT I forbid you to get mustard
home and rewrote the final scene. on my chairs.
Helena The enigmatic heroine of Hellman did not see him again until her
Shakespeare’s ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. play had run for six months, when she heard
The orphaned daughter of a physician, Helena him loudly ask the doorman who she was.
loves the aristocratic BERTRAM and eventually, Hello Dolly! A musical by Michael
through much scheming, wins him. The role is Stewart and Jerry Herman, based on Thornton
a difficult one for an actress, as it is easy for Wilder’s THE MATCHMAKER. Having been
Helena to appear something of a gold-digger. booed on its pre-Broadway tour, the show was
The first actress to have any real success with extensively rewritten before opening in 1964 at
the role was Peg WOFFINGTON. the St James’s Theatre; it subsequently ran for
Hellman, Lillian (1905–84) America’s 2844 performances with Carol Channing in
most successful woman dramatist. With the the lead, winning the Tony Award for Best
encouragement of her partner, the detective Musical. The part of Dolly was later played by
novelist Dashiell Hammett, she turned to Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey (in an all-Black
writing plays after earlier careers as a press production), and Barbra Streisand in the film
agent and book reviewer. Her tightly version. The first London production opened
constructed works are examples of the WELL- in 1965 at Drury Lane; West End revivals have
MADE PLAY. included an award-winning 2009 production
Hellman’s first work, THE CHILDREN’S starring Samantha Spiro.
HOUR, was produced in 1934. Its subject of The musical follows the story line of
lesbianism resulted in a ban from the Lord Wilder’s play about a merchant from Yonkers
Chamberlain, although it had run for 691 who falls in love with the matchmaker Dolly
performances on Broadway. Her other plays Levi. The songs include ‘Hello, Dolly!’, ‘Before
include the powerful Southern drama THE the Parade Passes Me By’, and ‘It Only Takes a
LITTLE FOXES, which opened in New York in Moment’.
1939 and was seen in London in 1941, the
hemp house See HAND-WORKED HOUSE.
anti-Nazi THE WATCH ON THE RHINE (1941),
Another Part of the Forest (1946), and TOYS IN Henry IV, Part I The first of two plays by
THE ATTIC, which opened in 1960 in both SHAKESPEARE about the reign of Henry IV, first
New York and London. She also worked on performed in 1597 in London. The practice of
the libretto for Leonard Bernstein’s musical presenting both parts together began only in
Candide (1957). Her autobiographical volumes the 20th century: the SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL
include Scoundrel Time (1976), which deals THEATRE at Stratford opened in 1932 with
(not always very accurately) with her Part I and Part II performed in one day.
summoning by the House Un-American Shakespeare’s principal sources were
Activities Committee in the 1950s. Holinshed’s Chronicles and an anonymous play
Hellman was an abrasive character who called The Famous Victories of Henry V, which
met her match during preparations for The may have been performed as early as 1588.
Children’s Hour. The theatre owner Lee The main plot deals with the rebellion of the
Shubert (see SHUBERT BROTHERS) saw an Percy family, led by Harry Hotspur, against
unknown woman watching a rehearsal from Henry IV. The king despairs of his elder son
the stalls with her feet on the seat in front of Henry (Prince Hal), who spends his time in
her. “Take your dirty shoes off my chair!” he taverns with Sir John FALSTAFF, a roguish liar
growled, pushing her leg down. Hellman and glutton; however, in the final battle
retorted, “I don’t like strange men fooling against the rebels Prince Hal saves the life of
around with my right leg, so don’t do it his father and slays Hotspur. In performance
 Henry VI, Part II 239

the play is invariably stolen by the larger-than- Tussaud’s, so that there appeared to be 120
life Falstaff, arguably the greatest (and most soldiers.
complex) comic creation in English drama. Laurence OLIVIER starred in the Old Vic’s
1937 production. Charles Laughton once told
Henry IV, Part II SHAKESPEARE’s
him, “Do you know why you’re so good in this
conclusion of the two-part story of Henry IV. part? You’re England, that’s all.” After that,
It was first performed in 1598 in London with when people asked Olivier how he did it, he
the comic actor William Kempe as Justice would say, “It’s simple: I am England.” Olivier
SHALLOW. In 1945 the Old Vic produced Parts
also directed and starred in a stirring wartime
I and II with Laurence Olivier as Hotspur in film version in 1944.
Part I and Justice Shallow in Part II and Ralph One of the most celebrated Henrys of
Richardson as FALSTAFF in both. Richardson modern times was Kenneth BRANAGH, who
was hailed by one critic as “the greatest of played the part in 1984 at Stratford; at 22, he
modern Falstaffs”. was the youngest actor the RSC had ever cast
The plot begins soon after Hotspur’s defeat in the role. Branagh also made a film version
and death, with a new insurrection looming. in 1990, the first since Olivier’s. He chose the
Falstaff, still leading a riotous life with his play because “It has a crackling narrative,
friends at the tavern, is asked to recruit immense visual possibilities, and so many ideas
soldiers. On the way to the battle he stays in – about politics, about war – that seem right
Gloucestershire with his old acquaintance for now.” The play’s contemporary relevance
Justice Shallow, whose hospitality he exploits emerged even more sharply from Nicholas
to the full. Meanwhile Hal’s brother, Prince HYTNER’s acclaimed 2003 production at the
John of Lancaster, uses treachery to capture the National Theatre, which ran during the Iraq
leaders of the insurrection without a fight, and War. Amongst its other distinctions, the
the king dies in London. At the end of the production was the first to feature a Black
play, in one of Shakespeare’s most debated Henry (Adrian Lester).
scenes, a reformed Prince Hal, now Henry V,
Henry VI, Part I The beginning of
banishes Falstaff “on pain of death…Not to
SHAKESPEARE’s story of Henry VI, first
come near our person by ten mile.”
produced in 1592–93 in London. The uneven
With well over 40 speaking parts, the
quality of the verse suggests that it was written
play requires one of the largest casts in the
in collaboration, probably with Thomas Nashe
Shakespeare canon. The US actor Henry (1567–1601), Robert Greene (1560–92), or
Miller (1860–1926) once performed Henry both. Although the play was once generally
IV, Part II with a touring company that assumed to be Shakespeare’s earliest work for
outnumbered the paying audience two to one. the stage, modern scholars have argued that it
Henry V One of the best-known of was written after the plays now known as
SHAKESPEARE’s history plays: it completes the Henry VI, Parts II and III in order to capitalize
trilogy (with Henry IV, Part I and Part II) that on their success. An abridged version of the
charts the development of the young Prince plays was produced in 1963 as part of the
Hal into a successful king. Henry V was written highly successful WARS OF THE ROSES cycle
and first performed in 1599. Although it gives adapted by John Barton for the Royal
a strongly patriotic view of the early years of Shakespeare Company.
Henry’s reign, culminating in the victory over The play begins with news of a French
the French at Agincourt, modern directors rebellion against English rule. The dauphin,
have emphasized the elements of irony and with the help of JOAN OF ARC, is gaining the
realism that also exist in the play. upper hand, while in Britain, Richard
Producers of Henry V have gone to Plantagenet (later Duke of York) and Beaufort,
considerable lengths to recreate the battle Earl of Somerset, are quarrelling as the weak
scenes. Samuel Phelps, manager of Sadler’s young Henry VI desperately tries to make
Wells Theatre from 1843 to 1862, had 40 peace. Joan is finally defeated, taken prisoner,
actors marching behind a rock that only and burnt at the stake. Henry signs a truce
with the enemy, and the Earl of Suffolk brings
revealed their heads and shoulders. Strapped to
back Margaret of Anjou to be Henry’s bride.
each soldier’s body were two dummies in
armour, with heads modelled by Madame Henry VI, Part II The continuation of
240 Henry VI, Part III

SHAKESPEARE’s story of Henry VI, first down in less than an hour. According to Sir
produced in 1592 in London. This and Part Henry Wotton, “only one man had his
III are superior in every way to the first part, breeches set on fire, that would perhaps have
and most scholars believe that Shakespeare was boiled him, if he had not by the benefit of a
their sole author. Part II has 47 characters, provident wit put it out with Bottle-Ale.”
more than any other of Shakespeare’s plays. At a party thrown by Cardinal Wolsey,
The story continues as Henry’s wife, King Henry falls for Anne Boleyn, one of
Margaret, schemes with her lover Suffolk to Queen Katherine’s ladies-in-waiting. Wolsey
discredit the Duchess of Gloucester. Suffolk persuades the Pope to declare Henry’s marriage
has the Duke of Gloucester murdered and is invalid, but secretly asks him to delay the
later killed himself, leaving the way clear for annulment to prevent Henry from marrying
the ambitious Duke of York to pursue his the unworthy Anne. Having discovered
claim to the throne. Having gained Henry’s Wolsey’s machinations, Henry marries Anne at
permission to raise an army to quell a rising in a private ceremony. Princess Elizabeth is born,
Ulster, York incites John Cade to start a and Archbishop Cranmer predicts she will
peasant’s revolt at home. Cade is at first have a glorious reign.
successful, but his followers desert him and he Despite its somewhat undramatic quality,
is eventually killed. York refuses to disband his the play’s major roles have always attracted star
army until Somerset of the House of Lancaster actors. Sarah SIDDONS once gave a terrifyingly
is arrested; when Somerset is subsequently powerful performance as Queen Katherine in
freed the two sides meet at St Albans in the Edinburgh. In 1892 Henry Irving played
first battle of the Wars of the Roses. York Cardinal Wolsey at the Lyceum Theatre, in his
and his allies Warwick and Salisbury are own extremely expensive production which ran
triumphant, and the king and queen flee to for six months but still lost money. Charles
London with the victors in pursuit. Laughton played Henry in 1933 just after
filming The Private Life of Henry VIII.
Henry VI, Part III The conclusion of
SHAKESPEARE’s story of Henry VI, first Henslowe, Philip (d. 1616) English
produced in 1592 in London. After his theatre-owner and impresario, whose diaries
military defeat, Henry agrees that the House of and notes are invaluable sources of information
York should succeed to the throne on his about the theatre of his time. They were
death, a promise that shocks Queen Margaret inherited by his son-in-law, the actor Edward
and their son, the Prince of Wales. Fighting ALLEYN, and are now in Dulwich College
resumes, York is killed in battle, Henry is (founded by Alleyn).
imprisoned in the Tower, and York’s son Henslowe built the ROSE THEATRE in 1587,
Edward assumes the throne. However, when the FORTUNE (with Alleyn) in 1600, and the
news of Edward’s marriage to Lady Elizabeth HOPE in 1613. His papers show him to have
Grey reaches the ‘kingmaker’ Warwick in been a shrewd businessman who made annual
France, he changes sides and joins forces with contracts with actors, paying them a fixed
Queen Margaret to invade England. The salary. He also leased his theatres to companies
Yorkists triumph, and Edward’s brother (the and provided costumes and properties in
hunchbacked Richard, who has his eye on the return for a large share of the profits from each
crown) kills King Henry and the Prince of production.
Wales. The story continues in RICHARD III. The accounts for Henslowe’s theatres
include loans made to actors. Some researchers
Henry VIII A play about the English king,
suspect that Henslowe kept actors in debt to
written by William SHAKESPEARE and John
him in order to tie them to his theatre. In
FLETCHER; the full title is All is True or The
1615 several actors drew up a document
Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII.
headed Articles of Grievance, and Articles of
Apart from his contribution to THE TWO
Oppression, against Mr. Hinchlowe, accusing
NOBLE KINSMEN, it was Shakespeare’s last work
him of embezzling their money and unlawfully
for the stage. It was first produced in 1613 at
retaining their property.
London’s GLOBE THEATRE, which was
destroyed during the performance when a Hernani A Romantic verse drama by
cannon shot announcing Henry’s arrival set Victor HUGO, which caused a riot at its first
fire to the thatched roof. The theatre burned performance on 25 February 1830 at the staid
 hip bath 241

Comédie-Française, Paris. The plot involves London in the mid 1590s. In 1596 he appears
the doomed love of Hernani, an outlaw, for to have begun writing plays for Philip
Doña Sol. The older playgoers were offended HENSLOWE’s company, the ADMIRAL’S MEN.
by Hugo’s breaches of classical decorum and Heywood is also known to have written for,
began to shout “Racine! Racine!”, provoking and performed with, Queen Anne’s Men.
an equally passionate reaction from the Heywood’s best-known surviving work is
younger advocates of Romanticism, mostly the domestic tragedy, A WOMAN KILLED WITH
students. A turning point in the debacle KINDNESS (1603). His diverse output includes
occurred when the critic Théophile Gautier a series of plays based on classical mythology
(1811–72) stood and shouted to the called The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The
reactionaries, “Your Racine is a scamp, Brazen Age, and The Iron Age, which were
gentlemen!” staged between 1611 and 1613. Other notable
Nearly half a century later, in 1877, the plays include If You Know Not Me, You Know
role of Doña Sol was played with great Nobody (1605), The Rape of Lucrece (1607),
sensitivity by Sarah BERNHARDT. Hugo was in and the two parts of The Fair Maid of the West
the audience and said it was the first time he (c. 1611, c. 1631), which chronicles the life of
had seen the part properly acted. Elizabeth I. His romantic drama The Four
Hero-Combat Play See MUMMERS’ PLAY. Prentices of London (1600) was satirized by
Francis Beaumont in THE KNIGHT OF THE
Herod. to out-herod Herod To BURNING PESTLE (1607). In 1631 Heywood
outdo the worst of tyrants in wickedness, appears to have taken over from Thomas
violence, or noisy bluster. In the medieval Dekker (c. 1570–1632) as the writer of the
MYSTERY PLAYs Herod, the destroyer of the Lord Mayor’s Shows, a position he retained
babes of Bethlehem, was always acted as a until 1639. Among Heywood’s other writings
ranting tyrant. The phrase comes from Hamlet is An Apology for Actors (1612).
(III, ii). See also ADVICE TO ACTORS; PILATE
VOICE; TERMAGANT.
Hibernian Roscius, the See BROOKE,
GUSTAVUS VAUGHAN.
heroic drama A short-lived genre of
English drama during the Restoration. In Hill, Jenny See VITAL SPARK, THE.
imitation of classical French tragedy, it obeyed Hindle Wakes A play by Stanley
the UNITIES of time, place, and action; the Houghton (1881–1913), a dramatist of the
main theme, expounded in rhymed couplets, MANCHESTER SCHOOL. First performed in
was the conflict of love and honour. The genre 1912 at the Aldwych Theatre, London, it was
is represented by such plays as DRYDEN’s Houghton’s only work not premiered at the
Conquest of Granada (1671); it was dealt a fatal Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. Hindle Wakes
blow by Buckingham’s burlesque THE was the playwright’s most successful and
REHEARSAL (1671). See NEOCLASSICAL DRAMA; controversial work and has often been revived.
RESTORATION DRAMA. Contemporary audiences were shocked by the
Heywood, Thomas (c. 1570–1641) heroine’s attitude to her illicit affair with a rich
English dramatist and actor, who claimed to man’s son.
have been involved in the writing of at least Fanny Hawthorne, a working girl, has
220 plays, about 35 of which have survived. been seduced by Alan Jeffcote, the son of a rich
William Winstanley in his Lives of the Most industrialist. Alan’s father comes to an
Famous English Poets offers one possible agreement with Fanny’s father that a wedding
explanation for the loss of so many of his plays: must take place, but Fanny refuses to marry
Tis said, that he not only acted himself Alan, whom she does not love or even respect.
almost every day, but also wrote each Alan’s family admires her, but Fanny’s mother
day a sheet: and that he might loose no is humiliated and orders her out of the house.
time, many of his Plays were composed Thus liberated, Fanny sets out to take on the
in the Tavern, on the back-side of world.
Tavern Bills, which may be the hip bath The booming words used by
occasion that so many of them be lost. the British actor Sir C. Aubrey Smith
Although little is known of Heywood’s early (1863–1948) to clear his throat before making
life, it is assumed that he must have been in his stage entrance. Audiences were often
242 Hippodrome

puzzled to hear the resonant voice offstage version, directed by Hytner and featuring most
calling “Hip bath, hip bath, hip bath!” of the original cast, was released in 2006.
Smith was also a fanatical golfer who The play, which is set in a northern
would practise short approach shots in the grammar school at some point in the 1980s,
wings with a club and paper ball. Once, during examines competing philosophies of education
a performance, he chipped his paper ball and life. Determined to get eight of his
through a window into the set. brightest boys through the Oxbridge entrance
exam, the ambitious results-driven headmaster
Hippodrome A former theatre off
hires a young supply teacher, Tom Irwin, to
Leicester Square, London, that has presented give them special coaching. Cleverly, Irwin
everything from circuses to musicals and shows the boys how to play the system by
cabaret. It opened in 1900 with circus acts and using glib, provocative arguments to grab the
aquatic spectacles (see AQUATIC DRAMA); after examiners’ attention. This approach brings
renovation, it reopened in 1909 as a music hall him into conflict with both Mrs Lintott
that also featured ballet. A series of popular (Frances de la Tour), who insists on the
revues was presented from 1912 to 1925 by importance of facts (“history, not histrionics”),
Albert de Courville, and these were followed and Hector (Richard Griffiths), a sloppy,
by musical comedies such as Hit the Deck wayward, and inspirational figure who despises
(1927) and Please, Teacher (1935). Other great the exam system and takes the unfashionable
successes included the hit revue The Fleet’s Lit view that “all knowledge is precious, whether
Up (1938) and Ivor NOVELLO’s musical or not it serves the slightest human use”. The
comedy Perchance to Dream (1945), which play cuts backwards and forwards in time to
prompted the critic James Agate to remark of reveal the fates of the main characters. Hector
the audience: “Mr Novello’s nonsense had is sacked when his penchant for fondling the
obviously suited their nonsense.” The venue older boys (who seem quite untraumatized)
was reconstructed in 1958 as The Talk of the threatens a scandal. Irwin becomes a famous
Town, a combined restaurant and cabaret that TV historian and, eventually, a government
featured such stars as Eartha Kitt; it closed spin doctor but has to deal with his own
in 1982 but subsequently reopened as a personal tragedy.
nightclub. In both London and New York the play
hired man In the Elizabethan theatre, an made news when Richard Griffiths stepped out
actor who was not a SHARER in the company’s of character to admonish members of the
profits. Such men lacked the privileges given to audience whose mobile phones had gone off
sharers by their patrons; their contractual (and, in one case, to have the offender ejected).
weekly wage, which ranged from five to ten Histrio-Mastix See NOTORIOUS WHORES.
shillings, was often not fully paid. They played
minor roles on stage and also served as HMS Pinafore A comic opera by GILBERT
AND SULLIVAN, the first great success of their
prompters, musicians, wardrobe keepers, and
theatre cleaners. collaboration. Subtitled The Lass that Loved the
Sailor, it opened in 1878 at the Opera
History Boys, The Alan BENNETT’s Comique Theatre, London, for a run of 571
witty, multi-award winning play about the performances. Gilbert’s knighthood was
nature and purpose of education. Directed by supposedly delayed for two decades because his
Bennett’s long-time collaborator Nicholas characterization of Admiral Sir Joseph Porter
HYTNER, The History Boys enjoyed a sell-out was too close to Disraeli’s First Lord of the
run at the National Theatre (2004) before Admiralty, W. H. Smith (the newsagent).
touring nationally and transferring to Gilbert was also berated for his daring use of
Broadway, where it became a huge surprise hit. the word ‘damn’ on stage, having Captain
The cast included Richard Griffiths as the Corcoran splutter “Damme!” when he hears
maverick teacher Hector, Frances de la Tour as that an officer’s daughter is marrying one of
Mrs Lintott, and Stephen Campbell Moore as the lower classes. The play also popularized the
Tom Irwin. The History Boys’ tally of six Tony expression ‘What, never?’
Awards – including best play, best director, The story is set aboard HMS Pinafore,
and best actor (Griffiths) – equalled the record anchored off Portsmouth. The ship’s
set by Death of a Salesman in 1949. A screen commander, Captain Corcoran, has a lovely
 Hofmannsthal, Hugo von 243

daughter, Josephine, who is engaged to (1970), Lysistrata and NATO (1973), and
Admiral Sir Joseph Porter but loves a humble Immaculate Conception (1989), which deals
sailor, Ralph Rackstraw. When it is revealed with the subject of surrogate motherhood.
that Corcoran and Rackstraw were mixed up as More recently, however, Hochhuth has
babies Josephine, now a commoner, is able to achieved a new level of notoreity with two
marry Rackstraw, now a captain. extremely provocative plays about the state of
The songs include ‘I’m Called Little post-unification Germany. In Wessis in Weimar
Buttercup’, ‘I am the Captain of the Pinafore’, (1992), Hochhuth accused Western economic
and ‘When I was a Lad I Served a Term’. See interests of exploiting the former East
also PINAFORE RIOT. Germany. The play includes a reference to the
hobby horse A traditional figure in assassination of Detler Rohwedder, who had
various English folk ceremonies. The been in charge of privatizing the former East
performer is disguised in a wooden or wicker Germany’s state-owned industry. The line
framework shaped like a horse and dances “Anyone acting like Rohwedder should not be
through the streets accompanied by a retinue surprised to be shot dead” drew from Helmut
of musicians. The hobby horse can still be seen Kohl, the German chancellor, the comment:
in May Day ceremonies held at Padstow, “A German patriot is being slandered. It is a
Cornwall and Minehead, Somerset; it also licence for murder…” Hochhuth’s McKinsey is
appears in the MORRIS DANCE and certain of Coming (2004) likewise caused outrage with its
the MUMMERS’ PLAYS. The origins of the comparison of the chairman of the Deutsche
custom are unknown; claims that it derives Bank to Gessler, the tyrannical bailiff shot
from pagan animal worship are now dismissed dead by William Tell. The play ends with the
by most scholars. on-stage burning of the EU flag. More
bizarrely, Hochhuth has alienated many
Hobson’s Choice A comedy by Harold former supporters with his public defence of
Brighouse (1882–1958), first performed in the holocaust-denying ‘historian’ David Irving.
1916 and frequently revived. It is the story of
the tyrannical shoe-seller Hobson and his Hock-Tuesday play or Hock play A
strong-willed daughter Maggie, who marries form of traditional English FOLK THEATRE
the timid Willie Mossop against her father’s presented annually in Coventry, Worcester,
wishes and ultimately takes over his business. Shrewsbury, Hungerford, and other towns on
David Lean’s classic film version, made in the second Tuesday after Easter. It was banned
1954, starred Charles Laughton as Hobson in Worcester in 1450 and gradually ceased
and John Mills as Willie. elsewhere, but was revived in 1575 during
The phrase ‘Hobson’s choice’, meaning no Queen Elizabeth I’s visit to Kenilworth.
choice at all, derives from Thomas Hobson The play begins with Captain Cox leading
(1544?–1631), a Cambridge liveryman who English knights (each on a HOBBY HORSE) to
offered his customers the choice of the horse battle against the invading Danes; the captured
nearest the stable door or none. Danes are finally led away and imprisoned by
the English women. It seems to have been
Hochhuth, Rolf (1931– ) Swiss associated with an ancient custom in which
dramatist writing in German, who has been women tried to catch (‘hock’) a man and
described as a professional contrarian. demand a forfeit, the game being reversed the
Hochhuth’s first successful play, THE following day when the women were the prey.
REPRESENTATIVE (1963), was a controversial
but telling indictment of the Roman Catholic Hofmannsthal, Hugo von
Church’s indifference to the suffering of the (1874–1929) Austrian dramatist, poet, and
Jews during the Nazi era. The Soldier (1967) essayist, who also wrote libretti for several
was no less contentious; it provided a critical operas by the German composer Richard
examination of Winston Churchill’s role in the Strauss. Hofmannsthal’s first collection of
bombing of Dresden and even alleged that he poetry was published under the pseudonym
plotted the death of General Sikorski, the Loris when he was 16. These poems, dream-
wartime Polish leader in exile. like and highly lyrical, created something of a
In general, Hochhuth’s works of the 1970s stir in German and Austrian literary circles.
and 1980s failed to generate the same level of The following year his first verse play,
controversy or interest; they include Guerillas Yesterday, appeared. Between 1891 and 1899
244 hoist

Hofmannsthal produced a number of these suggests that she could work for him in Soho,
short poetic dramas, the most notable being and her reaction hints that she may have done
Death and the Fool (1893) and The Adventurer this sort of thing before. The final implication
and the Singer (1898). is that it is Ruth, and not Ted, who has truly
In 1902, however, Hofmannsthal ‘come home’.
published an influential essay, Ein Brief, in
hook. Sling your hook! A phrase
which he renounced purely lyrical forms of meaning ‘Be off!’ or ‘Go away!’ It derives from
writing. It later became evident that this essay the long hooked pole used in some Victorian
represented not only a crisis of faith for music halls to pull off performers who outran
Hofmannsthal personally, but was their time or outstayed their welcome.
symptomatic of a larger disturbance involving
both the expressionist and symbolist Hope Theatre A theatre in Southwark,
movements. Following the publication of Ein London, that was also a venue for bull- and
Brief Hofmannsthal experimented with several bear-baiting. Philip HENSLOWE added theatre
forms of drama, adapting and modernizing facilities in 1613, a year after the nearby Globe
several classical works, such as EURIPIDES’s Theatre burned down, hoping to capture the
Electra as Elektra (1903) and SOPHOCLES’s latter’s audience. The Hope had a roofed stage
Oedipus as Odipus und die Sphinx (1905). that could be removed for the baiting events
Hofmannsthal also produced an adaptation of and stables for six bulls and three horses.
OTWAY’s Venice Preserv’d as Das gerettete The leading actor at the Hope was Edward
Venedig (1905). Jederman (1911), later ALLEYN, who was married to Joan Woodward,
translated as Everyman, was an early 20th- Henslowe’s stepdaughter. A resident company,
century version of the medieval morality play; the Lady Elizabeth’s Men led by Nathan
it was the first of a series of plays involving Field (1587–1620), was engaged for the
social and religious themes, which culminated 1614–15 season and presented Ben Jonson’s
in Der Turm (1925). Bartholomew Fair amongst other works. Alleyn
Hofmannsthal’s works have failed to make drew up a new contract with the actors,
much impact in the English-speaking world renamed the Prince Charles’s Men, but
and his international stature rests mainly on disputes arose and continued to the point of
his libretti for Strauss. He adapted his own litigation; eventually, the Globe was rebuilt
play Elektra in 1909 and provided libretti for before the new theatre could establish its
Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and Ariadne auf popularity. It was demolished in 1687.
Naxos (1912). He was also one of the founders Hopkins, Sir Anthony (1937– )
(with Max REINHARDT) of the Salzburg Festival Welsh actor. Hopkins trained at RADA and
in 1920. made his stage debut in 1960 at the Library
hoist See SLOTE. Theatre, Manchester, in Brendan Behan’s The
Quare Fellow. Following spells with a number
Homecoming, The A two-act comedy of repertory companies, Hopkins first appeared
by Harold PINTER, first performed in 1965 at in London in 1964 in a production of Julius
the Aldwych Theatre, London, in a production Caesar at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1967
featuring the Royal Shakespeare Company Hopkins joined the National Theatre
under Peter Hall. It went on to become Company at the Old Vic but was not given a
Pinter’s greatest Broadway success, winning leading part until 1971, when he played the
the Tony Award for Best Play. There was an title role in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus; he
acclaimed Broadway revival in 2007. appeared as Macbeth the following year.
Ted, a lecturer at a US university, returns After 1972 Hopkins worked mainly in
home with his new wife Ruth, introducing her America playing in films as well as on the
into the all-male London household of his stage. Notable stage roles from this period
father Max, his uncle Sam, and his brothers include the psychiatrist Dr Dysart in Peter
Joey and Lenny. Unused to this female Shaffer’s Equus, a part Hopkins took over from
presence, the men vie for her attention and Richard Burton.
Ruth plays them off against each other. When Hopkins returned to the British stage in
Ted finally decides to go back to America, 1985, playing a monstrous newspaper tycoon
Ruth accepts the degenerate family’s invitation in the National Theatre production of Brenton
to stay. Lenny, who is apparently a pimp, and Hare’s Pravda. Memorable performances
 Hôtel de Bourgogne, Théâtre de l’ 245

in King Lear (1986), Antony and Cleopatra modern repertory theatre (see REPERTORY
(1987), and David Hwang’s M. Butterfly MOVEMENT) to Britain at the beginning of the
(1989) followed. 20th century. Impressed by the subsidized
Hopkins, who has also appeared in repertory scheme in Germany, she returned to
numerous television and film productions, fund the 1894 season at the Avenue Theatre,
achieved a new level of international fame with London, which included Shaw’s Arms and the
his portrayal of a cannibalistic serial killer in Man.
the 1990 film The Silence of the Lambs. Horniman’s most famous venture was
financing the purchase of the ABBEY THEATRE,
Horace A tragedy by Pierre CORNEILLE,
Dublin in 1904 and turning its management
first performed in Paris in 1640 at the Théâtre
over to W. B. YEATS, whom she respected, and
du Marais. Like its predecessor LE CID, Horace
Augusta GREGORY, with whom she had a
was a great success and was soon established as
strained relationship. Horniman was often at
a landmark in the French classical tradition;
odds with the company and withdrew her
VOLTAIRE said that moral convictions had
patronage when they did not close on the day
never before been expressed with such
of King Edward VII’s funeral in 1910.
sublimity on the stage.
In 1907 Horniman bought and renovated
The play drew parallels between ancient
the GAIETY THEATRE, Manchester, which
Roman history and the reigns of Louis XIII
became an inspiration for repertory theatres
and Louis XIV. The plot is derived from an
in Birmingham, Liverpool, and elsewhere.
account by the Roman historian Livy (Titus
During her ten years as manager she produced
Livius; 59 BC–17 AD) of the battle betweeen
200 plays, many of them new works by local
the Horatii, three Roman heroes, and the
authors (see MANCHESTER SCHOOL). Sybil
Cuiratii. When the only surviving member of
Thorndike was a member of the company and
the Horatii returns to his pacifist sister, she
married its director, Lewis Casson. The Gaiety
curses him for causing the death of her lover.
was not financially successful, however, and
He kills her and must then argue his case
disbanded in 1917.
before the king.
Hôtel de Bourgogne, Théâtre de l’
Hordern, Sir Michael (Murray)
The first permanent public theatre in Paris.
(1911–95) British actor. Hordern made his
Many of the most famous plays of the 17th
first professional appearance in a 1937
century were produced there, including those
production of Othello. After wartime service in
of RACINE and CORNEILLE.
the Royal Navy, he returned to the stage in a
The theatre was constructed by the
production of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House in 1946.
CONFRÉRIE DE LA PASSION in 1548 on the
Subsequent roles included Mr Toad in
ruins of the former palace of the Dukes of
Christmas runs of Toad of Toad Hall (1948
Burgundy. It accommodated about 1000
and 1949). In 1950 he appeared in the
people in its long and narrow space: a platform
title part in Chekhov’s Ivanov. Hordern’s
stage occupied one end, while a smaller upper
reputation was firmly established by an
stage was used to operate mechanical devices.
excellent season with the RSC in 1952. The
There was a large pit for standing playgoers,
following year he joined the Old Vic, giving a
with tiers of benches behind and boxes at the
highly acclaimed performance as Malvolio in
side. Performances, lit by candles, were
Twelfth Night.
presented in MULTIPLE SETTING.
Following further success in Shaw’s
Forbidden to perform religious plays and
The Doctor’s Dilemma (1955), Hordern played
unable to survive on farces and romances, the
the senile old barrister in John Mortimer’s The
Confrérie had to hire the theatre out to
Dock Brief (1958). Subsequently he specialized
travelling troupes from France and Italy. In
in playing mildly or wholly eccentric characters,
the early 17th century Valleran-Lecomte’s
such as the metaphysician George in Tom
company made the venue the best in Paris, a
Stoppard’s Jumpers (1972) and Sir Anthony
position that remained unchallenged until
Absolute in Sheridan’s The Rivals (1983).
1634 when the Théâtre du Marais opened. In
He also made numerous film and television
1647 the Hôtel de Bourgogne expanded its
appearances.
stage, added a front curtain, and copied the
Horniman, Annie (1860–1937) British seating arrangements of the Marais.
theatre patron and manager, who introduced More competition arrived in 1658 when
246 Hotel Paradiso

MOLIÈRE became a favourite of Louis XIV and the auditorium and other FRONT-OF-HOUSE
occupied the Salle du PETIT-BOURBON, moving areas. To bring the house down is to cause
two years later to the Palais-Royal. In 1665 he rapturous applause or uproarious laughter in
quarrelled with Racine for letting the Hôtel de the theatre. (2) By extension, the audience (as
Bourgogne company produce the latter’s in the phrase a good house or full house).
ALEXANDRE LE GRAND a fortnight after it had
housekeeper See SHARER.
opened at the Palais-Royal.
In 1680 the companies of the Hôtel de houselights The lighting that illuminates
Bourgogne and the Théâtre du Marais troupe the auditorium, rather than the stage. The
merged to create the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE. The houselights are turned on for the audience
venue was later used by the COMÉDIE- before and after the performance and during
ITALIENNE from 1680 to 1783. intervals.
Hotel Paradiso A farce by Georges House of Bernarda Alba, The A
FEYDEAU that opened in 1894 in Paris. It was tragedy by GARCÍA LORCA, written in 1936 (the
not performed in London until 1956, when year of his death) and first performed in 1945
an adaptation by Peter Glenville, with Alec in Madrid, then in New York in 1951. The
Guinness as Boniface, was the last important final part of a trilogy that also includes BLOOD
production at the Winter Garden Theatre WEDDING (1933) and YERMA (1934), The
before its demolition in 1965. House of Bernarda Alba is widely considered to
The builder Boniface makes an assignation be the writer’s best work.
at the infamous Hotel Paradiso with Marcelle, The play is set in a Spanish village where
the frustrated wife of his architect friend Cot. Bernarda Alba, her insane mother, and her five
Meanwhile Boniface’s maid is after his daughters struggle to cope after the death of
nephew, and a friend arrives in Paris with his Bernarda’s husband. The oldest daughter,
four daughters. Unfortunately, the friend’s Angustias, receives a marriage proposal,
family stay at Hotel Paradiso the same night as which causes jealousy among her sisters. The
Boniface and Marcelle, the maid and nephew, youngest, Adela, has an affair with Angustias’s
and even Cot himself who has been called to fiancé and commits suicide after her mother
check the noisy plumbing. Rooms get mixed pretends to have him murdered.
unintentionally and names intentionally, but
House of Ostrovsky A former
the resulting embarrassments are smoothed
nickname for the MALY THEATRE in Moscow,
over in the end.
which had a long association with the
hot spot, the An area of the stage that playwright Alexander OSTROVSKY. Between
has just seen great acting. According to 1854 and 1885 he supervised the premieres of
Laurence Olivier, the other actors should avoid all his plays there, achieving great popular
this space at all costs. “It’s too hot,” he once success.
told actor Robert Lang. “The audience has
House on Fire A play produced in Rome
used up this spot. Try somewhere else.”
during the reign of NERO (54–68 AD), which
Houdini, Harry (Erik Weisz; combined drama with the era’s love of
1874–1926) The world’s most celebrated spectacle. During one scene, a house filled with
illusionist and escapologist. Born in Budapest valuable furniture and other items was set on
of Jewish parents, who emigrated to America fire and the actors allowed to keep any piece
when he was small, he began his career as a they dared to rescue.
magician in 1890 but found little success until Notoriously, much of the city itself was
he toured Europe with his escapology act in destroyed in 64 AD by a fire allegedly started by
1900. Over the next decade his baffling escapes the emperor, who is said to have recited the
from handcuffs, straitjackets, bank safes, and Greek play Sack of Ilium and played his lyre
even a ‘Chinese water torture cell’ made him while enjoying the spectacle.
one of the first modern celebrities. He died
How the Other Half Loves A comedy
from a ruptured appendix – possibly caused by
by Alan AYCKBOURN, first performed in 1969
a punch to the stomach delivered before he
at the STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE IN THE
had tensed his muscles.
ROUND, Scarborough. In 1970 it transferred to
house (1) A theatre, but more especially the Lyric Theatre, London, and ran for two
 hunger artist 247

years with Robert Morley as Frank Foster. hubris In classical Greek tragedy, the excess
Morley subsequently toured with it in Canada of pride and ambition that leads to the downfall
and Australia. of the protagonist. The drama presents this
The play has a complicated setting that consequence as justified because the flawed
works surprisingly well. Conversations taking hero has offended the gods.
place in two households are presented on the Hugo, Victor (Marie) (1802–85)
same split set: in one scene, two dinner parties French dramatist, novelist, and poet who in
occurring on separate nights are portrayed at 1830 was called “the most powerful mind of
the same time, with the main characters the Romantic movement”. His early success
moving in swivel chairs back and forth between came in drama, and he used the stage as a
them. Frank Foster invites his employee Bob platform for his social and political ideas.
Phillips and his wife Teresa over for dinner, Hugo published his forceful verse drama
unaware that Bob is having an affair with his Cromwell in 1824. Three years later, he added
own wife Fiona; the following evening, Bob a provocative preface supporting the claims of
and Teresa have dinner with the company Romantic drama as against the French classical
accountant and his wife. Ayckbourn said of tradition and calling for works that combined
this scene: “People will play any game you tragedy and comedy in the free style of
want in the theatre providing you set the rules Shakespeare. The controversial HERNANI,
out clearly.” presented at the Comédie-Française in 1830,
huaju (Chinese: talking drama) The marked the beginning of a prolific period of
Chinese term for Western-style dialogue plays. playwriting, which was partly inspired by his
Huaju works were first performed in China in love for the actress Juliette Drouet. Their affair
1907. There was a resistance to translating began in 1833; she eventually left the stage and
Western works into the vernacular rather than became his companion until her death in
classical language until the students’ Literary 1883.
Hugo’s other works included the
Revolution of 1911; from 1915 to 1919 the
verse-drama Le Roi s’amuse (1832), which
Chinese were keenly translating and reading
was banned from the French stage but
Western novelists and playwrights, especially
subsequently used by Verdi as the libretto for
Henrik Ibsen, who had set a powerful
Rigoletto, and the prose plays Lucrèce Borgia
precedent by using the stage as a platform for
and Marie Tudor (both 1833). His RUY
social protest.
BLAS (1838) provided a famous vehicle for
By the 1930s Chinese dramatists FRÉDÉRICK. The failure of Les Burgraves (1843),
were imitating Western realism. A major together with the advent of realism in the
breakthrough came in 1935 with Cao Yu’s mid 19th century, brought the Romantic
work Leiyu, which tackled modern social experiment to an end.
issues. It toured with a Western-style travelling Owing to his opposition to the government,
repertory company that also performed Oscar Hugo spent the years from 1851 to 1870 in
Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan as adapted by exile, first in Brussels and then on the Channel
Hong Shen. Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. During his
After World War II, huaju was reorganized exile he wrote a few plays and the epic novel
by the communists. In 1950 the Central LES MISÉRABLES (1862), which returned to the
Drama Institute was opened in Beijing to train stage as a vastly successful musical more than a
actors, directors, and set designers for huaju century later. He returned to Paris after the
with the aid of Russian advisers. During the proclamation of the Third Republic and died
Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976, in 1885. He was buried in the Panthéon after
however, all huaju works staged since 1949 being driven there, at his own request, in a
were denounced and the companies and drama poor man’s hearse.
schools were closed. Since 1976 huaju has
enjoyed a great renaissance: classical and Human Billiard Table See JUGGLER.
modern plays from the Western repertoire hunger artist A sideshow performer who
have been presented, including a version fasted publicly. Such acts were popular from
of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman in the late 19th century until after World War II.
1983, directed by Miller and the actor Ying In 1880 Dr Henry Tanner, an American,
Ruocheng, who translated it. fasted for 40 days to win a bet. Giacomo Succi
248 Hurlo-Thrumbo

was a popular hunger artist in Italy at the turn theatre and film director; artistic director of
of the century, but the record of 47 days the ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE since 2003.
without food was established in 1926 by Hytner was born in Manchester, the son of a
Ventego. The act was particularly popular in judge, and educated at Cambridge University.
Germany between the wars but began to lose After a spell working in opera, he became
its appeal when political protesters began fasting (1985) an associate director of Manchester’s
in India and elsewhere. The problem of world Royal Exchange Theatre, where his productions
hunger seems finally to have turned people included works by Shakespeare and Marlowe.
against the use of starvation as a source of Hytner then made his name with the
entertainment. In 2003 controversy and
blockbuster musical Miss Saigon (1989), which
criticism attended the fast of the American
ran for nearly 10 years in the West End,
illusionist David Blaine, who refused food for
44 days while exhibiting himself in a perspex transferred successfully to Broadway, and
capsule beside the Thames in London. earned a clutch of awards in both London and
Related to the hunger artist was the New York. That same year he became an
sideshow performer billed as a living skeleton. associate director at the National, where he
In the 1820s the French living skeleton Claude scored further triumphs with Alan BENNETT’s
Seurat kept thin by consuming a little wine The Madness of George III (1991), a revival of
and one roll each day; his skeleton stood Carousel (1992) that later transferred to
clearly out and his heart could be seen beating. Broadway, and Martin McDonagh’s The
Cripple of Inishmaan (1997). Other notable
Hurlo-Thrumbo A nonsensical
productions of the 1990s included Bennett’s
BURLESQUE by one Samuel ‘Maggoty’ Johnson
(1691–1773), a half-mad dancing master from The Lady in the Van (1999) and Tennessee
Macclesfield. The play enjoyed an extraordinary Williams’s Orpheus Descending (2000) at the
run at the Haymarket Theatre from 1729 to Donmar Warehouse.
1730 and proved so popular that a club called By almost universal consent, Hytner’s
the Hurlo-Thrumbo Society was formed. appointment to the top job at the National
Johnson, who also styled himself ‘Lord Flame’, brought a new purpose and dynamism to an
put the following verse on the title-page when institution that was in some need of both. In
the burlesque was printed: particular, a bold policy of reducing main-
Ye sons of fire, read my Hurlo- house tickets to £10 during the summer
Thrumbo, months resulted in near-capacity audiences
Turn it betwixt your finger and your that included many young people. A sense of
thumbo, adventure was also evident in the repertoire:
And being quite undone, be quite Hytner’s daring choice of the fringe hit Jerry
struck dumbo. Springer – the Opera as his opening production
Hushabye, Hector A character in the was followed by a highly contemporary HENRY
V (2003), the fantasy epic His Dark Materials
play HEARTBREAK HOUSE by George Bernard
Shaw. A rogue, a liar, and a womanizer, (2003), and Stuff Happens (2004), David
Hushabye was based largely on Hubert Bland Hare’s sober analysis of the build-up to the
(1856–1914), a brush manufacturer and Iraq War. In 2004 this run of successes was
member of the Fabian Society. Bland was crowned by Hytner’s production of Bennett’s
widely known for his profligacy, which THE HISTORY BOYS, which triumphed in both
continued long after his marriage to the writer London and New York (where it earned a
E(dith) Nesbit. Although he professed highly remarkable six Tony Awards). Subsequent
moral views in public, he took Edith’s best productions included an acclaimed staging of
friend as a mistress, persuading her to live in Jonson’s The Alchemist (2006).
the same house with them. At one time both Hytner has directed screen versions of both
women were pregnant by him; all their children The History Boys (2006) and Bennett’s The
were looked after by Edith as though they were Madness of George III (1994; as The Madness of
her own. Edith, meanwhile, had conceived a King George). His other films include an
deep passion for Shaw, although the affair was adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
never consummated.
(1996) and Centre Stage (2004), about a group
Hytner, Sir Nicholas (1956– ) British of would-be ballet dancers in New York.
 Ideal Husband, An 249

in 1891, it was as a world-famous author.

I A stroke in 1900 left him helpless for the

remainder of his life.
Ibsenism In drama, an emphasis on social
Ibsen, Henrik (1828–1906) Norwegian problems, realistically represented, as found in
dramatist and poet, who has often been called the works of Henrik IBSEN and his English
the father of modern drama. In his mature admirers of the 1890s. Ibsen’s plays, translated
works Ibsen used naturalistic settings and by William Archer and championed by George
dialogue to expose the corruption and Bernard SHAW, instilled new vigour and
hypocrisy of middle-class life. His work is realism into English drama at this time. Shaw’s
valued for its technical mastery, penetrating work of advocacy, The Quintessence of Ibsenism,
psychological insight, and profound was published in 1891. Those who deplored
the new focus on ‘difficult’ or taboo subjects
symbolism.
wrote scathingly of Ibsenity. See also NEW
Ibsen was the son of a businessman, whose
DRAMA.
bankruptcy caused his family considerable
social embarrassment. He left home at 15 to Iceman Cometh, The A naturalistic
work as a chemist’s assistant; an affair with an tragedy by Eugene O’NEILL. Though written
older woman at this time ended with the birth in 1939 the play remained unperformed until
of a son. Ibsen secretly supported them both a New York production in 1946. The play,
for the remainder of his life. By the age of 36, which has a cast of 19 and runs for around five
Ibsen was considerably in debt and subject to hours, is one of O’Neill’s most ponderous
fits of depression. With the help of his friends, works.
however, he paid off his debts and decided to Set in 1912 in Harry Hope’s saloon
move to Rome. He remained abroad, in Italy bar, the play presents a group of down-at-
and Germany, for 27 years. heel alcoholics who indulge in nihilistic
His first play, the romantic Catilina conversation about the failure of their dreams.
(1850), written under the pseudonym of The title alludes to a ribald story about a
Brynjolf Bjarme, was followed by several husband who comes home to find his wife in
historical dramas in verse; these included The bed with the man who delivers the ice. On
Burial Mound (1854) and The Feast of Solhoug another level, the Iceman represents Death,
(1856), inspired by Norwegian folk songs. His who has come among the bar patrons without
most impressive works were written after he their suspecting it.
left Norway. The verse tragedy BRAND was A 1956 off-Broadway production of the
published to considerable acclaim in 1866 play made a star of the actor Jason Robards in
while PEER GYNT (1867; first staged 1876), a the role of Hickey, a salesman with a fearful
portrait of the author as an undisciplined and secret. However, when Robards attempted to
unprincipled young man, established his recreate the role on Broadway nearly 30 years
international reputation. In 1871 Ibsen began later the production proved a failure. During a
the play that he considered his greatest work, 1976 production of the play the actor Ian
Emperor and Galilean (1876), a 10-act ‘double Holm developed such awful stage fright that
drama’ based on the life of Julian the Apostate. he did not return to theatrical work for 16
It has seldom been revived. years.
The first of his four social plays, the works Ideal Husband, An A comedy by Oscar
that represent the essence of IBSENISM, was WILDE, first performed in London in 1895 at
PILLARS OF SOCIETY (1877). This was followed the Haymarket Theatre. Charles HAWTREY
by A DOLL’S HOUSE (1879), which remains the created the part of Lord Goring and Charles
most widely performed of his works, GHOSTS Brookfield played his valet; both actors later
(1881), which uses sexually transmitted disease testified against Wilde at his trial and held a
as a symbol of the guilt of a corrupt society, celebration dinner when he was sentenced.
and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (1882). HEDDA The play begins at a London party given
GABLER (1890) explores the isolation of the by Sir Robert Chiltern, a rising politician
individual, while THE MASTER BUILDER (1892) widely considered the ‘ideal husband’ of the
focuses on the psychology of the artist. title. Sir Robert is planning to denounce the
When Ibsen returned to Norway for good Argentine Canal Company as a swindle, but is
250 idiot cards

forced to reconsider when a guest at the party, leave with Farrant so that he can begin a new
the scheming adventuress Mrs Cheveley, life.
threatens to expose a serious indiscretion in his
ill Beest, an A contemporary’s
own past. Fearing the destruction of both his description of the person who, in 1652,
career and his marriage, Sir Robert turns in betrayed actors who were performing illegally
despair to his friend Lord Goring, a witty but at the Vere Street Theatre during the Puritan
idle man about town. Following a complicated INTERREGNUM. According to the writer the
series of intrigues and misunderstandings, Mrs “Beest” informed on the group “causing the
Cheveley is foiled. Sir Robert denounces the poor actors to be routed by the soldiery”.
canal in Parliament and wins a Cabinet post, William Beeston (see BEESTONS, THE) was
and husband and wife are reconciled. widely suspected of being the Beest despite
idiot cards Large cards held up in the being imprisoned himself.
wings of a theatre to give a comedian on stage Imperial Theatre (1) A former theatre
the cue for his next joke. in Tothill Street, Westminster, which opened
Iffland, August Wilhelm in 1876 as the Royal Aquarium Theatre (part
(1759–1814) German actor, dramatist, and of the Royal Aquarium Summer and Winter
director. Originally destined for the Church, Garden complex). In 1878 Samuel Phelps
Iffland began his acting career (in the face of made his farewell appearance there as Cardinal
strong parental opposition) under Konrad Wolsey in Henry VIII. That same year Marie
EKHOF at Gotha in 1777. Following Ekhof’s
Litton took over its management, changing the
death a year later the Gotha company name to the Imperial in 1879.
transferred en masse to the newly opened In 1901 Lillie LANGTRY leased the theatre,
National Theatre at Mannheim, where Iffland redecorated it, and installed electricity; the
venue reopened with A Royal Necklace, in
rose to a position of considerable influence.
which Langtry played the dual roles of Marie
Although his forte was sophisticated
Antoinette and Mlle Olivia. In 1903 Ellen
comedy, Iffland attracted much praise for his
Terry (see TERRY FAMILY) took over the theatre
creation of Franz Moor in Schiller’s DIE
but achieved little success with either Ibsen’s
RÄUBER (1781). It was also at Mannheim that
The Vikings at Helgeland, in which she played
Iffland’s own plays, sentimental melodramas
the untypical role of a terrifying warrior
that are now largely forgotten, were first mother, or Much Ado About Nothing, in which
produced to great acclaim. she played Beatrice. The final offering at the
Iffland remained at Mannheim until 1798, Imperial was Dix and Sutherland’s Boy
when he was appointed director of the Berlin O’Carrol in 1906. The interior was then used
National Theatre; in 1811 he became director- for the Imperial Palace cinema in Canning
general of all royal theatres in Prussia. Town, which was destroyed by fire in 1931.
I Have Been Here Before A play by (2) A large theatre on West 45th Street,
J. B. PRIESTLEY, first produced in 1937 in between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, New
London. Published with TIME AND THE York, which opened in 1923. With its capacity
CONWAYS as Two Time Plays, it is based on the of 1452 seats, it has been home to a string of
metaphysical concepts of recurring and spiral highly successful musicals, including Annie
time. The plot hinges upon the arrival of a Get Your Gun (1946), which ran for 1147
strange German guest, Dr Görtler, at the Black performances, Call Me Madam (1950), Oliver!
Bull Inn in north Yorkshire. His theories of (1963), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), They’re
‘eternal recurrence’ disturb the guests, who Playing Our Song (1979), Les Misérables
include the headmaster Oliver Farrant, the (1990), which ran for over 12 years, and Dirty
tycoon Walter Ormund, and his unhappy wife Rotten Scoundrels (2005). Billy Elliot the
Janet. She and Oliver are in love, but Görtler Musical opened in late 2008.
persuades them to abandon their hopes of a Importance of Being Earnest, The
future together by revealing that he has had a Oscar WILDE’s self-proclaimed “trivial comedy
dream in which Walter commits suicide. Janet for serious people”, first produced in London
decides to remain with Walter, but he, in 1895 at the St James’s Theatre. Its many
invigorated by Görtler’s theories, tells her to revivals include the 1943 production with
 Inchbald, Elizabeth 251

Edith Evans (as Lady Bracknell), John FOR WIVES, THE). His first response to the
Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, and Cyril Richard. outcry against his play about raising girls to be
In the play, Algernon Moncrieff poses as perfect wives, LA CRITIQUE DE L’ÉCOLE DES
Jack Worthing’s fictitious brother, Ernest, in FEMMES, was staged in June 1663.
order to court Jack’s ward. Visiting them is L’Impromptu de Versailles was also part of
Lady Bracknell, who opposes Jack’s marriage Molière’s running literary battle with Edmé
to her daughter because of his uncertain Boursault, the resident playwright at the
lineage (he was found in a handbag in Victoria HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE. Boursault had been
Station). His parentage is proven to be offended by a supposed caricature of himself
respectable, and both he and Algernon win in La Critique de l’Ecole des femmes and
their loves. had responded with an attack on Molière
Wilde and his producer, Sir George in Le Portrait du peintre (1663). Molière’s
Alexander, manager at St James’s, once argued L’Impromptu de Versailles ridiculed both
for almost an hour about trimming the Boursault and the actors of the rival Hôtel de
original four-act version to three. Wilde finally Bourgogne for their declamatory style of
relented with one last shot at Alexander: acting. It also reveals much about Molière’s
The scene that you feel is superfluous own ideas about acting and how he rehearsed
cost me terrible exhausting labour and his casts. The two dramatists later became
heart-rending strain. You may not friends.
believe me, but I assure you on my
Inadmissible Evidence A play by John
honour that it must have taken fully
OSBORNE, first performed in 1964 at the Royal
five minutes to write.
Court Theatre in London. Nicol Williamson
This brilliant comedy of manners did not created the character of Bill Maitland, one of
delight everyone. George Bernard SHAW, as the modern theatre’s most testing roles. The
drama critic for The Saturday Review, noted: character has a number of long monologues
I cannot say that I cared greatly for The about estrangement and isolation, both
Importance of Being Earnest…it leaves personal and professional.
me with a sense of having wasted my The plot concerns the solicitor Bill
evening. Maitland who, despite leaving school at 15,
impresario A person who organizes and has risen to the top of his legal practice. Now
presents theatrical entertainments, especially almost 40, he is a bitter alcoholic whose
musical productions. An impresario is often a relationships with his wife, his teenage
manager of a theatre or production company daughter, and his mistress, are all failing.
and may be a financial backer or ANGEL. Professionally, he is ostracized by his colleagues
Famous impresarios have included the for malpractice. His secretary and former
19th-century American P. T. BARNUM and, in mistress walks out, and Maitland pursues
the British theatre, the brothers Prince Littler another secretary, who also rejects him.
(1901–73) and Emile Littler (1903–85), who Nevertheless, he is sustained throughout his
staged numerous pantomimes and US musicals ordeal by the compassion he continues to feel
after World War II. They eventually owned for his clients.
nearly half the West End theatres. Another Inchbald, Elizabeth (1753–1821)
formidable impresario was their contemporary British playwright, actress, and novelist, who
Binkie Beaumont who, as co-founder and also edited several collections of English
managing director of H. M. Tennent tragedies and comedies. Born Elizabeth
Ltd, once had 14 productions running Simpson, she left home at 18 to become an
simultaneously in London. The best known actress, despite suffering from a speech
impresario in the contemporary British theatre impediment. She married the actor Joseph
is Sir Cameron MACKINTOSH, who currently
Inchbald in 1772 and appeared with him in
owns seven of the historic West End theatres.
the provinces until his death in 1779.
Impromptu de Versailles, L’ (The She subsequently performed regularly at
Rehearsal at Versailles) Molière’s second reply, Covent Garden before retiring to write her
presented in October 1663, to the criticism own plays, mostly sentimental comedies and
levelled at his L’Ecole des femmes, which had successful adaptations from French or German
opened in Paris the previous year (see SCHOOL works. A Mogul Tale, or Descent of the Balloon,
252 incidental music

produced in 1784 at the Haymarket, was opening lines of the 18th-century English
followed a year later by her most successful song, ‘The Vicar of Bray’:
play, I’ll Tell You What. Later offerings In Good King Charles’s golden days,
included Wives as They Were, and Maids as When loyalty no harm meant…
They Are (1797) and her last comedy, To
Marry or Not Marry (1805). inner stage A feature of the Elizabethan
She also wrote romantic novels. Charles stage that was used to conceal actors who were
Lamb once referred to Inchbald and Letitia then revealed at a certain point during the
play. There is disagreement as to how such a
Barbauld as his “two bald authoresses”.
DISCOVERY SPACE was designed, but it was
incidental music Music that is probably an alcove covered by a curtain or a
specifically written for a play but does not small structure projecting onto the stage.
form an integral part of the work. Incidental
inns Inn-yards were often used as theatres
music is often used to create mood or by strolling players in 16th-century Europe.
atmosphere. It is clear that Shakespeare The first recorded use of a galleried inn-yard
sometimes used incidental music at the for this purpose was in Malaga, Spain, in 1520
begining or end of a scene; for example, (see CORRALES DE COMEDIAS). The practice
Twelfth Night begins with the line “If music be brought extra business to the inns, but often
the food of love, play on” and at the close of the performers were only paid by taking up a
Much Ado About Nothing Benedick calls collection (known as BOTTLING). English inn-
“Strike up, pipers.” yards were well suited to hold a raised trestle
Some of the world’s leading composers stage: spectators could watch from the first-
have contributed incidental music to drama, floor walkways, balconies, and the yard, some
including Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bizet, sitting on the acting area. All these features
Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Debussy, Delius, were adapted by James Burbage (see BURBAGE
Vaughan Williams, Elgar, and Britten. FAMILY) for England’s first public playhouse,

Inge, William (1913–73) US playwright. the THEATRE.

Born in Kansas, he began to write for the stage The first recorded performances at London
while working as a theatre critic in the 1940s. inns were in 1557 at the Saracen’s Head,
In 1950 he enjoyed his first Broadway hit with Islington and the Boar’s Head near Aldgate
where a ‘lewd’ play, A Sack Full of News, was
Come Back, Little Sheba, which tells of the life
suppressed and the actors arrested. Within the
of a lonely Midwestern housewife. It opened
City of London, the Queen’s Men performed
two years later in London. Inge won a Pulitzer
at the Bell in Gracechurch (then Gracious)
Prize in 1953 for his next offering, Picnic,
Street and at the Bull in Bishopsgate, which
about a small-town girl’s seduction by a
began hosting drama before 1575 and
middle-aged drifter. He also won acclaim for continued for more than two decades.
Bus Stop in 1955 and The Dark at the Top of STRANGE’S MEN played at the Cross Keys Inn,
the Stairs (1957). All four works became also in Gracechurch Street, which served as a
popular films. His later, less successful plays venue from before 1579 until about 1596. The
included A Loss of Roses (1959), Natural Bel Savage on Ludgate Hill regularly presented
Affection (1962), and Where’s Daddy? (1966). plays from 1579 to 1588. Some inns were
The failure of these and other works is believed converted into permanent theatres, such as
to have precipitated his suicide in 1973. the Boar’s Head near Aldgate, adapted in
In Good King Charles’s Golden 1597–99, and the Red Bull in Clerkenwell,
Days The last full-length play by George adapted in 1605.
Bernard SHAW. First performed in 1939 at the Insect Play, The A comedy by the Czech
MALVERN FESTIVAL, where Shaw was patron-in- brothers Karel and Josef čAPEK. The allegorical
chief, it relies on dialogue, having almost no fantasy, influenced by expressionism, satirized
action. Subtitled A True History that Never greed, social regimentation, and man’s
Happened, the play presents imaginary attempts to come to terms with life and death.
conversations between such historical figures as It was first performed in 1921 in Prague and
King Charles II, Sir Isaac Newton, George Fox became the brothers’ best-known work,
(the founder of the Society of Friends), and the opening two years later in London and in
actress Nell Gwynn. The title comes from the 1948 in New York (as The Insect Comedy). It
 International Centre for Theatre Research 253

has also been seen as The Life of Insects, And So Lionel Hale of the Daily Mail called it “a
Ad Infinitum, and The World We Live In. pitiful play” and wondered who the inspector
In the story, a drunken tramp wakes to was and if the dead girl ever existed, adding,
find a lepidopterist chasing butterflies because “The theatre hates indecision. Mr Priestley,
of his “great love of nature”. The tramp, not making up his own mind, does not
curious about the insects around him, is persuade ours.”
suddenly shrunk to their size and finds that
interlude A brief and usually comic
they have recognizably human personalities. A
dramatic piece in 15th- and 16th-century
beetle couple roll around their ball of dung for
England. It represents a transitional form
which they have “saved, scraped, toiled, and
between medieval English theatre and the
moiled”, but another beetle steals it. The
Elizabethan drama. Often performed at
disgusted tramp pledges to sacrifice everything
banquets, it was similar to the Italian
for the good of the State but then sees the well-
INTERMEZZO and the Spanish ENTREMÉS. Such
regimented ants fighting amongst themselves
sketches were first performed in England by
until one proclaims himself leader. The tramp,
the Players of the King’s Interludes (Lusores
convinced that he has become wise about the
Regis) at the court of Henry VII. In the hands
world, weakens and dies. A woman with a
of its main exponent, John Heywood
newborn baby stops and places a flower upon
(1497–1580), the genre developed into a
his body. shorter piece performed between the acts of a
inset A small piece of scenery placed inside full-length play. Heywood’s most famous
a larger one to allow a rapid change of set. interlude was THE FOUR PS (1520). The form
disappeared entirely during the reign of
Inspector Calls, An A play by J. B. Elizabeth I.
PRIESTLEY. It was first performed in 1946 at
the New Theatre, London, starring Ralph intermezzo In Italian drama, a brief and
Richardson, Alec Guinness, and Margaret usually comic piece performed in the 15th and
Leighton with the Old Vic company. Stephen 16th centuries at banquets or between the acts
DALDRY’s much admired revival opened at the of a full-length play or opera. The intermezzo
Aldwych Theatre in 1993 and transfered to was similar to the English INTERLUDE and
several other West End venues before closing Spanish ENTREMÉS. Its themes were often
almost a decade later in 2002. taken from mythology or classical history.
A happy engagement party at the home of International Centre for Theatre
the prosperous Birling family is interrupted by Research An organization founded in
the arrival of a mysterious Inspector Goole. Paris in 1970 by the directors Peter BROOK and
The family clock stops as he announces that he Jean-Louis BARRAULT. The original aim of the
is investigating a young woman’s suicide. It project was to provide a point of contact
transpires that each member of the family has between performers from different nations and
contributed to the girl’s tragedy, and all react diverse theatrical disciplines, and from this
in a hostile and guilty way. As he leaves, the basis to work towards an “international theatre
Inspector reminds them: language”. In 1972 the company performed
We don’t live alone. We are members Orghast, a play written in an invented language
of one body. We are responsible for by Ted Hughes, at Persepolis, a ruined city in
each other. Iran. Two years later the organization moved
The clock starts working again as the from its original base in a disused tapestry
family checks with the local police to find that factory to the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, a
the inspector is unknown; consequently they dilapidated former music hall in Paris. The
return to their celebrations, assuming that they venue is now established as one of the foremost
have been the victims of a hoax. The telephone centres of experimental drama in France.
then rings to inform them that an inspector is The company also tours widely and has
about to call to interview them about a suicide. presented works in America, Australia, India,
Not all critics liked the play. J. C. Trewin and Africa, where the actors performed
of the Observer wrote “we feel that the Birlings improvisations in remote Saharan villages. The
are hardly worth this elaboration, this organization’s most audacious production to
prolonged rattling of skeletons (and, indeed, date, however, is its 1985 staging of the nine-
this high place in the Old Vic’s repertory).” hour Indian epic THE MAHABHARATA,
254 International Federation for Theatre Research

originally in a quarry near Avignon and First Ordinance Against Stage Plays and
subsequently at venues across Europe. Interludes commanding that “public stage-plays
International Federation for shall cease and be foreborne” on religious and
Theatre Research (IFTR) An moral grounds. The closure order owed much
international theatre organization established to the fact that, with few exceptions, the
in London in 1955 under the auspices of the theatrical world supported the Royalists,
British Society for Theatre Research. The making London’s theatres hotbeds of intrigue
Federation is dedicated to studying both against the Puritan cause. Following the order
traditional and contemporary theatre in most actors and playwrights joined the
participating countries, of which there are at Royalist forces, retired, went back to earlier
present 41: to this end it assists in the trades, or left the country. After the Civil War
coordination of national research organizations orders were given to arrest any actors found
and publishes a periodical. It also holds a giving a performance and to fine members of
world congress every four years and organizes the audience.
summer schools and other courses. The Cromwell himself was not opposed to
Federation is based in Berne, Switzerland. drama as such and allowed some private and
International Theatre Institute school performances. William DAVENANT was
(ITI) An international theatrical organization, one manager who protected his livelihood by
now based in Paris. It operates under the aegis cultivating Cromwell’s love of music. In 1656
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, he was allowed to produce The Siege of Rhodes,
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which a “representation of the art of perspective in
provides a yearly subsidy. ITI works through scenes and the story sung in recitative musick”
its 50 national centres to promote contracts using singers instead of actors. This has been
between theatre workers in different countries called the first English opera. Davenant staged
and the exchange of information on specific other plays with music, such as The Cruelty of
problems, trends, and developments in the
the Spaniards in Peru (1658) and Sir Francis
theatre.
Drake (1659). Both of these were given at the
The Institute was founded in 1948 in
Prague as a branch of UNESCO. From 1950 Cockpit Theatre, a venue that staged many
until 1968 it published World Theatre, a illegal productions until it was raided by
quarterly illustrated journal, and from 1955 it soldiers in 1649. Secret performances
sponsored an annual festival, the Théâtre des continued to take place both in private homes
Nations. ITI also holds a world congress every and in such venues as the Fortune Theatre
two years and sponsors conferences and (until soldiers dismantled it in 1649), the Vere
seminars on topics such as the training of Street Theatre (wrecked by soldiers in 1649),
actors and theatre architecture. and the Red Bull Theatre, where several actors,
The individual centres provide information including Robert Cox and Timothy Reade,
and research facilities. The British centre, one were arrested. See also ILL BEEST, AN.
of the first national ITI groups established, is a
clearing house for information on the British in-yer-face theatre A journalistic term
theatre. The US centre is housed in the August for a new style of drama that emerged in 1990s
Wilson Theatre, New York. Britain, when a number of young playwrights
produced works that were seen as being
Interregnum, the In the English deliberately aggressive, confrontational, and
theatre, the 18-year period from 1642 during
provocative. Key plays in the emergence of the
which all public playhouses were closed by the
school include Anthony NEILSON’s shockingly
Puritans. They reopened on the coronation of
Charles II (1660). violent Penetrator (1993), Sarah KANE’s
BLASTED (1995), with its scenes of cannibalism
As early as 1583 Philip Stubbes’s The
Anatomie of Abuses had given the Puritan view and anal rape, and Mark RAVENHILL’s Shopping
of the theatre as inducing “whoredom and and Fucking (1996). These works share a
uncleanness”. The playhouses had already preoccupation with extreme mental and
suffered closures due to outbreaks of the physical states and a desire to make the
plague in 1625, 1630, and 1637, when, on audience experience such things viscerally,
2 September 1642, Parliament published its rather than in a more intellectual or analytical
 Iphigenia 255

way. Other writers associated with the label (1956). He also attacked Brecht as a ‘postman’
include Philip RIDLEY and Martin MCDONAGH. delivering messages.
Ionesco’s full-length plays include Amédée,
Iolanthe One of GILBERT AND SULLIVAN’s
ou comment s’en débarrasser (1954) and Tueur
Savoy Operas, subtitled The Peer and the Peri.
sans gages (1959), translated as The Killer for its
It was first produced in 1882 at the Savoy
1968 London run. The latter introduced his
Theatre and ran for nearly 400 performances.
clownish but sympathetic hero Berenger, who
The story involves the Arcadian fairy
in this play tries to attack the dwarf Death.
Iolanthe, who has been banished for 25 years
by the Fairy Queen for marrying a mortal and Berenger reappeared in RHINOCEROS (1960),
having his son, Strephon. The young man now which had a successful run at the Royal Court
wishes to marry Phyllis, a ward in chancery Theatre in 1963 with Laurence Olivier and
who has also attracted the Lord Chancellor’s Joan Plowright. Characteristically, Ionesco uses
interest. After Strephon becomes a member logical language to destroy logic:
of parliament, Iolanthe names the Lord JEAN You’re day-dreaming.
Chancellor as her mortal lover and Strephon’s BERENGER But I’m wide awake.
father. Wings sprout on the peers, and they fly JEAN Awake or asleep, it’s the same
off to Fairyland. thing.
Iolanthe was intended as a satirical attack BERENGER But there is some difference.
on women in politics and on the British legal JEAN That’s not the point.
and parliamentary systems. The message was Le Roi se meurt (1962), also featuring
softened when Gilbert and Sullivan removed Berenger, was seen as Exit the King at the
the two most biting songs, but they still Royal Court in 1963 starring Alec Guinness.
managed to score a few points, as in this Later works included Macbett (1972) and
Westminster sentry’s song: Journeys Among the Dead (1982).
When in that House MPs divide, Ionesco, describing the difficulties in
If they’ve a brain and cerebellum, too, writing a play, noted, “One has to get out of
They’ve got to leave that brain outside, bed, which is unpleasant….”
And vote just as their leaders tell ’em Iphigenia In classical legend, the daughter
to. of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. Having
The Fairy Queen has sometimes been played offended Artemis by killing her favourite stag,
to resemble such figures as Queen Victoria or Agamemnon vowed to sacrifice the most
Margaret Thatcher. beautiful thing the year brought forth; this
Ionesco, Eugène (1909–94) Romanian- proved to be his infant daughter. He deferred
born French dramatist who pioneered the the sacrifice for many years, until the
Theatre of the ABSURD. His plays, usually one- soothsayer Calchas told him that the Greek
act dramas, deal with such themes as the fleet, then sailing for Troy, would be becalmed
absurdity of existence, the alienation and until he had fulfilled his vow; accordingly, the
impotence of man, the fear of death, and the king prepared to sacrifice his daughter. At the
failure of language as a means of last moment Artemis snatched Iphigenia from
communication. the altar and carried her to Tauris, substituting
Under the influence of the dramatist a hind in her place. The story has inspired
Antonin Artaud (see CRUELTY, THEATRE OF), tragedies by EURIPIDES, GOETHE, and RACINE,
Ionesco rejected the realistic and psychological and an opera by Gluck.
theatre but continued to use Freudian ideas to Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis was left
explore the subconscious and dreams. His incomplete at his death and produced
famous ‘anti-play’ THE BALD PRIMA DONNA posthumously with additions that are now
(1950) explores the paradoxical relationship of lost. In the surviving scenes an irresolute
language to reality, as does THE LESSON (1951); Agamemnon prepares to sacrifice Iphigenia.
THE CHAIRS (1952) is a study in nothingness By contrast Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris
and one of several works to reveal Ionesco’s shows his mastery of a lighter more romantic
intense horror of death. Criticized by Kenneth style of drama; it was first performed in Athens
TYNAN and others for his works’ lack of social in about 414 BC. In the play Iphigenia, having
relevance, Ionesco made fun of critics who been rescued by Artemis and removed to
demand a political message in Improvisation Tauris, discovers that her brother Orestes and
256 Ireland forgeries

his friend are the intended victims of a human and Eastern Europe in the Cold War years
sacrifice. The story ends happily after she derives from this theatrical usage.
outwits a barbarian king to organize their
Irons, Jeremy (1948– ) British stage,
escape. This work provided the basis for
television, and film actor. He began his career
Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris, a play that he
with the Bristol Old Vic company in 1966,
initially wrote in prose (1779) but later recast
appearing in such plays as Noël Coward’s Hay
in verse (1786–88). The earlier version was
Fever and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw.
first performed at Weimar in 1779; the later
version in 1802. The second version of the After appearing in the musical Godspell from
play incorporates Goethe’s highly personal 1971–73 at the London Roundhouse, he
views on the redeeming power of human love. played Don Pedro in a Young Vic production
of Much Ado About Nothing and Mick in
Ireland forgeries One of the most Pinter’s The Caretaker, both in 1974. The
famous of all literary forgeries. William Henry following year he played Petruchio in The
Ireland (1777–1835) was the son of a Taming of the Shrew at the Roundhouse. In
bookseller and amateur antiquarian. At the America he appeared in the Broadway
age of only 19, young Ireland produced a production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing
number of seemingly ancient leases and other (1983) and later played Hamlet at the Globe
documents purporting to be in Shakespeare’s Theatre in Utah. In 1986 he took leading
handwriting, including a love poem to ‘Anna Shakespearean roles at Stratford-upon-Avon
Hatherrawaye’. Emboldened by their and at the Mermaid Theatre, London. There
acceptance, he forged manuscripts of King Lear was then a long absence before he returned to
and Hamlet and even two ‘lost’ Shakespeare the stage in a US revival of Camelot (2005) and
plays – Vortigern and Rowena and Henry II. Christopher Hampton’s much praised Embers
Ignoring the suspicions of KEMBLE, (2006). In 2008 he made his National
SHERIDAN produced Vortigern and Rowena at Theatre debut – and gave one of his finest
Drury Lane in 1796. Mrs SIDDONS and Mrs performances – playing Harold Macmillan in
Palmer walked out during rehearsals and when Howard Brenton’s Never So Good. Recent
it came to the performance Kemble helped to stage roles also include the Lear-like
ensure that the play was laughed off the stage. protagonist in Denis Kelly’s wildly over-the-
When he spoke the line “When this solemn top The Gods Weep (2010).
mockery is o’er”, the house yelled and hissed Irons has also starred on television in the
until the curtain fell. Meanwhile the critic award-winning Brideshead Revisited and in
Edmond Malone had studied the Miscellaneous such films as The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Papers, said to be Shakespeare’s, and had (1981), The Mission (1985), and Damage
declared them forgeries. Ireland confessed later (1992). He is married to the actress Sinéad
that same year. His motive appears to have Cusack (1948– ).
been a craving to secure the regard and
admiration of his father, whose antiquarian Irving, Sir Henry (John Henry
interests amounted to an obsession. Brodribb; 1838–1905) British actor who
The forgeries (of Vortigern and Rowena and managed the LYCEUM THEATRE for 30 years
Henry II) can now be seen in the British and whose magnetic personality and mesmeric
Museum. See also SHAKESPEAREANA. style of acting made him the greatest classical
actor of the later 19th century. Irving excelled
iris An adjustable circular shutter of in sinister and tormented roles: Max
overlapping leaves used in spotlights to vary Beerbohm wrote of his “sardonic, grotesque,
the diameter of the beam; it is also used in fantastic characters” and “incomparable power
cameras and other optical instruments to vary for eeriness, for stirring a dim sense of
the diameter of an aperture. mystery”. He was knighted in 1895, the first
iron curtain or iron A metallic safety actor to be so honoured.
CURTAIN used to prevent a fire spreading from The young Irving’s desire to act was so
the backstage area to the rest of the theatre. strong that he cured his stammer with
The first such curtain was installed at Drury elocution lessons and swam in the Thames
Lane in 1794. each morning to build up his lung-power. He
Churchill’s famous (1946) use of the made his professional debut in 1856 at the
phrase to denote the barrier between Western Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland, and spent the
 Ivanov 257

next seven years touring before making a HARLEQUINADE. Deriving from the COMMEDIA
successful London debut with the comedy The DELL’ARTE, it was brought to England from
Belle’s Stratagem in 1866. After astonishing France in 1702 by John Weaver, who was the
London as Mathias in THE BELLS (1871) he first to put the dances into a sequential story.
entered theatrical history in 1874 by creating a Plays such as Harlequin Jack Sheppard featured
Hamlet of unprecedented tenderness; the play HARLEQUIN in an English setting and made
ran for a record 200 performances. much use of TRICKWORK. John Rich (see
Four years later he acquired the lease RICHES, THE) began his career performing in
of the Lyceum and engaged Ellen Terry (see the Italian night scenes as Harlequin under the
TERRY FAMILY) as his leading lady for such stage name of LUN.
productions as The Merchant of Venice (1879) Ivanov The first full-length play by Anton
and Romeo and Juliet (1882). Of the latter, one CHEKHOV, first performed in Moscow in 1887.
of his most notable failures, Ellen later wrote The gloomy work opened to a decidedly mixed
“As Romeo Irving reminded me of a pig who response, partly because the audience was
has been taught to play the fiddle. He did it expecting a light comedy in the vein of
cleverly, but would be better employed in Chekhov’s earlier humorous sketches and
squealing”. In 1883 Irving took the Lyceum partly because only two of the cast knew their
Company to America and during the next 18 parts. It was revived with some success in 1889
years toured America six more times. Despite at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.
multiple successes at the Lyceum, Irving Of British productions two in particular stand
tended to overspend on scenery, costumes, and out: the celebrated 1965 revival with John
special effects and in 1899 he had to give up Gielgud (who also directed) and Claire Bloom
sole ownership of the theatre. In 1902 Ellen and the 2008 Tom Stoppard version, which
Terry rejoined him for the Lyceum’s final featured a towering performance by Kenneth
production, The Merchant of Venice, after Branagh.
which it became a music hall. Ivanov illustrates Chekhov’s idea of himself
In 1905 Irving collapsed and died in the as an “impartial witness”, an aspiration that set
foyer of a Bradford hotel after giving a him apart from his literary contemporaries. “I
performance of Tennyson’s Becket. When his am not a Liberal, not a Conservative,” he
ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey, the stated, “I should like to be a free artist.” Ivanov
ceremony was boycotted by George Bernard is an extreme version of the neurotic anti-hero
SHAW, who had never been able to persuade who appears in some form in all of Chekhov’s
Irving to stage his plays. “Irving would turn in serious plays. The character is a bored and
his coffin if I came,” said Shaw, “just as melancholy intellectual, uncommitted and
Shakespeare will turn in his coffin when Irving guilt-ridden, lost in endless reveries like
comes.” Hamlet. Just before Ivanov is to marry Sasha,
the young girl who has waited patiently for the
Isle of Dogs, The A comedy by Ben death of his wife, he backs out. Before his
JONSON and Thomas Nashe, first performed suicide, he explains:
in 1597 by Pembroke’s Men at the Swan I wander about among my friends like
Theatre. The work, now lost, led to a a shadow, and I don’t know who I am
temporary closure of the theatre and the or why I live or what I want.
imprisonment of the two authors and several
Chekhov was upset at the audience’s
others on charges of producing a “seditious
failure to understand that the ineffectual
comedy”.
Ivanov was meant to show them the futility of
Italian night scenes An English dumb their dreams. This was a theme that Chekhov
show (see MIME) that evolved into the was to develop further in his mature works.
258 Jack and the Beanstalk

Corday in Peter BROOK’s production of Weiss’s

J MARAT/SADE in London and on Broadway. In

1967 she played Masha in Chekhov’s Three
Sisters at the Royal Court Theatre and in 1975
toured Britain, America, and Australia in the
Jack and the Beanstalk A folk tale of title role of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. Three years
British origin that has been a favourite subject later Jackson appeared opposite Alan Howard
for PANTOMIME since the 1780s. In the story in Peter Brook’s production of Antony and
Jack stupidly exchanges his poor mother’s Cleopatra – a role she later burlesqued in the
cow for a handful of beans. However, the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show
beans, discarded in disgust by the mother, (according to Jackson, the highlight of her
miraculously sprout overnight producing a acting career).
giant beanstalk reaching up to the sky. The In 1983 Jackson became director of the
intrepid Jack clambers up the stalk and steals United British Artists production company,
treasures from the giant’s castle at the top – a whose members include Diana Rigg, Albert
bag of gold, a hen that lays golden eggs, and a Finney, and Ben Kingsley. She received
magic harp. In the pantomime version, a outstanding reviews in 1984 as Nina in
young woman usually plays the part of Jack O’Neill’s five-hour drama Strange Interlude
and a male comedian the role of his mother. at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, a
Jack-in-the-Green A somewhat production seen the following year on
enigmatic figure who appears in English MAY Broadway. In 1988 she starred in Macbeth on
DAY festivities and MORRIS DANCES. The Broadway, and in 1990 in Brecht’s Mother
character, who wears a wicker frame woven Courage in London.
with flowers and greenery over the upper half Her international film career has brought
of his body, has sometimes been linked with her two Academy Awards as Best Actress, for
the ‘Green Men’ found in medieval churches Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class
and seen as a survival of pre-Christian fertility (1973). Her most memorable television role
rituals. Modern scholarship tends to be came in 1971, when she played Queen
sceptical of such theories, pointing out that Elizabeth I in Elizabeth R.
the custom is not recorded before the 18th Jackson’s career in the theatre went into
century. See also JONKONNU. abeyance when she was elected Labour MP for
jack-knife stage A method of staging Hampstead and Highgate in 1992. She
that involves the use of platforms, or rostra, remains the only British MP to have won an
which pivot on castor wheels at one corner. In Oscar.
a segment stage these platforms are wedge-
Jack Sprat A ten-inch-tall Amazona
shaped and pivot on the upstage apex.
viridigena parrot who appeared in more than
Jackson, Glenda (1936– ) British 1000 performances of Treasure Island in the
actress, who has brought an abrasive integrity 1950s and 1960s perched on the shoulders of
to many classic and contemporary roles, both six successive Long John Silvers. According to
on stage and in films. The daughter of a Sir Bernard Miles (1907–91), who played
bricklayer and a cleaning lady, she worked as a Long John each Christmas at the MERMAID
shop assistant before taking elocution and THEATRE, the bird “travelled hundreds of miles
fencing lessons and being accepted into with us on tour as a bona fide member of the
the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (see cast”. Jack Sprat eventually became the
RADA). However, Jackson recalled that after resident parrot in Miles’s office.
graduating “I spent the first ten years mainly
out of work.” She made her debut in London Jacobean drama The English theatre
in 1957 at the Arts Theatre Club in All Kinds during the reign of James I (1603–25).
of Men, before appearing in the West End in Although SHAKESPEARE was still writing
Bill Naughton’s Alfie (1963). major works until around 1611, the leading
In 1964 Jackson joined the Royal dramatist of the era was Ben JONSON. Other
Shakespeare Company and appeared in the noted Jacobean playwrights included
celebrated Theatre of CRUELTY season, giving a John MARSTON, Thomas MIDDLETON,
highly praised performance as Charlotte Thomas HEYWOOD, John FORD, Thomas
 Jarry, Alfred 259

Dekker (c. 1570–1632), Cyril Tourneur of the mathematician Alan Turing in Hugh
(c. 1575–1626), and Samuel Rowley Whitemore’s Breaking the Code. More recently
(c. 1575–1624). Jacobi has played the title roles in Kean (1990),
In comedy, the Elizabethan concerns with Anouilh’s Becket (1991), Macbeth (1993),
characterization and romantic love began to and Uncle Vanya (1996). He gave an
give way to a vogue for harsh satire and acclaimed performance as Prospero in
increased realism from about 1610. Jacobean Michael Grandage’s Old Vic production of
tragedy shows a similar obsession with the idea The Tempest (2003), starred in the same
of moral corruption; examples include director’s revival of Schiller’s Don Carlos a
WEBSTER’s The White Devil (1612) and The year later, and in 2006 gave one of his most
Duchess of Malfi (1619), as well as BEAUMONT compelling performances as the irascible title
and FLETCHER’s The Maid’s Tragedy (1610). character in John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round
The plays, which are often horrifically My Father. His performance as Malvolo in the
violent, display a generally cynical and 2007 Donmar Warehouse production of
pessimistic outlook on life. From 1605 Twelfth Night earned him the Olivier Award
Jonson collaborated with Inigo JONES to for Best Actor. In 2010 he returned to the
create the extravagant and scholarly court Donmar to give a critically acclaimed
MASQUEs beloved by James I and his queen. performance in King Lear, again directed
Although James was an enthusiast for the by Grandage. Despite such triumphs, Jacobi
theatre, he imposed strict regulations on remains best-known to the general public
companies, specifying in which theatres they for his portrayal of the stuttering Emperor
could play. One effect of this was to bring Claudius in the television series I, Claudius
public performances into the cities of London (1976).
and Westminster; before 1608 all theatres had
to be outside the municipal boundaries. The Jam Factory, the (1) Nickname for the
leading troupe of the day, the CHAMBERLAIN’S Astoria Theatre, in London’s Charing Cross
MEN, became the King’s Men on James’s Road. It was built on the site of a jam factory
accession. Similarly the Blackfriars Boy and opened in 1927 as ‘London’s Supreme
Company became the Children of the Revels Cinema’. In 1977 it was renovated as a theatre
of the Queen, although the popularity of child and opened with Jack Good’s production of
actors came to an end during the Jacobean era. the musical Elvis. Since coming under new
Other features of the period include the management in 1987, the venue has featured
growing influence of neoclassical theories from live music. (2) A derogatory nickname for the
the Continent (see NEOCLASSICAL DRAMA), SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL THEATRE in Stratford
increasingly violent opposition to the theatre on Avon.
from the Puritans, and a general decline in Jarry, Alfred (1873–1907) French
audience numbers. novelist and playwright, chiefly remembered
Jacobi, Sir Derek (George) for his farce Ubu roi (1896), which began as a
(1938– ) British classical actor, often collaborative schoolboy satire on a physics
considered the natural successor to Sir John teacher (see UBU, PÈRE). Jarry’s other plays
GIELGUD. The son of London shopworkers, include Ubu Enchaîné (1900), Ubu sur la butte
Jacobi appeared with the National Youth (1901), and Ubu Cocu (1944, written 1888),
Theatre before making his professional debut as well as the poetic drama César Antechrist
in the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s 1961 (1894) and the farcical opera Le Moutardier du
production of N. F. Simpson’s One Way Pape (1907).
Pendulum. Two years later he joined the In life, Jarry contrived an eccentric persona
National Theatre, with whom he made his that was as bizarre as his work. A keen athlete
London debut as Laertes in Hamlet. Since then and marksman, he was rarely seen without his
Jacobi has played major roles in a broad range rusty Browning revolver and carbine. Anyone
of plays, including Hamlet at Elsinore in 1979. who bored or annoyed him was liable to be
As an associate actor of the RSC, he has starred dismissed with a fusillade of blanks. On more
in several notable productions, including Peer formal occasions he wore paper shirts, on
Gynt (1982) and an award-winning version of which he would draw a tie. His favourite drink
Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983. In was said to be absinthe diluted with red ink.
1986 he was highly praised for his portrayal With its savage mockery of the French
260 Jatra

bourgeoisie and blatant disregard for theatrical famous Joseph J. Jefferson (1829–1905), a
form and convention, Jarry’s work influenced leading comedy actor. He made his debut at
both the Surrealists and the Theatre of the the age of four in Washington, DC, singing
ABSURD. Jarry died at the age of 34, largely as a ‘Jump Jim Crow’ with the black-faced comedy
result of his alcoholism. See also ’PATAPHYSICS. singer T. D. Rice. In 1857 he joined Laura
Keene’s company in New York and a year later
Jatra (Bengali: procession) A melodramatic
became an overnight success as Asa Trenchard
hero-villain genre of Indian theatre; it is the
in Tom Taylor’s Our American Cousin. He
most popular form of drama in rural Bengal subsequently joined the Winter Garden
and amongst Bengali speakers elsewhere. Jatra Theatre in New York under the direction of
probably emerged in the 16th century from Dion Boucicault, creating the role of Salem
within the Vaishnava devotional movement; Scudder in Boucicault’s The Octoroon. Another
the first scripts still extant date from the late famous role, which he would play many
18th century. hundreds of times, was that of Bob ACRES in
Calcutta is the centre for about 20 Sheridan’s The Rivals.
travelling troupes controlled by owner- After the death of his wife in 1861,
managers. The season runs from September to Jefferson toured Australia. There, during
June, with companies performing for family a performance in the mining town of
events and major religious festivals. Jatra Castlemaine, he was horrified to see a barker
concentrated on religious themes until the standing on a barrel outside the theatre
early 19th century, but has since become shouting “Step up, ladies and gentlemen. Now
largely secular. The Communist Party made or never is your only chance to see the greatest
use of the genre to win rural supporters living wonder of the age, Joseph Jefferson.”
in the 1930s and was later responsible for The actor refused to go on unless the man
popularizing Jatra in the cities. desisted. When the barker refused, a tussle
The acting area, which is often outdoors, is with the manager resulted in him falling
made up of mats or carpets spread over the through the barrel until, as Jefferson recalled,
ground or a low wooden platform; the latter is “only a fat head just appeared above the top.
usually connected to the dressing room by a They tipped the barrel over and rolled him off
ramp, which provides more acting space. inside, to the great amusement of the
There is no scenery and the only prop is a bystanders…”
chair. The all-night performance opens with In 1865 Jefferson went to London where
music, which can last for up to two hours. The he starred in Boucicault’s adaptation of
melodrama follows, its scenes divided into acts Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle. It ran for
by songs; the stories consist of battles between 170 nights and Jefferson went on to play the
heroes and villains, interspersed with comic part some 2500 times over the next 15 years.
interludes. An allegorical character known as
bibek, or Conscience, roams the stage Jersey Lily, the The nickname of Lillie
LANGTRY,who was the daughter of the dean of
commenting on the meaning behind the
action and predicting its consequences. Jersey.

Jefferson family US acting family. Its Jessnertreppe See SPIELTREPPE.

patriarch, the British-born Joseph J. Jefferson Jesuit drama Plays performed and
(1774–1832), had eight sons, seven of whom sometimes written by students at Jesuit
also became actors; his own father, Thomas J. colleges in Europe from the 16th to 18th
Jefferson (1732–1897), had appeared at Drury centuries. The first such plays were written
Lane with Garrick. as school exercises to promote a greater
Joseph Jefferson made his New York debut understanding of theological and moral ideas;
in 1796 in Vanbrugh’s The Provok’d Husband. gradually they developed into more elaborate
He was subsequently the leading actor at productions than the professional theatres
Philadelphia’s CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE for were giving at that time.
nearly 30 years, where he appeared in such The first Jesuit college, the Collegio
comic roles as Farmer Ashfield in Morton’s Mamertino, opened in Messina, Sicily in
Speed the Plough. His son, also Joseph J. 1548; the first recorded Jesuit tragedy was
Jefferson (1804–42), was a scenic artist and performed there three years later. The early
actor and the father of the third and most plays had biblical or classical subjects, such as
 Jew of Malta, The 261

David, Saul, or Hercules, while later works villagers are getting restive, the council is
dramatized the stories of saints and martyrs. As determined to evict him, and Troy Whitworth,
early as 1569 Latin began to give way to local the local thug, is out to do worse. In his
languages, when Stefano Tuccio’s Christus defiance, Byron emerges as a life force to be set
Judex was translated into Italian and German. against the sterile, over-regulated England that
By the 17th century, Jesuit drama was is seeking his extinction: an archetype of
being influenced by opera and ballet, especially misrule to rival Falstaff, Puck, or Robin Hood.
in Vienna; this led to the use of large choruses Jerusalem was an obvious choice for the
and orchestras, lavish costumes and scenery, Evening Standard’s best play award in 2009,
and elaborate stage machinery. In 1659 Pietas with Rylance also picking up the award for
Victrix by the Austrian Nicolaus Avancini had best actor. Largely on the strength of these
46 speaking parts and seven TRANSFORMATION encomiums, the play transferred to the West
SCENEs. Productions of Jesuit drama in Paris End in 2010 and enjoyed a sold-out run. At
were equal to those of the Paris Opéra; in that year’s Olivier awards Rylance was again
Paris, too, such female characters as St named best actor and an award also went to
Catherine and Esther were introduced. Ultz for the play’s striking set (which included
By the mid-18th century Jesuit dramas real trees and a selection of live animals).
were being performed at regular intervals in
about 300 colleges. However, the excesses of Jesus Christ Superstar A rock opera
these extravagant productions led to the based on the life of Christ, with music by
imposition of restrictions and the dramas Andrew LLOYD WEBBER and lyrics by Tim Rice.
ceased altogether in 1773 when the order The stage musical was actually devised after the
was suppressed. Some Jesuit dramas are Webber–Rice songs had become a success on
occasionally revived; Jakob Bidermann’s an LP record. The show opened in Pittsburgh
Cenodoxus (1602), for example, was performed in 1971 and moved to Broadway later that
in 1958 at the Residenztheater in Munich as year; at London’s Palace Theatre it ran for
part of the city’s 800th anniversary celebration. 3357 performances from 1972 and made £7
Dramatists influenced by Jesuit drama include million at the box office (at that time a record
Calderón, Goldoni, Molière, Voltaire, and for a British musical). It also established the
Corneille. unusual record of having the most actors
(five) to play Christ in any production: Paul
Jerusalem A sprawling tragicomedy about Nicholas, Steve Alder, Chris Neil, Richard
the state of rural England by Jez Butterworth Barnes, and Robert Farrant. After its Broadway
(1969– ). The play, which is some three opening, producer Robert Stigwood was heard
hours long and took the author ten years to to claim: “Jesus Christ could be the biggest
write, earned rave reviews when it opened at thing in history.” A highly praised revival
London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2009. opened at the Lyceum Theatre, London, in
Although critics found much to admire in 1996.
Butterworth’s writing and Ian Rickson’s The story is told by Judas Iscariot, who
production, the greatest praise was reserved for traces Jesus’s life from his entry into Jerusalem
Mark RYLANCE in the role of the larger-than- until his Crucifixion. Songs include
life antihero Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron. One ‘Superstar’, ‘I Don’t Know How to Love
critic later wrote of “a performance … so Him’, and ‘Everything’s All Right’.
charismatic, so mercurial, so complete and
compelling that it doesn’t look like acting. Jew of Malta, The A play by
Instead, it is a total embodiment of a Christopher MARLOWE, first performed in
character.” London in 1590; Edward ALLEYN created the
The play, which is set in deepest Wiltshire, role of the villainous Jew Barabas. Although a
centres on the amoral but charismatic Byron – less three-dimensional character than SHYLOCK
a former stunt motorcyclist turned alcoholic in The Merchant of Venice, the role of Barabas
waster. Byron now lives in a caravan in the can be quite powerful on stage; Edmund KEAN
woods, where he holds court to a collection of excelled in both roles in the early 19th century.
young misfits, mesmerizing them with his tall In 1965 the Royal Shakespeare Company
tales and his supplies of drink and drugs. As presented both plays in repertory.
the action begins (significantly, on St George’s At the beginning of the play the Governor
Day) things are closing in on Johnny – the of Malta confiscates the wealth of Barabas, a
262 jig

Jew. Barabas, however, has more hidden in his been married and that someone else had been
house, which has been made into a nunnery. burnt at Rouen in her place. The evidence for
He persuades his daughter Abigail to convert this theory consisted of documents relating to
to Christianity for long enough to retrieve the a marriage between “Robert des Armoyses and
riches. Barabas also encourages her to arouse Joan of Arc, otherwise known as the Maid of
jealousy between her lover and the governor’s Orleans” as well as several accounts of the
son, who then kill each other. When Abigail reunion of Joan with her brothers after her
chooses to enter the convent as a nun, Barabas supposed death.
and his Turkish slave, Ithamore, poison her
Joe Blatz The ordinary US theatregoer as
along with all the other nuns. Barabas then
imagined by George M. COHAN when writing
poisons Ithamore for betraying him to the
his musicals. He attributed his success to
governor. He escapes punishment by
knowing Joe Blatz and said, “What the 15-
swallowing a potion to feign death, surviving
year-old, clean-faced, fresh-minded, full-of-life
to betray the Christians and become governor
American boy or girl likes, the Average
himself. He then plots against the Turkish
American Audience will like.” Compare AUNT
Prince Calymath but is double-crossed and
EDNA.
dies in a pot of boiling oil.
Joey The familiar name for Joseph
jig In the Elizabethan theatre, a short
GRIMALDI, England’s most famous clown.
musical farce presented by a clown and two or
Clowns are often called Joey in his honour.
three other actors as an AFTERPIECE to full-
length tragic works. Usually restricted to John Audley See at AUDLEY.
smaller theatres, the jig consisted of comic
John Bull’s Other Island A play by
rhymes on topical subjects, sung to well-
George Bernard SHAW, first performed in 1904
known tunes while the performers danced.
at the Royal Court Theatre. Originally
The genre was popularized by Richard
intended for Dublin’s ABBEY THEATRE but
TARLTON and perfected by William Kempe.
rejected by W. B. YEATS, it set out to show an
Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc; 1412–31) English character in the same ridiculous light
French patriot, who claimed to have been as Irishmen were usually presented on the
inspired by voices from heaven to liberate English stage. Shaw also argued for Irish
France from the English. She was captured and independence, both in the play itself and in his
burnt at the stake as a heretic but canonized in provocative preface (written in 1906).
1920. Her career has inspired many literary The plot concerns Larry Doyle, an Irish
and dramatic works, including plays by businessman who has been successful in
Schiller, ANOUILH (The Lark; 1943), and England; on a visit to his home town with his
George Bernard SHAW. In Shakespeare’s HENRY partner, Thomas Broadbent, Doyle sees his
VI, PART I, she is portrayed as a coarse and ageing father, whose political views now clash
treacherous instrument of the devil who trades with his, and Nora, his old sweetheart. The
her own soul for victory over the English. townspeople ask him to run for Parliament as a
By contrast, Shaw’s SAINT JOAN (1924) Home Ruler but retract the offer when they
presents her as a figure of total integrity who is realize how his views have changed. Instead,
at once saintly and completely down to earth. they make the offer to the well-meaning
Consequently there was no shortage among Englishman Broadbent, who also wins the
Shaw’s acquaintances of ladies claiming to be hand of Nora. The local (unfrocked) priest,
the author’s model for the role. The credit Father Keegan, becomes hostile, however, as
goes, however, to Mary Hankinson (a Broadbent makes plans to lure tourists into
suffragette and member of the Fabian Society), town with a new hotel and golf course. The
in whose copy of the play Shaw wrote: “To role of Father Keegan was first played by
Mary Hankinson, the only woman I know Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER, who produced a
who does not believe she was the model of series of Shaw’s plays at the Royal Court.
Saint Joan, and also actually the only woman During the play’s London run a command
who was.” performance was held for King Edward VII,
The true nature of the original Joan of Arc who laughed so hard that he broke his chair.
is notoriously hard to establish. One 17th- The incident was reported in the press and
century investigation claimed that she had helped to make Shaw’s reputation.
 Jones, Inigo 263

John Paul II (1920–2005) The only sentimental tunes with sweeping gestures,
reigning pope to have a play performed in the often falling down on one knee. His hit songs
professional theatre. He wrote The Jeweller’s included ‘Mammy’, ‘Rockabye Your Baby with
Shop in 1960 (under his original name of a Dixie Melody’, ‘Swanee’, ‘April Showers’,
Karol Wojtyła) while auxiliary bishop of and ‘California, Here I Come’.
Cracow, Poland. He became pope in 1978. However camp and schmaltzy old films of
The play, consisting of a series of monologues him may now seem, Jolson had an undeniable
about marriage, opened in London in 1982, power over the emotions of his audiences,
three days before his visit to Britain. often reducing them to tears. His famous
catchphrase was “Wait a minute! You ain’t
John Street Theatre New York’s first
heard nothin’ yet!”. His energy was boundless:
permanent playhouse and one of George
he would sometimes dismiss the entire cast of a
Washington’s favourite venues. It opened in
show during a performance and continue alone
1767 with Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem,
on stage for hours.
and was home to the AMERICAN COMPANY. The
In the 20 years between 1911 and 1931,
John Street Theatre presented the New York
Jolson appeared in many lavish productions,
premieres of many plays by Shakespeare,
including several at the Winter Garden
including David Garrick’s reduced version of
Theatre. His most successful shows included
Hamlet, which omitted the grave-diggers and
La Belle Paree (1911), Honeymoon Express
Osric. The theatre closed in 1798, when it was
(1913), Robinson Crusoe Jr. (1916), Bombo
sold for £115.
(1921), which opened the Jolson Theatre on
Joking Apart A black comedy by Alan 7th Avenue in New York, and Wonder Bar
AYCKBOURN, first presented in 1978 at the (1931), his first appearance without blackface
STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE IN THE ROUND in in 27 years.
Scarborough. In 1927 Jolson starred in the cinema’s first
The play covers a 12-year span in the lives talkie, Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer.
of its main characters; the four scenes are all set Ironically, this and subsequent screen
in the suburban garden of Richard and his wife performances helped to speed the demise of his
Anthea. Quite inadvertently, this charming beloved vaudeville. The story of his own life
and successful couple wreak havoc on the lives was filmed in 1946 as The Jolson Story.
of friends and neighbours by arousing envy Jolson could not endure criticism of or
and lust. The beautiful Anthea is still loved by apathy towards his act. Although he was
her ex-boyfriend Brian and her husband’s offered enormous sums to perform in Britain,
business partner Sven. Next door, the tense he was frightened by the idea of a strange
young vicar Hugh also has a passion for foreign audience to which he might not be
Anthea, which has driven his wife Louise onto able to relate. “If there’s just one guy who ain’t
prescription drugs. Similarly, Richard’s enjoying the show, I’ll know it,” he explained,
effortless superiority drives Sven into self- “and that’ll kill me”.
destructive bitterness. Finally, at a party given
Jones, Inigo (1573–1652) English
by Richard and Anthea for their daughter’s
architect and stage designer, whose work with
18th birthday, the now grown-up girl is
court MASQUEs brought several innovations to
perplexed by the antics of her parents and their
the English stage.
friends.
Jones, having visited Italy in 1603 and seen
Jolson, Al (Asa Yoelson; 1886–1950) US the great theatres at Vicenza and Parma,
star of blackface revue and musical comedy became an exponent of baroque theatre design.
who appeared in Hollywood’s first talkie. Born He also studied design and painting while
in Russia, the son of a rabbi, he grew up in employed at the court of Christian IV of
Washington, DC, and first appeared on stage Denmark, whose sister, Anne, was James I of
at the age of 12. He first wore blackface in England’s queen.
1904 for an act with his brother Hirsh. Five In 1605 Jones was employed at the English
years later he joined Lew Dockstader’s minstrel court to design sets and costumes for masques
troupe and quickly became a leading star. He by the dramatist Ben JONSON, the first being
began to sing his famous ‘mammy songs’ when The Mask of Blackness. However, before long
the company played in San Francisco. Wearing Jones’s extravagant sets and costume designs,
blackface and white gloves Jolson delivered the such as those for Oberon in Oberon, the Fairy
264 Jones, James Earl

Prince (1611), began to overshadow the that later transferred to the West End. He was
dramatic content and a feud developed also the voice of the sinister Darth Vader in
between the two men. Jonson savagely satirized Star Wars (1977).
Jones in several plays (see LANTHORN,
Jones, Robert Edmond (1887–1954)
LEATHERHEAD).
US stage designer and director, who began a
Jones also produced plays at Oxford’s
revolution in the US theatre and remained
Christ Church Hall, where he introduced
Broadway’s leading designer for 30 years. Jones
revolving Italian screens. He later pioneered
the PROSCENIUM, the backcloth (see CLOTH), also helped to develop Technicolor for the
and painted FLATs that moved on a GROOVES cinema. His credo as a designer was “Keep in
SYSTEM.
your soul some images of magnificence.” In
During the Civil War, Jones’s fortunes fell 1926 he published Drawings for the Theatre.
with the monarchy. He was captured and his After graduating from Harvard in 1910,
estate was confiscated, but later restored; he he studied in Berlin (1912–15) with Max
REINHARDT and the designer Ernst Stern at the
died without adequate funds. More than 450
DEUTSCHES THEATER. On his return to New
of his drawings and designs exist in the library
of Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. York in 1915, he launched the ‘new stagecraft’
with his designs for the New York Stage
Jones, James Earl (1931– ) US Black Society’s production of The Man Who Married
actor, noted for his Shakespearean roles. a Dumb Wife, directed by Harley Granville-
Jones, the son of the actor Robert Earl Barker, in which Jones placed brilliantly
Jones, said of his father, “I saw how difficult it coloured costumes in simple black and grey
was for him. I knew I had to accept a low settings. Jones was also one of the first
standard of living for some years”. In 1957 he designers for the THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND,
went to New York to study acting with Lee producing sketches on Shelley’s arena
STRASBERG, making his debut in the city that production of The Cenci in 1920. He was also
year in Wedding in Japan. In 1960 he began influenced by Gordon Craig (see CRAIG
his long association with Joseph PAPP at the FAMILY), as is clear from the Expressionist
New York Shakespeare Festival, where he designs he created for John Barrymore’s
appeared in Henry V and Measure for Measure; Hamlet in 1922. Two years later Jones directed
subsequent performances as Othello, Macbeth, and created a MULTIPLE SETTING for Eugene
and Lear at the Festival were much praised by O’NEILL’s Desire under the Elms (1924); this led
the critics. Jones won the Village Voice OBIE to further designs for O’Neill’s plays with the
award for Best Actor (1961–62) for three Provincetown Players, of which he became a
off-Broadway plays, including Moon of the joint manager. Despite using abstract designs,
Rainbow Shawl, in which he appeared with his Jones worked from real life, travelling to
father. England to see the Tower of London to
Jones made his first European tour in the prepare for Richard III, spending months in
summer of 1967, playing the title role in Venice for Othello, and studying original
O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. That same year Chinese documents for Sidney Howard’s Lute
he opened in Washington, DC, in The Great Song.
White Hope, in which he played the first Black During one production the designer Jo
heavyweight fighter, Jack Johnson (Jack Mielziner (1901–76) was summoned to the
Jefferson in the play), a performance that costume workshop to encounter a 17th-
won him a Tony Award. The critic Martin century lady in a splendid gown performing a
Gottfried said, “Bravura actors are almost genteel curtsy. Noting the richly trimmed wig
extinct in America and now there is Jones.” He and the baroque pearl necklace, he suddenly
was also nominated for an Academy Award for became aware that the face between them
playing the part in the 1970 film version.
belonged to Jones. “You know, Jo,” laughed
Other successes include Athol Fugard’s
Jones, “most actresses really don’t know how
Boesman and Lena (1970), Chekhov’s The
to wear these things. I just had to see what it
Cherry Orchard (1973), Steinbeck’s Of Mice
felt like.”
and Men (1974), and August Wilson’s Fences
(1987), which earned him a Tony Award. In jongleur In medieval times, a wandering
2008 he starred as Big Daddy in an all-Black entertainer who sang songs or recited poetry as
Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof well as performing juggling and acrobatic acts.
 Jordan, Dorothy 265

The word comes from the Latin joculator, ALCHEMIST (1610), and BARTHOLOMEW FAIR
juggler. See also GOLIARD; TROUBADOURS. (1614) were all hugely successful and have
remained popular choices for revival. In
jonkonnu A masked and costumed street
particular the character of Abel Drugger in The
procession held in Jamaica at Christmas. First
Alchemist has provided generations of actors
recorded in the 18th century, the jonkonnu
with a brilliant comic role.
apparently combines elements of the
The relative failure of Catiline (1611) and
MUMMERS’ PLAY and the West African
The Devil is an Ass (1616) seems to have
masquerade. Members of the all-male troupes, prompted Jonson to take a break from writing
who are accompanied by a fife and drum band, for the stage, although he continued to work
remain masked in public and disguise their on the court masques. His late plays The Staple
voices. The various characters include the of News (1625), The New Inn (1629), and A
Devil, JACK-IN-THE-GREEN, Horse Head, and Tale of a Tub (1633) did not prove popular
Belly Woman. and are now largely forgotten. In 1634 Jonson
Jonson, Ben (1572–1637) English and Jones’s long-running quarrel over whose
dramatist and poet, whose reputation amongst contribution to the masque was the more
playwrights of the period is second only to important flared up again, leading to a final
Shakespeare’s. Jonson was born in London and breach between the two men.
is thought to have received a good education. On his death Jonson was interred in
Despite this he worked as a bricklayer and Westminster Abbey (see POETS’ CORNER; see
served as a soldier in the Netherlands before also at RARE).
turning to the theatre in around 1597. That Jordan, Dorothy (1762–1816) Irish-
same year Jonson was briefly imprisoned for born English actress who excelled in boisterous
his part in THE ISLE OF DOGS, a play written in tomboy roles and BREECHES PARTS. She was
collaboration with Thomas Nashe. In 1598 equally well-known for having 15 illegitimate
Jonson killed a fellow actor in a duel, escaping children, 10 of them fathered by the future
the death penalty, it seems, only because of his William IV when he was the Duke of
ability to read Latin, which allowed him to Clarence. The duke was often in financial
claim ‘benefit of clergy’. difficulties, and Dorothy would send him
Although Jonson found little success as an money when she was touring the provinces.
actor, his reputation as a dramatist was firmly When the government eventually insisted that
established in 1598 with EVERY MAN IN HIS he break off their liaison, she received a
HUMOUR. Shakespeare is thought to have acted handsome payoff.
in the play and, according to one account, was Herself the illegitimate daughter of an
responsible for recommending the piece to the actress, Dorothy made her debut in 1779 at
Lord Chamberlain’s Men. This success was the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, using the
followed by another COMEDY OF HUMOURS, stage name Miss Francis. When, three years
Every Man out of His Humour (1599), and the later, she became pregnant, she adopted the
classically influenced satire Cynthia’s Revels name Mrs Jordan.
(1600). The Poetaster (1601) was an attack on In 1785 she was employed by Sheridan to
his rival playwrights Thomas Dekker and John understudy Sarah SIDDONS at Drury Lane.
MARSTON (see WAR OF THE THEATRES). Thereafter she appeared in a succession of
Jonson’s Roman tragedy Sejanus, His Fall was comic roles in works by Shakespeare,
staged in 1603. Congreve, Farquhar, and Sheridan himself.
In 1604 Jonson was once more briefly The critic William Hazlitt said “her smile had
imprisoned, this time for his part in EASTWARD the effect of sunshine”. She was also a favourite
HO!, a play whose sentiments offended the new with British artists. George Romney painted
king, James I. Considering the controversy of her in the role of Priscilla Tomboy in the
Eastward Ho, it is perhaps surprising that only musical farce The Romp.
a year later Jonson began collaborating with When Mrs Jordan was beginning rehearsals
Inigo JONES on MASQUEs for the Stuart court. at a provincial theatre for a play called The
Jonson wrote all of the major comedies Wonder, someone pointed out her leading
upon which his reputation is now based during man. “Oh, I can’t act with him,” she moaned,
the period 1605 to 1614. VOLPONE (1605), “he’s too little!” As she walked away the actor
Epicoene; or The Silent Woman (1609), THE gave her a reproachful glance that she never
266 jornada

forgot. Years later Mrs Jordan asked to be Colombier. In about 1920 he remodelled the
introduced to the most famous and fashionable stage there to resemble the acting area in an
actor of the day, Edmund KEAN. They met in Elizabethan playhouse.
the green room of the Drury Lane Theatre. In 1922 Jouvet became director of the
“Great heavens!” she exclaimed, “the little man Comédie des Champs-Élysées, where he
with the eyes!” enjoyed a major success with Dr Knock (1923);
he subsequently starred in both the 1933 film
jornada The Spanish name for a division
version and the 1950 remake. Five years later
of a play, equivalent to an act; it was first used Jouvet co-founded the CARTEL, an association
in the early 16th century by the playwright of four of the leading actor-managers in
TORRES NAHARRO.
France. His direction of Giraudoux’s Siegfried
Joseph, Stephen See GINGOLD, in 1928 led to a long collaboration between
HERMIONE (FERDINANDA); STEPHEN JOSEPH the two men, culminating in Jouvet’s
THEATRE IN THE ROUND. production of THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT
(1945) after Giraudoux’s death. Two years
Journey’s End A realistic anti-war play later Jouvet staged Genet’s first play, THE
by R. C. Sherriff (1896–1975) that established MAIDS (1947).
his reputation. It was first performed (1928) in
a Stage Society production at London’s Savoy juggler A performer who throws and
Theatre starring Laurence OLIVIER. catches objects (such as balls, plates, knives,
Set in a World-War-I-dugout in France, etc.) in quick succession to create a variety of
the play explores the relationship between two patterns in flight. The art was practised in
ex-school friends, the youthful Lieutenant ancient Egypt, China, and Greece; in Rome,
Raleigh and Captain Stanhope. Raleigh hero- knife jugglers were known as ventilatores and
worships the older man, but becomes ball jugglers as pilarii.
disillusioned with him when he turns to During the Middle Ages jugglers featured
alcohol for comfort on hearing of the death of at court entertainments, the best-known being
a friend. The next day the young officer is Pierre Gringore (1475– 1538), who was
wounded, and Stanhope comforts him before chief fool at the French court and also an
he too enters battle. actor and playwright. Juggling was a popular
Sherriff first thought of calling his play entertainment at fairs and, with the
Suspense but rejected it “because I couldn’t development of the CIRCUS during the 19th
honestly claim that it had any”. Waiting was century, became a prominent feature of big-
the second choice, but one night in bed he was top performances. One Russian circus even
reading a book with a chapter that ended with claimed to have a bear who had been trained
the sentence, “It was late in the evening when to juggle a flaming torch.
we came at last to our Journey’s End.” He In the 19th century British music hall and
typed the last two words on the front page of variety stages offered both the ‘strength juggler’
his play and “the thing was done”. and the ‘salon juggler’. The former, which
Sherriff later recalled his nervousness at the included Karl Rappo (1800–54), juggled heavy
opening: “I was all over the theatre, running objects, including other human beings. The
up to the gallery, walking round the pit, antipodean juggler lay on his back and tossed
standing in a box. I couldn’t sit down; I must a heavy object from one foot to the other; if
have walked five miles in the theatre that this were a young boy, the feat was called the
night. I couldn’t bear to look at the Icarus trick.
audience… When the curtain fell and there The salon juggler tossed billiard balls, fans,
was no applause, I was pained, but thrilled, and similar items, often balancing them on his
too.” head or chin. A famous example was Paul
Cinquevalli (Paul Kestner; 1859–1918),
Jouvet, Louis (1887–1951) French actor, known as The Human Billiard Table, who
director, designer, and stage technician, dressed in green baize with pockets at his waist,
responsible for staging the first plays of both shoulders, and spine. He had the uncanny skill
GIRAUDOUX and GENET. Jouvet made his Paris of juggling and rolling billiard balls over his
debut in an adaptation of The Brothers body until they were all neatly pocketed.
Karamazov (1910), before joining Jacques Another music-hall favourite was the
Copeau’s company at the Théâtre du Vieux- restaurant scene popularized by the Charles
 Just Between Ourselves 267

Perzoff Troupe (1890–1910) during which revealing insights; it was called a “stark raving
waiters and customers end up wildly juggling a sane play” by the critic John Barber.
five-course meal. W. C. Fields (1879–1946) In the play Moore and his wife Dorothy
began his career as a stage juggler before are hosting a party during which Moore’s
becoming a Hollywood comedian. Jugglers colleague, Archie, apparently murders a rival
have practised their art riding the unicycle, for Dorothy’s favours. Inspector Bones arrives
blindfolded on horseback, and on the high to investigate and, taken by Dorothy’s charms,
wire. dismisses the body’s presence in her bedroom
In Britain and America, juggling has as an irrelevant detail. Archie continues to
recently undergone a revival in popularity as a pursue Dorothy and directs a team of
sport, particularly the variety of club juggling bouncing acrobats (jumpers) as George
introduced to Britain in the 19th century from performs equally useless mental gymnastics,
India and formerly known as Indian club polishing his lecture on morals.
swinging. See also ACROBATICS. Juno and the Paycock A tragicomedy
Julius Caesar SHAKESPEARE’s tragedy, by Sean O’CASEY. It was first performed in
believed to be the first play presented at the 1924 at the ABBEY THEATRE, Dublin, opening
new GLOBE THEATRE in 1599 by the Lord in London the following year and in New York
Chamberlain’s Men. Unusually for a tragedy, in 1926.
the title character is killed at the start of the Set in Dublin’s slums during the
third act. The play thereafter concentrates on ‘Troubles’ of 1921, the plot concerns the
the political effects of the killing and its disintegration of the Boyle family. The
psychological consequences for the two main drunken hypochondriac ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle
assassins, Brutus and Cassius. Shakespeare used and his son Johnny, who has been wounded
fighting for the IRA, leave all the work to the
Plutarch’s Lives as his main source, but altered
Captain’s wife, Juno, and their daughter Mary.
many details for dramatic effect; the result is
Life in the two-room tenement is bleak indeed
an unusually straightforward narrative, with no
until the day that Charles Bentham, an English
subplots or comic scenes.
solicitor who is in love with Mary, announces
There have been many notable
that he has helped to draft a will that leaves the
performances on both sides of the Atlantic. In
Captain a large amount of money. The family
1937 Orson Welles and John Houseman
buy new furniture on credit before Bentham
opened their Mercury Theatre with a modern- discovers that he has made an error and the
dress production, depicting Caesar as a family will receive nothing. Bentham departs
Mussolini-type figure. John GIELGUD appeared for London leaving Mary pregnant and the
in two very different films, as Cassius to furniture is repossessed. Worse, Johnny is
Marlon Brando’s Antony in 1953 and as executed for betraying the IRA cause. Finally,
Caesar with Charlton Heston in 1969. Juno and Mary leave the Captain in search of a
Laurence OLIVIER, famous for his laughing less miserable life.
fits during performances in his early career,
once played Flavius in Julius Caesar. The actor Just Between Ourselves A bleak
playing Murellus stood on a beer box to give comedy by Alan AYCKBOURN, first presented in
the speech “Knew you not Pompey?” As 1976 at the STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE IN THE
Olivier watched, the man’s long pants fell ROUND, Scarborough.
down underneath his toga and over the beer The story takes place on the birthdays of
box, so preventing him from stepping down. the four main characters. On Pam’s birthday,
Olivier laughed so much he had to leave the she and her husband Neil visit Dennis and
stage and was fired the next morning. Vera to look at Vera’s car, which they are
thinking of buying. Dennis, rearranging the
Jumpers A sophisticated comedy by Tom mess in his garage, is reminded by his live-in
STOPPARD. It opened in 1972 with highly mother, Marjorie, how much better his father
praised performances by Michael Hordern as was at DIY. Dennis ignores both her and his
George Moore, a Professor of Moral long-suffering wife, who yearns to be rescued
Philosophy, and Diana Rigg as his young ex- from her dominating mother-in-law. On
actress wife. Stoppard’s satire on current Dennis’s birthday, Marjorie berates Vera for
fashions in academic philosophy has many not making him his favourite cake. On
268 Justice

Marjorie’s birthday, Vera finally allows her The plot concerns a junior clerk, William
fury free rein; by her own birthday, however, Falder, who, although usually honest, forges a
she is cowed and uncommunicative, huddled cheque to assist Ruth Honeywill, a woman
outside in the garden, while Marjorie happily brutalized by her husband. His crime is
rules the house and her son. discovered and he receives the maximum
prison sentence; placed in solitary
Justice The best-known play by John
confinement, he has a mental breakdown.
Galsworthy, first performed in 1910 at the
When he is released two years later, he applies
Savoy Theatre, London.
to his old firm to be taken back. Told that he
In the 1916 New York production John
must first give up Ruth, who is now living
Barrymore (see BARRYMORES, THE) established
with him, Falder refuses and later forges a
his name as a serious actor playing the leading
reference for another job. When questioned by
role of the downtrodden clerk Falder. The
the police, Falder commits suicide rather than
New York Times stated that Barrymore “gained
face prison again.
overnight a prestige which is priceless in the
The wordless scene depicting Falder in
theatre, a prestige all his work in trivial
solitary confinement is said to have helped
entertainment would not give him”. When she
reform the law relating to that form of
saw his performance the US actress and
punishment.
playwright Jane Cowl was so overcome that
See also CINEMATOGRAPHIC.
she fainted. Weeks later Barrymore was
informed that she was again in the audience: juvenile lead In the 18th- and 19th-
“Is she?” he responded drily. “I do hope she’ll century STOCK COMPANIES, an actor who
give a good performance.” played the part of a young man.
 Kamiriithu 269

connected with the worship of nature and

K ancestors.
Kainz, Josef (1858–1910) Austrian actor,
whose noble bearing and resonant voice made
kabuki The most popular form of drama him the most popular German-language
in Japan. Its name is derived from the Japanese performer of his day. After training with the
verb kabuku, meaning to be modern and off- MEININGER COMPANY, Kainz acted with the
beat, and written using the Japanese symbols Munich Court Theatre (1880–83), the
for singing (ka), dancing (bu), and art (ki). Deutsches Theater in Berlin (1883–99), and
Kabuki, which originated in the 15th the Vienna Burgtheater (1899–1910).
century, is said to have been invented by a While performing in 1881 in Munich as
priestess-dancer, who drew on the traditions of Didier in Victor Hugo’s Marion de Lorme,
Nō and Chinese theatre to depict subjects from Kainz was seen by ‘mad’ King Ludwig II of
everyday life. She was subsequently imitated by Bavaria. The monarch subsequently wrote
many women performers. In 1616, however, letters of admiration to the actor, showered
women were banned from the stage as most jewels upon him, and brought him to his
actresses were also prostitutes. Groups of boys Schloss Linderhof to recite in his Blue Grotto.
replaced them, but in 1652 they too were They became close friends, but Ludwig went
banned for the same reason. Now kabuki too far during their visit to Switzerland when
players are all men, some of whom specialize in he forced Kainz to read a scene from William
stylized female impersonations. Tell on a mountainside in the middle of the
Kabuki plays range from farces to night. The actor walked out and made a
melodramas, drawing their plots from daily
fortune by selling the king’s personal letters to
life, history, myth, Nō plays, and BUNRAKU
him.
puppet plays. The most popular Kabuki work
is Chushingura (1748) by Takedo Izymo Kaiser, Georg (1878–1945) German
(1691–1756), which describes how faithful playwright, whose From Morn to Midnight
royal retainers avenge their master. (1917) is usually considered to have initiated
The stock Kabuki roles include courageous EXPRESSIONISM in the theatre. The play was
men (tachiyaku), evil men (katakiyaku), young first seen at the Berlin Volksbühne in a
men (wakashukata), comic roles (dokekata), production by Max REINHARDT, with
and female characters (onnagata). The actors imaginative sets by Hans Strohbach. The plot
are not masked and wear extravagant concerns a repressed bank clerk who searches
costumes. Acting techniques were traditionally for spiritual meaning in the modern world but
passed on from father to son; the Ichikawa is crushed and destroyed by society.
family produced 12 generations of successful Kaiser’s most ambitious work is a trilogy of
kabuki actors in this way. Scenery and staging plays in which he explores the hopelessness of
are often elborate; kabuki companies made use
the human condition: Coral (1917) shows the
of a revolving stage long before such a device
protagonist rejecting materialism, Gas I (1918)
was adopted in the West.
depicts his attempts to reform society, and Gas
Kabuki has always tried to keep ahead of
the times, incorporating innovative musical, II (1920) ends in cataclysmic destruction.
choreographical, and artistic styles that have Kaiser eventually abandoned expressionism
often been considered strange and shocking: and wrote such romances as Alain und Elise
the scholar Tsumbouchi Shoyo called it (1940). His condemnation of dictatorship led
a “many-headed monster”. Variations to a ban on his work by the Nazis in 1933; five
introduced during this century have included years later he went into exile in Switzerland,
SHIMPA and SHINGEKI, both of which reflect where he died.
the influence of European ideas. Despite its Kamiriithu A Kenyan theatre project
back-street origins, kabuki is now considered established in 1976 at Limuru by workers,
a high art form. peasants, and university staff to stage
kagura A form of early Japanese dance controversial plays about class and
drama imported from China in about 540 AD. exploitation. Although it was closed down by
The term embraces numerous ritual dances the Kenyan authorities, this democratic
270 Kane, Sarah

experiment served as an inspiration to many setting, or stage directions, earned Kane largely
African writers and artists. positive reviews when it was staged at
The first Kamiriithu performance, put on Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1998. To
in an open-air theatre built voluntarily by the avoid the notoriety associated with her name,
local people, was Ngaahika Ndeenda (I’ll Marry it had been presented under the pseudonym
When I Want), which attacked the ruling Marie Kelvedon. It is now generally seen as
classes for exploiting the workers and Kane’s most lyrical and mature work, albeit a
promoting foreign interests. The production deeply despairing one. Despair is also the
was described by the Sunday Nation in Nairobi keynote of Kane’s last play, 4.48 Psychosis, a
as “a play of the people…for the people, by the fragmented piece written in the throes of
people”. Within seven weeks, however, the severe depression: the title apparently refers to
play was banned and the project’s leader, 4.48 a.m., a time at which she often found
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, was arrested and herself awake with suicidal thoughts. The play
imprisoned. After his release a year later he was given a posthumous production in 2000.
returned to help the community produce Kane’s reputation has grown rapidly since
Maitu Njugira (Mother Sing to Me), a play her death, with a London revival of Blasted
about the early resistance to colonial earning laudatory reviews in 2001. Her work
domination. The government closed the has also found an appreciative audience
community centre, razed the open-air theatre, in Germany, Poland, and other parts of
and banned further performances of the play Continental Europe.
(although thousands of people turned out to
see ‘rehearsals’ at the University of Nairobi). Karagöz (Turkish: dark eyes) An
impudent and bawdy comic character in
Kane, Sarah (1971–99) British dramatist, Oriental shadow-plays. Karagöz was created in
whose intense, visceral, and often savage work
Turkey, apparently by a sheik called Kishteri;
established her as the enfant terrible of the
the name may have come from a 13th-century
British theatre before her career was cruelly cut
entertainer. Karagöz is a young reveller with a
short by suicide at the age of 28. Kane was
large penis and a quick and filthy wit. He is
brought up in Essex, the daughter of two
often accompanied by the boastful Hacivat and
journalists who were also devout Evangelicals.
his wife, and sometimes by a selection of
In the early 1990s she studied drama at Bristol
University, where she began to direct, and stereotyped national characters, all of whom
went on to take a playwriting course at serve as butts for his jokes. The character is
Birmingham under David Edgar. known in North Africa as Karagush or
Kane’s MA student production formed the Karogheuz. The Greek version, Karaghiosis,
basis of her first full-length play BLASTED, developed after the revolution of 1821; he was,
which incurred instant notoriety when it was in contrast to his Turkish counterpart, a
seen at the Royal Court Upstairs in 1995. The decent fellow who travelled the country with a
play, which includes a number of grotesquely band of musicians promoting freedom and
violent and shocking scenes (at one point morality.
a journalist has his eyes sucked out and Kariyala An Indian theatre form popular
swallowed by a war-crazed soldier), provoked among Hindu villagers in the state of
a storm of abuse not equalled since the first Himachal Pradesh. The plays celebrate local
production of Bond’s SAVED 30 years earlier: traditions of dress, worship, and morality, by
critics variously reviled it as “naïve tosh”, telling stories of ordinary life using a range of
“utterly without artistic merit”, and a familiar characters. Music, dance, and satirical
“disgusting feast of filth”. The few dissenting humour enliven the performances, which
voices included playwrights Caryl Churchill sometimes last all night. There is also a
and Harold Pinter. Kane followed this succes de religious element with a chorus that sings
scandale with Phaedra’s Love (1996), a cynical praises to the gods. See also BHAND JASHNA.
updating of the Phaedra and Hippolytus story
described by its author as “my comedy”, and Karno, Fred (Fred Westcott; 1866–1941)
Cleansed (1998), a dream-like play exploring British showman, whose troupes of slapstick
extremes of love and cruelty in what appears to comedians (Karno’s Krazy Komics) kept
be a prison camp. Crave, a highly elliptical audiences entertained in the early 20th
piece with no named characters, specified century. Both Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel
 Kathputli 271

began their careers with Karno. Hal Roach, the Kasperl or Kasperle or Kasper The
US film producer, once remarked: most popular puppet character in Austria and
Fred Karno is not only a genius, he is Germany, where he is the equivalent of Punch
the man who originated slapstick (see PUNCH AND JUDY). Kasperl was originally
comedy. We in Hollywood owe much acted by Johann Laroche (1745–1806), a
to him. leading player at Vienna’s Leopoldstadt
As a boy Karno ran away from home to Theater, who derived the character from
become an acrobat with Ginetti’s travelling HANSWURST. Laroche’s Kasperl became a

circus. He later created the first famous comic legendary figure in Viennese popular comedy;
duo of the musical halls – Jack Melville as his leitmotiv was a cavernous moaning from
MEREDITH and Fred Kitchen as Simpkins in the wings “Auwedl” (“Deary me!”).
The Bailiffs, a sketch first seen in 1907 at the The character was first seen in puppet
Argyle theatre in Birkenhead. The bailiffs form in the Austrian Kasperltheater, where he
always found themselves in difficulties: was seen brandishing a bat against such
characters as Gretel, Grandmother, the Devil,
MEREDITH Is this the house?
and Crocodile. The puppeteer Josef Leonhard
SIMPKINS The number’s on the
Schmid (1821–1912) transformed him into
warrant.
an intellectual Bavarian gentleman named
MEREDITH Oh dear, I wish I’d brought
Kasper Larifari, while the writer Max Jacob
the piano.
(1888–1967) developed an acerbic self-
SIMPKINS Why, what do you want a
important Kasperl in the 1920s. The name
piano for?
‘Kasper’ has subsequently become a German
MEREDITH Well, that’s where I left the
word for any puppet.
warrant–on the piano!
By 1901 Karno had recruited the first of a Kathakali (Malayalam: story play) A form
series of touring companies that would feature, of Indian dance-drama popular in the state of
amongst others, Chaplin, Laurel, Will Hay, Kerala. It employs acting, dancing, and music
and Bud Flanagan. In 1913 Chaplin took to dramatize stories from the Ramayana,
Karno’s sketches to Keystone Studios in Mahabharata, and the Puranas. The genre,
Hollywood; although he would use some of which is noted for its strong masculine dancing
them in his films with hardly a change, his and use of facial and hand gestures to illustrate
former boss never complained. the action, developed from the earlier
That same year Karno built his ‘Karsino’ Ramanattam drama, which drew exclusively on
entertainment palace on Taggs Island in the the Ramayana. In the 16th century playwrights
Thames. By 1926 he was bankrupt, although turned to popular epic material to find new
he made a brief comeback in 1932 with Laffs plots, leading to the emergence of the new
at the London Palladium. In this show he genre of Kathakali.
assembled three double-acts, which became Although Kathakali was originally
the core of the CRAZY GANG. Five years later, performed by Nairs, or martial arts experts,
Karno had lost all his money and retired to modern performances mix Nairs and other
Dorset. actors. Their training, which begins at the age
The nickname ‘Fred Karno’s Army’ was of 10, takes up to 10 years, during which an
given to the new British army raised during actor must learn some 600 hand gestures,
the war of 1914–18. The well-known army memorize the entire repertory of plays, and
chorus, sung to the tune of ‘The Church’s develop enormous physical stamina.
One Foundation’, runs: The performances, which last all night,
may feature a main play chosen only hours
We are Fred Karno’s army,
beforehand. The presentation begins with a
Fred Karno’s infantry;
percussion overture and dances. This is
We cannot fight, we cannot shoot,
followed by the main drama, which is chanted
So what damn good are we?
by the ponnani or leading singer. A sanka or
But when we get to Berlin
conch shell represents the gods on stage. A
The Kaiser he will say
Kathakali troupe successfully toured Britain in
Hoch, hoch, mein Gott
1992.
Vot a bloody fine lot,
Fred Karno’s infantry. Kathputli (Hindi: story puppet) A type of
272 Kaufman, George S.

string puppet from the Indian state of Because he had only two successful solo efforts,
Rajasthan. The traditional wooden marionettes he became known as the Great Collaborator.
are carefully crafted, decorated to represent
Kazan, Elia (Elia Kazanjoglou;
specific characters, and dressed in long skirts as
1909–2003) US theatre and film director,
they have no legs or feet. They are now also
born in Turkey to Greek parents. Kazan began
mass-produced to sell to tourists.
his career as an actor with the GROUP THEATRE,
Kathputli puppeteers work in travelling
making his debut as Agate Keller in Odets’s
communities, taking their stories of the deeds
Waiting for Lefty in 1935. In the 1940s he
of kings and heroes from village to village. The
became increasingly interested in directing and
stage is constructed from upended wooden
attracted critical attention with his productions
cots (charphoys), which are connected with a
of Thornton Wilder’s expressionist drama THE
cloth to form a proscenium arch, known as the
SKIN OF OUR TEETH (1942) and such plays as
‘Taj Mahal’; a curtain hides the puppeteers.
One Touch of Venus (1943), and Jacobowsky
A puppet is often inherited as a family
and the Colonel (1944).
heirloom. When it becomes too old and
After World War II Kazan became
battered to be used, it is given a ‘funeral’ by
associated particularly with the works of
being cast into a holy river to the sound of
Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller,
prayer. It is part of the tradition that the longer
directing early productions of A Streetcar
it floats the more it has pleased the gods.
Named Desire (1947), Death of a Salesman
Kaufman, George S. (1889–1961) (1949), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and
US playwright, director, and critic, who Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). In 1947 he was
dominated Broadway between the two world instrumental in founding the ACTORS’ STUDIO,
wars. Between 1903 and 1961 he wrote or which helped to popularize the METHOD in
collaborated on at least 70 plays and film America. The new, naturalistic style of acting
scripts, including several for the Marx was also showcased in Kazan’s films of the
Brothers. He was also a member of the 1950s, several of which starred Marlon
Algonquin Round Table of Wits. As a reviewer Brando. Notoriously, Kazan was one of the
for the New York Times Kaufman proved to be few Hollywood luminaries to ‘name names’
a sharp critic. He wrote of one comedy: during the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s.
There was scattered laughter in the rear After two years (1962–64) as co-director of the
of the theatre, leading to the belief that Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in
somebody was telling jokes back there. New York, he retired from the theatre to
concerntrate on writing.
After watching an unfortunate actor named
Guido Nadzo, he wrote: Kean, Edmund (1789–1833) English
Guido Nadzo is nadzo guido. actor, who introduced Romanticism to the
London stage and fascinated the public both in
Kaufman’s cracks were legendary. He told the his dramatic roles and in his private life. The
lyricist and playwright Howard Dietz: poet S. T. Coleridge famously said of him:
I understand your new play is full of
To see him act is like reading
single entendre.
Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.
Once when bored during a play, he whispered
Kean was the son of an unsuccessful actress
to the woman in front of him:
who abandoned him to join a group of
Madam, would you mind putting on strolling players. In 1814 he made a spectacu-
your hat? lar London debut as Shylock at the Drury
When asked to write his own epitaph, he Lane Theatre followed by a brilliant rendering
replied: of Richard III. Of this performance Lord
Over my dead body. Byron remarked:
Kaufman’s first successful play, written with Richard is a man and Kean is Richard.
Marc Connelly, was Dulcy (1921). Other Not everyone was so impressed: the writer
notable works included Of Thee I Sing (1931), Mary Russell Mitford went to see the new the-
with the Gershwin brothers, Dinner at Eight atrical sensation and was disgusted to find “a
(1932), with Edna Ferber, and THE MAN WHO little insignificant man, slightly deformed …
CAME TO DINNER (1939), with Moss Hart. with a voice between grunting and croaking …
 Kemble family 273

and a vulgarity of manner which his admirers Street Theatre in 1871 and retired from the
are pleased to call nature”. stage in 1872.
By 1816 Kean was earning more than
Kemble family A British theatrical
£10,000 a season. Unfortunately, his family, the principal members of which
drinking was beginning to make him miss were John Philip Kemble (1757–1823), his
performances. After one spree, he sent word to sister Sarah SIDDONS, his brothers Stephen
the theatre that he had dislocated his shoulder Kemble (1758–1822) and Charles Kemble
in a carriage accident and was therefore unable (1775–1854), and Charles’s daughter Fanny
to appear. The next morning, he was horrified (1809–93).
to see friends and admirers streaming into the John Philip Kemble began his career as a
village where he was recovering. He had child actor with his parents’ touring company.
no option but to take to his bed with a His mother continued to act while raising 12
bandaged arm, where he gave one of his best children, all of whom appeared on stage
‘performances’ for his sympathizers. together in 1767 in Worcester. Although John
Despite deepening alcoholism, Kean was sent to study for the priesthood the lure of
enjoyed one of the high points of his career in the theatre proved too great; he made his adult
1820 when he made his New York debut; debut at Dublin’s Smock Alley theatre before
tickets were so scarce that they had to be appearing as Hamlet at Drury Lane in 1783; of
auctioned. In 1925, however, Kean began an this performance one critic remarked: “How
affair with Charlotte Cox, the wife of a City very like his sister!” Kemble subsequently
alderman, which was soon discovered. The appeared in most of the great tragic roles,
scandal turned both the press and theatregoers winning particular acclaim for his Lear (1787).
against him; he was hissed on stage and met He became manager of Drury Lane in 1788
unfriendly demonstrations on provincial tours. and of Covent Garden in 1802, where his
He subsequently settled in Richmond, Surrey decision to raise prices triggered the O.P. RIOTS.
and managed his own theatre there. In 1833, Kemble, whose own style of acting tended to
he collapsed on stage, dying two months later the dignified and portentous (see TEAPOT
after springing from his couch to shout: SCHOOL), could hardly be persuaded to watch
his great Romantic rival Edmund KEAN; when
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a
someone asked if he had finally seen Kean, he
horse! replied:
Keene, Laura (Mary Moss; 1826–73) No, sir, I did not see Mr Kean. I saw
British born US actress and manager. She Othello, and further, I shall never act
toured widely in America and elsewhere before the part again.
opening her own theatre in New York, thereby Stephen Kemble made his London debut in
becoming the first US woman to manage a 1783, when he played Othello at Covent
theatre. Although her production of Tom Garden. His choice of roles was somewhat
TAYLOR’s Our American Cousin in 1858 proved restricted by his extreme corpulence. Hazlitt
a great success, her prosperity came to an end was among those unimpressed by his talents:
with the outbreak of the American Civil War We see no more reason why Mr
in 1863. Keene subsequently toured with her Stephen Kemble should play Falstaff
company, which included Joseph Jefferson than why Louis XVIII is qualified to
(see JEFFERSON FAMILY) and E. A. Sothern fill a throne because he is fat and
(see SOTHERN FAMILY), the latter starring with belongs to a particular family.
her in Our American Cousin. It was during Stephen was more successful as a manager,
a performance of this play in 1865 that running theatres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and
President Lincoln was shot (see FORD’S Newcastle. He was briefly manager of Drury
THEATRE). Keene, who had toured Australia Lane (1818).
with Edwin Booth, was the first person to Charles Kemble made his first stage
recognize the fleeing assassin as his brother, appearance in a Drury Lane production of
John Wilkes Booth (see BOOTH FAMILY). It was Macbeth starring John and Sarah. He excelled
also Keene who held the dying president in her in Romeo and other romantic roles; Thackeray
arms until he was carried out of the theatre. later claimed that “the chivalrous Charles
She reopened New York’s Fourteenth Kemble” was his favourite actor as a schoolboy.
274 Kempe, William

Kemble became manager of Covent Garden in manipulated using a combination of strings,

1817 but only survived bankruptcy through rods, and the puppeteers’ fingers.
the help of his young daughter, Fanny
Khyal or Khyala A form of village theatre
Kemble. She had long wanted to be a novelist popular in northern India. The earliest
but took to the stage in 1829 in an attempt to evidence of the genre is found in Agra and
save her father’s fortunes. She was an instant dates from the 18th century. Although there
success, playing Juliet to packed houses, are many variant forms, the dramas are usually
despite being so nervous that she had to be mythological or historical with romantic
pushed onto the stage. She later toured and heroic themes; they are performed by
America with her father, and in 1834 married elaborately costumed male actors, generally to
a wealthy plantation owner. Disgusted by a musical accompaniment.
seeing slavery at first-hand, she deserted her The stage consists of a low-level acting
husband in 1845 and returned to England to area, the main stage, and a balcony; the main
act with William MACREADY. In her later years stage is often framed by four banana-tree
she became well known for her solo readings of trunks placed in the ground, from which
Shakespeare plays, in which she performed all colourful flags and lanterns are strung. Before
the parts with minimal props and scenery. the stage is constructed a pole is ritually
When Fanny died in 1893, the family’s hold planted in the ground; performances begin
on the British theatre came to an end. with prayers to Ganapati, the elephant-headed
Kempe, William See NINE DAYS’ god, and other deities.
WONDER, THE. Killigrew, Sir Thomas (1612–83)
Kendals, the The actors W. H. Kendal English playwright and theatre manager. A
(William Hunter Grimston; 1843–1917) and member of the household of Charles I,
Madge Sholto Robertson (1848–1935), who Killigrew enjoyed moderate success with
several comedies and tragicomedies before the
married in 1869; thereafter they excelled in
INTERREGNUM, most notably with the bawdy
comedies and also managed St James’s Theatre
comedy The Parson’s Wedding (1641), based
together (from 1879). Madge Kendal, a
on a work by CALDERÓN de la Barca. Described
lifelong rival of Ellen TERRY, was more brilliant
as an “obscene, loose play” by Pepys, The
and popular than her husband and had a wider
Parson’s Wedding was revived in 1664 after
range, sometimes playing such classical roles as Killigrew had returned to London with his
Ophelia (1865). friend Charles II and was to influence the
In 1887 the Kendals gave a command comedies of the Restoration period.
performance for Queen Victoria at Osborne Killigrew is remembered less for his own
House on the Isle of Wight, when they played plays than for his work in re-establishing the
in W. S. Gilbert’s comedy Sweethearts. The English theatre after the Restoration. Having
Queen rewarded Madge with a brooch shaped been granted a patent (see PATENT THEATRES)
like the royal crown made of diamonds, by the king he founded (1662) the Theatre
sapphires, and rubies. Royal, DRURY LANE, where he led a company
The Kendals retired together in 1908, that included Michael Mohun and Nell
Madge being made a DBE in 1926. On her GWYNN. He also founded a training school for
80th birthday she recorded As You Like It for actors at the Barbican and in 1673 was
the BBC. The director politely pointed to the appointed MASTER OF THE REVELS.
microphone and said, “and that, Dame
Madge, is your Orlando”. She returned a King and I, The The RODGERS AND
gracious smile and shook her head, “Ah, my HAMMERSTEIN musical about a Victorian
husband was better-looking than that”. English governess in Siam (modern Thailand),
first performed in 1951 at New York’s St
Khoktu kaksi A type of Korean puppet James’s Theatre. The King was played by Yul
theatre dating back to at least 600 AD. The Brynner, Gertrude LAWRENCE played the
repertoire of a travelling Khoktu kaksi company governess, and 17 young Puerto Ricans
would usually be made up of sketches dealing appeared as the royal children. One of the
with such subjects as official corruption, best-known tunes, ‘Getting to Know You’, was
domestic life, and even the sins of Buddhist added just before the New York opening after
monks. Korean puppets are unusual as they are Gertrude Lawrence had asked for a number
 Kipphardt, Heinar 275

that she could sing with the children. Sadly, achievement. It was first performed in about
cancer forced Lawrence to leave the production 1604–06 in London. Lear’s tragic journey –
during its run of 1246 performances (she died from imperious rage, through madness and
in 1952). Brynner also played the King in the humiliation, to painful self-knowledge – makes
1956 film with Deborah Kerr, in the 1977 and the role perhaps the most demanding in the
1985 Broadway revivials, and in the 1979 whole theatrical canon. Great Lears have
London Palladium production with Virginia included Irving, Wolfit, Olivier, Paul Scofield,
McKenna. and Ian Holm. Nahum TATE’s notorious
The plot, based on Margaret Langdon’s rewritten version (1681) of King Lear had a
book Anna and the King of Siam, concerns the happy ending: Cordelia and Edgar become
English governess Anna Leonowens, who goes lovers, while Lear survives and is restored to
to Siam to tutor the 67 children of the King. the throne.
The King, with whom she falls in love, comes The plot traces the fate of Lear, king of
to rely on her advice in dealing with European Britain, after he has decided to divide his realm
powers but she resigns after he beats one of his between his three daughters according to the
concubines. As she is leaving, he falls mortally extent of their professed love for him; because
ill and they are reconciled before he dies. Songs she refuses to flatter his vanity he disinherits
from the show include ‘Shall We Dance?’, his favourite, CORDELIA. When his other
‘Hello, Young Lovers’, and ‘I Whistle A daughters GONERIL and REGAN harass and
Happy Tune’. mistreat him, Lear flees out on to the heath,
accompanied only by his fool and the disguised
King John A history play by SHAKESPEARE,
Duke of Kent. In the ensuing storm he
written in about 1596; the first recorded
loses his mind. Although Cordelia returns
performance was a revival staged in 1737.
from France with an army and the two are
Shakespeare appears to have based his work on
reunited, they are subsequently captured and
an anonymous play called The Troublesome
imprisoned. In the last scene (which Dr
Raigne of John King of England (1591),
Johnson confessed himself unwilling to reread)
although the true relationship between the two
Cordelia is hanged, and Lear dies with her
works is much debated. The witty and abrasive
body in his arms. A parallel subplot deals with
character of ‘Bastard’ Faulconbridge was added
the fortunes of the Duke of Gloucester and his
by Shakespeare, who also toned down the
two sons.
element of anti-Catholic propaganda in the
In one 18th-century production at the
other play. After a long absence from the stage,
Edinburgh Theatre the unfortunate actor
King John was revived by Charles Kemble in
playing Lear was obliged to leap over nine-
1823 and remained a favourite for the rest of
pound cannon balls rolling across the stage.
the century; it is now seldom seen.
The balls were part of a contraption to create a
John’s throne appears to be threatened
thunder sound-effect, which had fallen over in
when the claims of his young nephew, Arthur
the wings. A different problem faced William
of Bretagne, are supported by King Philip of
MACREADY when he played the role in
France. After an abortive invasion of France,
Nottingham; when the moment came for Lear
John arranges to marry his niece to the
to divide his kingdom a slightly deaf props
Dauphin and cedes Philip some of his minor
man handed the bemused actor not a map but
French possessions. However, this fragile peace
a mop.
is shattered when the Pope excommunicates
Shakespeare’s immediate source for the
John and calls on the French to attack
story of Lear was the historian Raphael
England. When the French army is defeated,
Holinshed, who derived it from Geoffrey of
Arthur falls into the hands of John, who orders
Monmouth’s Historia Britonum. William
his murder (in the event Arthur dies while
Camden tells a similar story of Ina, King of the
escaping from prison). Assuming that John is
West Saxons. The earliest known version of
responsible for his nephew’s death, many of
the king is Lir, an ocean god of early Irish and
the English nobles desert to the French side.
British legend, who can probably be identified
John himself dies of poison administered by a
with the Llyr in the Mabinogion.
monk.
King’s Men See CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN.
King Lear SHAKESPEARE’s great tragedy of
old age, often regarded as the summit of his Kipphardt, Heinar (1922–82) German
276 Kirby

playwright, noted for his pioneering work in entanglements and financial problems ensue,
DOCUMENTARY THEATRE. After training in so that the Shakespearean tussles on stage
medicine, Kipphardt became resident become almost indistinguishable from the
playwright at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, ‘real’ lives of the ‘cast’. Everything works out
for which he wrote such plays as Wanted in the end, however, when even the mob
Urgently: Shakespeare (1954). In 1959 he become entranced by the Bard’s poetry.
moved to West Germany. In the Matter of J.
kitchen sink In the later 1950s, a term
Robert Oppenheimer (1964), was his first
applied (often disparagingly) to the new wave
important work to employ documentary
of plays that dealt realistically with the
techniques. Intended originally for television,
domestic lives of working or lower middle class
the play broke new ground in its handling of
characters. The use of humdrum or seedy
recent historical facts, in this case the
settings in such plays as OSBORNE’s Look Back
McCarthyist intrigues surrounding the US
in Anger (1956), Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of
nuclear physicist Oppenheimer.
Honey (1958), and WESKER’s Roots (1959),
Joel Brand – the History of a Deal (1965)
represented a decisive break with the elegant
applied similar techniques to the subject of
DRAWING-ROOM COMEDIES of (for instance)
Nazi attempts to exchange Jewish prisoners
Noël Coward or Terence Rattigan. Roots
for military equipment. Kipphardt’s later
actually begins with a character standing at a
documentary dramas included The Life of the kitchen sink.
Schizophrenic Poet Alexander März (1981) and The term had previously been applied to
Brother Eichmann (1983), which drew parallels the kitchen-sink school, a group of British
between the beliefs of the notorious Nazi artists, who held several joint exhibitions in the
fugitive and military thinking in Cold War 1950s. They were known for painting scenes
Europe. Among his other plays was the black of working-class domesticity in a drably
comedy The Night the Boss was Slaughtered realistic style (e.g. John Bratby’s Still Life with
(1967). a Chip Frier).
Kirby. Wake me up when Kirby Kleist, Heinrich von (1777–1811)
dies A US catchphrase of the mid 19th German playwright and author, who was
century. It alludes to the tragedian J. H. Kirby virtually unrecognized during his lifetime.
(1820–49), who took leading roles at New His life was as strange and full of tragic
York’s Bowery Theatre in the 1840s and was ironies as his plays. Kleist served in the
considered particularly tremendous in his Prussian army for what he called “the loss of
death scenes. seven valuable years” before leaving to devote
Kiss Me Kate A musical comedy by Cole himself to philosophy and literature. At one
PORTER (libretto by Bella and Samuel point during his travels the French imprisoned
Spewack) based on Shakespeare’s THE TAMING him for six months as a suspected spy, time he
OF THE SHREW. First produced on Broadway in used to adapt Molière’s Amphitryon. Over the
1948 starring Alfred Drake, it ran for over next ten years he wrote some of the most
1000 performances and won the first Tony remarkable plays in the German language
Award for Best Musical. The critic Brooks while leading an eccentric wandering life in
ATKINSON wrote: Germany, France, and Switzerland. In 1811
In the part of the egotistical actor who Kleist shot himself after first shooting a
plays Petruchio on stage, Mr Drake’s terminally ill woman who had pleaded with
pleasant style of acting and his him to end her suffering by euthanasia.
unaffected singing are the heart of the Kleist’s plays include THE BROKEN JUG
show. (1808), which is now regarded as a comic
masterpiece, the fiercely patriotic Die
Michael Blakemore directed a notable
Hermannsschlact (1808), the romantic
Broadway revival in 1999.
medieval drama Das Käthchen von Heilbronn
The show presents a play-within-a-play. A
(1810), and The Prince of Homburg (1821),
touring company is in Baltimore rehearsing
which has been highly praised for its
The Taming of the Shrew, but rows break out
psychological insight.
between the star and his leading lady, who is
also his ex-wife, and between the supporting Knight of the Burning Pestle, The
actress and her boyfriend. Various romantic A comedy written by Francis BEAUMONT for
 Kuchipudi 277

the boy company at the Blackfriars Theatre, status. The masks are ornate and are usually
London; it was first performed in 1607. The removed when the dialogue begins.
play lampoons both the pretensions of the Kolam performances last all night; they
rising middle class and the genre of romantic were once an important focus for village life.
and fabulous histories.
Krapp’s Last Tape (La Dernière Bande)
The plot concerns the adventures of a
Samuel BECKETT’s one-act play, first performed
grocer named Rafe and his wife, who are in 1958 at London’s Royal Court Theatre.
watching a play in which they are urged to Alone on the stage, the old man Krapp, now
participate by the cast. Rafe joins in as a nearly blind and deaf, listens to diary tapes he
“Grocer-Errant, the Knight of the Burning recorded some 30 years earlier. One tape, to
Pestle” and defeats the monstrous barber- which he keeps returning, was made in the
surgeon Barberoo; although he wins the heart wake of a failed love affair; another which he
of Princess Pomponia, he keeps his vow of rejects contemptuously, records the high-flown
fidelity to the maid Susan “as long as life and literary aspirations of his youth. Krapp makes a
pestle last”. The noble Grocer-Errant is killed new recording – by implication his last –
by a forked arrow through his head but his commenting bitterly on his disappointments as
soul ascends to the Grocers’ Hall; Rafe and his a lover and a writer.
wife leave the theatre having invited the players Several performances of this demanding
to their house for wine and tobacco. role stand out: one by the German actor
Knights, The A satirical comedy by Martin Held in Beckett’s own production at
ARISTOPHANES. Written during the the Berlin Schillertheater in 1969, another by
Peloponnesian war, the play is a savage attack Albert Finney at the Royal Court Theatre in
on Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, who had 1973, and a third by Harold Pinter, again at
turned down a peace offer from the Spartans in the Royal Court, in 2006.
425 BC, on the entire political leadership in Kreeger Theatre See ARENA STAGE.
Athens, and on the nature of politics itself.
Aristophanes had targeted the same Cleon in Krishnattam (Malayalam: stories of
his play The Babylonians two years earlier; as a Krishna) A form of Indian dance-drama
result he had been prosecuted by his victim from the state of Kerala. Raja Manaveda, a
and suffered a mild ‘impeachment’. Zamorin king, created the form in the 17th
The play is set in the household of Demos century to glorify Vishnu’s incarnation as
(the populace), which is now tyrannized by a Krishna. Manaveda wrote the eight plays of the
dishonest slave who clearly stands for Cleon. repertory, which dramatize events from the life
When an oracle predicts that ‘Cleon’ will be of Krishna described in the Bhagavata Purana.
replaced by a demagogic sausage-seller, two Performances take place in the courtyard of the
other servants (probably standing for the Guruvayur Temple for pilgrims with a special
generals Demosthenes and Nicias) conspire to seating area being reserved for non-Hindus.
put forward the first sausage-seller they meet. Many of the all-male performers were given as
The conspirators are protected by a chorus of young boys in service to the temple by their
knights, and the sausage-seller, Agoracritus, parents. Krishnattam has also toured India and
wins over Demos, who decides to abolish played at both European and US venues.
Cleon’s rule and restore honest government. For a fee, pilgrims can request a particular
play, with favourites being Krishna’s marriage,
knockabout turn A MUSIC HALL name his miraculous birth, and his destruction of the
for a noisy boisterous act, usually involving wicked King Kamsa. Only rarely is the whole
horseplay and slapstick. cycle of eight plays performed. When it is, the
Kolam (Sinhalese: appearance) A type of play about Krishna’s birth must be acted at
folk theatre from southern Sri Lanka. The both the beginning and end of the cycle
because it is considered a bad omen to end
form apparently developed from ancient
with his death. As in KATHAKALI, dance and
fertility rites; the few surviving plays have
gesture are used to tell the stories; both forms
pregnancy as a recurring theme. The plays are
also share a flamboyant colourful style of
preceded by ceremonial dancing and chanting
costumes.
to honour the gods and to introduce the stock
characters, who wear masks to indicate their Kuchipudi A classical Indian dance-drama
278 kunqu

named after a village in the southern state of the stage to act as a reflector and diffuser of
Andhra Pradesh. The name is now also applied the rather harsh electric light. It was later
to any dance of this style. superseded by the CYCLORAMA.
The first recorded performance was in
Kuravanji An Indian theatrical form that
1505, when a Brahmin troupe performed for
originated in the 17th century, possibly
King Vira Narasimha Raya. In the late 17th
deriving from ritual dances at holy shrines.
century Siddhendra Yogi composed Kuchipudi
The style of the performances and their
plays, requiring members of Brahmin families
associated customs differ slightly from one
to perform (once in their lives) the role of
region to another. In Tamil Nadu the
Satyabhama, Krishna’s jealous wife, in his play
elephant-headed god of good fortune, Sri
BHAMAKALAPAM. This obligation is still in
Vighneswara, is honoured before each
force.
performance and a clown (kattiakaran)
The Kuchipudi companies have always
announces the theme of the drama. The plays
toured. Performances, which last all night,
tend to tell love stories and focus almost
are given in an open space in front of a temple
exclusively on female characters.
and begin with a prayer to the goddess Amba.
The Maharaja Serfoji II (1798–1833)
Dancers follow, before the stage manager
adapted Kuravanji dialogues so that one of the
(sutradhara) announces the play. A dancer
main characters, the gypsy, could describe her
enters wearing the mask of the elephant-
country of origin through song and dance.
headed god Ganapati, followed by the chief
In this way the audience, who had few
character, who enters with a spectacular flash
educational resources, could learn about the
produced by resin powder thrown onto an oil
world outside their own village.
torch. Actors are required to be skilful and
acrobatic dancers and to learn the repertoire Kushner, Tony (1956– ) US
of hand and body gestures; exceptional playwright, best known for his extraordinary
performers are honoured by members of the two-part epic ANGELS IN AMERICA, subtitled “a
audience, who stop the show to adorn them Gay Fantasia on National Themes”. He has
with fresh flowers. commented on his work “I like big, splashy,
juicy plays.”
kunqu A Chinese theatrical form, which
The son of two classical musicians,
developed from an earlier musical style of the
Kushner was brought up in an artistic Jewish
same name. In the 16th century Wei Liangfu
household in Lake Charles, Lousiana, where
and others created a more complex style from
his parents inherited a lumber business. He
traditional kunqu music by combining a
began to write while taking a graduate course
variety of local musical forms. This new style
in directing at New York University and a
was adopted by the writer Liang Chenyu for
number of his plays were produced off-off-
his musical plays. It became immensely
Broadway in the 1980s; these include A Bright
popular and soon became a genre in its own
Room Called Day (1985), which is set in
right, influencing the direction of the Chinese
Germany during the Nazis’ rise to power,
theatre. Kunqu dramas usually concern tales of
Hydriotaphia (1987), a fantasy based on the
young love and its attendant problems.
life of Sir Thomas Browne that also examines
The genre began to decline during the late
the historical origins of capitalism, and The
18th century, when it was overshadowed by
Illusion (1988), an adaptation of a comedy by
the more energetic form of the BEIJING OPERA.
Pierre Corneille.
However, in 1961 students from the Shanghai
Despite the range and ambition of these
School of Dramatic Art staged a kunqu play
plays, Kushner remained a little known figure
after eight years of training under Yu Zhenfei.
when Millennium Approaches, the first part of
Although the Cultural Revolution temporarily
Angels in America, was staged in Los Angeles in
halted its revival, kunqu is now undergoing a
1991. The play, which uses a dazzling mixture
minor renaissance.
of realism, satire, and fantasy to explore the
Kuppelhorizont (German: dome impact of AIDS on the gay community in
horizon) A device invented in 1902 by Reagan-era America, earned rave reviews and
Mariano Fortuny (1871–1949) to reflect light proved a massive hit when subsequently seen
onto the stage. Fortuny lined a huge plaster in London (1992) and on Broadway (1993).
hemisphere with silk and suspended it above A second part, the still more audacious
 Kyd, Thomas 279

Perestroika, followed in 1992, giving audiences Ghana. After attending stage school Kwei-
and critics the chance to evaluate the work as a Armah initially attempted to make a career as a
whole. Newsweek was typical in hailing “the singer but also took acting roles and began to
most ambitious American play of our time” write. Popular fame arrived in the early 2000s,
and Kushner was duly awarded the Pulitzer when he became known to millions as Fin
Prize for Drama in 1993. Newton in the BBC hospital series Casualty
Kushner’s subsequent plays have included and reached the final of the reality TV show
Slavs! (1995), Henry Box Brown, or the Mirror Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. During this
of Slarery (1998), Homebody/Kabul (2001), and same period, however, he also served as writer
Caroline, or Change (2003), a musical about in residence at the Bristol Old Vic, which had
the relationship between a Jewish family and staged his first play, A Bitter Herb, in 1999.
their Black maid set against the background of Kwei-Armah’s emerging reputation as a
the 1960s Civil Rights movement. He has also playwright was sealed in 2003, when the
adapted or translated a number of works from National Theatre produced his fifth play,
the German, including an acclaimed version of Elmina’s Kitchen, to widespread acclaim. The
Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children play, which is set in an Afro-Caribbean
(2006). His screenplays include the Steven restaurant in Hackney, centres on the owner’s
Spielberg film Munich (2005). In 2009 troubled relationship with his son, who is
Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide inescapably drawn into the local culture of
to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the drugs and crime. A touring version, with the
Scriptures was premiered at the Guthrie author himself in the lead, opened at the
Theatre in Minneapolis as part of a two-month Garrick Theatre in 2005 – making Kwei-
season of his work. Armah the first Black British writer to have a
My day job is playwright. My citizen work staged in the West End. The National
job is activist … I succeed and fail at went on to stage Kwei-Armah’s Fix Up (2004)
both my jobs, but I try to do them and Statement of Regret (2007), which together
both. with Elmira’s Kitchen form a loose trilogy
about contemporary Black British life.
Kutiyattam A traditional form of Indian Subsequent work includes the more intimate
theatre from the state of Kerala. It is Let There be Love (2008) and Seize the
documented as an established form from Day (2009), which explores the various
around 950 AD and probably derives from the pressures on a Black candidate for Mayor of
ancient Sanskrit theatre. London. Kwei-Armah is also well known as a
The procedures to be observed during a broadcaster and journalist and took a leading
performance are recorded in ancient manuals role in establishing the National Theatre’s
of instruction, which the actors follow closely. Black Theatre Archive in 2009.
The performers, who traditionally come from
Kyd, Thomas (1558–94) English
the Cakyar caste, wear make-up and decorative
playwright, about whose life and works little is
costumes; a sophisticated code of exaggerated
now known. Kyd was a contemporary of
expressions and gestures is used.
Spenser and a friend of MARLOWE. He was
Few Kutiyattam performances are held
criticized by the court poets for his lack of
today. The Vatukumnathan Temple presents
formal education but enjoyed great popularity
at least one a year, while others are sometimes
as a dramatist. None of his early work having
presented in Kerala and elsewhere in India. A
survived, he is chiefly remembered for THE
performance is always preceded by ritual
SPANISH TRAGEDY (c. 1589), the first English
worship, and continues throughout the night.
REVENGE TRAGEDY. This violent and bloody
In some cases a festival of performances can
play proved extremely popular and was revived
extend over several days.
after the Restoration in a production remarked
Kwei-Armah, Kwame (Ian Roberts; upon by Samuel Pepys. Its influence can be
1966– ) British playwright and actor. Kwei- seen in English tragedy throughout the 17th
Armah, whose parents were both natives of century, most notably in Shakespeare’s
Grenada, grew up in Southall, Greater HAMLET, which employs not only the revenge
London. He adopted his African name at the theme but also the use of a play-within-a-play
age of 19, having traced his ancestry back to reveal the identity of the murderer. Largely
through several generations of slavery to because of this, Kyd has often been suggested
280 Kynaston, Ned

as the most likely author of the so-called ‘ur- The youthful beauty of Kynaston also
Hamlet’ (c. 1594), a lost play that is known to attracted London’s fashionable ladies, who
have supplied many of the basic plot elements would often call after a matinée to take him,
of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. He may also still in costume, on carriage rides through
have contributed to ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM. Hyde Park.
In recent years much attention has been On one occasion King Charles II was
paid to Kyd’s possible role in the events impatiently waiting for a tragedy starring
leading to the death of his friend Christopher Kynaston to begin; when the curtain failed to
Marlowe. In May 1593 Kyd was arrested for rise at the appointed time he sent word
possession of a ‘heretical’ treatise denying the backstage asking for an explanation. The
divinity of Christ. Under severe torture he master of the company hurried to the royal
stated that the document had been given him box and informed His Majesty that “the
by Marlowe, a noted freethinker who seems Queen was not shaved yet”.
to have been the authorities’ real target. Kyd’s As he approached middle age Kynaston
evidence led to an arrest warrant being issued began to play heroic male parts, such as
against Marlowe, who was killed in murky Shakespeare’s Henry V. In his later years, one
circumstances a few weeks later. Kyd himself young apprentice, Colley CIBBER, found that:
never recovered from his treatment in prison his handsomeness was very little
and died the following year. abated; even at past 60 his teeth were
sound, white, and even as one could
Kynaston, Ned (Edward Kynaston; wish to see in a reigning toast of 20.
1640–1706) The most celebrated FEMALE
IMPERSONATOR of the Restoration theatre.
Kynaston’s story provides the basis for
Although women were permitted to act on the Richard EYRE’s lush period drama Stage Beauty
British stage after 1660 there was a shortage of (2004).
willing performers. Samuel Pepys said that Kyōgen In Japan, a farcical interlude
Kynaston made “the loveliest lady that ever I presented between Nō plays. Its clowning is
saw in my life” and added, after seeing him in similar to that of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE,
Ben Jonson’s Epicoene, that he was “clearly and forms a deliberate contrast with the
the prettiest woman in the whole house”. nobility of Nō. The plots focus on such
Kynaston’s most famous role was as Evadne in human weaknesses as greed and lechery.
The Maid’s Tragedy; he also played Juliet to Unlike most Eastern drama Kyōgen is
Thomas Betterton’s Romeo on several traditionally acted without music or masks; it
occasions. is still popular today.
 Lady of the Camellias, The 281

Dark Dark House (2007). Three of his better

L known plays form a loose trilogy exploring the

modern obsession with physical appearances:
The Shape of Things (2001), in which a woman
manipulates a male admirer into undergoing
Labiche, Eugène (1815–88) French cosmetic surgery as part of a college art project,
writer of FARCEs solely or partly responsible for Fat Pig (2004), about the doomed affair
the creation of over 160 plays during a 40-year between a successful man and an overweight
writing career. Labiche’s first major success woman, and reasons to be pretty (2008), a
came in 1848 with the one-act A Young Man typically caustic comedy that became LaBute’s
in a Hurry. His reputation was consolidated by first play to be seen on Broadway. His films as
the success of An Italian Straw Hat (1851) writer and director include Your Friends and
about a young man’s attempts to replace a Neighbours (1998), Nurse Betty (2000), and
straw hat eaten by a horse on the day of his Lakeview Terrace (2008).
wedding. The play, which has been frequently
You emerge from his plays either
revived, is best-known in Britain in the version
praising him for the metaphoric slap in
by W. S. Gilbert. Other successes included M
the face or simply wishing you knew
Perrichon’s Trip (1860) and The Piggy Bank
where he lived, so you can hunt down
(1864). Towards the end of the 1870s interest
the bastard and deliver a literal slap of
in farce began to decline and Labiche ceased to
your own.
write. In 1878 a massive, though by no means
DAVID AMSDEN: New York magazine
comprehensive, volume of Labiche’s plays was
published resulting in his election (1880) to Lady Bountiful The original character of
the French Academy. this name, a rich heiress noted for her charity
LaBute, Neil (1963– ) US playwright, and good works, appears in Farquhar’s THE
BEAUX’ STRATAGEM (1707). The expression
screenwriter, and film director, whose work
has earned him a reputation as “American became part of the general language, meaning
theatre’s reigning misanthrope”. LaBute was either a genuine benefactress or (now more
born to working-class parents in Detroit and commonly) someone who is charitable in an
attended Brigham Young University, where he ostentatious and condescending way.
converted to Mormonism at about the same Lady Elizabeth’s Men A Jacobean
time that he began to write and direct for the theatre company formed in 1611 under the
theatre. He later returned to Brigham Young patronage of James I’s daughter, Elizabeth.
to premiere the play that would eventually The company appeared at court in 1612 and
make his name, In the Company of Men the following year absorbed the Revels
(1993), a very black comedy about two Company. With Nathan Field as their leading
misogynistic businessmen who set out to player they appeared at Philip HENSLOWE’s
seduce and destroy a deaf female co-worker. Hope Theatre in 1614–15, giving the first
The 1997 film version, written and directed by performance of Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew
LaBute, earned several major awards and Fair. After Henslowe’s death in 1616, the
launched his career in the cinema. The streak company disbanded, some members joining
of violence and cruelty in Labute’s work Prince Charles’s Men and others dispersing
emerged still more clearly in bash: latterday into the provinces.
plays (1999), a trilogy of short pieces each of In 1622 Christopher BEESTON created a
which involves an apparently motiveless new company called Lady Elizabeth’s Men to
murder (in two cases, infanticide). Because perform at his Phoenix Theatre (see COCKPIT
the killers were all presented as devout clean- THEATRE). They presented works by such
living Mormons, LaBute found himself dramatists as Thomas Middleton, Philip
‘disfellowshipped’ by his Church. Massinger, William Rowley, and John
LaBute’s gifts for acerbic dialogue and Heywood. The company disbanded during
iconoclastic observation have subsequently the plague of 1625.
been honed in such plays as The Mercy Seat
(2002), in which a man considers taking Lady of the Camellias, The The first
advantage of the 9/11 attacks to abandon his play by Alexandre DUMAS fils, adapted from his
family, This Is How It Goes (2005), and In a own romantic novel of the same name (1848).
282 Lady’s Not For Burning, The

Also known as Camille, the play was banned Lady Windermere’s Fan A comedy of
from the French stage for three years because manners by Oscar WILDE, first produced in
of its sympathetic treatment of its heroine, London in 1892. The young but priggish Lady
a courtesan; the character was based on Windermere has become disturbed by the
Dumas’s mistress, Marie Duplessis. It was first friendship between her husband, Lord
performed in 1852 in Paris and became one of Windermere, and Mrs Erlynne, a woman with
the most successful plays of the late 19th a scandalous past. Convinced that he is having
century. The passionate and tragic role of an affair, she impulsively flees to her admirer,
Marguerite Gautier was much coveted by Lord Darlington. When her fan is found in
actresses. Eleonora DUSE made her first Darlington’s apartments, Lady Windermere is
London appearance in the part in 1893 while threatened with disgrace. Her reputation is
Edwige Feuillère was acclaimed for her saved by Mrs Erlynne, who claims that she
portrayal in 1940. The play was the source of dropped the fan, having taken it by mistake
Verdi’s opera La Traviata (1853). Film from the Windermeres’. This act of self-
versions include those starring Sarah sacrifice is explained by the revelation that she
BERNHARDT (1912) and Greta Garbo (1936). is in fact Lady Windermere’s mother.
Set in the Paris of the 1840s, The Lady of Some critics complained that the play’s
the Camellias is a romantic story about a action was constantly halted to enable the
prostitute who wins the love of the young characters to deliver Wilde’s epigrams.
Armand Duval and eventually dies pathetically “English critics always confuse the action of a
from tuberculosis in his arms. One of Dumas’s play with the incidents of a melodrama,”
reasons for writing it was to appeal against the snorted Wilde. “In the act in question [the one
double standards that then existed between the most complained about] there was absolutely
sexual morals expected of men and those no action at all. It was a perfect act.”
expected of women. Dumas subsequently
Lambeth Walk A road in Lambeth,
turned to didactic dramas or ‘thesis plays’,
London, formerly noted for its busy street
confronting other contemporary social
market. It gave its name to an immensely
problems.
popular Cockney dance performed by Lupino
Lady’s Not For Burning, The A verse Lane (see LUPINO FAMILY) in the musical show
play with a medieval setting by Christopher Me And My Girl at the Victoria Palace,
FRY, first produced in 1948 at London’s Arts London (1937). Purporting to imitate the
Theatre Club. It owed its success to an strutting walk of the typical Lambeth cockney,
enchanting story, elegant language, and a cast it came to symbolize the spirit of defiance of
that eventually included John Gielgud, Pamela Londoners during the Blitz in World War II.
Brown, Claire Bloom, and Richard BURTON.
Lambs A London supper club founded by
Before one evening’s performance, Richard
actors in the 1860s. The founding members
Burton, who was continually in trouble with
included Henry IRVING, Squire Bancroft (see
the management for his romantic escapades
BANCROFTS, THE), and the US actor Henry
and practical jokes, decided to play a trick on
Montague. It always maintained 24 members,
the cast, which included the character actor who met under their ‘shepherd’ first at the
Esme PERCY, who had a glass eye. Percy and Gaiety Restaurant and then at the Albemarle
the other actors were horrified to find glass Hotel. Lambs lasted for about 30 years, being
eyes hidden in purses, drinking glasses, and disbanded in the 1890s. Montague began a
even rolling across the floor. counterpart club in New York in 1875, which
The play begins with Thomas Mendip, a still exists.
misanthropic soldier, confessing to murder and
requesting to be hanged. The authorities Land of Heart’s Desire, The An
ignore him, being preoccupied with the case of early verse play by W. B. YEATS. It was first
Jennet Jourdemayne, a young girl accused of performed in 1894 at the Avenue Theatre,
witchcraft. Jennet’s combination of beauty and London, and later became part of the ABBEY
sweetness finally convinces everyone of her THEATRE’s repertory. Based on an Irish legend
innocence. Thomas then reveals that his about a fairy who takes on the disguise of a
‘confession’ had been a diversion to save her, child in order to lure away the young wife of
and the new lovers quietly leave together. an older farmer, the play also reflects Yeats’s
 Larry 283

interest in the symbolist drama of Maurice was intended by the playwright to represent
MAETERLINCK and his unrequited love for the the architect and stage-designer Inigo JONES.
beautiful revolutionary Maude Gonne. Yeats The long-running feud between the two men
wrote the play at the request of the actress arose from a disagreement over the priority
Florence Farr, who managed the Avenue given to their names on the title-pages of the
Theatre, to provide a part for her eight-year- MASQUEs upon which they collaborated at the
old niece. It was staged in a double bill with court of James I. At first Jonson, who was
Shaw’s ARMS AND THE MAN, also receiving its responsible for the texts of the masques and
first production. arranged their publication, gave Jones full
credit for his contribution, writing in
Langtry, Lillie (Emilie Charlotte Le
Hymenaei (1606): “The design and Act…
Breton; 1853–1929) British actress, famous for
belongs properly to the Merit and Reputation
her beauty and her affair with the future King
Edward VII. The daughter of the dean of of Master Inigo Jones.” Later, however, he
Jersey, she married Edward Langtry as a belittled Jones’s role and from 1614 onwards
passport to London society, becoming the refrained from mentioning his collaborator at
toast of its fashion setters. When she became all, while caricaturing him in plays and verse.
pregnant by the Prince of Wales she returned After Bartholomew Fair the feud smouldered
to Jersey for the secret birth of her daughter in for a few years before breaking into flame again
1881. That same year, she caused a sensation in the 1630s. Their last collaboration was
by becoming the first society woman to appear Chloridia in 1631. By this time Jones was pre-
on the stage, when she starred in She Stoops to eminent and Jonson’s star was on the wane;
Conquer at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Jones wanted not only full acknowledgment
Audiences loved her charm and freshness, but also a greater part in the intellectual
but critics did not take her seriously either in content of the entertainments. To the irascible
Britain or America, where she made her debut Jonson this was the height of pretension on the
in 1883. “The crudities of her performance part of a “Master Surveyor” who had now
were obvious,” wrote one New York “leapt forth an architect”.
newspaper. She toured America in a private Jones continued in favour at court,
railcar provided by Diamond Jim Brady, and planning the masques in personal consultation
earned an unprecedented $6000 a week while with Charles I; Jonson, by contrast, was almost
critics damned her performance in As You Like penniless when he died in 1637.
It. Indeed, she often created chaos on stage
through her lack of professionalism, once Lark, The Jean ANOUILH’s successful
accidentally handing an actor a piece of celery historical play (the first of his pièces costumées)
instead of the flower he expected. On another about JOAN OF ARC’s trial for heresy. It was first
occasion, she told her leading man, “Let us performed in Paris in 1953, translated by
retire and seek a nosy cook.” Christopher FRY for its opening in London in
Lillie became a US citizen in 1887, the 1955, and adapted by Lillian HELLMAN for
year in which she played Lady Macbeth on New York later that year.
Broadway to unexpected critical acclaim. In In London the drama was compared
1895, her husband, whom she had supported unfavourably with Shaw’s Saint Joan, which
for years, died in a lunatic asylum; she secretly was then playing in the West End. Some critics
married Sir Jugo de Bathe, the heir to a also felt that the leading role had been miscast;
baronetcy, in 1899. Ronald Barker for one wrote “Dorothy Tutin
After a brief retirement, Lillie leased is temperamentally wrong for Joan.” In New
London’s grand Imperial Theatre, remodelled York, however, Julie Harris won a Tony
and modernized it, and reopened it in 1902 Award for her portrayal of Joan and toured
with Crossways, which she cowrote. That year with the play through 1956.
she gave a COMMAND PERFORMANCE at the
Imperial and dined at the White House with Larry Informal name for the LAURENCE
OLIVIER AWARDS, probably in imitation of
President Theodore Roosevelt.
Oscar, the informal name for the Academy
Lanthorn, Leatherhead A fairground Award. ‘Larry’ was the familiar name of
crook and “profane professor of poetry” in Ben Laurence OLIVIER, used both by those in the
JONSON’s BARTHOLOMEW FAIR (1614), who acting profession who knew him well and –
284 lashline

with stagey familiarity – by others who aspired Graham Moffat’s A Scrape o’ the Pen (1909).
to be on first-name terms with him. He was knighted in 1919 for entertaining
troops during World War I.
lashline See THROWLINE.
Laughing Blacksmith, the The stage
Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The A nickname of the British MUSIC-HALL performer
comedy by Neil SIMON, first performed in ‘Jolly’ John Nash (1830–1901), who perfected
New York in 1969. The plot concerns the the laughing song (such as ‘Little Brown Jug’)
failed amours of Barney Cashman, a middle- and was known for his silly walks. Nash,
aged restaurant owner. Despite being happily originally a Gloucestershire metal-worker,
married, Barney aspires to be part of the
made his debut at the Oxford Music Hall. He
‘swinging sixties’, and yearns for an affair. His
was the first music-hall artist to appear at a
first assignation, in his mother’s empty
COMMAND PERFORMANCE and in 1874 became
apartment, is with the unhappily married
the first to tour America.
Elaine. Barney talks nervously throughout the
meeting and the couple never reach the Laughton, Charles (1899–1962)
bedroom. He tries again with the glamorous British-born US actor, who made his
but paranoid Bobbi, who talks endlessly about professional stage debut in 1926 as Osip in
her aspirations to a Hollywood career; instead Gogol’s The Government Inspector and quickly
of sex, she gives Barney marijuana. Lastly, built up a reputation as a character actor. From
he tries Jeanette, the depressed wife of a 1933 onwards he played under Tyrone
philandering friend; realizing the depth of her Guthrie at the Old Vic, winning particular
misery, Barney decides to return to his wife. acclaim in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and
lauda A type of early Italian religious as Prospero in The Tempest. A fluent French
drama that combined songs and dialogue. The speaker, Laughton became the first British
genre, deriving ultimately from 12th-century actor to star at the Comédie-Française, playing
hymns of praise was given impetus by a Sganarelle in Molière’s Le Médecin malgré lui
penitential and flagellant movement in the in 1936. That same year he played Captain
13th century. The laudi began as narrative Hook in Peter Pan at the London Palladium,
works but became steadily more dramatic, while his wife, Elsa Lanchester (1902–87),
leading to the later SACRA RAPPRESENTAZIONE. took the title role.
Still later, the tradition of the lauda influenced In the 1930s and 1940s Laughton worked
the development of the oratorio. mainly in Hollywood, becoming famous for
his outstanding character performances. He
Lauder, Sir Harry (Hugh MacLennan; became a US citizen in 1950 but returned to
1870–1950), the Scottish ballad singer and London eight years later to appear in Jane
comedian who became the first music-hall Arden’s The Party, which he also directed. In
performer to be knighted. His sentimental 1959 he was a “ginger-wigged, ginger-bearded”
songs included ‘I Love A Lassie’, ‘Roamin’ in Bottom in Peter Hall’s Stratford production of
the Gloamin’, and ‘Keep Right on to the End A Midsummer Night’s Dream and two years
of the Road’, while his comic offerings later he directed his wife in her one-woman
included ‘That’s the Reason Noo I Wear A show, Elsa Lanchester – Herself.
Kilt’ and ‘Stop Yer Tickling, Jock’. One night at the Old Vic Laughton took a
Curiously enough, Lauder began his career curtain call in response to cries from the gallery
performing as a comic Irishman; only when of “Good old Nero!” (referring to the part he
the demand for encores exceeded his reserve of had played in the recent film, The Sign of the
Irish songs, did he turn to familiar Scottish Cross). The audience then called for Elsa
numbers. In 1900 he became an overnight Lanchester, who was in the audience. “Bring
success at Gatti’s Music Hall, London and in her up!” shouted a loud voice in the gallery.
1907 made his US debut in New York. With Laughton snapped back, “Many people have
his familiar stage costume of kilt, glengarry, tried to do that, my friend, but they have not
and crooked walking stick, he became one of succeeded.”
the few British music-hall stars to become
famous in America, also playing successfully in Laurence Olivier Awards Britain’s
Australia and South Africa. Lauder also most prestigious theatrical awards; first
appeared in revue and at least one serious play, presented in 1976 as the Society of West End
 Lee, Gypsy Rose 285

Theatre Awards, they were renamed in 1984 disgusting; a popular example involved
to honour Sir Laurence OLIVIER. The awards HARLEQUIN catching and eating a fly. A longer
are given to outstanding actors, dancers, version of the lazzo, known as the BURLA,
singers, playwrights, composers, directors, and frequently involved a practical joke. Both
designers. There are three adjudicating panels forms are thought to have influenced the
for theatre, opera, and dance, each of which SLAPSTICK antics of Charlie Chaplin, the
includes representatives of both the theatre Keystone Cops, and others.
world and the general public. The awards are
known colloquially as LARRYs. Lecouvreur, Adrienne (1692–1730)
French actress, who brought a delicate
Lawrence, Gertrude (Gertrud naturalistic style to the French stage during an
Alexandra Daymar Lawrence Klasen; era of bombastic overacting. VOLTAIRE called
1898–1952) British actress, famous chiefly for her “this incomparable actress, who almost
her appearances in plays and revues by her invented the art of speaking to the heart”.
friend Noël COWARD. The daughter of a Unfortunately her success inspired jealousy in
British actress and a Danish music-hall singer, her fellow actresses. After making her Paris
she made her debut in Dick Whittington at the debut (1717) in Crébillon’s Électre at the
age of 12. Her first successful appearance was Comédie-Française, Lecouvreur went on to
in Coward’s revue London Calling (1923). She increase her reputation in works by Racine,
subsequently worked closely with Coward, Molière, and Corneille. She was equally
with whom she enjoyed a curious love-hate famous for her beauty and her charm, and her
relationship. It was for her that he wrote the salon became renowned as a meeting place for
part of Amanda in PRIVATE LIVES (1930), in artistic Parisians.
which she played opposite Coward when it In 1721 Lecouvreur became the mistress of
opened. Her Broadway appearances included the general Maurice de Saxe, which made her
roles in Pygmalion (1945) and The King and I the target of an attempt at poisoning by one of
(1951). Saxe’s better established mistresses. Lecouvreur
In 1965, thirteen years after her death, the took her revenge by stationing herself directly
biopic Star appeared with Julie Andrews under the box of her rival to deliver a strong
playing Gertrude. Coward commented in his speech about those who commit crime and
diary: show an unblushing countenance. Saxe’s
…about as suitable as casting the late desertion of Adrienne is said to have caused
Princess Royal as Dubarry [the mistress her sudden death six months later at the age
of Louis XV]…Why they are doing the of 38, although her public predictably blamed
film I shall never know. There isn’t any poisoning.
real story beyond the fact that she As an actress, she was refused a Christian
started going in the theatre, became an burial by the Catholic Church. Her body was
understudy, then a star, lived with interred at midnight in a corner of the Rue de
Philip Astley, Bert Taylor, etc., married Bourgogne with such secrecy that its resting
Richard Aldrich, and died. place has never been found. She had died in
the arms of Voltaire, who wrote a furious
On the day after her marriage to Aldrich, a US poem against the Church in France,
theatre manager, Coward sent her a cable contrasting her funeral with that of the British
reading: actress Anne OLDFIELD, buried in Westminster
Dear Mrs A. Hurray, hurray. At last Abbey earlier that year.
you are deflowered. Lecouvreur was further immortalized in
On this as every other day, I love you, the successful but historically inaccurate play
Noël Coward. Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène SCRIBE and
Ernest Legouve (1849).
lazzo An improvised comic interpolation
used to enliven the main action of the Lee, Gypsy Rose Stage name of Rose
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Usually introduced Louise Hovick (?1911–70), the US STRIPTEASE
when the action seemed in danger of flagging, artist noted for the wit, sophistication, and
the lazzo might consist of an unexpected pun, style she introduced to her craft. Together with
a topical allusion, or a piece of pantomime. her sister (later the actress, June Havoc), she
Lazzi were often vulgar, sadistic, or slightly joined her mother on the vaudeville circuit at a
286 leg

very early age. At 14 she had her first ROUGE, Paris, in the late 19th century and the
engagement in BURLESQUE; within two years lavish display of showgirls in the ZIEGFELD
she was on Broadway, heading the bill at Billy Follies.
Minsley’s Republic Theatre. Dubbed the
Queen of Burlesque, she was lionized by some Leicester’s Men England’s first
of New York’s most celebrated writers and household company of actors, founded in
intellectuals, and became a regular contributor 1559 under the patronage of the Earl of
to such publications as Harper’s and The New Leicester. The company included the carpenter
Yorker. In 1937 she announced her retirement and actor James BURBAGE, who in 1576 built
as a stripper; she then moved to Hollywood to the THEATRE, London’s first purpose-built
make her film debut, in You Can’t Have playhouse, and the comedian William Kempe.
Everything. Over the next three decades she Leicester’s Men performed in Burbage’s
played in a further eight, generally rather Theatre and received royal support until 1583,
mediocre, films. She quite regularly emerged when the rival Queen Elizabeth’s Men was
from retirement to make stage appearances and founded and poached some of their best actors.
wrote two popular thrillers, The G-string On the Earl’s death in 1588 the company
Murders and Mother Finds a Body. In later life merged with STRANGE’S MEN.
she liked to refer to herself as “an authoress
who sometimes strips”. Her autobiographical Leigh, Vivien (Vivian Mary Hartley;
book, Gypsy (1957), formed the basis for 1913–67) British stage and film actress, born
Stephen Sondheim’s successful Broadway in India, who made her stage debut in 1935 in
musical of the same name (1959) and later for Ashley Dukes’s The Mask of Virtue. In 1937
a rather less successful film version (1962). Leigh played Ophelia to OLIVIER’s Hamlet in
an Old Vic production at Elsinore. Two years
God is love, but get it in writing. later she married Olivier and costarred with
GYPSY ROSE LEE
him in a New York production of Romeo and
leg See FLAT. Juliet. By this time her popular fame had
eclipsed her husband’s, owing to her
legitimate drama or theatre Serious performance as Scarlett O’Hara in the film
theatrical work as distinguished from other Gone With the Wind, for which she won an
stage presentations or from the output of such Academy Award.
mass media as the cinema and television. The In 1949 Leigh starred as the neurotic
distinction originated in the 18th century, Blanche Dubois in the London production of
when unlicensed playhouses grew up all over Tennessee Williams’s A STREETCAR NAMED
London to compete with the two PATENT DESIRE, which was directed by Olivier: Leigh
THEATRES, Drury Lane and Covent Garden won much acclaim for this performance and
(see LICENCE). These avoided the letter of the her reputation as a stage actress was greatly
law by combining music, dancing, and other enhanced. She recreated her role for the 1951
forms of entertainment with the drama they film version, for which she won a second
presented. The term ‘legitimate drama’ Academy Award. In that same year Leigh and
arose by contrast to describe the straight Olivier played opposite each other in both
presentations of serious full-length plays Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare’s
offered by the patent theatres. Antony and Cleopatra. Leigh won further praise
leg show A stage performance featuring a for her performance as Paola in Christopher
display of women’s legs, this being a special Fry’s translation of Giraudoux’s DUEL OF
feature of REVUE, US BURLESQUE, and some ANGELS. Despite these sucesses, her later years
early musicals. The leg show can be traced were clouded by depressive illness. In 1960 her
back to the invention of tights for acrobats and marriage to Olivier was dissolved. Following
dancers in the late 18th century (the Church a tour of Australia in 1962, she made her
permitted female performers to wear blue musical debut in New York in Tovarich
tights but considered pink ones indecent). The (1963); her final performance was in a New
‘Spanish’ dancer Lola MONTEZ scandalized her York production of Chekhov’s Ivanov in 1966.
audiences in the mid 19th century by dancing On Leigh’s death from tuberculosis a year
without tights. Famous leg shows have later the exterior lights of West End theatres
included the can-can dance at the MOULIN were dimmed for an hour as a mark of respect.
 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim 287

Leipzig style A highly formal style of honouring DIONYSUS. Held annually in

acting promoted in the early 18th century by January and February, it was important in the
the German playwright and literary critic development of COMEDY from less theatrical
Johann Gottsched (1709–66) through his revels. Competitive comedy performances were
collaboration with the actress Carolina Neuber introduced in about 440 BC and works of
(1697–1760). The new style, characterized by tragedy about a decade later.
its formal florid gestures, transformed German
acting, which had previously relied upon Leno, Dan (George Galvin; 1860–1904)
improvisation. The Leipzig style dominated British cockney star of the MUSIC HALLs, who
until the latter half of the 18th century, when specialized in comic songs and rambling
the new fashion for the BÜRGERLICHES monologues delivered at top speed. Leno was
TRAUERSPIEL led to a more realistic style of
only five feet tall, had a squeaky voice, and, as
acting. Compare HAMBURG STYLE; WEIMAR Marie LLOYD said, “the saddest eyes in the
STYLE.
whole world”. He always feigned surprise
when the audience laughed at his stories.
Lekain, Henri-Louis (Henri-Louis Caïn; Leno made his debut at the age of four
1729–78) French actor generally considered when he appeared at the Cosmotheka Music
the greatest tragedian of his day. Although he Hall, Paddington, as “Little George the Infant
was a small man with unattractive features Wonder, Contortionist, and Posturer”. He
and a harsh voice, Lekain overcame these later began to sing and dance, winning the
disadvantages through genius, hard work, and world clog-dancing championship at Leeds in
charm. He was often compared to his friend 1880. He adopted his stage name in 1883.
David GARRICK, each regarding the other as Five years later he made his Drury Lane debut
superior on stage. When Garrick visited Paris, as the Baroness in Babes in the Wood, going on
the pair would go to the Champs Elysées and to play pantomime DAMEs there for the next
pretend to be drunk to amuse the crowd. 15 Christmases, his best known roles being
In 1748 Lekain, then an amateur, was Widow Twankey and Mother Goose. On his
discovered by VOLTAIRE, who took the 19-year- death Max BEERBOHM wrote in the Saturday
old into his own home, converting a room into Review, “so little and frail a lantern could not
a theatre for him. Lekain remained for six long harbour so big a flame.”
months, during which he trained with an
amateur company composed of Voltaire’s lens spot See FOCUS LAMP.
friends and family. In 1750 Lekain appeared leotard The tight-fitting one-piece practice
for the first time at the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE costume worn by ballet dancers and acrobats.
in Voltaire’s Brutus. By 1768 he was It was popularized by Jules Léotard
acknowledged as the best tragic actor in (1838–70), the French aerialist who invented
France. the flying trapeze in 1859. The son of a
Lekain was the first man in the French gymnastics instructor, Léotard used his
theatre to attempt historical accuracy in amazing agility and grace to perfect the trapeze
COSTUME and, with Voltaire’s encouragement, act. He made a sensational debut at the Cirque
adopted a more natural style of acting than Napoléon in Paris in 1859. His first London
that generally practiced at the time. However, appearance, in 1861 at the ALHAMBRA Music
his intensity as an actor often exhausted him, Hall, inspired the song ‘The Daring Young
and he had to retire briefly in mid career Man on the Flying Trapeze’. In 1959, on the
because of ill health. He caught a chill after centenary of his debut, a commemorative
appearing as Vendôme in a revival of Voltaire’s plaque was dedicated to Léotard at the Cirque
Adélaïde du Guesclin and died just as the d’Hiver.
author was making his triumphant return to
Paris after a 28-year exile. This was the first Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
news Voltaire heard on his arrival; he too died (1729–81) Germany’s first great dramatist and
within months. drama critic, who greatly influenced the
development of his country’s theatrical
Leko See PROFILE SPOT. tradition. Lessing studied with Carolina
Lemaître, Frédérick See FRÉDÉRICK. Neuber’s company and she produced his early
works, light comedies in the French tradition.
Lenaea An ancient Greek festival However, as a critic he came to oppose the
288 Lesson, The

classical style adopted by Neuber and Johann Bang Spontaneous Theatre, a group of actors
Gottsched (see LEIPZIG STYLE) and in a series of who for several years presented a weekly
critical essays, published as the Hamburgische improvised show at a Chicago nightclub.
Dramaturgie (1767–68), argued for a freer Letts’s first play, Killer Joe, received its
approach to both acting and writing, citing premiere in Chicago in 1993. A brutal piece
Shakespeare as an example. about a sleazy trailer-trash family who casually
His own plays included the realistic Miss plot an act of homicide, the play was later seen
Sara Simpson (1755), about a girl betrayed by in New York, London, and Edinburgh. This
her lover and poisoned by his mistress, which surprise hit was followed by Bug (1996), a
introduced Germans to domestic tragedy bizarre play that might be characterized as a
in prose. This was followed in 1767 by an comedy thriller romance with elements of
important prose comedy, MINNA VON science fiction. Having become identified with
BARNHELM. the more visceral side of contemporary theatre,
Lessing became Germany’s first Letts surprised many critics with Man From
dramaturge, or dramatist associated with a Nebraska (2003) – a quietly reflective piece
particular company, when he took such a about a middle-aged man undergoing a crisis
position with the Hamburg National Theatre of religious faith. The play is noted for its long
in 1767. He was the first writer to make set silences, with some scenes containing only two
changes only between acts rather than force or three lines of dialogue.
delays between scenes. Lessing’s final offering Letts’s reputation now rests almost entirely
was the blank-verse drama NATHAN THE on his fourth play, August: Osage County,
WISE, a plea for religious tolerance. Given its a sprawling, uproarious tale of family
premiere two years after his death, it emerged dysfunction that was premiered by the
as an important work when GOETHE revived it Steppenwolf company in 2007. In the play,
in 1801. which is well over three hours long and has 12
leading characters, three generations of the
Lesson, The A one-act play for three Weston family are thrown into turmoil
characters by Eugène IONESCO, first seen in following the disappearance of the patriarch,
Paris in 1951. An early contribution to the Beverly. Tensions boil over, secrets are
Theatre of the ABSURD, it is a paradoxical revealed, and a stream of venomous invective is
exploration of the relationship between kept up by Violet, the monstrous drug-addled
language and reality. A manic middle-aged matriarch. The drama was widely hailed as
professor gives an incoherent and rambling a classic in the tradition of O’Neill and
lecture on linguistics to a young student. As he Tennessee Williams and went on to enjoy a
overwhelms her with a torrent of words, she successful run on Broadway, where it earned
develops a terrible toothache, which he the Tony Award for Best Play. It has also been
ignores. Then, as he rages on about the seen at London’s National Theatre and in
definition of the word ‘knife’, the student several European countries. In 2008 Letts
suddenly collapses, stabbed to death by the surprised again when he followed this epic
mere word. His maid rushes in to chastise him, success with Superior Donuts – a modest,
reminding him that this is his fortieth victim somewhat old-fashioned comedy set in a
of the day. As they place the girl’s body in a Chicago doughnut shop.
coffin, another student arrives at the door.
Leybourne, George See CHAMPAGNE
Letts, Tracy (1965– ) US playwright CHARLIE.
and actor, who earned the 2008 Pulitzer Prize
for Drama on the strength of his epic family licence An official document permitting a
saga August: Osage County. A native of Tulsa, venue or company to present drama or other
Oklahoma, Letts grew up in a highly educated entertainment. In 1559 Elizabeth I banned
and artistic family (his father, an academic, unlicensed works and by 1572 touring
later became a Broadway actor). He became a companies had to obtain a separate licence in
professional actor while still in his teens and each town they visited. Two years later, the
since 1980 has been a member of Chicago’s MASTER OF THE REVELS was made the licenser
celebrated Steppenwolf company, which has of all plays and companies. During the
cast him in mainly menacing or dangerous reigns of James I and Charles I, all London
roles. In 1991 he also helped to found Bang companies were licensed to members of the
 Lillie, Beatrice 289

royal family. In 1662 Charles II awarded losing the soft flickering candlelight. 1816 also
monopoly patents for theatrical production in saw the introduction of LIMELIGHT. Electric
the city of Westminster to William DAVENANT lighting was used for the first time at the Paris
at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Thomas KILLIGREW Opéra in 1864 but it buzzed and flickered and
at Drury Lane (see PATENT THEATRES). did not become popular until the invention of
The Licensing Act of 1737 gave the LORD the incandescent bulb. In 1879 the California
CHAMBERLAIN exclusive power to license Theatre in San Francisco became the first to be
theatres, halls, and other venues (except the lit completely by electricity, followed two years
patent theatres) and also to license (and later by the Savoy Theatre, London; again, the
thereby veto) new plays. A new bill in 1752 change was regretted by some.
required licences for all places of public Lighting for the modern theatre is
entertainment within 20 miles of London; this coordinated by computerized DIMMER boards.
was extended to the whole country in 1788. Recent developments include the use of lasers
The unrestricted Irish and US stages welcomed and holography.
English actors and companies who could not
obtain licences. Lillie, Beatrice (Constance Sylvia
The exact conditions to be met for Munston, Lady Peel; 1898–1989) Canadian-
licensing were stipulated in the 1843 Theatres born actress and singer, who became a star of
Act. This also reduced the Lord Chamberlain’s sophisticated revues in Britain and America.
powers, which were finally abolished in the She made her debut in 1914 in London as a
Theatres Act of 1968. See also CENSORSHIP. ballad singer and later that year appeared in
Not Likely, a revue by André Charlot. The
lighting Artificial light used to illuminate following year she starred in another Charlot
the stage. Lighting first became important revue, 5064 Gerrard, in which she dressed in
during the Renaissance period in Italy, when farmer’s overalls and sang ‘Take Me Back to
performances moved indoors. Early forms Michigan’. Her co-star, Jack Buchanan, was
included the candle, CRESSET, and BOZZE, especially amused to see her walking about in
actors and spectators alike preferring candles to men’s clothing. “Tell me, Beattie,” he asked
oil lamps because they smoked and smelt less. one day “how do you dress, left or right?”
Early lighting was often experimental: in 1539 Lillie, having no idea that he was referring to
San Gallo created a rising sun effect by filling a the old-fashioned bespoke tailors’ question
crystal sphere with water and illuminating it relating to the preferred position of his
from behind, while in 1545 Sebastiano SERLIO customer’s genitals, replied “In Number Five,
put candles behind coloured glass to produce a stage left.” Buchanan roared with laughter and,
romantic glow. Serlio also used barbers’ basins as Lillie recalled later, “thought I was brilliant.”
as reflectors. In 1922 Lillie appeared in The Nine
Candelabra were hung directly over the O’Clock Revue (with music written by her
stage in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The sister), which ran for a year in London. She
main disadvantage was the glare; Samuel Pepys then made her New York debut in André
complained in his diary of headaches caused by Charlot’s Revue of 1924 with Gertrude
looking into the candles. In the later 18th Lawrence and Jack Buchanan. She was also a
century David Garrick followed the lead set by favourite of Noël Coward’s, playing in his This
French theatres and removed the overhead Year of Grace in New York in 1928.
candelabra from Drury Lane. FOOTLIGHTS had Her first serious part came in 1932, when
been in use in England since 1672 but created she played Sweetie the Nurse in the New York
heat and haze until Henry Irving sank them premiere of Shaw’s Too True to Be Good.
below stage level at his Lyceum Theatre. During World War II she appeared in sketches
In 1876 the Lyceum also became the first and short plays for ENSA. In 1952 she toured
theatre to darken the auditorium during a the world with her acclaimed one-woman
performance (disappointing those who show, An Evening with Beatrice Lillie. Her
attended the theatre to be seen). performance prompted Brooks Atkinson to
In 1816 the Chestnut Theatre in write in the New York Times “Lillie is the
Philadelphia became the first to be totally lit funniest woman in the world”. In 1964 the
by gas, followed a year later by the Lyceum, 68-year-old Lillie played in New York in High
London ( which was two days ahead of Covent Spirits, a musical adaptation of Coward’s Blithe
Garden). Some spectators, however, regretted Spirit.
290 limelight

Lillie acquired the title Lady Peel by PANTOMIME (1716) and the first production of
marrying a descendant of the British prime Gay’s THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (1728).
minister Sir Robert Peel in 1925. She In 1732 Rich transferred to his new theatre
published an autobiography entitled Every in COVENT GARDEN and Lincoln’s Inn became
Other Inch a Lady in 1973. a venue for operas, concerts, and balls, as well
as some plays. After the theatre closed in 1744,
limelight A vivid light, giving off little the building served as a barracks, an auction
heat, produced by the combustion of oxygen room, and a china warehouse, before being
and hydrogen on a surface of lime. It demolished in 1848.
was invented by Thomas Drummond
(1797–1840) in 1816. Although it was tried at Lincoln’s Men In the Elizabethan era, a
the South Foreland lighthouse in 1861, its small theatre troupe led by Laurence Dutton
main use developed in the theatre, where it was of the household of the first Earl of Lincoln;
employed to throw a powerful beam upon one the company sometimes took the name of the
actor to the exclusion of others; the light could earl’s son, Lord Clinton. They were previously
be adjusted manually to follow an actor known as the Duttons. From 1572–75 they
around the stage. Hence the phrase to be in performed frequently at the court of Queen
the limelight, meaning to be in the full glare of Elizabeth I, and then toured the provinces for
public attention. See LIGHTING. several years; they disbanded at the end of the
decade. Another company of the same name
Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre A toured the provinces from 1599 to 1610.
former London theatre, the first English venue
Linden Tree, The A two-act drama by
to have a PROSCENIUM ARCH. Built in 1656 as
J. B. PRIESTLEY; first produced in London in
Lisle’s Tennis Court, it was converted into a
1947, it ran for 422 performances. The
home for the Duke’s Company by William original cast was headed by Lewis Casson and
DAVENANT in 1661. A year later it became one
Sybil Thorndike.
of London’s two PATENT THEATRES. The The action takes place at the 65th birthday
theatre opened with a revival of Davenant’s party of Robert Linden, a university professor
The Siege of Rhodes starring Thomas in the dull provincial town of Burmanley. The
BETTERTON. Known informally as the Duke’s family, which includes the Professor’s unhappy
House, the theatre was equipped with movable wife, his son Rex, and his three grown-up
scenery and staged the first scenic performance daughters, gathers to celebrate but bitter
of Hamlet in 1661 with Betterton in the title differences soon emerge, reflecting a crisis of
role. Dryden’s Sir Martin Mar-All (1667), values in post-war Britain. While the Professor
written for the company’s comedian James is an old-fashioned idealist, committed to his
Nokes (d. 1696), was also an outstanding dull students and his thankless-seeming
success. After Davenant’s death in 1668, the vocation, his wife longs for him to retire. One
company continued at the venue until 1671, daughter has become a Catholic, another a
when they moved to DORSET GARDEN communist, and Rex has returned from the
THEATRE. Lincoln’s Inn Fields subsequently war believing in nothing but careless pleasure.
reverted to being a tennis court, except for the Only the youngest daughter, the lively but
period 1672–74 when Thomas Killigrew’s innocent Dinah, seems to offer a hope for the
company played there after fire destroyed the future.
first Drury Lane theatre.
In 1695 Lincoln’s Inn Fields was refitted lion comique In British MUSIC HALL, the
for Betterton’s company, which began a character of an aristocratic young man-about-
town who sings about the delights of drink.
decade of performances there with Congreve’s
The first lion comique was George Leybourne
Love for Love. The company moved in 1705 to
(see CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE), while Alfred VANCE
Vanbrugh’s new Queen’s Theatre in the
also became famous playing the type.
Haymarket (see ACOUSTICS). After a period of
disuse, Christopher Rich (see RICHES, THE) Lisideius One of the speakers in the Essay
began to restore Lincoln’s Inn Fields shortly of Dramatic Poesy (1688) by John DRYDEN.
before his death; it was reopened by his Lisideius and his companions Eugenius
son John Rich in 1714. Highlights of his (representing Charles Sackville), Crites (Sir
management included the first English Robert Howard), and Neander (Dryden
 Little Theatres 291

himself) go boating on the Thames and discuss and Regina ensures his death by withholding
the art of playwriting. Lisideius was modelled his medicine.
upon the playwright Sir Charles Sedley
(1639–1701), who was well known for his Little Theatres Small independent
popular imitations of Molière and other theatre companies relying upon unpaid
French authors. volunteers and financial support from
subscribers. In America the Little Theatre
Sedley was once a favourite of James II but
movement began at the turn of the century
became deeply affronted when the king took
in emulation of the new European art
his daughter, Catherine, as his mistress,
theatres, such as the MOSCOW ART THEATRE.
granting her the title of Countess of
The impact of the first companies, which
Dorchester. James was considered unlucky in
performed in any available venue (from stables
his mistresses, who were all notoriously
to churches) with a minimum of scenery, was
unattractive, prompting wags to suggest that especially felt between 1912–20, when they
they were chosen for him by his priests. introduced experimental plays and staging
Sedley longed for revenge; as a Member of techniques.
Parliament, his opportunity finally came in The movement began with such
1688 when, following James’s flight abroad, he companies as The Players in Providence,
voted in favour of the succession to the throne Rhode Island (1909) and the Wisconsin
of William and James’s daughter Mary. As he Dramatic Society in Madison and Milwaukee
explained: “Since his majesty has made my (1911). Three important groups were founded
daughter a countess, it is fit I should do all I in 1912: the Toy Theatre in Boston, ’47
can to make his daughter a queen.” WORKSHOP at Harvard University, and the
In his youth the playwright himself was Little Theatre in Chicago. In 1915 three
noted for his profligate ways. According to more well-known companies were set up:
Pepys, he was brought before the courts in the Neighborhood Playhouse and the
1663 for having displayed himself naked (to a WASHINGTON SQUARE PLAYERS, both in New
gathering crowd) upon a balcony “acting all York, and the Provincetown Players in
the postures of lust and buggery that could be Provincetown, Massachusetts (which launched
imagined, and abusing of scripture…And that the career of Eugene O’NEILL). The famous
being done, he took a glass of wine and washed Pasadena Playhouse opened in 1918 (closing
his prick in it and then drank it off; and then in 1970).
took another and drank the King’s health…” The movement has continued to boom,
with the number of Little Theatres increasing
Little Foxes, The Lillian HELLMAN’s from about 50 in 1917 to more than 5000
three-act drama about greed and corruption, today; some now have their own venues while
usually considered her best play. It opened in others are based on university campuses. A
New York in 1939, providing Tallulah number have acquired professional status. The
BANKHEAD with one of her best-known roles. Little Theatre movement has been supported
The 1941 film version starred Bette Davis. by such organizations as the Drama League
In 1981 the play was successfully revived on of America (1910–31), the American
Broadway (moving to London the following Community Theatre Association (ACTA;
year) with Elizabeth Taylor making a rare stage founded in 1958), and the American
appearance. Association of Community Theatres (founded
The play depicts a ruthless Southern in 1985). The companies are mostly based
family, the Hubbards (Regina and her brothers outside New York, many being designated
Ben and Oscar), who place financial interests CIVIC THEATREs.
above all else. Regina’s ailing husband, Horace, Britain’s first theatre of this kind was the
despises the family and refuses to lend the Stockport Garrick Society, founded in 1901,
brothers money to build a cotton mill. When but the movement did not begin in earnest
Horace discovers that money is missing from until the 1920s with the establishment of such
his safe-deposit box (‘borrowed’ by Oscar’s companies as Maddermarket Theatre,
son), Regina sees this as an opportunity to Norwich (1921), the Village Players of Great
blackmail her brothers. Horrified by her Hucklow, Buxton, Derbyshire (1927), which
behaviour, Horace says he will make the loan has no members or subscribers and does not
after all; however, he then suffers a heart attack list actors’ names in the programme, and the
292 Little Tich

Questors Theatre, London (1929). Later At the Theatre Royal the company
companies include the Mountview Theatre, embarked on a highly successful series of
London (1947), which has had its own productions including, in 1955, the British
drama school since 1963, and the Tavistock premiere of Brecht’s MOTHER COURAGE AND
Repertory Company, London (1932; revived HER CHILDREN. In 1958 Brendan BEHAN’s The
in 1952). The British groups tend to produce Quare Fellow and Shelagh Delaney’s A TASTE
from four to eight plays annually, while some OF HONEY were both staged to great acclaim.
also run courses for actors and directors. Most However, the success of many of these
are affiliated to the Little Theatre Guild of productions often entailed a West End transfer
Great Britain, established in 1946, which and a subsequent loss of players from the
provides advice, information, and other company.
assistance. In 1961 Littlewood travelled to Nigeria
The Little Theatre movement was also and the Theatre Workshop staged no new
significant in Canada, especially during the productions for the next two years. Upon
1920s. Among the important Canadian Littlewood’s return in 1963 the Workshop
companies are the Hart House Theatre enjoyed a major success with OH, WHAT A
in Toronto and the French-language LOVELY WAR!, an irreverent musical collage
Compagnons de Saint-Laurent. about World War I. Again, however, the
subsequent West End transfer meant a loss of
Little Tich Stage name of the celebrated
players for Littlewood. Other successes
music-hall comedian Harry Ralph
included the satirical Mrs Wilson’s Diary
(1868–1928). As a podgy infant, he was
(1967) and The Marie Lloyd Story (1967).
nicknamed ‘Tichborne’ or ‘Tich’ in allusion to
Littlewood’s last Theatre Royal production was
the corpulent claimant in the Tichborne case,
So You Want To Be in Pictures (1973). After
a famous court case involving a false claim to a
1975 she worked mainly in France.
baronetcy. As he remained only four feet tall,
Those who worked with Littlewood
he came to be called ‘Little Tich’. He first
remember her, usually fondly, as a chain-
appeared playing a tin-whistle and became
smoking autocrat who bullied actors into
renowned for his stage pranks and satirical
giving performances they considered
humour. He subsequently appeared in
themselves incapable of. Kenneth Tynan, for
pantomime at Drury Lane with Dan Leno and
instance, recalls her:
Marie Lloyd. His popularity in Paris gained
him the Legion of Honour. Bellowing instructions through a
The colloquial terms ‘titch’ and ‘titchy’, megaphone in terms that would shame
applied to a small person or thing, derive from a Fascist traffic cop.
Little Tich. See also DWARFS.
liturgical drama The earliest organized
Littlewood, (Maudie) Joan drama in medieval Europe, consisting of
(1914–2002) British actress and director, who various types of play performed in church as
pioneered techniques of COLLECTIVE CREATION part of the Christian liturgy. It developed in
and was one of the first to apply the theories of French and German Benedictine monasteries
BRECHT in the British theatre. in the 10th century, mainly from the tradition
Littlewood trained at RADA but found of the TROPE, a brief interpolation in the
both the atmosphere and the teaching stifling plainsong liturgy. More theatrical elements
and left before completing her course. In the were gradually introduced into services,
mid-1930s she moved to Manchester and especially during Holy Week, which often
became involved with the Theatre of Action, began with a procession to the church led by a
an innovative company organized by the performer in the role of Christ, riding a
dramatist and folk singer Ewan McColl, who donkey. The earliest extant playlet survives in
became her first husband. Following World the Regularis Concordia, a document compiled
War II the Theatre of Action was reconstituted in about 970 by Ethelwold, Bishop of
under the name of THEATRE WORKSHOP. The Winchester.
company toured extensively, performing a Although other subjects were treated, the
mixed repertoire of classic and modern drama Easter story remained central, with more than
until they found (1953) a permanent home at 400 plays written on the visit of the three
the Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London. Marys to Christ’s tomb. The PASSION PLAY
 living picture 293

depicted events from the Last Supper to the The FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT, devised
Crucifixion and the placing of Christ’s body in by the Roosevelt administration to create
the tomb. The Nativity play, telling the employment during the Depression, became
Christmas story, soon merged with the particularly closely associated with the form.
Epiphany play about the visit of the Wise The Project’s New York unit, composed of
Men. Other popular subjects included John unemployed theatre personnel and newspaper
the Baptist, the three children in the fiery workers, produced six Living Newspapers.
furnace, the conversion of St Paul, and the The first, Elmer RICE’s Ethiopia, about Italy’s
raising of Lazarus. invasion of that country, was cancelled
The Latin plays were initially performed in before the opening night following pressure
church on small structures called ‘mansions’, from the US State Department. Subsequent
which were arranged around a general acting presentations, staged by such eminent directors
area (see MULTIPLE SETTING). The performers as Joseph Losey, dealt with poverty, housing,
usually wore church vestments. From about health care, and civil rights amongst other
1200, however, the plays began to be national issues. The most successful pieces
performed outside, a transition accelerated by were those written by Arthur Arent; his Triple-
the creation of the new feast of Corpus Christi, A Plowed Under (1936) encouraged farmers
which falls in May or June. The directions for and consumers to unite against low salaries and
an early outdoor drama, The Mystery of Adam, food profiteering, Power (1937) advocated
performed in about 1150, state: nationalization of the electrical power industry,
while One-Third of a Nation (1938) called for
Then let God go to the church, and let low-cost public housing.
Adam and Eve walk about, innocently Several other Federal Theatre companies
delighting in the Garden of Eden. wrote Living Newspapers tackling local
Meanwhile, let demons run back and problems, though few were actually produced.
forth through the square, making The contentious opinions expressed in Living
suitable gestures. Newspaper productions led to numerous
By the end of the 13th century the dramas complaints, and this contributed to the
had lost their liturgical function and were government’s closure of the Federal Theatre
mainly written in the vernacular, although Project in 1939. However, the documentary
they were still sometimes performed in techniques employed by the Living
churches until at least the 15th century. Newspapers continued to influence theatrical
More secular elements were also gradually companies during and after World War II.
introduced. In one 14th-century German play, Even the British army made use of the
for example, the story of the three Marys was technique to keep troops up-to-date with
enlivened by the introduction of a comic spice political issues and conditions at home.
seller. This comic element became more
prominent as the liturgical drama developed living picture A group of silent and
into the more sophisticated MYSTERY PLAY. See motionless actors, usually arranged in
imitation of a famous painting or to represent
also MEDIEVAL DRAMA.
a biblical or historical scene. The term is a
liturgy (Greek: people work) In ancient translation of the French tableau vivant. In the
Greece, a public service required of wealthy 18th century Denis Diderot advocated their
citizens in Athens. One such task was to assist use to illustrate emotional and moral states,
in the staging of a drama – tragic, comic, or while in Victorian melodramas they were often
dithyrambic – by equipping and paying for introduced at climactic moments and at the
a chorus. A patron of this kind, called a ends of acts. The 19th century period also saw
CHOREGUS, was chosen in rotation and excused the rise of the pose plastique, in which naked or
that year from general taxes. near-naked women posed in imitation of
classical statuary (such NUDITY being
Living Newspaper A form of didactic permissible as long as the actress remained
DOCUMENTARY THEATRE that arose in America motionless). In the music halls naked female
in the 1930s. Living Newspaper productions performers were sometimes dusted white to
would usually define a social problem in a resemble ‘living statuary’.
series of short scenes and then call for specific In the early 20th century living pictures
action; the tone was often satirical. were an important element in such lavish US
294 living skeleton

revues as the Ziegfeld Follies and George settle onto a park bench with wide slats and
White’s Scandals. A modern example of the chirp, ‘Oh dear, I’m nipped in the bud’.
tableau vivant occurs in Stephen Sondheim’s Her admirer T. S. Eliot called Marie “the
musical Sunday in the Park with George (1983), expressive figure of the lower classes”, while
in which Seurat’s painting Sunday on the Isle of James Agate wrote that “She had a heart as big
La Grande Jatte comes to life. as Waterloo Station”, adding that her art
“always envisaged the seamy side of life with
living skeleton See HUNGER ARTIST. gusto rather than deprecation.”
Living Stage See ARENA STAGE. Marie’s private life was a well-known
disaster, and her three marriages and two
Living Theatre (LT) The experimental divorces were considered scandalous at the
OFF-BROADWAY company founded in 1948 in time; she was never invited to take part in a
New York by Julian Beck and his wife, Judith Royal Command Variety Performance. When
Malina. Their productions of plays by such she was excluded from the first one of these in
writers as Brecht, Cocteau, and Pirandello 1912, she advertised her own shows with
profoundly influenced the experimental theatre posters announcing “Every Performance by
of the 1960s. Beck called their presentations order of the British Public”. She died three
“an image for a changing society”. days after collapsing on stage at the Edmonton
The Living Theatre acquired a permanent Empire.
venue in 1959 but was evicted four years later
for tax evasion. The company’s last production Lloyd Webber, Andrew, Baron
was Kenneth Brown’s The Brig (1963), an (1948– ) British composer of stage musicals,
exposé of brutality in a US Marine Corps whose work has enjoyed amazing success in
prison; to see it the audience had to enter the the commercial theatre. In 1996–97 Lloyd
padlocked theatre through the windows. From Webber had six productions running
1964 until 1968 the LT toured Europe with simultaneously in London’s West End, when a
several politically provocative productions, revival of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR joined five
including a version of Antigone (1967) set other shows already earning nearly 25% of all
during the Vietnam War. After a year in Brazil West End box-office receipts between them.
(1970) the Becks moved to Pittsburgh where These were CATS (1981), THE PHANTOM OF
THE OPERA (1987), Sunset Boulevard (1993),
they presented a series of plays using coal
miners and steel workers as actors. The and revivals of both the roller-skating
company returned to New York in 1984. Beck spectacular Starlight Express (1984), and By
died the following year, but Malina and Jeeves (1975; lyrics by Alan AYCKBOURN).
Hanon Reznikov kept the Living Theatre Lloyd Webber’s personal fortune has been
living. The ideas that inspired the company are estimated at well over £700 million. He was
set out in Beck’s book The Life of the Theatre raised to the peerage in 1997.
(1972) and Malina’s Diaries 1947–57 (1984). Lloyd Webber dropped out of Oxford after
meeting lyricist Tim Rice during his first term.
Lloyd, Marie (Matilda Alice Victoria The two established their reputations by
Wood; 1870–1922), the most famous of the collaborating on the biblical musicals Joseph
British MUSIC HALL artists. She made her debut and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and
at the Royal Eagle Music Hall at the age JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1971) but it was the
of 15 and in 1891 starred with Dan LENO more mainstream success of EVITA (1976) that
and LITTLE TICH in her first Drury Lane made them rich. Lloyd Webber’s second wife
pantomime. By this time she was already well (of three), the singer and dancer Sarah
known for her naughty songs and mischievous Brightman, starred in most of his musicals of
wink. Her best-loved numbers included ‘She’d the 1980s.
Never Had Her Ticket Punched Before’, ‘A Aspects of Love (1989) was a more intimate
Little of What You Fancy Does You Good’, piece, while the £3-million Sunset Boulevard
and her famous charwoman number about was a spectacular reworking of the classic Billy
‘The Old Cock Linnet’. These included lines Wilder film. Subsequent works, which have
like “If you show the boys just a little bit, it’s not enjoyed success on the same scale, include
the little bit the boys admire”. A typical skit Whistle Down the Wind (1997), The Beautiful
would have Marie enter holding her famous Game (2000; book and lyrics by Ben Elton),
shabby handbag and battered birdcage and and The Woman in White (2004). In 2006
 London Assurance 295

Lloyd Webber became a perhaps unlikely TV the dish, concerned the political events of one
star when he appeared as a judge in How Do hundred years earlier, when Robespierre and
You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, a reality show the Jacobins were deposed during the
devised to find a leading lady for his new revolutionary month of Thermidor. Food
production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Any historians disagree as to whether the dish was
Dream Will Do (2007) repeated the format for created at Marie’s, a famous restaurant near the
a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Comédie-Française, or by Leopold Mourier
Dreamcoat. Love Never Dies, a sequel to The and Tony Girod at the Café de Paris.
Phantom of the Opera, received its West End Sardou inspired a second famous dish in
premiere in 2010. 1908, when he was the guest of honour at
Despite its huge popularity, the critics have Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans. Eggs
often been less than kind to Lloyd Webber’s Sardou consists of poached eggs in a creamy
work, finding it shallow and unoriginal. sauce with chopped ham and artichoke hearts.
Lloyd Webber believes his success is at least
partly owing to the fact that “the standard of Locrine An anonymous tragedy published
musical being offered is, regrettably, not good. in 1595 with Shakespeare’s initials (W.S.) on
Broadway is worse than ever. Over the last the title page. Marlowe has also been suggested
ten years, I’ve been hoping a new team will as its author. It is certainly not by either.
emerge and things will change, but it hasn’t The story is taken from Holinshed’s
happened.” In 1992 the Master of the Queen’s Chronicles and the Historia Regum Britonum of
Music, Malcolm Williamson, commented Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the play Locrine, a
bitterly: British prince, becomes king of Logres but
loses both throne and life through his illicit
Lloyd Webber’s music is everywhere,
passion for Estrild, queen of Scythia.
but so is Aids.
Lloyd Webber’s production company, The Loman, Willy The central character in
Really Useful Group, currently owns seven of the play DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1949) by
the leading West End theatres. Arthur Miller. Loman, a failure as a salesman
and father, kills himself in a car crash to raise
loa A type of short PROLOGUE used to insurance money for his family. The play, a sad
preface Spanish dramatic works until the 17th commentary on the failure of the American
century. It was often used to flatter an dream, won a Pulitzer Prize.
audience that included high officials; strolling Attention, attention must be finally
players generally memorized several basic loas paid to such a person.
and reworded them to suit local dignitaries. Death of a Salesman
Usually accompanied by music, the loa ranged
from a short introductory monologue to a brief Actors to excel in the role include Lee J.
drama related in theme to the play that Cobb (1949), George C. Scott (1975), Dustin
followed. By the 17th century, however, loas Hoffman (1985), and Brian Dennehy (1999).
were normally reserved for new works or the London Assurance A comedy by Dion
religious plays called AUTOS SACRAMENTALES. BOUCICAULT, first produced by Madame
VESTRIS at Covent Garden in 1841; it was the
lobsterscope In theatre lighting, a device
used to create the effect of slow motion on first play to use a complete BOX SET. The play’s
stage. It consists of a metal disc with slots that success restored the declining fortunes of
is rotated in front of a spotlight to create a the theatre and established the reputation
flickering beam. of Boucicault (who wrote it under the
pseudonym Lee Morton). In the story Sir
lobster thermidor The famous dish William Harcourt Courtly, an ageing Regency
created in January 1894 to celebrate the buck, sets out in pursuit of the young heiress
opening of Victorien SARDOU’s historical Grace Harkaway, only to be distracted by his
drama Thermidor at the Comédie-Française in passion for her aunt, the fox-hunting virago
Paris. The lobster is grilled, cut into thick Lady Gay Spanker. In the first New York
slices, and served in the original half shell in a production (1841), the role of Lady Gay was
sauce of cream, eggs, brandy, and mustard. taken by Charlotte Cushman. The play was
Sardou’s play, which was not a great success frequently revived during the late 19th
and is now remembered mainly for inspiring century. The ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY’s
296 London Coliseum

highly acclaimed 1972 production featured an 1956 (in Stockholm and then New York), the
outstanding performance by Donald Sinden play won O’Neill a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.
Sir William. There was also a successful revival Successful revivals have included the 1971
at the National Theatre in 2010, with Simon National Theatre production, starring
Russell Beale in the role of Sir William and Laurence Olivier.
Fiona Shaw as Lady Gay. O’Neill’s drama of “old sorrow written in
tears and blood” was based on his own
London Coliseum A large theatre in St traumatic upbringing. The action takes place
Martin’s Lane, London, now the home of the over one emotional day and night in 1912,
English National Opera. It was opened by Sir when all the old frustrations, conflicts, and
Oswald Stoll as a variety house in 1904. The fears come to a climax. The Tyrone family is in
theatre’s many innovations included London’s the grips, as always, of the bullying miserly
first REVOLVING STAGE, a mobile lounge to father, James, an actor. His wife Mary is going
take royal parties to their boxes, lifts to carry mad after failing to cure her drug problem, his
audiences to the upper levels, and foyer younger son Edmund (O’Neill himself) is
facilities for typing and sending telegrams. dying of consumption that James refuses to
In keeping with its name, the theatre was acknowledge or have treated, and his elder son
decorated in splendid Roman style with carved Jamie is declining into alcoholism as he
chariots and granite columns. Stoll intended questions their worthless lives. As Mary sinks
the globe on top of the building to revolve into madness, she closes the play with the
but as this violated the building code he pathetic line:
used flashing lights to create the illusion of
I fell in love with James Tyrone and
movement.
was so happy for a time.
The management initially found it difficult
to fill the Coliseum’s vast auditorium, which Jamie’s story was continued in A MOON FOR
THE MISBEGOTTEN.
seats 2358, and the theatre closed briefly in
1906. Success eventually came with plays longest plays Edward Falconer’s
featuring stars such as Ellen Terry and Sarah Oonagh, or, The Lovers of Lismona opened
Bernhardt. In 1930 the theatre gave the first one evening in 1866 at half-past seven. By
stage demonstration of television. After World midnight most of the audience had left; by two
War II, it was used for presenting US musicals, o’clock in the morning only a few sleeping
notably Annie Get Your Gun (1947), which ran critics were still there. At three o’clock the
for 1304 performances, Guys and Dolls (1953), stage crew brought the curtain down with the
and The Pajama Game (1955). After some action still in progress and the play was taken
years as a cinema, the theatre became (1968) off.
the home of the Sadler’s Wells Opera More recently John ARDEN and his wife
Company, which became the English National Margaretta D’Arcy attracted notoriety with
Opera in 1974. The Non-Stop Connolly Show (1975), which
London Cuckolds, The A farce by lasted a record-breaking 26½ hours, including
Edward Ravenscroft (fl. 1680) that for 70 intervals. The fruit of Arden’s ambition
years was performed every Lord Mayor’s Day to express “noise, disorder, drunkenness,
(9 November) at both Drury Lane and lasciviousness, nudity, generosity, corruption,
Covent Garden. The tradition, which began fertility, and ease” on the stage, the show
in 1681, lapsed in 1751 at Drury Lane and the opened in Ireland and inspired one critic to
following year at Covent Garden. Since then call it “the cheapest doss in Dublin.” See also
SHORTEST PLAYS.
the play has been revived only once, by the
comedian John Quick in 1782. longest titles The longest play title
London Idol, the The stage nickname of of recent times was almost certainly The
Vesta TILLEY, who became a great favourite of Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul
London music-hall audiences with her male Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum
impersonations. of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis
de Sade by Peter Weiss (1964). Publicists and
Long Day’s Journey Into Night playbill designers shortened this to the
Eugene O’NEILL’s masterly tragedy of family MARAT/SADE. Some other long titles in the
life. Written in 1941 but not produced until theatre have included The History of Two
 Lord Chamberlain 297

Valiant Knights, Sir Clyomon Knight of the pregnant, her friend, Helena, comes to stay to
Golden Shield, Son to the King of Denmark, and offer support, much to Jimmy’s disgust. After
Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Alison finally walks out, Helena replaces her as
Suavia, a romantic comedy produced in Jimmy’s lover – and as target for his invective.
London by the King’s Men in 1577, Oh Dad, In the last act Alison returns, having suffered
Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You In the Closet and a miscarriage. Their coy, but touching,
I’m Feeling So Sad (1960), a black comedy by reconciliation shows Osborne in a gentler
the US playwright Arthur Kopit (1937– ), light.
for coloured girls who have considered suicide
when the rainbow is enuf (1974) by Ntozake Look Homeward, Angel A Pulitzer
Shange (1948– ), and The Rebirth Prize-winning adaptation of Thomas Wolfe’s
Celebration of the Human Race at Artie Zabala’s novel by Ketti Frings, first produced in New
Off-Broadway Theatre by William SAROYAN. York in 1957. The story concerns Eliza Gant,
The contemporary playwright with the proprietor of the Dixieland Boarding
the strongest penchant for long titles is House, and her family, who are dependent on
undoubtedly Tony KUSHNER, whose works her business acumen and cowed by her
include Yes, Yes, No, No: The Solace of Solstice, authority. Eliza’s husband, a stonemason, is
Apogee/Perigee, Bestial/Celestial Holiday Show saving a beautiful carving of an angel for his
(1985), Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights own headstone (hence the title, a line from
Bury a Seventh, a Ten Minute Play That’s Milton’s Lycidas). Although Ben, her
Nearly Twenty Minutes Long (1996), and The consumptive son, helps to support the family,
Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism his younger brother, Eugene, remains
and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures dependent and suffers from his lack of
(2009). education. After Ben dies, Eliza offers to pay
See also SHORTEST TITLES. for Eugene’s education, and he seizes this
chance of independence.
Look Back in Anger A play by John
OSBORNE that opened on 8 May 1956 at the Loot Joe ORTON’s black farce about police
ROYAL COURT THEATRE, London; it was
corruption, first performed in 1965 at the
Osborne’s first play and the first major Cambridge Arts Theatre before moving (in a
production by the ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY heavily revised version) to London in 1966.
under George DEVINE. The play’s impact has Audiences were shocked by the use of a corpse
been described as “a watershed in modern as a comic prop.
theatre”, and “the beginning of a renaissance”. Dennis, a hearse driver, and his friend Hal
However, most first-night reviews were merely have robbed the bank next door to a funeral
lukewarm. The notable exception was Kenneth parlour. Bad taste abounds as Dennis woos
TYNAN, who wrote: “I doubt if I could love Fay, a voluptuous nurse, while his recently
anyone who did not wish to see Look Back In deceased and embalmed mother lies upstairs.
Anger. It is the best young play of its decade.” Hal and Dennis then hit upon the idea of
Look Back in Anger expressed, for the first hiding the money in the coffin, which means
time on the London stage, youthful frustration moving the corpse into a cupboard. The
at the post-war Establishment. Osborne’s corrupt police inspector Truscott discovers
articulate anti-hero Jimmy PORTER, first played that the dead woman had been poisoned by
by Kenneth Haigh, was quickly dubbed the Fay, but the evidence (organs removed during
‘angry young man’, giving the title of ANGRY embalming) is destroyed in a car crash.
YOUNG MEN to the new generation of anti- Inspector Truscott finds the money and is
Establishment playwrights. The play’s down- given a share.
at-heel setting – a dingy bedsit – also began Leonard Rossiter collapsed and died during
the vogue for KITCHEN SINK drama. a performance in 1984.
For his part, Osborne described Look Back Lord Admiral’s Men See ADMIRAL’S
in Anger as a “formal, rather old-fashioned MEN.
play”. It focuses on Jimmy Porter, a university-
educated working-class market-stall owner, Lord Chamberlain The British public
who spends most of his energy in merciless official who licensed and censored dramatic
tirades against his middle-class wife, Alison, works and theatrical entertainment for more
and her parents. When Alison becomes than 200 years before the office was abolished
298 Lord Chamberlain

in 1968. Stage censorship was initially the The correspondence of the Lord
responsibility of the MASTER OF THE REVELS, a Chamberlain and his advisers, only released in
minor official in the royal household of Henry 1991, provides a bizarre insight into the
VII, but the duties became so important that mentality of the censor:
they were given to his superior, the Lord I have very grave doubts as to whether
Chamberlain. His power was confirmed by an the public performance of Oedipus
act of parliament (1713) that classified might not prove injurious.
“common players of Interludes” as “rogues and Of Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex (1910)
vagabonds.” The Licensing Act (1737) gave
him the statutory right to issue licences for This picture of a frivolous and
theatres (except Covent Garden and Drury degenerate set of people gives a wholly
Lane, the two PATENT THEATRES) and to false impression of society life…the
license the performance of approved new plays. time has come to put a stop to the
The Lord Chamberlain could ban a play harmful influence of such pictures on
for profanity, sacrilege, sedition, indecency of the stage.
dress, dance, or gesture, offensive portrayals of Of Coward’s The Vortex (1924)
personalities, or anything likely to produce a In the first place there is the sordid and
breach of the peace. There was no appeal disgusting atmosphere which makes
against his decision, which was made on the the immorality of the play glaring and
advice of the Examiner of Plays. Noted crude. Then there is the very
Examiners included George Colman the questionable theme in these days of the
Younger (see COLMANS, THE) and Charles relations between masters and servants
Kemble (see KEMBLE FAMILY). which this play tends to undermine.
The Theatres Act (1843) consolidated the Of Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1924)
Lord Chamberlain’s authority. By the late 19th The Lord Chamberlain appreciates the
century, however, authors and managers were atmosphere which the author is trying
becoming restless under the sway of the censor, to produce, at the same time he
whose decisions often seemed absurd and objects, in principle, to the pulling of
arbitrary. In 1874 the Lord Chamberlain lavatory plugs and all that that stands
objected to the scanty costumes worn by a for…From your point of view I realise
troupe of French dancers appearing in that you have started with the idea of
Offenbach’s Vert-Vert; when the censor agreed the symbolism which the lavatory
to specify a length, the management creates and it is, therefore, difficult to
announced that the new costumes were think that anything else will produce
“designed by the Lord Chamberlain”. In 1909 the results you are after, but I suggest
the censor complained about the line “My that…a sufficient atmosphere will be
God, why has Thou forsaken me?” in Shaw’s achieved by noises of water running
Major Barbara, asking if these were not the last out of a sink, washing etc. In fact I
words of Christ on the cross. When assured have heard many a sink make a noise
that they were also in the Psalms, he relented. like a well-behaved lavatory.
Private theatre clubs were organized to Of Graham Greene’s The Living Room
circumvent the law but in 1966 the Lord (1952)
Chamberlain ended their immunity. The
Theatres Act (1968) finally abolished stage Act I, page 11, alter “ass-upwards”.
censorship. Page 27 alter “pouf” (twice).
During his reign, the Lord Chamberlain Page 30 alter “shagged”.
banned such plays as John Gay’s Polly (1737), Page 43 omit “rogered” (twice).
Ibsen’s Ghosts (1881), Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Act III, page 3, alter “wet your pants”.
Profession (1893), Wilde’s Salome (1893), Page 4 omit “had Sylvia”.
Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms Page 9 alter “camp”.
(1925), and John Osborne’s A Patriot for Me Page 21 omit “balls”.
(1965). The last play to be banned was Of Osborne’s The Entertainer (1957)
Edward BOND’s Early Morning (1968), which By presenting homosexuals in their
depicted a lesbian relationship between Queen most attractive guise – dressed as pretty
Victoria and Florence Nightingale. women – [it] will to some degree cause
 Love for Love 299

the congregation of homosexuals and fighter, trapeze artist, gigolo, and self-confessed
provide the means whereby the vice murderer. He was also a bad actor with a heavy
may be acquired. Dutch accent, and the audience at the Théâtre
Of Osborne’s A Patriot for Me (1964) Sarah Bernhardt in Paris was brutally frank,
See also CENSORSHIP; LICENCE. groaning and laughing throughout his
performance.
Lord Chamberlain’s Men See
CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN. Lost Boys, the See PETER PAN.
Lord of Misrule In late medieval and Loutherbourg, Philip James de
Tudor times, a mock dignitary appointed to (Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg;
rule over Christmas festivities, also called the 1740–1812) One of the theatre’s most
Abbot or King of Misrule and in Scotland the innovative scenic designers. Loutherbourg,
Abbot of Unreason. Lords of Misrule were who was born in Alsace of Polish descent, lived
appointed at the royal court, at Oxford and in Paris from about 1755 as a landscape
Cambridge, by the Lord Mayor of London, painter. After settling in England he worked at
and in the households of noblemen. He ruled DRURY LANE for David Garrick (from 1771)
for a period varying from 12 days to three and his successor Richard Sheridan (from
months (starting at Hallowe’en and lasting 1776). He is mentioned by the playwright Mr
until the feast of the Purification), during Puff in Sheridan’s The Critic (1779).
which he organized all the entertainment and Before Loutherbourg introduced set scenes
presided over his own mock court. The most (often using the slope of the stage to create the
celebrated Lord of Misrule was George Ferrers, illusion of perspective), scenery had consisted
who organized lavish spectacles for the court of of little more than canvas flats. The backdrop
Edward VI: these included a mock naval battle featuring a romantic landscape that he created
on the Thames and a joust of hobby horses. At for Drury Lane in 1779 was probably the first
court, the function of the Lord of Misrule was scenic curtain used in Europe. He also
eventually taken over by the MASTER OF THE introduced the CUT-CLOTH and experimented
REVELS. See also BOY BISHOP; FEAST OF FOOLS. with transparencies to create such effects as
fires, volcanoes, and moonlight. Loutherbourg
Lorenzaccio A romantic tragedy written was the first to use gauze to represent mist and
in 1834 by the French poet and playwright to create atmosphere by placing silkscreens of
Alfred de MUSSET; he was helped with its different colours in front of the lights. He lit
construction by the writer George Sand, at his scenery so well that actors at Drury Lane
that time his mistress. began to move back towards it to be better
Musset had taken a strong dislike to the seen; as a result the audience often found it
theatre when his first play flopped in 1830; as difficult to hear them.
a result he wrote Lorenzaccio to be read rather In 1781 he devised the EIDOPHUSIKON, a
than staged. It was not produced until 1896, type of panorama. After retiring from the
when Sarah BERNHARDT indulged her desire to theatre he became a faith healer.
play the hero, Lorenzo de’ Medici. Having
toured America to raise money, she gave an Love for Love William CONGREVE’s
acclaimed performance at the Renaissance witty COMEDY OF MANNERS, first produced in
Theatre, Paris, as Lorenzo, a Renaissance London in 1695 with Thomas Betterton as
nobleman whose search for goodness and Valentine and Anne Bracegirdle (Congreve’s
beauty ends in debauchery and murder. The mistress) as Angelica. The critic Penelope
critic Jules de Tillet, not a Bernhardt lover, Gilliatt has cited the play as a prime example
wrote “she gave full life to the part of of Congreve’s depiction of sex as a form of
Lorenzaccio, a part no one dared approach currency “with every courtship in the plot
before her.” However, owing to its extreme wooing an estate: love for loot.”
length and confusing plot the play closed The young Valentine has wasted his
within two months, leaving Bernhardt with fortune pursuing the beautiful but reluctant
heavy losses. In 1911 she decided to revive it, heiress Angelica. When his father, the bluff Sir
although aged 66 and a great-grandmother. Sampson Legend, agrees to settle his debts if he
Unfortunately she insisted on playing opposite will sign over his inheritance to his brother
her young lover, Lou Telegen, a former prize Ben, a sailor, Valentine feigns madness to
300 Love in a Village

avoid signing. Angelica, who is not deceived, This idealism is quickly undermined by the
pretends to be in a love with Sir Sampson in arrival of the Princess of France and her three
order to charm the bond from him. When beautiful ladies-in-waiting. The four young
Valentine says he will sign the document if men embark upon a muddled but eventually
that will make her happy, she realizes the successful pursuit of the ladies. The play’s last
depth of his affection and reveals her own love scene brings a sudden change of mood when a
for him. Other characters include the messenger arrives with news of the death of the
superstitious Foresight, the promiscuous Mrs Princess’s father. The four marriages are
Frail, and the feeble-minded beau Tattle. postponed for a year, during which time the
fickle young men must show their steadfastness
Love in a Village A comic opera that by engaging in good works. Other characters
provided the first theatrical success for the include the rustic clown COSTARD, the pedant
British dramatist Isaac BICKERSTAFFE. The Holofernes, and the affected Spaniard Don
rustic idyll, first performed in 1762, has music Armado. It is thought that some or all of these
by Thomas Arne and others; the story was characters may have been suggested by living
taken from Charles Johnson’s The Village models (see CHAPMAN, GEORGE).
Opera (1728). Bickerstaffe’s piece was
frequently revived in the 18th and 19th Lower Depths, The Maxim GORKI’s
centuries and greatly influenced the internationally acclaimed drama, first
development of the light musical play in produced by STANISLAVSKY at the MOSCOW ART
Britain. THEATRE in 1902. It is considered Gorki’s
finest play and a key text in the development
Love of Four Colonels, The Peter of 20th-century REALISM. The play provided
USTINOV’s fantasy on the Sleeping Beauty Max REINHARDT with his first major success in
theme. It was first produced in 1951 in 1903, running for more than 500
London with Ustinov in the leading role. The performances at his Kleines Theatre in Berlin.
plot involves four colonels from the British, The play explores the conflict between
US, French, and Soviet occupying forces in harsh reality and comforting lies. The pilgrim
Germany, all of whom are vying for possession Luka enters a Moscow dosshouse and offers
of a castle in the village of Herzogenburg. redemption to the inhabitants, who include a
Inside is a sleeping beauty, and they are invited murderer, a thief, a prostitute, and a drunken
by fairies to change into different forms to win actor. He brings them the illusion of hope
her heart. The Englishman becomes an (even urging Pepel, the thief, to start again in
Elizabethan poet, the American an evangelist, Siberia, “a land of gold”). In the event Pepel
the Frenchman a gallant, and the Russian a murders the dosshouse owner and goes to jail
Chekhovian uncle. Mischief by the fairies and the actor hangs himself. Luka disappears,
ensures that all four prove unsuccessful suitors. leaving one character to explain: “He lied, but
Love’s Labour’s Lost A comedy by he lied out of sheer pity for you.”
SHAKESPEARE, first performed in 1594–95 in Ludi Romani (Latin: Roman games) In
London. Until the 20th century this was ancient Rome, a festival held each September
perhaps the least popular of Shakespeare’s in honour of Jupiter. The earliest performances
plays; there is no record of a revival between of plays in Rome were given here as part of the
1605 and 1839. This neglect can be attributed free entertainment that accompanied the
mainly to the play’s extravagant verbal wit, public games. Authors originally supervised the
which involves numerous puns and allusions performances of their own plays; later,
that are now incomprehensible without professional acting troupes hired out their
footnotes. Modern playgoers, however, seem services to the magistrate in charge of the
better able to appreciate the high spirits festival. It was at the Ludi Romani in 240 BC
and human warmth beneath the verbal that Livius Andronicus staged the first Latin
pyrotechnics. The many 20th-century revivals translations of Greek tragedy and comedy. In
include Peter Brook’s first production at later years the festivals included farces and
Stratford-upon-Avon in 1956. MIME, although the latter was considered fit
The play describes the doomed attempt of only for those at the bottom of the social scale.
the King of Navarre and three of his nobles to
dedicate themselves to a celibate life of study. Lulu See EARTH SPIRIT; PANDORA’S BOX.
 Lupino family 301

Lun The stage name adapted by John found in rehearsal that she could not. After she
Rich (see RICHES, THE) to play the part of had tried several times and failed, Lunt
HARLEQUIN. His performances helped shouted, “For God’s sake, Lynn, you’re the
to establish and popularize the English lousiest actress I’ve ever played opposite.” She
PANTOMIME. Rich became especially acclaimed immediately gave him a good whack, and
for his routine ‘Harlequin Hatched from an during each subsequent performance he had to
Egg by the Sun’ in Harlequin Sorcerer, first whisper “Don’t be lousy, dear” before the
performed in 1741 at the Tottenham Court blow.
Fair. During the war the Lunts worked in
Lun Junior was the name sometimes given Britain, where they performed in hospitals and
to the actor Harry Woodward (1717–77), also military bases. In 1943 they were appearing in
known as ‘the last of the great Harlequins’. In There Shall Be No Night at the Aldwych
1729 he joined John Rich’s company at Theatre when a bomb fell nearby. The fire
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he performed in curtain was lowered, but Lunt yelled, “Take it
The Beggar’s Opera. In 1738 he moved to up, we’re going on” and the audience
Drury Lane and remained for 20 years, playing applauded. Terence Morgan, playing their son,
Harlequin and writing pantomimes for David had been blown out of the stage door by the
Garrick. He joined the Covent Garden explosion, but, smoothing his hair and
company in 1763 and created the part of somewhat shaken, he reappeared on cue. See
Captain Absolute in Sheridan’s The Rivals in also GREEN UMBRELLA.
1775.
Lupino family A theatrical family,
Lunts, the The US actor and director claimed to be the oldest in Britain, members of
Alfred Lunt (1892–1977) and his British-born which have included pantomimists, acrobats,
wife Lynn Fontanne (1887–1983), who dancers, comedians, and actors. The first
became the most famous married couple in the known Lupino was a performer billed as
US theatre. Ralph Richardson once said, “We ‘Signor Luppino’ in Italy in about 1612. Some
often hear about the superiority of English years later Giorgius Guillemus Luppino
stars. We have some very good performers, (1632–93), a puppeteer and singer, settled in
but America has something better – the England as a political refugee; his son Giorgius
Lunts.” They appeared together in some 30 Carolus Luppino (b. 1662), who later
productions in four decades, specializing Anglicized his name to George Charles,
in sophisticated comedies. According to became a puppeteer at the age of eight. In the
Noël COWARD, when they rehearsed for his late 17th century the family was granted a
Quadrille (1952), they performed “so licence to perform for King Charles II.
exquisitely that the tears were in my eyes. They Georgius Richard Eastcourt Luppino
are great actors.” The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (1710–87) was an apprentice to the harlequin
on West 46th Street in New York was named John Rich (see RICHES, THE); his son, Thomas
in their honour in 1958. Frederick Lupino (1749–1845) changed the
Fontanne was born in Woodford, Essex, spelling of the family name and became a
and made her stage debut in 1904 in the dancer and scenic artist.
chorus of the pantomime Cinderella at George Hook Lupino (1820–1902)
Drury Lane. Lunt was born in Milwaukee, claimed to have created the famous sketch in
Wisconsin, and made his Broadway debut in which a servant breaks a mirror and prevents
1918 in Romance and Arabella at the Harris his employer from discovering the accident by
Theatre. They married in 1922 and joined the standing in place of the glass and mimicking
THEATRE GUILD in 1924, opening in Ferenc his reflection. The routine has recurred
Molnar’s The Guardsman and going on to throughout show-business history, appearing,
enjoy such successes as Shaw’s Arms and the for instance, in the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup
Man (1925) and Pygmalion (1926). Later (1933). George Hook had 16 children, 10 of
highlights included Maxwell Anderson’s whom became dancers. His eldest son, George
Elizabeth the Queen (1930), Coward’s Design Lupino (1853–1932), was born in a dressing-
for Living (1933), which was written especially room at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham and
for them, and Dürrenmatt’s The Visit (1958). brought on stage when less than an hour old.
For the play At Mrs. Beam’s (1926), He became a clown and was still performing
Fontanne was required to slap her husband but just hours before his death.
302 Lushington

George Lupino’s brothers, Arthur and about the German Protestant reformer Martin
Harry, became music-hall stars in the early Luther (1483–1546). It was first performed in
20th century; Arthur was also a noted ANIMAL 1961 by the English Stage Company at
IMPERSONATOR. George’s son, Barry Nottingham’s Theatre Royal, with Albert
(1882–1962), became a dancer, actor, and for Finney in the title role. In his depiction of this
several years a stock comedian at the Britannia ‘angry young man’ of the Church, Osborne
Theatre, Hoxton. He teamed up with Will concentrated on Luther’s psychological and
Evans as ‘Lupino and Evans’, a popular physical struggles (including his constipation),
comedy duo that performed in pantomimes, rather than on the theological issues. The
becoming especially famous for their role in dialogue makes use of many of Luther’s own
The Sleeping Beauty. He also wrote some 50 words.
pantomime librettos and starred in musical The story begins with Luther joining the
comedy, notably as Sir John in Me and My Augustinian Order after experiencing a
Girl (1941). religious vision that he will later come to
Barry’s brother, Stanley Lupino doubt. His questioning of Church dogma leads
(1894–1942), was an acrobat, comedian, and to the decisive moment when he nails the 95
pantomimist at Drury Lane. He also wrote theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
several plays and an autobiography, From the Refusing to recant, he is excommunicated but
Stocks to the Stars (1934). His daughter, Ida continues to denounce such practices as the
Lupino (1918–95) became a Hollywood film sale of indulgences. Although he receives
star. sympathy and recognition from some Church
Stanley’s nephew, Henry George Lupino officials and support from his wife, Osborne’s
(1892–1959) was a renowned Cockney Luther remains consumed by self-doubt.
comedian who took the stage name of Lupino
Lane from his grandmother. He first luvvie A derogatory term for an actor,
performed at the age of four as ‘Nipper’ Lane especially one seen as camp, pretentious, or
and subsequently became known in variety, over-effusive in manner. It derives from the
pantomime, and musical comedy, especially as tendency of theatre people to address one
Bill Snibson in Me and My Girl, in which he another more or less indiscriminately as ‘love’
created the LAMBETH WALK. or ‘lovie’. The label is widely resented in the
profession: Trevor NUNN once told an
Lushington. the City of interviewer that he found the term “abhorrent”
Lushington A convivial society of actors and even (bizarrely) “a racist word”. The
that met at the Harp Tavern, Russell Street, satirical magazine Private Eye runs a regular
London until about 1895; it claimed to have column entitled ‘Luvvies’ in which the gushing
existed since the mid 17th century. The name or self-important sayings of actors are
‘Lushington’ (from ‘lush’ in the sense of a collected.
drunk or alcoholic liquor) was formerly used in
many jocular or euphemistic phrases alluding LX Short for ‘electrics’, the theatre term for
to excessive drinking. The City had a ‘Lord electrical supply and equipment and the staff
Mayor’ and four ‘aldermen’, who presided over who are employed to look after them.
‘wards’ named Juniper (i.e. gin), Poverty, Lyceum Theatre (1) A venue in
Lunacy, and Suicide. When a new member Wellington Street, London, which opened in
was admitted the Lord Mayor would deliver an 1771 to present concerts and exhibitions
ironic address on the evils of alcohol. before being converted into a theatre in 1794.
Lustige Brüder (German: Happy It acquired a licence to present plays in 1809,
Brothers) The first signature tune used in when the Drury Lane company was
British MUSIC HALL. The performer was the temporarily housed there after the Theatre
Australian comedian and singer Albert Whelan Royal was damaged by fire. Rebuilt in 1812, it
(Albert Waxman; 1875–1961), who first sang was renamed the Theatre Royal English Opera
the song in 1901 at the Empire, Leicester House in 1815; two years later it became the
Square, London, wearing evening dress with a first British theatre to light its stage with gas
tall hat and white gloves. (see LIGHTING). After a fire destroyed the venue
in 1830 a new building was constructed and
Luther John OSBORNE’s powerful drama opened as the Royal Lyceum and English
 Lyric Theatre 303

Opera House in 1834. Robert Keeley managed and Charles Wyndham’s London company
it successfully from 1844 until 1847, when visited for eight weeks. David BELASCO, who
Madame VESTRIS and her husband, the had been Frohman’s stage manager at the first
younger Charles Mathews took over. Their Lyceum, directed there for several seasons from
productions included spectacular works such as 1916.
Planché’s The Vampire; or, the Bride of the Isles. Successful productions have included The
After they went bankrupt in 1856, the venue Merchant of Venice (1922), George S. Kaufman
became home to the Covent Garden Theatre and Moss Hart’s George Washington Slept Here
company for three years following a fire at (1940), Clifford Odets’s The Country Girl
their own theatre. Under the management of (1950), John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger
the French actor Charles Fechter new ideas for (1957), Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker (1961),
lighting and scene shifting were introduced. In Arthur Kopit’s Wings (1979), revivals of Our
1871 the US impresario Hezekiah Bateman Town (1988) and Neil Simon’s The Sunshine
took over the theatre as a showcase for his Boys (1997), and Neil LaBute’s reasons to be
daughters, Kate, Virginia, and Isabel. He also pretty (2009).
hired the 33-year-old Henry IRVING, whose
Lyric Theatre (1) A theatre that opened
performance that year in THE BELLS established
in 1888 in Hammersmith, west London, as the
both his and the theatre’s reputation.
Lyric Hall. Two years later it was redesigned
Irving himself became manager seven years as the Lyric Opera House, after which it
later and began to perform with Ellen Terry presented melodramas. After the King’s
(see TERRY FAMILY) in a series of plays that Theatre, Hammersmith, opened in 1902, its
made the Lyceum the most prestigious venue fortunes declined until it became known
in London. The two appeared together for the locally as the ‘Blood and Flea Pit.’
last time in The Merchant of Venice in 1902 In 1918 Nigel Playfair took over the venue
and their departure sent the theatre’s fortunes and renamed it the Lyric Theatre, making it
tumbling. In 1904 it was partly demolished. fashionable with such productions as John
For the next 25 years, under the Melville Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which opened in
brothers, Walter and Frederick, it turned to 1920 to run for three and a half years and
music hall, lurid melodramas such as Walter’s 1463 performances. Claude Lovat Fraser’s
The Bad Girl of the Family (1909), and a romantic stage designs for the Lyric initiated a
spectacular annual pantomime. When the new trend in the 1920s. Playfair also revived
Lyceum was scheduled for demolition in 1939, two plays in which Edith Evans enjoyed major
John Gielgud gave six performances of Hamlet triumphs; Congreve’s The Way of the World
there as a farewell. Ironically, the venue was (1924), in which she played Millamant, and
saved by the start of World War II; it stood Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem (1927), in
empty until 1945, when it became a dance which she played Mrs Sullen. Ellen Terry
hall. After extensive refurbishment it reopened made her final stage appearance here in 1925,
as a theatre in 1996 with a revival of Jesus as a ghost in Walter de la Mare’s Crossings.
Christ Superstar. The Disney musical The Lion After Fairplay left in 1933 the theatre
King has been running since 1999. again declined. It remained closed for some
(2) The name of two theatres in New time before Baxter Somerville took it over in
York. The first was a small venue on 4th 1944. He subsequently revitalized it with
Avenue opened in 1885 by Steele MACKAYE, productions by John Mortimer, Harold Pinter,
who established the city’s first school of acting and others. In 1946 Alec Guinness appeared in
there. The opening play, Mackaye’s Dakolar, his own adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The
proved so unpopular that he gave up the Brothers Karamazov, directed by Peter Brook,
management shortly afterwards. Daniel and in 1953 John Gielgud led the cast in
Frohman and his brother Charles took it over Otway’s Venice Preserved. Within three years of
and ran a successful stock company from the Somerville’s death in 1963, however, the Lyric
premises. The theatre itself was demolished in again closed.
1902. In 1979 a new Lyric Theatre seating 537
A second Lyceum, on West 45th Street was built on King Street using the original
and Broadway, was opened by Frohman the Victorian plasterwork. The opening
following year. J. M. Barrie’s comedy The production was Shaw’s You Never Can Tell.
Admirable Crichton had its US premiere there, The building also houses the smaller Lyric
304 Lysistrata

Studio Theatre, seating about 100. In recent once considered too indecent for public
decades work for and involving children has performance, the play has been frequently
played a major part in the Lyric’s programme. revived in the last 40 years. The growth of
(2) The oldest surviving theatre on women’s peace movements in the 1980s also
London’s Shaftesbury Avenue (the original gave the work a renewed topical relevance and
SHAFTESBURY THEATRE having been destroyed there have been several modern adaptations.
by bombing in 1941). Seating 948, the Lyric
opened in 1888 with Marie Tempest in the Lyubimov, Yuri (1917– )
comic opera Dorothy. This work had proved Controversial Russian director who is best
unsuccessful at two other theatres but after known for his long association with the
some judicious changes made a profit of some Moscow Theatre of Drama and Comedy (see
£100,000. The theatre continued to specialize TAGANKA THEATRE). He was appointed head of
in comic operas for several years. the then largely moribund Taganka in 1964.
The great Eleonora Duse made her first Despite mounting several experimental
London appearance at the Lyric in 1892, in productions that incurred the displeasure of
The Lady of the Camellias. US stars to appear the authorities, in 1977 he was given
included Tallulah Bankhead in Let Us Be Gay permission to take the company on foreign
(1929) and Alfred Lunt and his wife Lynn tours and to direct in Western Europe. During
Fontanne in Reunion in Vienna (1934) and one foreign visit in 1984, however, Lyubimov
Terence Rattigan’s Love-in-Idleness (1944). strongly condemned Soviet restrictions on the
Other successful productions included The arts, an action that led the authorities to strip
Little Hut (1950), starring Robert Morley, him firstly of his position at the Taganka and
which ran for 1261 performances, Alan then of his citizenship.
Bennett’s Habeas Corpus (1973), with Alec Lyubimov subsequently directed in Europe
Guinness, and the National Theatre and America, receiving particularly high
company’s staging of Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of acclaim for his adaptations of Dostoyevsky’s
Disapproval (1986). In 1990 it staged the Crime and Punishment and The Possessed, the
musical Five Guys Named Moe, which won a latter being presented in 1985 at the THÉÂTRE
Laurence Olivier Award and ran for over five DE L’EUROPE in Paris. Lyubimov’s citizenship
years. Recent productions have included the was restored during the era of glasnost and in
powerful Festen (2004), revivals of Death of a 1989 he was reappointed to his old position at
Salesman (2005) and Cabaret (2006), and the the Taganka, where he presented a revival of
Michael Jackson-inspired musical Thriller–Live Boris Mozhaev’s banned play Alive (1968),
(2009).
which exposes the bureaucratic mistakes of the
Lysistrata A bawdy comedy by 1930s. Subsequently, however, there was a
ARISTOPHANES, first performed in 411 BC in bitter rift in the company that led to the
Athens. In the play the women of Athens, setting up of a rival Taganka troupe and a
disgusted with the long-drawn-out war with protracted legal battle over the ownership of
Sparta, seize the Acropolis and the treasury at the theatre. After several years of deadlock
Lysistrata’s instigation and refuse to sleep with Lyubimov emerged victorious and reclaimed
their men until peace is made. The theme was the Taganka; in 2002 an acclaimed production
apparently suggested by the contemporary of Eugene Onegin was staged there to celebrate
Athenian military disasters in Sicily. Although his 85th birthday.
 Macbeth 305

Despite suffering the tortures of a guilty

M conscience, Macbeth finds himself committing

further crimes to consolidate his power,
including the murder of the entire family of
the nobleman Macduff. Lady Macbeth,
Maach A musical folk theatre of central engulfed by madness, commits suicide; finally
India performed in the villages of Madhya Macduff returns from England to kill Macbeth
Pradesh; it originated in 17th-century in battle (see BIRNAM WOOD).
Rajasthan, where it formed part of the spring The play has always been one of
celebration of Holi. The plays have complex Shakespeare’s most popular works and the
plots and are usually based on social, religious, prized roles of Macbeth and his Lady have
or historical themes. Men traditionally play all been the making of many careers. It has also
the roles, although women are now sometimes seen some disastrous performances. Ralph
seen. Richardson’s 1952 Macbeth was so ill-received
Performances take place in an open space that he was able to threaten an actor who
on a three-foot-high stage, which has a border hesitated to lend him money, “I’ll have it put
across the front to block off the view of the about that you were in my Macbeth. ” In 1980
actors’ feet. The all-night performances begin Peter O’Toole’s bombastic performance at the
with a ceremony of blessing, which is danced Old Vic had some members of the audience
as a summons to the villagers. This is followed helpless with laughter.
by an overture in dance and song and then by The play has spawned numerous
the main Maach drama. adaptations. In the late 17th century William
Macaire, Robert The comic villain DAVENANT introduced dancing, singing, and
created by FRÉDÉRICK in L’Auberge des Adrets flying witches. Other versions include Verdi’s
(1823) and his own sequel Robert Macaire opera Macbetto (1847), Orson Welles’s sombre
(1834). The first of these was intended as a film (1948), and the off-Broadway MacBird
perfectly straight piece of melodrama but (1967), an attack on Lyndon Johnson that
Frédérick’s outrageous performance as Macaire begins with the assassination of J. F. Kennedy.
turned it into a hilarious send-up of the genre Shakespeare’s character bears only a loose
that played to packed houses. The raggedly resemblance to the historical Scottish king.
dressed but smooth-talking Macaire has been According to Holinshed’s Chronicle of Scottish
described as: History, which Shakespeare consulted, Duncan
the epitome of depravity, of effrontery, (1001–40) was a highly ineffective ruler and
of audacious cheek, the bragging hero his murder was carried out by several nobles,
of theft and murder. not by Macbeth alone. The historical Macbeth
– who had a fairly good claim to the throne –
The character achieved an enormous popular
ruled well for 17 years (1040–57) before
success and appeared in numerous cartoons
eventually being killed in battle against
and caricatures of the time (including over 100
Duncan’s son. Shakespeare clearly drew on
by Alphonse Daumier). Historians have seen
other incidents in Holinshed for his characters
the cult of Macaire as a contributory factor in
and plot; amongst these were the murder of
the revolution that deposed King Louis-
King Duff by his trusted lieutenant and host
Philippe in 1848.
Donwald, who was encouraged by his wife.
Macbeth SHAKESPEARE’s tragedy about the The supposed line of descent from Banquo to
corrupting effect of ambition, written in James I may have prompted Shakespeare to
1603–06; the first recorded performance was portray that character as wholly innocent of
in 1611. At this time Shakespeare’s company Duncan’s murder, whereas in Holinshed his
sought the patronage of James I and this seems role is far more ambiguous.
to have prompted them to choose a theme that Macbeth’s ghost is said to haunt Glamis
flattered his descent from the Scottish kings Castle, lamenting Duncan’s death; his body
and catered to his interest in witchcraft. lies on Iona – the traditional burial-place of
In the play Macbeth encounters three Scottish kings. According to long-established
witches, who prophesy that he will become theatrical belief, Macbeth is the unluckiest
king. Inspired by this, Macbeth and his wife play in the repertory and should never be
murder King Duncan and seize the throne. mentioned by name (see SCOTTISH PLAY).
306 Maccus

Maccus In the Roman theatre of the he announced his intention to write no more
1st century BC, a stock clown character of plays “until I’ve lived a little more … and I
the ATELLANA. He often appeared as a have more to say that I haven’t said already”.
stupid peasant in the farces of Novius and He then spent several years working in the
Pomponius. cinema before returning to the stage with the
US-set A Behanding in Spokane, which opened
McDonagh, Martin (1970– ) Irish on Broadway in 2010.
playwright and film-maker, whose works blend
melodrama, lyricism, and black comedy. The McGuinness, Frank (1953– ) Irish
son of a construction worker, McDonagh was playwright. Born into a hard-up family in a
born and brought up in South London but remote part of Co. Donegal, McGuinness
spent regular childhood holidays in Galway, earned a place at University College, Dublin
where most of his plays are set: he later recalled and thereafter followed an academic career.
“the lunar quality, the remoteness, the In 1981 he applied to join a course on
wildness” of the area. Determined to become a playwriting that required him to have a
writer, he left school at 16 and spent years on finished script: when he was unexpectedly
the dole or in routine jobs while attempting to accepted, he was obliged to write The Factory
write plays and film scripts. Girls in five days flat. The play, which is based
Remarkably, the six plays that would make on his mother’s experiences working in a shirt
his name were all drafted in one furious burst factory, was staged by the Abbey Theatre in
of activity in 1994. The first of these to be 1982. Three years later the Abbey produced
staged, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, was the play that would make his name, Observe
premiered by Galway’s Druid Theatre in 1996 the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
and seen at the Royal Court a few months (1985). This groundbreaking work uses the
later. This tense, poignant tale of a middle- experiences of eight Protestant volunteers to
aged spinster and her manipulative mother highlight the role played by the Ulster
earned rave reviews and went on to find Regiment in World War I – an episode more
success on Broadway. McDonagh’s so-called or less expunged from nationalist versions
‘Leenane trilogy’ was completed by A Skull in of Irish history. The play was also one of
Connemara and The Lonesome Road, both of the first Irish dramas to deal openly with
which received Druid-Royal Court co- homosexuality. Gay relationships are also at
productions in 1997. While the plays’ rich use the core of Innocence (1986), a play about the
of Galway speech rhythms brought inevitable painter Caravaggio that provoked noisy
comparisons with SYNGE, others noted the walkouts when it was seen at Dublin’s Gate
influence of horror movies and TV soaps. Theatre, and Gates of Gold (2002), which was
With the debut of another play, The Cripple of based on the long love affair between the two
Inishmaan, at the Royal National Theatre in founders of that theatre (Hilton Edwards and
1997, McDonagh achieved the unique feat of Micheál MacLiammóir).
having four new plays staged in the West End In the 1990s McGuinness enjoyed his
during a single season. By contrast, four years greatest commercial success with Someone
would pass before he found a company willing Who’ll Watch Over Me, a tragicomedy about
to produce The Lieutenant of Inishmore, a three Westerners – an Englishman, an
grotesque and in places stomach-churningly Irishman, and a Black American – who are
violent satire on militant Republicanism. held hostage by Arab captors in Lebanon. The
When the play was repeatedly rejected, play, which was inspired by conversations with
McDonagh stated that he would submit no the former hostage Brian Keenan, opened at
new work until The Lieutenant was staged: the the Hampstead Theatre in 1991 before
RSC duly took up the gauntlet in 2001 and transferring to the West End and subsequently
was rewarded with a critical and popular to Broadway, where it ran for over five years
success. (1992–97). More recent plays have included
A departure from McDonagh’s familiar Mutabilitie (1997), which imagines a meeting
subject matter came with The Pillowman, a between Shakespeare and the poet Spenser
black comedy about a writer in an unnamed in 16th-century Ireland, Dolly West’s
police state: the play won a cluster of awards Kitchen (1999), a Chekhovian piece set in
when it was seen at the National in 2003 and McGuinness’s home town during World War
on Broadway a year later. After this, however, II, Speaking Like Magpies (2005), and Greta
 Mackintosh, Sir Cameron 307

Garbo Came to Donegal (2010). McGuinness is Seasons. He played for several years in the
also noted as a translator of works by other provinces before making his London debut
playwrights, notably Ibsen, Chekhov, Brecht, at the Duke of York’s Theatre in James
and Euripides. Saunders’s A Scent of Flowers (1964).
In the Irish theatre I am looked on as Following a season with the National Theatre
an old fellow. But I’m still a bad in 1965, McKellen came to critical notice with
bollocks, you know; I’m not entirely his performance in A Lily in Little India
respectable. I still have the flaming red (1966). His reputation as an actor of rare
hair. subtlety and intelligence was firmly established
FRANK MCGUINNESS
with his portrayals of Shakespeare’s Richard II
(1968) and Marlowe’s Edward II (1969) with
machine play A type of dramatic the Prospect Theatre Company.
spectacle in 17th-century France that In 1972 McKellen helped to found the
depended on new scene-changing equipment Actors’ Company, an actors’ cooperative. Two
and other mechanical devices. Corneille years later he joined the Royal Shakespeare
pioneered the genre with his Andromède, Company where his roles included Dr Faustus
staged in 1650 at Molière’s Théâtre du Petit- (1974), Romeo (1976), and a much-praised
Bourbon. It was written in order to make full Macbeth to Judi Dench’s Lady Macbeth at
use of the elaborate Italian stage machinery The Other Place (1976). In 1979 McKellen
introduced to France by Giacomo TORELLI, the won a SWET award for his performance
stage designer known as the Great Magician. in Martin Sherman’s Bent, about two
His innovations included a revolving stage and homosexuals in a Nazi concentration camp.
the CARRIAGE-AND-FRAME SYSTEM for changing The following year he enjoyed a major success
scenery. The machine play peaked with in New York as Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s
Molière’s Amphitryon (1668) and Psyché Amadeus. In 1984 McKellen was appointed an
(1671). Torelli’s inventions were also associate director of the National Theatre; that
embraced by Jean-Baptiste Lully, the founder same year he appeared with the company in
of French opera. productions of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and
the Chekhov adaptation Wild Honey.
MacKaye, (James Morrison) Steele Subsequent performances have included Iago
(1842–94) US theatre designer, stage in Trevor Nunn’s Othello (1989), a modern-
innovator, playwright, and actor-manager who dress Richard III at the National Theatre
has been called both a Renaissance man and (1990; filmed 1996), Dr Stockman in Ibsen’s
“that strange genius”. An Enemy of the People (1997), Widow
MacKaye wrote some 30 plays and Twankey in the Old Vic’s Aladdin (2004), and
patented more than 100 theatrical inventions. Estragon in the West End revival of Waiting
He was the first US actor to play Hamlet in for Godot (2009: with Partick Stewart). In
London, doing so in 1873. In 1885 he built 2007 he returned to the Shakespearean stage
the LYCEUM THEATRE, New York and founded after a long absence to play the title role in
the Lyceum Theatre School of Acting, which King Lear; the RSC’s Stratford production
still exists today as the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF went on to enjoy successful runs in New York
DRAMATIC ARTS. and London. McKellen is now known to a
His contributions to internal theatre design much wider audience through his role as
include being the first to use overhead lighting Gandalf in the film trilogy The Lord of the
(1874), inventing folding theatre seats, and Rings (2001–03).
introducing the first moving ‘double stage’ In the mid 1980s McKellen, a homosexual,
(1879). He supposedly died from overwork emerged as a prominent spokesman for gay
and disappointment after planning a vast rights.
theatre, the SPECTATORIUM, which was never
built. Mackintosh, Sir Cameron (1946– )
British producer and theatre owner, whose hit
McKellen, Sir Ian (Murray) musicals have made him one of the most
(1939– ) British actor, noted especially for successful impresarios in history. The son of a
his Shakespearean roles. McKellen made his Scottish father and a French-Maltese mother,
first appearance in a 1961 Belgrade Theatre Mackintosh resolved to become a producer of
production of Robert BOLT’s A Man for All stage musicals when he was taken to see Salad
308 Macklin, Charles

Days at the age of eight. He began his career in arguing over a wig. After stabbing the actor,
the theatre as a stage hand at Drury Lane and one Hallam, through the eye with a stick in a
produced his first musicals when barely out of fit of anger, Macklin attempted to help matters
his teens. Although he found some success by urinating on the wounded area. At his trial
with the revue Side by Side by Sondheim (1976) for murder he conducted his own defence and
and a revival of Oliver! (1977), his first major had the charge reduced to manslaughter.
triumph came in 1981, when he collaborated Instead of going to jail, he was branded on the
with the RSC’s Trevor NUNN on the staging of hand and paid compensation to the dead
LLOYD WEBBER’s CATS. The show ran for man’s family.
exactly 21 years in the West End and has Macklin made his last appearance playing
now been seen by some 50 million people Shylock at the age of 89. Becoming confused
worldwide (as one journalist has remarked, in the second act, he told the audience he was
Mackintosh’s shows have a tendency “to send “seized with terror of mind” and begged their
you out humming the statistics”). Further patience, adding:
money-spinning collaborations with Nunn Should it be granted…you may
followed in the form of LES MISÉRABLES (1985), depend upon it this will be the last
which would eventually surpass Cats as night of my ever appearing before you
Britain’s longest-running musical, and the in so ridiculous a situation.
National Theatre’s My Fair Lady (2000) and
Oklahoma! (2002). After almost 25 years Lloyd Macklin also wrote several plays, including
Webber’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1986) Love à la Mode (1759) and The Man of the
is still running in the West End, where it was World (1781), a work that was initially refused
joined by Richard Eyre’s £9 million realization a licence owing to its mockery of the Scots.
of Mary Poppins in 2005. Miss Saigon, by the McPherson, Conor (1953– ) Irish
composer and lyricist behind ‘Les Mis’, ran for playwright, director, and film-maker. A
a comparatively fleeting ten years (1989–99). Dubliner, McPherson was educated at
In 2000 Mackintosh suffered a rare flop with Catholic schools and at University College. In
The Witches of Eastwick. 1992 he was a founder of Dublin’s Fly By
Since the early 1990s Mackintosh has Night Theatre Company, which produced a
invested much of his vast wealth (he is said to number of his early plays, including Rum and
be worth some £400 million) in London’s Vodka (1994) and This Lime Tree Bower
theatrical heritage. He currently owns seven of (1995). The latter, which takes the form of
the historic West End theatres: the Prince interweaving monologues by three young
Edward, the Prince of Wales, the Novello ne’er-do-wells, impressed the critics when it
(formerly the Strand), the Queen’s, the transferred to London’s Bush Theatre in 1996.
Gielgud (formerly the Globe), Wyndham’s, It was the promise shown by this play that led
and the Nöel Coward (formerly the Albery). the Royal Court to commission McPherson’s
From 2004 he embarked on the remarkable
THE WEIR (1997), the spellbinding work that
project of refurbishing these theatres from top
would establish his international reputation at
to bottom using some £35 million of his own
the age of 25. The play, which again makes
money – a proposition that has been compared
extensive use of monologue, this time in the
to “throwing sacks of tenners from the balcony
form of pub storytelling, ran for three years in
of the Ritz”. At around the same time he
the West End and was also a big success on
unveiled a still more audacious plan: to join
Broadway: it is now regarded as a modern
the Queen’s to its neighbour, the Gielgud, and
classic. The drink-sodden ambience of these
to build a new 500-seat theatre, to be named
plays also permeates the more downbeat
the Sondheim, on the roof. This will be the
first purpose-built theatre in the West End for Dublin Carol (1999), a play that reflects
70 years. McPherson’s own problems with alcoholism,
and Port Authority (2001). It was on the
Macklin, Charles (Charles McLaughlin; opening night of the latter that McPherson
c. 1700–97) British tragic actor and collapsed with a ruptured pancreas and almost
playwright, who was the first to play SHYLOCK died, thus bringing the first phase of his career
in The Merchant of Venice as a tragic rather to a close. When he returned it was with the
than a comic role. Unfortunately, he is mainly highly praised Shining City (2004), a tale of
remembered for killing another actor while guilt and retribution set in the rooms of a
 Madwoman of Chaillot, The 309

troubled psychotherapist that shows a new a £5 note. See also ASTOR PLACE RIOT; BUNN,
finesse with dialogue as well as monologue. ALFRED ‘POET’; KING LEAR.
Rave reviews also greeted The Seafarer, which
McPherson himself directed at the National Madame Sans-Gêne A historical play
Theatre in 2006; the play, a dark fable in by Victorien SARDOU and Émile Moreau, first
which a group of drunken poker players is performed in 1893 in Paris. Madame Sans-
infiltrated by a sinister stranger, subsequently Gêne (‘without constraint’ or ‘free and easy’)
ran on Broadway and at Dublin’s Abbey was the nickname of the wife of Lefebvre
Theatre. In recent years he has worked (1755–1820), one of Napoleon’s marshals. She
increasingly in the cinema, writing and was originally a washerwoman and followed
directing The Actors (2003) and The Eclipse her husband – then in the ranks – as a
(2009). His most recent work for the stage is victualler. She was kind and pleasant but her
an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s The rough and ready ways and ignorance of
Birds (2009), characterized by one reviewer as etiquette made her the butt of Napoleon’s
“a combination of Waiting for Godot and court and earned her the nickname.
Jagged Edge”. RÉJANE created the role and Sarah
BERNHARDT later played it with great success.
Macready, William (1793–1873) Ellen TERRY, however, had great difficulty
British actor-manager. Known as the eminent
learning the lines. On opening night, the
tragedian, Macready was the chief rival of
director, Henry Irving, concealed prompters in
KEAN in the early 19th century.
every nook and cranny of the stage, including
Born in London of theatrical parents, he
the fireplace. Whenever Terry hesitated,
never wanted to be in the profession and never
unintelligible voices would come at her from
ceased to dislike it. When his father was
imprisoned for debt, he was called in to all directions. Finally, in utter despair, she
manage the family’s stock company, making clapped her hands and shouted, “Will nobody
his acting debut in 1810 as Romeo. From give me the word?”
1816 he appeared at Covent Garden, where he Maddermarket Theatre See LITTLE
enjoyed a huge success in Virginias (1820), a THEATRES.
now forgotten drama by John Sheridan
Knowles. Macready took over the management Madwoman of Chaillot, The A
of Covent Garden in 1837 and of Drury Lane comedy by Jean GIRAUDOUX, first produced in
in 1841. He improved standards at both, Paris in 1945, the year after his death. It was
restoring many of Shakespeare’s original texts an overnight success and (in an adaptation by
and insisting on thorough rehearsals. Maurice Valency) went on to open in New
An intensely emotional performer, he was York in 1948 starring Martita Hunt. The
often criticized for his exaggerated gestures and performance of the Austrian Elisabeth
to cure this tendency sometimes rehearsed with BERGNER in a 1967 revival led one critic to
his arms tied down with string. He could also write:
use silence to great effect; the term Macready It takes a few minutes to adjust to the
pause is still used of a long significant pause. fact that her Madwoman isn’t the huge
When he performed in Paris in 1828, La painted crone Martita Hunt created, a
Réunion expressed amazement at the histrionic
few more to get used to her accent.
powers of “a man to whom nature has refused
everything – voice, carriage, and face.” An unsuccessful musical version, Dear World,
Macready undoubtedly had an obsessive, opened in 1969 on Broadway.
violent streak. One night when playing Giraudoux’s play is an early appeal for
Macbeth in Manchester he was waiting in the ecological awareness. A group of eccentrics, led
wings for the imitation blood (cochineal) to by the Ragpicker, approaches the madwoman,
smear on his hands. When it was not delivered Countess Aurelia, to ask for her help,
and the moment for his entrance grew near, he explaining that the world is being ‘pimped’ by
walked over to a salesman whom the stage- greedy capitalists who now wish to destroy
manager had allowed backstage, struck the Paris by searching for oil. The Countess agrees
man violently on the nose, and rubbed his to help and lures the capitalists to the cellar of
hands in the blood. After the play, he her house. Led on by promises of untold
apologized for his ‘rudeness’ and gave the man wealth, they happily troop off down a tunnel
310 Maeterlinck, Maurice

that leads only to death. Countess Aurelia then of-hand, in which a ball would appear to jump
closes the great stone door. from beneath one cup to another. Isaac Fawkes
(c. 1675–1731) and Christopher Pinchbeck
Maeterlinck, Maurice (1862–1949) (1670–1732) were early performers at
Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist, London’s Bartholomew and Southwark fairs.
who spent most of his life in France. A Magic shows began to be seen in the indoor
leading figure in the Symbolist movement, theatre in the mid-18th century, enabling
Maeterlinck was awarded the Nobel Prize for magicians to use more complicated equipment.
literature in 1911. The Scotsman ‘Professor’ J. H. Anderson
Maeterlinck’s early dramas, La Princesse (1814–74) was the first to employ concerted
Maleine (1889) and Les Aveugles (1890), reflect advertising, billing himself as “the Great
the interest in mysticism that is characteristic Wizard of the North”.
of almost all his work. International Until the 19th century magicians wore
recognition came with PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE flowing robes as if practising witchcraft; the
(1892), first produced in Paris at the Théâtre first to appear as drawing-room entertainers
de l’Oeuvre by the director Aurélian Lugné- in evening dress were Wiljalaba Frikell
Poë. With its dream-like action, enigmatic (1816–1903) and Robert-Houdin (Jean
characters, and doom-laden atmosphere, the Eugène Robert; 1805–71). Music hall magic
play is the epitome of Symbolist drama. It acts tended to specialize in tricks involving
opened in London in 1893 with Mrs Patrick spectacular effects. On occasions this proved
CAMPBELL in the role of Mélisande. The
dangerous, as when Chung Ling Soo (William
children’s fantasy L’Oiseau bleu, first Ellsworth Robinson; 1861–1918) was killed
performed in 1908 by the MOSCOW ART during a catch-the-bullet performance.
THEATRE, also proved extremely popular
Harry Kellar (1849–1922) was the first
during Maeterlinck’s lifetime (a film version magician to gain fame in America, while Harry
starring Shirley Temple being made in 1940). HOUDINI, the illusionist and escapologist,
However, its allegorical treatment of the search attained almost legendary status. Other 20th-
for happiness in the world now appears century stage magicians have included Harry
somewhat glib. The patriotic play Le Blackstone (1885–1959), the first to saw a
Bourgmestre de Stilmonde (1918) was once woman in half. Magic has now found a wider
highly regarded, as were Maeterlinck’s audience through television, while more avant-
philosophical writings on themes from natural garde acts thrive in cabaret.
history, which are now largely forgotten. Magic of the supernatural kind features in
Although Maeterlinck’s reputation has suffered the plots of innumerable plays, some of which
with the passage of time, no other Belgian require illusionistic effects in their staging. The
dramatist has made such an impact upon the techniques used by magicians and creators of
development of world drama. stage illusions have often coincided. The
maggio (Italian: May) In early Italian Elizabethan magus Dr John Dee (1527–1608)
theatre, a type of spectacular entertainment first acquired a reputation for magical powers
that involved the staging of historical battles, through the stage effects he employed in a
natural disasters, and other sensational production of Aristophanes’s The Peace at
happenings. No works of this kind are now Trinity College, Cambridge. In the 17th
extant. Similar entertainments were staged by century the designer Giacomo Torelli became
the late Roman emperors and it is thought known as the GREAT MAGICIAN for his use of
these may have influenced the genre. The plays elaborate stage machinery. Traditional devices
were so called because they were staged for creating the ‘magic of the theatre’ include
annually in May. trapdoors, harnesses for ‘flying’, hidden
entrances and exits, etc., – all aided, of course,
magic A form of entertainment found in by the audience’s willingness to suspend its
many cultures throughout history. It features disbelief. More unusual effects include
a performer who appears to accomplish PEPPER’S GHOST, which uses a hidden mirror to
impossible feats. reflect an apparition onto the stage. Albert A.
From the Middle Ages onward the Hopkins described many 19th-century stage
fairground booth provided a venue for simple tricks in Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific
tricks, such as the classic cup-and-balls sleight- Diversions (1897).
 make-up 311

In recent decades technological Maid Marian remains a familiar character

developments such as computers, lasers, and from the numerous PANTOMIMEs, films, and
holography have created a new arena of TV shows. based on the Robin Hood story.
illusion for writers and directors. The tradition identifying her as a high-born
lady of the court can be traced back to
Magistrate, The A play by A. W. PINERO Anthony Munday’s Elizabethan play The
that made his name when it opened in London Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington (1598).
in 1885. It was the first of three farces by
Pinero staged at the old ROYAL COURT Maids, The An early play by Jean GENET,
THEATRE before its closure in 1887. first seen in 1947 in Paris in a production by
The plot centres upon the friendly but Louis Jouvet (1887–1951). The plot concerns
incompetent magistrate, Mr Posket, whose two despised servants, the sisters Solange and
disreputable stepson Cis lures him into a night Claire, who take it in turns to impersonate
of illegal drinking at the Hotel des Princes. A their mistress in a dangerous sadomasochistic
police raid results in the arrest of everyone game. The play, which was inspired by a real-
except Posket and Cis, who escape. The next life murder case of the 1930s, exemplifies
morning the magistrate has to sentence his Genet’s theory of drama as a masquerade, in
drinking companions, including his own wife, which characters enact their secret desires and
to seven days in prison. Posket’s coat, left both actors and spectators put aside their usual
behind during the raid, is subsequently traced assumptions about good and evil. In 1965
to him. Before he too faces a magistrate, he the LIVING THEATRE mounted a celebrated
gives Cis £1000 to emigrate to Canada. off-Broadway production in which the
characters were all played by men (as Genet
Mahabharata One of the two great epic had originally intended). The first British
poems of ancient India, the other being the production, at London’s Greenwich Theatre in
Ramayana. Its main story is the war between 1970, starred Glenda Jackson and Susannah
the Kauravas (descendants of Dhritarashtra) York.
and the Pandavas (descendants of Pandu), but
there are innumerable episodes. It contains the Major Barbara A play by George
Bhagavad-Gita and provides the stories for Bernard SHAW, first performed at the Royal
many Indian theatrical genres, including Court Theatre in 1905. In a 1956 revival at
KATHAKALI. the Martin Beck Theatre, New York, Charles
The Mahabharata is mainly known to Laughton both directed and played the role of
Western audiences through Peter BROOK’s Andrew Undershaft.
nine-hour stage adaptation, first presented in a The story involves a rich munitions
quarry near Avignon in 1985. The production, manufacturer, Andrew Undershaft, his
which subsequently toured internationally, daughter Barbara, a major in the Salvation
drew eclectically on Western, Indian, and Army, and her fiancé, Professor Adolphus
other theatrical traditions. The economy and Cusins. Undershaft visits the Army’s shelter
craftsmanship of the staging prompted critical and offers a large donation, but Barbara
superlatives. The multiracial cast, assembled shudders at the thought of accepting money
under the auspices of Brook’s INTERNATIONAL from arms sales. Later, however, she and her
CENTRE FOR THEATRE RESEARCH, had spent a husband visit Undershaft’s factory and find
month together in India before the first that he has built a model town to provide for
performance. all his workers’ needs. After Undershaft
delivers an eloquent defence of his trade
Maid Marian Originally, a character in Professor Cusins joins his staff while Barbara
the old MAY DAY games and MORRIS DANCEs, sets out on a new mission to convert the rich.
often identified as the Queen of the May. For many, the character of Barbara Undershaft
From the late 16th century she became ranks only behind Saint Joan as Shaw’s most
attached to the Robin Hood legend as the inspirational heroine.
outlaw’s beloved, probably through the
performance of ROBIN HOOD PLAYS at May make-up The use of cosmetics, false hair
Day festivities. The part of Maid Marian, both and, more recently, prosthetics to suit the
in the games and the dance, was played by a appearance of an actor to the character he or
man in female costume. she plays.
312 Malade imaginaire, Le

Make-up has been widely used in the his bowels. His doctor and pharmacist are
theatre since the decline of the MASK. In the happy to supply pills and purgatives. Argan
medieval European theatre it was common for wants his daughter, Angélique, to marry a
the actor’s face to be painted in one symbolic doctor, and her fiancé agrees to take up the
colour: gold for God, red for seraphs, black for profession to win his approval. Finally,
the damned, etc. By contrast, the elaborate however, Argan’s brother persuades the
facial make-up of the oriental theatre (or of the hypochondriac to become a doctor himself.
European CLOWN) involves the painstaking use One of the least successful revivals of the
of many colours to create a stylized face. play was that given in London by Elisabeth
The practice of using cosmetics to enhance BERGNER and A. E. Matthews in 1951. The
rather than to alter the appearance of actors British press was particularly hostile to Bergner
seems to date from the 16th century. This for deserting London during the war and she
kind of naturalistic make-up became more seems to have reacted by taking out her
important with the introduction of larger frustrations on her fellow actor. As John
auditoriums and new forms of theatrical Gielgud recalled, “She had some fun in trying
lighting that rendered the performer’s face pale to upstage the redoubtable old warhorse A. E.
and indistinct without make-up. Matthews, who was far too experienced a
The make-up of the 16th and 17th performer to let her get away with it.”
centuries seems to have been rather crude, with
reddened noses for drunkards and charcoal Malaprop, Mrs A character in
used to darken the skin for Black characters. In SHERIDAN’s play The Rivals (1774). Named
the 18th century David Garrick developed from the French mal à propos, meaning not to
more naturalistic techniques and was much the purpose, she is famous for her comical
acclaimed for his use of cosmetics to convey misuse of language:
age. If I reprehend anything in this world,
Early theatrical make-up usually consisted it is the use of my oracular tongue and
of a powder base mixed with water and some a nice derangement of epitaphs.
kind of grease. Often the white paint used for Celebrated malapropisms, as they came to
clowns, ghosts, or ladies of fashion was lead- be called, include:
based and dangerous as the poison could be
absorbed through the skin. It was not until the Illiterate him, I say, quite from your
mid 19th century that modern greasepaint was memory!
invented by Ludwig Leichner, an opera singer. He is the very pineapple of politeness
The pre-mixed cosmetics supplied in stick and the famous solecism:
form and numbered by shade were easier and
as headstrong as an allegory on the
more accurate to use and the colours long-
banks of the Nile.
lasting.
In recent years developments in plastics She may have been suggested by a similar
have allowed exotic prosthetic effects to be character in Henry Fielding’s novel Joseph
created. Although these have usually been Andrews (1742), a gentlewoman called Mrs
developed for the cinema they are now Slipslop, who is described as a “mighty affecter
used more widely in the theatre. However, of hard words”, or possibly by Mrs Heidelberg
such pieces are expensive to produce and in Colman and Garrick’s The Clandestine
uncomfortable to wear, as they are usually Marriage (1766). Both characters hark back to
glued to the actor’s skin. an equally ponderous figure DOGBERRY, the
Constable of the Watch in Shakespeare’s Much
Malade imaginaire, Le (The Ado About Nothing (c. 1598).
Hypochondriac) The last play by MOLIÈRE, who
collapsed and died after his fourth performance Malcontent, The A tragicomedy by John
in the title role at the Théâtre du Palais- MARSTON, often considered his best work.
Royal in 1673. His wife, Armande Béjart Written in about 1602 for the CHILDREN OF
(1641–1700), played the role of his daughter, THE CHAPEL, it was slightly expanded for
Angélique. its performance by the King’s Men (see
The play revolves around the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN) in 1604: the additional
hypochondriac Argan and his obsessive belief material includes an induction by John
that there is something seriously wrong with Webster.
 Maly Theatre 313

In both its plot and its preoccupation with for drama, it quickly found acclaim for its
corruption in high places the play has strong productions of the classics, notably
affinities with Shakespeare’s MEASURE FOR Shakespeare, and of works by contemporary
MEASURE, also performed in 1604. The story Russian dramatists, such as Gogol’s The
centres on Altofronto, the banished Duke of Government Inspector. Between 1854 and 1885
Genoa, who disguises himself as the the Maly became particularly associated with
malcontent Malevole in order to warn his the works of Alexander OSTROVSKY, which
successor, Pietry, that his wife Aurelia is achieved enormous popular success. Despite
deceiving him. Altofronto also spies on the evil the personal hostility of Lenin, the theatre
Mendoza as he plots to supplant Pietry, banish survived the revolution and the transition to
Aurelia, and even to marry Altofronto’s own communism; in 1926 it premiered the Civil
wife, Maria. The banished duke finally reveals War epic Lyubov Yarovaya by Konstantin
himself to the sorrowful and repentant Pietry Trenev (1884–1945). It continues to be one of
and together they triumph over Mendoza. Moscow’s leading theatres for drama.
(2) A small theatre in St Petersburg, whose
Malvern Festival A theatre festival company has found extraordinary international
founded in 1929 at Malvern (now in Hereford acclaim since the 1980s; Peter Brook described
and Worcester) by the British theatre manager the Maly as “the finest theatre ensemble in
and director Sir Barry Jackson (1879–1961). A Europe”, while the Financial Times saluted
number of Shaw’s later plays, such as The “the greatest acting in the world”. The
Apple Cart (1929), received their first British company was founded, by official decree, in
performance at the Malvern Festival. New the immediate aftermath of the siege of
plays by J. B. Priestley, James Bridie, and other Leningrad (1941–44). Initially, it had no
contemporary writers were also produced. In theatre of its own in the city and performed
1939 the festival was discontinued; it enjoyed a mainly in the surrounding towns and villages.
brief re-vival in 1949 and was re-established in The company achieved little distinction before
1977 as a festival of drama and music, giving 1973, when Efim Padve became its artistic
special prominence to the works of Shaw and director and began to recruit a new generation
Sir Edward Elgar, who is buried at Malvern. of actors and directors. Among the latter was
Malvolio The pompous and puritanical Lev Dodin (1944– ), whose name has now
steward in charge of the countess Olivia’s become virtually synonymous with the Maly.
household in Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT Dodin directed the company’s first landmark
(1601–02). He is said to have been based on production, Fedor Abramov’s The House, in
Sir William Knollys, First Earl of Banbury 1980; despite official disapproval, this
(1547–1632), who was treasurer of the royal panoramic view of post-war Soviet society
household of Elizabeth I. Stories were told of became a great popular success and established
him appearing in a nightshirt to reprimand the theatre’s national reputation. In 1983
carousing courtiers, and of his inappropriate Dodin assumed artistic control of the
passion for Mary Fitton, the queen’s maid of company, which has now developed a unique
honour (who some scholars have identified as ethos and methodology. This is based on the
Shakespeare’s ‘Dark Lady of the Sonnets’). idea of a large permanent ensemble, whose
Knollys eventually married a much younger members undergo continuous training and
woman; he died believing that his two sons help to develop new productions through a
were fathered by somebody else and left them process of in-depth research and rehearsal.
out of his will. Productions may take up to three years to
Memorable performances in the role prepare and tend to remain in the company’s
include those of Laurence Olivier (who, repertoire for decades. Maly trademarks
according to John Gielgud, played the part include simple but visually stunning sets (often
“like a Jewish hairdresser”), Donald Sinden, involving water), the integrated use of music
and the comedian Ken Dodd. and dance (all members are told to learn an
instrument), and considerable length (a 1991
Maly Theatre (1) The oldest surviving adaptation of The Devils lasted for some 10
theatre in Moscow. The Maly (meaning ‘little’) hours). The company made its first visit to the
opened in 1824 as the home for a company West in 1988, when it presented Alexander
founded in 1806. The city’s only state theatre Galin’s Stars in the Morning Sky to enraptured
314 Mamet, David

audiences in London and Glasgow. It has since Mamma Mia! The feel-good musical
performed widely in Europe, America, and built around the hits of Swedish supergroup
Australia, winning particular acclaim for Abba that has become an international
Dodin’s adaptations of Chekhov. phenomenon since it opened in 1999. The
brainchild of long-time Abba fan Judy
Mamet, David (1947– ) US playwright Craymer, it was scripted by Catherine Johnson
and screenwriter. Mamet’s principal theme and opened at the Prince Edward Theatre,
is the debasement of ordinary people by London, in a production by Phyllida Lloyd.
American materialism, or what Mamet Despite indifferent reviews, the show became a
calls “the American dream gone bad.” His massive word-of-mouth hit, transferred
characters, who are often trapped in successfully to Broadway, and has now been
stereotyped macho attitudes, seek power and seen by some 40 million people in over 150
money by bullying or manipulating others. cities. In March 2010 15 separate productions
Mamet is a master of naturalistic dialogue, were running worldwide. A successful film
capturing the speech patterns of his version, starring Meryl Streep, was released in
inarticulate characters with uncanny precision. 2008.
In rehearsals he has been known to use a The rather slight story is set on the small
metronome to make sure that the actors speak Greek island where Sophie lives with her
his dialogue with the correct rhythms and emancipated 40-something mother, Donna.
pauses. On the eve of her wedding, Sophie yearns to
In 1973 Mamet co-founded the St discover the identity of the father she has never
Nicholas Theatre Company in Chicago. His known, so that he can walk her up the aisle.
early successes included the comedy American Accordingly, she secretly invites three men
Buffalo (1975), about two second-rate crooks who bedded her mother some 20 years ago
who attempt to steal a coin collection. The back to the island. The songs (by Benny
original Greenwich Village Theatre production Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaes) provide a witty
starred Al Pacino and shocked audiences with and sometimes poignant commentary on the
its explicit dialogue. It was seen in London complications that follow.
three years later at the National Theatre. In terms of theatrical history, Mamma
Glengarry Glen Ross (1983; filmed 1992), Mia! is mainly notable for spawning a new
another hit, won the Pulitzer Prize with its genre of so-called jukebox musicals, in which
story of small-time real estate salesmen in cut- plot and character are created around a pre-
throat competition. Other plays by Mamet, all existing catalogue of hits. Shows to follow in
of which were first staged by the St Nicholas its now well-trodden footsteps include Ben
company, include Sexual Perversity in Chicago Elton’s We Will Rock You and Tonight’s the
(1974), A Life in the Theatre (1977), the Night, featuring the music of Queen and Rod
disturbing Edmond (1983), and Speed-the-Plow Stewart respectively, and musicals based on the
(1988). OLEANNA (1992), about a young songs of Billy Joel, UB40, Boney M, and
woman who ruins a man’s career by making a Michael Jackson amongst others.
false accusation of sexual harassment, bitterly Man and Superman George Bernard
divided audiences, critics, and commentators. SHAW’s comedy about the battle of the sexes.
Since the mid 1980s Mamet has become Written between 1901 and 1903, it was first
increasingly involved in work for the cinema. performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre in
As well as writing numerous screenplays, he 1905. The play, a paradoxical reworking of the
has directed the films House of Games (1986), DON JUAN theme, was a vehicle for Shaw’s
The Winslow Boy (1999), from the Rattigan notion of a ‘Life Force’ and for his view that in
play, and Heist (2000). Although he has sexual matters women are the hunters and men
sometimes adapted his own plays for the the hunted.
screen, Mamet claims to loathe this process, The play introduces the rich socialist Jack
commenting rather strangely that it is like Tanner, whose ward, Ann Whitfield, has made
raping your children to teach them about sex. up her mind to marry him. Frightened by her
More recent work for the stage includes Death predatory guile, Jack flees to Spain, where he is
Defying Acts (1996), Boston Marriage (1999), captured by philosophical brigands. After
the political farce November (2007), and Race awakening from a long dream he is rescued by
(2009). Ann and her friends, who have pursued him
 Man Is Man 315

from England. Although he continues to resist 1966 film version Scofield was joined by
Ann’s advances, he finally submits to her Wendy Hiller and Orson Welles.
vitality, claiming that he has been vanquished More had been described as “a man for
by the ‘Life Force’. all seasons” by his contemporary Robert
The dream fantasy ‘Don Juan in Hell’, Whittington. The phrase is now often used to
which occupies the whole of Act Three, is describe an adaptable and accomplished
often omitted or performed separately. In it, ‘Renaissance man’ who can be regarded as
Jack’s spiritual ancestor, Don Juan, joins the dependable in all situations.
Devil and others in metaphysical speculations
about life, death, and evolution. Don Juan man in grey See GHOSTS.
maintains that man’s self-consciousness is the Mani-Rimdu A Buddhist dance-drama
glory of the ‘Life Force’ and finally resolves to presented by monks for the Sherpa people of
leave the empty pleasures of hell for a duller Nepal. The form apparently originated in
but more satisfying existence in heaven. Tibet, the Sherpas’ ancient homeland. The
Manchester school A group of early plays extol the Buddhist faith and portray it as
20th-century dramatists associated with the superior to Nepal’s ancient Bon religion,
GAIETY THEATRE in Manchester. Notable which is frequently disparaged.
members of the Manchester school included Performances are staged in temple
Stanley Houghton (1881–1913), whose courtyards during major religious festivals and
controversial play HINDLE WAKES was first usually last for three days. The audience wear
performed at the Manchester Gaiety in 1912; their finest clothes; special guests join the
Harold Brighouse (1882–1958), author of the religious authorities in reserved seats.
comedy HOBSON’S CHOICE (1915); and Allan The festivities begin with a ceremony of
Monkhouse (1858–1936). The Gaiety Theatre ‘Life-Consecration’ featuring music played on
company, the first modern English repertory such unusual instruments as 10-foot-long brass
company, was founded in 1908 by Annie horns and trumpets made from human thigh
HORNIMAN; its first production was Allan bones. The second day’s performance is
Monkhouse’s Reaping the Whirlwind. divided into 13 segments of dance and comic
antics lasting about 20 minutes each. The
Mandelot, Antoine See BOBÈCHE AND monks wear large colourful masks to represent
GALIMAFRÉ. deities, mythological beings, and ordinary
mortals. When the day’s drama ends, the
Manducus In the Roman theatre of the
playgoers dance and sing folk songs for most of
first century BC, a stock character of the
the night. On the third day the chief abbot
ATELLANA. He was a clownish ogre with a large
oversees rituals performed to symbolize the
mouth and hooked nose, who shared some
destruction of evil forces.
characteristics with the character DOSSENUS.
Man Is Man A one-act comedy by Bertolt
manet See STAGE DIRECTION.
BRECHT, the first of his works to employ
Man for All Seasons, A Robert BOLT’s the controversial Verfremdungseffekt (see
play about the events that led to the execution ALIENATION EFFECT). The play, first produced
of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor to in 1926 in Dusseldorf, is a satire on military
Henry VIII, in 1535. It was first produced in valour. It has also been translated as A Man’s a
1960 at London’s Globe Theatre, with Paul Man and Man Equals Man.
Scofield in the lead. Bolt’s script emphasized The story is set in British India. Galy Gay,
the conflict between More’s duty to the king a porter, goes out to buy a flounder for lunch.
and the promptings of his conscience, which On the way he meets a British machine-gun
would not allow him to recognize the crew, one of whose members has gone missing;
annulment of Henry’s marriage or the Act of they persuade Gay to impersonate the man at
Supremacy. “He is more or less my ideal roll-call, promising to pay him for the
human being,” Bolt said. The play used the inconvenience. When the missing soldier fails
Brechtian device of having a choric narrator, to report later, the crew decide to replace him
‘The Common Man’. In 1961 Scofield made permanently with Gay. Accordingly they trick
his Broadway debut in the role, winning a Gay into making a fraudulent sale, arrest him,
Tony as Best Actor. In Fred Zinnermann’s and only agree to forego his execution if he
316 Man of Mode, The

will assume the other man’s identity. He agrees continued until the casino altered the wheel.
and the crew is sent to quell an uprising on the The second candidate is Charles Wells, a
Tibetan border, where Gay, outshining the convicted fraudster who won a million francs
professional soldiers, becomes a hero. over three days in 1891. Although he claimed
to have a secret system, it seems that his
Man of Mode, The The last comedy by winnings – all of which he subsequently lost –
Sir George ETHEREGE (1634–91), usually were due to simple luck.
considered his best work. It was first
performed at court in 1676 with the subtitle Man Who Came to Dinner, The A
Sir Fopling Flutter. Much influenced by comedy by George S. KAUFMAN and Moss
MOLIÈRE, the play set a new standard for the HART, first performed in 1939 in New York.
English COMEDY OF MANNERS. The lively The play features a character based on the US
characters include Sir Fopling Flutter, the playwright and theatre critic, Alexander
‘prince of fops’, the witty Dorimant, a WOOLLCOTT, who had previously collaborated
character based in part on the Earl of with Kaufman and Hart on two plays.
Rochester, and the scheming lover Bellair, a Although it gives a highly unflattering portrait,
self-portrait of Etherege. Woollcott later appeared in the role with a
Some 35 years later both play and author touring company. When the play ran in
were attacked in The Spectator by Richard Washington, he stayed at the White House
Steele, who wrote “I allow it to be Nature, but with his friends, President Franklin D.
it is Nature in its utmost Corruption and Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. He later
Degeneracy.” The critic John Dennis reported to Ethel Barrymore that “Mrs
aggressively defended the work, saying Roosevelt runs the best theatrical boarding
Etherege’s portrayal of Rochester “so house in Washington.”
burnished his vices that they appeared as In the play, the famous critic Sheridan
virtues.” WHITESIDE falls and injures his hip outside the
The play skilfully weaves together two house of Richard and June Stanley in a small
plots. The rakish Dorimant gets rid of one town in Ohio. The Stanleys have to nurse the
mistress with the help of another only to pompous Whiteside over Christmas, during
propose to a third woman, the heiress Harriet which they find him an eccentric and difficult
Woodvil, following her into the countryside to guest. As he is finally leaving, Whiteside slips
receive her answer (never revealed). Harriet has again and has to be returned to the family.
another suitor in the reluctant Bellair, whose The play features the Cole Porter song
father is set on the match. For his part Bellair ‘What Am I To Do’, written under the
loves Emilia, a young woman who has also pseudonym ‘Noël Porter’ because it is sung by
entranced his father. Bellair’s aunt, Lady a character inspired by Noël Coward.
Towneley, helps him to outwit his father, who
eventually comes to his senses and blesses his Marat/Sade, The The short title of the
son’s marriage to Emilia. celebrated verse play by the German-born
writer Peter Weiss (1916–82), first performed
‘Man Who Broke the Bank at in Berlin in 1964. That same year Peter BROOK
Monte Carlo, The’ A popular MUSIC- directed an acclaimed production for the RSC
HALL ballad, written and composed by Fred with Ian Richardson as Marat, Glenda Jackson
Gilbert in 1892 and made famous by the great as Charlotte Corday, and Patrick Magee as de
Charles Coborn, who claimed to have sung it Sade. Brook’s savage production is usually
over 250,000 times. considered the epitome of the Theatre of
There are two candidates for the historical CRUELTY.
figure behind the song. The first, Joseph The play’s full title is The Persecution and
Hobson Jagger, won over two million francs Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed
during eight days in 1873. An engineer with by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under
an expert knowledge of spindles, Jagger the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. When the
suspected that one of the roulette wheels was critic Alan Brien asked a friend if he had seen
faulty and had it watched for a week. the play, he is reported by Brien to have
Thereafter he backed the nine numbers that replied, “No, but I’ve read the title”.
were turning up more frequently than their
mathematical probability; his winning streak Marceau, Marcel (1923–2007) French
 Marivaux, Pierre (Carlet de Chamblain de) 317

MIME artist, generally regarded as the greatest chief performer wears a white sheet and carries
modern exponent of the form. Marceau a mare’s skull decorated with ribbons. His
trained under Charles Dullin, Etienne followers sing outside houses, demanding to be
Decroux, and Jean-Louis BARRAULT before let in. This is refused until the callers give
abandoning conventional acting for mime. In proof of their ability to extemporize rhyming
1946 he introduced at the Théâtre de Poche in verses. They are then welcomed inside and
Paris his famous character of Bip, a whitefaced given suitable refreshment.
clown in a white costume, striped bow tie, and
a stovepipe hat with a red flower in it. The marionette A puppet manipulated from
above by strings (see PUPPET THEATRE). This
character, essentially a development of the
form of puppetry is very old, marionettes
19th-century PIERROT tradition, was named
having been found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
after Pip in Dickens’s Great Expectations.
The name may derive from the figurines of
Marceau defined mime as “the art of
Mary in Nativity scenes. The marionette’s
expressing feelings by attitudes and not a
strings are connected to a wooden cross called
means of expressing words through gestures.”
a control or perch, and the rack upon which
His best-known routines included one in
the puppets are kept is known as a perchery.
which he tries to escape from an invisible box.
The famous Salzburg Marionette Theatre
In 1978 he founded his École de Mimodrame
was founded in 1913 by Anton Aicher, who
de Paris at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint- specialized in Mozart operas, using trained
Martin. After a career of some 60 years he singers to provide voices for the marionettes on
made a farewell tour of the world in 2004. stage. In the same year Vittorio Podrecca
In 1975 Marceau appeared in Mel established the Teatro Dei Piccoli in Rome,
Brooks’s film Silent Movie; he had the only which featured marionettes in lavish small-
speaking part. scale operas and fairy tales. It toured
Maria Stuart A historical play in verse by the world successfully for 40 years. Other
Friedrich von SCHILLER. Written while Schiller famous marionette theatres include the
was suffering from tuberculosis, the play was Marionetteatern in Stockholm and the Toone
first produced in 1800 by GOETHE at the Theatre in Brussels.
Court Theatre in Weimar and has enjoyed One of the best known 20th-century
regular revivals. The German actor Martin companies is Josef Skupa’s Spejbl and
Held was particularly acclaimed for his Hujrvinek Company, founded in Plzeň before
performance in a 1952 production in Berlin. World War II and now based in Prague.
Maria Stuart is the only work of Schiller’s to During the German occupation Skupa was
have held the stage in English; it was seen at imprisoned for the anti-Nazi views expressed
Covent Garden in 1819, at the Royal Court by his marionettes, and his puppets thrown on
a rubbish dump. Children found the figures of
Theatre in 1880, and (in a translation by
Spejbl and Hujrvinek and returned them to
Stephen Spender) at the National Theatre in
Skupa after he was released.
1958.
The Union Internationale de la Marionette
The play depicts the final days of Mary,
is a world organization for those involved in
Queen of Scots, emphasizing the spiritual and
puppet theatre. The best known puppet
moral strength with which she accepts her fate.
museum is the Puppentheatersammlung in
It includes a scene in which Mary meets
Munich.
Queen Elizabeth I, an event that never
occurred. Marivaux, Pierre (Carlet de
Chamblain de) (1688–1763) French
Marie Tempest Theatrical jargon for a playwright, novelist, and journalist whose
door hinge that has been reinforced by a screw work is characterized by an extreme subtlety of
lever to keep the door from opening by itself language and feeling. This idiosyncratic style
on the incline of a raked stage (see RAKE). It was referred to, originally disparagingly though
was named after the British actress Dame now more respectfully, as Marivaudage.
Marie TEMPEST, who insisted on their use.
It is this that constitutes Marivaudage
Mari Lwyd (Welsh: Grey Mare) ‘Singing – a fastidious affectation in the style, a
with Mari Lwyd’ is an old New Year custom great subtlety in the feelings, and an
still surviving in parts of South Wales. The immense complication in the plots.
318 Marlowe, Christopher

MARIE-NICOLAS BOUILLET: Dictionnaire Alleyn in the lead. With its swaggering power-
Universel hungry title character and gorgeous verse the
Marivaux began his career as a journalist play proved to be enormously popular;
and haunter of fashionable salons. In 1720, Marlowe quickly wrote a second part, which
however, he lost his fortune and quickly may have been produced later that year.
produced three plays, two of which, L’Amour Marlowe’s most famous play, The Tragical
et la Vérité and Arlequin Poli par l’Amour, were History of Doctor Faustus, based on the
performed by the COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE whilst medieval German legend of the scholar who
the third, Annibal, was performed by the sold his soul to the devil, was probably written
Comédie-Française. Although Marivaux and produced by 1590, although it was not
continued to write for both companies, the published until 1604 (see DR FAUSTUS; FAUST,
majority of his plays were written for the JOHANN). Historically the play is important for
Italian troupe, whose productions proved far utilizing the soliloquy as an aid to character
more successful, perhaps because they better analysis and development.
appreciated the refinements of his style. THE JEW OF MALTA (c. 1590) has another
In the 20th century Marivaux’s unscrupulous aspiring character at its centre in
sophisticated plotting, keen sense of the Machiavellian Barabas. By turns violent
psychological nuance, and strong female roles and grotesque, the play delivers a caustic
have gained increasing recognition. Recent critique of contemporary religious values.
decades have seen frequent revivals of his plays EDWARD II (c. 1592), which may have
by the Comédie-Française. For many years it influenced Shakespeare’s Richard II, was highly
was thought that Marivaux’s comedies were innovatory in its treatment of a historical
virtually untranslatable due to the subtlety of character and formed an important break with
the language, but several of his works have the more simplistic chronicle plays that had
been successfully performed in English since preceded it. Marlowe also wrote two lesser
the mid 1970s. plays, Dido, Queen of Carthage (date unknown)
and The Massacre at Paris (1593), based on
Marlowe, Christopher (1564–93) contemporary events in France.
English playwright and poet, who through his Marlowe was killed in a London tavern
establishment of blank verse as a medium for
in May 1593, supposedly as the result of a
drama did much to free the Elizabethan
quarrel with his drinking companions over
theatre from the constraints of the medieval
the apportioning of the bill. Over the years,
and Tudor dramatic tradition.
however, there has been a great deal of
The son of a shoemaker, Marlowe
speculation concerning his death, with many
was educated at Corpus Christi College,
writers suggesting that he was assassinated in
Cambridge, on a scholarship that may have
connection with his activities as a spy. Others
been intended to provide for his taking holy
point to the fact that only twelve days before
orders. The university authorities seem to have
his death Marlowe had been summoned by the
been extremely reluctant to award Marlowe his
Privy Council to answer charges of atheism (see
MA, citing as grounds for their refusal his
KYD, THOMAS).
frequent term-time absences. They appear,
Although Marlowe’s writing career lasted
however, to have relented upon receiving
a letter from the Privy Council stating for only six years, his four major plays make
that Marlowe’s absences were due to his him easily the most important predecessor of
employment “on matters touching the benefit Shakespeare.
of his country.” The letter also mentions Marlowe, Julia See SOTHERN FAMILY.
Rheims in France, leading to speculation that
Marlowe had been employed to conduct Marplot A foolish interfering character in
espionage work among the Jesuits resident The Busybody (1709) by Susannah Centlivre.
there. The name was subsequently applied to any
After leaving Cambridge in 1587 Marlowe officious person who ruins a plan by gratuitous
settled in London and began to write for the meddling. Similarly named characters include
theatre. His first play TAMBURLAINE THE Shakespeare’s Sir Oliver Martext, the
GREAT, was performed that same year, clergyman in As You Like It (1599), and Sir
probably by the Admiral’s Men with Edward Martin Mar-All, the hero of Dryden’s comedy
 mask 319

of that name, which was based on Molière’s DUTCH COURTESAN (1605). He is noted for his
The Blunderer (1655). violent imagery and his preoccupation with
mankind’s failure to uphold Christian virtues.
Marriage à la Mode A sophisticated Other plays include the tragedies Antonio’s
comedy by John DRYDEN, first produced with Revenge and Antonio and Mellida (both 1599)
great success in 1672 in London. The plot has and the comedy What You Will (1601).
two strands. One story traces the complex At the turn of the century Marston
relationships of the lovers Rhodophil, became involved in the so-called WAR OF THE
Melantha, Palamede, and Doralice, whose THEATRES, a prolonged feud with his rival Ben
dialogue is written in gentle courtly verse. JONSON. Jonson repeatedly satirized him in
Melantha’s ridiculously affected use of French such plays as Every Man Out of His Humour
phrases gives the play its title. The other story (1599) and The Poetaster (1601), while
is written in heroic verse and follows the Marston replied in Satiromastix (with Thomas
struggle of Leonidas, prince of Sicily, to Dekker; 1601). Their squabble ended in time
recover his throne from the usurper for the two to collaborate with George
Polydamas. Chapman on the ill-fated EASTWARD HO!
(1605), which resulted in all three authors
Marriage of Figaro, The A comedy by
being briefly imprisoned. Marston was later
Pierre de BEAUMARCHAIS, one of the most
imprisoned for offending James I with his
politically inflammatory works ever staged in
tragedy The Insatiate Countess (1610). After his
Europe. It was first performed in 1784 at the release he took holy orders and wrote no more
Comédie-Française, Paris, after being banned plays.
for three years by Louis XVI because of its
attacks on social injustice. When it finally mask A covering for the whole or part of
opened, somewhat weakened by the censor, an actor’s face. Masks have been worn since
the city was tense with anticipation. Although primitive times by those taking part in
the play’s subversive ideas provoked Louis to religious and magical rituals. They entered
call the text detestable and the production “a the theatre proper in Greece during the 6th
dangerous folly”, it ran for 80 performances, a century BC. The Greeks used a range of
record in 18th-century France. different masks, each of which represented a
Beaumarchais’s play was not performed in particular set of characteristics, such as sex, age,
London until 1974, when Jonathan Miller and emotion. Masks also allowed one actor to
staged it at the National Theatre. It was the play several roles and may have assisted voice
source for Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro projection. Made of painted wood, linen, and
(1786; libretto by Da Ponte). leather, the masks used by the Greeks included
A sequel to THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, the false hair to cover the head and such details as
play continues the story of FIGARO, the shrewd beards and jewellery. When actors portrayed
valet to Count Almaviva. Figaro is about to well-known Athenians, ‘portrait masks’ were
marry Suzanne, maid to the Count’s wife. The worn.
Count, however, desires Suzanne himself and Masks were also worn in the early Roman
tries to reinstitute his ancient right of droit theatre. The Latin word persona, meaning
de seigneur. At the same time Figaro’s debts mask, came to mean a dramatic role and still
have put him in the power of Marceline, the appears in this sense in the term DRAMATIS
Count’s housekeeper, who is intent on PERSONAE. The Roman masks for MIME had
marrying him. Figaro looks doomed until he closed mouths and as this form of drama
learns the truth about his parentage (he became increasingly popular, masks were often
previously believed himself an orphan). It dispensed with.
turns out that Marceline is actually his cousin In later European theatre masks have been
and that his father is rich enough to pay off his the exception rather than the rule. In MYSTERY
debts. Figaro and Suzanne are therefore free to PLAYs golden masks were used to represent
marry. God and his archangels. ‘Visors’ were often
worn in the Tudor and Stuart MASQUEs. The
Marston, John (c. 1575–1634) English characters of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE wore
playwright who wrote 13 plays between 1599 small black ‘cat-masks’ that only covered the
and 1609, his two finest being the tragicomedy upper part of the face.
THE MALCONTENT (1604) and the comedy THE In modern Western theatre masks are
320 masking piece

usually only worn to create a specific dramatic modern term ‘set’. Jonson became increasingly
effect. Modern playwrights to use masks have unhappy with the collaboration from about
included Eugene O’NEILL, W. B. YEATS, Bertolt 1612 onwards, complaining that his poetry
BRECHT, and John ARDEN. Masks are an was being swamped by Jones’s ornate scenery
important feature of the oriental stage, as in and costumes (see LANTHORN, LEATHERHEAD).
the Japanese Nō drama. When the Puritans closed the theatres in
1642, the masque was doomed by its royal
masking piece A fabric or piece of associations. The form was not revived after
scenery, such as a FLAT, used to conceal lights the Restoration. See also CAROLINE DRAMA;
and other equipment or the backstage area JACOBEAN DRAMA.
from the audience’s view.
Massinger, Philip (1583–1640)
masque A form of court entertainment, Versatile English playwright who wrote or
especially popular in England in the early collaborated on some 50 plays, of which nearly
17th century, that greatly influenced the half are lost. At least eight of his works were
development of theatre, opera, and ballet. mistakenly used as liners for pie-dishes by the
The amateur performances, often featuring servant of the antiquarian collector John
courtiers, were held at banquets and
Warbuton (see WARBURTON’S COOK).
receptions. Characters often included gods and
In 1625 Massinger became chief dramatist
goddesses and other supernatural beings as
of the King’s Men and produced his best
well as such PASTORAL figures as shepherds,
known comedy, A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD
fishermen, milkmaids, etc. The masque
DEBTS. It was disregarded in the Restoration
generally combined songs, dances, and short
theatre but has been constantly revived since
spoken scenes, all of which involved elaborate
the 18th century. The role of the rapacious Sir
praise of the host, patron, or monarch. Since
Giles Overreach has provided a vehicle for
the performances were private, women were
such actors as the American Thomas Kean,
allowed to take part; even Charles I and his
who first played it in 1816, and for Donald
queen, Henrietta Maria, became performers
Wolfit in the 1950s.
and dancers.
Massinger’s other works include the
The genre, which originated in the
romances The Duke of Milan (1620), The
processions of masked figures in medieval
Great Duke of Florence (1627), and The Roman
MUMMERS’ PLAYs, developed mainly in 16th-
Actor (1626), the comedies The City Madam
century Italy. In France it became known as
(1632) and The Guardian (1633), and the
the Mascarade and in England as the mask or
tragicomedies The Bondman (1623) and The
masque, displacing the older term, DISGUISING.
Renegado (1624). He also collaborated on 11
The greatest master of the form was Inigo
JONES, England’s first scenic designer, who
plays with John Fletcher, and may possibly
produced at least nine masques between 1605 have had a hand in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s
and 1613. His most important collaborator Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
was Ben JONSON. Their first joint production, Master, the Nickname of the British
presented in 1605 at Whitehall, was the dramatist and entertainer Sir Noël COWARD.
Masque of Blackness, for which Jones designed Coward himself disliked the name, possibly
an artificial sea, with the masquers performing because it had already been given to the writer
in a large shell. Their formal innovations W. Somerset Maugham.
included the anti-masque, a brief interlude of
a contrasting character to the main piece Master Builder, The A tragedy by
(introduced in 1609), and the double masque, Henrik IBSEN. The play, written on Ibsen’s
in which each performer played two roles. return to Norway after many years of exile, was
Some of Jones’s technical innovations became first performed in 1893 in Berlin. An English-
a permanent part of the English stage. His language version was staged in London a few
decorative frame at Whitehall was the weeks later. Contemporary critics found the
forerunner of the PROSCENIUM and, from his play’s symbolism “maddeningly obscure”, with
travels in Italy, he imported the idea of a The Stage denouncing it as “three acts of
painted backcloth with movable side wings set gibberish”.
in grooves (see GROOVES SYSTEM). The overall The play concerns the architect Halvard
effect was called a ‘set scene’, the origin of the Solness, a man of great energy and iron will
 matinee idol 321

whose virility is now waning with age. A young of several plays by George Chapman. Sir
woman, Hilda Wangel, appears one day to Henry Herbert was appointed in 1622 and
announce (with overt sexual symbolism) that served for 50 years, leaving extensive records
she has worshipped him since the day, many that provide valuable information about the
years earlier, that she watched him climb to the theatre of his day. The activities of Sir Thomas
top of a great tower he had built. Solness is KILLIGREW, a theatre manager who misused the
both excited and troubled by her admiration. office to restrain rival theatres, helped to bring
He has just built a house with a tower for about the Licensing Act of 1737 (see LICENCE),
himself and his wife, and Hilda insists that he which abolished the Office of Revels and made
climb to the top and crown it with a laurel theatrical censorship the direct responsibility of
wreath. Solness, overcome by her faith in him, the LORD CHAMBERLAIN.
struggles to the top before falling to his death.
Ibsen admitted that Solness was “a man Matchmaker, The A play written in
somewhat like me”. Both were inveterate 1954 by Thornton WILDER that provided the
wanderers, both had midlife crises involving basis for the 1964 hit musical HELLO DOLLY! It
brief infatuations with young women, and opened at the Edinburgh Festival before
both failed to find happiness in success when it transferring to the Haymarket Theatre, London.
belatedly arrived. Its plot was based on Wilder’s earlier work The
Merchant of Yonkers (1938), which was itself
Master of Santiago, The A play by
adapted from a 19th-century Viennese farce.
the French dramatist Henri de Montherlant
Peter O’Toole made his London debut
(1896–1972). First performed in 1948 in
with a seven-line part in the 1955 Old Vic
Paris, where it ran for more than a year, the
production of The Matchmaker. In the
work is very much in the classical tradition of
Corneille and Racine. The 1957 London audience was W. Duncan Ross who, three
production, starring and directed by Donald years earlier, had rejected O’Toole’s
WOLFIT did not find favour with British critics,
application for an apprenticeship at the
who found the work too bleak, with one Nottingham Playhouse. When the two met
calling it “unrelievedly serious and sombre.” backstage, O’Toole explained that the rejection
Wolfit even tried, without success, to bar critic had upset him so much that he had
Kenneth Tynan from the theatre. immediately hitch-hiked to London and
With its simple action and complex demanded an interview at RADA, which
psychology, The Master of Santiago is resulted in the award of a scholarship.
considered Montherlant’s most representative The plot of The Matchmaker follows the
work. The emphasis falls on the sacrifices amorous scheming of Horace Vandergelder, a
made by the main characters in order to live rich widower who has decided to remarry, and
up to their own high ideals. The title character, various other characters including his new
Don Alvaro, is supported by his daughter love, Irene Molly, his daughter, and her artist
Mariana when he refuses to compromise his sweetheart. At the centre of the web is the
pride and principles in order to regain his matchmaker Dolly Levi, who wants and finally
fortunes. wins Horace for herself.
Master of the Revels Formerly, matinee An afternoon performance given
an official who was in charge of court at a reduced ticket price (although the word
entertainments in England. The first means ‘morning’). The first recorded matinee
appointment was a temporary one for Henry performance was given at Mitchell’s Olympic
VII’s household. Sir Thomas Cawarden was Theatre in New York on Christmas Day 1843;
the first permanent master of the revels, the Irish playwright Dion BOUCICAULT
serving from 1545 to 1559; his duties included pioneered the matinee in Britain. By the end
CENSORSHIP of the public theatre and of the 19th century, ‘matinees musicales’ had
supervising the festivities for Elizabeth I’s become popular in London.
coronation in 1558. In James I’s reign Sir
Edmund Tilney (1579–1610) did little more matinee idol A male actor who owes his
than license theatres for £3 a month and read success more to his romantic good looks than
plays for 7 shillings each. His nephew, Sir to his skill as a performer. The phrase came
George Buck (1610–22), banned publication into use when matinee performances became
322 Maugham, W(illiam) Somerset

popular, especially for coach parties of women Mystery-Bouffe, produced in Moscow in 1918,
from the suburbs and provinces. is usually considered the first Soviet play. It
depicted the triumph of the Unclean
Maugham, W(illiam) Somerset (proletarians) over the Clean (bourgeois) and
(1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, and parodied the Bible, the last scene showing the
short-story writer, who in 1908 had four plays proletariat entering the Promised Land.
running simultaneously in the West End, a Although he was a fierce supporter of
record at that time. The plays were Lady the Revolution and the Bolshevik regime,
Frederick at the Court Theatre, Jack Straw at Mayakovsky later wrote two controversial plays
the Vaudeville Theatre, Mrs Dot at the satirizing Soviet bureaucracy. The Bedbug
Comedy Theatre, and The Explorer at the Lyric (Klop; 1929) showed the bedbug and the
Theatre. His work was noted for its clear style, bourgeois, both survivors of the past, adjusting
solid construction, and shrewd perception of to the new regime. The Bath House (Banya;
human nature. 1930) also satirized the survival of bourgeois
Between 1898 and 1933 Maugham wrote traits in Soviet life.
27 plays; the first to be produced was Man of The failure of these plays, the disapproval
Honour in 1904. His successes included Our of the Soviet authorities, and a failed love
Betters (1917), a satire on US social-climbers, affair, led Mayakovsky to shoot himself at the
Home and Beauty (1919), THE CIRCLE (1921),
age of 37. After Stalin’s death Soviet officials
East of Suez (1922), THE CONSTANT WIFE
rehabilitated Mayakovsky and in 1954
(1926), and the anti-war play For Services
Moscow’s Theatre of the Revolution was
Rendered (1932). After the comparative failure
renamed in his honour.
of Sheppey, directed by Gielgud in 1933,
Maugham decided that he had lost touch with May Day Spring time celebrations and
public taste and gave up writing for the fertility rituals have taken place throughout
theatre. Several of his short stories have been history and in many different cultures. The
adapted by others for the stage, notably Miss Romans used to leave their towns and cities for
Thompson, dramatized as Rain (1922) by John the open fields and spend the first of May
Colton and Clemence Randolph. dancing and singing in honour of Flora,
Maugham once complimented Noël goddess of flowers. The English have
COWARD on his dialogue but added: celebrated May Day for centuries with games
Good dialogue is like the most and sports, particularly MORRIS DANCEs, the
charming interior decoration of a crowning of a May Queen, and the setting up
house, but it is of little use if the of the maypole. In the 16th century ROBIN
foundations are insecure and the drains HOOD PLAYS became an important part of the
don’t work. festivities: performers dressed as Robin Hood
Coward later wrote A Song at Twilight (1966), and MAID MARIAN often presided as Lord and
a play about an embittered homosexual writer, Lady of the May.
who was clearly based on Maugham. Fears of a May Day was also formerly the day of
possible libel suit evaporated when Maugham, the London chimney sweeps’ festival, which
who was 91, obligingly died just before the involved dancing, processions, and the
play opened. Coward, who had visited him exhibition of a JACK-IN-THE-GREEN.
three months before, remarked:
Measure for Measure One of
Poor, miserable old man. Not very SHAKESPEARE’s so-called ‘dark comedies’, first
sadly mourned, I fear. performed in 1604 at court in London
Mawworm A hypocritical pretender to (although this version apparently differed
piety in Isaac BICKERSTAFFE’s The Hypocrite considerably from the text we now have).
(1769), a play largely based on Molière’s Owing perhaps to its preoccupation with sex,
TARTUFFE. The name was sometimes used of
death, and moral corruption, and to its
any pious humbug. complex and mostly unattractive characters,
the play remained unpopular until the 20th
Mayakovsky, Vladimir century.
Vladimirovich (1893–1930) Soviet The 1933 Old Vic production at Sadler’s
poet, who became a major playwright of Wells Theatre starred Charles Laughton
the FUTURISM movement. Mayakovsky’s as Angelo, a performance described as
 medicine shows 323

“magnificent” by John Gielgud. Measure for she has suffered as a woman and a foreigner in
Measure was also the last play to be staged Greece:
before the Old Vic disbanded in 1963. I would rather stand three times in the
Jonathan Miller produced a memorable front line of battle than give birth
modern-dress version in 1975 at the once.
Greenwich Theatre, while a production at the The story depicts the ultimate revenge of a
Lyttelton Theatre in 1981 set the action on a wronged woman on her treacherous lover.
Caribbean island (with Angelo as a Black Medea’s vendetta against Jason culminates in
bishop). her killing their children in order to make
The plot is derived mainly from George him suffer. She finally escapes in a chariot
Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra (1578). belonging to her grandfather, the sun god.
Vincentio, the kindly but enigmatic Duke of Medea provides a complex, challenging,
Vienna, disguises himself as a friar in order to and prized role. In Gielgud’s production,
move unnoticed amongst his people and Dame Judith Anderson played Medea to
observe their morals at first hand. In his place Florence Reed’s Nurse. The two actresses were
he temporarily appoints the puritanical bitter rivals. Dame Judith found it hard to
Angelo, who immediately sentences Claudio to achieve the concentration and intensity needed
death under a disused law against fornication. for her grand entrance at the speech beginning
Isabella, Claudio’s sister and a novice nun, “Death! Death!” One night she sent a terse
pleads with Angelo for his life. Overcome with message to Reed through the stage manager:
sudden lust, Angelo says he will only save Tell that old bitch she is not to move a
Claudio if Isabella sleeps with him. Although muscle, not a muscle, during my
Claudio begs her to do so, she indignantly soliloquy. Now tell her that exactly.
refuses. Through a series of machinations the Just before Dame Judith was due to go on, she
disguised Duke manages to save Claudio and asked the stage manager to tell her how Reed
shame Angelo. In the play’s last moments he had reacted. The stage manager gave Reed’s
unexpectedly proposes to Isabella himself. reply verbatim:
Tell Judith to go fuck herself.
mechane (Greek: machine) A crane-like
piece of machinery set up behind the stage in That night when Dame Judith stormed onto
ancient Greek theatres. It was used to lower an the stage shrieking “Death! Death!”, there was
actor playing a god from the roof of the SKENE a hidden agenda.
More recent revivals have included an
onto the stage. The device was used when
acclaimed London production starring Diana
the only way to resolve a crisis or conclude
Rigg (1992).
a traditional plot was through divine
intervention (hence the Latin phrase DEUS EX medicine shows Formerly, a type of
MACHINA, god from a machine). Sophocles entertainment presented from the wagons of
used the device seriously but Euripides itinerant pedlars of patent medicines in
parodied the use of the contraption and America. “Step right up,” was the characteristic
Aristophanes made it seem ridiculous. cry of travelling medicine men, who used a
variety of short acts, from card tricks to banjo
Medea A play by EURIPIDES; it was first playing, to lure their rural customers. As
performed in 431 BC in Athens, winning third VAUDEVILLE expanded, so did the medicine
prize at the City Dionysia. The play caused shows, which began to make more money
controversy because Euripides flouted tradition from providing entertainment than from the
by allowing Medea, the child-murderer, to sales of their dubious medicinal products. The
escape unpunished; in the play’s final scene presentations, interspersed with brief sales-
she even appears to have transcended human pitches, usually lasted about two hours and
status and become a demigod or demon. offered up to a dozen acts, including burlesque
ARISTOPHANES, who often made jokes about comics, ventriloquists, banjo pickers, and
Euripides, wrote a scene in which the women blackfaced comedians usually named Sambo or
of Athens rebuked the playwright for being a Jake (see MINSTREL SHOW). The afterpiece was
misogynistic child-hater. However, the play is usually a farce, often involving a ghost. A few
now often seen as a proto-feminist statement. medicine shows, such as those run by Fred
Medea speaks powerfully about the injustices Foster Bloodgood and Tommy Scott, have
324 medieval drama

continued into the late 20th century, but have theatre group, which became one of the most
had to abandon the preposterous medical influential companies in late 19th-century
claims, which would now breach consumer- Europe. The company was founded in 1874 as
protection legislation. A reconstructed the resident troupe at the court of Georg II,
performance, The Vi-Ton-Ka Medicine Show, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826–1914); it was
was given in 1983 in New York’s American strongly promoted by his wife, the actress
Place Theatre. Ellen Franz (1839–1923). The Duke himself
directed the plays and designed the costumes
medieval drama European drama from
and scenery. He was joined in 1876 by
about 1000 to 1500. After about 400 years
the actor and director Ludwig Chronegk
during which the theatre was virtually extinct
(1837–1891). The company had performed
in Europe, the seeds of a revival were sown in
in some 38 European cities by the time
the 10th century when the Church began to
introduce dramatic elements into the liturgy Chronegk’s health failed in 1890. The
(see LITURGICAL DRAMA). By the 11th century directors Konstantin STANISLAVSKY and André
short dramatizations of Biblical stories were Antoine (1858–1943) were amongst those
being performed at Easter and Christmas in influenced by the company’s realistic style.
many parts of Europe. Gradually the The Meininger troupe developed ensemble
vernacular replaced Latin and scenic devices, acting (occasionally requiring such stars as
local subject matter, and humorous or August Bassermann and Josef KAINZ to play
dramatic touches were introduced to add to minor roles), gave the director an enhanced
the interest. interpretive role, demanded strict historical
The three main types of medieval drama accuracy for sets and costumes, used
“the MYSTERY PLAY, the MORALITY PLAY, and experimental stage lighting, introduced the
the MIRACLE PLAY” all achieved recognizable naturalistic BOX SET, and kept the stage action
form during the 14th century. The mystery moving on different levels through the use of
play developed directly from the tradition of steps and ROSTRUMs.
liturgical drama but incorporated more
Meistersänger (German: master singer)
humorous and secular material and shows a
A member of one of the German guilds of
more sophisticated sense of theatre.
poetry and music that flourished from the
The development of religious drama in the
14th to the 16th century. According to legend
middle ages appears to have been much
influenced by a number of older secular the Meistersinger were founded by 12 master
traditions. These included the folk theatre of poets of ancient times but in reality they
MAY DAY games, ROBIN HOOD stories, etc., and
probably developed from early fraternities of
the tradition of jongleurs, minstrels, and other laymen who sang in church. Because in
itinerant performers. Other secular influences medieval Germany music and poetry were
on later drama include the elaborate pageantry regarded as crafts to be learned, Singschulen
of the courts and the outdoor festivities (German: song schools) were formed on the
organized by town guilds and other local same lines as the craft guilds; students had
bodies. to pass several grades before becoming a
‘mastersinger’. Music, subject matter, metres,
Meek, Private Napoleon Alexander and performance style were all restricted by
Trotsky A character in the play TOO TRUE codes called Tabulatur, thus originality was
TO BE GOOD, by George Bernard Shaw, first only possible during competitions, when poets
performed in 1932. Meek, an unassuming fitted new words to old tunes.
private soldier who proves himself effortlessly In the 16th century, Hans Folz (d. 1515)
superior to his officers, was based on T. E. campaigned successfully for a wider choice of
Lawrence in his Aircraftman Shaw phase. subjects and the right to compose new music;
Although the two men became friends, the this liberalization was extended by Hans Sachs
common assertion that Lawrence chose his (1494–1576), a leading Meistersänger and an
pseudonym out of admiration for Shaw is important playwright. Sachs appears as a
untrue. character in Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger
Meggs, Mary See ORANGE MOLL. von Nürnberg (1867). The Meistersinger were
never generally popular and the Singschulen
Meininger company A German court virtually disappeared after 1600 (although the
 Mendes, Sam(uel) (Alexander) 325

last school, in Memminger, was not closed Mélodrame influenced the development of
until 1875). popular MELODRAMA but failed to develop as
an independent form.
Mélite The first play by Pierre CORNEILLE, In opera the term means the use of
a comedy first performed in Paris by the Prince spoken words for dramatic effect, either
of Orange’s Players in 1629. Although critics during a break in the music or to instrumental
complained that the UNITIES were not observed accompaniment. An example of mélodrame in
and stock farce characters were omitted, the this sense is the dungeon scene of Beethoven’s
play surprised its author by becoming a great Fidelio (1805).
success. The plot involves the confused love
affairs of two couples, Mélite and Tircis and Melpomene The MUSE of TRAGEDY in
Chloris and Philandre, complicated by the ancient Greek mythology.
intrigues of Éraste, who also loves Mélite.
Menander (343–292 BC) Greek exponent
melodrama A form of sensational play of the NEW COMEDY, whose witty and
that swept Europe in the 19th century. Mass sophisticated plays had a major influence
audiences were attracted by its emphasis on on the development of the modern comic
fast implausible action and larger-than-life tradition. Menander’s plays gave a reduced role
heroes and villains. to the CHORUS and avoided serious treatment
The term (from Greek melos, song and of heroic, religious, or political themes. His
drama, action) was introduced by Jean-Jacques realism prompted one critic to ask:
Rousseau to mean an entertainment in which O Menander and life, which of you
dialogue was spoken to background music (see imitated the other?
MÉLODRAME). In the late 18th century August Menander’s plays are populated by conniving
Kotzebue (1761–1819) wrote numerous slaves, wily courtesans, domineering fathers,
sentimental melodramas in Germany, while rebellious children, and other lively and bawdy
Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773–1844) urban characters. His complex plots often
developed the form in France. British involve mistaken identities and problematic
melodramas were often adaptions of love affairs. These characteristics of his work
Continental works; examples include Dion influenced the Roman writers PLAUTUS and
Boucicault’s THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (1852), TERENCE, and, through them, Molière,
which was based on a French play of revenge. Congreve, Wilde, and other writers of the
In the mid 19th century the genre COMEDY OF MANNERS.
broadened to include domestic tragedies, Menander’s popularity earned him
realistic dramas set in the slums, moralizing invitations to royal courts in Egypt and
works such as UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, and Macedonia but he chose to remain in Athens,
entertainments based on spectacular where he is thought to have drowned while
shipwrecks and disasters. swimming in the harbour.
By the turn of the 20th century,
theatregoers had begun to expect greater Mendes, Sam(uel) (Alexander)
REALISM. Exaggerated plots and over-emotional (1965– ) British director, who emerged as
acting soon survived only in grand opera and one of the country’s most exciting theatrical
classical ballet, as well as in the new mass talents while still in his mid twenties. After
medium of cinema. One of the purest forms of graduating from Cambridge in 1987, Mendes
melodrama was the cliff-hanging Hollywood worked as a general assistant at the Chichester
serial, as exemplified by The Perils of Pauline Festival, where he was given a chance to direct
(1914). Many of the elements of 19th-century Chekhov for one night only. The response was
melodrama were revived in television soap so favourable that Mendes was made artistic
operas, such as Dallas and Dynasty in the director of the Festival’s new studio theatre,
1980s. the Minerva, at the age of 23. Over the next
two years he established a national profile with
mélodrame A type of play combining a series of Stratford and West End productions
spoken dialogue with passages of instrumental including Troilus and Cressida for the RSC
music. An influential example was Pygmalion (1990), Kean at the Old Vic (1990), and The
(1770) with words by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the National
and music by Horace Coignet (1735–1821). (1992) – the last being a vehicle for the talents
326 Menken, Adah Isaacs

of his then-partner, the actress Jane Horrocks. a Venetian merchant, borrows money from
From 1992 until 2002 Mendes was director of Shylock to help his friend Bassanio woo the
the DONMAR WAREHOUSE Theatre, a venue heiress PORTIA. As security he is obliged to
that was soon being described as “the sexiest offer a pound of his own flesh, assuming
space in London.” With riveting revivals of that this is a friendly joke. When Antonio
Friel’s Translations (1993), Mamet’s Glengarry finds himself unable to return the money,
Glen Ross (1994), and the Sondheim musical Shylock, enraged by the constant insults of
Company (1995), as well as new plays the Christians, demands his pound of flesh.
including David Hare’s The Blue Room (1998), In the play’s climactic court scene Portia,
the Donmar was undoubtedly the capital’s disguised as a lawyer, saves Antonio’s life by
most fashionable and talked-about theatre of arguing that Shylock is entitled to a pound of
the 1990s. Mendes continued to direct plays the merchant’s flesh but not to a drop of his
for other companies, including a successful blood. Shylock is stripped of his estate and
revival of Oliver! at the Palladium (1994) that compelled to become a Christian.
made him a wealthy man. In 1999 Mendes Between them Charles MACKLIN
made his first venture into the cinema with the and Edmund KEAN revolutionized the
Oscar-winning American Beauty; subsequent interpretation of Shylock by turning him into
films include Revolutionary Road (2008), a figure of tragic dignity. In 1889 Henry Irving
starring his then wife Kate Winslet. Another and Ellen Terry presented the trial scene at
career peak came in 2002, when Mendes Sandringham for the reclusive Queen Victoria.
became the first person to win three Laurence Other notable Shylock–Portia pairings have
Olivier Awards in the same year – as Best included Redgrave–Ashcroft in 1953 at
Director (Twelfth Night), for Best Revival Stratford and Olivier–Plowright in 1970 at the
(Uncle Vanya), and in special recognition of his Old Vic.
ten years at the Donmar. More recent work for Charles Macklin was so precise in his
the stage includes a Broadway revival of Gypsy interpretation of the part that he once
(2003) and David Hare’s The Vertical Hour instructed Bobby Bates, playing Tubal, not to
(2007). Since 2009 Mendes has mounted a speak until Macklin had placed his right foot
series of productions under the auspices of the on a particular nail in the stage floor. Bates
Bridge Project, a transatlantic collaboration dutifully marked the spot with chalk, but
between Mendes, the Brooklyn Academy of Macklin forgot all about it once into his
Music, and Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic Company. performance. When Bates missed his cue,
These include a double-bill of The Tempest and Macklin growled under his breath, “Why the
As You Like It, which opened in Brooklyn in devil don’t you speak?” “Sir,” replied Bates,
2010. “put your right foot upon the nail.”
In the 20th century the question of
Menken, Adah Isaacs (Dolores Adios whether or not the play is anti-Semitic (and, if
Fuertes; 1835–68) US actress, whose career so, how this should affect our response to it)
was virtually confined to appearing bound to has received much anguished attention. In
the back of a ‘wild’ horse in a skimpy costume 1976 Arnold WESKER, himself a Jew, rewrote
in Mazeppa, a dramatization of Byron’s poem. the story from Shylock’s perspective as The
Menken, whose beauty was appreciated by Merchant.
Dickens and Swinburne, made her first
appearance in this famous EQUESTRIAN DRAMA Meredith. We’re in, Meredith! A
in London in 1861; after a year in America she once-popular catchphrase deriving from the
returned to London in 1864 to appear in the Fred KARNO sketch The Bailiff (1907). This
same role at ASTLEY’S AMPHITHEATRE. depicted the stratagems by which a bailiff and
his assistant, Meredith, attempt to enter the
Merchant of Venice, The house of a debtor. The phrase is used by the
SHAKESPEARE’s tragicomedy about the bailiff each time he thinks he is on the point of
attempted revenge of the Jewish usurer success.
SHYLOCK. It was written c. 1596–98 but the
date of its first performance is unknown. Mermaid Tavern A tavern in Bread
Shakespeare’s main sources were Giovanni Street, London, that was a meeting place of
Fiorentino’s Il Pecorone (1558) and Marlowe’s literary figures in the early 17th century. The
The Jew of Malta (1589). In the story Antonio, Friday Street Club, which included amongst
 Merry Wives of Windsor, The 327

its members Sir Walter Raleigh, Beaumont and Livingstone, the then Mayor of London, and
Fletcher, Jonson, and Shakespeare met here the building is now being used as a conference
from 1603. According to Beaumont, in his centre.
verse epistle ‘Master Beaumont to Ben Jonson’,
the conversation was inspirational: Merman, Ethel (Ethel Zimmerman;
1909–84) US actress and trumpet-toned
What things have we seen vocalist. Merman made her Broadway debut in
Done at the Mermaid! heard words a 1930 production of Girl Crazy at the Alvin
that have been Theatre; while singing ‘I Got Rhythm’ she
So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, held a note for 16 bars and stopped the show.
As if that every one from whence they It was said of her that she could “hold a note
came longer than the Chase Manhattan Bank”,
Had meant to put his whole wit in a while Time magazine wrote:
jest, She aims at a point slightly above the
And had resolv’d to live a fool the rest entrails, but she knocks you out just
Of his dull life… the same.
The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire of
London. In 1946 Merman opened in her most
memorable part – Annie Oakley in Irving
Mermaid Theatre A riverside theatre in Berlin’s ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, which ran for
Blackfriars, London, built by the actor Bernard 1146 performances at the Imperial. It included
Miles (1907–91) and his wife, Josephine. her best-known song ‘There’s No Business
The first Mermaid Theatre was a former Like Show Business’. Later triumphs included
schoolroom in the Miles’s back garden in St the roles of Sally Adams in Berlin’s CALL ME
John’s Wood. This opened as a private venue MADAM (1950), Rose in Gypsy (1958), and the
in 1951. A year later the company moved to title character in Hello Dolly! (1970).
the City for a 13-week season on the piazza of Merman’s star quality owed a great deal to
the Royal Exchange; a replica Elizabethan stage her contagious energy and enthusiasm. The
was constructed on the same site in 1953. Saturday Review of Literature once wrote “she
In 1959 the theatre moved again, this time works like a stable, not a horse”, while
to a permanent home in a war-damaged Kenneth Tynan stated that in Merman’s hands
warehouse at Puddledock. For the opening, “musical comedy became a martial art.” When
the 4-year-old daughter of the actor Jack Ralph Richardson was asked on television to
Hawkins was rowed up the Thames dressed as define a star, he responded instantly, “Ethel
a mermaid. The first production was Lock Merman.”
Up Your Daughters, Miles’s own musical Merry-Andrew A name for a clown on
adaptation of Fielding’s Rape upon Rape. The the Elizabethan stage; also a buffoon, jester, or
Mermaid subsequently concentrated on assistant to a quack doctor at fairs. The term,
Jacobean and Elizabethan revivals; revues and which remained in use until the 19th century,
pantomime have also featured strongly. may have derived from Andrew Borde (d.
The Mermaid closed for modernization in 1549), court doctor to Henry VIII and a
1979 and reopened two years later as part of a celebrated eccentric. In 1668 Pepys noted in
controversial office-block complex. It now his diary that he saw a ridiculous play entitled
contains the Molecule Club studio theatre for Merry Andrew at Bartholomew Fair.
schoolchildren, which brings science to life on
the stage. Merry Wives of Windsor, The A
When a series of failures plunged the comedy by SHAKESPEARE, first performed in
Mermaid into financial difficulties in the mid about 1597 in London; according to tradition
1980s, it was bought by the entrepreneur it was written in a hurry to please Queen
Abdul Shamji, who was sentenced to 15 Elizabeth, who had asked to see FALSTAFF in
months imprisonment in 1989 for financial love. The play is generally considered one of
improprieties. In 1993 a one-man show about Shakespeare’s weakest works; in particular, the
Muhammad Ali staged by Shamji’s son ran up Falstaff of The Merry Wives seems a pale
further large losses. The Mermaid closed in imitation of the great figure of the Henry IV
1997 and was the subject of a demolition order plays. Nevertheless, Karl Marx later wrote:
in 2002. However, this was blocked by Ken In the first act alone of The Merry
328 mescidato

Wives of Windsor there is more life and and screen acting in the latter half of the 20th
movement than in all German century. Notable exponents of the Method
literature. include Marlon Brando and Dustin Hoffman.
It is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have Enthusiasm for the Method led Eli
a contemporary middle-class setting and to be Wallach into trouble when he was appearing
written mainly in prose. in a Broadway production of Antony and
When Beerbohm TREE presented the play Cleopatra in 1948. One night Wallach rushed
for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, he to the theatre inspired by Strasberg’s classroom
deliberately cast Madge KENDAL and Ellen exhortation, “If you go on stage to do
TERRY as the two wives, knowing how much something, do it!” In his role as a messenger he
they hated each other. Tree hid in a box to became so eager to deliver his news about
watch their encounter at the first rehearsal but Antony’s marriage that he kept on interrupting
was disappointed when they behaved with the Cleopatra’s lengthy soliloquy. The exasperated
utmost dignity. actress, Katharine CORNELL, finally slapped
In the 1833 production at the Haymarket him hard and walked offstage. At his next
Falstaff was played by the actress Julia Glover. class, Wallach complained to Strasberg, “What
Modern-dress versions include the 1986 Royal the hell kind of Method is that?” The director
Shakespeare Company production, starring merely shrugged: “Wait for your cues”.
Peter Jeffrey as Falstaff. Meyerhold, Vsevolod Emilievich
The story concerns Falstaff’s attempts to (1874–1940) Russian actor and director.
seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, the Meyerhold trained as an actor under Vladimir
wives of the title, as a means of getting his Nemirovich-Danchenko, a co-founder of the
hands on their husbands’ wealth. The wives MOSCOW ART THEATRE, which Meyerhold
discover that he has sent them identical love himself joined in 1898. He made his first
letters and devise a series of plots to humiliate appearance in STANISLAVSKY’s famous
him. Accordingly Falstaff is forced to hide in a naturalistic production of Chekhov’s THE
basket of stinking linen, thrown into a ditch, SEAGULL.
beaten by Ford, and tormented by a troupe of In 1902 Meyerhold formed his own
bogus fairies. company and spent a time touring the
mescidato A form of Italian secular provinces; he also worked briefly at the theatre
drama that developed from the SACRA of Vera Komisarjevskaya, a noted Russian
RAPPRESENTAZIONE. The mescidato retained the actress, in 1906–07. By this time, he had
basic structure of the liturgical drama but dealt already formulated his controversial theory of
with nonreligious themes. By the end of the BIO-MECHANICS and his opposition to the
16th century, it had evolved into the naturalism of Stanislavsky led to conflict
PASTORAL. between the two men and Meyerhold’s final
departure from the Moscow Art Theatre.
Method, the An acting technique Meyerhold subsequently directed at theatres in
developed from the theories of Konstantin St Petersburg, notably at the Aleksandrinsky,
STANISLAVSKY and taught from 1950 onwards where his productions reflected his growing
at the ACTORS’ STUDIO, New York, under the interest in Oriental theatrical conventions.
directorship of Lee STRASBERG. Strasberg was a Following the 1917 Revolution Meyerhold
former pupil of Richard Boleslavsky, who had was amongst the first directors to offer his
brought Stanislavsky’s ideas to America in the services to the new regime. In 1918 he became
1920s. The most important principle of the the first director to stage new Soviet drama
Method is the actor’s total understanding with his production of MAYAKOVSKY’s Mystery-
of and identification with his character’s Bouffe (1918). Meyerhold later produced the
motivation; to grasp this, the actor is same author’s The Bed-Bug (1929) and The
encouraged to draw on comparable experiences Bath House (1930).
in his or her own life, including painful ones In the mid 1930s, however, Meyerhold
that have been buried in the subconscious. became increasingly unpopular with the Soviet
This is intended to produce a greater realism authorities: his formalist leanings were
in the actor’s subsequent portrayal of the regarded as suspect, as was his unwillingness to
character. The technique was widely criticized, embrace the new socialist realism. In about
but remained an important influence on stage 1937 his theatre company was closed. Details
 Middleton, Thomas 329

of the end of Meyerhold’s life are sketchy. television in La Ballista. In 1992, feeling that
Shortly after his arrest in late 1938 or early the theatre had outlived its original purpose,
1939, his wife, an actress, was found murdered ten Cate closed the Mickery and founded the
at their home; nothing more was heard of Amsterdam School of Advanced Research in
Meyerhold until the late 1950s, when a Soviet Theatre and Dance Studies (known as Das
encyclopedia stated that he had died in 1942. Arts), which he directed until 2000.
A later edition of the book, however, gave his
death date as 1940. Middle Comedy One of the three
periods of ancient Greek comedy. The term is
mezzanine floor A floor or gallery applied in particular to ARISTOPHANES’s last
below the stage used to operate traps, etc. In two plays, Ecclesiazusae (Women in Parliament;
America the term is also applied to the first 392 BC) and Plutus (Wealth; 388 BC), as well as
GALLERY of the auditorium (or its first few to works by his immediate successors in the
rows). Entresol is another rarer term, used in early-to-mid 4th century BC. Middle Comedy
both Britain and America, for the mezzanine dispensed with much of the festive exuberance
floor in this second sense. and bawdy revelry found in OLD COMEDY;
there was less singing and dancing, plots
Mezzetino One of the ZANNI of the became more complex, and the dramatic
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Angelo COSTANTINI
illusion more sophisticated. Although plays of
transformed the role in the 1680s, making the Middle Comedy retained a political
Mezzetino a more sophisticated character than dimension, they showed a greater concern with
the comic rogue of tradition and replacing the personal and social issues, preparing the way
green stripes of the costume with red ones. for the shift to NEW COMEDY in the middle of
The French name for the character was the 4th century.
Mezzetin; Préville of the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE
was famous for playing this role. Middlesex Music Hall See OLD MO.
Mickery-theatre A former Amsterdam middle theatre A New York theatre that
theatre that imported avant-garde productions is considered to be neither on BROADWAY nor
by leading foreign companies, thereby OFF-BROADWAY.
introducing new theatrical trends to the
Netherlands. It was founded in 1965 by the Middleton, Thomas (1570–1627)
artist Ritsaert ten Cate (1938–2008), who held English dramatist, who excelled in both
the first performances on his farm in the village comedy and tragedy. Whilst his so-called ‘city
of Loenersloot. In 1972 the theatre began to comedies’ provide insight into 17th-century
receive public funding and moved into a London life and manners, his tragedies are
disused cinema in Amsterdam. The building noted for their richly poetic verse, their
was not divided into a conventional stage and emphasis on guilt and corruption, and their
auditorium and the Mickery-theatre chose to understanding of feminine psychology. His
retain this arrangement, so as not to introduce admirer T. S. Eliot wrote:
barriers between audience and actors. A Middleton was a great observer of
number of experimental seating arrangements human nature, without fear, without
were used, including the use of movable sentiment, without prejudice.
cubicles supported by air-cushions to lead the Middleton’s first plays were acted by BOY
audience from scene to scene in such works as COMPANIES at Blackfriars Theatre and other
Fairground (1975), Cloud Cuckooland (1979), venues. He often worked in collaboration
Outside (1979), and Fairground ’84 (produced with other dramatists for the theatre owner
for the Holland Festival). Philip HENSLOWE. With Thomas Dekker
Companies closely associated with the (c. 1570–1632) he wrote The Honest Whore
Mickery-theatre included the Pip Simmons (1604) and The Roaring Girl (1610), and with
Theatre Group and the People Show in William Rowley he produced the powerful
London, the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, tragedy THE CHANGELING (1622). Some
La Mama in New York, and the Tenjo Tsukiji modern scholars also believe that the texts we
company in Tokyo. During the 1984–85 and now have of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and
1985–86 seasons, the Pip Simmons company Measure for Measure were substantially altered
explored the relationship between theatre and by Middleton. THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY
330 Midsummer Night’s Dream, A

(1606) is now generally attributed to in an extraordinary variety of styles over the

Middleton, rather than Cyril Tourneur. years. In 1856 Charles Kean, manager of
Middleton’s social comedies include A London’s Princess Theatre, took realism to
Trick to Catch the Old One (1604–05), which extremes by building a full-scale workshop for
provided the basis for Philip Massinger’s A Quince the Carpenter and claiming “the
NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS (1623), A Mad furniture and tools introduced in this scene are
World, My Masters (1605), which introduced copied from discoveries at Herculaneum.” In
Sir Bounteous Progress, a lively country 1900 Beerbohm TREE set live rabbits to run
gentleman who is generous to all except his across the stage during the woodland scenes at
heir Dick Follywit, and A Chaste Maid in his theatre, Her Majesty’s. By contrast, Peter
Cheapside (1619), which satirized ordinary BROOK’s celebrated 1970 production for the
Londoners. Other works include the tragedy RSC used a plain white setting, placing the
WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN (1621) and the actors on trapezes, swings, and other such
political satire A Game of Chess (1624), about devices. It enjoyed the longest tour of any RSC
the futile efforts to unite the royal houses of production, with performances in 13 countries
England (represented by the White Knight) in 1972–73.
and Spain (the Black Knight):
The White Knight, with wit- Mikado, The GILBERT AND SULLIVAN’s
wonderous strength popular comic opera with a Japanese theme;
And circumspective prudency, subtitled The Town of Titipu, it opened in
Gives check-mate by discovery 1885 at the Savoy Theatre. The subject matter
To the Black Knight… is said to have suggested itself to Gilbert when
The play drew huge crowds to the Globe an ornamental Japanese sword fell from
Theatre but the Spanish ambassador protested the wall of his library. Sullivan, who had
and James I had A Game of Chess banned after announced his intention of writing no more
only nine performances. It proved equally comic operas, was persuaded to relent when
popular in print. he saw the libretto.
The opera traces the fate of Nanki-Poo,
Midsummer Night’s Dream, A the son of the Mikado (emperor), who has
SHAKESPEARE’s comedy of fairy magic and disguised himself as a minstrel in order to woo
romantic entanglements; it was probably Yum-Yum, the ward of Ko-Ko, the Lord High
written in 1595 and performed at about this Executioner. Unfortunately Ko-Ko intends
time in London. to marry her himself. The Mikado has
Having been forbidden to marry, the complained to Ko-Ko about the lack of
lovers Hermia and Lysander flee from the
executions, so, unaware of Nanki-Poo’s true
Athenian court to the forest of the Fairy King,
identity, he agrees to let him marry Yum-Yum
OBERON; they are followed by Demetrius, who
as long as he consents to be executed for the
also loves Hermia, and Helena, who loves
Mikado’s visit a month later. When Ko-Ko
Demetrius. Oberon, who has fallen out with
realizes that according to the law Yum-Yum
his Queen, TITANIA, orders the spirit PUCK to
sprinkle a magic potion on her eyes so that she must also die (by being buried alive) he draws
will fall in love with the first creature she sees up a certificate saying the execution has already
on waking. This turns out to be one of a taken place. When the Mikado visits and asks
troupe of amateur players, BOTTOM THE about Nanki-Poo, his lost son, the shocked
WEAVER, whom Puck has also bewitched,
Ko-Ko brings the boy back from the dead.
replacing his head with that of an ass. Puck In 1907 performances of The Mikado were
also uses the potion to cause multiple banned by the Lord Chamberlain during a
confusions amongst the young lovers, until visit by the Japanese Prince Fushimi. It was felt
Oberon eventually orders him to undo the that Gilbert’s depiction of Japanese judicial
damage. The last act includes the amateur procedures might give offence:
theatricals of the Athenian artisans, as To sit in silence in a dull, dark dock,
presented at the wedding of Duke Theseus In a pestilential prison, with a life-long
(see PYRAMUS AND THISBE). lock,
One of the most continuously popular of Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp
Shakespeare’s plays, the Dream has been staged shock,
 mime 331

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a winner and a world-famous sex symbol (whose
big black block! brain had been described by Billy Wilder as
The phrase short sharp shock was used in being “…like a Swiss cheese, full of holes”).
1983 by William Whitelaw (then Home Miller wrote the screenplay for Monroe’s last
Secretary) to promote a system of harsher film, The Misfits (1961).
punishment for young offenders. Miller’s later plays include The Price
(1968), The Archbishop’s Ceiling (1977),
Miles Gloriosus A stock character of the Playing for Time (1981), The Ride Down Mt
Greek NEW COMEDY, a braggart soldier who Morgan (1991), and Broken Glass (1994).
proves to be a coward. He appears in later
I am simply asking for a theatre in
Roman plays, including those by Plautus, and
which an adult who wants to live can
in the Commedia dell’arte as Il CAPITANO. The
find plays that will heighten his
Miles Gloriosus also provided the basis for
awareness of what living in our time
various characters of Elizabethan and Jacobean
involves.
comedy, including Shakespeare’s FALSTAFF,
ARTHUR MILLER
PISTOL, and PAROLLES.
Miller, Max See CHEEKY CHAPPIE.
Miller, Arthur (1915–2005) US
dramatist, considered one of the most Mills, Sir John (Lewis Ernest Watts;
significant of the 20th century. Born into a 1908–2005) British actor who began in
Jewish New York family that suffered badly musicals before diversifying into both comedy
during the Depression of the 1930s, he held and serious drama, as well as making more
various odd jobs after leaving school, enabling than 100 films. He changed his name while
him to pay for a course on journalism at the still a schoolboy, because it was “too sissy”.
University of Michigan. Here he started Mills was inspired to go on the stage by his
writing. Miller’s first successful play, the older sister Annette, who had revived the
Ibsenesque ALL MY SONS, was produced in Charleston in New York in the 1920s (and
1947; like his later plays, this examination later partnered Muffin the Mule on British
of the private and public guilt of a man television). He made his debut in 1929 as a
responsible for producing faulty war materials chorus boy at the London Hippodrome. Two
stressed the need for self-knowledge and a true years later he starred in the first production of
sense of values. The same year saw the Coward’s CAVALCADE, becoming the first actor
production of DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1947), to sing ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’. Laurence
the Pulitzer-Prize-winning tragedy of US Olivier subsequently made arrangements for
middle-class life that established Miller’s him to play Hamlet and Richard III at the Old
reputation as a great modern playwright. This Vic, but World War II intervened. Olivier
reputation was consolidated by THE CRUCIBLE later directed him in such serious works as
(1953), a play about the 17th-century Salem Tyrone Guthrie’s Top of the Ladder (1949).
witch trials that was clearly relevant to the Mills first appeared on Broadway in 1961,
anticommunist witchhunts of the 1950s. playing T. E. Lawrence in Terence Rattigan’s
Miller was himself questioned by the Un- ROSS. He was paralysed by stage-fright but
American Activities Committee, before which Olivier built up his confidence, telling him to
he refused to divulge the names of people said peek through the curtain 15 minutes before
to have attended a communist writers’ group; the performance and whisper to the audience,
his conviction for contempt was quashed on “You lucky people – you’ll find it impossible
appeal. to take your eyes off me!”
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE and A Memory of Mills’s wife, Mary Hayley Bell
Two Mondays were staged together as a double- (1911–2005), was a playwright while his
bill in 1955. AFTER THE FALL (1964), a painful daughters Juliet Mills (1941– ) and Hayley
examination of a failed relationship, reflected Mills (1946– ) are both actresses.
some of the unhappiness of Miller’s highly
publicized marriage (1955–60) to Marilyn mime A wordless form of entertainment, in
Monroe. During their marriage the world’s which movement and gesture are used to
press had catered extensively to its readers communicate. The term comes from the
curiosity about this unlikely relationship Greek word mimos, meaning imitator. Early
between a Jewish intellectual Pulitzer Prize- Greek mime is thought to have originated in
332 mimodrame

about 581 BC in Megara; it had some basic mimodrame A type of drama without
dialogue but emphasized physical action. words that became fashionable in France after
Surviving examples of Greek mime are mainly the Revolution. It was popularized at the
burlesques of myths or satirical playlets about Cirque Olympique, Paris.
domestic situations.
Small troupes of Greek mime artists Minna von Barnhelm A play by
probably performed at banquets in the 5th Gotthold Ephraim LESSING, first staged in
century BC, making them the earliest known 1767 in Hamburg, that ushered in a new era
professional entertainers. The troupes included of German comedy with its lively dialogue and
women, many of whom were also prostitutes. in-depth characterization. Set in the aftermath
The performers wore distinctive costumes but of the Seven Years’ Wear, the play deals with
no masks; mime performers were never the unfair dismissal of an army officer, who
admitted to membership of the Artists of decides that he can no longer marry his fiancée
DIONYSUS. In Greek southern Italy a type of because of his Prussian sense of honour.
mime play known as the PHLYAX became minstrel See GOLIARD; JONGLEUR;
popular. TROUBADORS.
The earliest mime artist known to us by
name was the Roman Livius Andronicus minstrel show An indigenous US
(284–204 BC). According to tradition, he entertainment consisting of lively songs,
turned to mime when his voice failed after a sentimental ballads, comic routines, and soft-
series of performances. In Imperial times the shoe dancing, performed by White artistes in
mimus, a type of bawdy knockabout farce, blackface. It dominated the popular stage in
and the performances of the lascivious America from 1840 to 1880. The songs and
PANTOMIMUS became popular. The former antics were based on stereotyped notions of
often involved displays of NUDITY and Blacks from the US South. Wearing costumes
sometimes included real on-stage executions. of striped trousers and waistcoats with tall
The licentiousness and anti-Christian satire white hats, the performers would sit in a
of these performances led to the Church semicircle with banjos, tambourines, bones,
excommunicating all mime performers in the and other instruments. Besides music, there
5th century AD. was witty wrangling between the white-faced
Many elements of the Roman pantomime master-of-ceremonies, Mr Interlocutor, and
survived in the 16th-century COMMEDIA the two ‘end-men’, Mr Tambo and Mr Bones.
DELL’ARTE, which was in turn the main source Speciality acts included the stump speech, the
of modern mime. In England the dumb show, wench impersonation, and the plantation
a section of a play performed without words, sketch.
was popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Minstrel shows descended directly from
periods but almost disappeared after 1620. the popular performances of T. D. Rice
HAMLET (1600) includes a dumb show enacted (known as Jim Crow), who in 1828 began to
as part of the play-within-a-play, while sing Negro patter songs, play the banjo, and
Webster’s THE WHITE DEVIL (1612) features perform burlesques of Shakespeare and opera,
two dumb shows. while imitating the idiosyncracies of an elderly
Modern mime is usually performed to Black man he knew in Baltimore. Among the
music and without props (although they may most popular troupes were Bryant’s Minstrels,
be used). Many of its conventions were devised who gave the South its unofficial anthem,
in the early 19th century by the great ‘DIXIE’, and the CHRISTY MINSTRELS, who once
French Pierrot Jean-Gaspard Deburau (see gave 2500 performances in one season in New
BAPTISTE). Another Pierrot, Étienne Decroux York.
(1898–1991) was sometimes known as ‘the After the Civil War, competition from
father of modern mime’ because he developed VARIETY encouraged the minstrel masters to
a systematic language of gesture for the genre. make their shows more professional and
Other famous French mimes include Jean- spectacular: in 1878 J. H. Havelry combined
Louis BARRAULT, who played the part of four troupes into his United Mastodon
Deburau in Baptiste (1946) and the film Les Minstrels. The first real Blacks to appear in
enfants du paradis (1945), and Marcel minstrel shows were Haverly’s Coloured
MARCEAU. Minstrels. Although the genre began to
 Misérables, Les 333

decline before the turn of the century, US about the hypocrisy of polite society, first
entertainment remained influenced by the produced in 1666 in Paris. The bitterness of
minstrel show and those performers trained in the play is thought to reflect the unhappiness
it, such as Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor. of Molière’s marriage to the actress, Armande
Complaints about the insulting caricatures of Béjart (1641–1700), who was 20 years his
Blacks presented by the shows gathered pace junior; the role of the insincere Célimène was
with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in created for her.
the 1950s and 60s, leading to the genre’s The misanthrope of the title is Alceste, a
demise. man blind to his own frailties but so disgusted
Britain had its own minstrel troupes, who with the hypocrisy of his contemporaries that
played at St James Hall, Piccadilly, from 1859 he determines to reject society altogether.
to 1904, the most popular being the Moore Unfortunately, he falls in love with Célimène,
and Burgess Minstrels, The Mohawks, and one of the most artificial and insincere women
Sam Hague’s Minstrels. In the 1960s the in Paris, who enjoys playing off Alceste and
Black-and-White Minstrel Show became a a rival. When Alceste decides to renounce
fixture on television and at the Victoria Palace, polite society and go into solitary exile in the
London. The company’s reformation in 1992 countryside, Célimène says that she will marry
caused much controversy, despite their him as long as they can live in Paris. Alceste
abandonment of blackface. rejects this and, at the play’s end, leaves for the
country followed by friends who hope to
miracle play In medieval England, a change his mind.
term used interchangeably with MYSTERY PLAY. Modern English-language adaptations
Elsewhere in Europe it meant a play depicting include those by Martin Crimp (1999) and
the life and martyrdom of a saint and the Ranjit Bolt (2008).
miracles he or she had performed. The most
popular subjects were legends associated with mise en scène (French: setting on stage)
the Virgin Mary and St Nicholas. Cathedrals The stage setting of a play, including the
and abbeys would often perform such a play scenery, properties, etc., and the general
on the feast day of their patron saint. In physical arrangement of the production. It is
England plays of this kind were known as also used metaphorically to mean the setting in
saints’ plays. Most of the English saints’ plays which an event occurs.
were destroyed during the Reformation but
many survived in France. Miser, The MOLIÈRE’s comedy about the
evils of greed and selfishness. The play,
Misalliance George Bernard SHAW’s one- inspired by Plautus’s Aulularia, was first
act comedy, first produced in 1910 at the produced in Paris in 1668, with Molière’s
Duke of York’s Theatre, London. The fast- young wife, Armande Béjart playing the part of
paced and rather strange story focuses on Elise. It has remained popular.
Hypatia Tarleton, a young woman who seeks The plot concerns a rich miser, Harpagon,
excitement to enliven the monotony of her life. who opposes the marriage of his daughter,
Hypatia seems set to wed Bentley Summerhays Elise, to his steward, Valere. He, himself,
for his social position until the day an aircraft intends to marry his pretty neighbour
crashes into the garden. From the wreckage Mariane, unaware that his son, Cleante, is in
emerge Joseph Percival and the beautiful love with her. To prevent this disaster,
acrobat Lina Szczepanowska. Hypatia falls Cleante’s servant steals Harpagon’s gold,
in love with Joseph, despite her father’s holding it as a ransom until he breaks off the
disapproval, and Bentley is smitten by Lina. As match. Harpagon meanwhile discovers that
always, Shaw mixes social comment with the Mariane and Valere are the long-lost children
humour, here most notably in the speeches of of his friend, Seigneur Anselm. He allows his
a demented gunman who arrives to kill children to marry their sweethearts and
Hypatia’s father for seducing his mother. Some recovers his gold.
recent critics see the play as an anticipation of
the work of IONESCO and the Theatre of the Misérables, Les The musical adaptation
ABSURD.
of Victor HUGO’s 1862 novel by Alain Boublil
(book), Claude-Michel Schönberg (music),
Misanthrope, The MOLIÈRE’s comedy and Herbert Kretzmer (English lyrics); the
334 Miss Julie

London production has now (2010) run for 25 during the collapse of his first marriage. Miss
years, making it the longest-running musical in Julie is the daughter of a Swedish count and
history. his working-class feminist wife. The tension
Les Misérables began life in 1980 as a between her parents has made the sensual girl
concept album based on Hugo’s epic tale of wary of love, but this changes when she
love and pursuit in the Paris underworld. The celebrates Midsummer Night with the family
first live version, at a sports stadium in Paris, servants and is seduced by an ambitious
was poorly received by both critics and footman, Jean. When Julie makes it clear that
audiences, but came to the attention of she regrets the incident, Jean reacts with
impresario Cameron MACKINTOSH, who deliberate cruelty, driving her to suicide.
conceived the idea of a fully dramatized After Miss Julie, a reworking of the story by
London production. To realize this plan, he Patrick Marber in which the action is updated
called in the RSC’s Trevor NUNN, with whom to England in 1945, was presented at the
he had previously worked on Cats (1981). Donmar Warehouse in 2003.
With John Caird, his collaborator on the
RSC’s Nicholas Nickleby (1980), Nunn Mistinguett The stage name of the
radically reworked the show to create “a sense French actress and singer Jeanne-Marie
of perpetual motion”. It opened at the Bourgeois (1873–1956). Mistinguett was a star
Barbican in 1985, with a cast that combined of the music halls of Paris between the wars,
RSC regulars with rising talents of the musical notably the MOULIN ROUGE and the Folies-
stage (notably Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean Bergère, where she danced and sang with
and Frances Ruffelle as Eponine). After eight Maurice CHEVALIER. She also performed in
sold-out weeks, a somewhat streamlined comedy. Mistinguett was famous for her
version transferred to the Palace Theatre, spectacular hats, her elaborate costumes, and
where it played to packed houses until 2004; it her long shapely legs, which were said to be
continues to run at the smaller Queen’s insured for a huge sum of money.
Theatre. Although never a critical favourite,
Mitre Tavern The name of three London
Les Misérables enjoyed a similar triumph on
inns with literary and theatrical connections.
Broadway, where it notched up 6680
The Mitre Tavern in Wood Street was
performances and was revived (2006–08) only
used by Ben JONSON as the setting for scenes in
three years after the first production closed.
Bartholomew Fair and Every Man in His
‘Les Mis’ has now been seen by an estimated 55
Humour; subsequent visitors included Samuel
million people in 38 countries; ironically, the
Pepys. The building was destroyed in the
one city in which it failed to run was Paris.
Great Fire of 1666.
Although the idea of a musical coproduction
In the late 17th century the Mitre Tavern
with a West End producer had originally
in St James’s Market was run by a Mrs Voss,
raised some eyebrows at the RSC, the show has
the aunt of Anne OLDFIELD. The playwright
now earned the company well over £20
million, ensuring its financial survival through George Farquhar was impressed when he heard
difficult times. Anne rehearsing passages from The Scornful
The team of Boublil, Schönberg, and Lady by Beaumont and Fletcher while she was
Mackintosh went on to enjoy a second massive working behind the bar; they subsequently
hit with Miss Saigon (1989). became lovers. Anne’s mother mentioned
Farquhar’s admiration for her daughter to
Miss Julie A one-act play by August another guest, John Vanbrugh, who – anxious
STRINDBERG, first performed in 1889 in not to lose such a promising talent to a rival –
Copenhagen and described by the author as found her work at Covent Garden. By the time
“the Swedish drama’s first naturalistic of her death in 1730 Anne Oldfield was the
tragedy.” Strindberg’s lengthy preface is one of most famous actress in the country.
the most important statements of 19th-century The Mitre Tavern in Mitre Court, Fleet
NATURALISM. Street, was a meeting-place for Dr Johnson,
The plot, about a fatal sexual liaison within Oliver GOLDSMITH, and other figures from the
a decaying aristocratic household, gives literary world of the time. It was here that
Strindberg (a noted misogynist) ample scope Johnson made his famous remark that a seat in
to deplore female sexuality in particular and a tavern is “the throne of human felicity.” The
human nature in general. The play was written building was demolished in 1829.
 Molière 335

mixed media The combined use of live manager. The son of a wealthy upholsterer in
action, video, photography, music, and the service of the king, the young Jean-Baptiste
animation in an artistic or educational was expected to take his father’s place at the
presentation. The earliest mixed-media court. Instead, at the age of 21, he became
presentations included the documentary involved with an acting family, the Béjarts,
dramas presented in the 1930s by the LIVING turning his back on his father’s business and
NEWSPAPERs; later examples included the changing his name to Molière. With the
popular musical OH, WHAT A LOVELY WAR! Béjarts, Molière attempted to found a new
(1963). theatre company in Paris; the result was a short
lived enterprise called the Illustre-Théâtre,
Mnouchkine, Ariane (1939– )
French theatre director, noted for her which ran into debt as early as 1645, leading to
commitment to COLLECTIVE CREATION. a brief spell in a debtor’s prison for Molière.
Mnouchkine studied in Paris and Oxford and Upon his release, Molière and a few other
travelled extensively around the Orient before members of the now defunct company
returning to France to form the Théâtre du (including the Béjarts’ eldest daughter
Soleil in 1964. The company came to public Madeleine, with whom Molière was in love)
attention in 1967 with a highly successful headed for the provinces and joined forces
production of Arnold Wesker’s The Kitchen. A with a touring troupe. He spent the next 13
first attempt at collective creation, The Clowns years in almost constant touring, mainly
(1969), was followed in 1970 by 1789, an playing farces inspired by the COMMEDIA
epic retelling of the French revolution as DELL’ARTE. It was during these years in the
seen through the eyes of ordinary people. provinces that Molière wrote his first plays
The play, which was created through group such as L’Étourdi ou les Contretemps (1655)
improvisation backed by historical research, and De Dépit amoureaux (1656).
involved actors playing multiple roles and the In 1658 the company returned to Paris
use of no less than five stages. 1789 was and obtained, through the patronage of the
followed by 1793 (1972), a similar work king’s brother, a command performance
dealing with the Terror. In 1972 the company before Louis XIV. The company performed
was offered cheap premises in the form of a two works, a tragedy by Corneille and
disused munitions warehouse at a defunct one of Molière’s own farces, LE DOCTEUR
army training ground. At this new base the AMOUREAUX, which was an instant success and
company presented another collaborative led to the king providing them with the use of
work, The Golden Age (1975) before the Salle du PETIT-BOURBON on a time-share
disbanding a year later. Mnouchkine and some arrangement with an Italian commedia
other members of the troupe subsequently company. The following year Molière enjoyed
made the film Molière (1978), exploring the his first Paris success with LES PRÉCIEUSES
way in which his theatre company managed to RIDICULES. Following the demolition of the
live and work together for so long. Petit-Bourbon in 1661, Molière and his
In 1979 the Théâtre du Soleil regrouped company were installed the following year at
and staged Mephisto, Mnouchkine’s adaptation the Palais-Royal.
of the Klaus Mann novel. Subsequent In 1662 Molière married Armande Béjart,
productions have included a number of the younger sister of Madeleine, who was
Shakespearean plays presented using oriental almost 20 years his junior. At the time of the
staging conventions, The King of Cambodia marriage there was much gossip, most of it
(1983), a play about Prince Sihanouk by spread by theatrical rivals, to the effect that
Hélène Cixous, and Les Atrides (1992), a cycle
Armande was actually Molière’s own daughter
of Greek tragedies consisting of Euripides’s
by Madeleine. That same year saw the
Iphigenia in Aulis and Aeschylus’s Oresteia
production of Molière’s first full-length
trilogy. The Théâtre du Soleil is still run on a
comedy, THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES, which
firmly egalitarian basis; until quite recently
Mnouchkine herself could sometimes be found encountered a storm of criticism from those
collecting tickets on the door. who considered the work to be immoral. The
following year much of the gossip was silenced
Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin; when the king commissioned Molière to
1622–73) French playwright and actor- write L’IMPROMPTU DE VERSAILLES (1663), in
336 Molière, le petit

which the playwright ridiculed his rivals and music (when they were sometimes called
detractors. MELODRAMAs), these short pieces were usually
No less controversial were Molière’s next presented as part of the triple bills then
two plays, TARTUFFE (1664) and DON JUAN fashionable. The form was popularized by the
(1665). Following its first production Tartuffe playwright and actor Johann Christian Brandes
was withheld from performance until 1667, (1735–99). Also popular was the DUOLOGUE
whereupon it was denounced for immorality for two actors; both forms were often extracts
by the Church and banned until 1669. from longer plays in the manner of the English
Similarly Don Juan was withdrawn from the DROLL.
stage following its first production and not
performed again until after Molière’s death. Montdory Stage name of the French actor
However, successful productions followed of Guillaume des Gilberts (1594–1651), who in
THE MISANTHROPE (1666), possibly Molière’s
1636 was suddenly afflicted with paralysis of
greatest play, THE MISER (1668), Les Fourberies the tongue while performing before Cardinal
de Scapin (1671), Les Femmes savantes (1672), Richelieu in Tristan’s La Mariane. He was
and LE MALADE IMAGINAIRE (1672). It was forced to retire from the stage and did not
speak again for 14 years.
during an early performance of Le Malade
At the time of this tragedy, Montdory was
imaginaire that Molière, playing the role of the
the most famous actor in France, the first to be
hypochondriac, was seized by a real coughing
known by name throughout the country.
fit and collapsed; he died hours later.
Although his declamatory style was most
Molière’s main achievement was in raising
suitable for tragedy, his first success was in
the standard of French comedy to a level
CORNEILLE’s comedy Mélite (1630). Seven
commensurate with French tragedy. In doing
years later he enjoyed one of his greatest
so he created a body of work that would
triumphs when he created the role of Rodrigue
continue to be performed for the next three
in Corneille’s tragicomedy LE CID. Montdory
centuries, providing generation after
founded the Théâtre du Marais where he built
generation of performers with some of their
up an excellent company whom he trained and
finest roles.
directed. After his enforced retirement, the
Molière, le petit The nickname of Marais never regained its former reputation.
the French actor Jean-Baptiste Raisin
Montez, Lola (Maria Dolores Eliza
(1655–93), alluding to his acclaimed comedy
Rosanna Gilbert; 1821–61) Irish dancer,
performances at the HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE.
actress, and beauty, who became the most
With his wife Fanchon (Françoise Pitel de
notorious femme fatale of her era. The legend
Longchamp; 1661–1721) he was a founding
began somewhat inauspiciously in 1843, when
member of the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE in 1680. ‘Lola Montez, Spanish dancer’ made a
After he died, Fanchon became the mistress of singularly inept and ill-received debut before
the Dauphin, by whom she had two daughters. the London public. It was soon revealed that
Momus The Greek god of mockery and ‘Lola’ was in fact the estranged wife of a
ridicule, and subsequently of clowns, who was Lieutenant James, an officer in the Indian
banished from heaven for criticizing the other Army. Thereafter Lola spent several years
gods. When Zeus created man, Momus drifting around the European capitals, where
complained that he should have put a window she acquired numerous lovers (including Franz
in his chest, so that men could look into each Liszt and Alexander Dumas) and even more
other’s hearts. Momus frequently appeared as a admirers. Her most celebrated liaison,
character in the MASQUE and HARLEQUINADE. however, was with King Ludwig I of Bavaria,
In the 19th century the name was often used as whose mistress she became in 1846. The very
a synonym for clown; Joseph GRIMALDI, for public nature of this affair – for two years she
instance, called himself “the once Merry effectively set Ludwig’s foreign and domestic
Momus.” policy – led to his deposition in 1848 and Lola
fled abroad, eventually reaching America. Her
monodrama A type of play featuring a New York debut in Betley the Tyrolean (1851)
single speaking character that developed in late was followed a year later by an appearance in
18th-century Germany; other silent characters C. P. T. Ware’s Lola Montes [sic] in Bavaria, a
sometimes appeared. Often accompanied by brazen attempt to cash in on her infamous
 morality play 337

past. She then toured the Gold Rush country Beliaev walks through the door, however, he
and California with her ‘spider dance’, which unwittingly captures the hearts of Yslaev’s wife
was so risqué that it even shocked liberal San Natalia, his ward Vera, and the attractive maid
Francisco. While out West she took an interest Katia. Life becomes so complicated within the
in a young miner’s daughter, Charlotte household that Vera decides to marry an old
Crabtree (1847–1924), and began training her wealthy neighbour, Katia postpones her
for a career on the stage. After beginning as a engagement to another servant, and Beliaev
child actress Charlotte became a leading eventually resigns.
BURLESQUE comedienne as Lotta Crabtree,
making her New York debut in 1865. In her Moon for the Misbegotten, A A
later years Montez lectured on fashion and play by Eugene O’NEILL the last of his works to
spiritualism, to which she had been converted. be staged in his lifetime. It was first performed
She died in poverty. in out-of-town trials in 1947 and did not open
on Broadway until ten years later. Jason
Montfleury (Zacharie Jacob; c. 1600–67) Robards Jr., who during his career played more
French actor, who performed in tragedies at O’Neill leads than any other actor, starred as
the HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE from the late 1630s James Tyrone Jr. He returned to the role at
onwards. Montfleury, who was frequently New York’s Morosco Theatre in 1973, a year
ridiculed for his extreme corpulence and his
after a car accident had disfigured his face,
declamatory style of acting, is now mainly
requiring three operations and $50,000 to
remembered for his feud with MOLIÈRE in
rebuild it.
the 1660s. When the playwright married a
The play, a sequel to LONG DAY’S JOURNEY
much younger woman Montfleury accused
INTO NIGHT, depicts the continuing self-
Molière, before the king, of marrying his own
illegitimate daughter by a former lover. The destruction of Jim Tyrone, the alcoholic son in
king showed his faith in Molière’s innocence the earlier play, who is now the owner of a
by acting as godfather to the couple’s first Connecticut farm. The other major characters
child. Molière himself struck back by writing are Phil Hogan, a farmer whose bullying has
L’IMPROMPTU DE VERSAILLES (1663), which driven his three sons off the land, and Josie, his
cruelly parodies Montfleury and his company. rough-hewn daughter, who loves Jim.
Montfleury was also unpopular with moral interlude In the 16th-century
Cyrano de Bergerac, who, according to theatre, a short drama intended both to
legend, once interrupted the actor in mid
entertain and to edify. It developed from the
performance and ordered him off the stage
medieval MORALITY PLAY but featured more
for his abominable overacting. The incident
humour; the personified vices of the earlier
appears in Rostand’s CYRANO DE BERGERAC.
genre often appear in the moral interlude as
Montfleury collapsed and died during a
realistic comic characters. Successful English
performance of Racine’s Andromaque, after
apparently bursting a blood vessel during a pieces included the anonymous Hickscorner
particularly emotionally charged scene. (c. 1513) and Wever’s Lusty Juventus (1550).
See INTERLUDE.
Month in the Country, A Ivan
TURGENEV’s psychological comedy of love
morality play In medieval Europe, a
pursued and evaded. It was written between type of allegorical drama in which personified
1848 and 1850 in Paris as The Student, but vices and virtues are usually shown struggling
censorship delayed its first performance in for the soul of Mankind. Morality dramas
Moscow until 1872. With its emphasis on began to appear in about 1400, the first
the motivation of its characters, the play important example being the English The
anticipates the drama of Chekhov. It is Castle of Perseverance (c. 1405). During the
considered Turgenev’s finest work for the stage later 15th century the genre overtook the
and was one of the plays made popular outside MYSTERY PLAY in popularity. Other well-known
Russia by STANISLAVSKY’s influential school of examples are the anonymous EVERYMAN
acting. (c. 1500), John Skelton’s Magnyfyence
The plot centres on a tutor, the young (c. 1520), and Sir David Lyndsay’s Ane
and naive Beliaev, who arrives at the estate Pleasant Satyre of the Thre Estaitis (1552). The
of Yslaev to educate his son. As soon as morality play developed into the MORAL
338 moresca

INTERLUDE during the later Tudor period. See English morris dancing was in danger of
also MEDIEVAL DRAMA. dying out until the folklorist Cecil Sharp led a
revival at the beginning of the 20th century.
moresca A dance-drama found in the The morris men wear white clothes decorated
Mediterranean region and in Central America. with small bells, flowers, and ribbons; they
The blend of Christian and Muslim influences hold white handkerchiefs or staves, which are
found in the dance is reflected in the name, struck together in some dances. The best-
which comes from a Spanish word for a Moor. known groups are those from the Cotswolds,
The English term MORRIS DANCE probably but other regions have their distinctive
derived from moresca, although the two forms traditions. Derbyshire morris dancers wear
have nothing in common. The moresca, which distinctive hats and are accompanied by a
is often performed at carnivals or local feasts, King and Queen and a black-faced clown;
contains a prologue, a drama, and a Lancashire groups once pulled a rush-cart
concluding sword-dance. The plot often while being driven on by a ‘whiffler’ carrying a
portrays legends or events from local history. whip. Some groups are accompanied by a joker
who bangs the heads of the audience with an
Morosco Theatre A former New York
inflated pig’s bladder on a stick. The dance was
theatre that presented the premieres of four
previously an all-male preserve but a number
Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Eugene O’Neill’s
of women’s groups now exist. See also HOBBY
BEYOND THE HORIZON (1920), George Kelly’s
HORSE.
Craig’s Wife (1925), Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF
A SALESMAN (1949), and Tennessee Williams’s then march these heathen company
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1955). towards the church and churchyard,
The theatre was built by the SHUBERT their pipers piping, drummers
BROTHERS and opened in 1917 with Canary thundering, their stumps dancing,
Cottage by Elmer Harris and Oliver Morosco, their bells jingling, their
after whom it was named. It started a vogue handkerchieves swinging about their
for mystery thrillers in 1920 by producing The heads like madmen, their hobby horses
Bat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery and other monsters skirmishing
Hopwood. Other hits have included Edwin amongst the throng…
PHILIP STUBBES: The Anatomie of Abuses
Meyer’s The Firebrand (1924), Gore Vidal’s
The Best Man (1960), and Arthur Kopit’s Oh (1583)
Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Mortimer, John (Clifford)
Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad. (1923–2009) British playwright, novelist, and
Many British plays have made a successful barrister, whose works often drew on his legal
transition from the West End to Broadway career. He is best known to the general public
via the Morosco, including works by Noel for his television series Rumpole of the Bailey.
Coward, Peter Shaffer, David Storey, Simon Mortimer’s first one-act plays, The Dock
Gray, Terence Rattigan, and Alan Ayckbourn. Brief and What Shall We Tell Caroline?, were
The Morosco Theatre was demolished in produced in 1957 as a double bill. His first
1982. full-length drama, The Wrong Side of the Park,
opened four years later at the Cambridge
morris dance A traditional English folk
Theatre. The moving autobiographical play A
dance. It is related to similar dances performed
Voyage Round My Father was first produced in
by the Basques of southern France, the
1971 at the Greenwich Theatre with Sir Alec
Calusari of Romania, and other ethnic groups
Guinness in the lead; a later television
in Europe and India. The name suggests
production starred Sir Laurence Olivier in the
Moorish influence (see MORESCA) and this may role of Mortimer’s blind father.
explain why some dancers perform with Mortimer also adapted several farces by the
blackened faces. The dance is often said to French playwright Georges FEYDEAU; these
have its origin in pre-Christian fertility rituals, include A Flea in Her Ear (1965) produced by
although the evidence for this is slender; the the National Theatre Company at the Old
English version seems to be more directly Vic, Cat Among the Pigeons (1969), and A
associated with local traditions surrounding Little Hotel on the Side (1984).
harvest and MAY DAY, with its ROBIN HOOD
folk theatre. Morton, Charles (1819–1904) British
 Moulin Rouge 339

pioneer of MUSIC HALL entertainment, who was into larger premises, retaining its existing base
known as the Father of the Halls. Born in and drama school. Since 1985 the two halves
Hackney, he became the landlord of the of the company have functioned virtually
Canterbury Tavern there in 1848 and independently of each other.
constructed a venue for entertainment on the
tavern’s skittle alley. This later became the Moscow Theatre of Drama and
famous CANTERBURY MUSIC HALL. Comedy See TAGANKA THEATRE.
In 1861 Morton opened the OXFORD Mother Courage and Her Children
MUSIC HALL in London, the first purpose- Bertolt BRECHT’s sombre play about individual
built music hall of its kind; he gave up the and collective responsibility during wartime.
Canterbury six years later. His skilful First produced in 1941 in Zürich, it was
management of his halls and the stars who revived after the war by Brecht’s own BERLINER
performed in them led to his being asked to ENSEMBLE, with his wife, Helene Weigel,
run and revitalize the faltering London playing Mother Courage. In Britain, the role
Pavilion in Westminster and the Tivoli Music provided a triumph for Judi Dench at the
Hall in the Strand (see TIV). Barbican Theatre in 1984 and for Diana Rigg
Moscow Art Theatre The world- at the National in 1995. US actresses to play
famous theatre in Moscow, founded as the role include Meryl Streep (2006).
a cooperative in 1898 by Konstantin The play, set in Germany during the
STANISLAVSKY, who oversaw staging and
Thirty Years’ War, was written just before
production, and the playwright and director World War II as a warning against the evils of
V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko (1859–1943), war profiteering. In performance, however, the
who was in charge of the administration. Its leading character tends to win the audience’s
aim was to produce works using the admiration as an indomitable survivor, rather
naturalistic style of acting that became than arousing their disgust as a profiteer.
Stanislavsky’s hallmark. Brecht is more successful in establishing
The opening production was Alexei the connection between small civilian
Tolstoy’s Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, a historical contributions to the war effort and great
drama about the son of Ivan the Terrible, military atrocities.
which was staged using authentic sets and The plot follows the career of Anna
costumes. Stanislavsky’s productions of Fierling, a Swedish army canteen worker, over
CHEKHOV were responsible for making the a period of 12 years. Although Anna intends to
playwright’s name and, less happily, for profit from the war, she is determined to keep
establishing the rather ponderous style of her three children (who haul her wagon) out of
presenting his plays that held sway until quite it. To her grief, her two sons are arrested on
recently. A successful revival of the THE various charges and executed, while her
SEAGULL in the theatre’s first year was followed daughter is shot dead by soldiers while trying
by productions of UNCLE VANYA (1899), THREE to warn the townspeople of an attack. In the
SISTERS (1901), and THE CHERRY ORCHARD play’s last scene Anna tenaciously carries on,
(1904); the last two were written specially for hauling the wagon herself in search of business
the theatre. Gorki’s masterpiece of naturalism amongst the warring troops.
THE LOWER DEPTHS had its first production
motion A type of puppet play that was
there in 1902. presented in Britain by travelling showmen in
The Moscow Art Theatre company the 16th and 17th centuries. The earlier
survived the revolution and civil war to tour motions were based on Bible stories;
Europe and America in 1922–23. Works Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale mentions “a
presented in the post-revolutionary era motion of the Prodigal Son.” Later subject
included plays by Vsevolod Ivanov and matter included tales from mythology, history,
Mikhail Bulgakov, whose The Days of Turbins and medieval romance.
(1926) proved an irritant to the Bolshevik
authorities. Bulgakov later satirized the theatre Moulin Rouge A famous cabaret and
in his banned novel Black Snow (1936). dance hall that was opened in 1889 in
During the Cold War period the theatre was Montmartre, Paris, by Joseph Oller and the
largely used as a showcase for Soviet cultural former butcher Charles Zidler. A giant
achievement. In 1973 the company moved windmill adorned the entrance, while the
340 Mourning Becomes Electra

garden used for outdoor dancing and summer Homecoming begins with Lavinia,
concerts had a hollow stucco elephant for O’Neill’s Electra figure, discovering that her
decoration. In 1903 a music-hall stage was mother, Christine Mannon, is having an affair.
built and the size of the dance-floor reduced. Christine sends her lover away but decides to
Although the cancan dance did not originate murder her husband when he comes back from
there, the Moulin Rouge was the first venue of the war. He returns with a weak heart and she
any size and respectability to present it. confesses her affair, hoping that the shock will
Celebrity dancers such as la Goulue and la induce a heart attack. When it does and he
Mome Fromage led a high-kicking chorus dies, Lavinia decides to murder her mother.
famous for their ability to perform the grand In The Hunted Lavinia’s brother, Orin
ecart (splits) and porte d’armes (holding the Mannon, returns from the war to find his
uplifted ankle head-high). Yvette Guilbert sang father dead. When Christine reestablishes
her sultry songs and Toulouse-Lautrec contact with her lover, Orin lies in wait and
captured the gaiety of the scene in his famous murders him. As a result, Christine commits
paintings and posters. MISTINGUETT, France’s suicide and Orin suffers a breakdown. Lavinia
leading star of music hall, was a regular promises to take care of him.
performer before World War I (later becoming In The Haunted Lavinia attempts to
part-proprietor for several years). arrange a marriage between Orin and his
After a fire in 1915 the Moulin Rouge was boyhood sweetheart, Hazel Niles, while she
rebuilt to offer both cancan and ballet as herself plans to wed Hazel’s brother, Peter.
dinner shows. Jacques-Charels revitalized its Orin, however, is still consumed with guilt
fortunes in the late 1920s with a series of over his mother’s death and kills himself.
risqué revues. The building subsequently Lavinia admits to Peter that she too has had an
became a cinema, but the Moulin Rouge affair, and he abandons her.
reopened as a cabaret venue in 1953. It now
continues to provide a popular tourist Mousetrap, The A murder mystery by
attraction, with the original cancan as one of Agatha CHRISTIE that has become the longest
several cabaret items, including a topless continuously running play in theatrical history.
chorus line. It opened at London’s Ambassadors Theatre in
1952 and ran there for 8862 performances
Mourning Becomes Electra A trilogy before transferring in 1974 to St Martin’s
of plays by Eugene O’NEILL, dealing with the Theatre, where it is still showing. It has
tragic cycle of love and revenge within a single been seen by more than 10 million people,
family. Often considered his masterpiece, the including nine British prime ministers and ten
work was first performed by the Theatre Guild US presidents. During the play’s run audiences
in 1931 in New York starring Alice Brady and are said to have consumed over 395 tons of ice
the Russian actress Alla Nazimova; the first cream and 80,000 gallons of drinks; backstage
London production was in 1937. The film staff are thought to have ironed around 100
version (1947) starred Rosalind Russell and miles of shirts.
Dame Judith Anderson, while an operatic Christie wrote the piece in one week in
adaptation of the play was produced in 1967 at 1947 as a 20-minute radio play called Three
the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Blind Mice, which was broadcast to mark the
The sequence of three plays (Homecoming, 80th birthday of Queen Mary. The BBC had
The Hunted, and The Haunted) is based on offered to broadcast anything the queen
AESCHYLUS’s great trilogy THE ORESTEIA, with wanted to hear, and she had requested a new
the action updated to New England at the end Christie play. As there was already a play called
of the Civil War. Although O’Neill himself felt Three Blind Mice, Christie’s son-in-law,
that the work lacked great language, it proved Anthony Hicks, suggested The Mousetrap as a
his most successful play. “It is uneven,” wrote title, this being an allusion to the play-within-
one reviewer, “but so are the Himalayas.” The a-play in Hamlet (III, ii). Initially The
critic Alexander Woollcott, however, described Mousetrap received poor reviews, but the
the work as “a grumbling and belated review of producer, Peter Cotes, and the gloomy cast,
the remorseless and venerated trilogy (i.e. The headed by Richard Attenborough and his wife
Oresteia) by the same sacred cow who wrote Sheila Sim, received encouragement from
Strange Interlude”. He later called it “that glum Christie who said: “Don’t worry children, I’m
three-decker.” sure we will get a nice little run out of it.” She
 Much Ado About Nothing 341

gave the play’s copyright to her grandson young woman whose expensive education was
Matthew as a tenth birthday present. paid for by a mother she hardly knows. When
The show’s longevity has owed much to its Mrs Warren finally visits her daughter she
popularity with US and other tourists to reveals that she made her wealth by running a
London. Cunningly, the producers banned brothel. Vivie is strangely impressed, but when
Broadway productions or any US road shows she tells her boyfriend, Frank, he abandons her
until the end of the London run. The ban also in disgust. Vivie finally rejects the opportunity
applies to Australia, but the play has been of a reconciliation with her mother, being
staged in 44 other countries in 24 languages. determined to make her own life.
The British film producers Eddie Small and
Much Ado About Nothing A comedy
Victor Saville paid £5,000 each for the film
by SHAKESPEARE, first performed in 1598–99
rights to The Mousetrap with a proviso that no
in London. It was revived in 1613 before
film could be made until the play finished its
James I with the title Benedick and Beatrice.
London run. Both Small and Saville are now
The action of the play arises from the visit of
dead.
Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, to Leonato,
In 1981 The Mousetrap became the first
Governor of Messina. He is travelling with his
West End play to be performed for an
malevolent half-brother, Don John, and the
audience made up entirely of deaf people,
noblemen BENEDICK and Claudio. The latter
being translated into sign language by falls in love with Leonato’s daughter, Hero.
interpreters at the side of the stage. In Don John and his follower Borachio convince
November 2002 the play celebrated its 50th Claudio that she has been unfaithful, and he
anniversary with a special performance in front publicly rejects her at their wedding ceremony.
of the Queen. Friar Francis persuades Hero to hide until he
moutons. Revenons à nos proves her innocence, and then reports that
moutons (French: Let us come back to she is dead. Finally Don John’s plot is
our sheep) A phrase used to mean ‘Let’s return uncovered, he is arrested, and the lovers are
to the subject’. It is taken from the 14th reunited.
century French comedy La Farce de Maître For most audiences, however, the main
Pathelin, in which a woollen draper accuses a action is totally overshadowed by the subplot,
shepherd of ill-treating his sheep. In telling his which concerns the “merry war” of wits
story he continually wanders off the subject between Benedick and BEATRICE, Leonato’s
and the judge has to pull him up repeatedly niece. The two, who have a history of
with “Mais, mon ami, revenons à nos moutons.” pretended antipathy, are finally tricked into
declaring their love for each other. The play
Mrs Pat Affectionate name for the British also includes the comic constable DOGBERRY, a
actress Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL. Born Beatrice part created by the clown William Kempe.
Stella Tanner, she eloped with Patrick In 1879 the first SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL
Campbell, an army officer, at the age of 19. THEATRE in Stratford-upon-Avon opened in
Campbell was killed in the Boer War (as was 1879 with a production of the play in which
their son) but she continued to use his name the cast was led by Barry Sullivan and Helen
professionally for the rest of her career. Faucit (in her last role). The theatre’s GREEN
ROOM had been beautifully decorated as a
Mrs Warren’s Profession A play by dressing room for Faucit and when Sullivan
George Bernard SHAW, written in 1893 and saw this he refused to appear unless he received
first performed in 1902 in a private theatre equal treatment. Charles Flower, who had
club production in New Haven. Its candid built the theatre, told his wife, “You, my dear,
approach to the subject of prostitution had must send across silver candlesticks, vases of
resulted in a ban by the LORD CHAMBERLAIN flowers, and a lace pincushion for Mr
and the play did not receive a public Sullivan.” Sullivan was mollified and the
performance in Britain until 1925. A 1905 production was a success.
production in New York was denounced as a Henry Irving and Ellen Terry gave famous
“dramatized stench” by the New York Sun and performances as Beatrice and Benedick in the
resulted in the arrest of the entire cast (see 1882 production at the Lyceum Theatre. In
COMSTOCKERY). 1906 all 22 members of the TERRY FAMILY
The story centres on Vivie Warren, a appeared in the play’s masked dance for Ellen’s
342 Mudie, Miss

Jubilee Matinee at Drury Lane. Sir John related to the earlier tradition of mumming or
GIELGUD directed and starred in a high guising (see MUMMER), there is no evidence for
Renaissance version at Stratford in 1949, while the Mummers’ Play proper before the mid
Franco Zeffirelli’s stunning production for the 1700s. Theories that the play is of ancient pre-
National Theatre in 1965 starred Maggie Christian origin are therefore dismissed by
SMITH and her then husband Robert Stephens. most modern scholars.
John Barton staged a British Raj version at The play was performed in the open air or
Stratford in 1976, with Judi Dench and in private houses, usually at Christmas and
Donald Sinden. Kenneth Branagh’s successful other winter festivals. In England many plays
film version, in which he starred with his wife featured St (or Sir, Prince, or King) George, a
Emma Thompson, was released in 1993. Crusader who is killed by a Turkish knight
and subsequently resurrected by a quack
Mudie, Miss See THEATRICAL doctor. On this basis, George is often said to
PHENOMENON, THE. be a Christianized version of an ancient spirit
mug In the theatre, to mug is to pull of vegetation and fertility, although most
exaggerated grimaces while acting. The phrase scholars are now highly sceptical of such
to mug up, meaning to study hard for an notions.
exam, etc., may also derive from the theatre, Variants of the standard Hero-Combat
where an actor, while making up his face or play, as it is termed by folklorists, include
‘mug’ would hurriedly read over his lines. the Paper Boys’ Play of Marshfield in
Gloucestershire, in which the performers dress
multiple setting In medieval drama, a in rags or torn paper, and (in some of its
convention whereby several different locations forms) the PACE-EGG PLAY of northwest
were represented on the stage at the same time. England. Scottish plays of this kind often
This practice originated with the LITURGICAL featured the hero Galatian or Golashans and
DRAMA, in which several ‘mansions’ or the mummers were therefore known as
performing areas were arranged about the goloshans. Other basic types are the Wooing
church. The convention survived until the Ceremony of the Midlands, in which the Fool
early 17th century on the Continent and in woos a man in women’s dress, and the Sword
English court masques, although the Play of northeast England, which may have
Elizabethan stage had dispensed with it. In evolved from a traditional sword dance.
France, the single set became standard with the Mummers’ plays are still performed at
advent of classical tragedy. The convention has Christmas in some villages in Britain and
sometimes been revived in the 20th century, Ireland.
for instance in the staging of John ARDEN’s
play Armstrong’s Last Goodnight (1964). Murder in the Cathedral T. S.
ELIOT’s verse play about the events leading to
mummer (1) In medieval and early the martyrdom (29 December 1170) of St
modern times, one of a band of performers Thomas à Becket. It was first staged in
who would dress in masks and fantastic Canterbury Cathedral, the scene of the
costumes and visit from door to door, murder, in 1935 with Robert Donat as Becket.
especially at Christmas. They were also known Usually considered Eliot’s most effective work
as guisers or guisards. The name may come for the stage, the play combines elements of
from German Mumme, meaning mask. Greek tragedy and the medieval MORALITY
(2) By extension, a contemptuous name PLAY. It has often been revived; Richard Pasco
for an actor. assumed the title role in a successful 1972
We call strolling acting ‘mumming’, production.
and the actors ‘mummers’. All The play begins with the CHORUS of the
spouting is mumming. poor women of Canterbury giving voice to
HENRY MAYHEW: London Labour
their sense of expectation and dread. Becket
(1861) returns from seven years of exile to resume his
confrontation with King Henry II, who is
Mummers’ Play or Mumming Play seeking to control the Church. After refusing
A type of seasonal folk play that was to compromise and giving himself up to God’s
widespread in Britain and Ireland until the will, Becket is accused by the king’s knights of
early 20th century. Although it is doubtless treason. The Chorus despairs as Becket refuses
 musical 343

to go back into exile and is consequently Wake (1997), The House (2000), and The Alice
murdered by the knights. After the killing the Trilogy (2005), a set of three short plays about
assassins take it in turns to justify their actions the same woman at the ages of 25, 40, and 50.
in a series of direct addresses to the audience. Although Murphy’s plays remain relatively
The play ends with the Chorus and priests little known outside his homeland, his work
praising God for Becket’s martyrdom and for has proved perhaps the most important
the benefits it will bring to the Church. influence on the younger generation of Irish
dramatists that includes Frank MCGUINNESS
Murphy, Tom (1935– ) Prolific Irish and Conor MCPHERSON.
playwright, whose works vary widely in style.
The son of a carpenter, Murphy grew up in a Muses In Greek mythology, the nine
small town in Co. Galway and began to write goddesses of the arts. The three associated with
plays while teaching metalwork at a local drama were Melpomene, the muse of tragedy,
school. In 1960 his first full-length piece, A usually depicted as holding a tragic mask and
Whistle in the Dark, was rejected by the Abbey wearing a cothurnus (see BUSKIN); Thalia, the
Theatre for its unsparing depiction of a violent muse of comedy, holding a comic mask; and
and bigoted family of Irish emigrants living in Terpsichore, the muse of dancing and the
the English Midlands. Murphy then submitted choral songs that accompanied it, holding a
the play to London’s Theatre Royal, Stratford lyre. Ancient authors would invoke the Muses,
East, which staged it amidst some controversy asking for inspiration and artistic success; later
in 1961 (Kenneth TYNAN wrote approvingly of this invocation became a literary and dramatic
“the most uninhibited display of brutality the convention.
London theatre has ever witnessed”). When
the play went on to become a West End hit, musical or musical comedy A stage
Murphy moved to London and became a entertainment or film that tells a story using
full-time writer. His next play, Famine, a a mixture of dialogue, songs, and dance
somewhat Brechtian treatment of the potato routines. Probably the single most impressive
famine of the 1840s, was accepted by the contribution made by BROADWAY to the
Abbey in 1966 and seen at London’s Royal modern theatre, the musical developed from
Court in 1969. Murphy’s openness to a wide many sources, including vaudeville, revue,
range of influences was further shown by The melodrama, and operetta.
Fooleen: a Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s The first work to combine these influences
Assistant (1969), which combines naturalism to create a recognizably new genre was William
and expressionism, and The Morning After Wheatley’s spectacular ballet-melodrama THE
Optimism (1971), a surreal fairytale. Having BLACK CROOK, first produced in New York in
returned to Ireland in the early 1970s, Murphy 1866. George EDWARDES’s In Town, produced
again shocked Irish sensibilities with The at his old Gaiety Theatre, London, in 1892, is
Sanctuary Lamp, an antireligious polemic that usually considered the first British musical.
provoked mass walkouts when staged by the Edwardes developed a highly successful
Abbey in 1975. formula that involved the use of a sketchy plot
Murphy’s plays of the 1980s include two as a framework for memorable songs and
audacious pieces that are frequently considered expensive production numbers featuring
his greatest: The Gigli Concert (1983), in which attractive chorus girls (see GAIETY GIRL).
a half-crazed millionaire’s ambition to sing like In the early 20th century US musicals
Gigli becomes a symbol of the human spirit, remained heavily indebted to the tradition of
and Bailegangaire (1985), a poignant fable in European operetta. After World War I,
which an old woman tells her granddaughters however, a more energetic and sophisticated,
a never-finished tale about a ‘laughing but still essentially lightweight, type of show
contest’ between two villages. By contrast, was pioneered by such writers as Irving BERLIN,
Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) marked Cole PORTER, the GERSHWIN brothers, and
a return to the severest naturalism; the action is Rodgers and Hart. In 1928 Jerome Kern’s
confined to a single bar room and unfolds in SHOW BOAT gave a new prominence to plot
real time, with the story repeatedly held up for and demonstrated that the musical could
the buying and drinking of alcohol (and encompass more serious themes.
consequent toilet breaks). More recent plays These developments were taken further in
have included The Patriot Game (1991), The RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’s landmark
344 music hall

production OKLAHOMA! (1943). The same He went on to open the OXFORD MUSIC HALL
combination of an exciting plot, memorable in 1861 and ran several others.
songs, vigorous professional dancing, and The music halls flourished at the turn of
extravagant costumes and sets characterized the century, when leading performers included
their subsequent hits CAROUSEL (1945), and Harry LAUDER, Marie LLOYD, Dan LENO,
SOUTH PACIFIC (1949). The tradition they had LITTLE TICH, and George Robey. After World
established was continued by Lerner and War I new media such as films, radio, and,
Loewe in international successes such as MY later, television, helped to bring about their
FAIR LADY (1956) and CAMELOT (1960). Other demise.
hits of the 1950s and 1960s included WEST Music halls once outnumbered regular
SIDE STORY (1957), HELLO DOLLY! (1963), theatres in London and the provinces but have
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1964) and CABARET now disappeared or become civic theatres,
(1966). cinemas, or bingo halls, keeping on the
In the late 1960s and 1970s the tradition traditional names such as Palladium, Palace,
of the classic Broadway musical appeared to Alhambra, Coliseum, Empire, and
decline. The only important US writer to Hippodrome. They have, however, left a
continue in the genre was Stephen SONDHEIM, legacy of popular song and memories of great
whose sophisticated and idiosyncratic works entertainers whose fame depended upon the
won critical praise but lacked popular appeal. individuality of their acts.
The main development of this period was the Musset, Alfred de (1810–57) French
advent of the rock musical, as represented by playwright, poet, and novelist, who was a
HAIR (1967) and Andrew LLOYD WEBBER leading figure of the Romantic movement in
and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing France. His bittersweet comedies and dramas
Technicolour Dreamcoat (1968), and JESUS are noted for their poetic language.
CHRIST SUPERSTAR. In the 1970s and late As a young man Musset painted for a
1980s Lloyd Webber led a revival of the large- while before turning to writing. He became
scale spectacular musical with a series of shows a fashionable man-about-town, leading a
that proved immensely successful on both sides dissipated social life that eventually led to
of the Atlantic: these included EVITA (1978), his early death. Several of his works were
CATS (1981), PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1986), rediscovered in Russia 20 years later by a
and Sunset Boulevard (1992). The blockbuster French actress, who returned them to Paris.
musicals of this era also include the Cameron His first play, the one-act La Nuit
Mackintosh productions Les Misérables (1985) vénitienne, was a failure when presented at the
and Miss Saigon (1987), both by the French Théâtre National de l’Odéon in 1830, and he
team of Alain Boublil abd Claude-Michel resolved thereafter to write only CLOSET
Schönberg. A more recent trend has been the DRAMAs. In 1833 Musset and the writer
creation of a stage show from an already George Sand began an intense but short-lived
familiar corpus of hit songs, as with the hugely affair. During their trip to Italy in 1834
successful Abba musical MAMMA MIA! (2001), Musset became ill and Sand fell in love with
or from a well-loved film, as with Mel Brooks’s the doctor she summoned. By this time he had
The Producers (2004) or Billy Elliot (2005). already created (with Sand’s help) his best
work, the historical drama LORENZACCIO. It
music hall A highly popular form of later provided Sarah Bernhardt with one of her
variety entertainment that flourished in Britain most celebrated travesti roles.
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It In the 1840s Musset enjoyed great success
had its origins in the ‘Free and Easy’ of public with a series of Comédies et proverbes, light
houses in the SONG-AND-SUPPER ROOMS of comedies and short plays illustrating proverbs.
early Victorian London. Food, drink, and song Although they were not intended for the stage,
were the music hall’s first ingredients. Singers, in 1847 one of them, Un Caprice, was given at
comedians, dancers, and other performers took the Comédie-Française to such acclaim that
‘turns’ entertaining the patrons, who came the following year saw the staging of three
from the working classes. The first music hall more works, Le Chandelier, Il faut qu’une porte
proper, the CANTERBURY MUSIC HALL, was soit ouverte ou fermée, and Il ne faut jurer de
opened in 1852 by the so-called ‘Father of the rien.
Halls’ Charles MORTON, a native of Hackney. In 1851 he successfully blended classical
 mystery play 345

and romantic styles in his play Caprices de LITURGICAL DRAMA, from which it developed,
Marianne. There was also a posthumous the mystery play was written in the vernacular,
production of the tragicomedy On ne badine spoken rather than sung, and performed out of
pas avec l’amour. In 1893 this became the first doors. Although the subject matter remained
play to be produced by Britain’s E. Gordon exclusively biblical, the plays also featured an
Craig (see CRAIG FAMILY), who directed, element of coarse humour that probably
designed and painted scenery, and created derived from the folk theatre. The individual
14th-century costumes. plays were organized into lengthy cycles
covering the whole of history from the
My Fair Lady A musical by Alan Jay Creation to the Day of Judgment. These
Lerner and Frederick Loewe, one of the most would be presented over a period of one or
successful ever staged on Broadway. Based on more days. The most important mystery cycles
Shaw’s PYGMALION, it opened at the Mark in England included those performed at
Hellinger Theatre in 1956 with Rex HARRISON Chester, Lincoln, Wakefield, and York.
as Henry Higgins, the linguistics professor, In the later 14th century the plays were
and Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle, the performed by members of trade or craft guilds,
cockney flower-seller. Like the 1938 film, the each of which undertook an episode relevant
musical substituted a conventional romantic to their calling, so that the carpenters, for
ending – Higgins and Eliza fall in love – for instance, presented the story of Noah’s Ark
Shaw’s more prosaic conclusion. In 1964 My while the fishmongers played Jonah and the
Fair Lady became a film itself, starring Whale. On this basis it is often stated, quite
Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. erroneously, that the name ‘mystery play’ has
Mary Martin thought the show would fail no reference to the religious subject matter but
when she first heard the songs, commenting comes from the Middle English word misteri,
“Those dear boys have lost their talent.” meaning a trade or skill. The plays were
However, My Fair Lady won the 1957 Tony usually performed on converted wagons
Award as Best Musical and eventually ran for known as PAGEANTs. In England the term
2717 performances. Opening in London in mystery play is often used interchangeably
1958, it established Drury Lane’s longest run with MIRACLE PLAY, although some have argued
with 2281 performances. When Rex Harrison that the latter was a distinct genre dealing with
revived the show in 1981 at the Pentagess the lives of the saints. Another name is Corpus
Theatre, Los Angeles, the first week’s box- Christi play, because the dramas were
office receipts of $409,884 set a record. The generally performed during the feast of Corpus
2000 National Theatre revival ran for two Christi, which falls in May or June. The
years in the West End and collected five Continental equivalents to the English mystery
Laurence Olivier Awards. play included the German Mysterienspiel,
the French mystère, the Spanish AUTO
mystery play The most important form SACRAMENTAL, and the Italian SACRA
of medieval European drama. Unlike the early RAPPRESENTAZIONE. See also MEDIEVAL DRAMA.
346 Nadagama

Odious! In woollen! T’would a saint

N provoke
(Were the last words that poor
Narcissa spoke).

Nadagama A type of rural folk theatre in nap Theatrical slang for a blow to the face
Sri Lanka. Originally a form of religious in SLAPSTICK comedy. After taking part in a
drama, it was introduced in the early 19th Christmas pantomime that involved a slapstick
century by Catholic missionaries; secular altercation with the clown, the humorist
stories about local heroes were soon, however, Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) wrote:
added. The so-called Father of Nadagama was He rushes at me and hits me, and I
the blacksmith Phillipu Sinno, who wrote take the nap from him, and then he
more than a dozen plays. takes a nap from me (it wakes you up,
Nadagama is acted in the open air. The this sort of nap, I tell you)…
stage, a raised and roofed platform without a The term nap was usually reserved for a pulled
curtain, is separated from the dressing room by punch while a straight nap was one that
painted scenery. The drama begins when the connected.
presenter (Pote Gura), invokes the deities and
prays for a successful performance. He then Naqal A form of rural entertainment once
outlines the plot and introduces each of the popular in northern India, though now seldom
stock characters, including a jester, a wise man, seen. It consisted mostly of hectic farce, with
and two soothsayers. The introductory chants, clowns providing wit and tumbles as well as
which last for about three hours, are followed harassing and satirizing the audience. The all-
by the appearance of the king, who summons male troupes travelled through towns and
various members of his court who enter with villages to perform at weddings and other
ceremonial song and dance. The scene is now celebrations. The ‘theatre’ was usually a street,
set for the main dramatic action, which is yard, private home, or other setting that
narrated by the Pote Gura. Nadagama plays are allowed them to mingle with their audience.
generally long and episodic, and may run for The group’s leader was called the khalifa, a
up to seven evenings. term that probably reflects the Naqal’s origin
during the Muslim Mogul dynasty.
Naluyuks (Inuit: heathens) Inuit
MUMMERs of northern Labrador, who disguise
Narr The medieval German equivalent of
themselves with masks and bearskins to visit the English FOOL. The Narr, who wore the
cap and bells of the court jester, became a
children at their homes on Twelfth Night. The
traditional part of early German farce; he later
Naluyuks question the children about their
took on some characteristics of the zanni of the
conduct before presenting them with gifts. The
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. In the 16th century he
children respond by singing Christmas carols.
developed into the central comic character of
Nancy, Miss A popular name for the the FASTNACHTSSPIEL. A number of his
beautiful but narcissistic actress Mrs Anne clownish traits were adopted by English fools
OLDFIELD (1683–1730). After her death the and by this route may have influenced some of
name came to be used of any person who was Shakespeare’s comic figures. Aspects of the
unusually fastidious about his or her dress. Narr’s character were adopted by the English
In his Moral Essays (1731–35) Alexander actor Thomas Sackville (1590–1613) to create
Pope referred to Mrs Oldfield under the name the clown Jan Bouschet.
of Narcissa. There was at the time of the
Nash, ‘Jolly’ John See LAUGHING
actress’s death a law, enacted for the benefit of BLACKSMITH, THE.
the wool trade, that required all shrouds to be
made of wool. On her deathbed, however, Nathan the Wise A verse play by G. E.
Mrs Oldfield insisted that she be buried in “a LESSING, first performed in Berlin in 1783. It
very fine Brussels lace head-dress, a Holland won high praise in Goethe’s 1801 production
shift with a tucker and double ruffles of the at the Court Theatre in Weimar. The work, a
same lace, a pair of new kid gloves, etc.” Her plea for religious freedom and the brotherhood
instructions were lampooned by Pope: of man, was written as a tribute to Lessing’s
 naturalism 347

friend the Jewish philosopher Moses numerous awards when staged at that
Mendelssohn. summer’s Edinburgh Festival and has since
In the play Nathan, a Jewish merchant, been seen in London, America, and Australia
visits Muslim-held Jerusalem to seek his as well as being revived several times in
adopted daughter, Recha, who has been saved Scotland. Subsequent productions have
from a fire by a German crusader, Conrade. included David GREIG’s modern reworking of
When Nathan is accused by a Christian of The Bacchae (2007), Anthony NEILSON’s
kidnapping Recha in her infancy, he is able to extraordinary Dissocia (2007), the children’s
disprove the allegation. Finally he establishes musical The Emperor’s New Kilt (2008), and
harmony between the contending faiths by Greig’s adaptation of Peter Pan (2010).
revealing that Recha and Conrade are siblings
and that their father is the Sultan’s brother. National Youth Theatre (NYT) A
theatre organization founded in 1956 by the
National Health, The A black comedy actor, director, and schoolmaster Michael
by Peter NICHOLS. It was first performed at the Croft (1924–86). The NYT was originally
National Theatre, London, in 1969, although created to give school-age actors a chance to
Nichols had originally written it for television. appear in professionally directed summer
The play, which contrasts hospital soap operas productions of Shakespeare; these early efforts
with the reality of a ward for terminally ill were praised both at the Edinburgh Festival
men, was voted best play of the year by the and in the West End. In 1965 the NYT began
London theatre critics. to stage contemporary plays, beginning with
The plot involves the love affair between David Halliwell’s Little Malcolm at the Royal
two members of the staff of a London hospital, Court Theatre and Peter Terson’s Zigger-
Dr Neil Boyd and Nurse Norton, a Caribbean Zagger (1967), which addressed the problem of
woman. Their story is told with cynicism by soccer hooliganism.
Barnet, an orderly who prepares the bodies of In 1971 the NYT moved from its original
dead patients for the undertaker, and then in base in Dulwich to the Shaw Theatre, London;
absurdly romanticized form in the television in the same year it launched a professional
soap Nurse Norton’s Affair. organization, the Dolphin Company, which
presented several works by Terson as well as
National Theatre See ROYAL NATIONAL plays by Arnold Wesker and Barrie Keeffe. The
THEATRE.
company was temporarily disbanded after the
National Theatre of Scotland A NYT lost its Arts Council grant in 1981.
theatre company founded in 2006 as part of Commercial sponsorship has since been found
the National Cultural Strategy set out by the and the company, which remains amateur,
new Scottish Executive in 1999. Vicky makes regular provincial and foreign tours; in
Featherstone, formerly of the London-based 1989 it performed T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the
Paines Plough company, was appointed as its Cathedral at the Moscow Art Theatre. More
first director. The Theatre has a remit to recent productions include Nicholas Nickleby
deliver high quality work, build audiences, (2001), The Master and Margarita (2004), and
and nurture talent, with an emphasis on a version of The Merchant of Venice (2008)
commissioning new works from Scottish artists performed in Beijing as part of the Cultural
and companies. As a matter of policy the Olympiad. Actors who began their careers with
company has no central base and performs at the NYT include Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren,
venues of all kinds and sizes across Scotland. and Ben Kingsley.
Accordingly, the company’s inaugural work, Nativity play See LITURGICAL DRAMA.
Home, consisted of ten different events
performed in ten different locations – naturalism In the later 19th century, a
including an abandoned tenement in Aberdeen movement in the theatre (as in the other
and the Shetland ferry. The new Theatre then arts) that aimed to present ordinary life as
achieved a landmark success with Gregory accurately as possible, without romantic
Burke’s Black Watch (2006), a play based on illusions or literary artifice. Theatrical
interviews with members of the historic naturalism was essentially a development of the
Scottish regiment serving in Iraq. This REALISM of IBSEN. The other dominant
intensely raw, physical production won influence was the novelist and playwright
348 naumachia

Emile Zola, who published Le Naturalisme au of containing 50 triremes. The Colosseum at

théâtre in 1878. In France the movement was Rome and the amphitheatre at Pozzuoli could
centred upon the Théâtre Libre in Paris, where both be flooded for sea fights. The Emperor
the director André Antoine (1858–1943) Augustus gave the name Naumachia to an
produced the bitter comedies of Henri Becque amphitheatre on the bank of the Tiber.
and others (see COMÉDIE ROSSE). In Germany
the Freie Bühne theatre club produced Arno Nautanki A form of theatre practised in
Holz’s gloomy Die Familie Saliche (1890) and the northern states of India. The genre is a
HAUPTMANN’s Die Weber (1892). modern development of the 16th-century
The harsh and dreary subject matter of SVANGA. The moralistic plays, which are
most naturalistic plays, which tended to performed to mark special occasions such as a
emphasize the boredom, depression, and wedding or a birth, are generally melodramas
frustration of contemporary life, frequently or romances with stories taken from history,
alienated 19th-century audiences. The folklore, and mythology. Most troupes have
treatment of topics such as divorce and from 10 to 12 actors, usually lower-caste
prostitution also caused outrage. Naturalistic Hindus; female performers were introduced in
playwrights aimed as far as possible to eradicate the 1930s. Players collect donations from the
any sense of the theatrical from their work, spectators during the performance. The
employing such techniques as making real time musicians, who are normally Muslims, play the
and fictional time the same. There was also harmonium, drums, bell-metal cymbals, and,
an emphasis on accurate documentation, more recently, the clarinet. Plays are usually
especially of social detail. The behaviour of the presented on a raised stage in an open field,
characters was often explained in terms of courtyard, or tent.
heredity or environmental factors, as in Modern Nautanki style was pioneered in
Strindberg’s early masterpiece of naturalism the cities of Hathras and Kanpur. The Hathras
MISS JULIE. version was popularized in the 19th century by
By the end of the century many young Indarman and his disciple Natharam, who
writers had begun to experiment with established a centre where actors trained under
SYMBOLISM and naturalism soon came to be strict master-teachers and published and
regarded as old-fashioned. distributed scripts. The Hathras actor-singers,
who use a distinctive high-pitched style,
naumachia (Latin: naval battle) In perform on a nearly bare platform stage, the
ancient Rome, a mock sea battle staged in a audience being seated in a three-sided arena
flooded amphitheatre as an extravagant space.
entertainment; also the venue in which such Kanpur style was created in the 20th
battles were enacted. The earliest recorded century by Sri Krishna Pahalvan, who defied
naumachia was that held in 46 BC, when Julius the rule that only disciples of recognized
Caesar presented a battle between ‘actors’ master-teachers could enter the profession.
representing Tyrian and Egyptian fleets on a Kanpur productions emphasize plot rather
specially constructed lake in the Campus than singing, feature detailed sets, and use a
Martius. The bloody event involved around proscenium-style stage with wings.
4000 rowers and 2000 combatants. In one
battle held under Claudius in 52 AD, 19,000 nautical drama A typically British form
gladiators and condemned criminals fought to of melodrama that was introduced in the 1750s
the death in the roles of Rhodians and Sicilians. and remained popular for over a century. Its
In the later naumachia, crocodiles were often hero was the ‘Jolly Jack Tar,’ a stock figure
added as a special terror to participants. based largely on the naval characters created by
Even when the battles were presented as the novelist Tobias Smollett (1721–71). In
friendly entertainment, with the combatants 1757 David Garrick produced Smollett’s
being told to do as little damage as possible to successful and much imitated nautical farce
the expensive decorative ships, the scene often The Reprisal at Drury Lane. The actor Charles
ended in slaughter. After one battle, a report Dibdin the Elder (see DIBDIN FAMILY) became
noted that the bodies of dead ‘actors’ were particularly popular in the Jack Tar roles. In
dragged away to the animals’ dens. the 19th century Douglas Jerrold’s BLACK-EY’D
Caesar’s naumachia was reputedly some SUSAN (1829) presented a sentimental picture
2000 feet long and 200 feet wide, being capable of the relationship between a sailor and his
 Neilson, Anthony 349

faithful wife. Nautical drama continued to Sondheim’s Company (1970), and Annie
attract London audiences into the 1880s, (1977). The Alvin also presented serious
especially at the Surrey Theatre. By this time, dramas, such as O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes
however, it had become fair game for parody, Electra (1931), Maxwell Anderson’s Mary of
the most notable burlesque of the genre being Scotland (1933), and Robert Sherwood’s There
Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS PINAFORE (1878). Shall Be No Night (1940), with the LUNTS.
In 1983 the theatre was renamed in
Nazimova, Alla (1879–1945) Russian honour of Neil SIMON, a number of whose
actress, who became known as a leading plays have since been premiered there. Recent
interpreter of the works of Ibsen and Chekhov successes include a revival of The King and I
after settling in America. Nazimova began her (1996), which won two Tony Awards and ran
career with the MOSCOW ART THEATRE before until 1999, and the kitsch musical Hairspray
becoming leading lady of the St Petersburg (2002), which garnered eight Tonys and ran
theatre, which toured Europe and America in for over six years.
1904. Following six months of intensive study
she appeared in the title role of an English- Neilson, Anthony (1967– ) Scottish
language production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler playwright, whose work helped to kick-start
at New York’s Princess Theatre in 1906. the IN-YER-FACE movement of the 1990s.
Nazimova remained in America thereafter. Attacking the idea of theatre as “an educative
In 1910 the Shubert Theatre Corporation (see tool or a debating chamber”, Neilson has
SHUBERT BROTHERS) built and named the consistently argued that “there’s only one
Nazimova Theatre after her; she opened the commandment worth a damn … thou shalt not
theatre with a six-week run as Rita in the US bore.”
premiere of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. After a year the The son of two actors, Neilson initially
venue was renamed the 39th Street Theatre. In trained for the stage but from 1988 turned to
1918 Nazimova won special acclaim in Ibsen’s writing after being expelled from drama
The Wild Duck, though her popularity was by college. In 1991 he achieved his first taste of
this time beginning to decline. notoriety when Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper,
Nazimova made a number of silent films in an often stomach-churning study of a real-life
Hollywood, including Camille (1921) with serial killer, was seen at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Rudolph Valentino and A Doll’s House (1922). In 1993 this was compounded when the
Her later work for the New York stage Traverse Theatre presented his Penetrator, a
included the 1931 Theatre Guild production brutal piece in which the sexual tensions
in which she created the role of the lethal between three characters explode into shocking
Christine Mannon in Eugene O’Neill’s violence. These and subsequent plays polarized
Mourning Becomes Electra. A year before her opinion when they were seen in London,
death she appeared in the highly successful chiefly at the Finborough Theatre and the
film The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Royal Court Upstairs. Other works of this era
include The Night Before Christmas (1995),
Neil Simon Theatre A large theatre on best known for a scene in which Santa Claus
West 52nd Street, New York. It opened as the has anal sex with the Christmas Fairy, The
Alvin Theatre in 1927 with a production of Censor (1997), an explicit piece about the love
George Gershwin’s musical comedy Funny affair between a film censor and a porn actress,
Face. The theatre’s name combined the first and Stitching (2002), a play that has the
names of the owners, Alex Aarons and Vinton distinction of being banned on five separate
Freedley. Its seating capacity of 1344 makes it counts in Malta. Although these plays earned
ideal for large musicals. In the 1930s the Alvin Neilson a reputation as ‘the godfather of in-
staged a string of hit musicals including yer-face’, he himself disowned the label, stating
Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935), Kaufman “I thought I was writing love stories”.
and Hart’s I’d Rather Be Right (1937), and In 2002 Neilson achieved a new level of
George Abbott’s The Boys from Syracuse recognition when The Lying Kind, a black farce
(1938). Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Ethel about two moronic policemen, was premiered
Merman all starred at the theatre. Later on the main stage of the Royal Court. The
successes included A Funny Thing Happened on play was, however, savaged by the critics,
the Way to the Forum (1962), a musical based leading its author to abandon the London
on the plays of Plautus starring Zero Mostel, stage for several years. His next play, The
350 neoclassical drama

Wonderful World of Dissocia, was first seen involved in productions, playing the lyre,
at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 and singing, acting as a PANTOMIMUS, and
subsequently (2007) in a touring production appearing in dramatic roles such as Oedipus,
by the National Theatre of Scotland. The Hercules, and Orestes. Like other actors of the
play, a hugely original piece about a woman time, Nero wore a mask; in his case, however,
suffering from dissociative identity disorder, this was generally modelled either upon his
contrasts the character’s external reality own features or those of a current mistress.
with her inner fantasia. Neilson himself In 66 AD Nero undertook a tour of Greece,
commented: “If you like Alice in Wonderland during which he gave increased rein to his
but there’s not enough sex and violence in it, artistic pretensions. The tour, and especially
then Dissocia is the show for you.” By contrast his portrayal of low characters and morally
Realism (2007) explores the fantasies of an ambiguous Greek heroes, cost Nero a great
apparently normal man. Subsequent plays have deal of credibility at home, prompting one of
included God in Ruins (2007), a scabrous his legates to complain that he had witnessed
reworking of the Christmas Carol story, the Nero “on stage playing pregnant women and
chilling Relocated (2008), a treatment of child slaves about to be executed.” These factors
murder that again divided the critics, and combined with growing political unrest and
Orson Welles in the Land of the Peas (2010).
revolts throughout the empire to precipitate
neoclassical drama A concept of Nero’s downfall and his eventual suicide.
drama that originated in the writings of 15th-
neume In early church plainsong, a group
century Italian scholars and came to dominate
of notes sung as a rhythmic expansion of the
the stage in 17th- and 18th-century France.
melody. The neume developed into the
Neoclassical theorists advocated a return to the
values and conventions of classical Greek illustrative TROPE, which is usually regarded as
drama as these were then understood. In the starting-point for the LITURGICAL DRAMA.
particular, they ascribed a great importance to New Ambassadors Theatre See
the Poetics of Aristotle, and to the UNITIES of AMBASSADORS THEATRE.
time, place, and action that they deduced from
this work. New Comedy The third and final
In France, where the unities became rigidly division of ancient Greek comedy, dating from
formalized, the neoclassical style achieved its the end of the 4th century BC to the middle of
fullest expression in the works of CORNEILLE the third century BC. New Comedies, which
and RACINE (although Corneille’s 1637 were less bawdy and satirical than the OLD
tragicomedy LE CID provoked a storm by COMEDY of Aristophanes, featured complex
deviating from the unities). plots revolving around such problems as
By contrast, neoclassicism never took root mistaken identity, unrequited love, and
in the English theatre, despite distinguished household disputes.
advocates such as Jonson and DRYDEN, whose The leading exponents of the form were
rhymed heroic tragedies enjoyed some success. the Sicilian, Philemon (c. 368–c. 264 BC),
Joseph Addison’s blank-verse tragedy Cato who worked in both Athens and Alexandria,
(1713) was probably the most popular and MENANDER (c. 341–c. 290 BC). Only
neoclassical work on the English stage. fragments of Philemon’s work survive, but one
In France neoclassical tragedy eventually complete play by Menander, the Dyscolus, was
gave way to the bourgeois DRAME, although it discovered on a papyrus in Egypt in 1958. In
enjoyed a brief revival in some of the works of the 2nd century BC playwrights TERENCE and
VOLTAIRE. The movement as a whole was
PLAUTUS translated and adapted New Comedy
swept away by the advent of Romanticism. See
for the Roman stage, introducing audiences to
also AUGUSTAN DRAMA.
a more subtle kind of humour than that found
Nero (37–68 AD) Roman emperor (54–68 in the early Roman farces.
AD), whose downfall was hastened by his Through the Roman playwrights, the
love of the theatre. Although drama and Greek New Comedy has exerted a profound
entertainers had a low status during his reign, influence on the development of the later
Nero was fascinated with both. Proud of his COMEDY OF MANNERS in Europe. Comic
own abilities as a performer, he often became playwrights from Shakespeare and Molière to
 Nichols, Peter 351

Alan Ayckbourn have used similar themes, convulsion and several ladies in the audience
situations, and stories. fainted. When Kean took the play to
Birmingham and failed to make a similar
New Drama A movement in British impact he went into a rage, replying to another
drama from approximately 1890 to 1914 that actor’s line about the marriage of a lady:
introduced a new NATURALISM and advocated
Take her, Sir, and the Birmingham
the use of the theatre as a forum for social
audience into the bargain.
and political debate. Much influenced by
Continental dramatists such as IBSEN, Other actors to make an impression as
STRINDBERG, MAETERLINCK, and HAUPTMANN, Overreach include Edwin Booth and Donald
the movement received early impetus from Wolfit, who first played the role in a production
Henry Arthur Jones who, in 1884, adapted at the Richmond Theatre, Surrey in 1950.
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House as Breaking a Butterfly. In the play, the grasping Overreach
The New Drama found its most powerful reduces his nephew Frank Wellborn to utter
voice when George Bernard SHAW’s first play poverty and then treats him with contempt.
Widowers’ Houses was produced in 1892. Shaw Lady Allworth, a rich widow, helps matters by
went on to use the stage as a platform from pretending that she has plans to marry
which to expound his views on a variety of Wellborn, thereby prompting Overreach to
social questions. The development of the so- suddenly shower kindnesses upon him.
called ‘problem play’ received early support Meanwhile Tom Allworth, Lady Allworth’s
from J. T. Grein, who encouraged the new stepson, has fallen in love with Overreach’s
realistic drama at his Independent Theatre. By daughter, Margaret, who returns his affection.
1893 even the farceur Arthur Wing PINERO As Overreach wants his daughter to wed Lord
had turned to the genre with The Second Mrs Lovell and become ‘right honourable’, it is an
Tanqueray. easy matter for Lovell to pretend to woo
Interest in realism was also generated by Margaret while in fact advancing Tom’s suit.
Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER’s seasons at the When Overreach realizes the deception he
Royal Court Theatre (1904–07), which becomes insane and is committed to Bedlam.
inspired the creation of new theatres for the New York Shakespeare Festival
performance of naturalistic works at See PAPP, JOSEPH.
Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and
Glasgow. Granville-Barker’s own plays Nichols, Peter (1927– ) British author
included The Voysey Inheritance (1905), which of dramas for both television and the stage. Of
concerned the ethical dilemmas of business, his often strongly autobiographical works
and The Madras House (1910), which dealt Nichols has said: “I can only write dialogue
with the repression of women. Another writer when I hear people’s voices in my mind,” and
associated with the New Drama was John “my writing…comes from memory and
Galsworthy, whose works included JUSTICE imitation”. Although several of Nichols’s plays
(1910) and The Eldest Son (1912). See also deal with the anguish of physical suffering, he
IBSENISM denies that his vision of the world is a tragic
one on the grounds that “my characters meet
New Found Land See DIRTY LINEN AND adversity cheerfully and humorously”. Roger
NEW FOUND LAND. Woodis has noted of Nichols that “he disturbs
New Theatre See NOËL COWARD us because he is honest. He is a worried man,
THEATRE.
and that is his strength.”
Nichols’s best-known work, A DAY IN THE
New Way to Pay Old Debts, A A DEATH OF JOE EGG (1967), reflects his own
comedy by Philip MASSINGER, written in 1625 experience of caring for a severely handicapped
and first performed in 1632 in London. The daughter. His black comedy THE NATIONAL
play is still a popular choice for revival, largely HEALTH (1969) contrasts glamorous hospital
because its larger-than-life villain, the soaps with the reality of a ward for the
extortioner Sir Giles Overreach, offers superb terminally ill. A series of successful and
opportunities to actors. Edmund KEAN was the critically praised works followed, notably
first to excel in the part, playing the role so Forget-me-not-Lane (1971), in which Nichols
powerfully in his 1816 production at Drury recalls his adolescence, the musical PRIVATES
Lane that Lord Byron reportedly went into a ON PARADE (1977), which starred Denis Quilley
352 Night and Day

as a captain in a song-and-dance military unit, Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre,

the comedy Born in the Gardens (1979), with where it enjoyed similar success.
Beryl Reid as an eccentric widow, PASSION PLAY The play, set in a bungalow in an Essex
(1980) a tragicomedy about marriage, and forest, involves Mrs Bramson who lives with
Poppy (1982), an idiosyncratic musical about her niece Olivia, her maid Dora, and her cook
Britain’s involvement in the Opium Wars with Mrs Terence. When Dora becames pregnant,
China. However, owing in part to Nichols’s Mrs Bramson decides to put pressure on her
reputation as a difficult man to work with, few boyfriend, Dan, to marry her. Meanwhile,
of his later plays have reached the London the police have begun to investigate the
stage. A Piece of My Mind (1986) is a partly disappearance of a woman from a nearby hotel;
autobiographical piece about a novelist with Olivia suspects Dan, who is a bell boy there.
writers’ block, while Blue Murder (1995) is a Dan works himself into Mrs Bransom’s
play about putting on a play. The early 2000s affections, however, and leaves his hotel job to
saw a resurgence of interest in Nichols’s work, move into the bungalow. The police discover
with several high-profile West End revivals, the missing woman’s headless body, and Olivia
including an award-winning Privates on Parade becomes convinced that the head is in Dan’s
at the Donmar Warehouse (2001). hatbox. One night, while alone with Mrs
Bramson, Dan smothers her. When Olivia
Night and Day A play by Tom returns unexpectedly, he decides that she, too,
STOPPARD, first performed in 1978 at the has to be murdered; she is only saved by the
Phoenix Theatre, London, with Diana RIGG arrival of the police. Olivia, who has become
and Peter Machin in the leads. Rigg was fascinated with Dan, now tries to cover up for
named best actress of the year by Plays and him. He rejects her help and leaves with the
Players for her performance, with Jack Kroll police.
noting in Newsweek: “Beauty, wit, bitchery
and vulnerability seem to whirl about her like a Night of the Iguana, The A play by
pride of playfully savage ocelots.” Before the Tennessee WILLIAMS that was first performed
play moved to Broadway, however, Rigg in 1961 on Broadway at the Royale Theatre,
developed back trouble and was replaced by winning the New York Drama Critics’ Circle
Maggie Smith. Award. The critic Brooks ATKINSON wrote that
The play explores the concept of press the cast, headed by Margaret Leighton, Bette
freedom. A group of journalists are covering an Davis, and Alan Webb, “acted with an eerie
African rebellion from the house of the White sense of foreboding”. Leighton received a Tony
mining engineer Carson and his wife, Ruth. Award, Variety Award, and Newspaper Guild
The Sunday Globe’s reporter, Wagner, and his Page One Award for her performance. The
photographer, Guthrie, are at odds with a play opened in London in 1965 at the Ashcroft
freelancer, Milne, whose exclusive interview Theatre, Croydon, with Sian Phillips, before
with the rebel leader Shimbu has outclassed transferring to the West End.
their best efforts. Professional jealousies are The story, set in Mexico in 1940, involves
exacerbated by the fact that Ruth, who once the widow Maxine Faulk, who runs the Costa
spent a night with Wagner in London, now Verde, a small hilltop hotel surrounded by
fancies Milne. Guthrie and the freelancer travel jungle. Nearby are a family of Germans who
to the rebel camp on a mission to bring Shimbu cheer at Nazi broadcasts claiming victory in
to meet President Mageeba, but Guthrie soon the Battle of Britain. One day, a busload of
returns to announce that Milne has been Baptist women teachers arrives, guided by the
killed. Revd Shannon, a former minister who has
seduced one of his younger charges. Shannon
Night Must Fall A thriller by Emlyn is suffering from a fever and is close to a
WILLIAMS. His first major success, the play had breakdown, so Maxine asks him to stay on and
its premiere in 1935 at the Duchess Theatre, manage the hotel. However, Shannon’s
London, and ran for a year. Williams also attention is diverted by the arrival of Hannah
played the leading role – a maniacal baby-faced Jelkes, a painter, and her 97-year-old
murderer. The critic Audrey Williamson wrote grandfather, Jonathan Coffin, known as
that “his dramatic power held the stage and, Nonno the Poet. Maxine, seeing that Hannah
with a perverted charm, wrung pity from the and Shannon are attracted to each other,
pitiless.” A year later the play opened on becomes jealous. Shannon cannot decide
 Noël Coward Theatre 353

whether to move in with Maxine, move on with stage during the action but are regarded as
Hannah, or go back to the Church; eventually invisible by both audience and actors.
he decides to stay, mainly because he lacks the Originally, programmes of Nō always
energy to do anything else. Nonno finishes his contained five types of play: the kamimono
last poem and dies, leaving Hannah alone. praising the deities, the shuramono concerning
warriors, the kazuramono about women, the
nine days’ wonder, the A feat kuruimono involving insane persons or spirits,
performed in the spring of 1599 by the English and the kirinomono about demons and other
clown William Kempe (fl. 1600), who appeared supernatural beings. Since World War II,
with the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN in many of the however, programmes usually consist of only
earlier plays of Shakespeare. For a wager, two or three main plays. With the Kyōgen
Kempe danced the 115 miles from London to interludes a performance can still last for up to
Norwich in nine days (not including several seven hours.
days spent resting on the way). When he In the 20th century several prominent
arrived, the mayor of Norwich gave Kempe £5 Western playwrights have been influenced by
and entertained him. His accomplishment was the Nō drama, most notably W. B. YEATS who,
recorded in 1600 in the book Kempe’s Nine after 1916, made great use of masks, music,
Daies Wonder. The expression is now used to dancing, and chanting in his works.
describe any event that arouses great interest
Noël Coward Theatre An Edwardian
for a very short time.
theatre in St Martin’s Lane, London. It was
Nō or Noh A formal Japanese dance drama known as the New Theatre until 1973 and the
that utilizes courtly language, music, and Albery Theatre from 1973 until 2006, when it
dance to create an emotional mood rather than was renamed in honour of Noël COWARD, who
tell a story. The material for Nō drama comes made his West End debut here in 1920.
from Buddhist scriptures, Japanese and At the turn of the 20th Century Charles
Chinese mythology, poems, novels, and other Wyndham, manager of the Criterion Theatre
sources, while the dancing is derived from for 23 years, owned property between Charing
ancient temple and folk dances. Nō seeks the Cross Road and St Martin’s Lane. On the
quality of yugen, or gentle gracefulness, by using Charing Cross Road side he built Wyndham’s
indirectness, restraint, and suggestion. In Theatre and, when he failed to sell the rest of
performance the plays, which all end in a stately the land, built the New Theatre opposite. It
dance, are interspersed with comic interludes opened in 1903. Seating 876, it was the first
theatre in London with ‘electrical flying
called KYōGEN (‘mad words’).
scenery’. The original Louis XVI decor
The genre was created by Kiyostsugu
remains, with portrait medallions of French
Kanami (1333–84), who combined a style of
kings and queens in the auditorium and
dancing and tumbling known as sarugaku-nō
sculptured cupid figures (representing peace
(‘monkey music’) with Zen Buddhist themes. and music, and winter and summer) on both
The name of the new drama was eventually sides of the proscenium.
shortened to Nō. The form was developed The theatre’s first great triumph came in
by Kanami’s son Zeami (1363–1443), who 1924 with Sybil Thorndike’s performance in
wrote some 200 plays in the style. Kanami’s Shaw’s Saint Joan. In 1935 the theatre saw the
aristocratic entertainments were supported by longest ever run of Romeo and Juliet; the
the shoguns, and performers were accorded the outstanding cast of Olivier, Gielgud, Ashcroft,
status of samurai warriors. and Evans gave 186 performances. From 1944
The dramas are acted on a raised stage with to 1950 it was home to the OLD VIC, whose own
a square roof supported on four pillars; there is theatre had been bombed. Some of Olivier’s
no scenery and very few props. Nō drama greatest work was seen here, including his
involves two main actors, the secondary waki Richard III (1944) and Oedipus (1945).
and the principal shite, who performs the ritual Richardson found equal glory with his Falstaff
dances. Both wear painted wooden masks and in Henry IV, Parts I and II (1945).
dress in magnificent silk costumes based on The theatre’s longest run, however, was
ancient models. In addition to the principals, Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, which opened in
there are about 10 members of the chorus, four 1960 for 2618 performances (revived in 1977
musicians, and two assistants, who appear on for a three-year run). The Andrew Lloyd
354 noises off

Webber and Tim Rice musical Joseph and the collapses. Foster and Briggs, members of the
Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat opened here same homosexual household, then enter and
in 1973. That year the New Theatre changed attend to Hirst, showing hostility to Spooner’s
its name to the Albery to honour Sir Bronson presence. Briggs locks Spooner in the room
Albery, a former manager, as well as to avoid overnight. When he recovers the next day,
confusion with the New London Theatre. Hirst becomes convinced that Spooner is
Subsequent successes included a revival of the someone he had known many years previously
Willy Russell musical BLOOD BROTHERS (1988) at Oxford. The two men recall mutual friends
and an acclaimed production of Coward’s and lovers, until Hirst suddenly declares that
PRIVATE LIVES (2001) starring Alan Rickman he once had an affair with Spooner’s wife. The
and Lindsay Duncan. By contrast Ducktastic! play ends with the two men continuing to
(2005), a show directed by Kenneth Branagh wander through their no-man’s-land of
and featuring performing ducks, closed after memory and fantasy.
one month. Since its renaming in June 2006
the theatre has hosted just three productions: Norman Conquests, The A sequence
the Sesame Street-inspired musical Avenue Q of three two-act comedies by Alan
AYCKBOURN, first performed in 1973 at the
(2006), the stage adaptation of Calendar Girls
Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-Round,
(2009), and Lucy Prebble’s ENRON (2010).
Scarborough, where Ayckbourn was artistic
noises off All theatrical SOUND EFFECTS director. In 1993, 20 years after its premiere,
that are produced offstage. The term is also Ayckbourn directed a revival of the work at the
employed as a stage direction, meaning sounds same theatre. There was another successful
from offstage suggesting a disturbance or revival at the Old Vic in 2008.
commotion. The plays depict the same dreadful but
hilarious event, a weekend family reunion,
Noises Off A farce by Michael FRAYN, first from different vantage points: Table Manners
performed in London in 1982. The play is takes place in the dining room during a
chiefly remarkable for having what has been disastrous meal (with one guest sitting on a
called “the most difficult single act to perform low stool with his head barely above the table),
ever written.” The act in question presents a Living Together in the sitting room, and Round
third-rate travelling company’s production of and Round the Garden outside. Although this is
the feeble sex comedy Nothing On. During this the official sequence, the comedies can be seen
farce-within-a-farce everything that could go separately or in any order.
wrong does go wrong, as lost contact lenses, The story begins with a married couple,
missed cues, drunkenness, and backstage Reg and Sarah, arriving at the house of his
squabbles combine to produce a terrifying invalid mother to give Reg’s sister, Annie, a
descent into chaos. weekend’s break from caring for her. They are
joined by Norman, Reg’s brother-in-law, and
No Man’s Land A play for four
Tom, Annie’s wishy-washy boyfriend.
characters by Harold PINTER. First performed
Unknown to the others, Norman, a lustful
in 1975 at the Old Vic, it subsequently assistant librarian, is taking Annie away for a
transferred to Wyndham’s Theatre and then to dirty weekend. Sarah, who also fancies
the National Theatre. The play was directed by Norman, tries to keep him free for herself by
Peter HALL and starred John GIELGUD as goading Tom into proposing to Annie. When
Spooner, Ralph RICHARDSON as Hirst, Michael Annie backs out of the dirty weekend, Norman
Feast as Foster, and Terence Rigby as Briggs. gets drunk and reveals their affair. Sarah rings
The critic Michael Coveney called Gielgud Norman’s wife Ruth, who arrives the next day
and Richardson’s performances “the funniest quite unperturbed. On Sunday, the family
double-act in town.” There have been several lunch degenerates into bitter squabbling. As
West End revivals, notably a 2008 production the visitors begin to leave on Monday
starring Michael Gambon. morning, Norman deliberately crashes the
The plot centres on two men in their family cars to cause a delay in which he can
sixties, the penniless poet Spooner and the continue his flirting.
wealthy literary figure Hirst, who meet in a
pub and return to Hirst’s home. There they Not bloody likely! The notorious
drink and chat and ramble on until Hirst phrase from Act III of Shaw’s PYGMALION that
 Novello, Ivor 355

introduced the expletive ‘bloody’ to the British History remembers him as one of the most
stage. The word occurs during a tea party in vitriolic and unswervable critics of the stage.
which the cockney Eliza Doolittle, played in Samuel Butler wrote an epitaph for him:
the first London production by Mrs Patrick His brain’s career was never stopping,
Campbell, has been introduced to polite But pen with rheum of gall still
society. Although she has learned to speak dropping,
in the accents of the upper classes, her Til hand o’er head brought ears to
conversational habits remain those of the East cropping.
End. When a dashing young man inquires if See also DR FAUSTUS.
she is walking home, she replies: “Walk? Not
bloody likely! I am going in a taxi.” nous avons changé tout cela
The morning before the play opened in (French: we have changed all that) A phrase,
London in 1916, the Daily Sketch thundered, originating in MOLIÈRE’s Le Médecin malgré lui
“It is a word which the Daily Sketch cannot (1666), that is used to reprove anyone who
possibly print and tonight it is to be uttered on seems too keen to overturn the established way
the stage…this evening the most respectable of doing things. In the play, the old man
audience in London is to hear this appalling Géronte complains that Sganarelle, who is
word fall with bombshell suddenness from Mrs pretending to be a doctor, has confused the
Pat’s lips.” Shaw’s biographer, Hesketh position of the heart with that of the liver.
Pearson, noted that when the offending word Sganarelle replies airily that medicine has
was spoken the opening-night audience gasped moved on – “We have changed all that.”
as one, “their intake of breath making a sound
Novello, Ivor (David Ivor Davies;
that could have been mistaken for a protracted
1893–1951) British actor-manager,
hiss.” The laughter that followed was timed at
playwright, and composer, whose light musical
75 seconds by the stage manager’s stopwatch.
plays dominated the West End stage in the
The phrase Not Pygmalion likely! was a
1930s. In 2005 the STRAND THEATRE in
popular British euphemism of World War I
London was renamed the Novello Theatre in
and the years thereafter.
his honour.
notes Comments, usually on points of Novello was born in Cardiff, the son of
detail, addressed to individual members of the musical parents; by the age of 10 he had won a
cast or stage crew by the director. They are prize at the National Eisteddfod. In 1914 he
generally based on written notes made during a was provoked into writing ‘Keep the Home
performance or run-through. Fires Burning’ by his mother, who had
composed a dreadful patriotic song that she
notorious whores The unfortunate threatened to sing in public unless he wrote a
phrase used by the Puritan William Prynne better one. It was to be the most popular song
(1600–69) to describe actresses at the very of World War I and earned Novello £15,000
moment (1633) that Queen Henrietta Maria in its first five years. During the war, Novello
was rehearsing for an amateur pastoral. As a served in the Air Ministry and wrote Theodore
consequence, Prynne was sentenced to life and Co., which opened in 1916 for an 18-
imprisonment, fined, and placed in the pillory, month run at the Gaiety Theatre, London.
where both his ears were cut off. He later had Novello made his acting debut in 1921 in
the letters SL (seditious libeller) branded on Sacha Guitry’s Deburau at the Ambassadors
both cheeks. The offending phrase appeared Theatre. The following year he left for America
in Prynne’s 1100-page tract Histrio-Mastix: to become a silent film actor. Hollywood made
The Players Scourge, or Actors Tragedie, much of his famous profile and he became an
which recited the immoralities of the stage international star; however, he was to return to
throughout history. It had been inspired by the the London stage declaring, “I want to show
first appearance of French actresses upon the them that there is an art beyond the reach of
London stage. Despite this treatment, Prynne mechanical devices of black and white shadows
was one of the few Puritans to publicly oppose chasing each other round a white screen.”
the execution of Charles I – a stand that led to In 1924 Novello co-wrote and starred in
a further spell of imprisonment. After the The Rat, which opened in Brighton (where he
Restoration Charles II appointed him keeper took 39 curtain calls on the first night) before
of records in the Tower of London. transferring to the Prince of Wales’s Theatre,
356 Novello Theatre

London. In 1929, a year in which Novello was Please – We’re British, which began its
Britain’s top cinema attraction, his Symphony record run of 4419 performances in 1971
in Two Flats opened at the New Theatre. The (transferring to the Garrick in 1982). The
following year Novello made his New York Buddy Holly musical Buddy ran from 1995 to
debut in the play at the Shubert Theatre. In 2002. To mark its centenary year the theatre’s
America, however, Symphony in Two Flats ran owners, the Delfont Mackintosh group,
for only seven weeks, prompting Novello to subjected it to a wholesale refurbishment.
say “we opened in a heat wave and closed in a When it reopened at the end of 2005, the
heat wave…unfortunately it was the same heat theatre was given its current name in honour
wave.” of Ivor NOVELLO, who had lived in a flat on
He then wrote the script for MGM’s the premises for over 30 years. Subsequent
Tarzan, the Ape Man before returning to productions have included an award-winning
London to stage his Party (1932) at the Strand revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2009).
Theatre. This play about two theatrical
rivals featured characters based on Tallulah nudity Stage nudity has a long history. In
BANKHEAD and Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL; the
the first century AD Roman MIME featured
latter played the character based on herself in a scenes in which female performers would
New York production in 1933. Fresh Fields undress. Following the adoption of
also opened that year at the Criterion Theatre, Christianity as the state religion, however, and
its run overlapping with those of Sunshine especially after the reign (527–65) of the
Sisters at the Queen’s Theatre and Proscenium, emperor Justinian, nudity was restricted.
a sentimental comedy about the theatre, at the Throughout the Middle Ages public nudity
Globe. continued to be banned by the Church,
Novello’s romantic musicals, all staged at although some royal pageants were exempt.
Drury Lane, included Glamorous Night (1935), Theatrical nudity was eventually reinstated in
Careless Rapture (1936), which Novello liked France where, despite the disapproval of the
to call “Careless Rupture”, Crest of the Wave Church, many 17th-century plays would
(1937), and The Dancing Years (1939), in feature an occasional uncovered bosom. When
which he played a Viennese composer. In 1949 government restrictions came into effect in the
Novello enjoyed a final success with King’s 1780s, creative designers introduced tights (see
LEG SHOW) and the tutu for ballet.
Rhapsody, in which he was starring at the time
of his death. The English-language stage was not far
behind. In 1861 the US actress Adah MENKEN
Novello Theatre A London theatre in was billed as ‘The Naked Lady’ for wearing a
Aldwych. It was built in the fashionable Louis barely visible costume in a dramatization of
XIV style by William Sprague as one of a pair Byron’s Mazeppa. Nudes were sometimes seen
with the ALDWYCH THEATRE. A special feature on the 19th-century English stage in poses
was the circular ceiling with its grand picture plastiques, LIVING PICTURES that imitated
of Apollo in his chariot. The 925-seat theatre famous paintings or sculptures. The
was opened in 1905 as the Waldorf Theatre convention that discreet stationary nudity was
under the SHUBERT BROTHERS, who began with permissible was endorsed by the Lord
a season in which Italian opera alternated with Chamberlain’s 1931 ruling on Revuedeville at
plays starring Eleonora Duse. From 1909 until the WINDMILL THEATRE: “If it moves, it’s rude.”
2005 it was known as Strand Theatre, apart Modern STRIPTEASE is supposed to have
from a brief period (1911–13) when it was originated in 1893 at the MOULIN ROUGE
known as the Whitney. and by 1920 had become a popular US
In 1930 the Strand was refurbished and BURLESQUE attraction. The genre was made
opened with the farce It’s a Boy!. Other successes semirespectable by the sophisticated routines
were 1066 and All That (1935) and Arsenic of Gypsy Rose LEE. Performers generally
and Old Lace, which opened in 1942 for a retained ‘pasties’ to cover their nipples and the
run of 1337 performances. Donald Wolfit famous ‘G-string’ until the early 1950s when
presented lunch-time performances of total nudity was introduced at the Crazy-
Shakespeare during the Blitz. Subsequent Horse Saloon.
successes have included A Funny Thing In Britain the abolition of stage censorship
Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963) in 1968 (see LORD CHAMBERLAIN) was followed
starring Frankie Howerd and the farce No Sex within days by the London premiere of HAIR,
 nurseries 357

which featured full-frontal nudity. Earlier that the company, the Other Place in 1974 in
year Maggie Wright, playing Helen of Troy, Stratford and the Warehouse in 1977 in
had become the first legitimate actress to London. In 1976 Nunn directed a sinister
appear totally nude on the British stage in the Macbeth at the Other Place and (with Guy
Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Woolfenden) turned The Comedy of Errors into
Dr Faustus. In 1969 Kenneth TYNAN’s revue an exuberant musical. Two years later, he was
Oh, Calcutta! featured ensemble nudity and named chief executive of the RSC and became
was advertised as “the hottest show in town.” joint artistic director with Terry HANDS. In
A year later Diana RIGG appeared nude in 1980 the RSC had a landmark hit at the
Ronald Millar’s Abelard and Heloise, prompting Aldwych when Nunn, with John Caird, staged
the critic John Simon to write, “Diana Rigg is David Edgar’s adaptation of Dickens’s
built like a brick mausoleum with insufficient Nicholas Nickleby; the show later enjoyed
flying buttresses.” As late as 1980, however, success on Broadway.
audiences were still shocked by male nudity in Since the 1980s Nunn has been much in
Howard Brenton’s The Romans in Britain. In demand as a director of large-scale musicals.
Nell Dunn’s play STEAMING (1981), set in a With the RSC he created the enormously
women’s Turkish bath, the all-female cast successful LES MISÉRABLES (1985) and the
spend most of the production without clothes. notorious horror musical Carrie (1986), a
Indeed, nakedness has now become so critical and commercial disaster. Working as a
ubiquitous on both stage and screen that some freelance he directed the Andrew LLOYD
drama schools now make learning to perform WEBBER musicals Cats (1981), Starlight Express
in the nude an obligatory part of the course. (1984), and Aspects of Love (1989). In the mid
Occasionally, nudity has continued after 1980s his prolonged absences from the RSC
the fall of the curtain. The distinguished and his lucrative outside interests provoked
alcoholic British actor, Robert Newton, once some criticism. An apocryphal story from this
entered Anna Neagle’s dressing room naked time has a group of actors writing to Jimmy
except for his socks and suspenders. He was Savile requesting him to “fix it” for them to
introduced to three ladies who had just meet their director. Nunn resigned his posts at
attended the matinée, engaged them in lively the RSC in 1986, since when he has held the
conversation, escorted them out of the stage title of director emeritus. From 1997 to 2003
door, and, still naked, hailed them a taxi. he was artistic director of the Royal National
Theatre, where his productions included a
Nunn, Sir Trevor (Robert) (1940– ) much praised Merchant of Venice (1998) and a
British director noted for his long association revival of My Fair Lady (2000) that ran for two
with the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY. After years in the West End. Despite these successes,
gaining experience with the Marlowe Society his tenure at the National was often troubled
at Cambridge, Nunn joined the Belgrade and he decided not to seek a second term (he
Theatre, Coventry, as a trainee director in 1962. had earlier described the job as being like
Three years later Nunn left the Belgrade to “juggling plates, while riding a unicycle on a
become a director at the RSC. His first tightrope, over Niagara Falls”). More recently
production, codirected with John Barton, was he has directed Hamlet (2004) at the Old Vic,
Henry V at the Aldwych Theatre, London. In the Victoria Wood musical Acorn Antiques
1966 Nunn directed the first revival for 300 (2006), and Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll
years of Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy; he (2006) at the Royal Court. In 2008 he
successfully revived Vanbrugh’s The Relapse the returned to the RSC to direct Ian McKellen in
following year. In 1968 he was named artistic a highly praised King Lear.
director of the RSC on the departure of Peter
HALL; later that year he directed Much Ado nurseries The acting schools of the
About Nothing, King Lear, and The Taming of Restoration theatre in London. The first one,
the Shrew. the Nursery, was established in about 1662 at
In 1972 Nunn was involved in an Hatton Garden by Thomas KILLIGREW and
acrimonious and well-publicized dispute with later moved to the Vere Street Theatre. By the
John ARDEN and his wife Margaretta D’Arcy, time the Nursery closed in 1671 two other
who disowned Nunn’s production of the play schools had opened: the Barbican Nursery, run
The Island of the Mighty. During his time as by Sir William DAVENANT’s widow, and the
director Nunn opened two small venues for Bun Hill Nursery. See DRAMA SCHOOL.
358 Oakley, Annie

taught himself to read at the age of 14. For

O many years he worked as a labourer, also

becoming involved with labour movements,
including the paramilitary Irish Citizens Army.
By late 1914, however, he was sufficiently
Oakley, Annie See ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. disillusioned to have withdrawn from active
politics.
Oberammergau Passion Play The
O’Casey’s first work to be produced was
best-known surviving PASSION PLAY. In 1633,
THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN (originally titled
as the Black Death swept through Bavaria, the
On the Run), which was staged in 1923 at the
inhabitants of the village of Oberammergau
ABBEY THEATRE. The play, which centres on
vowed to enact the Passion of Christ every ten
the brutal conflict between Irish nationalists
years if they were spared. This they have done
and the British army in Dublin in 1920, was
ever since, with one or two exceptions.
followed by two more tragicomedies at the
Although the play is now a highly organized
Abbey. The success of JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK
commercial undertaking, the actors, musicians,
(1924), allowed O’Casey to give up his manual
and technical team are all still taken from the
work; he later recalled: “I decided then that
village. In recent decades there has been some one job is enough for any man.” THE PLOUGH
controversy over the allegedly anti-Semitic AND THE STARS (1926), which gave an
overtones of the traditional text. unromantic view of the 1916 Easter rising,
Oberon In Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER provoked a riot among the fiercely patriotic
NIGHT’S DREAM the King of the Fairies, whose audience. These two plays, both of which
quarrel with his wife TITANIA leads indirectly move dexterously from tragedy to farce, have
to the various confusions on which the plot been frequently revived in London, New York,
depends. and elsewhere.
The name Oberon is possibly connected to O’Casey’s next play, the anti-war THE
Alberich, who is the king of the dwarves in SILVER TASSIE (1928), was rejected by W. B.
Scandinavian mythology. The character first YEATS, the manager of the Abbey, who disliked
appeared in Huon de Bordeaux, a medieval both the move towards EXPRESSIONISM and the
French romance, in which he is described as didactic tone. O’Casey quarrelled violently
being the son of Julius Caesar and Morgan le with Yeats and decided to settle in England;
Fay. According to this source, Oberon was thereafter he rarely returned to his native land.
only three feet high and at birth had received His later, more symbolic, works are
magical gifts from the fairies. generally considered weaker than the plays he
Other stage works to feature the character wrote for the Abbey. These include the
include Jonson’s masque Oberon, the Fairy expressionist Within the Gates (1933), the anti-
Prince (1611), Goethe’s FAUST (Part I), and the fascist The Star Turns Red (1940), RED ROSES
musical extravaganza Oberon, or the Elf-King’s FOR ME (1942), about the 1913 Dublin
Oath (1826), with music by Weber and General Strike, and Cock-a-Doodle Dandy
libretto by J. R. Planché. (1949), which berated the puritanism he
believed to be destroying Ireland. He also
Obie The annual theatre award, established wrote six volumes of autobiography (1939–51)
in 1955 by The Village Voice, for OFF- and two volumes of dramatic criticism (1937
BROADWAY productions. The name is a and 1957).
phonetic rendering of OB (off-Broadway).
Odd Couple, The A comedy by Neil
O’Casey, Sean (John Casey; 1880–1964) SIMON, first performed in 1966 in New York
Irish dramatist, whose greatest plays depict life and subsequently at the Queen’s Theatre,
in the slums of Dublin during the ‘Troubles’ London. The play, which was later made into a
of 1915 to 1922. Recurring preoccupations of well-known film (1968) starring Jack Lemmon
his work include the waste of war, man’s and Walter Matthau, also spawned a highly
willingness to sacrifice life for a cause, and the successful US television series. In 1985 it was
contrast between blustering parasitic Irishmen revised by Simon for a female cast.
and their long-suffering womenfolk. The story concerns two men sharing a
Born to a poor Protestant family in Manhattan apartment. Oscar Madison, an
Dublin, O’Casey lacked formal education and unkempt sportswriter who is behind on his
 odeum 359

alimony, invites his friend Felix Ungar, who 1971 to the Comédie-Française, which used it
has just divorced, to move in. The meticulous mostly as a venue for new and avant-garde
Felix devastates Oscar by cleaning up the works or for visiting provincial and foreign
apartment, arranging Oscar’s junk into neat companies.
piles, drawing up schedules for the week’s A new chapter in the history of the Odéon
meals, and insisting that they stick to a budget. began in 1983, when it became home to
When two Englishwomen visit and take to the Giorgio STREHLER’s THÉÂTRE DE L’EUROPE, a
refined Felix, this is the last straw; Oscar body designed to facilitate cultural cooperation
throws his friend out and returns to his poker across the EU. The theatre was officially
games and slovenly habits. However, he renamed the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe in
discovers that he can now pay his alimony 1990.
thanks to Felix’s economic reforms.
Odets, Clifford (1906–63) Left-wing US
odeon See ODEUM. playwright best known for the influential
dramas of social protest he wrote in the 1930s.
Odéon, Théâtre National de l’ A He described his work as an attempt to explore
theatre in the Latin Quarter of Paris, which how a person can retain “the conviction of
opened in 1781 as the home of the COMÉDIE- innocence” in a materialistic world. Odets,
FRANÇAISE. In 1784 Beaumarchais’s The who was a founding member (1931) of the
Marriage of Figaro had its premiere there. The GROUP THEATRE, New York, made his name
venue was renamed the Odéon in 1795, with his first play, the six-scene WAITING FOR
becoming one of France’s four state-supported LEFTY (1935). The play, about a cab strike
theatres in 1807. It was reconstructed by the in New York, also finds time to attack such
playwright and manager Louis-Benoît Picard varied targets as the US medical system and
(1769–1828) in 1816 but burned down two chemical warfare.
years later. Picard rebuilt it as a theatre for His other plays include Till the Day I Die
light comedy and operetta and continued as (1935), about the anti-Nazi underground
manager until 1821. in Germany, AWAKE AND SING! (1935),
The Odéon established a reputation for concerning a Jewish working-class boy,
serious drama in the 1830s. Sarah BERNHARDT, GOLDEN BOY (1937), about professional
who first played there in 1866, was responsible boxing, and The Big Knife (1949), an exposé of
for converting the theatre into a field hospital Hollywood decadence reflecting his own
during the siege of Paris (1870). In 1906 experience as a scriptwriter. THE COUNTRY
André Antoine (1858–1943) was appointed GIRL (1950) tells the story of an alcoholic actor
director and completely modernized the and his wife; it was seen in London two years
building. Under the leadership (1922–30) of later as Winter Journey and was filmed in 1954
the director Firmin Gémier (1869–1933) the with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in the
Odéon became virtually an avant-garde leading roles. Odets’s last play, The Flowering
National People’s Theatre. After World War II Peach (1954), is a retelling of the story of
the Ministry of Arts merged the Odéon Noah set in modern Brooklyn.
company with the Comédie-Française, He hits hard, and below the belt if
renaming the theatre the Salle Luxembourg. need be. But at least he hits.
The Odéon became independent of the JOHN MASON BROWN: Dramatis
Comédie-Française once more in 1959 when Personae
Jean-Louis BARRAULT was appointed director;
the venue was now renamed the Théâtre de odeum In ancient Greece and Rome, a
France. In 1966 riots occurred inside and roofed building for performances of vocal and
outside the theatre when Barrault produced instrumental music. The term (also given as
Genet’s play about the Algerian war, The odeon and odeion) derived from the original
Screens. Further trouble erupted in 1968 Odeion music hall built by Pericles in about
following a performance given as part of the 440 BC next to the Theatre of Dionysus in
Théâtre des Nations festival, when the theatre Athens. This hall was also used for musical
became a base for student rioters. Barrault was competitions and for a preliminary ceremony
dismissed and took his troupe away, leaving held before poetry contests that included a
the theatre without a company. The Odéon parade of dramatists, actors, and chorus
reverted to this name and was reassigned in members dressed in their costumes. A public
360 Oedipus at Colonus

announcement was also made of the names of at Covent Garden starring John Martin-
the playwrights and their works and of the Harvey (1863–1944). A legendary Old Vic
names of the choregi (see CHOREGUS). In the revival took place in London in 1945 at the
18th and 19th centuries the name odeum or New Theatre, with Laurence OLIVIER in the
odeon was often given to theatres and halls title role and Michel Saint-Denis directing.
used for musical performances. Odeon was the Olivier shocked the audience with two blood-
tradename of a British cinema chain founded curdling screams, one offstage and one when
in 1933. he entered with blood flowing from his eyes
and hands. The critic John Mason Brown
Oedipus at Colonus A tragedy by wrote: “They are the dreadful, hoarse groans of
SOPHOCLES that forms a sequel to OEDIPUS a wounded animal. They well out of a baby
REX, being considered by some critics as an
that has been clubbed by fate.” Olivier claimed
even finer work. The play, written when he was imitating the cry he had once heard
Sophocles was nearly 90, was first produced from a Canadian skunk, trapped by its tongue
posthumously in 406 BC in Athens by the sticking to a block of salt.
author’s grandson, also named Sophocles. The play is set in Thebes after Oedipus has
A classic story of redemption through become king and wed Jocasta, wife of his
suffering, the play has often been revived murdered predecessor, Laius. Oedipus
and adapted. In 1984 the US dramatist Lee pronounces a curse on the murderer and
Breuer (1937– ) wrote Gospel at Colonus, swears to avenge Laius. When Teiresias, the
which combined Sophocles’s work with blind prophet, accuses the king himself,
contemporary Black gospel music. Oedipus banishes him along with Creon,
The plot shows Oedipus some 20 years Jocasta’s brother, whom he suspects of plotting
after the events of Oedipus Rex. Now old, against him. Jocasta tells Oedipus that he must
blind, and exiled, he has been led to Athens by be innocent, since an oracle said that Laius
his loyal daughter ANTIGONE. Oedipus seeks a would be killed by his own son. But she also
haven in Athens but finds himself an object of reveals that Laius was killed at the junction of
horror as well as pity. King Theseus, however, three roads, reminding Oedipus that he once
sees a divine purpose in the life of the old man killed a man at such a place. Oedipus gradually
and believes that Oedipus will bring victory realizes that he is the dead king’s son and has
and blessings to the place where he dies. The married his own mother. Jocasta commits
Thebans also wish Oedipus to return, and suicide and Oedipus blinds himself, leaving
their king, Creon, abducts his daughters, Thebes to be ruled by Creon.
Antigone and Ismene, in an attempt to force
him to follow. The daughters are rescued by off-Broadway In New York, a type of
Theseus, however, and Oedipus commends theatrical production that arose as an
them to his protection, as he himself is now alternative to the commercial tradition of
summoned by the gods who have caused him BROADWAY in the 1950s. Off-Broadway
so much pain. theatres became popular venues for low-budget
productions of plays by such contemporary
Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus dramatists as Tennessee WILLIAMS and Edward
A one-act play by SOPHOCLES that is perhaps ALBEE, and helped to launch the careers of
the best known of all Greek tragedies. such stars as Geraldine Page. The start of
Considered by many to be Sophocles’s finest the movement is usually dated from the
work, it was first performed in 429 BC and production of Williams’s Summer and Smoke
followed by a sequel OEDIPUS AT COLONUS. In given at the CIRCLE-IN-THE-SQUARE in 1952.
his Poetics, Aristotle held up Oedipus Rex as the Inevitably, when the success of these
paradigm of the genre. The theme, of a son productions was recognized, business interests
murdering his father and marrying his mother, moved in and theatres began to stage more
was adopted by Freud as a symbol of the commercial plays.
hidden desires that (supposedly) exist in all
male children. off-off-Broadway In New York, the
Oedipus Rex has been frequently revived. In alternative theatre that developed in the early
1585 the play was the opening production of 1960s in the coffee houses and other small
the Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza. Max Reinhardt venues of Greenwich Village and the Lower
presented a famous staging in London in 1912 East Side. The off-off-Broadway scene arose as
 Old Comedy 361

OFF-BROADWAY productions became more never before. It was also the first musical for
professional and profit-conscious (although which an original cast album was recorded.
today it is itself often used to test the There were notable Broadway revivals in 1979
commercial value of experimental works). and 2002.
The first off-off-Broadway venue was the Oklahoma!, originally to be called Away We
Caffe Cino on Cornelia Street, a small coffee Go!, was based on Lynn Rigg’s play Green
house where Joe Cino presented plays from Grow the Rushes. When the musical played in
1958 until 1967. By the mid-1960s several New Haven, Connecticut, before its Broadway
small off-off-Broadway companies existed, who opening, one local critic dismissed it with the
introduced such new US playwrights as Sam comment “no legs, no jokes, no chance”.
Shepard, Terrence McNally, Israel Horowitz, Following its New York success, Hammerstein
Adrienne Kennedy, and Charles Ludlam. took out a self-congratulatory ad in Variety
Noted off-off-Broadway groups have included announcing “I’ve done it before and I can do it
the avant-garde Open Theatre, founded in again!” which, rather than mentioning
1963 by Joseph Chaikin, the Performance Oklahoma!, listed his many earlier flops.
Group, founded in 1967 by Richard Schechner The plot concerns Curly, a cowboy, who
and re-formed in 1970 as the Wooster Group, loves Laurey, a farmer’s daughter. Curly has a
and the socialist Bread and Puppet Theatre, dangerous rival, however, in Jud Fry, the hired
founded in 1961 by Peter Schumann. The Play- hand. Jud dies on his own knife in the final
House of the Ridiculous opened in 1967 (see fight and the couple, who are just married, ride
RIDICULOUS, THEATRE OF THE). off together. The songs include ‘Oklahoma!’,
‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’’, and ‘People
Off with his head! – So much for Will Say We’re in Love.’
Buckingham A quotation from Colley
CIBBER’s version (1700) of Shakespeare’s Old Bachelor, The A comedy by
RICHARD III, which is often taken as being William CONGREVE, first performed in 1693 at
Shakespeare’s own. Cibber’s version also Drury Lane where it ran for a record two
introduced the idiom Perish the thought!, weeks with a cast headed by Thomas
meaning do not entertain such an idea for a Betterton, Anne Bracegirdle, and Mrs
moment (now almost always used ironically). Mountfort. According to Congreve, the play
had been written to pass the time during a
Oh, What a Lovely War! A musical convalescence three years earlier. When he saw
lampoon of World War I that was created by the script Dryden remarked that he had never
Joan LITTLEWOOD’s Theatre Workshop in seen such a brilliant first play and used his
1963 at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. The influence to have it produced.
play was a ‘documentary collage’ that The plot involves a surly old bachelor,
juxtaposed sentimental songs of the period Heartwell, who marries the young Silvia before
with poignant scenes and harrowing wartime learning that she is a discarded mistress of
photos projected on a screen to create a Vainlove. Heartwell is delighted when he
powerful anti-war message. The work soon discovers that the ‘marriage’ ceremony was
transferred to Paris and New York. Richard performed by a sham vicar, Vainlove’s friend
Attenborough’s 1969 film version featured an Bellmour, who has disguised himself to get
all-star cast that included Laurence Olivier, close to Laetitia, the wife of old Fondlewife.
John Geilgud, Ralph Richardson, Maggie Eventually Sir Joseph Wittol, a foolish fellow,
Smith, and Vanessa Redgrave. genuinely marries Silvia, thinking her to be the
rich Araminta, and the cowardly Captain
Oklahoma! The RODGERS AND Bluffe weds Silvia’s maid under the same false
HAMMERSTEIN musical about cowboys and assumption. Vainlove, however, finds that the
farmers in the American West, first staged by real Araminta is not ready to marry him.
the THEATRE GUILD in 1943. It received rave
reviews and ran for 2212 performances; the Old Comedy The early Greek comic
1947 London production at Drury Lane lasted tradition of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It is
for 1543 performances. Together with Annie thought to have derived from the komoidia,
Get Your Gun, which opened a few weeks later, the song accompanying the komos or revel at
Oklahoma! changed the face of the stage the festival of DIONYSUS; the use of a large
musical by blending music, dance, and story as chorus, masks, and costumes imitating the
362 Old Complaint, the

phallus and female genitals probably reflects Old Drury The nickname of two US
these origins (see COMEDY). Fragments exist theatres, the CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE in
from several Old Comedy writers – Magnes, Philadelphia and the PARK THEATRE in New
Cratinus, Crates, Eupolis, Pherecrates, York. The name, taken from London’s DRURY
Ameipsas – but the only major works extant LANE Theatre, was bestowed in honour of their
are the 11 plays of ARISTOPHANES. They are seniority and importance in establishing the
full of obscene language, extravagant mockery, US theatre.
personal abuse of politicians (as in The Knights;
424 BC), and attacks on contemporary life and Old Dutch Nickname of the music-hall
philosophy (as in The Clouds; 423 BC). singer and comedian Albert CHEVALIER. The
The tradition of Old Comedy was phrase is an informal Cockney expression for
sufficiently confident for Aristophanes’s violent one’s wife (an abbreviation of ‘duchess’); it was
attacks to continue to flourish even in the associated with Chevalier after his success with
desperate days of the Peloponnesian War. the sentimental song ‘My Old Dutch’.
Other writers addressed similar themes, with Oldfield, Anne (1683–1730) English
Ameipsas ridiculing Socrates in one of his plays actress, the first to be buried in Westminster
as Aristophanes had in The Clouds. Abbey; no monument was erected as she had
Aristophanes’s later works sometimes borne two illegitimate children.
omitted the choral lyric and his last two plays The dramatist George FARQUHAR
were noticeably less confident and powerful discovered her while she was working at the
(see MIDDLE COMEDY). Old Comedy faded MITRE TAVERN; she subsequently became his
away after the tragic conclusion of the war in mistress and is probably the ‘Penelope’ of his
404 BC, probably because Athenian society had love letters. Her children were fathered by
become too fragile for such harsh attacks. The Arthur Manwaring and John Churchill, the
NEW COMEDY of Menander would be gentle by Duke of Marlborough. When the Princess of
comparison. Wales congratulated Mrs Oldfield on her
‘marriage’ to the Duke the actress replied, “So
Old Complaint, the A theatrical
it is said, may it please your royal highness, but
euphemism for excessive drinking, a malady by
we have not owned it yet.”
no means unknown to the profession. The list
Her acting career began when the
of theatrical drunks is long and calamitous, but
playwright Sir John VANBRUGH found her a
a choice selection would have to include John
place on the Drury Lane stage in 1699. She
BARRYMORE, Edmund KEAN, and the infamous
excelled in comedy and made her name in
George Frederick COOKE.
1704 in the role of Lady Betty Modish in
Old Corrector, the The supposed Colley Cibber’s The Careless Husband. Two
author of certain amendations to a Second years later she appeared as Millamant in
Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays that the Congreve’s The Way of the World, and in 1707
eminent Shakespearean scholar John Payne she created the roles of Silvia in Farquhar’s The
Collier (1789–1883) claimed to have Recruiting Officer and Mrs Sullen in his The
discovered in 1849. Collier ascribed the Beaux’ Stratagem (1707).
comments to Richard Perkins, a Jacobean Mrs Oldfield was noted for her beautiful
actor, and maintained that this version diction; indeed, Voltaire claimed that she was
overturned all previously known texts. When the only English actress he could understand
the so-called Perkins Folio arrived at the without effort. In 1728, the year of her
British Museum for examination, however, retirement, she gave one of her most acclaimed
pencil marks in a modern hand were performances as Lady Townly in Cibber’s The
discovered beneath the ‘ancient’ amendations Provoked Husband. Her last appearance was in
in ink. The true identity of the Old Corrector Henry Fielding’s Love in Several Masques. See
was soon revealed and Collier’s reputation was also NANCY, MISS.
ruined. Towards the end of his life the once- Old Man See STOCK COMPANY.
respected scholar admitted: “I am such a
despicable offender. I am ashamed of almost Old Mo Nickname for the Middlesex
every act of my life.” Nevertheless, at the age of Music Hall in Drury Lane, London. The
86 he attempted to arouse interest in a newly name referred to the original building on the
discovered Milton folio… site, the 17th-century Mogul Tavern, which
 Oleanna 363

had an association with Nell GWYNN who had following disasters such as Peter O’Toole’s
lived nearby. The Mogul Saloon began to notorious Macbeth (1980). In 1981 public
present entertainment in 1847 and was subsidy was withdrawn, resulting in the Old
renamed the Middlesex Music Hall in 1851. Vic’s closure until 1983. Then, after a £2.5
The venue was rebuilt in 1872, 1891, and million renovation by the new owner, the
1911, when it was renamed the New Canadian entrepreneur ‘Honest’ Ed Mirvish,
Middlesex Theatre of Varieties. Music hall and the theatre reopened with the Tim Rice
revue dominated the programme until 1919, musical Blondel. A 1991 production of
when the theatre, now known as the Winter Hammerstein’s Carmen Jones won five major
Garden, was used for musicals. awards, including the 1992 Laurence Olivier
Award for Best Musical. From late 1996 Sir
Old Vic A famous London theatre, situated Peter Hall directed a season of plays at the
south of Waterloo Bridge. It opened in 1818 theatre with his own informal ensemble.
as the Royal Coburg Theatre and became However, continuing heavy losses led Mervish
something of a conversation piece because of to sell the theatre to a consortium of backers in
its looking-glass curtain. In 1833 the theatre 1998. It reopened its doors in 2004, with the
was refurbished and renamed the Royal Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey in the role of
Victoria Theatre. It soon began to acquire a artistic director. Subsequent productions have
reputation for rowdiness, and in 1858 a bogus
included Aladdin (2004), with Ian McKellen
fire alarm in the gallery resulted in several
as Widow Twankey, a revival of Osborne’s The
playgoers being trampled to death. The name
Entertainer (2007), starring Robert Lindsay,
changed in 1871 to the New Victoria Palace
and John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation
and in 1880 to the Royal Victoria Hall and
(2010).
Coffee Tavern, when the social reformer
In 2009 Spacey helped to launch the
Emma Cons offered it as “a cheap and decent
Bridge Project, a transatlantic collaboration
place of amusement on strict temperance
between the Old Vic, the Brooklyn Academy
lines”, reversing its earlier reputation as a
of Music, and the director Sam MENDES. Plays
disreputable BLOOD TUB. On Cons’s death in
produced at the theatre under the auspices of
1912 her niece Lilian Baylis assumed control
the Project include a 2009 double bill of Three
and introduced performances of Shakespeare’s
Sisters and The Winter’s Tale, both starring
plays at reasonable prices. She would devote
Simon Russell Beale.
nearly 40 years of her life to the Old Vic
See also YOUNG VIC.
(whose circles are named in her honour). In
1923 it became the first theatre anywhere to Old Woman See STOCK COMPANY.
have produced all the plays in the First Folio.
Ballet arrived in 1931 with the first Oleanna A play by the US dramatist
performance of the Vic-Wells Ballet (which David MAMET that confronts the sensitive
later became the Royal Ballet) under Ninette subjects of sexual harassment and ‘political
de Valois. Two years later the opera and ballet correctness’. After its premiere in Cambridge,
programmes transferred to the SADLER’S WELLS Massachusetts, the play opened off-Broadway
Theatre (which Baylis had rebuilt) while in October 1992 and created an uproar among
drama remained at the Old Vic. In the 1930s both feminists and anti-feminists, with the cast
the remarkably talented company included being subjected to frequent heckling from the
Gielgud, Olivier, and Richardson. The Old audience. A year later it was seen in London at
Vic was severely damaged during the Blitz the Royal Court Theatre in a production by
and despite the survival of the auditorium Harold Pinter that starred Lia Williams and
remained closed from 1941 until 1950. David Suchet; this was revived (with the same
In 1963 the Old Vic company disbanded leads) in 2004.
and the theatre became a temporary home The plot explores the conflict between
for Olivier’s National Theatre company (see Carol, an insecure college student, and John, a
ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE), which arrived slightly pompous, middle-aged professor.
with an initial offering of Hamlet, starring During a tutorial, Carol appears to be on the
Peter O’Toole. In 1976 the National Theatre verge of a nervous breakdown because she
company moved to the South Bank and a new cannot understand John’s academic jargon;
Old Vic Company was formed from the when she begins to cry, John puts an arm
Prospect Company. This collapsed, however, round her shoulders. This is followed by a
364 Oliver!

mildly risqué joke. Encouraged by campus with Ralph RICHARDSON (1944) and gave a
feminists, Carol accuses him of sexual series of outstanding performances in plays by
harassment and attempted rape, a charge that Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Sophocles (see
results in John losing his job and facing OEDIPUS REX). The 1950s saw Olivier
criminal charges. Exasperated by the injustice managing his own company and extending his
John eventually loses his self-control, knocks range by taking roles in contemporary British
her to the floor and kicks her violently as she works, notably that of Archie Rice in
cowers under the table – an action that Osborne’s THE ENTERTAINER. After a year as
provoked cheers from male members of the director of the CHICHESTER FESTIVAL, he
audience in both New York and London. became founding director of the National
Recovering himself, John apologizes but Theatre (see ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE) in
realizes it is too late. 1962, a post he held for 11 years. His film
work included the Shakespearean trilogy Henry
Oliver! Lionel Bart’s musical adaptation V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III
of the Dickens classic Oliver Twist. First (1956), each of which he directed as well as
produced in 1960 at London’s Albery Theatre, playing the leading role. Olivier was knighted
it ran for 2618 performances with Ron Moody in 1947 and became the first actor to be
as Fagin and striking sets by Sean Kenney created a life peer in 1970. He was married
(1932–73). Moody also appeared in the 1968
three times, his most celebrated and stormy
film version and returned for a 1983 revival
marriage being to the actress Vivien LEIGH and
at the Aldwych Theatre. A further revival,
his last to the actress Joan Plowright
produced by Cameron Mackintosh and
(1929– ), who survives him.
directed by Sam Mendes, opened at the
Olivier’s early career was not altogether
London Palladium in 1994, with Robert
auspicious, with Sir Cedric Hardwicke for one
Lindsay as Fagin. Mackintosh also produced
remembering him as noisy and unsubtle. He
the 2009 revival at Drury Lane, which starred
was also prone to giggle nervously on stage, a
Rowan Atkinson.
maddening habit that cost him one job and
Bart’s free adaptation follows the orphan
threatened his career. Olivier credited Noël
Oliver from the cruelty of the workhouse,
Coward with curing him. During Private Lives,
through his experiences in the underworld
Coward and Gertrude Lawrence engaged in a
with Fagin and his gang of pickpockets, to
deliberate policy of making Olivier corpse at
eventual happiness with a wealthy grandfather.
every opportunity. By the end of its seven-
The songs include ‘Food, Glorious Food’,
month run, Olivier was laughed out.
‘Oliver’, ‘Consider Yourself’, ‘I’d do
Olivier was also notoriously accident-
Anything’, ‘You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or
prone; during his career, he suffered one
Two’, and ‘As Long as He Needs Me’.
broken ankle, two torn cartilages, two torn calf
Olivier, Laurence (Kerr), Baron muscles, and three ruptured Achilles tendons.
(1907–89) British actor, director, and Other mishaps included a 30-foot fall onto the
manager, generally considered the leading stage from a rope ladder and the occasion on
classical actor of his time. The son of an which he landed “from considerable height,
Anglican clergyman, he made his first stage scrotum first, upon an acrobat’s knee.” He also
appearance as Katherine in a school inflicted injuries on others. Wielding a sword
production of The Taming of the Shrew (1922). during the fight scene in the 1935 Romeo and
Two years later he made his professional debut Juliet, he cut Geoffrey Tonne’s thumb so badly
in Byron at the Century Theatre, London. that the young actor had to leave the cast for
After tasting success in the first run of Private four weeks.
Lives (1930), Olivier came to critical notice in Olivier himself had moments of self-doubt.
a production of Romeo and Juliet (1935) that After one triumphant performance of Othello,
saw him alternating the roles of Romeo and he stormed back to his dressing room and
Mercutio with John Gielgud. In the later slammed the door. The cast waited outside
1930s he took further Shakespearean roles, until one summoned up the courage to knock
including Hamlet (1937), and became known and ask, “What’s the matter, Larry? It was
to a wider public through Hollywood films great!” Olivier shouted back: “I know it was
such as Wuthering Heights (1939). After war great, damn it, but I don’t know how I did it,
service he became a codirector of the OLD VIC so how can I be sure I can do it again?”
 onnagata 365

His name is commemorated in the alcoholic, attempting suicide on at least one

LAURENCE OLIVIER AWARDS, given annually for occasion. While recovering from tuberculosis
the best West End productions, and in the at a sanatorium in 1912 he began to write
Olivier Theatre, opened in 1976 as one of the melodramas as part of his ‘rebirth’.
three auditoriums of the National Theatre. O’Neill’s first work to be produced was the
one-act nautical drama Bound East for Cardiff,
Ollantay A play in the Quechuan staged by the experimental Provincetown
language, performed near Cuzco, Peru, in Players in Massachusetts in 1916. The group
around 1780 under the direction of Padre established the Playwrights’ Theatre in New
Antonio Valdés. Whether Valdés created the York later that year and continued to produce
work himself or transcribed it from oral his plays. His first full-length work, BEYOND
tradition is somewhat contentious, though THE HORIZON, opened in 1920 at Broadway’s
scrutiny of the play’s structure suggests the Morosco Theatre and won a Pulitzer Prize.
former. The work has been variously adapted Three more Pulitzers were awarded for ANNA
and translated by late 20th-century writers. CHRISTIE (1922), STRANGE INTERLUDE (1928),

Olsen and Johnson The US and the autobiographical LONG DAY’S JOURNEY
VAUDEVILLE stars Ole Olsen (John Olsen; INTO NIGHT (posthumously awarded in 1957).

1892–1963) and Chic Johnson (Harold He received the Nobel Prize in 1936. Other
Johnson; 1892–1962), who billed themselves full-length plays include DESIRE UNDER THE
as the “Comic Nuts, Kings of Cacophony, ELMS (1924), about the love-hate relationship

Unconventionality and Conviviality.” Their between a New England farmer and his son,
“scream-lined” masterpiece Hellzapoppin MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA (1931), a

(1938) still holds the record run for a revue, reworking of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, AH!
lasting for 1404 performances before becoming WILDERNESS (1933), his only comedy, and

a film in 1942. Despite its original success, a THE ICEMAN COMETH (1946), an emotionally

1977 revival starring the comedian Jerry Lewis charged drama of profound disillusion.
flopped. O’Neill’s tragic outlook on life may
Olsen, who began as a vaudeville pianist, well have stemmed from the grim family
teamed up with Johnson, a violinist, at the background depicted in Long Day’s Journey
14th Street Music Hall in 1915. By 1922 the into Night; it was undoubtedly exacerbated by
pair had become stars of the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES. his three disastrous marriages and the problems
They appeared on Broadway in Monkey he had with his children. He was devastated
Business of 1926 and had another success with by the suicide of his eldest son, Eugene,
Atrocities of 1932. After filming three comedies and furious when his daughter, Oonagh,
for Warner Brothers, Olsen and Johnson took married Charlie Chaplin, who was O’Neill’s
Broadway by storm with Hellzapoppin at the contemporary. During his last years, O’Neill
46th Street Theatre. In 1941 they returned was crippled by Parkinson’s disease. He died,
with a similar format in Sons of Fun at the as he had been born, in a hotel.
Winter Garden Theatre. one-night stand A single evening
ombres chinoises See SHADOW PUPPETS. performance by a touring company, etc., or a
town that is likely to provide an audience for
omnibus box A theatre BOX paid for by one night only. The phrase is also used of a
the subscription of several different parties, all casual sexual relationship lasting for a single
of whom have the right to use it. night.
O’Neill, Eugene (Gladstone) onnagata In the KABUKI theatre of Japan,
(1888–1953) US playwright, often regarded as a male actor who plays female roles. When
the first serious and distinctive voice in boys and women were banned from
American drama. His father, James O’Neill, performing in the 17th century, female roles
was a touring actor, and Eugene was born in a began to be played by men with shaved
Broadway hotel. He attended Princeton foreheads. Until quite recently, the actors were
University for one year but dropped out to expected to conduct themselves in a feminine
become a seaman, after which he led an manner even when they were not on stage.
itinerant existence in Europe and South The onnagata actor applies white make-up
America. During this period he became an to the face before drawing false eyebrows and
366 open-air theatre

adding rouge to the mouth and the corners of into another and appeared in their rehearsal
the eyes. The role of a married woman is clothes without make-up. The company was
played with blackened teeth and no eyebrows. reorganized as a collective in 1970 and
See also FEMALE IMPERSONATOR. subsequently performed mainly for university
and prison audiences until its dissolution in
open-air theatre The first Greek and 1973.
Roman theatres were in the open, and
medieval travelling players also erected their Opera Comique A former London
temporary stages outside. Plays were first theatre in Aldwych that was opened in 1870.
produced indoors in Renaissance Italy. The following year, a group of actors from the
In England the PUBLIC THEATREs of the Comédie-Française, all refugees from the
Elizabethan era were open to the sky except Franco-Prussian War, performed there under
for roofs over the stage and galleries. Edmond-François-Jules Gôt. The theatre
Although theatre came firmly inside with the continued to appeal to international
introduction of the PROSCENIUM arch, open-air performers such as the Italian actress Adelaide
drama, whether on the streets or in municipal Ristori, who visited in 1873, but its French
parks, has never died out. name made London theatre-goers suspicious
Britain’s best known outdoor venue is the and the venue often remained unused. From
Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, London. 1877 Richard D’OYLY CARTE and his Comedy
Ben Greet began to stage plays in the park Opera Company produced a series of works by
with his Woodland Players in 1900. Sydney GILBERT AND SULLIVAN at the venue; The
Carroll revived the tradition in 1932, and in Sorcerer (1877) was followed by HMS Pinafore
1962 the New Shakespeare Company was (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1880).
formed to carry it on; three productions are Patience (1881) had its premiere at the Opera
now given each summer, two of which are Comique but transferred to the SAVOY
Shakespearean works. The theatre was THEATRE, which D’Oyly Carte opened later
reconstructed in 1975 with an auditorium the same year.
complex being added to replace the old rows of After a period during which it was closed
deck chairs. The Open Air Theatre’s bar is for redecoration the theatre presented the
famous for its ‘Puck’s Fizz’ cocktail. young Marie Tempest as Lady Blanche in The
Europe’s largest open-air theatre, with a Fay o’ Fire. It enjoyed little subsequent success,
seating capacity of 7000 and standing room for however, and became a venue for special
9000, is at Scarborough in North Yorkshire. performances and try-outs. It was partially
The theatre closed in 1968 but reopened in rebuilt in 1895, closed in 1899, and
1982 with a production of Magical Musical demolished in 1902. See also RICKETY TWINS,
Time Machine. THE.

open stage See THRUST STAGE. opera house In America, any building in
Open Theatre An OFF-OFF-BROADWAY a small town that can be used as a theatre for
theatre company founded in New York in travelling entertainers, lecturers, etc.
1963 by Joseph Chaikin, formerly of the Ophelia In Shakespeare’s HAMLET, the
LIVING THEATRE, and Peter Feldman. The daughter of Polonius, lord chamberlain at the
group pioneered a form of COLLECTIVE Danish court. Ophelia loves Hamlet but repels
CREATION, in which the cast would improvize his romantic overtures when instructed to do
around a script that the dramatist would then so by her father. Hamlet’s subsequent cruelty
rewrite incorporating their ideas. Their first towards Ophelia, and his accidental slaying of
full-length play, Viet Rock (1966) by Megan her father, finally drive her out of her mind
Terry (1932– ), addressed the horrors of the and she appears in two pathetic mad scenes.
Vietnam war. Other productions included The Finally, she is reported to have drowned in a
Serpent (1968), Terminal (1969), Mutation brook while wreathed in “fantastic garlands” of
Show (1971), and Nightwalk (1973). wild flowers. Actresses to excel in the role have
The group borrowed many of its ideas included Sarah SIDDONS and Ellen TERRY.
from Jerzy Grotowski’s POOR THEATRE,
employing minimal scenery, props, and opposite prompt side See PROMPT
lighting. Actors moved freely from one role SIDE.
 Orpheus Descending 367

O.P. riots A series of riots that took place Epidaurus, built in about 350 BC, has a well-
at COVENT GARDEN in 1809. Following the preserved circular orchestra with a diameter of
destruction by fire of the first Covent Garden about 66 feet.
theatre in 1808, a new theatre was quickly
constructed and opened the next year. Due to orchestra pit The sunken area in front of
the smaller capacity of the new theatre, a stage in which musicians perform. The
however, admission prices were raised. Riots orchestra pit was an innovation of the
broke out and continued for three months, Georgian theatre, musicians having sat aloft in
with crowds disrupting performances with a gallery in Elizabethan times and in a box in
shouts of “O.P.” (old prices) and doing the Restoration theatre. The term (and,
considerable damage to the theatre itself. The indeed, the use of the word orchestra to mean
ferocity of the riots eventually forced the a musical ensemble) derives from the space
theatre’s management into submission and the reserved for the chorus in the ancient Greek
old prices were brought back. theatre.
orchestra seat See STALLS.
Orange Moll Nickname for Mary Meggs
(d. 1691), a seller of oranges and other Oresteia, The A sequence of three
refreshments at the Drury Lane Theatre for tragedies by AESCHYLUS, the only complete
nearly 20 years from its opening in 1663. One Greek trilogy to have survived (the
of her orange girls, most of whom doubled as accompanying SATYR-PLAY is lost). Consisting
prostitutes, was Nell GWYNN, the future actress of the plays Agamemnon, the Choephoroi
and mistress of Charles II. Meggs, a widow, (Libation Bearers), and the Eumenides (Furies),
became a popular fixture at the theatre and it was first performed in 458 BC in Athens and
delighted Samuel PEPYS by passing on won first prize at the City DIONYSIA. Often
scandalous gossip about Gwynn and other considered the profoundest of all tragic works,
theatrical personalities, many items of which The Oresteia has many complex themes, but
ended up in his Diary. concentrates particularly on guilt and its
When Drury Lane was destroyed by fire in expiation, the conflict between vengeance and
1672, a report pinpointed the source as being justice, and the nature of the relationship
under the stairs “where Orange Moll keeps her between human beings, the gods, and destiny.
fruit”; thereafter suspicion lingered that she or In the first play Agamemnon, king of
one of her girls (including Gwynn) might have Argos, returns home from the Trojan War to
been searching the area with a candle. be murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, who
In 1682 the companies of Drury Lane and has taken a lover. She has sent their infant son,
Dorset Garden were combined and became Orestes, into exile but in the Choephoroi he
more businesslike. When it was discovered that returns as a young man to avenge his father.
Meggs was in arrears, she was replaced. Since The pivotal moment in the trilogy occurs
her original licence was for 39 years, she when Orestes has to choose between avenging
initiated a protracted legal claim that was still his father by committing the heinous crime
unresolved on her death. of matricide, or letting his father remain
unavenged, an equally grave offence. A
orchestra In the ancient Greek theatre, stunning theatrical innovation was deployed
the circular or semicircular area where the by Aeschylus at this point. In all previous
CHORUS chanted and danced. It was positioned
Greek tragedies the hero was attended by a
between the audience and the raised stage used mute companion figure, and Aeschylus uses
by the principals. The word is derived from the this character (who speaks only four lines in
Greek orcheesthai meaning ‘to dance’. the play) to advise Orestes. Orestes kills his
The orchestra was one of the most ancient mother but is pursued by the Furies, who
features of the Greek theatre. In the 6th demand that she, in turn, be avenged. In the
century BC a dancing place was laid out around Eumenides Orestes pleads before the Athenian
the thymele or altar in the Theatre of Dionysus, court, the Areopagus, to be released from his
Athens. A raised wooden stage was added guilt. Eventually the goddess Athena acquits
about a century later, this being connected to him, breaking the cycle of vengeance.
the orchestra by steps or ramps. Some scholars
believe that orchestras were rectangular until Orpheus Descending A tragedy by
the 4th century, although the theatre at Tennessee WILLIAMS. Originally written as
368 Orpheus of Highwaymen

Battle of Angels in 1940, it was reworked for dialogue with violent and shocking action.
production on Broadway in 1957. The play Orton left home at 16 to train as an actor. His
was later made into a heavily bowdlerized film. subversive style of humour first revealed itself
The plot is a loose reworking of the legend in a bizarre incident in 1962, when he and his
of Orpheus, the poet-musician who descended lover, Kenneth Halliwell, were gaoled for
into the infernal regions to rescue his wife, defacing library books. The two had carefully
Eurydice, but lost her for a second time when removed jacket blurbs from middle-brow
he turned to look back. After his return to novels and substituted their own, mostly
earth, he was torn to pieces by a mob of scatological, counterfeits. Orton’s best-known
Bacchantes. The play’s Orpheus figure is Val works are ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE (1964),
Xavier, a drifting guitarist who runs out of LOOT (1966), a satire on the genre of detective
money in a small town in the South. He is fiction in which much of the comedy revolves
taken on at the general store by Lady around a corpse, and WHAT THE BUTLER SAW, a
Torrance, whose husband, Jabe, is dying of farce about a deranged psychiatrist that was
cancer. Val finds several eager admirers first produced in 1969, with Ralph Richardson
amongst the town’s women but maintains his in the lead.
distance from all except Lady, with whom he Orton was a flamboyant homosexual in a
begins a love affair. The sheriff, who wrongly period before the liberalization of the British
suspects Val of trying to seduce his wife, orders law, and this side of his life is described
him out of town. Before he can leave, however, graphically in his posthumously published
Lady discovers that she is pregnant by him – diaries. He was battered to death by Halliwell
and also that her husband had helped to (who subsequently committed suicide) during
murder her father. Lady begs Val to stay until a domestic argument in 1967.
she has had revenge on her husband by
watching his slow death. Jabe, however, finds Osborne, John (James) (1929–94)
them together and kills Lady, before running British playwright and actor, who became the
into the street to accuse Val of the murder. leading representative of the so-called ANGRY
YOUNG MEN of the 1950s. Osborne’s LOOK
The sheriff hunts down Val who is carried
BACK IN ANGER (1956), the first of his plays to
away to his death by an angry mob.
be accepted for production, ushered in a new
Orpheus of Highwaymen A era in British theatre with its attacks on
nickname given to the English playwright John conventional middle-class values and its
Gay (1685–1732) on account of his BEGGAR’S vituperative antihero, Jimmy PORTER. The
OPERA (1728). Moralists had long argued for forerunner of many so-called KITCHEN SINK
the suppression of this work, on the grounds dramas, it provided the English Stage
that it encouraged crime by presenting the Company at the ROYAL COURT THEATRE with
highwayman, Macheath, as a courteous and one of its greatest triumphs. Although the
sympathetic figure. Others argued that the play initial notices were indifferent, The Observer’s
had at least some beneficial effects: Kenneth TYNAN wrote a powerful review in
I have been told of an ingenious which he said he would be unable to love
observation of Mr Gibbon, that The anyone who did not wish to see it. Both
Beggar’s Opera may, perhaps, have Osborne and Look Back in Anger leapt to fame
sometimes increased the number of overnight. Osborne consolidated his success
highwaymen: but that it has had a with THE ENTERTAINER (1957), about a seedy
beneficial effect in refining that class of music-hall comedian, Archie RICE, which was
men, making them less ferocious, more first produced with Olivier in the role. This,
polite, – in short, more like gentlemen. too, was highly praised and like his first play
JAMES BOSWELL: Life of Samuel Johnson
now forms part of the Eng. Lit. school
(1791) syllabus. Among the plays that followed, the
The legendary Greek poet, Orpheus, was best received were LUTHER (1961),
INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE (1964), and A PATRIOT
supposedly able to tame wild beasts through
FOR ME (1966), which was refused a licence
the power of his art.
because of its homosexual theme. In the 1970s,
Orton, Joe (John Kingsley Orton; however, such works as West of Suez (1971)
1933–67) British playwright noted for his and A Sense of Detachment (1973) failed to
black comedies, which combine genteel please either audiences or critics. Osborne had
 Othello 369

no new play produced on the British stage which are realistic in style, are set almost
between the failure of Watch It Come Down exclusively amongst the merchant class.
(1975) and the premiere of Déjà Vu (1992), a The year before his death Ostrovsky was
sequel to Look Back in Anger that looks at appointed the artistic director of all the
Jimmy Porter 35 years after his first imperial theatres in Moscow.
appearance. The first production of Déjà Vu
was postponed for several months following a Othello SHAKESPEARE’s tragedy of the
bitter dispute between Osborne and Peter Moorish general who “loved not wisely but too
O’Toole, who was to have played Porter. well.” It was written in about 1603 and first
Osborne also wrote for television and the performed in 1604. Shakespeare based the play
cinema, winning an Oscar for his screenplay on a story in IL CINTHIO’s Hecatommithi
for Tom Jones (1964). He produced two (1595), but made important changes to both
volumes of autobiography: A Better Class of plot and characterization.
Person (1981) deals with his early life and As the play begins we learn that the Black
draws a deeply hostile picture of his mother, Othello, a general in the Venetian army, has
while Almost a Gentleman (1991) has been secretly married Desdemona, the daughter of a
described by a critic as “dancing on the graves” senator. The main action of the play, which
of his two deceased wives, the actresses Mary occurs in Cyprus, depicts the destruction of
Ure and Jill Bennett. this relationship through the plotting of
Othello’s trusted ensign Iago, a consummate
Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolaevich hypocrite whose malevolence is never
(1823–86) Russian dramatist, considered by adequately accounted for. Iago’s insinuations
many the virtual founder of the Russian that Desdemona is having an affair with
theatre. Ostrovsky wrote some 47 plays which, Cassio, another officer, appear to receive
at the time, constituted a large proportion support when one of her handkerchiefs is
of the Russian theatrical repertoire. Most of found in Cassio’s possession. Further
these were first produced under his personal prompting from Iago leads Othello, now
supervision at the MALY THEATRE in Moscow, reduced to a state of psychotic jealousy, to
which became known as the ‘House of smother Desdemona in bed. When the lie is
Ostrovsky’. revealed, Othello commits suicide.
The son of a government clerk, Ostrovsky The demanding roles of Othello and Iago
studied law at the University of Moscow; have boosted or bedevilled many careers. The
after failing an examination he obtained most famous Othello of the 19th century was
employment as a clerk at the Moscow juvenile Edmund KEAN, who enjoyed his first triumph
court. Ostrovsky was dismissed from this post, in the role at Drury Lane in 1814. During a
however, following the publication of his later performance in the part at Covent
second play, THE BANKRUPT (1848), which Garden in 1833, he collapsed into the arms of
exposed dubious business practices. The his son Charles (who was playing Iago), dying
Bankrupt, revised two years later as It’s a two months later. In 1937 a production
Family Affair, We’ll Settle It Among Ourselves, boasting Ralph RICHARDSON as Othello and
was considered to be an insult to the Russian Laurence OLIVIER as Iago proved a surprise
merchant classes and was banned by the flop. Following the performance, Richardson is
censor, production not being allowed for over reported to have paced back and forth in the
a decade. As a result of this debacle and a corridor asking, “Has anyone seen my talent?
rather indiscreet affair with an actress, It was always small, but it used to be shining.”
Ostrovsky’s family deprived him of all On another occasion, Olivier was playing
financial support. Othello at an open-air theatre in America
However, after the popular success of his when a woman called at his portable dressing
comedy Poverty is No Disgrace in 1853, room during the interval to ask for directions
Ostrovsky enjoyed an unrivalled position in to the exit. When Olivier asked why she was
Russian drama, which continued until his leaving so early, the lady shrugged: “Frankly, I
death. Other notable works include the saw it years ago back in Brooklyn. It was in
domestic tragedy THE STORM (1860), The Yiddish and it hurts me to hear how much it
Scoundrel (1868), The Forest (1870), and The loses in translation.”
Snow Maiden (1873), which provided the basis In 1951 Orson WELLES made his London
for an opera by Rimski-Korsakov. His plays, debut playing Othello in a production that he
370 Otway, Thomas

also directed. The critic T. C. Worsley wrote however, and critic Kenneth TYNAN
that Welles “gave off an aura of terror such as I complained:
have seen no actor before produce.” Kenneth The play’s major flaw is that Otway
Tynan, however, commented “Welles’s Othello allows Jaffier far too much self-pity, a
is the lordly and mannered performance we saw mood of which John Gielgud as an
in Citizen Kane slightly adapted to read Citizen actor is far too fond. The temptation
Coon.” Welles also released a film version in sometimes proves too much for him:
1955. inhaling passionately through his nose,
Three Black US actors have proved he administers to every line a
particularly outstanding in the role of Othello. tremendous parsonical quiver.
Ira Aldridge, the so-called African ROSCIUS, The son of a vicar, Otway left Oxford
played the part in his London debut in 1826. without a degree. He made only one
Paul ROBESON starred with Peggy Ashcroft in a appearance as an actor, in Aphra Behn’s The
1930 production of the play at the Savoy Forced Marriage in 1670. His first play to be
Theatre, leading to an off-stage love affair produced was the rhyming tragedy Alcibiades,
between the two. In 1945 Robeson enjoyed a staged in 1675 at Dorset Garden. It starred
run of 295 performances in the part on Thomas Betterton and Elizabeth Barry, with
Broadway, a record for a US production of a whom Otway was in love. Otway’s greatest
Shakespeare play. More recently James Earl success in his own lifetime was The Cheats of
JONES was praised for his Othello in two
Scapin, an adaptation of Molière’s farce Les
productions (in 1964 and 1981). Fourberies de Scapin, first presented in 1676 as
Despite its acknowledged greatness, the an AFTERPIECE to his Titus and Berenice. In
play has often induced a queasy reaction in 1678 he was serving in an English regiment in
critics and audiences – partly because of the the Netherlands when his comedy Friendship
squalor of the tragedy but partly, no doubt, in Fashion was produced in London. After his
because of its affront to racial and sexual return to London in 1679, Otway fought a
sensitivities. In the late 17th century the critic duel with John Churchill, later Duke of
Thomas Rymer denounced the play as a Marlborough, without harm to either party.
barbarous farrago, valuable only as “a warning Later plays included The Orphan; or, The
to all good wives that they look well to their Unhappy Marriage, a domestic tragedy starring
linen.” A later critic, S. T. Coleridge, proved to Betterton and Mrs Barry, and the comedy The
his own satisfaction that Othello was not really Soldier’s Fortune, both of which were produced
Black. To avoid the strictures of Puritans, in 1680.
when the play was staged in Newport, Rhode Despite his fame, Otway spent the last
Island in 1761, it was advertised as “Moral years of his life in great poverty. According to
Dialogues in Five Parts, Depicting the evil Theophilus Cibber in his Lives of the Poets
effect of jealousy…and proving that happiness (1753), he died after ravenously eating a bread
can only spring from the pursuit of virtue.” See roll bought with money donated by a
also GREEN-EYED MONSTER. compassionate stranger.
Otway, Thomas (1652–85) English OUDS Oxford University Dramatic Society.
playwright best known for Venice Preserv’d; or, An amateur theatre club founded in 1885 by a
A Plot Discovered (1682), one of the very few group of Oxford undergraduates that included
Restoration tragedies still staged. Dryden Arthur Bourchier, who would later become
wrote a prologue for the play and was lavish in manager of the Garrick Theatre. Until 1939
his praise: female roles were always played by professional
Nature is there, which is the greatest actresses. The society is respected for its
beauty. presentations of Shakespeare and other classics,
Although many of the finest British actors which are often directed by professionals.
of the 18th and 19th centuries appeared in OUDS is now based in the renovated Oxford
Venice Preserv’d, the first 20th-century Playhouse, which reopened in 1992.
presentation was not until 1953, when John Early OUDS productions had their
GIELGUD and Paul Scofield appeared in share of mishaps. During a performance of
Peter Brook’s production at the Lyric, Shakespeare’s King John in 1891, the
Hammersmith. The production lost money, combined British and French armies (60
 Oxford University Dramatic Society 371

performers) were trapped on stage when a Oxfordian theory See BACONIAN

drawbridge would not lower. Later in the play THEORY.
the actors playing King John and King Philip
became hooked together by their chain armour Oxford Music Hall The first purpose-
during their quarrel scene and had to leave the built London music hall. It was opened in 1861
stage like Siamese twins. by Charles MORTON in an old galleried tavern
at the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham
Our Town Thornton WILDER’s Pulitzer- Court Road. Early bills offered a mixture of
Prize-winning play about smalltown America, music and slapstick comedy. The Oxford
first performed on Broadway in 1938. Our remained one of the leading music halls despite
Town takes a somewhat nostalgic look at
increasing competition and destructive fires in
everyday life in the small community of
1868 and 1872. George Robey made his West
Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, at the turn
End debut there in 1891. Two years later a
of the century. The style contains elements of
expressionism. A ‘stage manager’ guides the new hall was built on the site, opening with
audience through the action, explaining and such top names as Marie Lloyd, Bessie
commenting upon events and relationships, Bellwood, and Harry Champion. The Scottish
whilst also participating in the action. comedian Harry Tate made his first London
The plot revolves around the romance of appearance there in 1895.
Emily Webb and George Gibbs. Wilder uses Serious drama first appeared on the Oxford
flashbacks to show the daily existence of the stage in 1906, when the Italian actress Eleonore
Webb and Gibbs families together with their Duse starred in Ibsen’s Ghosts. In 1917 Charles
friends and neighbours. The youthful love of Cochran presented Bruce Bairnsfather’s play
Emily and George matures into a happy The Better ’Ole, based on his famous World
marriage that ends with her death in War I cartoon. The venue was renamed the
childbirth. At the funeral Emily’s spirit appears New Oxford Theatre in 1920, reopening with
and desperately tries to convey her past the Dolly Sisters in The League of Notions. In
happinesses to her mother. When this fails, 1924 the Old Vic Company presented a season
Emily returns to the grave despairing at the of Shakespeare under the direction of Robert
way in which most people allow the joys of life Atkins. Two years later the Oxford closed and
to pass them by. the site became a Lyons’ Corner House.
Out of Joint British touring company Oxford’s Men The name of two early
founded in 1993 by director Max Stafford- English theatre companies, both of which
Clark (1941– ). In 1974 Stafford-Clark was
became embroiled in controversy. The first was
a cofounder (with David HARE) of the Joint
formed in about 1492 from the household of
Stock Theatre Company, and Out of Joint
the Earl of Oxford. In 1547 the company
has continued that company’s practice of
developing new works in collaboration with caused outrage when it performed in Southwark
the author. The long list of new plays produced while a dirge was being sung in a nearby church
by Out of Joint includes Sebastian BARRY’s for Henry VIII. The first company disbanded
The Steward of Christendom (1995), Mark in 1562 and it was not until 1580 that a new
RAVENHILL’s Shopping and Fucking (1996), troupe was formed under the patronage of the
Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere (a minor
(1998), Andrea Dunbar’s Rita, Sue and Bob poet believed by some to have been the true
Too (2000), and Richard Bean’s The Big Fellah author of Shakespeare’s plays: see BACONIAN
(2010). Out of Joint has also worked with THEORY). Later that year the players were
established writers, notably David Hare and banished to the provinces after becoming
Caryl Churchill, and has occasionally staged involved in a brawl at the THEATRE. In 1584
classic revivals, including a remarkable boys from Oxford’s Men played at the
Macbeth in 2004. The company has toured BLACKFRIARS THEATRE with members of other
internationally and often coproduces with major BOY COMPANIES. The company disbanded in
venues such as the National Theatre; it has a 1602.
close relationship with London’s ROYAL
COURT, where Stafford-Clark was previously Oxford University Dramatic
artistic director (1979–92). Society See OUDS.
372 Pace-Egg Play

fanged teeth, and his wife Pakhomikha, whom

P he has sexually deprived. The plot involves the

cuckolding of Pakhomushka and his subsequent
revenge. At one point in the performance a
male actor usually selects a ‘bride’ from the
Pace-Egg Play A type of folk play women in the audience, who must then go
performed at Eastertide in the northwest of through a sham marriage and wedding night.
England. It took various forms but usually This always produces witty sexual banter
featured a blackface character named Old between the actors and members of the
Tosspot, who solicited gifts of eggs or money audience.
from the audience while his followers sang and
danced. Other popular characters included Pala An Indian theatrical genre that
Lord Nelson, Betsy Brownbags, and Paddy honours the deity Satyapir, who is worshipped
from Cork. Some versions incorporate by Hindus in the eastern state of Orissa. There
elements borrowed from the Christmas are two traditional styles of performance, one
MUMMERS’ PLAY. in which the actors are seated and one in
which they stand dressed in royal attire.
pageant Originally, a cart that served as a The Pala is performed in any suitable open
movable stage for the presentation of medieval space. The chief player – who holds a yak’s-tail
religious dramas. The lower half of the wagon fly whisk and plays small bell-metal cymbals –
usually served as a dressing room. In the Tudor explains the songs in the audience’s local
and Elizabethan period the term was applied to language. Other players make up the chorus.
both the wood or canvas stages used for
MASQUEs and the permanent stages developed
Palace Theatre (1) A theatre in
for royal visits or ceremonies. Cambridge Circus, London. It was opened in
The modern sense of the word developed 1891 by Richard D’OYLY CARTE as the Royal
by association. During the later medieval English Opera House; the first work to be
period it came to be applied to a secular staged was Arthur Sullivan’s romantic opera
festivity organized by a town guild and Ivanhoe. Following a string of commercial
consisting of a procession of decorated carts. failures, D’Oyly Carte’s dream of a London
London’s prime surviving example is the Lord opera house came to an abrupt end in 1892,
Mayor’s Show, in which the Lord Mayor’s when the theatre was sold and renamed the
Palace Theatre of Varieties.
horse-drawn carriage is accompanied by a
Stars to appear at the Palace included
procession of vehicles decorated to illustrate
Marie TEMPEST, who performed in variety in
various themes.
1906, and Maud Allan, who shed a series of
In the early 1900s open-air patriotic and
white veils in what was then considered an
civic festivals known as pageants became
erotic ballet, The Vision of Salome. Anna
popular in both Britain and America. These
Pavlova, the Russian ballerina, made her
historical celebrations were usually performed
London debut there in 1910. The following
by local townspeople directed by professionals.
year the theatre acquired its present name and
Some theatres also presented pageants
hosted the first of the Royal Command Variety
depicting their own histories, such as the 1918
Performances.
Pageant of DRURY LANE.
Since the success in 1925 of No, No,
pageant lantern In stage lighting, a Nanette starring Binnie Hale, which ran for
spotlight or footlight unit that produces a 655 performances, the Palace has specialized in
narrow beam. The usual US term is a musicals. During World War II Cicely
projector unit. Courtneidge appeared with Jack Hulbert in
several musical comedies, while subsequent
Pakhomushka A type of Russian farce offerings have included The Song of Norway
acted by amateurs at parties, celebrations, and (1946), Ivor Novello’s King’s Rhapsody (1949),
other social gatherings. Performances are and The Sound of Music, which ran from 1961
usually impromptu, with the props and until 1967. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim
costumes being selected from whatever is Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar logged 3357
available. The main characters are the idiot performances between 1971 and 1980. The
Pakhomushka, who has a humped back and Royal Shakespeare Company’s LES MISÉRABLES
 Palladium 373

transferred from the Barbican Theatre in 1985 Joey had finally forced the musical comedy
and ran here until 2004, when it was replaced theatre to “wear long pants”. It was first
by Lloyd Webber’s The Woman In White. performed in New York in 1940 at the Ethel
Recent productions include the Monty Python Barrymore Theatre, when it launched Gene
musical Spamalot (2006–09) and Priscilla Kelly to stardom. The show was even more
Queen of the Desert – The Musical (2009– ). successful in a 1952 Broadway revival. Frank
(2) A theatre on Broadway, New York, Sinatra starred in the film version (1957). In
that became a legendary Mecca for VAUDEVILLE 1980 the London FRINGE THEATRE company,
performers in the 1920s and 1930s. The New Half Moon, staged a noted revival that
ultimate ambition of every US variety act was later transferred to the West End.
to ‘play the Palace!’ The 1800-seat theatre was The story concerns Joey (Evans), a
built and opened in 1913 by Martin Beck, disreputable nightclub dancer, who tries to
manager of the Orpheum circuit. seduce the young and naive Linda English.
In 1931 the comedians Eddie Cantor and However, the fickle Joey is soon distracted by
George Jessel teamed up for a record run of Vera Simpson, a rich married woman, who sets
nine weeks, returning to top the bill in 1937. him up in an expensive apartment and opens a
One evening during a routine together Cantor nightclub named after him. Eventually both
told an ad-lib joke that drew a great laugh. Vera and Linda realize they are being taken for
Jessel quickly topped him and Cantor, at a loss a ride and agree to reject him. Joey suddenly
for words, took off his shoe and thumped disappears from their lives, in pursuit of yet
Jessel on the head: it got the evening’s biggest another woman.
laugh. Jessel walked to the footlights and The songs, with music by Rodgers and
announced: lyrics by Hart, include ‘I Could Write a Book’,
Ladies and Gentlemen, this so-called ‘That Terrific Rainbow’, and ‘Do It the Hard
grown-up man, whom I have the Way’.
misfortune to be working with, is so Palladium The name by which the
lacking in decorum, breeding, and London Palladium Theatre is usually known.
intelligence that, when he was unable In this Soho theatre, top stars from both sides
to think of a clever retort, he had to of the Atlantic have performed in VARIETY;
descend to the lowest form of humour they include Max Miller, Frankie Howerd,
by taking off his shoe and striking me Ken Dodd, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bing
on the head. Only an insensitive oaf Crosby, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope, and Jack
would sink so low. Benny. The theatre became a household word
Cantor strolled over and hit Jessel on the head in the 1960s with the popular TV variety
again. show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
By 1942 the Palace had begun to combine It has often been the venue for the Royal
filmed newsreels and cartoons with live Variety Show. The critic Alan Brien once
performances and later that year became a described it as the only London theatre that
cinema. Vaudeville’s domination of US Bertolt BRECHT would have enjoyed.
entertainment ended that night. The Palace The Palladium was built in Argyll Street in
briefly became a burlesque house, returned just 1910 by the circus manager Charles Hengler,
as briefly to vaudeville in 1950, then converted who had staged his Grand Cirque on the site
in 1965 into a 1358-seat theatre for musical since 1871. He named the theatre on the false
comedy. Subsequent productions have assumption that the Palladium of classical
included Neil Simon’s Sweet Charity (1966), legend (a statue of Pallas Athena removed from
Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s Applause Troy by the victorious Greeks) was a circus
(1970), Peter Stone’s Woman of the Year (1981), like the Roman Colosseum.
the Disney spectacular Beauty and the Beast The theatre had the largest seating capacity
(1994), the disastrous vampire musical Lestat in London (2306) and drew big audiences for
(2006), and the 2009 revival of West Side Story. its revues, variety bills, and musicals. Its first
great success was The Whirl of the World (1924),
Pal Joey A musical by Richard Rodgers with the comedienne Nellie Wallace. The
and Lorenz Hart, notable for being the first CRAZY GANG first appeared together in a show
work in the genre to take an unsympathetic at the Palladium in 1932. Barrie’s PETER PAN
character as its ‘hero’. Rodgers claimed that Pal was presented every Christmas from 1930 to
374 palliata

1938. The musical Barnum (1981) ran for over on the streets, where she and the countess are
two years and carried the highest insurance murdered by one of her clients, Jack the Ripper.
(£5 million) of any show in British theatrical
history. Its star, Michael Crawford, who had to Panjandrum A nonsense character
walk the high wire and slide down a rope from created by Samuel FOOTE, the so-called
the theatre’s highest box, was himself insured ‘English Aristophanes’, as part of a challenge to
for £3 million. Sam Mendes’s much praised test the memory of the actor Charles MACKLIN.
revival of Oliver! opened in 1994 and Adrian In 1755 Foote responded to a boast by
Noble’s spectacular stage version of Chitty Macklin that he could remember any speech
perfectly after hearing it once by composing a
Chitty Bang Bang in 2002; the latter ran until
piece beginning: “So she went into the garden
2005, making it the Palladium’s most successful
to cut a cabbage leaf to make an apple pie; and
ever production. Subsequent shows include
at the same time a great she-bear, coming up
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of The Sound
the street, pops its head into the shop – What!
of Music (2006–08) and Sister Act the Musical
no soap? So he died and she very impudently
(2009– ).
married the barber; and there were present
palliata A form of Roman comedy that the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the
used plots taken from Greek NEW COMEDY of Garyalies, and the grand Panjandrum himself,
the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. The actors wore with the little round button at top…”
the pallium, a type of Greek cloak, and the Unsurprisingly Macklin had to concede defeat;
characters were given Greek names. The action indeed, it is said that he was so indignant at
was always set in the street. The leading this farrago that he refused to repeat a word of
exponents of the palliata were TERENCE, it. The phrases “no soap” – meaning ‘not a
Caecilius Statius, and PLAUTUS, who adapted hope!’ – and “the grand Panjandrum” –
the form to give it a more Roman flavour. The meaning any self-important or puffed-up
palliata seems to have died out around the person – have since entered the language.
beginning of the first century BC. panorama A background scene painted
Palmer, John See PLAUSIBLE JACK. on a long piece of canvas that is unrolled from
one side of the stage to the other, thus giving
Pandora’s Box A play by Frank the impression of motion to a stationary
WEDEKIND; written in 1894, it was first vehicle, etc., by presenting a changing
performed in 1905 in Vienna with his wife landscape. See also CYCLORAMA; DIORAMA.
Tilly Newes (1886–1970) in the leading role.
It was a sequel to EARTH SPIRIT, which Pantaloon or Pantalone An old
introduced the beautiful and promiscuous Venetian merchant with a large hooked nose
femme fatale Lulu. Pandora’s Box depicts her in the 16th-century COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. His
total ruin and eventual murder. Denounced at name is said to come from San Pantaleone, the
patron saint of physicians, who was very
the time as pornographic, it is now more
popular in Venice. The character is presented
frequently criticized for misogyny. The two
as a miser and a fool, who is easily duped by
stories were combined in Alban Berg’s opera
his wife, children, and servants. In the later
Lulu in 1937 and again in 1970 by the British
HARLEQUINADEs and PANTOMIMEs he is the
dramatist Peter Barnes, whose Lulu opened at
father of Columbine and fiercely opposed to
the Nottingham Playhouse with Julia Foster in
her association with Harlequin. Pantaloons (a
the title role and transferred to the Royal
type of trousers) and pants both get their name
Court Theatre, London.
from the character, who always dressed in loose
Pandora’s Box begins with Lulu, who has
trousers and slippers.
been imprisoned for killing a lover, escaping
with the help of the lesbian Countess pantomime An English theatrical form
Geschwitz. Once outside, Lulu seduces her that developed from the HARLEQUINADE in the
dead lover’s son and moves to Paris, where she 18th century. It was also influenced by the
survives relationships with several unsavoury 18th-century French ballets-pantomimes, which
men, including her father, an incestuous pimp. were distantly related to a Roman tradition
She agrees to sleep with him again if he will called pantomime consisting of a dumb
kill one of her lovers of whom she has grown show performed by a single masked dancer
tired. Having moved on to London, Lulu goes (see PANTOMIMUS). The development of
 parade 375

pantomime as a distinct form owed much to leading figure in US drama for nearly 40 years,
the famous harlequin, John Rich (see RICHES, he enjoyed successes ranging from Hamlet to
THE), who emphasized the comic aspects of the HAIR.
Harlequinade in his productions. In the early Papp’s first shows were produced on board
19th century the genre was transformed by an aircraft carrier that toured the Pacific
Joseph GRIMALDI, who introduced many of its during World War II. The New York
now-established conventions. Shakespeare Festival, with which his name will
Traditionally, pantomime is a Christmas always be associated, began life at the Emanuel
entertainment, intended particularly for Presbyterian Church on East 6th Street, with
children. The sketchy plots, which are usually most of the actors performing for no fee. In
based loosely on fairy tales, are embellished 1957 it moved to the open-air Belvedere Lake
with music, dancing, TRANSFORMATION Theatre in Central Park and five years later
SCENES, slapstick, audience participation, and to the open-air Delacorte Theatre, on the
topical references. A woman in tights usually west side of the park, given by the city as a
plays the part of the PRINCIPAL BOY, while a permanent home for Papp’s summer
man plays the part of the DAME. Today ‘Shakespeare in the Park’. In 1971 Papp
professional productions are usually spectacular produced an acclaimed musical version of Two
affairs, with leading TV personalities and Gentlemen of Verona, which won the Tony
comedians playing the main roles. Award as Best Musical. At the same time, he
Traditional subjects for pantomimes developed an offshoot group, the Mobile
include ALADDIN, ALI BABA, BABES IN THE Theatre, which took plays to people
WOOD, CINDERELLA, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, throughout New York’s boroughs.
and Dick WHITTINGTON. Papp’s Public Theatre company gave its
first performance at the Anspacher Theatre in
pantomimus In ancient Rome, a masked
the outrageous hippy musical Hair (1967),
performer in dumb shows. The name means
which ran for 1750 performances. Another
‘imitating everything’. Making stylized
great success was Jason Miller’s That
movements and gestures to a musical
Championship Season, which won the New
accompaniment, he played all the roles of
York Critics Circle Award as the Best Play of
the short scene himself, wearing a different
1972 and transferred to Broadway. The
mask for each character. A chorus explained
following year Papp became director of the
the story, usually drawn from mythology
Vivian Beaumont Theatre and the Mitzi E.
or history, in Greek. The librettos were
Newhouse Theatre at New York’s Lincoln
sometimes written by such distinguished poets
Center; he resigned after a financial crisis in
as Lucan and Statius.
1978. By 1980 money problems also dogged
These dances, known as fabulae salticae,
the Shakespeare Festival and that year it staged
were introduced in about 22 BC by Pylades of
Cilicia and Bathyllus of Alexandria. One only one production, an updated version of
exceptional pantomimus, Paris, was executed Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance.
by NERO, who had became jealous of his It was a hit, moving to the Uris Theatre for a
popularity. The Church was later outspoken long run and then finding equal success in
in its condemnation of the audacious and London (despite the horror of traditionalists).
often seductive dance of the pantomimus; St The city of New York responded by giving the
Augustine considered it more corrupting than Festival a permanent subsidy, making it both a
the circus, although the dances were never as private and public enterprise. In the later
obscene as the Roman MIME. 1980s Papp began to feature television and
film stars in his Shakespearean productions,
Paper Boys’ Play See MUMMERS’ PLAY. which had already drawn such names as Julie
Harris and Colleen Dewhurst.
paper the house In theatrical jargon, to
fill empty seats with DEAD-HEADS, or non- Pappus A stock character of an old man in
paying spectators, admitted by paper orders. the Roman ATELLANA farces of the 1st century
BC. He was probably presented as incompetent
Papp, Joseph (Joseph Papirofsky; and gullible.
1921–91) US director and producer, who
founded the New York Shakespeare Festival in parade In 18th-century France, a brief
1954 and the PUBLIC THEATRE in 1967. A sketch presented by fairground actors to lure
376 paradise

spectators into their booths. Parades were also surrealistic drama that earned high praise and
acted on the first-floor balcony of the Théâtre won her the Obie Award for Best New Play.
de la Foire Saint-Germain. The sketches This was followed by the experimental The
combined elements of the COMMEDIA Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole
DELL’ARTE and of medieval French farce. They World (1990), which explores a series of Black
disappeared along with the fair booths in the American stereotypes, and Devotees in the
middle of the 18th century. The genre was Garden of Love (1992). The America Play
revived later in the century by BEAUMARCHAIS (1994) proved more controversial, with some
and continued into the 19th century in the finding its symbolism opaque; the story
repertoire of such performers as BOBÈCHE AND concerns a Black man who becomes a famous
GALIMAFRÉ at the Boulevard du Temple. sideshow attraction owing to his resemblance
to Abraham Lincoln (punters are charged a
paradise See GALLERY. penny a time to ‘shoot’ him). Parks then
paradiso A piece of stage machinery enjoyed a critical and commercial success with
consisting of a copper dome in which saints, Venus (1996), a play about Saartjie Baartman,
angels, and other heavenly beings were raised the 19th-century African woman exhibited at
and lowered over the stage. The device was freak shows as ‘the Hottentot Venus’.
invented by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) Parks’s next project, a reworking of themes
from Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter,
for the annual Annunciation play in Florence’s
eventually resulted in two separate plays: In the
church of San Felice. A group of choir boys,
Blood (1999) and Fucking A (2000). The first
representing angels, and an actor playing the
tells the modern-day story of Hester, a
archangel Gabriel were suspended in the
struggling ghetto mother who has five children
paradiso and lowered by crane to a platform
by as many men; the second, which includes
from which the actor recited his part before
songs written by Parks, concerns another
being lifted back to heaven. The device
Hester, an abortionist. Both plays were staged
remained in use until the late 18th century.
at New York’s Public Theatre. Widespread
parallel See ROSTRUM. acclaim, and the Pulitzer Prize, followed for
Topdog/Underdog (2001), a story about the
Paris-Garden A famous Tudor bull- rivalry of two brothers (significantly named
BAITING and bear-baiting garden in Bankside, Lincoln and Booth) that gave Parks her first
in the London borough of Southwark. It was Broadway hit. In late 2002 she embarked on
established on the site of a house owned by the extraordinary project of writing a short
Robert de Paris in the reign of Richard II. The play every day for a whole year; the resulting
SWAN THEATRE was erected on the site in about 365 plays were then staged over the course of
1595 and this was replaced by the HOPE another year at some 700 theatres in 30 cities.
THEATRE in 1613. More recent works include the musical Ray
Charles Live! (2007) and The Book of Grace
Parks, Suzan-Lori (1963– ) US
(2010).
playwright, who in 2002 became the first
Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Park Theatre A New York theatre
drama. In her complex, linguistically dense opened by William DUNLAP and John
plays Parks has explored key themes from Hodgkinson in 1798; the first production was
Black history while setting herself against what Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The theatre’s
she has called “the play-as-wrapping-paper- early success was largely owing to appearances
version-of-hot-newspaper-headline”. by Thomas Cooper, an English-born actor
Parks, who was born into a military family, who had come over in the troupe hired by
spent much of her childhood in Germany. She Thomas Wignell for the CHESTNUT STREET
later studied at the liberal arts college Mount THEATRE. In 1805, however, the managers fell
Holyoke, where she was persuaded to begin out and Hodgkinson resigned. Dunlap
writing by the great African-American author continued for a year but went bankrupt and
James Baldwin. After graduating she took was replaced by Cooper.
secretarial jobs while struggling to get her plays The Park Theatre began to flourish again
performed off-Broadway. Recognition finally when Stephen Price took over its management
arrived with the staging of Imperceptible in 1808. A year later he produced the first US
Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1989), a play with a Native American theme, The
 paso 377

Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage by J. N. (see PYRAMUS AND THISBE) he burlesques the
Barker. The theatre burned down in 1820 just exaggerated rant of much Elizabethan tragedy:
as Edmund Kean was due to appear. After it O grim-look’d night! O night with hue
was rebuilt the following year, it became the so black!
most distinguished venue in the country, O night, which ever art when day is
earning the nickname ‘Old Drury of America’. not!
Despite such later successes as Boucicault’s O night! O night! alack, alack, alack,
London Assurance in 1841 and a production of I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!
Macbeth featuring Charles Macready in 1843,
the theatre went into decline after Price’s death Parolles A character in Shakespeare’s ALL’S
in 1840. Thomas Hamblin rented and WELL THAT ENDS WELL. He is a cowardly
redecorated it in 1848 but three months later braggart who pretends to knowledge that he
it burned down and was never rebuilt. doesn’t have and to fine sentiments he never
feels. Fittingly, his name means ‘words’. After
parlyaree In the 18th and 19th centuries, his exposure and disgrace he comforts himself
an Italian-based language used as the lingua with the famous line:
franca of non-legitimate theatrical performers. Simply the thing I am
Early users of the language were circus artists Shall make me live.
and other performers whose work involved (IV, iv)
foreign tours. In the later 19th century the
language became current in the underworld Pasadena Playhouse See LITTLE
and the homosexual community. Since the THEATRES.
early 1970s polari has been a term for gay
Pasku A PASSION PLAY presented in Sri
slang and it is possible that the two words are Lanka. The performances began in the late
connected. Although parlyaree became fairly 19th century in the northern port of Jaffna
widespread it never achieved respectability. and then spread throughout the Catholic
parody In drama, as in literature and the population. From 1923 onwards K. Lawrence
other arts, a work or part of a work that Perera wrote and produced several plays in
mimics in a humorous and distorted way the imitation of the famous OBERAMMERGAU
style of an author or genre. The word comes PASSION PLAY. His first piece, the spectacular

from the Greek paroidiā, meaning a song that Shridhara Boralessa Passion Play, used more
mocks another song. than 100 villagers and other amateur actors.
Examples survive from the earliest days of The venue was constructed like a RUKADA
the theatre. Aristophanes parodied both puppet theatre, with a central stage and side
Aeschylus and Euripides, making the two great wings. Controversy arose in 1939 when it was
tragedians compete against each other in his announced that actresses were to play the
comedy THE FROGS (405 BC). The Second female roles, a decision that was reversed after
Shepherd’s Play of the medieval Towneley the Archbiship of Colombo banned the
performance as a violation of decorum.
mystery cycle contains a parody of the Nativity
The Pasku, which is performed in Holy
scene, in which a stolen sheep is disguised as a
Week, depicts the key episodes in the story of
baby. The heroic dramas of the 17th and 18th
Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection. Apart
century were parodied in Buckingham’s THE
from the numerous actors, the performances
REHEARSAL (1671) and Sheridan’s THE CRITIC
involve a narrator and the use of life-size
(1779), as well as in numerous BURLESQUE
effigies, which are dressed in historical costume
plays. Gay’s THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (1723)
and arranged to create tableaux. The plays are
parodied the fashionable operas of his day.
accompanied by church music.
Modern examples include Tom Stoppard’s The
Real Inspector Hound (1968), which sends up paso In 16th-century Spanish drama, a
the conventions of the murder mystery, and short comic interlude performed between the
Michael Frayn’s Noises Off (1982), which acts of a serious play. The term was first used
parodies bedroom farce. by Lope de Rueda (1562–1635), the best-
Several passages in Shakespeare reveal him known writer of pasos, who turned out 19 such
as a master of linguistic parody. In the play- pieces. The simple farces relied on familiar
within-a-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream low-life characters from the COMMEDIA
378 Pasquin

DELL’ARTE, such as the rustic clown, Bobo, The genre remained popular throughout
and were popular for their quick repartee. The Europe until the Reformation. In Germany
paso subsequently developed into the more the Passion play was given a second lease of life
sophisticated ENTREMÉS. See also INTERLUDE; by the Catholic revival in the 16th century.
INTERMEZZO. The best-known German example is the
OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY, which is still
Pasquin A witty roguish character in 16th performed once every 10 years.
and 17th century comedy; also a name
adopted by many writers of anonymous Passion Play A tragicomedy of marital
lampoons and satires. life by Peter NICHOLS, first performed in
The association of the name with satire London in 1981 by the Royal Shakespeare
goes back to the early 16th century. In 1501 Company. When Nichols and the director
an ancient mutilated statue was dug up in Mike Ockrent squabbled about the staging,
Rome and placed near the Piazza Navona. the playwright took over the production
Each St Mark’s Day students and others himself. Passion Play won the Evening Standard
dressed it up to represent some historical figure Award for best play of the year but, owing
and placed satirical Latin verses around its partly to excessive pay demands by the cast,
base. The statue was given the name Pasquino failed to transfer to the West End. Michael
after a witty schoolmaster (in other accounts a Grandage directed an acclaimed revival at the
barber or tailor) who had formerly lived Donmar Warehouse in 2000.
nearby. In Passion Play Nichols uses the unusual
The first dramatic character to bear the device of having the two main characters
name was Pasquino, one of the ZANNI of shadowed by alter egos who voice the true
the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. In 17th century feelings that the characters are repressing.
France this character developed into the valet The play depicts the breakdown of James
Pasquin, who appears in plays by Destouches and Eleanor’s marriage after he is seduced by
(1680–1754) and others. The member of a Kate, who is young enough to be his daughter.
troupe who specialized in playing the satirical The couple remain outwardly civil towards
roles in the comedies of Jean-François Regnard each other, but their alter egos reveal their real
and Charles-Rivière Dufresny was often sentiments. James convinces his wife that he
referred to as the ‘Pasquin of the Company’. has called the affair off, but she subsequently
In the 18th-century English theatre a learns that this is a lie. Thinking that it might
pasquinade, pasquin, or pasquil was any help the situation, Kate decides to visit the
lampoon or satirical piece. Henry Fielding couple, with the result that she finds herself in
satirized the government in his play Pasquin love with Eleanor as well as her husband.
(1736) and often signed articles and letters ‘Mr When Eleanor takes an overdose of pills James
Pasquin’. nurses her back to health (although his alter
ego again reveals his true feelings). Later, he
pass door A door linking the auditorium meets Kate at a Christmas party and the two
in a theatre with the backstage areas; its use is make love – or is this perhaps her alter ego?
usually restricted to theatre staff.
pastoral A genre of drama, popular from
Passion play A type of medieval the 15th to the 17th centuries, that depicted
LITURGICAL DRAMA depicting the Passion an innocent rustic world of shepherds and
(sufferings) of Christ from the Last Supper to maids. Pastoral drama drew most of its
the placing of his body in the tomb. It was elements from the pastoral poetry of Greek
traditionally presented on Good Friday. The and Roman writers, notably Theocritus and
earliest Passion plays were performed in church Virgil. The genre developed in Italy and had a
buildings and combined mime with readings lasting influence on the French drama; its
from the Bible. Later the plays were staged in impact on theatre in England was more
the open air. limited.
The play presented at Valenciennes, Although Angelo Poliziano’s Favola
France, in 1547 provides the earliest record of d’Orfeo (1472) and Agostino Beccari’s Il
stage settings for a Passion play; these included Sacrifizio (1544) both anticipated the genre,
city gates, a temple, a dungeon, and the Torquato Tasso’s story of rustic love L’Aminta
Mouth of Hell, with flames and moving jaws. (1573) is considered the first important
 Patriot for Me, A 379

pastoral play. Another significant writer of his best performers because he paid them so
pastorals was IL CINTHIO, whose most notable little. Despite being a pioneer showman, he
work in the genre was the tragicomedy The died a poor man.
Faithful Shepherd (1598).
Italian pastoral had a major influence on ’pataphysics The so-called “science of
such 17th-century French playwrights as impossible solutions” devised by the French
Seigneur de Racan, who enjoyed a great playwright Alfred JARRY. Essentially an
success with Les Bergeries (1620), and Jean anticipation of surrealism and the Theatre
Mairet, whose Silvie (1626) is considered one of the ABSURD, it is exemplified in Jarry’s
of the finest of all pastorals. The genre survived grotesque farce Ubu Roi (see UBU, PÈRE). In
into the era of NEOCLASSICAL DRAMA, with homage to Jarry, a somewhat notional ‘College
Corneille amongst others continuing to of ’Pataphysics’ was founded in Paris in 1948
present an idealized picture of rural pleasures by a group of artists and writers. Its greatest
in his comedies. Mairet’s La Silvanire ou la honour, the title of ‘transcendent satrap’, has
morte vive (1630) was the first pastoral to been awarded to several luminaries of the
respect the UNITIES. theatre including Eugène IONESCO, Fernando
ARRABAL, and Dario FO.
English pastorals included John Lyly’s
comedies on mythological subjects, John Patch A name for a COURT FOOL or jester.
Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess (1608), and The first to be so called was Cardinal Wolsey’s
Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT (1599). Pastoral jester, Sexton, who got the name either from
elements played an important part in the the Italian pazzo, a fool, or from the patched
Stuart MASQUEs. dress worn by jesters. In 1529 Wolsey gave
Pastor, Tony (1837–1908). US variety Patch to Henry VIII, in a last doomed attempt
performer and theatre manager known as the to prevent his fall from favour.
father of vaudeville. Antonio Pastor made his patent theatres The two London
debut at the age of nine at Barnum’s Museum, theatres, DRURY LANE and COVENT GARDEN,
New York, and subsequently travelled as a that hold Letters Patent, as granted in 1662 by
circus clown and minstrel, singing sentimental Charles II. The charters, which were intended
ballads, of which he had nearly 2000 in his to revive the English theatre after the Puritan
repertoire. He also began arranging concerts in INTERREGNUM, gave a monopoly within
small towns and in 1861 booked his first the City of Westminster to two managers,
variety acts into the disreputable American Thomas Killigrew of Drury Lane and William
Theatre on Broadway. Davenant of LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS THEATRE.
In 1865, wishing to rescue variety from its The Lincoln’s Inn charter passed in 1671 to
vulgar reputation, he took over New York’s the Dorset Garden Theatre and then in 1732
Volksgarten and renamed it Tony Pastor’s to the new theatre at Covent Garden. A third
Opera House, billing the venue as ‘The Great London theatre, the HAYMARKET, acquired a
Family Resort’. He subsequently tried, with limited patent to present drama during the
only moderate success, to lure women and summer months in 1760.
children to matinées with door-prizes of Restrictions on serious acting in London’s
turkeys and hams. In 1881 he moved his other theatres were reaffirmed by the Theatres
“straight, clean, variety show” to the small Act of 1737, but these gradually weakened and
14th Street Theatre and he achieved an were abolished in 1843. Although the Letters
unexpected success presenting wholesome Patent made Drury Lane and Covent Garden
family entertainment (such as comics, singers, free of licensing (see LICENCE) by the Lord
jugglers, dancers, and dog acts). This Chamberlain, they were still answerable to
encouraged other managers to offer what censorship until its abolition in 1968. Both
would later become known as vaudeville (a theatres are still leased under the terms of the
term Pastor never used), and led eventually to original charters. See also THEATRE ROYAL.
the Keith and Albee circuit of some 300
vaudeville houses. Patriot for Me, A John OSBORNE’s play
Pastor, an overweight man with a waxed about the career of Alfred Redl, a homosexual
moustache, was a devout Catholic who kept a officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army at the
holy shrine backstage. Although an expert at turn of the 20th century. Some critics consider
booking and presenting acts, he eventually lost it Osborne’s best work. Based on fact, the play
380 patron saints of the theatre

describes how Redl was blackmailed into received a miraculous ‘photographic’ image of
becoming a spy because of his homosexuality. Christ; likewise St Clare of Assisi, who was
It includes a transvestite ball scene that caused famous for her visions, became patron of TV.
particular offence to the LORD CHAMBERLAIN,
who withheld a licence. Accordingly, the patter The rapid talk of conjurers,
play was first performed as a private club entertainers, and comedians, etc. The term
production for the English Stage Society in derived from Paternoster, i.e. the Lord’s
1966, when Maximilian Schell created the part Prayer, in reference to the rapid mechanical
of Redl. There was a Broadway production in way in which priests would recite the Latin
1969. A successful revival was staged in 1983 mass.
at the Haymarket, with Alan Bates in the Pavai Kathakali A type of Indian glove-
leading role. puppet theatre, in which the puppets are
patron saints of the theatre The designed and decorated to resemble characters
patron saint of actors and comedians is St of the KATHAKALI dance-drama. Performances
Genesius (died c. 303). The historical are rare and usually held on religious
Genesius seems to have been a notary of Arles occasions. The puppets stand 12 to 18 inches
in France, who was martyred during the tall and have wooden heads and hands. They
persecution of Diocletian. In later legend, are operated by teams of four or more
however, he became a comedian of Rome who puppeteers from the village of Kavadi Parambu
experienced a sudden conversion while in the Palghat district. The stories come from
performing an anti-Christian satire before the the MAHABHARATA and follow its narrative
emperor. For refusing to continue with the sequence.
performance he was tortured and beheaded. Pavai Koothu (Tamil: Woman Play) A
Genesius’s story has been dramatized by Lope type of glove-puppet theatre performed in the
de Vega and Jean de Rotrous amongst others. city of Thiruchendoor, Tamil Nadu, India. It
A very similar tale is told of the obscure St is thought to have originated in the 16th
Philemon (?3rd century), who is sometimes century. The foot-tall puppets have papier-
given as the patron of dancers and actors. mâché heads and arms and wear simple cloth
The patron of actresses is St Pelagia (?5th costumes festooned with paper or coconut
century), a beautiful dancer of Antioch. fibre. The manipulator sits behind a wooden
According to the legend, her striptease act box that hides him from the audience’s view.
was witnessed by Bishop Nonnus of Edessa, An idakka drummer and a singer provide
who was moved to tears by her skill and music selected from regional folk melodies.
enthusiasm. The next day Nonnus preached a The plot concerns Vali, a female attendant
sermon exhorting his listeners to show the of the Hindu god Siva, and her love for his son
same zeal in their spiritual lives as Pelagia did Subramanya. Vali was born to a deer in the
in her art. Pelagia, who happened to be forest and raised by a hunter and his wife.
present, was immediately converted and spent Narada sees her one day in the forest and
the rest of her life in penitent seclusion. describes her beauty to Subramanya, who
The patron saint of dancers is St Vitus disguises himself as a seller of bangles to enter
(died c. 303), owing to a former belief that the hunter’s cottage. He lures Vali away and
good health for the year could be secured by reveals his divine form to her. They embrace
dancing before a statue of the saint on his feast with the blessings of Ganesh, the god of good
day. Because of this association the nervous fortune.
disease Sydenham’s chorea, which produces
uncontrolled movements in the sufferer, was Pavaikuthu (Tamil: Figure-of-a-Shadow
formerly known as St Vitus’s dance. Play) A type of shadow-puppet theatre from
Other saints associated with the theatre the southern Indian state of Kerala. Also called
and the performing arts include: St Cecilia, tholpavaikuthu, the genre is based on stories
patron of singers and musicians; St Julian, from the Kambar Ramayana, a 9th-century
patron of clowns, jugglers, and travelling Tamil version of the Ramayana. The puppets,
entertainers; and St John Bosco, patron of which are made of antelope skin, range from
acrobats and magicians. In the 20th century, 4 to 36 inches high and are held against the
St Veronica was declared patron of cinema on screen by a bamboo strip. The main characters
the strength of the tale that her napkin have movable heads, arms, and hands.
 Pelléas et Mélisande 381

Performances are given in Tamil although exploits to his mother, Åsa. When he is
the audiences of the region speak Malayalam. slighted by Solveig, the girl who really loves
The plays are usually presented in a temple him, Peer abducts another village girl, Ingrid,
compound as an entertainment for Kali, on her wedding day. Pursued by villagers, they
the Hindu goddess of destruction. The flee to the mountains. After abandoning
manipulators, who are hidden by a black Ingrid, Peer falls for a mysterious beauty who
curtain, operate the puppets in the light from a leads him to the underground kingdom of the
row of coconut-oil lamps set in coconut halves. trolls; she subsequently bears him a hideous
troll baby. In the fourth act Peer, now middle-
Peace, The A comedy by ARISTOPHANES,
aged, has drifted to North Africa after making
first performed in 421 BC in Athens as an
his fortune in the slave trade. He attracts a
appeal for an end to the Peloponnesian War
following by posing as a prophet but then loses
between Athens and Sparta. The plot concerns
everything through his infatuation with a
a farmer who flies to heaven on a dung-beetle
dancing girl. He returns home a saddened old
and discovers that Zeus has allowed War to
man to find Solveig, now blind, still waiting
imprison Peace in a cavern. The play was staged
for him.
a few weeks before the ratification of the peace
of Nicias and several months after the deaths Peking Opera See BEIJING OPERA.
of the two main advocates of the war, the
Athenian Cleon, whom Aristophanes had Pelagia, St See PATRON SAINTS OF THE
abused in The Knights (424 BC), and the THEATRE.
Spartan Brasidas.
Pelléas et Mélisande The best-known
peanut gallery A US term for the play by Maurice MAETERLINCK, a pseudo-
GALLERY in a theatre, perhaps because the seats medieval fantasy first performed in 1893 in
can be bought ‘for peanuts’ or because peanuts Paris. The acknowledged masterpiece of
are sometimes thrown from these seats during theatrical SYMBOLISM, it was the first play
unpopular performances. staged by Aurélien-François Lugné-Poë at his
Théâtre de l’Oeuvre. Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL
Pedrolino One of the ZANNI of the played Mélisande in the first London
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. The actor Giovanni
production at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre in
Pellesini (1526–1612) created the role of this 1898; she also took the play to New York four
simple and honest servant who always dressed years later. J. M. Barrie wrote that “Mrs
in white. Later, the actor Giuseppe Giaratone Campbell is beyond comparison, better than
(or Giratoni), who joined the Comédie- she has ever been in anything else.” In the play
Italienne in Paris in 1665, emphasized her jealous husband was played by Mrs Pat’s
Pedrolino’s naive and awkward qualities, and real-life lover Johnston FORBES-ROBERTSON.
dressed him in a loose white garment and large Fauré later provided INCIDENTAL MUSIC, while
floppy hat. In doing so he created the character
Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande was first
of PIERROT.
staged in 1902.
Peer Gynt Henrik IBSEN’s fantasy comedy, Wandering in the forest, Golaud meets
published in Oslo in 1867. Grieg’s well-known and falls in love with the beautiful but
incidental music was written for the first enigmatic Mélisande. He marries her and takes
performance in 1876. Although a long verse her to live in his castle by the sea. However, an
play of considerable complexity, it is still intense relationship soon develops between
regularly revived. A particularly memorable Mélisande and Golaud’s younger brother,
revival was that given by Ralph Richardson Pelléas. Conscience stricken, Pelléas bids her
and the Old Vic Company at the New Theatre farewell for ever, but Golaud, misunderstanding
in 1944. the situation, stabs him to death in a frenzy.
The title character – a reckless liar and Mélisande bears Golaud’s child and, forgiving
egotist who remains essentially lovable – was him, dies.
based partly on Ibsen’s younger self and partly The play is best known for the 1904
on his perception of the Norwegian national French-language production at London’s
character. The play, which is set mainly in Vaudeville Theatre in which Sarah BERNHARDT,
rural Norway, begins with the young Peer then aged 59, played the youthful Pelléas to
boasting about his (imaginary) hunting Mrs Pat’s Mélisande. It was during this
382 Pembroke’s Men

production that one of the theatre’s longest- Penhall, Joe (1967– ) British
running on-stage jokes began. When Mrs Pat playwright and screenwriter, noted for his
complained that a fishpond used in one scene sardonic comedies. Penhall was born in London
was a shoddy cut-price job compared to that but spent much of his youth in Australia,
used in the first London production, where he attended the University of Adelaide.
Bernhardt, piqued at this one-upmanship, Having worked for some years as a news
arranged for a hideous-looking fish to be reporter, he achieved his first success in the
placed in the pond; when Mrs Pat bent to theatre with Some Voices, which was staged as
gaze dreamily into its depths during the part of the Royal Court’s celebrated New
performance, she became helpless with Writing season in 1994. The play, which won
laughter. A year later the two stars took the high praise from the critics, is a gritty but
play on a provincial tour. Mrs Pat, informed often very funny piece about Ray, a young
that nothing could make Bernhardt laugh on schizophrenic released from a mental hospital
stage, bought a tobacco pouch in the shape of into the care of his family. This was followed
a fish, painted on gills and scales, and tied it by Pale Horse (1995), a dark comedy about
to the bottom of the pond. When Bernhardt death and bereavement, and Love and
saw the fish she was unperturbed and bent Understanding (1997), about a sociopathic
gracefully down to scoop it out; however, since sponger and the strait-laced young couple he
it was secured firmly to the bottom of the exploits; the latter transferred to New York
pond, the actress lost her balance and nearly and has also proved extremely successful in
fell in. Neither mentioned the incident after Europe. Penhall then enjoyed the best notices
the curtain fell. At the next day’s matinée, in a of his career with Blue/Orange, which was
scene in which Bernhardt was required to take staged at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre in
Mrs Pat’s hand tenderly, the Frenchwoman 2000. The play explores questions of sanity,
slipped a raw egg into her palm and squeezed. racism, and cultural difference through the
three-way relationship between Chris, a young
Mrs Pat continued without a smile, although
Black man who claims to be the son of Idi
Bernhardt was shaking with mirth, tears
Amin and to see oranges as blue, and the two
running down her cheeks. During a later
very different psychiatrists dealing with his
performance, when Bernhardt caressed Mrs
case. This “huge dark play” (as Penhall has
Pat’s hair, the latter used the cover of her long
described it) earned the Laurence Olivier and
tresses to slip a live goldfish into her partner’s
Evening Standard awards and went on to
hand. Bernhardt continued unperturbed, enjoy a run in the West End. Penhall’s most
holding the squirming goldfish for the rest of recent stage plays are Dumb Show (2004), a
the tender scene. Again nothing was said. mordant satire on the tabloid press and
Pembroke’s Men An Elizabethan modern celebrity culture, and Landscape with
theatre company formed in about 1592 from Weapon (2007), which explores the moral
the household of the Earl of Pembroke. The dilemmas of a scientist who finds that his
young Shakespeare is thought to have worked invention has potentially devastating military
with the company for two years, during which uses. He has also been in demand as a
they presented his Titus Andronicus (1592) and screenwriter, adapting Ian McEwan’s Enduring
probably his Henry VI, Part 3 (1591–92). Love (2004) and Cormac McCarthy’s
Pembroke’s Men also performed Christopher harrowing The Road (2009) as well as his own
Some Voices (2000).
Marlowe’s Edward II (1593) at around this
time, prompting speculation that the two men Penny for a Song, A A comedy by the
may have become acquainted. British playwright John Whiting (1917–63),
In 1597 the company was involved in the first produced in London by Binkie Beaumont
production of The Isle of Dogs, the ‘seditious’ in 1951. The production starred Ronald
play by Ben JONSON and Thomas Nashe that Squire (as a squire) and Virginia McKenna;
landed the authors in prison and closed the costumes and sets were designed by the Punch
Swan Theatre. It also precipitated the eventual cartoonist Rowland Emett. Despite critical
demise of the company, as their actors began praise, the play was a box-office failure. Whiting
to leave for other troupes. Pembroke’s Men revised the text for a successful 1962 production
were last heard of in 1600, when they by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the
performed at the Rose Theatre in London. Aldwych Theatre.
 Percy, Esmé (Saville) 383

A Penny for a Song is a whimsical farce set clothes were not appropriate, “all the ladies
in Britain during an invasion scare in 1814. being finer and better dressed in the pitt than
When an eccentric squire dresses up as they used, I think, to be.” He often complained
Napoleon to confuse the French army, he is about the unruly conduct of other theatregoers:
captured by the English Home Guard who when he saw Heraclius at the Duke of York’s
believe he is the real thing. House (see DORSET GARDEN THEATRE) he
thought the audience “did so spoil it with their
Peoria. It won’t play in Peoria laughing…and with the noise they made within
A US theatrical catchphrase applied to a the theatre.” On another occasion “a lady spit
production that is considered too sophisticated backward upon me; but after seeing her to be a
or unconventional to appeal to the average, very pretty lady I was not troubled at it at all.”
non-metropolitan theatre-goer. Peoria, Illinois, In 1668 he went to see The Tempest at the
a medium-sized town in the heart of the Duke of York’s House.
prairies, is here used to epitomize the But there happened one thing which
conservative tastes of Middle America. vexed me, which is that the orange-
Pepper’s Ghost A striking Victorian woman did come in the pit and
stage effect used to create the appearance of a challenge me for twelve oranges which
ghostly figure on stage. The illusion was the she delivered by my order at a late play,
origin of the expression “It’s all done with at night, in order to give to some ladies
in a box, which was wholly untrue, but
mirrors”. Henry Dircks, a retired engineer, was
yet she swore it to be true. But,
the first to suggest that a piece of glass held at
however, I did deny it, and did not pay
an angle of 45° to the front of the stage could
her; but, for quiet, did buy 4s. worth
be used to throw the image of an actor
of oranges of her at 6d. apiece.
concealed in the orchestra pit onto the stage.
John Henry Pepper (1821–1900), director of Pepys also provided brief personal critiques
the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London, of the many works he saw. He thought The
bought the idea from Dircks in 1862 and Tempest “no great wit, yet good, above ordinary
renamed it ‘The Ghost Illusion’. Dickens used plays”. The History of Henry the Fifth by the
it that Christmas Eve for a dramatic reading of Earl of Orrery was “full of height and raptures
his The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain of wit and sense”. He found The Parson’s
(1848). Wedding, performed by an all female cast,
Pepper’s Ghost, as it became known, first indecent.
appeared on the professional stage in 1863, Pepys himself appears as a character in at
when it was used at the Britannia Theatre, least two plays; Frederick Ranalow played him
London, and at Wallack’s Theatre, New York. in Mr Pepys (1926) while Leslie Henson took
The effect’s novelty value soon wore off, the role in And So To Bed (1951).
however, mainly because the reflected ghost perch A position for additional lighting
could not speak and was difficult to position. units behind the PROSCENIUM ARCH on one
It survived into the 20th century at provincial side of the stage. Older theatres may have small
fairs, but was superseded on stage by back-lit raised platforms for such units. See also
gauze. MARIONETTE.

Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703) English Percy, Esmé (Saville) (1887–1957)

diarist and playgoer, whose journal provides a Eccentric British actor and director, whose
record of London’s early Restoration theatre glass eye often posed problems for his fellow
that is both personal and precise. The diary, cast members. Percy trained in Sarah
which he kept from 1660 to 1669, includes BERNHARDT’s company, but she advised him to
notes about the plays he saw as well as leave because he was too much like her. The
backstage gossip and scandals. His sources versatility of his voice was extraordinary; he
included Drury Lane’s orange seller ORANGE once did a radio version of Hamlet in which he
MOLL and the actress Mary Knepp. played the Ghost, the Player King, and Osric.
Pepys’s diary entries also record his In 1913 Percy formed a touring company
observations on the audience and its that specialized in works by Oscar Wilde and
behaviour. After taking his wife and her maid George Bernard Shaw. After World War I, he
to a play, he was “a little shamed” that their ran a theatre in Cologne for British troops,
384 Perdita

persuading Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL to appear discovered in the writings of the Roman
there as Eliza to his Henry Higgins in Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (70–15 BC), architects
Pygmalion. As was Mrs Pat’s habit, she bullied of the Renaissance theatre adopted and
him mercilessly on stage, telling him in a improved the devices under the name of telari.
whisper to hurry up, and then to slow down. Removable canvas panels were introduced for
She finally gazed in horror at his suede shoes the prism faces.
and, turning her back to the audience, growled,
“Oh you’re quite wrong. He’s not that kind of Pericles, Prince of Tyre A romance by
man at all.” SHAKESPEARE, first performed in about 1608
Percy subsequently became general by the King’s Men at the GLOBE THEATRE.
producer of the Shaw Repertory Company; Although published in 1609 as “the late and
one of his most acclaimed roles with the much admired Play”, it is usually considered
troupe was Dobelle in Denis Johnston’s The one of the least successful of Shakespeare’s
Moon in the Yellow River (1934). He spent the works. Some scenes may have come from
last years of his career with the ENGLISH STAGE another pen, most likely that of George
COMPANY at the Royal Court Theatre. Wilkins, who in 1608 published The Painful
Percy was short and plump and had a Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre as “a poor
broken nose as well as the glass eye (replacing infant of my brain”. The uneven quality of the
the one he lost when attacked by a Great first two acts suggests that the printed version
Dane). One night in 1949 the eye fell out may have been written down by actors from
during his big scene as Matthew Skipps, a memory.
drunken tinker, in Christopher Fry’s THE The story derives from an episode in John
LADY’S NOT FOR BURNING. “We were all too Gower’s Confessio Amantis (1390), and
dismayed to move,” recalled John Gielgud who Shakespeare includes “Gower, as Chorus” in
was in the cast with Richard BURTON. Percy the cast. When Pericles, Prince of Tyre,
frantically whispered, “Oh, do be careful, don’t discovers the incestuous secret of Antiochus,
tread on it, they cost £8 each.” Percy wore a the Greek emperor, he takes to the sea to save
black patch for the subsequent performances. his own life. Pericles survives a shipwreck to
wed Thaisa, daughter of the King of Pentapolis.
Perdita In Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S When Antiochus is killed by a bolt of lightning,
TALE, the daughter of Leontes, King of Sicily. Pericles sets sail for home but is again caught
Believing falsely that he is not the true father, in a storm, during which Thaisa gives birth to
Leontes has her abandoned as an infant on a baby girl, Marina, and appears to die. She is
“the sea-coast of Bohemia”, where she is buried at sea but gets washed ashore and is
discovered by a shepherd, who brings her up as revived. Believing her husband dead, she enters
his own. Years pass and Florizel, the son of the the service of the goddess Diana. Marina, now
Bohemian king Polixenes, falls in love with the grown up, is captured by pirates and forced
supposed shepherdess. The match is forbidden into a brothel in Mitylene, where her
by Polixenes and the lovers flee to Sicily, where uncompromising virtue preserves her from
Perdita’s true identity is revealed. Finally she is would-be seducers. In the last act she is reunited
restored to her parents and marries Florizel. with her father in an intensely moving scene; a
The actress Mary Robinson (1757–1800) vision of Diana finally leads Pericles to Thaisa
was popularly known as ‘Perdita’ after her and the entire family is reunited.
triumph in the role in 1779. She was briefly The play, a peculiar mixture of styles and
the mistress of the future George IV and turned genres, is seldom revived. One memorable
to writing poetry for a living after the scandal production was that presented in 1973 at Her
ended her stage career. Majesty’s Theatre, London, starring Derek
periaktoi Early scenic devices of the Jacobi; this version was also an off-Broadway
Greek and Roman theatre, probably consisting hit in 1980.
of painted prisms that were rotated to indicate Perkins folio See OLD CORRECTOR, THE.
a change of scene. Each of the surfaces bore a
traditional image to suggest a location, such as Persians, The A tragedy by AESCHYLUS,
waves, trees, or the column of a building. They first performed in Athens in 472 BC. It is the
also helped to project sound from the stage. only surviving Greek tragedy to be based on a
When details of the periaktoi were contemporary historical event, the defeat of the
 Petit-Bourbon, Salle du 385

Persians at Salamis in 480 BC. Aeschylus had doomed to be haunted by tragedy. In 1915
himself fought against the Persians at Salamis George died fighting in World War I, while
(and at Marathon and Platea). The Persians is in 1921 Michael drowned in mysterious
also unusual amongst Greek tragedies in circumstances in Oxford, possibly in a
probably not being part of a TETRALOGY. homosexual suicide pact. Of all the boys, Peter
The play, set at the palace of Xerxes, the was the one most closely linked with his
Persian king, begins with the chorus of fictional namesake. (He himself was named
councillors expressing concern at the lack of after the title character of Peter Ibbetson, a
news from their expedition against the Greeks. novel by his grandfather, George Du Maurier).
The mother of Xerxes enters to tell them of an At Eton, his identification with Peter Pan
ominous dream, and soon a messenger brings caused him considerable suffering. His life
news of the defeat. The spirit of King Darius is ended tragically in 1960, when – by then a
called from his tomb and explains the disaster well-known publisher – he threw himself
as part of the moral order of Zeus. The under a train in the London Underground.
humiliated Xerxes finally returns from battle Michael Llewelyn Davies was the model for Sir
and the play ends with the king and chorus George Frampton’s statue of Peter Pan in
lamenting the Greek victory. Kensington Gardens, which was placed there
There have been several modern by Barrie in 1912. Peter Pan may also have
adaptations. A version by Vanessa Badham, in reflected some of Barrie’s own problems –
which George W. Bush stands in for Xerxes, notably his impotence and his inability to
was presented at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival. come to terms with the death of his own
brother at the age of 12.
persona Originally the MASK worn by The play is still regularly revived,
actors in the Roman theatre (perhaps from per particularly at Christmas. Barrie arranged for
sonare, to sound through), and later the all copyright fees from the play to go to the
character or personage represented by the actor Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick
(as in DRAMATIS PERSONAE). The English word Children, London.
‘person’ came to mean any role, function,
office, etc., assumed by someone; and hence an Petit-Bourbon, Salle du The first
individual human being. court theatre in Paris, located in the palace of
the dukes of Bourbon. It was designed for
Peter Pan A play for children by J. M. ballets and balls and first used for professional
BARRIE, first produced in London in 1904 with drama in 1577 by the GELOSI, an Italian
Nina Boucicault as Peter. The title character is commedia dell’arte troupe.
a little boy who never grows up, the leader of From 1645 the famous Italian scene
the Lost Boys of Never Never Land. painter and machinist TORELLI supervised the
One night Peter flies in through the production of opera at the venue. MOLIÈRE’s
nursery window of the Darling family’s house provincial company took up residence there in
to recover his shadow and then flies home to 1658, opening with five plays by Corneille
Never Never Land with the Darling children. before presenting some of the playwright’s own
They are all captured by pirates, except Peter, early works, including Les Précieuses ridicules
who manages to secure their release and defeat (1659). In 1660 the Petit-Bourbon was
the villainous Captain Hook. The children suddenly scheduled for demolition, and
return home with their new friend but Peter Molière found himself briefly without a venue
refuses to stay because he does not want to until Louis XIV provided a vacant theatre in
grow up. the Palais-Royal.
The character of Peter was inspired by the Before the Petit-Bourbon was demolished,
five sons of Barrie’s friends Arthur and Sylvia however, Molière was allowed to take away
Llewelyn Davies (who appear as Mr and Mrs furniture, fittings, and equipment. Torelli’s
Darling). Barrie took the Llewelyn Davies boys scenery and machinery were collected and
into his house after the deaths of their parents carried away by the court scene painter
and explained in the play’s dedication “I made Vigarani, supposedly for the Salle des
Peter Pan by rubbing the five of you violently Machines he was designing and building for
together, as savages with two sticks produce a the king in the Tuileries. However, Vigarani
flame.” was jealous of Torelli’s talent and fame and
In their later lives, the boys seemed burned every item he collected.
386 Pétomane, le

Pétomane, le (French: the Fart Fanatic) owed much to a bravura performance by

The billing for the French music-hall Michael Crawford as the Phantom.
performer Joseph Pujol (1857–1945), who The songs include ‘The Point of No
earned fees of 20,000 francs for vibrating his Return’, ‘The Music of the Night’, and
sphincter at the Moulin Rouge. His specialities ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’.
included imitations of his mother-in-law, a Love Never Dies, Lloyd Webber’s long-
bride on her wedding night, and various awaited sequel to Phantom, made its debut at
animals. He also used this odd talent to the Adelphi Theatre in 2010, almost 25 years
produce music, smoke a cigarette, and after the opening of its predecessor. This long
extinguish a candle 20 centimetres away. development time was caused mainly by
problems with the book, but exacerbated by
Petrified Forest, The A play by Robert an incident in which Lloyd Webber’s cat
SHERWOOD, first performed in 1935 in New apparently managed to delete the entire score
York. It starred Humphrey Bogart, who later from his computer. In the story, which is set
appeared in the film version. The play, written ten years after the events at the Opera, the
two years after Hitler came to power, is a Phantom has become the impresario of
semiallegorical piece about the corrupting ‘Phantasma, City of Wonders’ an attraction at
effects of fascism. Set in the Arizona desert, it the Coney Island fairground, where he
shows how the gangster Duke Mantee and his contrives a reunion with Christine. Although
gang take over a café by terrorizing the family there was some praise for the innovative
who own it. The central character, a failed staging, many critics found the show
writer named Alan who has fallen for the café- unexciting, concurring with the theatrical
owner’s daughter, Gabby, begins to see some blogger who dubbed it “Paint Never Dries”.
benefits in Mantee’s power, calling him “the
last great apostle of rugged individualism”. He Phèdre A tragedy by Jean RACINE, usually
asks Mantee to kill him after making Gabby acknowledged as his masterpiece, that was first
the beneficiary of his life-insurance policy. performed in Paris in 1677. Critics have
After the gangster has complied, Alan is praised its lyrical dialogue, subtle psychology,
buried, as he had requested, in the famous and intricate plot. The title role was first
Petrified Forest. played by Mlle CHAMPMESLÉ, the leading tragic
actress with the Comédie-Française, and
Phantom of the Opera, The A Racine’s mistress. Glenda Jackson played the
musical by Andrew LLOYD WEBBER, with lyrics role to great acclaim in Philip Prowse’s 1984
by Charles Hart; Lloyd Webber wrote the London production.
book with Richard Stilgoe, who also Phèdre has been called “the keystone in
contributed additional lyrics. First performed French tragic drama”. Racine is said to have
in London in 1986 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, written it to prove that “a good poet could get
it was still running there in 2010, having the greatest crimes excused and even inspire
notched up over 9500 performances. The compassion for the criminals.” The plot, based
show received the Laurence Olivier and on the Hippolytus of EURIPIDES, concerns
Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical of Phèdre’s passion for her stepson, Hippolyte.
1986 and a year later repeated its success in Hearing that her husband, Thésée, has died in
New York, where it went on to become the Athens, Phèdre confesses her passion to
longest-running Broadway musical of all-time Hippolyte, who is deeply shocked. When
(still going strong in 2010). It has now been Thésée unexpectedly returns, Phèdre pretends
seen by over 100 million people worldwide, to him that Hippolyte has tried to seduce her.
grossing around £3.5 billion. The deceit results in Hippolyte’s death and
The plot, based on Gaston Leroux’s gothic Phèdre’s suicide.
novel, tells of a disfigured and deranged
composer who haunts the labyrinth beneath Phelps, Samuel (1804–78) British actor-
the Paris Opéra. Lloyd Webber’s version manager, best known for his Shakespearean
downplays the original horror story in favour productions at SADLER’S WELLS Theatre.
of the romance between the masked Phantom Phelps began acting in 1826 and for
and the opera singer Christine (played in the 11 years toured the provinces, earning a
original version by Lloyd Webber’s then wife, reputation as an excellent tragedian. In 1837
Sarah Brightman). The musical’s initial success he was engaged by Ben Webster (see WEBSTER
 phlyax 387

FAMILY) at the Haymarket, where he gave well to Julia, whose acceptance frees him to
received performances as Hamlet, Shylock, and concentrate on Grace. For her part, however,
Richard III. Later he joined William Grace decides that she would rather have
MACREADY’s company at Covent Garden, Charteris’s respect than his love.
appearing as Othello to Macready’s Iago.
When the monopoly of Covent Garden Philipe, Gérard (1922–59) French actor,
and Drury Lane was abolished by the Theatres whose spectacular career was cut short by his
Act of 1844 (see PATENT THEATRES), Phelps sudden death at the age of 37. He was buried
immediately took over Sadler’s Wells Theatre in the costume he wore in Corneille’s Le Cid.
and began to produce serious drama. During Philipe made his debut in 1943 in the first
his management (1844–62) he staged 34 of production of Jean Giraudoux’s Sodome et
Shakespeare’s 37 plays, including Macbeth Gomorrhe. Two years later he made his name
(1844), Antony and Cleopatra (1849), and in the title role of Albert Camus’s Caligula. In
Pericles (1854). Despite his usual striving for the late 1940s he became a film star, but
historical accuracy in costume, Victorian returned to the stage in 1951, joining the
propriety demanded “a very demure and much Théâtre National Populaire under Jean VILAR.
petticoated Cleopatra”. His Pericles made use After drawing in youthful playgoers in Paris
of the original text for the first time since with such successes as Le Cid, he toured
1661. Phelps appeared in most of the America, Canada, and Russia. He remained
productions himself with Mrs Warner as his with the TNP until his death.
leading lady. After leaving Sadler’s Wells, Philipe was particularly praised for
Phelps returned to acting in Shakespeare and performances in Heinrich von Kleist’s Prinz
dramatizations of Scott’s novels. His last Friedrich von Homburg (1951), the first French
performance was as Cardinal Wolsey in Henry production of Brecht’s Mother Courage (1951),
VIII in 1878. Shakespeare’s Richard II (1954), and Musset’s
Phelps was also renowned as a teacher. Les Caprices de Marianne (1958) and On ne
Having learned traditional techniques passed badine pas avec l’amour (1959).
down from David GARRICK through Macready
Philoctetes A play by SOPHOCLES, one
and Sarah Siddons, he helped to launch the
of the best known of Greek tragedies, first
successful careers of many young actors,
performed in 409 BC in Athens. Sophocles
including Johnston FORBES-ROBERTSON (who
wrote it at the age of 87.
painted a well known portrait of Phelps in the
In Greek legend Philoctetes was a famous
role of Cardinal Wolsey). See also HENRY V.
archer, Hercules having given him his arrows
Philadelphia Museum Theatre See on the point of death. In the tenth year of
DAVIDGE’S SNAKE SHOP. the Trojan War Odysseus commanded that
Philoctetes be sent for, as an oracle had
Philanderer, The A play by George declared that Troy could not be taken without
Bernard SHAW. It was written in 1893 but the arrows of Hercules. Philoctetes went to
owing to its somewhat risqué subject did not Troy, slew Paris, and Troy fell. Sophocles’s
find a producer until 1905, when it was play, however, tells a later story of Philoctetes
presented in London as a private club being cast away on a desert island, from which
production. The play satirizes two causes that he fears he may never escape.
Shaw himself supported, Ibsenite free-thinking
and feminism. Shaw’s main character, Charteris, phlyax In the GRECO-ROMAN DRAMA, a
is largely a self-portrait, while he wrote the part type of MIME popular in the 4th and 3rd
of the tempestuous Julia for Mrs Patrick centuries BC. The comic playlets, which were
CAMPBELL, with whom he was infatuated. In probably mostly improvised, combined
the event Mrs Pat never played the part. burlesque with scenes from everyday life.
The story centres on Leonard Charteris, a Writers of the phlyax in the 4th century BC
philandering Ibsenite, who is unable to decide included Rhinthon of Tarentum. Information
between two women – an old sweetheart, about the form comes mainly from vase
the volatile Julia Craven, and a new love, paintings, which reveal that it was performed
the widow Mrs Grace Tranfield. Charteris on a primitive stage consisting of a wooden
attempts to resolve his dilemma by persuading platform supported on posts. The phlyax was
the physician Dr Percy Paramore to propose eventually absorbed into the Roman ATELLANA.
388 Phoenix Society

Phoenix Society A British theatre group rehearsal but in America they tend to be held
founded in London in 1919 to perform early at dress parades several days earlier.
English drama. It was set up under the aegis of
the STAGE SOCIETY, which had already revived Piaf, Edith (Giovanna Edith Gassion;
1915–63) The internationally famous French
a number of works by Farquhar, Congreve,
singer and entertainer. Her assumed name Piaf
Vanbrugh, and others. The Phoenix Society
is French slang for sparrow – a reference to
presented 26 important productions between
her tiny stature. Despite a poverty-stricken
1919 and 1925. These drew support from such
childhood and a disastrous private life, Piaf’s
leading theatrical figures as Edith Craig, who indomitable spirit, distinctive voice, and
managed the productions, Allan Wade, who emotional style brought her enormous success
directed all but two, and Norman Wilkinson, in cabaret and music hall. She was loved by
who designed sets. Sir Thomas Beecham Parisians, who thronged the streets on the day
arranged the music for the 1923 production of of her funeral, causing total traffic chaos, and
John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess. Other admired throughout the world for such songs
dramatists whose work was produced included as ‘La Vie en rose’, which she wrote herself,
John Dryden, Ben Jonson, Thomas Otway, ‘Pigalle’, ‘Mon legionnaire’, ‘Je ne regrette
and Francis Beaumont. In many cases the rien’, and ‘Pour deux sous d’amour’. Jean
Society’s revival of forgotten or neglected COCTEAU, an ardent admirer, wrote Le Bel
works led to subsequent productions by other Indifferent (1941) to provide her with one of
companies. her infrequent theatrical roles. She also
appeared in Marcel Achard’s La P’tite Lili
Phoenix Theatre A theatre on Charing
(1951). Her own disastrous childhood and
Cross Road, London, opened by Sidney
emotional instability, which resulted in failed
Bernstein in 1930 on a site once occupied by marriages, alcoholism, and drug addiction,
the Alcazar Music Hall. It opened with the were depicted in Pam Gems’s play Piaf (1980);
first production of Noël COWARD’s Private Jane Lapotaire gave a moving interpretation of
Lives, starring the author and Gertrude the singer in the first English production. The
LAWRENCE. The Phoenix maintained its play was revived in 1993 with Elaine Paige in
association with Coward for many years and in the lead.
1969 he opened the theatre bar that had been
named after him. Piccolo Teatro della Città di Milano
Coward and Lawrence appeared together See STREHLER, GIORGIO; TEATRO STABILE.
again in Tonight at 8.30, a series of one-act
Pickelhering A name for a CLOWN or
plays presented in 1936. During World War II
buffoon in the Dutch and German theatre of
John Gielgud starred in Congreve’s Love for
the 17th and 18th centuries. A comic character
Love (1943) and Cicely Courtneidge in Under
of this name was first introduced, it appears,
the Counter (1945). Subsequent productions by one of the troupes of ENGLISH COMEDIANS
have included works by Thornton Wilder, who toured the Continent from the late 16th
Terence Rattigan, John Osborne and Bertolt century. The first recorded use of of the term
Brecht. The Phoenix’s longest run was a in English (as Pickleherring) is by Joseph
musical adaptation of Chaucer’s The Addison in The Spectator (1711). See also
Canterbury Tales (1968) which logged 2082 HANSWURST.
performances. More recent successes have
included Stoppard’s Night and Day (1978), Pierrot A tall thin melancholy clown who
Simon Gray’s The Common Pursuit (1988), appears in whiteface wearing a loose white
and Willy Russell’s musical BLOOD BROTHERS costume with very long sleeves and a row of
(1993), which was still running in 2010. big buttons down the front. A traditional
figure in French pantomime, he developed
photo call or picture call A from the character of PEDROLINO in the
prearranged session during which cast Italian Commedia dell’arte. The character’s
members are photographed in costume, wigs, melancholy demeanour was largely the
and make-up for publicity purposes. This is creation of the famous 19th-century Pierrot
normally carried out within a stage set to give BAPTISTE. In England the character featured in
the impression of a live production. In Britain, the HARLEQUINADE and the later PIERROT
photo calls are sometimes held during the dress TROUPES.
 Pinter, Harold 389

Pierrot troupes British seaside song- inevitable, Ibsen contrives a happy ending that
and-dance companies of the late 19th and early has left many critics dissatisfied: Johan sails
20th centuries, all members of which dressed for America without saying anything, and
in the traditional white costume of Pierrot. In Bernick is prompted to make a highly public
1891 the London success of L’Enfant prodigue, confession that has the effect of bringing his
a mime Pierrot play, inspired Clifford Essex to family closer together.
introduce a troupe in Ireland and the Isle of
Wight; other groups were formed by such Pinafore riot A dispute that occurred in
showmen as Carlton Frederick in Weymouth 1879 over rival productions of Gilbert and
(1894) and Edwin Adeler in Southport (1898). Sullivan’s HMS PINAFORE. Richard D’OYLY
CARTE had financed his Comedy Opera
After the turn of the century, Pierrot troupes
performed at London’s Apollo Theatre in Company by luring wealthy backers, making
such productions as H. G. Pelisser’s The them directors, and then failing to renew their
Follies (1908, 1910) and the CO-OPTIMISTS contracts. Since the ex-directors had been
(1921–27). The troupes were vividly portrayed making £500 a week each from the production
in Joan Littlewood’s revue OH, WHAT A LOVELY of HMS Pinafore that opened at the Opera
WAR! (1963).
Comique in 1878, they hired a team of
hooligans to steal the play’s scenery from the
Pilate voice A loud ranting voice, theatre in order to stage their own version. The
especially as used by an actor. In the medieval cast and stage staff chased them off, however,
MYSTERY PLAYS tyrannical characters such as and the rival production proved a failure.
Pontius Pilate or HEROD were made to speak in D’Oyly Carte sued the ex-directors and won
a bombastic declamatory style. his case.
The Miller, that for-drunken was al
Pinero, Sir Arthur Wing (1855–1934)
pale…
Popular and prolific British playwright, who
In Pilates vois he gan to crye…
began his career as an actor with Henry
CHAUCER: The Miller’s Prologue
Irving’s Lyceum Company (1876–81). At
Although a link has been suggested, there Irving’s encouragement, he wrote his first play,
is no connection between the name of the £200 a Year, in 1877. He enjoyed early success
squawking ruffian Mr PUNCH and Pontius at the Royal Court Theatre with a series of
Pilate. See also TERMAGANT. farces that included THE MAGISTRATE (1885)
Pillars of Society The first of the ‘social’ and DANDY DICK (1886). The light comedy
dramas in prose with which Henrik IBSEN Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1898) follows the
revolutionized the theatre of the late 19th actress Rose Trelawny through the West End
century. First performed in 1877 in of the 1860s. Pinero is now best known for the
Copenhagen, it quickly established the serious social dramas he wrote in the 1890s
author’s reputation in Germany, with five under the influence of Henrik IBSEN. These
theatres in Berlin presenting the play within include THE SECOND MRS TANQUERAY (1893),
five months of its publication. It was also the which ends with a suicide, and The Notorious
first Ibsen play to be translated (by William Mrs Ebbsmith (1895). The latter made the
Archer) for production in London, opening as reputation of Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL, who
Quicksands; or, The Pillars of Society in 1880 at excelled in a scene calling for her to rescue a
the Gaiety Theatre. Bible from the flames and press it to her
The story focuses on Karsten Bernick, a bosom. Although considered daring at the
wealthy businessman who is regarded as the time, these plays now seem utterly Victorian in
moral and financial pillar of the small their attitude to the ‘fallen’ woman. Pinero’s
Norwegian community in which he lives. later works include His House in Order (1906)
Bernick, however, has a secret. Some 15 years and The Freaks (1918).
earlier, threatened by a potential scandal, he pin spot A SPOTLIGHT that throws a tiny
had allowed his brother-in-law, Johan, to take brilliant beam of light onto the stage. It is used
the blame and flee to America. When Johan to dramatically highlight a special object or to
returns, Bernick is terrified that the truth will isolate a person’s face.
be revealed and becomes enmeshed in a
desperate, potentially deadly, plot to save his Pinter, Harold (Harold Da Pinta;
skin. Although a tragic outcome seems 1930–2008) British dramatist, director, and
390 Pinter pause

actor, regarded as one of the most original roles. After their divorce he married (1980) the
writers of the post-war period. Like BECKETT, historian Lady Antonia Fraser.
with whom he is often compared, Pinter
resolutely refused to analyse his works, Pinter pause A long significant pause in
although he did once rather cryptically suggest stage dialogue. The name derives from Harold
PINTER’s characteristic use of the device;
that his plays were about the “weasel under the
cocktail cabinet.” notoriously, he indicates his pauses explicitly
Born in the East End of London, Pinter in his texts rather than leaving them to the
briefly attended RADA and the Central School discretion of the actors. John Gielgud once
of Speech and Drama before joining Sir observed, “The ‘Pinter Pause’ is now a kind of
Donald Wolfit’s touring company as an actor copyright in the theatre world as it was once
(using the name David Baron). Curiously, the traditional property of the actor MACREADY
Pinter appeared alongside two other as yet in the nineteenth century.”
undiscovered playwrights, Ronald Harwood Pirandello, Luigi (1867–1936) Italian
and Alan AYCKBOURN. dramatist, actor, critic, novelist, and short-
Pinter’s first play, the one-act THE ROOM, story writer. With Strindberg, Ibsen, Chekhov,
was staged at Bristol University in 1957; his and Shaw he is considered one of the founders
first full-length play, THE BIRTHDAY PARTY of the 20th-century theatrical tradition. His
appeared the following year, much to the philosophy of the absurdity of human
bewilderment of both audiences and critics. existence struck a chord with the disillusioned
THE DUMB WAITER (1960) received its premiere generation of the 1920s: “I think that life is a
in Hamburg, being followed later in the year very sad piece of buffoonery” he wrote, adding
by THE CARETAKER, which enjoyed successful “My art is full of bitter compassion for all
productions in both London and New York, those who deceive themselves…” In their
establishing Pinter as a major writer for the reaction against realism Pirandello’s works
theatre. Although The Caretaker has only three have had a major influence on French drama,
characters and very little in the way of plot, it particularly on the Theatre of the ABSURD that
effectively established a new theatrical style in developed after World War II.
which tension, suspicion, and ambiguity Born in Sicily, he attended universities in
combine to create a ‘comedy of menace’. The Palermo and Rome and received a doctorate in
adjective Pinteresque is now often used of philosophy from the University of Bonn. In
dialogue that resembles Pinter’s in being 1894 marriage to the daughter of a wealthy
oblique, repetitive, interspersed with lengthy sulphur merchant gave him the security to
pauses (see PINTER PAUSE), and loaded with write; this, however, proved shortlived as the
hidden meanings. family lost all their money in a mine disaster in
Although THE HOMECOMING (1965) was 1903 and Pirandello was obliged to take a
another archetypally Pinteresque work, lecturing post. Over the following years his
subsequent plays, such as Old Times (1971), wife became mentally ill, developing a
NO MAN’S LAND (1975), and Betrayal (1978) persecution mania and a frantic jealousy of her
showed a new preoccupation with the husband. He cared for her at home for 15
subjective nature of time and memory. During years before she was confined in a sanatorium.
the 1980s Pinter spent much of his time Although Pirandello’s first play, L’epilogo,
writing for the cinema and campaigning for was produced in 1910, he did not find success
left-wing political causes. The enigmatic on the stage until 1917, when Right You Are (If
Moonlight (1993), his first major play for 15 You Think So), a dramatization of one of his
years, was followed by Ashes to Ashes in 1996 short stories, was performed. Like many of his
and Celebration in 2000. Pinter was awarded later works, this proclaimed the relativity of
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 and truth, undermining the whole notion of
used his acceptance speech to launch a objective reality.
typically belligerent attack on US foreign Pirandello’s most famous work, SIX
policy. In 2006 he made a much heralded CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR, had its
return to the stage as the old writer in Beckett’s premiere in Rome in 1921 and was produced
KRAPP’S LAST TAPE. the following year in both London and New
Pinter’s first wife, Vivien Merchant York. Its paradoxical exploration of the
(1929–82), played many of his early female relationship between theatre and reality was
 Pistol 391

continued in two more plays, Each in His Own at the thought that I have ever been
Way (1924) and Tonight We Improvise (1929). mixed up with it; but duty is above all
In 1922 he wrote the powerful tragedy, Henry – at any price, I will do my duty!
IV, which examines the concepts of sanity and
madness; it was first seen in London in 1925 Piscator, Erwin (Friedrich Max)
and in New York in 1947. (1893–1966) German director, noted for his
In 1925 Pirandello established his own ingenious staging techniques and his influence
company at the Teatro Odescalchi, Rome, on the development of EPIC THEATRE and
DOCUMENTARY THEATRE. A member of the
with Ruggero Ruggeri (1871–1953) and Marta
Abba (1900–88) as its leading players. He German Communist Party from 1918,
produced and directed his own plays at the Piscator saw the theatre as a means of both
theatre and toured Europe and America with explaining issues and influencing voters.
the company. In 1934 he was awarded the Piscator’s innovative productions made
Nobel Prize for Literature. use of machinery, newsreels, film clips,
photographs, and audio recordings to create an
Pirates of Penzance, The GILBERT experience of total theatre. Notable among his
AND SULLIVAN’s light opera about a band of early productions were Despite All! (1925),
soft-hearted plunderers. It was first produced which gained him a job at the Berlin
in 1879 at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, VOLKSBÜHNE, Storm Over Gottland (1927),
Devon, and then a day later at the Fifth Avenue which lost him the job, Rasputin (1927), and
Theatre, New York; the first London The Good Soldier Schweik (1928). The last two
production was in 1880 at the Opera Comique. productions were staged in collaboration with
The work is full of larger-than-life comic BRECHT.
characters who owe a great deal to the English The Political Theatre, Piscator’s book of
MUSIC HALL tradition. The songs include ‘I am photographs and writings on the theatre, was
the Very Model of a Modern Major-General’, published in 1929 and had a profound effect
‘Oh, Dry the Glistening Tear’, and ‘With Cat- upon the Federal Theatre Project’s LIVING
like Tread’. Modern revivals include the NEWSPAPER productions, as well as Joan
celebrated New York production of Joseph LITTLEWOOD’s Theatre Workshop
PAPP (1980). productions.
The story’s hero is the well-meaning Following his arrest in 1931 for failing to
Frederick. When he was a boy, his father had pay entertainment tax, Piscator moved to the
instructed a servant to ensure that he was Soviet Union; in 1938 he moved to New York,
apprenticed as a sea pilot: unfortunately, the where he remained until 1951. During this
slightly deaf servant thought the word was time in America Piscator taught at the
‘pirate’. As a result Frederick, now 21, is a Dramatic Workshop, where he influenced
rather reluctant novice pirate. When the gang such writers as Arthur Miller and Tennessee
attacks a Major-General’s house, Frederick Williams.
defends it until the Pirate King reminds After returning to West Germany in 1951,
him that he is bound by the terms of his Piscator remained largely inactive until his
apprenticeship. However, when the prostrate appointment (1962) as artistic director of the
Sergeant of Police calls, “We charge you yield, West Berlin Volksbühne. Here he staged a
in Queen Victoria’s name!” the pirates suddenly number of highly controversial works of
recall their love for Queen and country and documentary theatre by such writers as
surrender; they subsequently settle down and HOCHHUTH and Peter Weiss.
marry the Major-General’s daughters. Pistol FALSTAFF’s ‘ancient’ (i.e. ensign) in
The opera’s subtitle, The Slave of Duty, Shakespeare’s HENRY IV, PART II, HENRY V, and
highlights Gilbert’s malicious pleasure in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. A braggart and
poking fun at this most Victorian of virtues. a cowardly ruffian, Pistol finally gets his
When the Pirate King reminds Frederick of his comeuppance in Henry V, when Captain
obligation to continue in his calling, he sees no Fluellen forces him to eat a raw leek for
way out: mocking the Welsh. Following this
Well, you have appealed to my sense of humiliation, Pistol announces his intention to
duty, and my duty is only too clear. I return home to a life of crime: “To England
abhor your infamous calling; I shudder will I steal and there I’ll steal.” His bombastic
392 pit

and often nonsensical speeches parody the to end.” Sheridan took his revenge by
ranting style of many Elizabethan tragedies. satirizing Cumberland at Sir Fretful, one of his
great comic creations.
pit In the Elizabethan theatre, the central
unroofed area of the auditorium that offered Plain Dealer, The A harsh comedy by
the cheapest places. The name comes from Sir William WYCHERLEY, sometimes considered
the cockpits used for cockfighting. The pit his best play. Loosely based on Molière’s THE
(sometimes called the yard) provided standing MISANTHROPE (1666), it was first performed in
room only and was used mostly by the lower 1676 at Drury Lane. The identification of the
classes. This tended to place the most rowdy misanthropic title character, Manly, with
theatregoers nearest to the stage, increasing the the author himself led to the latter being
accuracy with which oranges and other missiles nicknamed ‘Manly’ Wycherley. The play’s
were hurled at the actors. Similarly in the satire is strident and frequently obscene. At
French theatre, the area corresponding to the one point Manly anticipates the objections of
pit often contained 1000 spectators standing, the audience by asking, “Is railing satire…
jostling, and fighting one another (a serious and roaring and making a noise humour?” In
matter, since they could wear swords). the later 18th century the play generally
In the early English playhouses the stage appeared in a bowdlerized version by Isaac
and lower boxes were at ground level and the BICKERSTAFFE. The Renaissance Theatre
pit was sunk between them. In the 16th Company presented a noted revival of
century admission to the pit cost a penny, Wycherley’s original at London’s Scala Theatre
rising in the 17th century to two pennies. After in 1925.
the Restoration, the three grand theatres – Manly, a plain-dealing naval captain,
Drury Lane, Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, and returns from the Dutch wars with a distrust of
Dorset Garden Theatre – introduced slanted all mankind except his fiancée Olivia, to whom
pits to improve visibility and began to provide he has entrusted his money, and his best friend
backless benches for everyone. One reason for Vernish. He is shocked, therefore, to find them
the demise of the APRON stage was the need to married to each other. Fidelia, a young woman
create more seats in the pit. In the early 19th who had followed Manly to sea disguised as a
century, a raised circle replaced the lower male, tries to intervene on his behalf but the
boxes and the pit was extended backwards treacherous Vernish attempts to rape her.
underneath it. Soon afterwards, the cheap pit When she is wounded defending Manly from
benches were replaced by the STALLS, which an attack by Vernish, the captain realizes that
became the highest priced seats in the house; it is Fidelia who loves him and vows to marry
only the back rows were still referred to as the her.
pit. Modern theatres have no pit.
Planchon, Roger (1931–2009) French
Plagiary, Sir Fretful A character in actor, director, and dramatist, who had formed
SHERIDAN’s comedy THE CRITIC (1779), who his own company before he reached the age of
was intended as a caricature of the playwright twenty. The company, which lived and worked
Richard Cumberland (1732–1811). as a commune, built its own theatre, where
Cumberland, the author of several popular Planchon produced plays ranging from the
comedies, found his sentimental style suddenly classical to the avant-garde. In particular, he
outmoded when GOLDSMITH and Sheridan championed the work of ADAMOV and BRECHT.
enjoyed their first successes. Anxious to see In 1954 he met Brecht and subsequently
these new comedies for himself, he took his became the leading French director of his
children to the first night of The School for plays.
Scandal (1777); when the children laughed at The company was invited, in 1957, to take
the play he furiously tried to restrain them, over the Théâtre de la Cité, a huge municipal
coldly informing them that there was nothing theatre at Villeurbanne, an industrial suburb of
at all to laugh at. Sheridan was incensed when Lyons. At Villeurbanne, Planchon managed to
he heard of the incident: “It was very build up a substantial working-class audience,
ungrateful in Cumberland to have been for which he directed mainly Marxist
displeased with his poor children for laughing interpretations of classical plays, including
at my comedy; for I went the other night to see works by Shakespeare, Marivaux, Molière, and
his tragedy, and laughed at it from beginning Jonson. Following a successful production in
 Playboy of the Western World, The 393

Paris in 1961 the company was given a twins. Several of his plays were combined for
government grant, making it the first provincial Stephen SONDHEIM’s 1962 Broadway musical
theatre to receive a government subsidy. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Planchon himself wrote a number of Forum (although only one line from Plautus
dramas, many of which he also directed and was retained: “I am a parade”).
performed in; his most notable plays are Plautus was eventually forced to work in a
probably La remise (1962), Dans le vent (1968), grain mill after losing most of his theatrical
and Gilles de Rais (1976). In 1972, following earnings in unsuccessful business ventures.
the closure of Jean VILAR’s theatre at Chaillot,
Planchon inherited the name THÉÂTRE playbill Either a poster advertising a play
NATIONAL POPULAIRE for his theatre at
or a programme handed out to the audience.
Villeurbanne. His later productions included The poster or circular usually lists the
Marivaux’s The Triumph of Love (1998), title, date, time, theatre, cast, and other
Pinter’s Celebration (2005), and his own information; it may quote favourable reviews.
updated version of Oedipus at Colonus (2007). The audience playbill is a small programme
He also wrote and directed for the cinema. with basic information and perhaps
advertising. These are free in Britain and sold
platt In the Elizabethan theatre, the outline at a nominal price in America. Most theatres
of a play posted backstage to cue the stage crew also sell quality colour programmes.
for such duties as calling actors and moving The first poster playbills were printed in
properties. London in 1737 by the managements of Drury
Lane and Covent Garden. They were quarto
Plausible Jack The nickname given to sheets circulated to coffee houses and stuck up
the actor John Palmer (1742–98) by Richard outside the theatres. The first programme
Brinsley SHERIDAN, because of Palmer’s fame as playbills were handed out in 1850 at the
a liar. The son of a doorkeeper at Drury Lane, Olympic Theatre to occupants of the more
Palmer began his career as a strolling player. expensive seats.
He opened the Royalty Theatre in London in
1787 but, as this was unlicensed (see LICENCE), Playboy of the Western World, The
he was soon arrested and made no further J. M. SYNGE’s comic masterpiece, which
attempts at theatre management. He died on provoked some of the worst riots in theatrical
stage in Liverpool (see DYING WORDS). history when first performed in 1907 at
Dublin’s ABBEY THEATRE. The main action
Plautus, Titus Maccius (254–184 BC) begins with Christy Mahon’s arrival at a pub
Roman playwright, whose comedies were the in a wild part of Mayo, where his story of
most popular dramatic works of their day. He slaying his bullying father makes him a hero
was originally an actor or clown. Twenty-one amongst the local women. Later, Christy’s
of his 130 plays survive, revealing his theatrical father appears with a fractured skull and
craftsmanship and total mastery of farce. berates his son so furiously that Christy attacks
Although his works were PALLIATA, adaptations him again. Believing the man dead, the
of Greek NEW COMEDY originals now lost, he villagers try to hang Christy, but his father
shifted the scene to Rome and based much of recovers once more and the two indignantly
the humour on Roman manners and customs. leave the pub together.
His comedy, which was broader than that of Trouble began on the first night of the
TERENCE, still works today. Stock characters of Abbey production and continued throughout
Plautus’s plays include the bragging soldier, the run. The audience hissed and stamped
the miser, the old man in love, the parasite, their feet, sang patriotic songs, and shouted
identical twins, the wily slave, and the “Kill the author!” There were fights and
courtesan. demonstrations at every performance until 500
Later European dramatists influenced by police “thick as blackberries in September”
Plautus include Shakespeare, Jonson, Dryden, were brought in to maintain order. Those
and Molière. His comedy was often based on outraged by the play included Irish nationalists,
disguises and mistaken identities; Shakespeare’s who were upset by the unsentimental portrayal
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (1592) was based on of peasant life, and pious Catholics, who
Plautus’s Menaechmi, about the confusions complained about what Sinn Fein called “the
caused by a pair of long-separated identical foulest language we have ever listened to on a
394 Players’ Club

public platform”. (The word ‘shift’, meaning version subsequently transferred to the West
petticoat, caused particular offence.) Others End.
denounced the supposed insult to Irish The future of the Players’ was cast into
womanhood, or condemned the comic confusion in 2002, when a bitter schism
treatment of patricide. developed between two factions within the
Yet more protests came from Irish club. Following a protracted High Court
Americans when the play toured America in battle, one group (styling itself the New
1911–12. In New York stink bombs, potatoes, Players’ Theatre) took over the Villiers Street
a cigar tin, and an old watch were amongst the premises, which it sold on to a management
objects thrown on stage: the owner of the company; as the New Players Theatre the
watch later called at the stage door and asked venue now presents a range of productions in
for its return. In Philadelphia the whole the ‘off-Broadway’ tradition. The other group,
company was arrested for performing a play which continues to be known as the Players’
“likely to corrupt morals”. (Hearing this, Theatre, is currently seeking to build a new
George Bernard Shaw commented: “All decent venue on the other side of the railway tracks.
people are arrested in the United States.”) Playhouse A theatre on the Embankment
Players’ Club A social club in New York, near Charing Cross, London. It was opened
established in 1888 by the actor Edwin Booth under this name by Cyril Maude (1862–1951)
(see BOOTH FAMILY) as the US equivalent of in 1907; the original building on the site, the
London’s GARRICK CLUB. Booth, the first Royal Avenue Theatre, was very severely
president, donated a house for its foundation. damaged in 1905 when part of Charing Cross
He died in office in 1893, as did the next two Station collapsed onto it, causing six deaths.
presidents, Joseph Jefferson (see JEFFERSON Maude and his wife, Winifred Emery
(1862–1924), performed regularly at the
FAMILY) and John Drew (see DREW FAMILY).
Playhouse from 1907 until 1915.
The fourth president was Walter Hampden,
Frank Curzon and Gladys COOPER became
who served for 27 years (1918–55) and after
the new managers in 1917; Cooper starred
whom the club library is named. Subsequent
there in the 1922 revival of Pinero’s The
presidents have included Howard Lindsay
Second Mrs Tanqueray before running the
(1955–65), Alfred Drake (1970–78), and
theatre alone from 1927 to 1933. She
Herb Blodgett (2008– ). In 1994 Lynn
produced several of Somerset Maugham’s
Redgrave became the first female president. plays, including The Letter (1927).
The Players Club maintains an extensive During World War II, the Playhouse
collection of theatrical mementos. offered a varied menu, including a 1943 Old
Players’ Theatre A London theatre club Vic production of Reuben Simonov’s The
that opened in 1927 as Playroom Six at No. 6, Russians. It became a BBC studio in 1951 and
New Compton Street, with the aim of did not reopen as a theatre until 1987, when it
presenting a wide range of entertainment. presented the musical Girl Friends. In 1992 the
However, in 1936 it moved into the former theatre was bought by the writer Ray Cooney,
EVANS’S SUPPER ROOM (also known as Evans’s
whose farce It Runs in the Family was
(late Joy’s)) in Covent Garden and soon began premiered there. The Playhouse is now part of
to concentrate on recreating the type of music- the Ambassador Theatre Group. Recent
successes have included Richard Eyre’s
hall entertainment originally seen on these
production of Hedda Gabler (2005), the
premises. The club moved to Albermarle Street
Motown ‘jukebox musical’ Dancing in the
in 1940 and then, in 1946, to a theatre under
Streets (2006–07), and an award-winning
the arches of Charing Cross Station in Villiers
revival of La Cage aux Folles (2008–10)
Street. Here, for over 50 years, it continued
The original theatre on the site, the Royal
to present its unique brand of Victorian
Avenue Theatre, opened in 1882. High points
entertainment with Leonard Sachs, Don in its history included the 1894 premiere of
Gemmell, and Dominic Le Foe as successive George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man.
masters of ceremonies and a great deal of
audience participation. In 1953 Sandy Plenty A play by David HARE, first
Wilson’s musical The Boyfriend had its performed in 1978 by the National Theatre
premiere at the Players’ Theatre; a longer company at their Lyttleton Theatre with Hare
 poetic drama 395

directing. A film version appeared in 1985. the most troubled. On the fourth night of the
The drama, set in the two decades after World first production, police had to quell rioting
War II, uses the traumatic decline of the members of the audience as they stormed on
Resistance heroine Susan Traherne as a symbol stage to attack the cast. W. B. YEATS, one of
for the decay of political idealism in Britain. the theatre’s founders, cried at the audience (in
Susan, now married to Raymond Brock, a allusion to the riots that greeted Synge’s THE
career diplomat, finds her peacetime life dull PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD nearly 20
and meaningless and becomes increasingly years earlier), “You have disgraced yourselves
disillusioned by Britain’s complacent class- again. You are rocking the cradle of a new
ridden society. Her eccentric behaviour becomes masterpiece.” After a revival in 1951, the
a burden to her husband and friends and she Abbey burned down (ironically, the play ends
eventually leaves Raymond and drifts into with soldiers singing ‘Keep the Home Fires
drug-taking. A wartime comrade, Codename Burning’). When the theatre reopened in
Lazar, traces her and they spend a night 1966, The Plough and the Stars was the second
together, two pathetic figures living in the past. play to be presented. Many Irish actors have
excelled in the leading role of the antiheroic
Plinge, Walter An imaginary name that Fluther Good; one highly acclaimed
sometimes appears on British playbills, performance was that of Cyril Cusack
especially for productions of Shakespeare, to (1910–93) in a production at the National
disguise the fact that the same actor is playing Theatre in 1977.
two roles. Its use dates from about 1900, when
the name was used by the versatile actor Oscar Plough Monday The Monday after
Asche (1871–1936), and it is still occasionally TWELFTH NIGHT (5 January), which
seen. The original Walter Plinge is thought to traditionally marked the beginning of the
have been the landlord of a public house near ploughing season. The custom of performing a
the Lyceum Theatre, London. The US play on this date is not recorded before the
equivalent is the name George Spelvin, which 18th century but probably derives from the
first appeared on the bill for the 1886 New much earlier ritual of ‘speeding’ the plough,
York production of Charles A. Gardiner’s Karl i.e. dragging it around the community while
the Peddler. Estimates suggest that the name soliciting donations for a feast. The action of
Spelvin has been used on Broadway more than the Plough Monday play usually involves the
10,000 times for actors, gag writers, animals, accidental death of one of the farm workers,
dummies, and dolls posing as babies. who is then revived. In this respect the drama
seems to be related to the Christmas MUMMERS’
plot sheet A schedule drawn up and PLAYs, in which the hero is killed in a fight
kept by the STAGE MANAGER that details the only to be resurrected. See also CAPTAIN CAUF’S
requirements of each actor in a play, such as TAIL.
his make-up and wardrobe, as well as his
entrances and exits. It also includes a furniture poetic drama A play written wholly or
plot, specifying which pieces are to be arranged mainly in verse. As this was the norm in early
where during each scene, a property plot, drama (a tradition crowned by the works of
listing all props and where they are to be kept Shakespeare), the term is usually reserved for
offstage, and a sound or special-effects plot. works written since the Restoration (1660); by
See also PROMPT BOOK. this time only tragedies were still composed in
verse, comedies being more commonly written
Plough and the Stars, The A in prose.
tragicomedy by Sean O’CASEY, first performed In the late 17th century the great works of
at the ABBEY THEATRE, Dublin, in 1926. It is CORNEILLE and RACINE established the rhyming
set in the slums of Dublin (which O’Casey couplet as the standard form for tragedy and
knew at first-hand) during the 1916 Easter serious historical dramas. Despite the efforts of
Rising. O’Casey angered Irish patriots by DRYDEN, however, the form never took root in
emphasizing the antiheroic aspects of the the English theatre. In the early romantic era a
rebellion and its destructive effects on the lives revival of verse drama was led by the Germans
of ordinary people. GOETHE and SCHILLER, whose early works
The Plough and the Stars is the Abbey consciously invoke the example of Shakespeare.
Theatre’s most performed play but also one of Goethe’s greatest poetic drama was the
396 Poet Laureate

two-part FAUST (1829 and 1854), while successful playwrights, this can hardly be said
Schiller’s historical plays Maria Stuart (1801) of Thomas Shadwell (1688–92), Nahum TATE
and Wilhelm Tell (1804) have held the stage in (1692–1715), Nicholas Rowe (1715–18),
German-speaking countries. Colley CIBBER (1730–57) or William
In Britain, the romantic poets Whitehead (1757–85).
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and This trend reached the point of absurdity
Keats all wrote plays, although most of these in the appointment of Cibber, a comic actor
come into the category of CLOSET DRAMAs; and playwright who demonstrated little ability
only Coleridge’s Remorse (1813) and Byron’s to write verse, let alone poetry. The laureate
Marino Faliero (1821) were staged during the was mercilessly ridiculed by such literary
lifetimes of the authors. Shelley’s THE CENCI, a figures as Alexander Pope, who wrote:
gothic tale of incest and murder written in Cibber! write all thy verses upon
1819, was produced in 1886 and is still Glasses,
sometimes revived. The pitfalls of verse drama The only way to save ’em from our
were demonstrated even more thoroughly by A—-s.
the Victorian poets Tennyson and Browning,
‘Epigram Occasioned by Cibber’s
whose work for the stage rarely rises above the
Verses in Praise of Nash’
feeblest Shakespearean pastiche.
Although Ibsen’s early works BRAND and poetomachia See WAR OF THE THEATRES.
PEER GYNT are amongst the most successful
poetic dramas to have been written since Poets’ Corner The southern end of the
the Jacobeans, his later plays were chiefly south transept of London’s Westminster Abbey,
responsible for establishing prose as the natural where many leading British writers are buried.
vehicle for serious modern drama. The triumph Chaucer was buried there in 1400 and many
of REALISM in the late 19th century has made later poets desired to be laid to rest near his
verse drama seem an increasingly marginal bones, including Edmund Spenser, whose
form. Amongst those to lead a reaction against funeral took place in 1599. The playwright
prose realism was W. B. YEATS, who turned to Francis BEAUMONT was interred here in 1616;
the Japanese Nō theatre for inspiration. he had once written of the Abbey:
The attempt to find a contemporary idiom Think how many royal bones
for verse drama did not really bear fruit until Sleep within this heap of stones:
the 1930s, when poets such as T. S. ELIOT and Here they lie had realms and lands,
W. H. Auden began to use free verse. In Britain Who now want strength to stir their
there was a shortlived vogue for poetic drama hands.
in the years after World War II, when such SHAKESPEARE (buried in Stratford-upon-Avon)
plays as Christopher FRY’s The Lady’s Not for is commemorated by a monument bearing lines
Burning (1948) and Eliot’s The Cocktail Party from The Tempest. Legend has it that Ben
(1949) were presented successfully in the JONSON, whose grave is nearby, was buried
West End. In 1945–46 the actor and director upright, having bargained for a space only two
E. Martin Browne (1900–80), who directed all feet wide and two feet long (see O RARE BEN
of Eliot’s plays, produced a season of new verse
JONSON at RARE).
drama at London’s Mercury Theatre.
Other playwrights buried in Poet’s Corner
Poet Laureate In Britain, a poet include Aphra Behn, William Congreve,
appointed to compose odes on important state Nicholas Rowe, Joseph Addison, John Gay,
occasions. The appointment dates essentially Samuel Foote, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
from the time of James I, although the title was There are also memorials to more recent writers
not used officially before 1668. The laurel for the stage, including Noël Coward.
crown was an ancient mark of distinction and Curiously, Poet’s Corner also includes the
honour. graves of ‘old Parr’, whose claim to fame was
Oddly enough, the great majority of 17th- his survival to the age of 152 (having done
and 18th-century laureates were principally penance for fornication at the age of 105), and
men of the theatre rather than poets per se. ‘Spot’ Ward, who won a vote of thanks from
Although Ben JONSON (1619–37), Sir William the House of Commons for curing George II
DAVENANT (1638–68), and John DRYDEN of an injury to his thumb. The name Poet’s
(1670–88) were poets of distinction as well as Corner was first applied by Oliver GOLDSMITH.
 pornographic theatre 397

Addison had previously referred to it as the effective drama is the direct actor–spectator
‘poetical quarter’ in 1711, observing: “I found relationship. By encouraging audience members
there were Poets who had no Monuments, and to participate in the drama, he attempted to
Monuments which had no Poets.” create a revolutionary Theatre of Involvement.
Perhaps the most poignant epitaph of all is Many of these concepts were put into
that of the poet Samuel Butler, who died in practice by Grotowski through his involvement
poverty: with the Polish Theatre Laboratory in Warsaw,
The Poets Fate is here in emblem which he directed from 1964 to 1976. He was
shown: a major influence on Britain’s Peter BROOK
He asked for Bread and he received a (who wrote a preface to Towards a Poor Theatre)
Stone. and on such US experimental groups as the
LIVING THEATRE.
Polonius The garrulous old courtier in
Shakespeare’s HAMLET, a pompous, sententious, Porgy and Bess A work of musical
interfering old man. He is the father of OPHELIA theatre by George GERSHWIN, often described
and Laertes and lord chamberlain to Claudius, as the first US folk opera. The show was not
the usurping king of Denmark. Taking him an immediate success, losing the entire
for Claudius, Hamlet stabs Polonius to death production cost of $70,000 when first presented
while he is hiding behind an ARRAS to spy. (with an all-Black cast) in 1935. A 1942
Broadway revival, in which much of the sung
pong Actors’ slang meaning to AD LIB or recitative was replaced by spoken dialogue,
improvise, especially when one has forgotten proved far more successful. Porgy and Bess was
one’s lines. The Shakespearean actor-manager based on the 1927 play Porgy by Du Bose
F. R. Benson (1858–1939) was famous for his Heywood, who collaborated with Ira Gershwin
ability to pong in perfect blank verse. The term on the lyrics. The songs include ‘Summertime’,
was first recorded in the late 19th century and ‘I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’’, ‘It Ain’t Necessarily
is now archaic. So’, and ‘Bess, You Is My Woman Now’.
The story is set in Catfish Row, a Black
Pooh Bah In Gilbert and Sullivan’s THE ghetto in Charleston, South Carolina. After
MIKADO Pooh Bah, The Lord High Everything Bess’s boyfriend, Crown, murders a man
Else, is First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief during a dice game and flees, she settles down
Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Lord High with the crippled beggar Porgy. When Crown
Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds, Groom returns to claim Bess, Porgy kills him in a fight
of the Back Stairs, Archbishop of Titipu, and and is briefly arrested. Learning that Bess has
Lord Mayor. The name is sometimes used fallen into the hands of the drug pusher
of anyone who holds numerous offices Sportin’ Life, Porgy sets off to New York to
simultaneously. find her.
poor theatre A term devised by the pornographic theatre Plays or
Polish director Jerzy GROTOWSKI to describe a exhibitions that are designed primarily to
type of essential drama that can be arrived at arouse sexual excitement. Erotica has been an
by eliminating traditional ‘theatrical’ extras. As element of the theatrical tradition since earliest
he explained in his book Towards a Poor times. In ancient Greece an association
Theatre (1968): between comedy and sexual licence carried
By gradually eliminating whatever over from the rites of DIONYSUS. The Roman
proved superfluous, we found that MIME often combined scenes of nudity and
theatre can exist without make-up, simulated sex with real on-stage violence.
without autonomic costume and In Europe graphic depictions of sexual acts
scenography, without a separate were mainly confined to brothels until the later
performance area (stage), without 20th century. The first pornographic theatre
lighting and sound effects, etc. was opened in Paris in 1741 by a madame
By contrast, Grotowski described the named Lacroix. In the same city the Theatron
contemporary commercial theatre as the “Rich Erotikon presented pornographic puppet
theatre – rich in flaws”. He rejected the shows from 1862 onwards. In Britain, erotic
dictatorial powers of the modern director, plays were written to be read rather than acted
believing that the only element essential to (though one 1879 work was humorously
398 Porter, Cole

advertised as having been produced at the Despite being a homosexual he had married in
Theatre Royal Olimprick). 1919 and after his wife’s death in 1954 lived as
The sexual liberation of the 1960s and the a virtual recluse.
easing of stage censorship in most Western Other popular songs by Porter include
countries brought a new sexual explicitness to ‘Night and Day’, ‘Begin the Beguine’, and ‘Let’s
the legitimate stage. Kenneth TYNAN’s 1969 hit Do It’.
Oh, Calcutta! included group nudity and
simulated sex acts, while Lennox Raphael’s Porter, Jimmy The central character in
Che! (1969) featured a naked Uncle Sam John Osborne’s play LOOK BACK IN ANGER
practising oral sex and sodomy (before the (1956), whose irascible speeches established
show was closed and the cast arrested). A scene the idea of the ANGRY YOUNG MAN of the
of simulated buggery in Howard Brenton’s period. The frustrated product of a working-
THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN (1980) provoked a class background and a provincial university,
private prosecution (subsequently withdrawn). Porter lives in a drab bedsit with his middle-
When the revue Porno-Erotico was presented in class wife, Alison, who serves as the butt for
1974 in Cantanzaro, Italy, the cast was tipped most of his invective.
off that the public prosecutor had their She’s so clumsy. I watch for her to do
production targeted. Accordingly the actors the same things every night. The way
confined themselves to singing Neapolitan love she jumps on the bed, as if she were
songs and juggling oranges. The disappointed stamping on someone’s face, and draws
audience of some 500 businessmen rioted and the curtains back with a great clatter,
ripped up the theatre’s seats. The police arrived in that casually destructive way of hers.
with smoke bombs and machine-guns but took It’s like someone launching a
four hours to subdue the barricaded battleship. Have you ever noticed how
theatregoers. See also NUDITY; STRIPTEASE. noisy women are? Have you? The way
they kick the floor about, simply
Porter, Cole (1892–1964) US composer walking over it? Or have you watched
and lyricist, whose stylish and witty songs them sitting at their dressing tables,
appeared in some 27 musicals and revues.
dropping their weapons and banging
Born into a wealthy family, he began to write
down their bits of boxes and brushes
songs while studying law. His first musical, See
and lipsticks?
America First (1916), a satire on the jingoism
of George M. COHAN, was a total flop. During At the time, such harangues were thought to
World War I he served briefly in the French articulate a general disillusionment with postwar
Foreign Legion and thereafter lived the life of a Britain. Porter, now in irritable middle age
wealthy socialite in Europe while continuing to rather than angry youth, made a second
write songs. appearance in Osborne’s Déjà vu (1992).
Porter’s early musicals included Wake Up When the original production of Look
and Dream (1929) and The Gay Divorce Back in Anger became a succès de scandale,
(1932). Mary Martin made her Broadway George DEVINE had the idea of asking the
debut in Porter’s Leave It To Me (1938), which audience to remain in their seats after the
includes the song ‘My Heart Belongs to performance to discuss the play with himself,
Daddy’. Ethel MERMAN starred in four hits, Osborne, Tony Richardson (the director) and
namely, ANYTHING GOES (1934), in which she the cast (led by Kenneth Haigh as Porter and
performed the title song and ‘I Get a Kick Out Mary Ure as Alison). One evening the
of You’, Dubarry Was a Lady (1939), Panama discussion centred on whether Jimmy Porter
Hattie (1940), and Something for the Boys was psychotic or merely neurotic. This led to
(1943), in which she sang ‘Hey, Good an appeal for a clear distinction between these
Lookin’’. Porter’s KISS ME KATE (1948) was states. Two definitions were offered, both by
a backstage musical based loosely on psychiatrists in the audience. One: “a neurotic
Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. His builds castles in the air; a psychotic moves into
last works for the stage were CAN-CAN (1953), them”; the other: “a neurotic thinks that two
another hit, and Silk Stockings (1955). and two make four, but is worried that this
A serious riding accident in 1937 left may not be the case; a psychotic is quite sure
Porter in poor health for the rest of his life: that two and two make five and sees no reason
one of his legs had eventually to be amputated. to worry about it.”
 Present Laughter 399

Portia A rich heiress in Shakespeare’s THE musical accompaniment provided by the

MERCHANT OF VENICE. By the terms of her harmonium, wind instruments, drums,
father’s will she is bound to marry the suitor cymbals, and conch shells. At the climax of
who chooses from three caskets (one each of the play, the actor playing Narsimha, the
gold, silver, and lead) the one containing her incarnation of Vishnu, dons a man–lion mask
portrait. Her preferred suitor, Bassanio, that is believed to have special power. When
chooses correctly. Later, disguised as a doctor he does so, he is believed to become possessed
of law, she successfully defends Bassanio’s by the god and must be restrained by
friend Antonio from SHYLOCK’s claim for a attendants to protect the actor playing the evil
pound of his flesh. king. When Vishnu destroys the king order is
restored.
pose plastique See LIVING PICTURE.
pratfall Originally, a US stage term for a
Power family A family of actors, most comedy fall flat on the buttocks (‘prat’ being
notably the Irish actor Tyrone Power (David archaic slang for the backside). Such falls,
Powell; 1795–1841), his grandson Tyrone often wildly exaggerated and orchestrated with
Edmond (1869–1931), and his great-grandson, a drum roll or cymbal clash, were a staple of
the US actor Tyrone Power (1914–58). the SLAPSTICK tradition. The term is now used
The first Tyrone Power made his debut to mean any humiliating slip or failure.
in 1815 and became known for his comic
Irish parts, such as Sir Lucius O’Trigger in prelude In the British theatre of the late
Sheridan’s The Rivals. He also appeared in his 18th century, a brief introductory sketch
own comedies and farces, including St Patrick’s performed when the theatrical season began or
Eve (1832) and O’Flannigan and the Fairies a new venue was opened. The prelude was
(1836). He drowned in the sinking of the SS usually a satirical piece dealing with topical
President while making the return voyage issues within the theatrical profession.
from his third tour of America. Of his eight
surviving children, one son Maurice Power première (French: first) A first
(d. 1849) entered the profession. performance. It is an abbreviation of the
Another son, Harold Power, was the French la première d’une pièce.
father of Tyrone Edmond, who became a Present Laughter Noël COWARD’s last
member of Augustin DALY’s American major comedy, first performed in London in
company from 1890–98 and later specialized 1943. It was to have been produced in 1939
in Shakespearean parts. Harold’s niece, Norah, but the war interrupted rehearsals and Coward
was the mother of the British theatre director, was sent to Paris to open a British bureau of
Sir Tyrone GUTHRIE. propaganda. In 1943 he played the lead,
Tyrone Edmond’s son, the second calling it “a wonderful part for me and I shall
Tyrone Power, found fame primarily in not be too dependent on fractious leading
films, although he also gave impressive stage ladies.” The plot concerns the relationship
performances in such plays as Romeo and Juliet between Gary Essendine, a self-obsessed actor,
(1935), Shaw’s Saint Joan (1936), Christopher and his estranged but still adoring wife.
Fry’s The Dark is Light Enough (1955), and Approaching 40 and a mid-life crisis, Gary
Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple (1956). indulges in brief affairs and ends up being
praetexta See FABULA. pursued simultaneously by a married woman
and a young girl. As his emotional life becomes
Prahlada Nataka In India’s eastern state intolerably complicated, he flees back to his
of Orissa, a unique style of drama performed wife.
in villages of the Ganjam district. Some 40 The play was revived in 1947 at the
troupes perform the Play of Prahlada during Theatre Royal, Haymarket, but Coward
festivals. Derived from a classical text thought the cast “tatty and fifth rate”. He was
popularized by a local 19th-century ruler, Raja deeply mortified when his star, the US actress
Ramakrishna Deva Chotterai, the plays tells of Mary Martin, said to Princess Margaret, “Give
a little prince’s persistent worship of Vishnu my best to your sister. Bye-bye for now.”
despite the opposition of his wicked father, the When CBS television made plans to broadcast
king. Performances take place in an open field the play in 1956, they told Coward that the
on a platform stage. The actors dance to script would provoke anguished protests from
400 Price, (Lilian) Nancy (Bache)

“outraged Methodists in Omaha complaining president of the INTERNATIONAL THEATRE

about illicit love being brought into their INSTITUTE.
very homes by me.” He therefore wrote an
expurgated version. Prime Minister of Mirth Nickname of
the British actor and music-hall performer Sir
Price, (Lilian) Nancy (Bache) George Robey (1869–1954). He became
(1880–1970) British actress and theatre known as the ‘Darling of the Halls’ for an act
manager, who in 1930 founded the People’s featuring such characters as Daisy Dilwater,
National Theatre in London. Price joined the Mayor of Mudcumdyke, and a red-nosed
Frank Benson’s company at the age of 19 and vicar with staring eyes and a lewd smile. Robey
made her name three years later as Calypso in later appeared in plays and films and was in
Stephen Phillips’s Ulysses. The People’s great demand as a pantomime dame.
National Theatre opened with a revival of
Prince Edward Theatre A theatre in
Anstey’s The Man from Blankley’s at the
Old Compton Street, London. The Prince
Fortune Theatre; she subsequently produced
Edward, which was built in 1930 to stage
more than 50 plays for the company at the
musicals and revues, seats 1645 and has one of
Little Theatre. These included Susan Glaspell’s
the largest stages in the West End. In 1936 it
Alison’s House (1932), S. I. Hsiung’s Lady
was converted into a smart cabaret-restaurant
Precious Stream (1934), and Mazo de la
and renamed the London Casino. After World
Roche’s Whiteoaks (1936), in which Price War II, for most of which it served as a forces’
played the part of Adeline Whiteoaks. The club, the theatre returned to its original
Little Theatre was destroyed in 1941 by purpose and presented a series of musicals,
wartime bombing. including Ivor Novello’s The Dancing Years
Price gave her last performance in Eden (1947). In 1954, however, it was converted to
Phillpott’s The Orange Orchard at the New screen films in the widescreen ‘Cinerama’
Lindsey Theatre in 1950 (the same year that format and live shows did not return until the
she was awarded a CBE). She was married early 1970s. From 1978 until 1986 the Prince
to the actor Charles Raymond Maude Edward housed Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s
(1882–1943), grandson of the singer Jenny EVITA, its most successful presentation to date.
Lind. Since its complete refurbishment in 1992–93
Priestley, J(ohn) B(oynton) it has presented a series of hit musicals,
(1894–1984) British dramatist, novelist, and including Alain Boublil’s Martin Guerre
man of letters. His first work for the stage, The (1996–98), MAMMA MIA! (1999–2004),
Good Companions (1931), was a dramatization Richard Eyre’s spectacular Mary Poppins
of his own successful novel about a touring (2005–08), and Jersey Boys (2008– ). The
theatre company. It was followed in 1932 by Prince Edward is now part of the Delfont
DANGEROUS CORNER, the first of several
Mackintosh group of theatres.
expressionist works exploring the nature of Prince of Humbugs The nickname of
time and presenting alternative versions of the the US showman P. T. BARNUM (1810–91),
same series of events. TIME AND THE CONWAYS who used the title himself during his 50 years
and I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE (both 1937) of deceiving the public (who never tired of
employ similar ideas and are amongst coming back for more). His motto was
Priestley’s most frequently revived works. They “There’s a sucker born every minute” and one
were followed by the farce WHEN WE ARE of his three autobiographies bore the title
MARRIED (1939), set in Priestley’s native Humbugs of the World (1865).
Yorkshire; in the first production the author
He will ultimately take his stand in the
himself played a role. They Came to a City social rank…among the swindlers,
(1943), Priestley’s most overtly political play, blacklegs, pickpockets, and thimble-
was followed by the popular mystery drama AN riggers of his day.
INSPECTOR CALLS (1946), which starred Ralph
Tait’s Edinburgh magazine, 1855
Richardson, and THE LINDEN TREE (1947), in
which Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike Prince of Wales’ Theatre (1) A
played husband and wife. Priestley’s later plays theatre in Coventry Street, London, associated
were generally less successful. He was the first with successful musicals and revues. The first
 Privates on Parade 401

venue on the site was built as The Prince’s their adjacent rooms, the old love-hate
Theatre by the actor-manager Edgar Bruce; it relationship is rekindled:
was noted for its foyer decorated in the AMANDA Have you known her long?
Moorish style and a circular Moorish ‘grotto’ [referring to his new wife]
under the street (used as a smoking room). ELYOT About four months, we met in a
The first production was W. S. Gilbert’s The house party in Norfolk.
Palace of Truth (1884). Later that year
AMANDA Very flat, Norfolk.
Beerbohm Tree scored a great success in The
Private Secretary, while Lillie LANGTRY’s The play was written by Coward as a
1885–86 repertory season included Sheridan’s vehicle for himself and Gertrude LAWRENCE. It
The School for Scandal. The theatre’s present has often been suggested that the intense love-
name was adopted in 1886. Between 1918 and hate relationship between Elyot and Amanda –
1926 several revues were presented by André who find being together almost as painful as
Charlot. Edith Evans briefly managed the being apart – reflects some of the tensions in
venue in 1930. the relationship between Coward and
The Prince of Wales’ Theatre was rebuilt Lawrence themselves.
in 1936, the interior being redesigned in a In the first production, Laurence OLIVIER
stark simple style by Robert Cromie. It made an early West End appearance as
reopened in 1937 with Les Folies de Paris et Amanda’s new husband, Victor Prynne. It was
Londres. Sid Field had a successful run in during the long opening run of Private Lives
Harvey (1949) before musical comedies and that Olivier’s notorious tendency to giggle on
revues returned in the 1950s, attracting such stage was addressed. Coward told Olivier
international stars as Mae West and Barbra that he would make him laugh in every
Streisand. The World of Susie Wong opened in performance during the breakfast scene until
1959 and ran for 824 performances, while The he could control himself. After seven months,
Danny La Rue Show was a highlight of 1973. Olivier confessed himself cured.
Recent revivals have included Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s South Pacific (1988), Irving Privates on Parade A play (with music)
Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun (1992), and by Peter NICHOLS, first performed in 1977 by
Bernstein’s West Side Story (1999). The Abba the Royal Shakespeare Company at the
musical MAMMA MIA! transferred here from the Aldwych Theatre, London. Denis Quilley won
Prince Edward in 2004 and is still running. the Society of West End Theatres Award for
(2) See SCALA THEATRE. Best Comedy Performance as the outrageously
camp captain with a song-and-dance unit of
principal boy The leading male role in soldiers. In a drag skit, he impersonated
English PANTOMIME, traditionally played by a Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda, and Vera
woman. The characters derive ultimately from Lynn. The US director Charles Marowitz
the role of Harlequin. One of the most noted how Quilley restrained himself from
popular, Cinderella’s Prince Charming, did going over the top, “producing instead a
not appear on the London stage until 1915. delicately controlled performance which
Principal boys were especially popular in the perfectly balances comment and caricature”.
late Victorian era, when they were usually There was a much acclaimed revival at the
played by buxom music-hall stars, whose Donmar Warehouse in 2001.
plumpness in tights led to the familiar thigh- Set in Malaya a few years after World War
slapping routine. The roles have attracted such
II, the story centres upon the activities of
famous performers as Vesta Tilley, Nellie
SADUSEA (Song and Dance Unit South East
Stewart, and Fay Compton; more recently
Asia). Apart from the captain, Terri Dennis,
principal boys have been played by soap-opera
the wandering troupe includes the unscrupulous
stars with good legs.
Sergeant-Major Reg Drummond, the good-
Private Lives A comedy of manners by natured Corporal Len Bonny, and the
Noël COWARD, first produced in London in beautiful Anglo-Indian Sylvia Morgan. In the
1930. The plot revolves around the acerbic plot the racketeer Reg fakes his own murder in
divorcees Amanda and Elyot, who both order to evade a crackdown on his criminal
happen to be honeymooning in the same hotel activities. One performance by the troupe ends
with their new spouses. On the verandas of in a shoot-out during which Len dies and a
402 private theatres

flight-sergeant is crippled. The action is projecting from the painted front of a shop,
interspersed with lively songs and skits. etc.
private theatres The indoor London profile spot A spotlight that throws a
playhouses of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and bright sharp beam on stage. When used in
Caroline times. The most notable were the conjunction with shutters or masking devices
Boys of St Paul’s (1575), the BLACKFRIARS (such as a GOBO or IRIS) the beam can be used
(1576), the second Blackfriars (1600), the to create an outline or ‘profile’ of a chosen
Whitefriars (1605), the COCKPIT (1616), and shape. Profile spots, generally known in
Salisbury Court Theatre (1629). In practice, America by the tradename Leko, provide good
the ‘private’ theatres were open to the public, long-range coverage on stage and excellent side
although they charged a higher admission or special lighting.
price than the open-air PUBLIC THEATREs. By
declaring their theatres private, managers projector A projection unit that uses
could avoid censorship and other interference glass slides to create atmospheric lighting on
from the authorities. The productions were stage. Less frequently, projectors are used to
sometimes described as ‘rehearsals’ of works to project still or moving images behind actors,
be presented at the genuinely private court as in the Polykran and Laterna Magica of
theatres. Josef SVOBODA and in such plays as Joan
Littlewood’s musical documentary OH, WHAT A
producer Until 1956, the usual British LOVELY WAR! (1963). When certain weather
term for the person having overall control of a and natural effects are required (such as stormy
production; the US term DIRECTOR was skies, snow, rain, and fire, etc.) special-effects
officially adopted in that year. projectors are employed. In America, this latter
In both Britain and America, the term device is known as a sciopticon, which is the
producer is now used to mean a person who old Victorian name for a magic lantern used to
organizes the administrative and financial project photographs (one was exhibited in
aspects of a production. His or her duties London’s South Kensington Museum in
usually include engaging actors and staff, 1876).
dealing with copyright, renting the theatre,
buying special equipment, drawing up projector unit See PAGEANT LANTERN.
and keeping the budget, arranging for prologue An introductory speech or
advertisements and press releases, organizing scene given before the main play. EURIPIDES
ticket sales and complimentary tickets, introduced the use of a prologue to recount the
overseeing the design and selling of events leading up to those presented in the
programmes, handling receipts, and taking play, thereby avoiding the need for too much
responsibility for the house regulations exposition in the first act. Some Roman
concerning fire prevention and other such dramatists, such as Plautus, turned out
matters. elaborately written poems to introduce their
Professor Taranne An early work by plays – a practice continued by Molière in, for
the Russian-born French playwright Arthur example, his Amphitryon (1668).
ADAMOV. It was first performed in 1953, when
In medieval England, mystery and miracle
Roger PLANCHON directed it at the Théâtre de plays were often introduced by homilies, while
la Comédie, Lyons; it was produced in English in the Elizabethan theatre the prologue, when
translation in 1962. The play, a striking it occurred, was usually called the ‘chorus’. It
example of the Theatre of the ABSURD that was during the Restoration period that the
shows the influence of both Kafka and prologue, along with the closing EPILOGUE,
Strindberg, was based on a dream. It centres truly came into its own. Spoken by the leading
on the plight of a university professor who actor or actress, these pieces were always in
comes under attack for ‘obscene’ behaviour. rhymed verse and often full of sharp witty
This short play remains Adamov’s best known comments on topical issues. John DRYDEN
and most frequently revived work. wrote numerous prologues for his own and
others’ plays, which are not only fine poems in
profile board A piece of canvas or board their own right but also a valuable source of
projecting from a FLAT to create a three- information about the theatrical world of the
dimensional scenic effect, such as an awning time. David Garrick was a noted writer of
 prompter 403

prologues in the 18th century. George Bernard Prometheus Unbound (1820) was the title
Shaw replaced the prologue with a ‘preface’ for of a CLOSET DRAMA by the poet Percy Bysshe
readers, creating long polemical pieces that Shelley.
were usually provocative and entertaining. The
critic James Agate went so far as to remark prompt book The master copy of a play
“Shaw’s plays are the price we pay for Shaw’s kept by the stage manager or PROMPTER. It is a
prefaces”. log that records all actors’ moves, technical
cues, and props involved in the production.
promenade A THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND One page contains the final script and the
production in which the audience moves facing page charts the moves, lighting, etc.:
between several locations to follow the action. essential directions are recorded next to the
One of the most celebrated promenade plays relevant line. Cues for lighting and sound
was 1789, an epic work about the French are written in different colours for quick
Revolution created by Ariane MNOUCHKINE’s identification. Advance warnings for upcoming
Théâtre du Soleil; the production used five cues are recorded in the book as ‘WARN’ and
stages and involved the audience in the action the exact moment of operation is labelled
as members of the mob. The Scottish director ‘GO’. See also PLOT SHEET.
and playwright Bill Bryden (1942– ) staged
several influential productions ‘in promenade’ prompt corner An area concealed
after taking over the Cottesloe Theatre (see behind the PROSCENIUM ARCH in which the
ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE) in 1978; these PROMPTER sits at a desk or table with his
included The Mysteries in 1985 and plays by prompt book, ready to feed lines to forgetful
Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller. actors. The prompt corner is traditionally
located downstage left in Britain (see PROMPT
Prometheus Bound A tragedy by SIDE) and downstage right in America. In
AESCHYLUS, the first part of a tetralogy that was Continental theatres and opera houses the
first performed in about 460 BC. The work was prompter sits downstage centre hidden by a
controversial during its day for presenting Zeus semicircular hood.
as a tyrant. The plot centres on Prometheus, The US actor George Nash once appeared
bound to a rock for stealing fire from heaven in a Broadway play when he barely knew his
for mankind. Although he faces the implacable lines. The prompter, who disliked Nash, made
power of Zeus and is tormented by an eagle a point of prompting him slightly before it was
that continually feasts on his liver, Prometheus really necessary just to demonstrate how poorly
remains defiant. he was prepared. After six prompts, Nash
Prometheus Bound is an unusually static stalked over to the prompt corner and hauled
play, featuring a motionless hero and little the man out on stage, growling, “Since you
action; long expository speeches are exchanged know the part so well, you have a go.” In the
between Prometheus and such visitors as a second act, the prompter remained silent and
chorus of sea nymphs, their father Oceanus, only pulled funny faces at Nash when he
the “cow-headed” goddess Io, and Hermes. It appealed for words. Finally, when the actor
also poses a number of questions about Greek pleaded, “Give me a word,” the prompter
staging conventions. The play calls for a offered an obscene one. Nash stormed over to
rugged mountain locale, which is destroyed by the prompt corner and kicked the man, who
an earthquake in the final scene. Some scholars pursued him back on stage uttering threats.
believe a special mountain-cliff set was built
and tipped over during the earthquake scene, prompter A person employed to whisper
some think the SKENE was already in use at this key words to an actor who has forgotten his
early date and decorated to suggest mountains, next line. He attends all rehearsals and records
while others argue that the earthquake was stage moves and script changes in his book.
conveyed by the spoken lines alone. Prompt copies from the early days of the
Aeschylus continued the story in The theatre often provide the only reliable
Loosing of Prometheus and (it is thought) information on the actors and playwright
Prometheus the Firebearer, neither of which involved in a production.
survives. In these plays, Heracles shoots the In 14th-century England, the prompter
tormenting eagle and frees Prometheus, who is was also employed to revise and copy texts of
then reconciled with Zeus. the mystery plays, supply costumes, and
404 prompt side

provide refreshments. In the Elizabethan arch as a barrier to interaction between actors

theatre he was called the book-holder. A well- and audience, and for this reason modern
known prompter of the Restoration era was theatre designs often use an open stage plan or
John Downes (d. 1710), who took up his arena setting (see THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND).
duties at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in 1661.
Prompting is one of the theatrical practices proscenium doors One or more pairs
satirized by R. B. Sheridan in his farce THE of doors on each side of the stage in the
CRITIC (1779). By the 18th century, the
English Restoration playhouse. Also called
prompter’s duties included securing licenses doors of entrance, they provided a means of
for plays, copying scripts, holding rehearsals, entrance to and exit from the acting area. By
and cueing the music and scene changes. theatrical convention, if an actor left by one
door and returned through the one next to it,
prompt side (PS) In the British theatre, a he was presumed to be in another room. In the
term sometimes used for the side of the stage early 18th century the doors were reduced to
where the PROMPTER sits (stage left in Britain). one on each side and by the 19th century they
The other side of the stage is referred to as the were used only by actors taking bows (being
opposite prompt side (OP). known then as call doors).
property plot See PLOT SHEET. Prospero The deposed Duke of Milan in
Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, a powerful
prop or property Any inanimate object magician living in exile on an island to which
used on stage during a play, not including he brings his enemies. He controls the events
costumes, scenery, or furniture. The term is in the plot like a dramatist but has to learn to
short for stage property. Articles carried on to control his own vengeful temper. The most
the stage by actors are called hand props, those notable Prospero of modern times was Sir John
for personal use (e.g. glasses, cigarettes) being GIELGUD, who returned to the part on several
actor’s props and the remainder manager’s occasions.
props. All props are ultimately the
responsibility of the stage manager. protagonist The principal character in a
play. In ancient Greece, this was the term for
proscenium Originally, the proskenion or the principal actor. According to legend,
stage area of the ancient Greek theatre. The THESPIS became the first protagonist by
term was retained for the rectangle stage of expanding the role of the actor who led the
the English Restoration playhouse. The chorus in the DITHYRAMB. The protagonist was
proscenium in Wren’s second Theatre Royal, subsequently joined by the deuteragonist and
Drury Lane (1674), was about 20 feet the tritagonist (second and third actors) in the
deep, occupying more than a third of the works of EURIPIDES and SOPHOCLES.
auditorium; actors entered by PROSCENIUM
DOORS in each side wall. Today the word is Provok’d Wife, The Sir John
used to mean either the stage or (more VANBRUGH’s comedy about the marriage
commonly) the PROSCENIUM ARCH. between a wavering wife and her drunken
husband; it was first performed in 1697 at
proscenium arch The opening that London’s Drury Lane. Unfortunately, The
separates the stage from the audience. It Provok’d Wife provoked England’s increasingly
normally has a curtain (and the safety curtain respectable middle classes with a scene in
demanded by fire regulations). One of the first which the debauched Sir John Brute disguised
proscenium arches was built for the Teatro himself as a clergyman. In 1706 Vanbrugh
Farnese, which opened in 1628 in Parma, rewrote the part so that Sir John dresses as a
Italy. Early English examples had APRONs, bonneted lady instead. David Garrick
or forestages, for acting in front of the appeared in the role in 1744 and made it one
proscenium arch; these began to disappear in of his most famous parts. An admired revival
the early 19th century, reinforcing the sense of was staged by John Wood at the National
the action taking place within a picture frame. Theatre in 1980.
The opening can be reduced in size by using In the play Sir John’s long-suffering wife,
FLATS or cloths to create a false proscenium Lady Brute, is pursued by Mr Constant, while
(known in America as a portal opening). her neice, Belinda, is courted by Constant’s
Many modern directors regard the proscenium friend, Heartfree. The two couples retire to
 Pulcinella 405

Lady Brute’s home while her husband is out At least nine public theatres were
revelling. Disaster looms when Sir John returns constructed before 1642; all were built outside
unexpectedly to find the two men hidden the City boundary, mainly on the south bank
in the closet; fortunately he accepts their of the Thames. The venues were: the THEATRE
explanation that the gathering was to arrange (1576–97), the Curtain (1577–c. 1627), an
the marriage of Heartfree and Belinda. unnamed theatre at Newington Butts (c.
1579–c. 1599), the ROSE (1587–c. 1606), the
Pry, Paul The antihero of John Poole’s SWAN (c. 1595–c. 1632), the first and second
hugely successful comedy Paul Pry (1825) – an GLOBE (1599–1613 and 1614–44), the first
idle meddler who is always interfering with
and second FORTUNE (1600–21 and 1621–61),
other people’s business.
the RED BULL (1605–63), and the HOPE
Prynne, William See NOTORIOUS (1613–17).
WHORES.
Puck A mischievous spirit in Shakespeare’s
Public Theatre A theatre in Lafayette A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, in which he is
Street, New York, that is now permanently servant to OBERON. Also known as Robin
subsidized by the city. Its complex of seven Goodfellow, he appears in English folklore as a
separate auditoriums, the most under any one wayward household sprite who delights in
roof, was created by converting the former playing cruel tricks. However, for a reward of a
Astor Library, work carried out in 1967 under little bread and milk, he will also undertake
the director and producer Joseph PAPP. various household chores. He featured in the
Distinguished premieres at the Public have anonymous 16th-century collection Mad
included Jason Miller’s That Championship Pranks and Merry Gests of Robin Goodfellow
Season (1973), which won a Pulitzer Prize, and and is mentioned in Spenser’s Epithalamion
Marvin Hamlisch’s musical A CHORUS LINE (1594).
(1975), which received both a Tony Award
and a Pulitzer Prize. puff An advertisement or review that offers
The four main auditoriums are the 275- extravagant praise of a play, book, etc.
seat Anspacher Theatre, which opened in 1967 In Sheridan’s THE CRITIC (1779), the
with the hippy musical HAIR, the 108-seat character Mr Puff describes himself as “a
Other Stage, which opened the following year practitioner in panegyric, or, to speak more
as a venue for playwriting workshops, the 300- plainly, a professor of the art of puffing” and
seat Newman Theatre, which opened in 1970 gives a catalogue of puffs:
with Dennis Reardon’s The Happiness Cage, Yes, sir – puffing is of various sorts, the
and the 191-seat Martinson Hall, which principal are, the puff direct, the puff
opened in 1971 with the musical Blood. The preliminary, the puff collateral, the
company also presents free summertime puff collusive and the puff oblique, or
performances of Shakespeare at the Delacorte puff by implication. These all assume,
Theatre in Central Park. The current artistic as circumstances require, the various
director is Ted Sperling, who took over from forms of letter to the editor, occasional
Oskar Eustis in 2008. anecdote, impartial critique,
observation from correspondent, or
public theatres Open-air theatres in
advertisement from the party.
Elizabethan London. They were called ‘public’
The Critic (I, ii)
playhouses to distinguish them from the
roofed PRIVATE THEATRES, which were no less Pujol, Joseph See PÉTOMANE, LE.
public but served a more educated and
aristocratic audience. Pulcinella The forerunner of Mr Punch in
The use of open-air venues developed from the English PUNCH AND JUDY show. Pulcinella,
the outdoor tradition of medieval drama and one of the comic servants or ZANNI of the
the later custom of performing plays in the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, was probably created by
yards of INNS. The public theatres continued in the actor Silvio Fiorillo at the start of the 17th
use throughout the Jacobean and Caroline eras century. The Italians considered him to have
but from about 1610 were used mainly as typical Neopolitan attributes. A dullard with a
summer venues, covered theatres being used in hooked nose and a hunched back, he probably
the winter. derived from MACCUS, a stock character of the
406 Pulitzer Prizes

Roman ATELLANA. In the French Comédie- how Punch triumphs over (1) Ennui, in the
Italienne he became the more cunning and shape of a dog; (2) Disease, in the disguise of a
witty Polichinelle before evolving, in England, doctor; (3) Death, who is beaten to death; and
into the irascible Punch. (4) the Devil, who is outwitted. Other
Un secret de Polichinelle is a French characters in the show include TOBY the dog,
phrase meaning no secret at all, an open secret. the Hangman (who instead of hanging Punch
In the old French puppet-shows Polichinelle’s gets hanged himself), and the Crocodile.
secrets are stage whispers addressed to all the To be pleased as Punch is to be hugely
audience. delighted: Punch is always squawking with
satisfaction at the success of his evil acts.
Pulitzer Prizes Awards for literary work
(both fiction and nonfiction), drama, poetry, puppet theatre A form of dramatic
journalism, and music, that are awarded entertainment in which the characters are
annually by New York’s Columbia University represented by dolls. The best known form in
from funds left for the purpose by Joseph Britain and America is the PUNCH AND JUDY
Pulitzer (1847–1911), a prominent and show while popular figures elsewhere include
wealthy US newspaper proprietor. The Pulitzer GUIGNOL in France, KASPERL in Austria,
Prize for Drama now stands at $3,000 and and Petrushka in Russia. Varieties of doll
is given annually to the US writer of an include glove puppets manipulated by hand,
outstanding play, preferably dealing with life MARIONETTES operated by string or wire, rod
in America. It was first presented in 1918 to puppets, and shadow puppets.
Jesse Lynch Williams for Why Marry? Eugene Most ancient civilizations had highly
O’NEILL won four prizes, the last being developed puppet theatres. Far from being
awarded posthumously for Long Day’s Journey aimed at children, as is now the case in the
Into Night in 1957. Robert E. Sherwood and West, the puppet plays depicted the religious,
Edward Albee have each won three Pulitzers. historical, and ethical traditions of a culture.
Other playwrights honoured have included Puppets have a long history in Java and India,
Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, and are still used in both countries at religious
William Inge, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, festivals. In Japan, puppetry has been traced
David Mamet, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, back to the Heian era (781–1185); the famous
Donald Margulies, and Tracy Letts. life-size BUNRAKU puppets (ningyo shibai)
achieved great popularity in the 18th century.
Punch and Judy The central tradition Puppet theatre was probably brought to
of the English puppet theatre. The play is Europe from the East through Turkey and
traditionally presented by a single puppeteer in Greece. Early religious puppet plays in
a small booth of striped cloth. Originally, the England were called motions. However,
puppets were marionettes but by the early 19th puppetry never became a part of the
century almost all Punch-and-Judy men used mainstream European theatre, being relegated
glove puppets. The name of Mr Punch, the to fairs and streets and practised largely by
antihero, probably derives ultimately from the itinerant showmen. The early 20th century
Italian pulcinello, a diminutive of pulcino, a saw a renewed interest in puppetry as a serious
young chicken (see also PULCINELLA). The art form. George Bernard Shaw wrote a playlet
identification of Punch with Pontius PILATE for marionettes, while the designer E. Gordon
and of Judy with Judas is imaginary. Craig (see CRAIG FAMILY), wrote in his The Art
The story roughly in its present form is of the Theatre:
attributed to a 17th-century Italian comedian, In the puppet we have all those
Silvio Fiorillo and appeared in England at elements necessary to interpretation
about the time of the Restoration. Punch, a and in the puppet stage every element
crafty hunchbacked character with a hooked necessary to a creative and fine art.
nose and a vile temper, strangles his infant
child in a fit of jealousy, whereupon his wife Purim play In the Jewish theatre, a
Judy belabours him with a bludgeon until he traditional play performed during the festival
retaliates and beats her to death. He flings of Purim (14 Adar). The genre developed from
both bodies into the street but is arrested and a 14th-century drama influenced by the Italian
shut in prison, whence he escapes by means of carnival. Mostly performed in rural areas, the
a golden key. The rest is an allegory showing improvised plays were usually one-act comic
 Pyramus and Thisbe 407

interludes with songs and dances. They were as an experimental subject rather than a
based on the story of the deliverance of the human being. The play, one of Shaw’s most
Jews from the massacre planned by Haman, popular works, was first produced in Vienna in
which is celebrated at Purim. Playwrights later 1913; the part of Eliza was written for Mrs
began to treat other subjects from Jewish Patrick CAMPBELL. For the 1938 film version,
scripture, such as the lives of Joseph, Moses, Shaw approved the scripted ‘happy ending’,
and David. with a reconciliation between the Professor
The Purim plays contributed to the and Eliza (played by Leslie Howard and
development of a distinctly Jewish dramatic Wendy Hiller). This modified plot was
tradition and became popular throughout adapted for the Lerner and Loewe musical MY
Europe in the 17th century. Later influences FAIR LADY (1956). Shaw is said to have based
included the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE and, in the Higgins character on the distinguished
Germany, the ENGLISH COMEDIANS. The genre Oxford phonetician, Henry Sweet
declined during the 18th century, when the (1845–1912).
Jewish religious authorities found its depiction In Greek legend Pygmalion was a sculptor
of comic rabbis, midwives, and devils too and king of Cyprus, who, according to Ovid’s
irreverent. The Haskala groups in Germany Metamorphoses, fell in love with his own ivory
later restored the genre’s original didactic statue of the ideal woman. At his prayer the
intention. The Purim play was eventually goddess Aphrodite gave life to the statue, and
absorbed by the Yiddish theatre established by he married it. The story was adapted by W. S.
Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908). Gilbert in his comedy Pygmalion and Galatea
Putul Nautch A rod puppet theatre in (1871), in which the sculptor is already
India’s eastern state of Bengal. The name, married. His wife becomes jealous of the
which means ‘dancing dolls’, refers to the fact animated statue (Galatea), which quickly
that the puppets are attached to long rods held decides that its original state was happier and
in a cup on the waistband of the puppeteer, turns back into stone. See also NOT BLOODY
whose dancing action activates the dolls. LIKELY!.
Individual parts of the figures can be Pyramus and Thisbe The ‘play within
manipulated by strings. The stories come from a play’ performed by BOTTOM THE WEAVER
the MAHABHARATA and from such folk tales and the other Athenian artisans in
as that of Manasa, the snake goddess. Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.
Performances occur during rural festivals and
The “tedious brief scene” is a travesty of the
fairs but are otherwise seldom seen today.
legend of Pyramus, as found in Ovid’s
The wooden puppets are two to three feet
Metamorphoses. Pyramus and Thisbe, two
tall and hollow. Earlier dolls were made of
lovers who have been forbidden by their
bamboo and plaster overlaid with banana
parents to marry, exchange vows through a
leaves.
chink in a wall. On arriving at a rendezvous by
Pygmalion George Bernard SHAW’s a mulberry tree, Pyramus finds Thisbe’s veil,
comedy of linguistic manners. In order to covered in blood; believing her to be dead, he
demonstrate his point about the role of accent stabs himself in despair. Thisbe, who had in
in the English class system, Henry Higgins, a fact fled when attacked by a lion, returns to
professor of phonetics, undertakes to transform find her lover’s body. She also kills herself.
a cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a According to the legend, the mulberry tree has
‘duchess’ in six months. Although he succeeds, borne blood-red fruit ever since. The story
the play ends with Eliza at odds with the may also have influenced Shakespeare’s Romeo
overbearing Higgins, who persists in seeing her and Juliet, which he wrote in the same year.
408 Q Theatre

woos him brazenly, as a test of his loyalty.

Q Valentine, however, confesses his steadfast love

for Phoebe. Phoebe gives up her false identity,
Valentine proposes to her, and she modestly
accepts.
Q Theatre A small London repertory The popular chocolate selection Quality
theatre, on the north side of Kew Bridge (the Street was named after the play: until 2000 its
name is a play on ‘Kew’). Jack de Leon packaging always showed a soldier and a lady
renovated the former Prince’s Hall and opened in the dress of the period.
it as the Q in 1924 with a revival of Gertrude
Jennings’s The Young Person in Pink. He Queen Anne’s Men A 17th-century
remained manager for nearly 30 years, English theatre company, commonly known as
producing such plays as Frederick Knott’s Dial the Queen’s Men, who appeared successfully
M for Murder and Philip King’s See How They in both London and the provinces. The
Run, as well as numerous revivals. The theatre company was created by former members
closed in 1956. of Worcester’s Men and Oxford’s Men on
In 1928 Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL and Nancy the accession of James I in 1603. Among
PRICE appeared together at the Q Theatre in the actors were Thomas Heywood and
Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. The notoriously Christopher Beeston (see BEESTONS, THE), who
temperamental Mrs Pat began by informing became their business manager in 1612. They
de Leon that he was too young to manage a performed regularly at London’s Curtain
theatre, and then turned on the noted Ibsen Theatre and at the Red Bull Inn until 1616,
actor Rupert Harvey, who was directing: when they moved to Beeston’s new COCKPIT
THEATRE. The company disbanded on the
MRS PAT Mr Harvey, I have forgotten death of Queen Anne in 1619.
more about Ibsen and about acting
than you will ever learn! Queen Henrietta’s Men An English
HARVEY You have indeed forgotten it theatre company, usually known as the
all! Queen’s Men, that was founded by
Harvey stormed out and never returned. Christopher Beeston (see BEESTONS, THE) after
Mrs Pat then locked horns with her co-star, his LADY ELIZABETH’S MEN dispersed during the
demanding a pink spotlight while Nancy Price plague of 1625. It received the patronage of
insisted upon a straw-coloured one; the the new Queen, Henrietta Maria. The
nervous technician had to keep both lights company performed at Beeston’s Phoenix
working without allowing the beams to cross. Theatre from 1625 until 1636; their resident
The feud intensified to the point that the two dramatist was James SHIRLEY. They also
actresses refused to look at each other on stage, performed in such court MASQUEs as Love’s
even during the most intimate scenes. Mistress (1634), for which Inigo Jones designed
scenery. Another outbreak of the plague in
Quality Street A romantic comedy by 1636 forced the company to disband, the
J. M. BARRIE, set in the Regency period and actors eventually being absorbed into other
usually played as a lavish costume drama. It companies. Beeston then formed Beeston’s
was first performed in 1901 in New York but Boys, one of the BOY COMPANIES.
went on to enjoy much greater success in A second company with the same name
London. The plot concerns Phoebe Throssel performed at the London Theatre, Salisbury
and her sister Susan, who live in Quality Court, from 1637 until 1642, when the
Street. Phoebe is in love with Valentine Puritans closed the theatres.
Brown, who is sent with his regiment to fight
in the Napoleonic wars. When he returns 10 Queen of Beautiful Actresses The
years later, Phoebe is worried that he will no extravagant billing for the French tragic actress
longer love her now that she has aged; Mademoiselle GEORGE.
consequently she dresses brightly and arranges Queen of Burlesque Nickname of the
her hair in a youthful style. When Valentine striptease artist Gypsy Rose LEE.
fails to recognize her she pretends to be an
imaginary niece, Miss Livvy. As soon as she Queen of the Halls Nickname of Marie
realizes that Valentine is attracted to her, she LLOYD,
the most famous of the British music-
 Quotidien, Théâtre du 409

hall singers. Her alternative nickname Our famous introduction, including a Christmas
Marie indicates the warmth of feeling with trope:
which she was regarded by the British public. Quem quaeritis in praesepe, pastores,
Queen’s Theatre A London theatre in dicite?
Shaftesbury Avenue, built as a twin to the (Whom are you looking for in the crib,
Hicks Theatre (subsequently the Globe, now shepherds, tell us?)
the Gielgud). When John Vedrenne opened it quick-change room A small area just
in 1907, George Bernard SHAW remarked, “He offstage in which actors can quickly change
is after a knighthood. It is not for nothing that their costumes and make-up when there is not
he called his theatre the Queen’s…” The enough time for them to return to their
elegant interior, largely preserved despite dressing rooms.
wartime bomb damage, combined Italian,
Georgian, and Edwardian styles. quick-change variety A format for
By 1913 business had become so bad that variety shows initiated at the LONDON
‘tango teas’ with dancing and a fashion show COLISEUM when it opened in 1904. The bill
were introduced. A year later, however, the consisted of two distinct programmes every
theatre had its first great success with the US day, each of which featured a succession of
comedy Potash and Perlmutter (1914). It was different acts. On the first day the 24 acts
managed from 1929 to 1933 by Barry Jackson, included ‘Coon Songs and Dance’, ‘Signor
who presented Shaw’s The Apple Cart (1929; Peppo’s Wonderful Performing Monkeys’, and
with Cedric Hardwicke and Edith Evans); ‘Military Evolutions by the Lady Troupe of
other notable productions included Rudolf Japanese Guards’.
Besier’s The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930).
The manager from 1937 to 1939 was John Quin, ‘Bellower’ Nickname of the
Gielgud, who during the 1938 season alone English actor James Quin (1693–1766),
performed in Richard II, The School for referring to his bombastic style. Few could
Scandal, Three Sisters, and The Merchant of match Quin in loudness of voice or costume.
Venice. Notable productions since then have He made his debut in 1712 at the Smock Alley
included the musicals Stop the World, I Want Theatre, Dublin, and two years later became
to Get Off (1961) and Wonderful Town! (1986) an overnight success at Drury Lane when
and Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van he stood in for a sick actor in Rowe’s
(1999). Since 2004 it has been home to the Tamerlane. He consolidated his reputation
RSC’s LES MISÉRABLES. in Shakespearean roles, becoming especially
renowned for his Falstaff. A product of the
Quem Quaeritis? (Latin: Whom are you heroic school of acting, ‘Bellower’ Quin came
looking for?) In the early medieval Church, the to seem a rather laughable and outdated figure
most famous example of a TROPE, a short piece in the more restrained era of David GARRICK.
of sung dialogue added to the liturgy. It comes “If the young fellow is right,” snorted Quin of
from a 9th-century manuscript from St Gall, Garrick, “I and the rest of the players have
France. On Easter Sunday a priest dressed in a
been all wrong.”
white robe to represent the angel at Christ’s
Quin was noted for his stubbornness and
empty tomb addressed three choirboys
short temper, which led to fiery rows with
representing the three Marys:
Charles MACKLIN, his fellow actor at Lincoln’s
Quen quaeritis in sepulchro, O Inn Fields. This was somewhat reckless of both
Christocolae? men: Quin once killed a fellow actor, William
(Whom seek you in the sepulchre, O Bowen, in a duel and Macklin notoriously
Christian women?)
stabbed an actor to death for arguing over a
After explaining that Christ had already wig.
risen, the priest and choirboys led the
congregation in an Easter hymn. By the 10th Quotidien, Théâtre du (French:
century this simple sequence had become more theatre of everyday) A style of theatre
elaborate, with monks in Winchester and popularized in the 1970s by the Comédie de
elsewhere miming the action; additional scenes Caen and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg.
and even comic characters were sometimes Their productions were realistic in style and
added. Other dialogues were devised with the presented ordinary, even rather boring
410 Quyi

characters faced with the problems of Quyi A generic term for China’s vocal arts,
contemporary day-to-day existence. The which encompasses about 350 provincial
characters were mainly working class, alienated styles of story-telling and balladry, often
from mainstream society, and inarticulate. The accompanied by gestures and mime. The
first writer in the genre was Georges Michel, performers sing or recite to traditional
who presented a brutal picture of modern rhythmic accompaniment from drums,
society in such plays as The Sunday Walk wooden clappers, or stringed instruments. The
(1966) and A Little Love Nest (1970). Other subject matter is taken from epics and
important playwrights of the Théâtre du romantic novels about China’s past, as well as
Quotidien have included Franz Xaver Kroetz, from contemporary events and issues, which
are often presented in comical and satirical
who dramatized the harsh realities of peasant
skits.
life in such plays as Homework (1971) and
Early sources for the Quyi (as for Chinese
Ghost Train (1972), Martin Sperr, whose acting in general) were the Buddhist sutras, the
powerful and violent dramas include the entertainments presented by jesters at the Han
much-revived Magic Afternoon (1968), Jean- courts, and comedy routines from the zaju
Paul Wenzel, who enjoyed success with Far variety plays. Public story-telling flowered
from Hagondange (1977), and Michel Deutsch, during the Sung dynasty (960–1279).
whose Convoy (1980) deals with the failure of Although the Quyi story-tellers were later
communication between a French peasant banished to the streets and were banned
woman and the young Jewish girl she shelters altogether during the Cultural Revolution,
during the Occupation. their skills are highly valued in China today.
 RADA 411

others.” This tutor subsequently described

R writers as “public poisoners.” Racine’s interest

in drama and his irregular personal life
subsequently led to his estrangement from the
Jansenist movement.
Rabinal Achí A Guatemalan folk drama Racine wrote his first serious poems while
that is believed to be the only form of theatre studying at the University of Paris. In 1664
to have survived from the pre-Columbian he met MOLIÈRE, who produced his first play,
Americas without European influence. The La Thébaïde, at the Palais-Royal. Racine
Quiché Mayan Indians had a rich oral subsequently alienated him by taking his next
tradition but the dialogue for the Rabinal Achí offering, ALEXANDRE LE GRAND (1665), to a
was not written down until 1850, when it was rival theatre, the HÔTEL DE BOURGOGNE,
also translated into Spanish, French, and shortly after its opening. To add insult to
English. A performance is still put on by the injury, Racine then seduced Molière’s actress
surviving Quiché Mayans, each year in mistress, Mlle Du Parc, and employed her as
January. his leading lady. She appeared in his tragedy
The Rabinal Achí was originally known as ANDROMAQUE (1667), which won the acclaim
the Dance of Tun; music and dancing form an of Paris playgoers and the support of Louis
important part of the spectacle. The drama XIV.
tells the story of the Quiché Warrior and the Racine’s other works of this period include
Rabinal Warrior, who fight a ceremonial battle his only comedy, The Litigants (1668), and the
against death. tragedies Britannicus (1669), Bérénice (1672),
BAJAZET (1672), Mithridate (1673), and
Rachel (Elisabeth Félix; 1821–58) French Iphigénie (1674). His literary style is highly
tragic actress, born in Switzerland. The formal and employs an unusually restricted
daughter of poor Jewish pedlars, she began her vocabulary (some 2000 words). In 1677 he
career by singing in the streets of Paris and produced his masterpiece PHÈDRE, which
Lyons as a child. She subsequently attended emphasized the destructive power of irrational
the Conservatoire, where she was trained in the passions. Within a year of this triumph, at the
French classical tradition by Joseph-Isidore height of his powers, he retired from the theatre
Samson, before joining the COMÉDIE- and became court historiographer to Louis
FRANÇAISE in 1838. Her first great triumph XIV. His son later attributed this to Racine’s
came in 1843, when she played the lead in return to Jansenism and his wish to atone for a
Racine’s Phèdre. As Adrienne LECOUVREUR dissolute life. His last two plays, Esther (1689)
in Scribe’s play of that name (1848) she and ATHALIE (1691), were based on biblical
confirmed her position as one of the greatest material and written for the girls’ school run
tragic actresses of the age. Rachel did much to by the King’s morganatic wife, Madame de
revive the reputation of the Comédie-Française Maintenon. Neither was performed publicly in
and toured widely in Europe and America: she Racine’s lifetime.
also became known for her many love affairs. Racine fell out of favour at court by
Despite her small frame she gave performances criticizing Louis’s warmongering. The king
of great physical force. Her early death was complained, “Because he is a great poet, does
caused by consumption aggravated by he fancy himself a minister?”
overexertion. After his death from cancer, Racine was
buried in the monastery at Port Royal. When
Racine, Jean(-Baptiste) (1639–99) Louis issued an anti-Jansenist decree and
French playwright who is considered the destroyed the monastery and school, Racine’s
greatest master of French classical tragedy. An remains were moved to the church of St
orphan, he was educated by Jansenists at Port Étienne du Mont in Paris.
Royal, where he read Sophocles and Euripides.
His tutor twice surprised him secretly reading RADA Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
the Greek romance The Loves of Theagenes and The best-known British drama school, founded
Chariclea, and both times threw the book in 1904 by Herbert Beerbohm TREE, manager
into the fire. Racine found another copy, of His Majesty’s Theatre. Later that year he
memorized it, and took it to the tutor, saying handed the Academy over to an independent
“You may now burn this as you burned the governing body and it moved to the present
412 Radio City Music Hall

Gower Street site. Its main theatre, the rain machine In the theatre, a device
Vanbrugh, opened in 1954 and is named after used to create the sound of rain, hail, or waves
Irene and Violet Vanbrugh, the actress sisters (see SOUND EFFECTS). It was normally a large
of Sir Kenneth Barnes (1878–1957), who ran cylinder that could be filled with such items as
RADA for many years. George Bernard Shaw pebbles, marbles, dried peas or beans, etc., to
was a noted supporter of the Academy, which create a variety of different sounds when
has trained such renowned actors as John rotated. The sound could also be varied by
Gielgud, Margaret Lockwood, Richard changing the rotation speed. The device was
Attenborough, Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, popularized by the French stage designer
and Kenneth Branagh. Apart from the Philippe Jacques De LOUTHERBOURG. A wind
Vanbrugh, the Academy has the George machine with a ribbed drum could usually be
Bernard Shaw (GBS) Theatre and a small converted into a rain machine when required.
studio theatre. A ten-year redevelopment
Raisin in the Sun, A A play by Lorraine
programme costing some £22 million was
Hansberry (1930–65), first performed in 1958
instituted in 1997. As well as training students
in New York. The first play by a Black woman
in acting and stage management, the Academy
to be produced on Broadway, it had a Black
offers specialist courses in stage carpentry,
director and cast and found financial backing
scene painting and design, and property
from the Black business community. It was
making.
very successful and won the New York Critics’
Radio City Music Hall The world’s Circle Award for 1959. In 1961 the story was
largest indoor theatre, which also claims to made into a film starring Sidney Poitier and
possess the world’s largest Wurlitzer organ and Ruby Dee from the original Broadway cast. A
chandeliers. Part of the Rockefeller Center in musical version, Raisin, found considerable
New York, it opened in 1932 with variety success in 1973.
acts before switching to a mixture of top The plot, which is based on the author’s
Hollywood films and spectacular variety shows own childhood experiences, concerns the
featuring the Rockettes precision chorus line. struggles of a Black family in Chicago. When
Radio City announced its closure in 1979 but her husband dies, Mama Younger receives a
in response to a public outcry and nationwide large sum of insurance money and buys a house
campaign it has remained open, mainly as a in an all-White neighbourhood. This causes
venue for rock concerts. bitter disappointment to her son, Walter Lee,
who had hoped to use the money to open a
Radius In Britain, a nondenominational liquor store, but his pregnant wife, Ruth is
Christian organization that promotes and delighted. Walter’s sister, Beneatha, is only
coordinates religious drama. It was founded in concerned with her plans to study medicine.
1929 as the Religious Drama Society of Great Mama finally gives Walter the remaining
Britain with George Bell, then the Dean of money, including Beneatha’s share, for his
Canterbury, as its first president. The society store, but his business partner runs off with the
commissioned Christopher FRY’s A Sleep of cash. Walter feels humiliated but wins back the
Prisoners for the 1951 Festival of Britain. respect of his family by insisting they still move
Radius sponsors productions of religious into the new house.
plays, offers advice, and holds an annual The play’s title alludes to some lines from
summer school to train directors and actors. It ‘Harlem’, a poem by Langston Hughes:
also maintains an important library and is What happens to a dream deferred?
associated with the Sesame organization, Does it dry up
which promotes drama as therapy for the Like a raisin in the sun?
physically and mentally handicapped.
Raisin, Jean-Baptiste See MOLIÈRE, LE
rag opery US slang for a travelling TENT PETIT.
SHOW.
rake The slope of a stage floor from the
rain barrel A metal container with back down towards the front. It was introduced
perforations in the underside, used to sprinkle in the Renaissance period to enhance the
water on stage for the visual simulation of illusionistic effect of scenes painted in
rainfall. perspective; a rake appears in the basic design
 Rasdhari 413

for a theatre published by Sebastiano Serlio in Ranelagh Gardens A former place of

1545. However, the rake, which could be up amusement in London, on a site that now
to a 4% slope, caused problems with jointed forms part of the grounds of Chelsea Hospital.
scenery and movable platforms (see BOAT It was named after Richard Jones, 1st Earl of
TRUCK). In modern theatres the stage is level Ranelagh, who built a house and laid out
while the auditorium floor is raked to enable gardens here in 1689. From 1742 to 1803
those sitting at the back to see over the heads Ranelagh was famous for its masquerades,
of those in front of them. musical entertainments, etc. A notable feature
was the Rotunda, built in the rococo style in
Ralph Roister Doister The first the 1740s. There was also a Chinese pavilion
English comedy on classical lines. It was written in the centre of a lake. See also CREMORNE
in 1534 by the Oxford scholar Nicholas Udall GARDENS; VAUXHALL GARDENS.
(1505–56) and received its first performance
at Eton, where he was headmaster. Udall rare. O rare Ben Jonson The
composed the play, which shows the influence inscription on the tomb of Ben JONSON, in the
of PLAUTUS and TERENCE, for performance by north nave aisle of Westminster Abbey (see
his pupils instead of the usual Latin comedies. POETS’ CORNER). According to the author John
It was not printed until about 1566. Despite Aubrey, it was “done at the charge of Jack
its crude action and doggerel verse, the play Young (afterwards knighted), who, walking
influenced generations of comic dramatists in there when the grave was covering, gave the
England. The story follows the wooing of a fellow eighteenpence to cut it.” ‘Rare’ in this
wealthy London widow, Dame Christian case means unusual, remarkable. It has been
Custance, by the pompous fool, Ralph Roister suggested that the inscription was originally
Doister. meant to read “Orare Ben Jonson”, Latin for
“Pray for Ben Jonson”.
Ramlila (Hindi: play of Rama) A form of
Indian theatre, especially popular in northern raree show A miniature show, usually
villages, which depicts episodes from the life of involving puppets or movable picture cards,
the Hindu god Rama. Ramlila is a generic that could be carried about in a box and
term for a range of dramatic events performed viewed through a peephole. In the 17th
in honour of Rama, mainly during festivals in century, most of the travelling showmen were
September, October, and November, and at Savoyards, and perhaps this represents their
Diwali. It takes place throughout India and has pronunciation of ‘rare’ or ‘rarity’. The term
many local variants. In Ramnagar (which means later came to mean any kind of spectacle or
‘Rama’s city’) 30 days are devoted to the unusual display.
Ramlila and more than a million pilgrims as
well as non-Hindus attend the processions and Rasdhari The version of RASLILA that has
performances. Ramlila probably dates back to developed in the northwest Indian state of
ancient India, with stories taken from the Rajasthan. The travelling performers who
Ramayana and music that blends religious, brought Raslila to Rajasthan in the mid 19th
classical, and folk traditions. century were called Rasdharis, a term that was
The main characters are Rama, his wife Sita, later applied to the genre itself. Local people
and his three brothers Lakshmana, Bharata, formed their own troupes and diverse styles
and Saturgna, all of whom are played by developed; while some were overtly devotional
Brahmin boys who have not reached puberty. others adapted stories from mythological and
They are believed to become embodiments of historical sources and drew on regional musical
the gods during the performance. The actor traditions. Today’s fast-paced energetic
playing Ravana, the king of the demons, wears performances are put on by peripatetic actors
a mask showing his 10 heads. There are and musicians in village meeting areas.
opportunities for hundreds of other youths to Costumes are based on local styles and the
take part as the warring monkey soldiers of actors often improvise to suit the mood or
Rama and the demon soldiers of Ravana. The habits of the villagers or to satirize individuals.
battle ends with the burning of huge effigies of Rasdhari productions take place on a
Ravana and his brothers, which are set alight simple stage without scenery: basic props are
by burning arrows; fireworks are also set off as often borrowed from the villagers. In contrast,
the crowd chants “Victory to Rama”. the prose and songs are elaborate and detailed
414 Raslila

to create vivid pictures of other places and with the danger of stifled passion; it was
times for the audiences. revived by the BBC in 1993. His great
wartime successes included a drama inspired
Raslila (Hindi: dance play in a circle) by his days in the RAF, FLARE PATH (1942),
In India, a general term for various dance- and While The Sun Shines (1943), which ran
dramas and dances; the word refers to Lord for 1154 performances. THE WINSLOW BOY
Krishna’s dance with the wives of Vrindavan. (1946), which won many awards, told the true
Performances often occur in a temple or sacred story of a father’s campaign to prove his son
resting place for travellers. The most famous innocent of an act of petty theft. Later
version is the Raslila of Vrindavan, a holy city
outstanding works included THE BROWNING
in northern India close to where Krishna is
VERSION (1948), THE DEEP BLUE SEA (1952), a
believed to have been born.
moving story about adultery and suicide
Raslila is a sacred ceremony in itself:
(written after the suicide of his lover Kenneth
performances must end before midnight and
Morgan), SEPARATE TABLES (1955), and ROSS
the audience must remove their shoes, refrain
(1960) in which Sir Alec Guinness starred as
from talking and smoking, and never sit or
T. E. Lawrence.
stand higher than the actors playing Krishna
Rattigan lived an extravagant life, driving a
and Radha. The Raslila troupe consists of 10
Rolls-Royce with a personalized number plate
to 18 male performers. The actors who play
Krishna and Radha are traditionally drawn and gambling away the £25,000 he made from
from Brahmin families while Krishna’s other French Without Tears in three weeks. His
chief consorts are played by prepubescent boys. lifestyle and attitudes were diametrically
When the actors don their crowns, they are opposed to those of the ANGRY YOUNG MEN of
believed to become incarnations of the gods the mid 1950s, who tended to regard his work
they portray and are carried to the acting area as the epitome of everything they disliked in
so that their feet do not touch the ground. The contemporary drama. Rattigan stated publicly
drama combines dancing, songs, dialogue, that he hated Osborne’s LOOK BACK IN ANGER
monologue, and tableaux. When it ends the (1956) and as the new KITCHEN SINK realism
audience shouts “Victory to Krishna of became popular his reputation waned, along
Vrindavan!” with that of Noël Coward and others of his
generation. “We were told we were old-
Rattigan, Sir Terence (1911–77) fashioned, effete, and corrupt,” he said. More
British playwright, whose well-structured plays recently, however, there has been a resurgence
enjoyed enormous success in the years before of interest in Rattigan’s work. This trend
and after World War II. At one time three of began with a revival of The Deep Blue Sea at
his works were running simultaneously in the the Almeida Theatre in 1993, the first major
West End. Rattigan was knighted in 1971, the production since its premiere over 40 years
first dramatist to be so honoured since the war. earlier. Successful revivals of The Winslow Boy,
When Rattigan was a young man his Separate Tables, and other lesser known works
father, a wealthy diplomat, agreed to finance have followed. See also AUNT EDNA.
his writing for a maximum of two years. After
23 months, Rattigan produced his first comedy, Räuber, Die (German: The Robbers) The
FRENCH WITHOUT TEARS (1936), about a first play by Friedrich von SCHILLER; its first
group of young Englishmen learning French in production in 1782 caused a sensation and is
a crammer. It ran for 1049 performances at the now accepted as a watershed in the German
Criterion Theatre, providing Rattigan with theatre. “Complete strangers fell sobbing into
perhaps the greatest success ever enjoyed by a one another’s arms,” wrote one observer, “and
West End newcomer. Rattigan was fainting women tottered towards the exits.”
emotionally devastated by the play’s opening Schiller wrote Die Räuber at the age of 21 and
night. When the audience rose to its feet with used borrowed money to publish the text
cries of “Author, author” he vanished and was himself; a few months later Baron von Dalberg
found looking ill and supporting himself accepted the drama for production at his
against a back wall. When Rattigan finally National Theatre at Mannheim. The famous
stepped forward to acknowledge the applause, actor August IFFLAND created the role of Franz
the curtain landed heavily upon his head. Moor. Younger theatregoers flocked to see the
His second success, After the Dance, dealt play, stirred by Schiller’s attacks on tyranny,
 Ravenhill, Mark 415

corruption in high places, and stifling social Ravenhill, Mark (1966– ) British
conventions. playwright and journalist, whose work helped
Schiller, an officer in a Stuttgart regiment, to define the IN-YER-FACE theatre of the 1990s.
travelled to Mannheim to see the premiere Ravenhill was brought up in suburban Sussex
without obtaining the permission of the and developed an early obsession with the
autocratic Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg. theatre, putting on plays with his brother from
When the duke sentenced him to a fortnight’s the age of six. After studies at Bristol
detention and ordered him to stop writing University, he worked for some years as a
plays, Schiller fled to Baron von Dalberg, who freelance director and drama teacher; his
eventually appointed him as resident dramatist decision to begin writing was, he says,
to his theatre. galvanized by finding out that he was HIV
Die Räuber made a major contribution positive. In 1995 Ravenhill’s first play, the
to the STURM UND DRANG movement in 10-minute Fist, was staged at London’s
Germany and also influenced the development Finborough Theatre and caught the attention
of romantic melodrama in England and of the director Max Stafford-Clark, who
elsewhere. An adaptation, The Red-Cross commissioned a full-length work. The result,
Knights was produced at the Haymarket in the provocatively entitled Shopping and
1799. Fucking, was staged by the OUT OF JOINT
company at the Royal Court in 1996. An
Raupach, Ernst See SHAKESPEARE OF
episodic piece in which a group of young
TRIVIALITY.
drifters indulge rather joylessly in both
Ravana Chhaya (Oriyan: Ravana activities, the play features scenes of drug-
shadow) An almost extinct form of shadow- taking and explicit gay sex (including one in
puppet theatre from the Indian state of Orissa. which an under-age rent-boy is penetrated by a
Performances last for seven nights and can knife). As such it provoked a predictable
involve up to 700 different puppets. In Hindu furore, including a denunciation by the Home
mythology Ravana is the ten-headed Hindu Secretary, and went on to enjoy a six-month
demon-king who rules the kingdom of Lanka. run in the West End. This succès de scandale
He is the villain of the epic Ramayana, which was followed by the similarly scabrous Faust is
tells of his battles with, and defeat by, the Dead (1997), Handbag (1998), and Some
hero-god Rama. The stories told in Ravana Explicit Polaroids (1999), in which Ravenhill
Chhaya are all to do with this conflict, and continued to dissect the amoral retail-obsessed
come from the Vichitra Ramayana, the Oriyan culture of the 1990s.
version of the Ramayana, which was written In 2000 Ravenhill produced his most
around 1700. ambitious work to date with Mother Clap’s
It seems strange that the genre should be Molly House, a rollicking costume drama set in
named after its chief villain; some suggest that the gay subculture of 18th-century London.
this is owing to the influence of the Jains, who The play, which requires a cast of over 20, was
are more sympathetic to Ravana than most staged by Out of Joint at the National’s
Hindus, or possibly to that of the Tamils, who Lyttleton Theatre to mainly excellent reviews.
take Ravana to be a symbol of resistance to Subsequent plays included Citizenship (2005),
invaders from the north, assuming Lanka a piece about teenage sexuality developed for
represents Sri Lanka. A more likely explanation performance in schools, Product (2006), a one-
is that the name Rama Chhaya was rejected man show in which Ravenhill himself took to
because it was considered unlucky to speak of the stage, and The Cut (2006), an elliptical
the god Rama as a shadow. political fable set in a totalitarian future.
Performances are always preceded by Ravenhill then showed a perhaps unexpected
sacrifices to Rama and other gods, although love of traditional forms by writing the
they can be held at any time and place and are Christmas pantomime Dick Whittington
not related to any particular festivals. The and his Cat (2006) for performance at the
puppets themselves are considered to be Barbican. More recent work has included a set
ceremonial objects. When a new puppet is of 16 short plays for the 2007 Edinburgh
made it is blessed before it is used, and worn Fringe, subsequently staged at London
out puppets are cremated and their ashes theatres under the collective title Shoot/Get/
scattered into a river or stream. Treasure/Repeat, and Over There (2009), about
416 realism

identical twins brought up on either side of the production of Gorki’s THE LOWER DEPTHS
Berlin Wall. (1902), Stanislavsky sent his actors into the
Moscow slums to prepare for their roles as
realism A movement in late 19th-century beggars. This technique was later developed and
drama that aimed to replace the artificial systematized by Lee Strasberg as the METHOD.
romantic style with accurate depictions of Other playwrights to contribute to the
ordinary people in plausible situations. In realist movement included T. W. ROBERTSON,
attempting to create a perfect illusion of Henry Arthur JONES, Harley GRANVILLE-
reality, playwrights and directors rejected BARKER, and George Bernard SHAW in Britain,
dramatic conventions that had existed since
Eugene O’NEILL in America, Victorien SARDOU
the beginnings of drama. EURIPIDES had taken
and Augustin Eugène SCRIBE in France, and
a tentative step towards realism in the 5th
Gerhart HAUPTMANN in Germany. See also
century BC but in later European theatre
CUP-AND-SAUCER DRAMA; KITCHEN SINK;
ordinary people speaking colloquially had only
NATURALISM.
appeared in comedy or farce; even in such
plays no attempt was made to create realistic Really Useful Group See LLOYD
sets or scenery. The 19th-century realist WEBBER, ANDREW, BARON.
movement revolutionized contemporary
theatre in every aspect, from scenery, to styles Real Thing, The A comedy by Tom
of acting, from dialogue to make-up. STOPPARD, which became an instant success
The first moves towards modern realism when first performed at the Strand Theatre,
were made in 16th-century Italy with the London, in 1982 in a production starring
introduction of perspective scenery. By the Felicity Kendal, Tom Conti, and Roger Rees.
mid 19th century realistic gas lamps had The 1984 Broadway production won the Tony
exposed the unnatural appearance of canvas Award for Best Play.
backdrops; the realistic BOX SET with three The plot centres on Henry, a witty but
walls and furnishings was subsequently cynical playwright, and his marriages to first
popularized by the US director and playwright Charlotte and then Annie, both of whom are
David BELASCO. The Victorians also pioneered actresses. Scenes from Henry’s plays are
mechanical devices that were capable of intermingled with episodes from his domestic
producing convincing scenic illusions and life, leaving the audience confused as to what is
sensational effects, such as fires and train ‘real’ and what is fiction. In a subplot Stoppard
crashes. In the 18th century David GARRICK examines the relationship between art and
initiated the use of historically accurate political engagement in the figure of Brodie, a
costumes and sets, a trend that was followed by boorish peace protestor who aspires to be a
directors including Sir Henry Irving and Sir writer but is shown to be talentless. Eventually
Herbert Beerbohm TREE. Annie embarks on an affair with a young actor,
Despite these developments, it was not but insists on maintaining her marriage with
until the end of the 19th century that the Henry because their love is after all ‘the real
drama began to emulate the serious treatment thing’.
of contemporary themes achieved in the novel.
The move away from melodrama and stilted Recruiting Officer, The A comedy by
dialogue to “the plain truthful language of George FARQUHAR, who based it upon his own
reality” was led by Henrik IBSEN, who is often experiences as a recruiting officer. It was first
called the father of modern realism. Ibsen also performed in 1706 in London with Anne
broke with convention by taking the everyday Oldfield in the role of Sylvia; later 20th-
lives of his middle-class audience as subject century actresses to excel in the part have
matter for serious drama. In this he was included Edith EVANS in 1927 and Maggie
followed by the Russians CHEKHOV and GORKI: SMITH in 1970. The play has been constantly
while the former explored the ennui of revived and was an early colonial favourite; it
outwardly uneventful middle-class lives, the was performed at Charleston’s Dock Street
latter depicted the drudgery and suffering Theatre in the 1730s and in the penal colony
of the poorest classes. The first serious steps of Sydney in 1789 (the first recorded stage
to codify realism in acting were made by performance in Australia). The plot was used
Konstantin STANISLAVSKY for productions at by BRECHT in his Trumpets and Drums.
the Moscow Art Theatre. Before his The play concerns Captain Plume and
 Redgrave family 417

Captain Brazen, who are recruiting for the Redgrave family A British theatrical
Army in Shrewsbury. They are assisted by the family that has now produced three
disreputable Sergeant Kite, who is not above generations of famous actors: Sir Michael
lying, cheating, and disguising himself as a Redgrave (1908–85); his daughters, Vanessa
fortune-teller to dupe naive youths into Redgrave (1937– ) and Lynn Redgrave
enlisting. Plume has fallen in love with Sylvia, (1943–2010); his son, Corin Redgrave
but her father, Justice Balance, has forbidden (1939–2010); Vanessa’s daughters, Natasha
the marriage. Sylvia disguises herself as a man Richardson (1963–2009) and Joely
and Plume tricks her father into handing her Richardson (1965– ); and Corin’s daughter,
over as a recruit. When the truth is discovered Jemma Redgrave (1965– ).
Balance relents and allows the match. Plume Sir Michael Redgrave was the son of the
vows to give up recruiting in order to “breed actor Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret
recruits”. Scudamore. His mother insisted that at 6′2″ he
In 1963 the new National Theatre staged a was too tall to be an actor so he became a
production directed by William Gaskill and schoolmaster and did not embark on his acting
Laurence OLIVIER, who also took a minor role. career until his mid twenties. In 1934 he
Although keen to enter into the spirit of joined the Liverpool Repertory Theatre, where
experiment that prevailed during the theatre’s he met and married the actress Rachel
first year, Olivier was not happy with Gaskill’s Kempson (1910–2003). Two years later they
idea of improvisation at rehearsals. “I don’t like both joined the Old Vic, where Michael made
improvisation in rehearsal,” he complained. “As his London debut as the King of Navarre in
soon as a director says, ‘Try this, try that,’ I Love’s Labour Lost. He then worked with Sir
think, ‘Listen, chum, I can do that at home’.” John Gielgud at the Queen’s Theatre.
At one rehearsal Gaskill, Kenneth Tynan, and During World War II Redgrave served in
John Dexter all criticized Olivier for overacting; the Royal Navy and starred in several wartime
he was shocked at such an accusation but films. In 1943 he played Rakitin in Turgenev’s
nevertheless moderated his performance. A Month in the Country, a role he repeated in
Red Bull Theatre A London courtyard 1949 for the Old Vic Company. During one
theatre established on the premises of the Red matinée performance, he was playing a love
Bull Inn, Clerkenwell. The galleried inn had scene with Valerie Taylor in a somewhat
occasionally presented plays in its large square desultory fashion when he heard a lady in the
yard before 1605, when Aaron Holland stalls whisper pointedly to her friend, “I like
converted the space into a permanent theatre her.” Noted Redgrave “I was noticeably
and QUEEN ANNE’S MEN moved in for an 11- quicker on my cues after that.”
year residency. Although in its heyday it In 1959, the year he was knighted,
promoted the works of Thomas HEYWOOD Redgrave found further acclaim in his own
and saw the acting of Christopher BEESTON, dramatization of Henry James’s The Aspern
the Red Bull later acquired a somewhat Papers. Three years later he joined Olivier’s
disreputable reputation because of its rowdy company for the first CHICHESTER FESTIVAL,
audiences and its propensity for staging when he starred in the title role of Chekhov’s
sensational plays. After Queen Anne’s Men Uncle Vanya. After a spell of ill health he
left, the Red Bull brought in several other returned to the stage in 1971 in William
companies and underwent major renovation in Trevor’s The Old Boys at the Mermaid Theatre;
1625, apparently adding a roof. During the a year later he played Father in a production of
Puritan INTERREGNUM (1642–60), it drew John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father
crowds to illegal productions; Robert Cox was which toured Canada and Australia.
imprisoned after performing a comic DROLL The birth of Vanessa Redgrave was
there in 1653. After the Restoration Thomas announced from the stage of the Old Vic by
KILLIGREW brought a company there that Laurence Olivier. After studies at the Central
featured the actor Michael Mohun. Killigrew’s School of Speech and Drama she made her
later decision to leave with some of the best professional debut (1957) at the Frinton
actors proved a serious blow. Samuel Pepys Summer Theatre in The Reluctant Debutante.
recorded watching a dismal play at the Red She made her first London appearance in
Bull on 23 March 1661. Audiences declined 1958, acting beside her father in N. C.
and the theatre was demolished in 1665. Hunter’s A Touch of the Sun. In 1961 she won
418 red-hot poker

rapturous praise for her performance as reflecting her difficult relationship with Sir
Rosalind in an RSC production of AS YOU LIKE Michael Redgrave. Nightingale (2006) was
IT. Her other early successes included playing another solo show drawing on aspects of her
Nina in a production of Chekhov’s The family history.
Seagull directed by her then husband, Tony Natasha Richardson made her adult debut
Richardson (1964). More recently she has in a production of The Seagull in 1985 at
appeared in Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. In the
the Royal National Theatre (1996), O’Neill’s 1990s she gave award-winning Broadway
Long Day’s Journey Into Night on Broadway performances as the title character in Anna
(2003), and a one-woman show based on Joan Christie (1993) and as Sally Bowles in Cabaret
Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (2007) (1998); her last stage role was Blanche Dubois
that appeared in both New York and London. in a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire (2005).
Her films include Isadora (1969) and Howards Her films included Patty Hearst (1988), The
End (1992). Referring to her many political Parent Trap (1998), and Asylum (2005). Aged
activities, which once included committed only 45, Natasha Richardson died of head
membership of the Workers’ Revolutionary injuries sustained in a skiing accident.
Party, her father commented: “There are some Joely Richardson began acting in 1985,
days when her politics drive me mad and other when she appeared with her mother in the film
days when I see her touch greatness as an Wetherby. She has also appeared on television,
actress and am immensely proud.” notably in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1993) and
Corin Redgrave began acting at the Royal the US series Nip/Tuck (2003–06), and in the
Court in the early 1960s and went on to take films Drowning by Numbers (1988) and Maybe
prominent roles in Ronald Millar’s Abelard Baby (2000). Her London stage debut was in
and Heloise (1971) and the RSC’s Anthony and 1989. In 2002 she and Vannesa Redgrave
Cleopatra (1973), in which he played Octavius. played mother and daughter in a production of
For most of the 1970s and 1980s, however, he Lady Windermere’s Fan at the Haymarket,
virtually gave up acting to work for the London.
Workers’ Revolutionary Party. He made a
red-hot poker In the English
return to TV and film work in the 1990s,
HARLEQUINADE, a comic prop of Clown, who
when his roles included a part in Four
would place it maliciously under the seat of
Weddings and a Funeral (1994). The late
some unsuspecting character’s trousers. As
1990s saw a major return to the West End
PANTOMIME became more popular than the
stage in Tennessee Williams’s prison drama
harlequinade, which was often relegated to the
Not About Nightingales (1998) and in
position of an AFTERPIECE, so the red-hot
Coward’s A Song at Twilight (1999), in which
poker was used less frequently. In 1864
he appeared with his wife, Kikha Markham,
Chambers Journal published an imaginary
and his sister Vanessa. In 2004 he took the
letter to Clown, which included the complaint:
title role in the RSC’s King Lear. Corin’s
“What has become of the red-hot poker? On
daughter Jemma Redgrave is mainly known behalf of the entire community, I repeat, with
for her work on TV but has appeared on stage becoming warmth of expression, WHAT HAS
in Three Sisters (1990) and Shaw’s Major BECOME OF THE RED-HOT POKER?”
Barbara (1998).
Lynn Redgrave performed with the Red Megaphone (Das Rote Sprachrohr)
National Theatre company and made a Germany’s first and most famous AGITPROP
number of successful films before moving to company, which performed communist
America in 1983. She returned to Britain in propaganda plays, revues, and choral works at
1990 to star with her sister Vanessa and factories, workers’ clubs, and similar venues. It
Vanessa’s daughter Natasha Richardson in a was established in 1927 by M. Valletin and the
highly publicized production of Chekhov’s following year presented Hallo, Kollege
THREE SISTERS at the Queen’s Theatre. Jungarbeiter (Hello, Young Colleagues), an
Subsequent Broadway productions included episodic piece about the exploitation of
Ibsen’s The Master Builder (1992) and a much workers. In 1929 the Red Megaphone toured
praised revival of Maugham’s The Constant the Soviet Union with its choral presentation
Wife (2005). In 1996 she presented Dritte Internationale (Third International). In
Shakespeare for My Father, a one-woman show 1931 the company adapted EPIC THEATRE
 Reigen 419

techniques for Song of the Red United Front. It become standard practice by the 19th century,
was disbanded and some members arrested when they were directed by the stage manager.
when the Nazis came to power in 1933. The standard of rehearsals is often no
indication of how well a performance will go.
Red Roses for Me A play by Sean Terence RATTIGAN’s first play, French Without
O’CASEY, first performed in Dublin in 1943. It Tears (1936), had disastrous rehearsals but ran
is the most frequently revived of the later for 1000 performances in the West End.
expressionist works that he wrote in ‘exile’ in Rehearsals are often intense and stressful,
England after his rift with W. B. Yeats and the providing a battleground for egos and
ABBEY THEATRE. The play was based on temperaments. Sir Alec GUINNESS was fired
O’Casey’s own experiences during the General twice during rehearsals in the early part of his
Strike in Dublin (1913). It expresses anti- career. Madge KENDAL, who managed St
fascist ideals using powerful colloquial language James’s Theatre in the 1880s, once gathered
and also features dance and mime. Although her cast round and insisted that they kneel to
the play has been criticized for its structural pray, “Oh Lord, we pray Thee out of Thy
clumsiness, it is nevertheless regarded as one of infinite mercy that Thou will cause some
O’Casey’s most moving works. notion of the rudiments of acting to be
vouchsafed to this company for Jesus Christ’s
reflector A spotlight or floodlight unit
sake, Amen.” She then stood up and growled,
that contains both the lamp and a shiny back
“Well, now we’ll see what that will do!”
surface to intensify and focus the beam of light.
Horror stories about never-ending
Regan The second of the king’s unfilial rehearsals abound. The longest rehearsal period
daughters in Shakespeare’s KING LEAR. at the Royal National Theatre was for
REGAN Sir, I am made
Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great in 1976;
Of the self-same metal that my sister is, owing to construction work the original 10-
And prize me at her worth … week schedule was extended to nearly six
(I, i) months. The ancient Greek CHORUS would
See also CORDELIA; GONERIL. rehearse full time for at least three months
before giving their single performance. The
regie Theatrical jargon for a book in which record-holder, however, is STANISLAVSKY who
the director jots down notes on the production once spent two years rehearsing the Moscow
during rehearsals. It is an abbreviation of the Art Theatre’s production of Hamlet, which
German Regie-buch, meaning ‘direction book’. finally opened in 1912.
regional theatre See RESIDENT Rehearsal, The A comedy first
THEATRE. performed at Drury Lane in 1671; although it
is attributed to George Villiers, 2nd duke of
rehearsal A session in which the director,
Buckingham (1628–87), it is likely that several
cast, and staff of a play prepare for a
other parties had a hand in its authorship.
performance. Usually, the first rehearsals are
The Rehearsal is a BURLESQUE of the
read-throughs in which the cast simply read
popular Restoration genre of HEROIC DRAMA.
aloud from the script. Entrances, exits,
Its main character, BAYES, was intended to
movements, and gestures are added next,
pillory the playwrights William DAVENANT and
usually by BLOCKING. Technical rehearsals
John DRYDEN. The plot revolves around a
are also held for the stage crew, lighting rehearsal for a heroic tragedy that magnifies all
technicians, etc. The final run-through before of the failings and absurdities of the genre.
the opening night is the DRESS REHEARSAL. Notable among the characters in the play-
Except in rare cases of improvisation, within-a-play are the bombastic DRAWCANSIR
rehearsal is now regarded as essential in the and Prince Pretty-man. The Rehearsal was one
Western theatre. This has not always been the of the earliest examples of the English dramatic
case; rehearsals were virtually unknown to burlesque. It had many imitators during the
medieval performers. That Elizabethan actors 18th century, most notably Sheridan’s THE
met to practice is shown by Shakespeare’s A CRITIC. See also at BRENTFORD.
Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595), which
includes a scene in which a group of amateur Reigen (German: round dance) A one-act
players rehearse. Organized rehearsals had play by the Austrian playwright Arthur
420 Reinhardt, Max

Schnitzler (1862–1931). It was written in stage horizontally and vertically. With the Swiss
1896–97 and first performed in 1912 in designer Adolf Appia, he pioneered new
Budapest, where the audience was shocked by lighting effects and the use of THEATRE-IN-
its frank portrayal of casual and heartless sexual THE-ROUND.
encounters. Schnitzler was a friend of Sigmund Reinhardt initiated a revival of classical
Freud and had been influenced by his idea of Greek drama and also made an impact with his
sex being paramount in human behaviour. The striking productions of Ibsen, Strindberg,
play caused riots when performed in Vienna in Wedekind, and Shakespeare. His inventive and
1921 and was not staged again until 1982. It much revived staging of A Midsummer Night’s
has been translated into English as The Round Dream was first seen in 1905.
Dance, Merry-Go-Round, and Hands Around, Reinhardt was famous for his lavish
and has twice been filmed in France as La spectacles. In 1920 he founded the Salzburg
Ronde (1950 and 1964). In 1998 David Hare’s Festival and thereafter directed the morality
adaptation of Reigen as The Blue Room caused play Jedermann (Hugo von Hofmannstal’s
renewed excitement, owing mainly to the brief adaptation of EVERYMAN) in front of the
onstage nudity of Hollywood star Nicole cathedral every year until 1934. He was equally
Kidman. comfortable with intimate work, founding
The play, set in turn-of-the-century Berlin’s Kammerspiele (chamber theatre)
Vienna, presents a daisy chain of sexual in 1906 and the avant-garde Das Junge
liaisons: a prostitute is picked up by a soldier, Deutschland theatre in 1917.
who meets a housemaid, who is seduced by her When the Nazis took power in 1933
master, who sleeps with a young married Reinhardt was abroad. He left his theatres to
woman, and so on. The ‘round dance’ is the German people, having sent a bitterly ironic
completed when an army officer picks up the letter to the Nazi government. He settled in
original prostitute. The characters all deceive
America, where he directed and produced a
or are deceived, excusing their infidelities to
successful film version of his famous A
themselves with a variety of pretexts.
Midsummer Night’s Dream starring James
Reinhardt, Max (Max Goldmann; Cagney as Bottom and Mickey Rooney as
1873–1943) Austrian director, actor, and Puck. His final production was Franz Werfel’s
manager. The first modern director to gain The Eternal Road (1937), an interminable
an international reputation, Reinhardt was biblical pageant with music by Kurt Weill.
regarded as either a genius or a vulgar The performances, at the Manhattan Opera
showman. He dominated the European stage House in New York, lasted from 8 p.m. until
for more than 25 years, directing more than 3 a.m. The play drew full houses for 153
600 productions, and was a major influence on performances but lost $5000 a week owing to
drama in Britain and America. His innovations high production costs.
in staging and the use of colour and movement
(especially in crowd scenes) are considered Réjane (Gabrielle-Charlotte Reju;
particularly important. It was largely owing 1857–1920) French actress and comedienne,
to Reinhardt’s fame and influence that whose performances enchanted Paris at the
productions began to be attributed to the turn of the 20th century, although most of the
director rather than to author or the leading plays she appeared in are now forgotten. She
actor. made her Paris debut at the Théâtre du
After studying drama in Vienna, Reinhardt Vaudeville in 1875 and later appeared in both
spent a year with the resident theatre company London and New York. She was known for
in Salzburg. He subsequently became a leading her eccentricities, such as driving about Paris
performer under Otto Brahm at the Deutsches in a carriage drawn by two mules.
Theater, Berlin. In 1903 he founded the Réjane’s appearances in serious roles
Neues Theater in Berlin, where in one year he tended to divide the critics. Some, including
produced and directed 42 works by such varied Shaw, admired her mastery of pathos,
dramatists as Wilde, Schiller, and Gorki. comparing her with Sarah BERNHARDT and
In these productions he reacted against Eleonora DUSE. Many of her best roles were in
NATURALISM and he adopted many of the ideas works by SARDOU; in 1893 she created the part
of the British designer Gordon CRAIG, using of MADAME SANS-GÊNE, taking the play to New
steps, runways, and rostrums to divide the York two years later. She also appeared in
 Renaissance drama 421

Sardou’s Divorçons, Alexandre Dumas’s La recognition. It was first performed in 1965 as

Dame aux camélias, and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Meet My Father at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
She opened her own Théâtre Réjane in in the Round, Scarborough, and then under its
Paris in 1906 and remained on the stage until current title in 1967 at the Duke of York’s
the year she died; her last performance was in a Theatre, London.
production of Henri Bataille’s La Vierge folle. The play, based on a series of farcical
misunderstandings, has a lighter tone than
Relapse, The Sir John VANBRUGH’s most of Ayckbourn’s later comedies. The story
successful first play, a comedy subtitled Virtue involves the young lovers Ginny and Greg.
in Danger. It was first performed in 1696 at When Greg finds evidence to suggest that
Drury Lane. Vanbrugh wrote the play as an Ginny is being unfaithful, he seethes with
ironic sequel to Colley CIBBER’s sentimental jealousy but nevertheless decides to propose
comedy Love’s Last Shift, staged earlier that marriage to her. She says she is leaving to visit
year at the same theatre. Cibber gave a brilliant her parents in the country and Greg follows,
performance as the main character, Lord intending to surprise her there. Somehow he
Foppington (his own play’s Sir Novelty arrives first and receives a bewildered reception,
Fashion). because this is actually the home of Ginny’s
The pamphleteer Jeremy COLLIER was married lover, Philip, with whom she is
outraged by the Foppington character and determined to break. When Ginny arrives she
specifically attacked Vanbrugh (along with continues the pretence that Philip is her father.
Congreve) in his influential A Short View of the Philip goes along with the deception, mystifying
Immorality of the English Stage (1698). When his wife but fooling Greg, who eventually leaves
Sheridan rewrote The Relapse as a musical play, happily with Ginny.
A Trip to Scarborough (1777), he eliminated
much of Vanbrugh’s bawdiness for the more Renaissance, Théâtre de la The first
prudish audience of his day. Vanbrugh’s theatre of this name opened in Paris in 1826 as
original has enjoyed many revivals in the 20th the Salle Ventadour. Amongst the works staged
century, including an RSC production in 1967 there were plays by Victor Hugo and the elder
at the Aldwych Theatre. DUMAS. In 1838 the theatre enjoyed an
The play has two plots. The first involves enormous success with Hugo’s RUY BLAS, but
Loveless, a reformed philanderer, who is now its fortunes began to decline soon afterwards
living peacefully in the country with his wife, and it closed in 1841.
Amanda. He accompanies her to London and The second theatre to bear the name
suffers a relapse when he meets a young widow, opened in 1873 on the site of the Théâtre de la
Berinthia. Worthy, Berinthia’s former lover, Porte-Saint-Martin, which had burnt down two
discovers that the rake has returned to his old years earlier. The Renaissance began by staging
ways and prevails on her to disclose Loveless’s serious dramas by such writers as Emile Zola
infidelity. In this way he hopes to alienate but within a few years had moved to the lighter
Amanda from her husband and seduce her material of FEYDEAU and LABICHE. In the 1890s
himself. Amanda, however, remains loyal and the theatre came under the management of
virtuous. Sarah BERNHARDT, who appeared there in a
The second (and more amusing) plot series of her great classical and modern roles.
concerns the monstrous Lord Foppington, When Bernhardt left the Renaissance it was
who has bought his title and wants a wealthy taken over by the actor-manager Firmin Gémier
wife to go with it. He arranges to marry an (1869–1933). In the early 20th century the
heiress but before he can meet her his younger theatre was badly hit by the rise of the cinema,
brother, Young Fashion, who also wants although it enjoyed a run of successful revivals
the woman’s money, arrives on the scene in the 1930s. In the mid 1950s the Renaissance
pretending to be Lord Foppington and marries was taken over by the actress Vera Korene, who
her in secret. When the real Foppington arrives did much to restore the building as well as to
to claim his bride he is thought to be the establish a more contemporary repertoire.
impostor and is accused of impersonating
himself. Renaissance drama European drama
from about the 15th to the early 17th centuries.
Relatively Speaking The comedy During this period the rediscovery and
by Alan AYCKBOURN that brought him imitation of classical works established the
422 Renaissance Theatre Company

foundations of the modern theatre. England’s (c. 1540–1619); and Spain’s Bartolomé de
major contribution was the lively Elizabethan Torres Naharro (c. 1485–c. 1524).
stage that produced SHAKESPEARE. Renaissance stage design also harked back
Renaissance drama began in Italy, with to classical models, especially to Vitruvius
scholars initially attempting to recreate the (1st century BC), whose ideas influenced the
original stagings of Greek and Roman plays, construction of the first permanent playhouses
then adapting them to contemporary dress and in Italy and France (although theatres in Britain
speech. The new interest in classical drama was and Spain adapted features from the inn
fired by the rediscovery of texts by Euripides, courtyards in which drama had previously
Seneca, Plautus, and Terence. Aristotle’s been performed). Greco-Roman ideas
Poetics, which defined the classical genres of influenced such Italian theatre architects as
tragedy and comedy, came to light in the 15th Sebastiano SERLIO (1475–1554), Andrea
century. The disreputable profession of acting Palladio (1508–80), Giovanni Aleotti
began to assume a new dignity and the first (1546–1636), and Vincenzo Scamozzi
professional companies were formed. (1552–1616). Their designs incorporated
In the field of tragedy, the main influence classical devices like the PERIAKTOI, although
on Renaissance writers was the work of new features such as the PROSCENIUM ARCH
SENECA. As early as 1315, Albertino Mussato were also introduced.
(1261–1329) wrote a Latin tragedy, Ecerinis.
The first important Renaissance tragedy was Renaissance Theatre Company See
BRANAGH, KENNETH.
Giangiorgio Trissino’s Sophonisba, which was
written in 1515. Other authors of tragedy repertory or repertoire or rep A list
included Italy’s Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), of plays that a theatre company performs on a
Giovanni Giraldi (1504–73) (see CINTHIO, IL), rotating basis, usually on a weekly schedule, or
and Torquato Tasso (1544–95); France’s has ready to be presented at short notice.
Étienne Jodelle (1532–73); Spain’s Juan de Although early travelling companies could
la Cueva (c. 1543–1610), and Miguel de repeat the same play at different locations, once
Cervantes (1547–1616); as well as England’s permanent theatres were established, different
Shakespeare, KYD, and MARLOWE. plays had to be presented in rotation to attract
In the Renaissance theatre the solemn a larger nightly audience. The repertory
scenes of tragedy were often interspersed with system therefore became the norm. During the
intermezzi (see INTERMEZZO), song and dance 18th and 19th centuries, repertory companies
interludes that borrowed from the Greco- were called STOCK COMPANIES, the name by
Roman SATYR-PLAY. These interludes which they are still known in America. At the
ultimately developed into the court MASQUE in beginning of the 19th century, most US cities
England, the opera in Italy, and ballet in had a resident repertory company. London’s
France. Royal Court Theatre operated as a repertory
The discovery of Roman comedy, with its theatre from 1904–07 under Granville-Barker.
stock characters and intricate plots, inspired By the early 20th century the rising expense of
Renaissance dramatists to write similar works, producing commercial plays in London and
such as Udall’s RALPH ROISTER DOISTER New York had led to the practice of staging a
(c. 1534). The first significant comedy written continuous run of a single play in the hope of
in Italian was Calandria (1506) by Bernardo achieving a long-running hit. There are now
Dovizi da Bibbiena (1470–1520). In 16th- two national repertory companies in Britain,
century Italy authors of the COMMEDIA ERUDITA the Royal Shakespeare Company and the
began to combine aspects of Roman comedy ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE, and several in
and tragedy with elements of the liturgical Britain’s regional theatres. ‘Repertoire’ theatres
drama. A leading writer of the commedia also still exist on the Continent.
erudita was Lodovico Ariosto (1474–1533). The terms ‘repertory’ and ‘repertoire’ also
This new genre, however, provoked an refer to the collection of roles played by an
important reaction in the form of the individual actor or actress, especially those
improvised COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Major parts for which he or she is especially known.
comic playwrights of the era included England’s
Shakespeare and Ben JONSON; France’s Jacques repertory movement A campaign in
Grévin (1538–70) and Pierre de Larivey early 20th-century Britain to restore a true
 resident theatre 423

REPERTORY system by creating repertory and as training grounds for actors and
theatres throughout the country. It began as a directors: they are funded by public and
reaction to the commercial thinking that private subsidies. Although the 1980s saw a
favoured long-run productions. The decline in venues, by 1990 there were still
movement’s success came mostly in the more than 200 resident theatres mounting
provinces. Leaders of the repertory movement more than 3000 productions a year.
included Frank Benson with his summer Although the first resident theatre, the
festival (1886–1916) at Stratford-upon- Cleveland Play House, was founded in 1915
Avon, Annie HORNIMAN who established the movement only really gathered momentum
Manchester’s Gaiety Theatre as the first after the establishment of amateur LITTLE
permanent repertory theatre in 1907, and THEATRES in the 1920s. Congress provided a
Frank Waring who founded the Glasgow great impetus in 1935 when it chartered the
Repertory Theatre in 1909. The oldest American National Theatre and Academy (see
surviving repertory theatre in Britain is the ANTA) to revive drama outside New York. In
Liverpool Playhouse, which opened in 1911. 1947 Margo Jones (1913–55) founded
These venues proved excellent training Theatre ’47 in Dallas, which became the
grounds for young actors, who could learn a prototype for later regional theatres. That same
range of parts by appearing in a series of year Nina Vance founded Houston’s Alley
productions that usually lasted no longer than Theatre: in 1949 Zelda Fichandler cofounded
a week at a time. the Arena Stage in Washington, DC and in
More than 100 repertory theatres existed 1952 Jules Irving and Herbert Blau began the
in the early 1950s, but by 1960 the number Actors’ Workshop in San Francisco.
had fallen to 44. A summer venue was The 1960s saw a great expansion of
established in 1951 at the Pitlochry Festival resident theatre, encouraged by new financial
Theatre in Scotland, while the BELGRADE support. In 1959 the Ford Foundation made
THEATRE with its resident repertory company generous grants to several small companies,
opened in 1958 in Coventry. Since the 1960s allowing them to become totally professional.
there has been a revival in regional theatres, More help came from the federal government
where short-run productions usually last for in 1965 with the establishment of the National
three or four weeks. Endowment for the Arts. By 1966, for the first
time in the 20th century, New York had fewer
Representative, The A controversial
professional stage actors than the rest of the
documentary drama (see DOCUMENTARY
country. Resident companies established in
THEATRE) by the Swiss playwright Rolf
the 1960s include the Minneapolis Theatre
HOCHHUTH. It was first performed in an
(1963) founded by Tyrone GUTHRIE (and later
abridged version in 1963 in Berlin; English-
renamed after him), the American Place
language versions were seen in London that
Theatre company (1964), the Actors’ Theatre
same year and in New York (as The Deputy) a
year later. The lengthy detailed play – which is of Louisville (1964), now the State Theatre of
written in blank verse – caused an outcry by Kentucky, the American Conservatory Theatre
placing much of the blame for the massacre of (1967) in San Francisco, Long Wharf Theatre
the Jewish population in Nazi-occupied in New Haven, Connecticut (1965), and the
Europe on Pope Pius XII’s refusal to intervene. Mark Taper Forum (1967) in Los Angeles.
The play incorporated harrowing film During this period, Chicago became a
sequences of Auschwitz. Although Hochhuth’s leader in resident theatres and by the end of
virulent attack on the Catholic Church the 1980s had 110 companies, including the
resulted in The Representative being banned in Steppenwolf Theatre (1976). The Goodman
many countries, it effectively launched the Theatre, which became a resident venue in
documentary drama movement and thereby 1977, gained national recognition under
helped to revitalize the German theatre. Gregory Mosher.
Resident companies have premiered many
resident theatre or regional shows that subsequently became Broadway hits
theatre or repertory theatre and Pulitzer Prize winners. David Mamet’s
Regional nonprofitmaking US theatres run on Glengarry Glen Ross, which won the 1984
a professional basis. The various companies Pulitzer, was first seen at the Goodman
and theatres are used as educational resources Theatre and Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love
424 responsible

(1983) originated at San Francisco’s Magic Restoration theatre was in comedy. The
Theatre. English comedy of manners was pioneered by
The Theatre Communications Group, Sir George ETHEREGE, who took his cue from
founded in 1961 in New York, provides a the works of Molière and other French and
communications link between regional theatres; Spanish masters. The form was subsequently
the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) in perfected by CONGREVE in such sophisticated
Baltimore, Maryland, was formed in 1965. works as Love for Love (1695) and The Way of
the World (1700). Other writers to produce
responsible Old-fashioned theatrical witty comedies of intrigue and sentiment
slang for a small, unspectacular, but essential included Aphra BEHN and John VANBRUGH:
role in a play. An actor who made a career the works of William WYCHERLEY are darker
from the reliable performance of such roles and more satirical. George FARQUHAR, who
would be termed a ‘responsible’ or enjoyed success with The Beaux’ Stratagem in
‘responsibles’. 1707, is usually considered the last true
resting An actors’ euphemism meaning exponent of Restoration comedy.
that he or she is temporarily unemployed. The In tragedy, the attempt to imitate French
NEOCLASSICAL models spawned a number of
terms between engagements and available are
also used. high-flown works in rhyming verse, notably
Dryden’s Tyrannick Love (1669) and Almanzor
Restoration drama The revival of and Almahide (1671). The only Restoration
drama in England after the restoration of the tragedies to enjoy regular revivals today are
monarchy (1660). Dryden’s All For Love (1678) and Thomas
Its main features were the reopening of the Otway’s Venice Preserv’d (1682), both of which
theatres after the Puritan INTERREGNUM, the are in blank verse.
formation of new acting companies, and the The Restoration style of comedy fell out of
first appearance of women on the English favour in the early 18th century, when middle-
stage. The dominant genres of the era were the class audiences began to reject its cynicism and
COMEDY OF MANNERS and the HEROIC DRAMA licentiousness (see COLLIER, JEREMY). Samuel
of Dryden and others, both of which show a Johnson summed up the attitude of his age to
strong French influence. This was encouraged the Restoration wits when he wrote:
by the king himself, who had become familiar Themselves they studied, as they felt
with the works of Corneille and others while in they writ;
exile in France. Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit.
In the two decades without drama many Vice always found a sympathetic
actors, playwrights, and regular theatregoers friend;
had died. The early Restoration audience was They pleas’d their age, and did not aim
made up largely of courtiers and of aristocrats, to mend.
although the influence of the middle classes The comedies were generally staged in
became greater as the era wore on. Charles bowdlerized form until the mid 20th century.
himself kept a tight control on the new theatres,
issuing patents to only Thomas Killigrew of Revenger’s Tragedy, The A violent
the King’s Men, who played at DRURY LANE, tragedy published anonymously in 1607 and
and William Davenant of the Duke’s Men at performed in London at about the same time.
LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS THEATRE. The new Scholars are divided over the authorship,
audience was so small, however, that it barely with some favouring Cyril Tourneur
supported two theatres; the two companies (c. 1575–1626) but more now supporting
merged in 1682 and separated again in 1695. Thomas MIDDLETON. After three centuries of
Because of their novelty value, the most neglect – the 19th-century critic William
famous performers tended to be women. By Archer memorably dismissed the play as “a
1670 actresses were well established, the mere farrago of sanguinary absurdities … a
favourites being Nell GWYNN, Anne OLDFIELD, product either of sheer barbarism or of some
Elizabeth BARRY, Anne BRACEGIRDLE, and pitiable psychopathic perversion” – it was
Mary Saunderson, the wife of the era’s most revived in 1966 at Stratford-upon-Avon with
renowned actor Thomas BETTERTON. Tourneur given as the author. Trevor Nunn’s
The greatest achievement of the production proved an unexpected success and
 revue 425

transferred to the Aldwych Theatre three years from mythology) and employed an orchestra
later. There was another RSC revival in 1987, and chorus line. The satire was often virulent.
when Antony Sher starred as Vindice. The revista gained in popularity and respect
In its cynicism, violence, and emphasis on under the dictatorship of Salazar (1932–68),
corruption in high places, the play is typical of despite repressive censorship that reduced the
its period and genre. The plot revolves around number of new offerings from 122 in the
Vindice’s desire to avenge the death of his 1930s to 68 in the 1960s.
mistress, who was poisoned by the duke after
she rejected his advances. Vindice enters the revolving stage A stage with a large
court in disguise and eventually murders the circular area that can be rotated about a central
duke by having him kiss the poisoned skull of axis, either as part of the dramatic action or to
his victim. Other characters are killed in a final reveal new sets. The idea originated in Japan’s
KABUKI theatre, the first efficient revolving
orgy of bloodletting. Vindice confesses to
murdering the duke and is led to his execution. stage being built in 1758 at the Kado-za doll
theatre in Osaka. The turntable stage did not
revenge tragedy A popular genre of the appear in Europe until the end of the 19th
Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, in which the century. Britain’s first revolving stage was
main character seeks revenge on the murderer introduced by Sir Oswald Stoll at a cost of
of a relative or friend. The action was often £70,000 when he opened the LONDON
precipitated by a ghost returning to a COLISEUM in 1904. Its first year saw one of the
descendant or friend, who promises to exact theatre’s worst accidents: during a Derby scene
retribution. The genre usually combined featuring six live horses ridden by professional
violent and sensational action with intense jockeys at 15 mph, two horses collided and
meditations on the morality of revenge. The one rolled over the footlights, killing its jockey.
first Elizabethan revenge tragedy was Thomas Stoll merely roped off the footlights and ran
KYD’s The Spanish Tragedy (1585–89), in the Derby again for the next performance. The
which Hieronimo seeks revenge for his Royal National Theatre has revolving stages in
son’s murder. Shakespeare wrote two, the both its Lyttelton and Olivier theatres.
grotesquely violent Titus Andronicus (1592)
revue A form of VARIETY popular in Britain
and HAMLET (1600), the undoubted
and America between the world wars, in which
masterpiece of the genre. Other examples
a group of performers presented a programme
include George Chapman’s Bussy d’Ambois
of songs, dances, and sketches. In this it
(1604), the anonymous THE REVENGER’S
differed from English music hall and US
TRAGEDY (1607), Cyril Tourneur’s The
vaudeville, which featured a series of different
Atheist’s Tragedy (1611), John Webster’s The
acts.
Duchess of Malfi (1619), Thomas Middleton Revue was first introduced at the Théâtre
and William Rowley’s The Changeling (1622), de la Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris in the late
John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge (1599), and 19th century and subsequently became the
James Shirley’s The Traitor (1631). rage at the Folies-Bergères. The first English
reverberator A reflective metal device, revue was Under the Clock (1893) by Seymour
used to increase the strength of stage lighting Hicks (1871–1949), although Pot-Pourri
in the Restoration theatre. The forerunner of (1899) was the first to be so designated on the
the floodlight, it was used mainly to illuminate playbill.
the APRON. Broadway’s first revue was The Passing
Show (1894), which ran for 12 seasons; it
revista (Portuguese: revue) In Portugal, a opened in London in 1914, inaugurating a
type of satirical variety entertainment, ranging series at the Palace Theatre by Alfred Butt
from intimate sketches to small-scale musicals, (1878–1962). The fashion for costly spectacles
performed in the large theatres of Lisbon. was set by the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES, which
Fossilismo e progresso (Fossil-Worship and became the longest-running annual revue
Progress; 1859) was the first of the annual (1907–57) with its chorus girls and stars like
revista do ano (reviews of the year). Originally Fanny Bryce and Bert Williams. Al JOLSON
little more than brief sketches lampooning made his name in 1911 with his black-faced
politicians and royalty, by the early 20th revue La Belle Paree at the new Winter Garden
century they usually had a plot (often drawn Theatre.
426 Rhinoceros

In Britain, the smaller-scale intimate revue issued a statement in New York saying she was
arrived in 1914 with Odds and Ends, presented seeking a divorce, Plowright withdrew from
at the Ambassadors Theatre by Charles the cast and Maggie Smith took over her role.
COCHRAN. In the 1920s such shows were The Royal Court production was staged by
presented regularly at the Hippodrome Orson WELLES, who complained bitterly that
Theatre by Albert de Courville (1887–1960) Olivier was constantly undermining his
and at the Alhambra by André Charlot authority:
(1882–1956). Gertrude Lawrence, Beatrice He took every actor aside and said that
Lillie, and Jack Buchanan made Charlot’s I was misdirecting them. He got them
Revue of 1924 a Broadway hit, although off in little groups and had little quiet
electrical problems with the neon sign often rehearsals…
billed it as Harlot’s Revue of 1924. Noël
Several days before the premiere, Olivier
Coward starred in his own This Year of Grace.
asked Welles to leave and took over the
In America, George White’s Scandals an
direction himself.
intimate version of Ziegfeld’s Follies, ran
from 1919 to 1931; it emphasized comedy, rhinthonica See FABULA.
featuring stars like Eddie Cantor and W. C.
Fields. Earl Carroll’s Vanities ran from 1923 to rhubarb A word traditionally repeated
1932 and The Greenwich Village Follies from by groups of actors to create an effect of
1919 to 1928. New York’s longest-running background conversation or noisy hubbub. It
revue was OLSEN AND JOHNSON’s Hellzapoppin was apparently chosen for its sonorous
(1938), which logged 1404 performances at qualities. The term is now applied to any
the 46th Street Theatre. meaningless muttering by actors in crowd
In Britain the success of the satirical revue scenes, especially when this seems exaggerated
BEYOND THE FRINGE helped to bring about the or artificial.
demise of the more expensive type of stage
revue (which briefly found a new home on Rice, Archie The central character in
television). So-called continuous revue or non- John Osborne’s play THE ENTERTAINER (1957),
stop variety, such as Revuedeville at the a struggling survivor from the great days of
WINDMILL THEATRE (with its famous nudes) music hall, partly based on the veteran comic
died out at much the same time. Max Miller (1895–1963). The role was
originally played by Laurence OLIVIER, in a
Rhinoceros An absurdist satire by Eugène notable departure from the classical repertory
IONESCO that was first performed in 1959 in in which he had made his name. Subsequent
Paris. The story is set in a small French town revivals have starred Max Wall (1974), Peter
and centres upon the reluctant clerk Bérenger Bowles (1986), and Robert Lindsay (2007).
(a character from Ionesco’s 1959 play The
Killer), who is having a drink in a café with his Rice, Elmer (Elmer Reizenstein;
friend Jean when a rhinoceros thunders past. 1892–1967) The most important US
Bérenger ignores this, but the next day EXPRESSIONIST playwright. Also a director and
rhinoceroses appear everywhere and even Jean producer, Rice was responsible for introducing
turns into a vicious specimen. When his a number of innovatory techniques, including
girlfriend makes a similar transformation, the flashback, which he used in his first play,
Bérenger begins to find the breed attractive. the thriller On Trial (1914). The great success
Soon he finds himself the last non-rhino in the of this debut enabled him to take a more
town, but bravely resists the temptation to experimental approach in such plays as
conform. THE ADDING MACHINE, a harsh satire on
The first London production opened in automation. A socialist and rationalist, Rice
1960 at the Royal Court Theatre, later had a love–hate relationship with the theatre;
transferring to the Strand Theatre for a total of when he accepted the Pulitzer Prize for STREET
over 100 performances. The part of Bérenger SCENE (1929), he stunned the audience by
was played by OLIVIER in one of his rare announcing, “I do not like playgoing”. In the
ventures into contemporary drama. The mid 1930s he was a founder of the FEDERAL
leading lady was originally Joan Plowright, THEATRE PROJECT but resigned when his
who was to become Olivier’s third wife. When LIVING NEWSPAPER Ethiopia, an attack on
Vivien Leigh, to whom he was still married, Mussolini’s invasion of that country, was
 Richardson, Sir Ralph 427

cancelled on political grounds. In 1936 he lines) after Hamlet. GARRICK made his London
became one of the founders of the Playwright’s debut in 1741 as Richard; Edwin Booth (see
Producing Company. BOOTH FAMILY) played him at 18; and the part
Rice’s other works for the theatre include established John BARRYMORE as the greatest
We, The People (1933), the anti-Nazi US actor of his day. The most memorable
Judgement Day (1934), Dream Girl (1945), performance of recent times is usually thought
and Cue for Passion (1958). to have been that of Anthony SHER, who was
first seen in the role in 1984 at Stratford.
Richard II SHAKESPEARE’s history play, The most celebrated Richard of the 20th
written in 1595 and first performed that year century, however, was OLIVIER, whose 1944
in London. The plot follows the conflict performance with the Old Vic, depicting the
between the weak and capricious king and the king as an evil joker, has been called “one of
ambitious Bolingbroke (later Henry IV). the legendary nights of theatre history”. Critic
When Richard returns from the Irish wars, he Kenneth TYNAN called it “energetic evil in all
is taken prisoner and yields the crown to its wicked richness”. Olivier made a film
Bolingbroke, who eventually has him version in 1955.
poisoned. In the first production the Richard’s most famous line is his last: “A
deposition scene was omitted so as not to horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”. One
offend Queen Elizabeth. night when the Irish tragedian Barry Sullivan
The GLOBE THEATRE staged a revival in spoke the line, a voice in the pit yelled out,
1601, when supporters of the Earl of Essex “And wouldn’t a jackass do as well for you?”
bribed the Lord Chamberlain’s Company to Shot back Sullivan: “Sure, come around to the
stage a special performance on the night before stage door at once!”
Essex’s planned uprising against Queen There is a story that when Richard
Elizabeth’s counsellors. The conspirators seem BURBAGE played the role, a female admirer
to have believed that this play about the invited him to come to her house under
deposition of an incompetent monarch would cover of darkness, where he should identify
win public support for their actions. The plot himself as ‘Richard the Third’. Shakespeare,
was foiled and Essex executed. The actors were overhearing this, went ahead to the woman’s
apparently wholly unaware of the plan; far dwelling and gained admittance. He was being
from blaming them, the queen asked them to entertained when a message came from
play at court six days later. Burbage saying that Richard the Third had
The Edwardian actor-manager Beerbohm arrived. The Bard sent a message back that
TREE was known for his penchant for using live William the Conqueror came before Richard
animals on stage. In his production of the play the Third. See also OFF WITH HIS HEAD! – SO
at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Tree had the king MUCH FOR BUCKINGHAM.
accompanied by a dog, who waited until the
deposition scene to turn from Richard to lick Richardson, Sir Ralph (1902–83)
Bolingbroke’s hand. On another occasion, British actor. Richardson’s first job in the
IRVING was hiring a horse for a play. Just as the theatre was to simulate the sound of a
owner informed him that Tree had recently Zeppelin raid using two empty petrol cans; in
ridden the beast in Richard II, the horse his enthusiasm, he drowned the leading man’s
yawned. “Ah!” smiled Irving, “he’s a bit of a speech with the noise. He made his acting
critic too, I see.” debut as Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice in
1921, subsequently joining Barry Jackson’s
Richard III SHAKESPEARE’s history play Birmingham Repertory Theatre. After
about Richard’s ruthless campaign to seize the successful seasons at the Old Vic and the
throne, his bloody rule, and his death in battle Malvern Festival, he made his name in the
at the hand of Richmond (Henry VII). It was West End in plays by Shakespeare and J. B.
written between 1592–93 and first performed Priestley.
in 1593. Although the historical accuracy of In 1944, after wartime service with the
Shakespeare’s portrait has been attacked, there Fleet Air Arm, he became joint director of the
is no doubt that the deformed and malevolent Old Vic company with Laurence OLIVIER.
Richard offers one of the great bravura roles in During this period he consolidated his
the English-speaking theatre. The part is the reputation as one of Britain’s greatest actors in
longest in the Shakespearean canon (1164 a series of classic roles that included Ibsen’s
428 Richardson’s Show

Peer Gynt, Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and his company to walk out, leaving Rich with a
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. He later appeared group of second-rate performers. After the
opposite John Gielgud in both David Storey’s Lord Chamberlain closed Drury Lane, Rich
Home (1970) and Harold Pinter’s No Man’s bought the deserted LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS
Land (1975). THEATRE to refurbish but died before he could
In his long career Richardson appeared in reopen it.
over 200 parts on stage and some 50 film roles, His son, John Rich, who inherited
the latter including the ‘Supreme Being’ in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, became a successful
Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits. His greatest Harlequin using the stage name of LUN.
success, however, was as Falstaff, a role to Virtually illiterate, he did more than anyone
which he returned many times. else to create the English PANTOMIME,
Richardson was well known for his producing one such show annually from 1717
eccentricities, which included riding around to 1760. In 1725 he devised Harlequin
Hampstead on a motorbike with his pipe in Sorcerer, with the Loves of Pluto and Proserpine,
his mouth and a pet parrot called José seated in which the title character knocked down
on his shoulder. On one occasion he is said to traders, leapt through glass, climbed walls, and
have walked up to Alec Guinness in a hotel in dashed down chimneys while being chased by
Madrid and knocked him to the floor, saying a village constable. Many contemporaries paid
“Who can one hit if not one’s friends?” tribute to the brilliance of his miming and his
agility on stage:
Richardson’s Show A touring English He hides where it is impossible to hide,
variety show of the early 19th century, whose he passes through openings that are
fairground performances were a forerunner of smaller than his body, he stands on
MUSIC HALL. John Richardson (1766–1836), supports that are too weak to support
a mild-mannered publican and itinerant his weight, he balances on an umbrella,
actor who had once been a workhouse boy, he curls up inside a guitar-case – and
erected his first theatre booth at London’s throughout, he flees, he escapes, he
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR in 1798 using scenery leaps.
borrowed from Drury Lane. During its THÉODORE DE BANVILLE
heyday, Richardson’s Show could seat some
One night in 1721 a drunken earl was
1000 spectators in its 100 ft × 30 ft booth,
backstage and, seeing friends in the opposite
which also accommodated 1500 lamps and an
wing, walked across the stage disrupting the
elevated stage with crimson curtains. Within a
scene then being acted. When tongue-lashed
span of 25 minutes, the audience was treated
by Rich, he struck the Harlequin, who hit
to a fast-paced overture, comic songs, a
back. A riot ensued between actors and
melodrama, and a pantomime (with three
aristocrats, the latter storming the boxes with
murders and a ghost, noted Dickens). Many
swords before the actor James ‘Bellower’ QUIN
distinguished actors, including Edmund Kean overpowered them with the help of a constable
began with Richardson, who is credited with and theatre watchmen. The king, informed of
spreading popular drama to the provinces. In the riot, posted soldiers in the theatre for the
1826 he tried to auction off the show but next few performances.
inadequate bids made him persevere for Rich’s outstanding success as a manager
another decade until his death. Nelson Lee was Gay’s THE BEGGAR’S OPERA, which was
then acquired the property, disposing of it in produced in 1728 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Its
1853. record run of 62 performances led to the quip
Riches, the The British theatre managers that it had “made Gay rich and Rich gay”. It
Christopher Rich (d. 1714) and his son, the provided him with the funds to build the first
Harlequin John Rich (1681–1761). COVENT GARDEN Theatre in 1732.
Christopher Rich was a lawyer who riciniata See FABULA.
bought a share in DRURY LANE, subsequently
taking control of the theatre in 1693. He spent Rickety Twins, the Nickname for two
much of his time in lawsuits and became London theatres off the Strand that were built
notorious for manipulating and bullying actors back-to-back, the Hicks Theatre (subsequently
and cutting their salaries. All this caused the the Globe; now the Gielgud), which opened in
great actor Thomas BETTERTON and most of 1868, and the OPERA COMIQUE, which opened
 Rigg, Dame Diana 429

two years later. They had been jerry-built with in 1991; a strange dream-like piece about two
the expectation of additional funds that did travelling showmen who menace a couple in
not materialize. their own home, the play became a word-of-
mouth success and is now seen as heralding the
Riders to the Sea A one-act tragedy by IN-YER-FACE school of the mid 1990s. It was
J. M. SYNGE that has been described as the followed by The Fastest Clock in the Universe
finest short play in any language. It was (1992) and Ghost from a Perfect Place (1993),
inspired by his visits to the Aran Islands off a play about an ageing East End gangster that
Galway each summer from 1898 to 1902 and divided critics with its scenes of violence
uses the speech patterns of the Aran peasants. and sadism. For the next decade Ridley
Riders to the Sea was first performed in 1904 concentrated on writing fiction for children,
at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1937 but also began The Storyteller Sequence, a series
Vaughan Williams adapted it as an opera. The of plays for young people that includes the
main character is Maurya, an old woman who popular Sparkleshark (1997) and the more
loses the last of her six sons to the sea and controversial Moonfleece (2004), about a
discovers a strange peace in her life because fate teenaged BNP activist.
can no longer harm her. She concludes: Ridley then caused the greatest furore of
No man at all can be living for ever, his career with Mercury Fur (2005), a play set
and we must be satisfied. in a future society of gang violence and amoral,
drug-induced mayhem. With its scenes of
Ridiculous, Theatre of the A sexual cruelty – including the torture of a child
theatrical movement that began in 1967 with – the play upset several leading critics and
the opening of the Play-House of the Ridley’s own publishers, who rejected it on the
Ridiculous on OFF-OFF-BROADWAY. It was grounds that its horrors were ‘gratuitous’. The
characterized by outrageous dialogue, bad production even experienced a police raid,
taste, double entendre, and witty word-play. when a resident living next to the informal
The first offering was Ronald Tavel’s The Life space in which it was being staged phoned 999
of Lady Godiva (1967), directed by John in the belief that its violent scenes were being
Vaccaro, with Charles Ludlam as the leading enacted for real. Ridley’s more recent works
actor. That same year, Ludlam wrote and have included the plays Leaves of Glass (2007)
Vaccaro directed Big Hotel and Conquest of the and Piranha Heights (2008), the opera libretto
Universe. Ludlam shortly afterwards left to Tarantula in Petrol Blue (2009), and Heartless
form his own company, writing, directing, and (2010), a typically idiosyncratic horror film.
acting in such plays as Turds in Hell (1968),
Camille (1973), and Der Ring Gott Farblonjet Rigg, Dame Diana (1938– ) British
(1977). Vaccaro remained with the Play- actress. Rigg was born in Yorkshire but spent
House company, which toured Europe and most of her childhood in Jodhpur, India,
subsequently found a home in New York’s where her father managed the state railway.
La Mama Experimental Theatre Club. It She later boarded at a school run by the
disbanded in 1972. Moravian Brethren, where she discovered both
an interest in the theatre and the pronounced
Ridley, Philip (1967– ) British rebellious streak that has characterized her
playwright, novelist, film-maker, and artist, career. After training at RADA, she made her
whose highly original work has frequently professional debut (1957) in Brecht’s The
caused shock. Ridley was born into a working- Caucasian Chalk Circle and worked in rep.
class family in the old East End of London, Growing recognition came during her time
where he has continued to live and draw his with the Royal Shakespeare Company
inspiration. In the 1980s he studied at St (1959–64), when her roles included Helena in
Martin’s School of Art and began to exhibit as Peter Hall’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
an artist. He then showed the breadth of his Cordelia in the famous Paul Scofield King Lear
talents by publishing novels for both adults (both 1962).
and children and making several forays into In the mid 1960s Rigg’s career took an
film – notably with his screenplay for The unexpected turn when she auditioned, more or
Krays (1990) – while still in his early twenties. less on a whim, for a part in the TV spy drama
Ridley’s first work for the stage, The Pitchfork The Avengers – a programme she had never
Disney, was staged at London’s Bush Theatre seen. As the glamorous secret agent Emma
430 Ring Round the Moon

Peel, Rigg became an instant star and is still brothers left the stage to be called back by the
fondly remembered as one of the most potent butler, briefly revealing his back to the
icons of the era (a recent US poll voted her the audience; a split second later, Scofield
sexiest TV actress of all time). For Rigg, appeared at the opposite side of the stage to
however, the show was not a happy experience gasps from the audience, who had not detected
and she later took some pains to avoid “the that a double was used.
sexy label”. Although the 1970s saw her According to Binkie Beaumont, the Paris
working mainly in film and TV, she returned production was terrible, with dull costumes
to the stage in National Theatre productions and settings. In London Beaumont had
of Stoppard’s Jumpers (1972), Macbeth (1973), expensive Edwardian costumes designed and
and The Misanthrope (1973). Another stage created a great winter garden in an on-stage
appearance, with Keith Michell in Abelard and conservatory. When Anouilh saw the London
Heloise (1970), caused controversy with a brief production, he told Beaumont, “I had no idea
nude scene – the first to feature a leading that my little play could look so marvellous.”
British actress. It was one critic’s likening of
the naked Rigg to “a brick mausoleum with ring up the curtain To order the
insufficient flying buttresses” that provoked CURTAIN to be raised or opened, the signal

the actress, years later, to publish No Turn originally being the ringing of a bell. The
Unstoned, an anthology of the most phrase is often used metaphorically, meaning
memorably damning reviews in theatre history. to initiate an enterprise, etc. Similarly to ring
After a fairly quiet decade in which she down the curtain is to terminate or bring to an
concentrated on raising her daughter, Rigg end.
relaunched her stage career in the early 1990s riots See ASTOR PLACE RIOT; DEVIL AMONG
with a series of roles that confirmed her as one THE TAILORS; EMPIRE PROMENADE; O.P. RIOTS;
of the country’s great actresses. This run of PINAFORE RIOT; PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN
triumphs began at the Almeida Theatre with WORLD, THE; PLOUGH AND THE STARS, THE.
productions of Dryden’s All For Love (1990),
in which she played Cleopatra, and Euripides’ rise-and-sink A former method of rapidly
Medea (1992), which transferred to the West changing a set for a TRANSFORMATION SCENE,
End and subsequently to Broadway, winning as in English pantomime; a low grid beneath
Rigg a Tony for best actress. It continued with the stage roof was used to raise the upper half
award-winning performances in Mother of the scenery while SLOTEs were used to lower
Courage (1995) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia the bottom half into the cellar. This revealed
Woolf? (1996) and a highly praised Phèdre the new set behind.
(1998), again at the Almeida. Rigg received a
different sort of award in 2003, when she Ritchard, Cyril (Cyril Trimnel-Ritchard;
accepted major damages from two newspapers 1898–1977) Australian-born British actor and
that had described her as an embittered director, described by the critic Michael
woman who despised British men. Billington as the “etiolated dandy-mincing
revue star”.
Ring Round the Moon (L’Invitation au Ritchard made his debut in 1918 at His
château) A play by Jean ANOUILH that opened Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney, in the chorus of A
in 1947 at the Théâtre de l’Atelier, Paris. Waltz Dream. In 1925 he made his first New
The plot concerns the tangled love affairs of York appearance in the revue Puzzle of 1925
identical twins, the shy romantic Frederic and and his London debut in the revue Bubbly at
his cynical brother Hugo. the Duke of York’s Theatre. He subsequently
In 1950 the play was staged in London remained in Britain for several years, appearing
in an adaptation by Christopher Fry; the in revue, cabaret, and such roles as Algernon
production was directed by Peter Brook and in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
starred Paul SCOFIELD as both the twins. Claire (1942).
Bloom, Cecil Trouncer, and Margaret After the war Ritchard alternated between
Rutherford also appeared. Having left the stage Britain and America. Highlights of his later
as one brother, Scofield was frequently obliged career included playing Sir Novelty Fashion in
to make an athletic backstage dash to the a London production of Vanbrugh’s The
opposite wing in order to reappear moments Relapse (1947) that later transferred to
later as the other. In one scene, one of the Broadway (1950). The critic Harold Hobson
 Robertson, T(homas) W(illiam) 431

called his performance “a gorgeous creation of solecisms of Mrs Malaprop, which gave the
wit, wigs, taste, and paste”. word ‘malapropism’ to the language.
Ritchard is best remembered, however, for In accordance with an old theatrical
playing the dual role of Mr Darling and superstition (see TABOOS AND SUPERSTITIONS),
Captain Hook in the 1954 musical version of Ellen Terry once played Lydia’s cousin, Julia,
Peter Pan at New York’s Winter Garden. He without having rehearsed the play’s final line.
remained in America for the last two decades When she came to speak the unfamiliar words
of his career, ending as he began: his farewell on stage, she delivered the line on an upward
performance in 1975 was a revue, A Musical inflection. The curtain stayed up and John
Jubilee. Buckstone, a deaf actor playing Bob Acres,
stunned the audience by shouting across the
Ritterdrama (German: knight drama) In stage at the prompter, “Eh! Eh! What does this
late 18th-century German theatre, a genre of mean? Why the devil don’t you bring down
historical drama that depicted the heroic days the curtain?”
of medieval knights. It derived from the STURM
UND DRANG movement, taking its romantic Rix, Brian (1924– ) British actor-
and patriotic themes from the historical plays manager, who played in bedroom farces for
of Goethe and Klinger. With its staging of over 30 years, a career that he has described as
battles, jousting, and other pageantry, the one of “diving under beds and into cupboards
genre established new standards for historical and pinching girls’ bottoms”.
realism in settings and costumes. The son of a shipowner, Rix made his stage
Successful Ritterdrama plays included debut with Donald Wolfit’s company in 1942;
Agnes Bernauerin (1780) by Josef August his early roles included a courtier in King Lear
von Törring (1753–1826) and Otto von and Sebastian in Twelfth Night. In 1943 he
Wittelsbach (1782) by Joseph Marius Babo joined the White Rose Players, a Harrogate
(1756–1822). At the end of the century the repertory company, and played farce for the
genre was banned from the Munich stage for first time in Nothing but the Truth.
emphasizing Bavarian patriotism, but its After wartime service in the RAF, Rix
popularity continued in Austria and elsewhere. toured with his own Viking Theatre Company
in the army farce Reluctant Heroes. In 1950 he
Rivals, The A comedy by Richard Brinsley brought the play to the WHITEHALL THEATRE,
SHERIDAN, first performed in London in 1775.
London, where it ran for nearly four years. His
The play, Sheridan’s first, did not meet with next farcical offering, Dry Rot, enjoyed a
immediate success, being an hour longer than similarly long run; Rix eventually set a record
most works of the time; the character of Sir by staging more than a decade of continuous
Lucius O’Trigger also caused offence. After farces at the same theatre. In 1967 he moved
Sheridan had drastically revised it, the play to the Garrick Theatre, where he appeared in
enjoyed a great success on its second Stand by Your Bedouin, Let Sleeping Wives Lie,
performance 11 days later. He used its profits and She’d Done It Again during the first year of
to buy Garrick’s share of DRURY LANE and his management. He has published two
become manager there in 1776. The play’s volumes of memoirs, My Farce from my Elbow
many revivals have included Peter Wood’s (1975) and Farce about Face (1989).
1983 production for the National Theatre In 1982 Rix became secretary-general of
with Geraldine McEwan and Michael the charity for the mentally handicapped,
Hordern. MENCAP; six years later he retired from the
In the story, Lydia Languish longs for a theatre to become the organization’s chairman.
romantic elopement rather than a more “It’s a great relief to make the break,” he said
conventional marriage. Accordingly, Captain when leaving the stage, “I just got so tired of
Jack ABSOLUTE woos her in the guise of a the eternal cry of ‘Drop ’em!’” He was
penniless ensign. Confusions mount as her knighted for his services to charity in 1986,
aunt, Mrs MALAPROP, decides to disinherit her and became the first Baron Rix of Whitehall in
and Bob ACRES, a cowardly rival for Lydia’s 1992.
hand, challenges the ensign to a duel. When
the elderly Sir Lucius O’Trigger comes Robertson, T(homas) W(illiam)
courting, Lydia decides to accept Jack. The (1829–71) British playwright, who introduced
play is best known for the outrageous verbal a new NATURALISM to the London stage in the
432 Robeson, Paul

1860s. Robertson came from a large theatrical went into semi-retirement in America, while
family; his 21 brothers and sisters included the continuing to sing and campaign for civil-
future Madge KENDAL. As a child he appeared rights causes. He had already done much to
on stage with his father, and subsequently open the mainstream theatre to other Black
wrote songs and plays and worked as a stage actors.
manager. His first success as a playwright came
with his adaptation of David Garrick, Robey, Sir George See PRIME MINISTER
OF MIRTH.
produced at the Haymarket in 1864. SOCIETY
(1865) proved a great popular success when Robin Hood Play In the English FOLK
produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre by THEATRE, a type of play recounting the
the BANCROFTS; the first of his realist plays, it legendary exploits of Robin Hood and his
established the genre of CUP-AND-SAUCER band of outlaws. Such plays, which usually
DRAMA. Robertson wrote 22 plays in all, the involved a male actor in the role of MAID
most famous being CASTE (1867). See also MARIAN, were performed at various festivals
SHORTEST TITLES. throughout the agricultural calendar, but
Robeson, Paul (1898–1976) The Black particularly at MAY DAY celebrations. The
US actor; despite outstanding performances in character of Robin has sometimes been
Shakespeare, he is best remembered for singing interpreted as a fertility or woodland spirit
‘Ol’ Man River’ in SHOW BOAT. The son of a surviving from pre-Christian religion: this is
former slave, Robeson studied law before not accepted by most modern folklorists.
making his professional acting debut in 1921 robot (Czech robota, forced labour) An
at New York’s Lafayette Theatre in Simon the automaton with quasi-human powers and
Cyrenian. In 1924 he played Jim Harris in attributes. The name comes from the
Eugene O’Neill’s play about a mixed marriage, mechanical creatures in Karel čAPEK’s play
ALL GOD’S CHILLUN GOT WINGS. When word RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which
got out that the play featured a scene in which opened in 1921 in Prague and was successfully
a White woman knelt down before the Black produced in London in 1923. The play was a
actor, cast members were threatened by the Ku futuristic fantasy warning of the dangers of
Klux Klan. O’Neill was so impressed with uncontrolled technological development.
Robeson that he revived his earlier play The According to Čapek, the word ‘robot’ was
Emperor Jones (1920) for him to appear in. It actually coined by his brother, the painter and
opened in 1925 at London’s Comedy Theatre, writer Josef Čapek.
transferring to Broadway the following year.
Robeson won international fame for his Robson, Dame Flora (1902–84)
role as Joe in the Jerome Kern musical Show British actress, who was created a dame in
Boat, which he played in the first London 1960. Raised in London, Robson studied at
production of 1928 and the 1932 Broadway RADA and made her professional debut in
revival. Further success came with OTHELLO 1921 as a ghost in Will Shakespeare by
(1930), in which he played opposite Peggy Clemence Dane. When further offers dried up,
Ashcroft at the Savoy Theatre, sparking an off- she worked in a Shredded Wheat factory for
stage romance. He was the first Black Othello four years.
since Ira ALDRIDGE (the so-called ‘African With the encouragement of Tyrone Guthrie
Roscius’) in the 1860s. In 1943 he returned to she returned to the theatre and in 1931 won
America to play the part in a Theatre Guild encouraging reviews as Abbie Putnam in
production that ran for 295 performances on O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms. She enjoyed
Broadway, a record for a US Shakespeare another triumph that same year in Bridie’s The
production. Anatomist. The critic St John Ervine wrote, “If
During the McCarthy era Robeson’s you are not moved by this girl’s performance,
outspoken sympathy for left-wing causes and then you are immovable and have no right to
naive attitude to the Soviet Union attracted be on this earth. Hell is your place.” In 1949
much criticism and he was prevented from she was a great success as a disturbed mother in
travelling abroad. It was not until 1959 that he Black Chiffon at the Westminster Theatre,
returned to Britain, to sing at the Albert Hall playing the part on Broadway a year later.
and play Othello at the Shakespeare Memorial Shakespearean roles included Lady Macbeth
Theatre in Stratford. Robeson subsequently (1948) and Paulina in The Winter’s Tale
 Roman drama 433

(1951). She won the 1960 Evening Standard (1947). SOUTH PACIFIC (1949) took another
Award for Best Actress for her depiction of Pulitzer Prize, and was followed by the exotic
Miss Tina in The Aspern Papers. THE KING AND I (1951), starring Yul Brynner
In 1934 Robson played the title role in and Gertrude Lawrence, who died during
Mary Read, the violent story of a woman pirate, its run, FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958) set in
at His Majesty’s Theatre. At one point in the San Francisco’s Chinatown, Pipe Dream
performance, she was required to fire a prop (1955), a relative failure that ran for only 246
gun at Robert Donat, playing her stage lover. performances, and, a year before Hammerstein
One night, when she fired at Donat’s chest his died, THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1959).
shirt burst into flames. She watched in horror After Hammerstein’s death, Rodgers
as he fell to the ground and rolled over to put worked on several musicals with Stephen
out the fire. When the curtain fell, Donat sat SONDHEIM.
up with a black face and yelled, “Flora has
singed my navel!” roll-out See TRICKWORK.

Rodgers and Hammerstein The US Roman drama The theatre flourished in

composer Richard Rodgers (1902–79) and his ancient Rome for about 800 years, during both
lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), the Republic and the Empire. It developed
who were the stage’s most successful musical from village entertainments such as the
team since Gilbert and Sullivan. Their main ATELLANA, and from GREEK DRAMA (see GRECO-
contribution to the 20th-century musical was ROMAN DRAMA).
to blend bright strong tunes with sophisticated The earliest Roman drama probably evolved
plots. Beginning in 1949, they became from jolly carnivals and bawdy fertility rites
producers of their own musicals and those of performed on religious occasions. Its
others. development was influenced greatly by the
Hammerstein, who came from a family of traditions of Greek colonists living in southern
theatre managers and producers, began his Italy and Sicily. The first documented Roman
career as a stage manager on Broadway before playwright was Lucius Livius Andronicus
turning to writing lyrics. His first work on a (c. 280–204 BC), a freed Greek slave who
musical was creating the book and lyrics for translated Greek works into Latin. The first
Always You (1920). Success came with recorded production took place in 240 BC at
Rose Marie (1924; music by Rudolf Friml), the Roman Games (LUDI ROMANI). Unlike
The Desert Song (1926; music by Sigmund their Greek predecessors Roman playwrights,
Romberg), and the epoch-making SHOW BOAT such as Ennius, Naevius, and Andronicus
(1927; music by Jerome Kern). wrote and published non-dramatic poetry.
Rodgers, who began to write songs at an Few Roman tragedies survive; most of the
early age, met the witty lyricist Lorenz Hart plays seem to have been adaptations of Greek
(1895–1943) at Columbia University and the originals, although Lucius Accius is thought to
two collaborated on a 1920 varsity show. Later have written some original works. The role of
they enjoyed success with such offerings as The the CHORUS diminished, until it functioned as
Garrick Gaieties (1925), A Connecticut Yankee little more than a source of interlude music
(1927), On Your Toes (1936), which was the during scene changes. At the same time rhetoric
first Broadway musical to feature a ballet grew increasingly important, with plays
(‘Slaughter on Tenth Avenue’ choreographed containing long set speeches. It is not even
by George Balanchine), Babes in Arms (1937), certain that the nine gory tragedies of SENECA
THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (1938), and PAL were written to be performed on stage.
JOEY (1940), which made Gene Kelly a star. Roman comedy derived from the Greek
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first NEW COMEDY, with such authors as PLAUTUS
collaboration was the epoch-making and TERENCE basing many of their works
OKLAHOMA! (1943), which won a Pulitzer directly on plays by Menander and others.
Prize and ran for 2248 performances on Although the plays were often set in Greece
Broadway and 1543 at London’s Drury Lane. they tended to satirize Roman society and
It was followed by Hammerstein’s personal featured stereotypical Roman characters. Bawdy
favourite CAROUSEL (1945), which has and brutal MIME and the performances of the
been called their best show musically and PANTOMIMUS eventually superseded literary
dramatically, and the unsuccessful Allegro comedy.
434 Romanoff and Juliet

Roman drama was generally performed on the National Theatre. The play included a
festival days, together with gladiatorial scene between nude actors, in which a group
contests, circuses, and races; popular actors of druids were buggered by Roman centurions.
could be very highly paid, one of the most This resulted in the Greater London Council
successful being ROSCIUS. Theatre buildings threatening to reduce its grant to the National
were originally wooden, and took their design Theatre, inquiries by Scotland Yard, and a
from Greek theatres. The first stone theatre private prosecution of the director, Michael
was built in Rome in 55 BC. Roman theatres BOGDANOV, for procuring an act of gross
became considerably more elaborate than the indecency. The case, which had been brought
original Greek models; they were built to be by the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse,
freestanding, and had complex arrangements was eventually dropped. The play also caused
of curtains and scenery. There were even some political outrage by drawing a parallel between
indoor theatres. The AMPHITHEATREs designed the Roman conquest of Britain and the
as arenas for races were also used for theatrical contemporary stationing of British forces in
shows. Performances were sometimes given in Northern Ireland.
private; players could be hired to entertain A revival of the play at the Sheffield
dinner guests, while members of the literary Crucible in 2006 caused little stir – indeed, the
elite would hold prestigious private readings of theatre even arranged special matinees for
their works. pensioners and school parties.
Roman drama disappeared in the 6th
Romeo and Juliet SHAKESPEARE’s
century AD when Christian opposition to
tragedy of two young lovers from rival families.
acting resulted in the emperor Justinian closing
It was probably written in 1595, when the
down all the theatres.
London theatres were closed owing to the
Romanoff and Juliet A comedy by plague, and first performed a year later.
Peter USTINOV that updates the story of Shakespeare based his play upon Arthur
ROMEO AND JULIET to a Cold War setting. Brooke’s long narrative poem, The Tragicall
Often considered his best play, it was first History of Romeo and Juliet (1562), which was
performed in London in 1956 at the Piccadilly derived ultimately from an earlier Italian story
Theatre, with Ustinov himself playing the (1535) by Luigi da Porto. Romeo, of the house
General. The British critic Caryl Brahms of Montague, falls in love with Juliet, one of
wrote, “Never can so many twitches, squeaks, the Capulet family, who are long-standing
skips, hops, winks, blinks, nods and finger enemies of the Montagues. On the day that
flutterings have afflicted one and the same Romeo and Juliet are secretly married, Romeo
elder statesman, poor gentleman.” The play is banished from Verona as punishment for his
ran for a year, winning the Evening Standard unintentional killing of a Capulet in an affray.
Award for Best New Play, before opening on Old Capulet then orders Juliet to prepare
Broadway in 1957. It subsequently toured herself to marry Count Paris. To avoid
America and was made into a film. disclosing that she is already married to
The story, set in the tiny mid-European Romeo, she drugs herself into a death-like
country of Concordia, centres on the love trance. Romeo, hearing that she has died,
between Igor Romanoff, the son of the Soviet returns, enters the tomb where Juliet lies, and
ambassador, and Juliet Moulsworth, the kills himself. Juliet, awakening to find her
daughter of the US ambassador. Trouble brews husband dead, dispatches herself with Romeo’s
when the betrotheds of both Igor and Juliet dagger.
arrive on the scene. The country’s leader, the The play is remembered for its famous
General, worries that this inconvenient love balcony scene, which includes the often
affair will ruin Concordia’s standing in both misinterpreted line, “O Romeo, Romeo,
the communist and capitalist worlds. wherefore art thou Romeo?” (Juliet is asking
However, he eventually helps to unite both why Romeo is a Montague, not where he is).
Romanoff and Juliet and the two discarded The work also contributed the still popular
fiancés as well. curse, “A plague o’ both your houses”, uttered
by Romeo’s friend Mercutio, when he is fatally
Romans in Britain, The A play by wounded in a brawl between Montagues and
Howard BRENTON, which in 1980 caused one Capulets. SHAW, who was never shy of
of the greatest controversies in the history of straightening out Shakespeare’s literary
 Roots 435

problems, complained that some of Romeo’s Ralph Lynn, and Robertson Hare and ran for
fanciful lines “make you curse Shakespeare’s 409 performances. The farce has been a
stage-struckness and his youthful inability to popular choice for revival by repertory
keep his brains quiet”. companies and amateur groups.
Before actresses were accepted on the The plot involves the priggish Mrs
British stage, the part of Juliet was played by Gertrude Twine, who is staying in a holiday
boy actors, one famous pairing being that of cottage, Rookery Nook, with her brother-in-
Thomas Betterton as Romeo and Edward law Clive and his cousin, Gerald. The arrival
Kynaston as Juliet. By contrast, in an 1845 of a young woman in pyjamas, who has been
production at the Haymarket Theatre, the thrown out of her house by her stepfather, sets
sisters Charlotte and Susan Cushman played off a chaotic sequence of events, as Clive and
the parts. Asked if he might one day play Gerald scheme to keep Mrs Twine from
Shakespeare, the ageing Noël Coward replied: discovering their compromising situation.
“I might play the nurse in Romeo and Juliet.”
The worst actor to play Romeo seems Room, The The first play by Harold
to have been Robert ‘Romeo’ Coates PINTER, a one-act drama that was written in a
(1772–1842), who was eventually forced to few days and first performed in 1957 by the
abandon the role because no actress would play drama department of Bristol University. First
opposite him. Coates insisted on playing the seen in London in a 1960 double bill with THE
part in an outlandish sky-blue costume DUMB WAITER, it shows all the hallmarks of the
decorated with diamonds. When, as often Pinteresque style.
happened, the audience crowed at him and The plot centres on Bert and Rose, an
jeered he would halt the action to crow back. elderly couple who live in a drab bed-sitting
During one performance in 1807 in Bath, the room. Their landlord, Mr Kidd, arrives in an
audience rioted when Coates carried a crowbar agitated state but leaves without explaining his
on stage to prise open the Capulets’ tomb. behaviour. Bert also leaves on some unknown
The most famous modern production errand. Subsequently a blind Black man, called
(and, with 186 performances, the most Riley, appears; he calls Rose ‘Sal’ and says he
successful) was that staged in 1935 at the New has a message for her. Bert suddenly returns
Theatre (now the Albery) with Olivier, and beats Riley unconscious, whereupon Rose
Gielgud, Ashcroft, and Edith Evans in the cast. screams that she has now also gone blind. The
Gielgud and Olivier alternated between the room appears to be a symbol of refuge in a
roles of Romeo and Mercutio. Another much menacing world.
admired production was Franco Zeffirelli’s
Roots The second play in Arnold WESKER’s
boisterous interpretation with John Stride and
famous trilogy about the lives of a Jewish
Judi Dench (1960). Shakespeare’s story has
family in the years 1936 to 1959. The other
often been updated and reworked, notably in
plays in the sequence are CHICKEN SOUP WITH
the musical WEST SIDE STORY (1957). It has
BARLEY (1958) and I’m Talking About
also been made into half a dozen films
(including an animated version in which the Jerusalem (1960). Roots is probably Wesker’s
main characters are all seals), three operas, and best-known and most optimistic work. It was
a ballet by Prokofiev. In 1994 the ballet caused first performed in 1959 at the Belgrade
some perplexed hilarity when a London Theatre, Coventry, in a production directed by
headmistress refused to allow her pupils to John Dexter and starring Joan Plowright as
attend a performance at the Royal Opera Beatie Bryant. The production moved to
House at reduced prices, on the grounds London’s Royal Court Theatre for a month
that Shakespeare’s play was “blatantly before transferring to the Duke of York’s
heterosexual”. Recent stage adaptations have Theatre.
included the Bristol Old Vic’s Juliet and Her Set in the 1950s, the play revolves around
Romeo (2010), in which the lovers were played Beatie Bryant, who comes up from London to
by Michael Byrne (66) and Siân Phillips (77). visit her family in Norfolk. She is critical of her
family’s ignorance and prejudice, constantly
Rookery Nook The best-known of the quoting the ideas of her Jewish boyfriend
Aldwych farces written by Ben TRAVERS for Ronnie Kahn, a socialist (and a character in
London’s ALDWYCH THEATRE. It opened in Chicken Soup with Barley). Beatie has asked
1926 in a production starring Tom Walls, Ronnie to meet her family but on the day he is
436 rope house

expected, she receives a letter from him ending West-End run at the Old Vic. In the play,
their relationship. She blames her family, and which is written loosely in the tradition of the
when her mother angrily reproaches her, Theatre of the ABSURD, Stoppard brings two
Beatie responds assertively. She realizes that minor characters from Hamlet centre-stage to
she is no longer parrotting Ronnie, having contemplate their own existence. While
found an articulate voice of her own. waiting for instructions, they discuss the
Kenneth TYNAN praised the original meaning of their roles in the tragic events of
production but added, “Joan Plowright’s Hamlet (which take place entirely offstage) and
Beatie seemed to me a touch too pawky, pass the time in word-play and philosophical
suggestive less of rural Norfolk than of urban logic games. Critics saw parallels between
Lancs.” Stoppard’s protagonists and Vladimir and
Estragon in Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT.
rope house See HAND-WORKED HOUSE.
Rose Tattoo, The A play by Tennessee
Rosalind The daughter of the banished WILLIAMS, first performed in 1950 in New
Duke in AS YOU LIKE IT. Rosalind is the longest York and seen in London in 1959. When the
female role in any Shakespearean play. She play was presented at the first Dublin Festival
spends most of the play disguised as a young in 1957 its treatment of illicit love led to a
man (Ganymede) in the Forest of ARDEN. The ban; the festival founder Alan Simpson was
witty and engaging Rosalind lampoons arrested, resulting in the suspension of the
romantic love, while clearly being deeply in event the following year. The film version
love with Orlando. Famous performances in (1955) starred Burt Lancaster and Anna
the part include Vanessa REDGRAVE’s in 1961. Magnani.
Roscius The Roman comic actor Quintus The story, set within the Sicilian
Roscius Gallus (126–62 BC), who was community of New Orleans, centres on the
unrivalled for physical grace, melodic delivery, pious Serafina Delle Rose, a 30-year-old
and understanding of character. The name was dressmaker, who still mourns the death of her
later bestowed as an accolade on any actor truck-driver husband, Rosario, three years
considered to be the greatest of his nation or earlier. She talks to his ashes (kept in an urn)
era. So, for example, both Thomas Betterton and locks up Rosa, her 15-year-old daughter,
and David Garrick were described as the to keep her from her sweetheart, Jack. When
British Roscius and the Black American actor Serafina hears gossip of her dead husband’s
Ira ALDRIDGE was known as the African infidelity, she is distraught. However, at this
Roscius. The child prodigy William BETTY, point Alvaro, a young truck driver, comes into
who caused a theatrical sensation in the 1800s, her life. Because he reminds her of Rosario,
was widely billed as the Young Roscius. even having the same rose tattoo on his chest,
The name was also used in the title of Serafina accepts him as a lover. Rosa accuses
Charles Churchill’s satirical poem The Rosciad her mother of hypocrisy, and Serafina allows
(1761), which shocked the London theatre her to go to Jack. Serafina then feels the tattoo
with its savage mockery of nearly all the appearing on her own breast and knows she
famous actors of the day. has conceived.

rose, the Early 19th-century theatre Rose Theatre An octagonal Elizabethan

jargon for the cluster of footlights at the centre theatre built in 1587 in London by Philip
HENSLOWE. The Rose, thatched and built of
of the stage. When an actor had important
lines to deliver, he or she would move to this wood and plaster on a brick foundation, stood
bright spot, stepping away after the speech to on Bankside at the corner of Rose Alley and
allow the next major speaker to approach the Maiden Lane on a site that was once a rose
rose. Such formal movements were typical of garden.
acting at this time. Between 1592 and 1594 the theatre was
occupied by STRANGE’S MEN, who probably
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are performed Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors
Dead The first major success of Tom and Henry VI, Part I during their stay. The
STOPPARD. It was produced by the Oxford actor Edward ALLEYN made his name at the
Theatre Group for the 1966 Edinburgh Rose as the leading player with the ADMIRAL’S
Festival and subsequently enjoyed a lengthy MEN, who were based at the theatre from 1594
 Rover, The 437

to 1640, when they left for the Fortune of Victorian industrial architecture, was
Theatre. The Rose was dismantled when its constructed in 1846 as a repair shed for railway
lease ran out in 1605. In December 1989 part engines; it then served (1869–1919) as a
of the site was uncovered during building bonded warehouse for Gilbey’s gin before
work; following a campaign by leading falling into disuse. In 1964 the lease was taken
theatrical personalities, this was preserved and on by Arnold WESKER’s CENTRE 42, an arts
an exhibition centre was opened (1999). organization with trade-union links and a
In 2008 a new Rose Theatre, modelled mission to bring culture to working-class
partly on the design of the Elizabethan theatre, audiences. Under Wesker’s aegis, the
opened in Kingston upon Thames. Roundhouse was converted into a theatre and
licensed in 1968, the first production being
Ross Terence RATTIGAN’s drama about the Peter Brook’s experimental Themes on The
later years of T. E. Lawrence, as he sought Tempest. Other landmarks included a famous
anonymity. It opened in 1960 at the Hamlet (1969) with Nicol Williamson and
Haymarket and ran for two years with 762 Kenneth Tynan’s nude revue Oh, Calcutta!
performances. Alec GUINNESS was highly (1970), which provoked a police raid. The
praised in the title role, winning the Evening Roundhouse also established itself as a leading
Standard Best Actor Award. The critic Caryl venue for live rock music. Although Wesker
Brahms thought the play “fragmentary”, but wound up Centre 42 in 1971, theatre
said the actor had “the timing of a histrionic productions continued with such ambitious
angel, the sweetness from which Guinness is works as Ariane MNOUCHKINE’s epic 1789
never wholly divorced”. (1972) and Howard Brenton’s Epsom Downs
The play begins and ends in a British RAF (1977). From the late 1970s the Royal
depot in 1922. Hoping to escape his fame as Exchange Theatre, Manchester, presented
‘Lawrence of Arabia’, Lawrence has enlisted in several seasons of drama, with highlights that
the ranks under the assumed name of Ross. included Vanessa Redgrave in Ibsen’s The Lady
Eventually another airman recognizes him and from the Sea (1979). Financial pressures
attempts to blackmail him with the threat of continued to mount, however, and in 1983 the
press exposure. Lawrence rejects his demand Roundhouse closed its doors: it would remain
for money, and the subsequent publicity forces empty until the mid 1990s, when music and
him to leave the RAF. Flashbacks are used to dance events returned on a sporadic basis.
present key events in Lawrence’s earlier career, Finally, in 1998, the Roundhouse Trust was
including the incredible desert march to created with the aim of developing the
capture Akaba, his capture and sexual abuse at building into a major performing arts centre,
the hands of a Turkish official, the deaths of with a special emphasis on the training
his two beloved bodyguards, and the historic of young people. After three years and
capture of Damascus. £30 million of redevelopment work, the
Roundhouse reopened in June 2006 with the
rostrum Any platform used to create Argentinian dance spectacular Fuerzabruta. It
different levels of staging. Known in America now incorporates a 3300-seat main space, the
as a parallel, it can be either permanent or 140-seat Studio 42, and a new complex of
collapsible for transport and storage. A rostrum rehearsal rooms, recording studios, and video-
usually has steps or a ramp and sometimes a editing facilities.
canvas ‘rostrum-front’ to disguise the platform.
In the late 19th century rostrums were Rover, The A witty comedy of intrigue by
used extensively by the famous MEININGER Aphra BEHN. Subtitled The Banished Cavalier,
COMPANY to keep the action moving on several it was first performed in two parts in 1677 and
different levels. They can be especially effective 1681. It was often revived in the 18th century
on the modern open stage: the Stratford and was performed in 1979 in Colchester with
Festival Theatre in Ontario, Canada, employs a cast led by Lynn Dearth. The story involves
eight acting levels. the romantic adventures of a band of hot-
blooded English cavaliers in Naples and
Roundhouse A performing arts venue Madrid, during the exile of Charles II. The
in Camden, north London, that has staged play’s hero, the dissolute Willmore, is thought
many ground-breaking productions over four to have been based on either the Earl of
decades. The building, an outstanding example Rochester or Behn’s lover John Hoyle.
438 Royal Arctic Theatre

Royal Arctic Theatre A 19th-century which suggested the complicity of some

custom of the Royal Navy, whereby plays were Zionists in the Holocaust. Other controversial
presented on board ice-bound ships off the productions have included David Mamet’s
coasts of Canada. The earliest known OLEANNA (1993), which enraged some
performances occurred in about 1819; they feminists, Sarah Kane’s BLASTED (1995), which
appear to have involved both officers and disgusted many with its violence and apparent
ordinary seamen, who would play male and nihilism, and Mark RAVENHILL’s Shopping and
female roles. Performances of Garrick’s Miss in Fucking (1996). In 1996–2000 the theatre
her Teens and even Shakespeare’s Hamlet are closed for total refurbishment and the
known to have been put on. The productions, company took up residence at the Duke of
which were often quite intricately staged, are York’s Theatre: its productions there included
thought to have ceased in the 1870s. Conor McPherson’s ghost story THE WEIR
(1997), which went on to become the most
Royal Avenue Theatre See successful play in the company’s history.
PLAYHOUSE. Stephen DALDRY, the theatre’s artistic director
Royal Court Theatre The name of two since 1992, was succeeded by Ian Rickson in
1998; the current director (from 2006) is
theatres in London’s Sloane Square. The
Dominic Cooke. The Royal Court enjoyed
earlier Royal Court, on the south side of
a remarkable run of success in 2008–10,
the square, was originally called the New
when new plays included Jez Butterworth’s
Chelsea. Until 1870 the building had been a
JERUSALEM (2009) and Lucy Prebble’s
Nonconformist chapel, and locals joked that it
documentary drama ENRON (2009), both of
had always had bad acting, a pit, and payment
which received rave reviews and transferred to
at the doors. After remodelling in 1871, the
the West End. In 2010 the theatre was
theatre changed its name to the Royal Court.
nominated for a record 15 Laurence Olivier
Successful productions included several early
Awards for these and other productions.
pieces by W. S. Gilbert and a series of farces by
A. W. Pinero in the 1880s. Royal Hunt of the Sun, The Peter
Following the theatre’s demolition for road SHAFFER’s epic tragedy about the culture clash
widening in 1887, its manager John Clayton between the Old and the New World, as
built the present structure on the east side of exemplified by the relationship between
the square. Opening in 1888, it slowly earned the Inca king Atahualpa and the Spanish
a reputation for innovative drama, staging 10 conquistador Pizarro. It was first shown at the
of George Bernard Shaw’s plays between 1904 1964 CHICHESTER FESTIVAL, and subsequently
and 1907. The Royal Court became a cinema enjoyed a successful run in a National Theatre
in 1932 and suffered from wartime bombing Company production at the Old Vic. Colin
in 1940. It remained derelict until 1952, when Blakely played Pizarro and Robert Stephens
Robert Cromie renovated it for the London Atahualpa, while John Dexter was responsible
Theatre Guild. The theatre then entered for the majestic staging, which featured mime,
another exciting phase of its history in 1956, dance, and ritual processions. Dexter claims
when the ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY took up that he decided to direct the play the moment
residence. Under its artistic director George he saw the stage direction “They cross the
DEVINE, the company produced such Andes”.
controversial new plays as John Osborne’s When they first meet, the sun-worshipping
LOOK BACK IN ANGER (1956), Arnold Wesker’s Atahualpa believes that Pizarro is the awaited
Chips with Everything (1962), and Edward White god. Pizarro promises that no harm will
Bond’s SAVED (1965), which incurred a come to the king if the Incas fill a great room
prosecution. In 1969 the old rehearsal rooms, with gold for the conquistadors. After this has
which had also been used as a nightclub, were been done, Pizarro decides that Atahualpa
converted into the Theatre Upstairs for must die. When Atahualpa offers to prove his
experimental productions. The Royal Court, divinity by dying and being reborn overnight,
which championed the plays of David Hare Pizarro almost believes his claim. However,
and Caryl Churchill in the 1970s, has when the king has been crucified and failed to
maintained its challenging approach. In 1987, rise by the morning sun, Pizarro is overcome
for example, protests by Jewish groups forced with remorse.
it to withdraw the play Perdition by Jim Allen, I and Albert (1972), a much ridiculed play
 royalty 439

about the sex-life of Queen Victoria and the name of the theatre was changed in 1961 to
German Prince Albert, was dubbed ‘Royal the ‘Royal Shakespeare Theatre’ and the
Cunt of the Hun’ by its detractors. company then adopted its present title. Peter
HALLwas the new company’s first director.
Royal National Theatre Britain’s Although the RSC now stages a wide variety of
state-supported national theatre company was plays in its five auditoria, the company remains
finally established in 1962 after over a century faithful to its prime role – performing the
of discussion. The National Theatre Board was works of Shakespeare.
set up in 1962, partly through the efforts of Sir The original Shakespeare Memorial
Laurence OLIVIER, who became the first artistic Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1926 and
director. The company was formed from the replaced by the present building, which
OLD VIC company, which had been performing
opened in 1932. The company established its
Shakespeare’s plays since 1912. Olivier’s first London base in 1960, at the Aldwych
successor, Peter HALL, took over in 1975 and a Theatre, followed by The Warehouse, a studio
year later oversaw the company’s move into its theatre opened in 1977. In 1982 both
own theatre complex (designed by Denys operations were transferred to the new
Lasdun) on the South Bank. BARBICAN Centre in the City of London.
The complex, with terraces overlooking the Meanwhile, Stratford had seen the opening of
Thames, has been variously called “a great its own studio theatre, the Other Place, in
building”, “a concrete fortress”, and by Prince 1974. In 1986 the Elizabethan-style Swan
Charles: Theatre, built inside the shell of the original
A way of building a nuclear power Shakespeare Memorial Theatre’s auditorium,
station in the middle of London came into use.
without anyone objecting. Although the RSC enjoyed major success
It houses the UK’s most versatile and in the West End with Trevor NUNN’s Nicholas
technically advanced drama facilities and stages Nickleby (1980) and LES MISÉRABLES (1985) –
a great variety of classic and modern drama. the latter of which is still playing to packed
The three theatres are the Olivier, holding houses over 20 years later – the company
1160 people in its fan-shaped auditorium; continues to struggle with a daunting financial
the Lyttleton, a proscenium theatre that deficit. In 2001 artistic director Adrian Noble
accommodates 890 people; and the Cottesloe announced a precipitate withdrawal from the
(soon to be renamed the Dorfman), whose company’s London base at the Barbican and
flexible seating for up to 400 can be removed unveiled a radical blueprint for the future; this
for experimental plays. involved shorter contracts for actors, a
Hall was succeeded by Richard EYRE in complete organizational shake-up, and the
1988; at the same time the theatre was granted demolition and rebuilding of the Shakespeare
the right to add the prefix ‘Royal’, in Memorial Theatre. The hostile reaction to
recognition of its 25th anniversary. Trevor these ideas, which many saw as undermining
NUNN took over as artistic director in 1997 the ensemble basis of the company, led to
and Nicholas HYTNER in 2003. The mid 2000s Noble’s resignation a year later. His successor,
saw a marked upsurge of energy and ambition Michael Boyd, announced a more modest plan
at the National, with major new productions to cut running costs and to develop and
including Michael Frayn’s Democracy, Alan refurbish the Stratford theatre. In 2006–07 the
Bennett’s THE HISTORY BOYS, and a spectacular company oversaw a project involving the
adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy production of all Shakespeare’s plays in the
sequence His Dark Materials (all 2004). In course of a single year. Recent years have also
2008 Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Her Naked Skin seen several triumphant returns to the West
became the first play by a female author to be End.
produced on the main stage of the National.
royalty The legal obligation to pay
Royal Shakespeare Company dramatists a small percentage of the box-office
(RSC) One of the world’s leading theatre receipts or a set fee each time their work is
companies, originally formed in 1879 as the performed. In Elizabethan times, plays were
company of Stratford-upon-Avon’s newly purchased by a company from its resident
opened SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL THEATRE; it playwright, who also received a payment if the
was incorporated by royal charter in 1925. The work was later printed. The first British
440 Royalty Theatre

dramatist to receive a percentage of the profits last major success. The Royalty was bombed
was Dion BOUCICAULT, who in 1860 was paid during the Blitz and did not reopen.
£10,000 by Benjamin Webster (see WEBSTER The third Royalty was opened in 1960 on
FAMILY), manager of the Adelphi Theatre, for the site of the earlier Stoll Theatre. The first
either The Colleen Bawn or The Octoroon. The production was Dürrenmatt’s The Visit,
first US royalty went in 1886 to David starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. After
BELASCO for his play Valerie; this was paid as a a spell as a cinema, the Royalty reopened as a
fee of $250 a week. The rate of royalties has theatre with the nude revues Birds of a Feather
risen through the years from a standard 5% to, and Oh, Calcutta!, which later transferred to
in some cases, 20% or more. See also the Duchess Theatre for a total of 2434
COPYRIGHT. performances. Another hit was the musical
Bubbling Brown Sugar in 1977. The Royalty
Royalty Theatre The name of three briefly became a television studio in 1981 and
London theatres, the first standing from 1787 was subsequently acquired by the London
to 1828 in Well Street, the second from 1840 School of Economics, which uses it as a venue
to 1955 in Dean Street, and the third opening for lectures and conferences. As the Peacock
in 1960 in Kingsway. Theatre it also serves as a West End stage for
John Palmer (see PLAUSIBLE JACK) opened the Sadler’s Wells dance theatre. See also
the first unlicensed Royalty in 1787 with GHOSTS.
Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Garrick’s
farce Miss in her Teens. Palmer was arrested RSC See ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY.
and the theatre closed, however, after Rukada A genre of Sri Lankan puppet
complaints by the PATENT THEATRES. Under theatre that is believed to have developed from
subsequent managers, the Royalty turned to the NADAGAMA folk theatre in the early 19th
burlesque and pantomime, changing its name century. The stories and songs come from
in 1813 to the East London Theatre. It burned the Nadagama and are set to traditional
down in 1826 and reopened two years later as Hindustani tunes. The dolls are three- to four-
the Royal Brunswick Theatre; only three days feet tall and are manipulated by strings held by
after the opening the structure collapsed, puppeteers sitting on a ledge above the stage.
killing 15 people. The acting area is divided into three sections,
The second Royalty was a small venue in each with a black curtain.
Soho built for Fanny Kelly’s acting school: it
opened in 1840 with a mixed bill. A horse run A series of consecutive nightly
drove the original stage machinery, which was performances of a play. A long run means the
so noisy that it had to be removed. Kelly play was performed repeatedly over a long
closed the Royalty in 1849 but it opened a period, owing to its popularity. A short run
year later. After a series of name changes, it means that the show failed to find favour with
became the New Royalty Theatre, with a the public and was soon withdrawn.
company that included the young Ellen Terry. The longest continuously running play in
Although it specialized in melodrama, in 1875 theatrical history is Agatha Christie’s THE
MOUSETRAP, which opened in the West End
it staged the premiere of Trial by Jury, the first
collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan. in 1952 and is still showing over 50 years later
The theatre then took up the cause of at St Martin’s Theatre. The shortest run
on record is that of Bulwer Lytton’s The
modern drama, presenting the first English
Lady of Lyons. On the play’s opening night
productions of two of Ibsen’s plays, Ghosts
(26 December 1838) technical problems
(1891) and The Wild Duck (1894), as well as
prevented the raising of the curtain: the
Shaw’s Widowers’ Houses (1892) and You Never
audience waited in the seats for an hour before
Can Tell (1899). Mrs Patrick Campbell starred
going home. See also FLOP.
in a series of revivals, and in 1904 the ABBEY
THEATRE Players made their first London run-through A REHEARSAL of a play that
appearance at the Royalty. Other hits included is allowed to continue without interruptions
John Galsworthy’s The Pigeon (1912), Noël from the director or others. A run-through
Coward’s The Vortex (1924), Sean O’Casey’s that is rather tentative or precarious is
Juno and the Paycock (1925), and J. B. sometimes called a stagger-through. Compare
Priestley’s I Have Been Here Before (1938), its WALK-THROUGH.
 Rylance, Mark 441

runway A bridge-like walkway from the this would become a successful film. Russell’s
stage over the orchestra pit; it often extends the BLOOD BROTHERS (1983), a musical reworking
auditorium, allowing performers to approach of Boucicault’s The Corsican Brothers, has now
the audience more closely. The device is been running in the West End for over 20
mainly employed in musical entertainments; years. Since completing the musical Dancing
in Andrew LLOYD WEBBER’s Starlight Express Through the Dark (1989) he has concentrated
the roller-skating cast made “white-knuckle on writing fiction.
runs” (as the advertising put it) towards the
audience. Runways are also a feature of beauty Rutherford, Dame Margaret
pageants and strip shows. (1892–1972) British actress known especially
In the Japanese Nō drama a runway called for her portrayals of astute though eccentric
a hashigakari (bridge) allows performers access middle-aged ladies. Having spent several years
to the stage through the auditorium. working as a piano and elocution teacher,
Rutherford began her acting career when
RUR A satirical play by the Czech dramatist she enrolled at the Old Vic school in 1925.
Karel čAPEK, first performed in 1921 in Prague She attracted critical attention in a 1934
and subsequently in London and New York. production of Ibsen’s The Master Builder,
The initials stand for Rossum’s Universal though her first major success was as Miss
Robots. The play, which introduced the word Bijou Furse in Farrell and Perry’s Spring
ROBOT to the language, depicted a futuristic
Meeting (1938). Other notable roles incouded
society in which technology is used to create Miss Prism in Gielgud’s production of Wilde’s
a regimented working class. The robotic The Importance of Being Earnest (1939),
machine men eventually go out of control Madame Arcati in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit
and begin to take on human characteristics. (1941), and Lady Wishfort in Congreve’s The
Čapek’s play was highly influenced by German Way of the World (1953).
expressionism and also employed some features
Rutherford was also noted for her frequent
of revue.
film appearances, especially her portrayal of
The dramatist R. C. Sherriff (1896–1975)
Agatha Christie’s amateur sleuth, Miss Marple.
wrote of the opening night of his own Journey’s
End (1928): “I couldn’t bear to look at the Ruy Blas A poetic drama by Victor HUGO,
audience. I remember thinking they looked first performed in 1838 in Paris and frequently
like the robots in RUR standing outside the revived. In the 20th century, it provided a
wire.” famous role for the romantic actor Gérard
PHILIPE. Hugo used this story of the valet and
Rural Dionysia See DIONYSIA.
poet Ruy Blas, who disguises himself as his
Russell, Willy (1947– ) British master’s cousin in order to enter the Spanish
dramatist and songwriter, born and brought court, to put forward his democratic views. At
up in Liverpool. After leaving school, Russell court Ruy Blas finds that his passionate love
became a ladies’ hairdresser, an experience for the queen is returned, and he is appointed
to which he ascribes his ability to write prime minister. When his lowly origins are
convincingly for women. He later went to revealed, however, he commits suicide. The
college as a mature student and became a play’s darker moments are relieved by the
schoolteacher. His first work to be performed farcical antics of the character Don César.
was a musical about the Beatles, John Paul
George Ringo…and Bert (1974), which opened Rylance, Mark (1960– ) British actor
at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool before and director, who created huge excitement as
transferring to London and New York. A first artistic director (1995–2005) of the
subsequent two-character play, EDUCATING reconstructed GLOBE THEATRE. Rylance was
RITA (1980), reflected his own struggle to born in Kent, the son of teachers, but spent his
acquire an education long after leaving school. childhood almost entirely in America. After
His one-woman show Shirley Valentine (1988), training at RADA (1978–80), he began his
about the self-discovery of a frustrated professional career with the Glasgow Citizens’
working-class Liverpool woman, was also Theatre. The 1980s brought work with the
shown at the Everyman before transferring to English Stage Company and several fringe
London and Broadway. Like Educating Rita, groups before he made his name in leading
442 Rylance, Mark

roles at the RSC – notably Hamlet (1988) and a year the Globe is, by some margin, the
Romeo (1989). country’s most successful theatre. As both star
At this point Rylance’s career took an actor and artistic director, Rylance dominated
unusual direction. In 1990 he founded the the project in a style reminiscent of the great
travelling company Phoebus’ Cart with his actor-managers of the 19th century. His own
wife, the musician Claire van Kampen. The major roles included Henry V (1997), a wildly
company specialized in outdoor performances eccentric Cleopatra (1999), Hamlet (2000),
of Shakespeare in evocative historic settings, Olivia in an all-male Twelfth Night (2002),
such as the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire. In and a valedictory Prospero (2005) in his last
1991 Phoebus’ Cart performed a magical season at the Globe.
version of The Tempest at the site of Offstage, Rylance enjoys a reputation for
Shakespeare’s Globe, where the work of his idiosyncratic opinions; his interests include
reconstruction had just begun; as a result alchemy and other ‘alternative’ traditions and
Rylance was asked to join the board of he is one of the few theatre professionals to
directors. During the early 1990s he became subscribe to the view that Shakespeare did not
increasingly involved in the Globe project write the plays attributed to him (see BACONIAN
while continuing to give flamboyant THEORY). His work for film and television
performances in Shakespearean roles; these includes the controversial Intimacy (2003), in
ranged from an acclaimed Benedick (1994), which he performed unsimulated sex acts with
which earned him the Olivier award, to a the actress Kerry Fox, and the BBC’s The
much ridiculed Macbeth (1995), in his own Government Inspector (2005), in which he
Hare-Krishna inspired production. played Dr David Kelly. In 2007 he starred in a
When the rebuilt Globe opened under hugely successful revival of Boeing-Boeing, a
Rylance’s direction in 1996, expectations were 1960s farce about a man with three fiancées;
generally low, with most critics assuming that the production later transferred to Broadway,
the commitment to historically authentic where Rylance earned the Tony Award for
performance styles could only produce a dull Best Leading Actor. Other recent roles include
‘heritage’ theatre aimed at tourists and school Hamm in Beckett’s Endgame (2009) and the
children. Rylance quickly proved the doubters larger-than-life Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron in Jez
wrong with a series of vigorous, challenging Butterworth’s much praised JERUSALEM, which
productions that also pulled in a large popular earned Rylance the 2010 Olivier Award for
audience. With profits hitting £1.5 million Best Actor.
 Saint-Denis, Michel Jacques 443

A new theatre, built with the help of the

S Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, opened in

1931 under Lilian Baylis of the Old Vic. This
became one of the leading houses in London
for the production of ballet and opera. In 1946
sacra rappresentazione An early the ballet company transferred to the Royal
form of religious drama in Italy, equivalent to Opera House, Covent Garden, later (1956)
the English MYSTERY PLAY, French mystères, combining with another troupe to form the
Spanish auto sacramentales, and German Royal Ballet. In 1968 the opera company
Geistspiele, all of which derived from the earlier moved to the London Coliseum, becoming
LITURGICAL DRAMA. Sacra rappresentazione, known as the English National Opera (1974).
which retained aspects of the earlier LAUDA After undergoing a hugely expensive
devotional drama, developed to its highest redevelopment programme in the 1990s,
form in 15th-century Florence. It was Sadler’s Wells reopened as a state-of-the-art
produced by educational and religious groups dance theatre for the new millennium in 1999.
and usually consisted of re-enactments of It also has a West End base at the Peacock
biblical stories. Writers included Feo Belcari Theatre (formerly the ROYALTY).
(1410–84) and Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–92).
The decline of sacra rappresentazione began sainete In the 18th-century Spanish
in the late 15th century; although comic theatre, a one-act farce or satirical sketch on an
interpolations and other secular elements had urban theme performed between the acts of a
been introduced it was overtaken by the new full-length play. Derived from the PASO and
demand for drama based on classical models. ENTREMÉS of the 16th and 17th centuries, the
The genre had a minor influence on sainete introduced an element of social
Renaissance drama. criticism and foreshadowed the TEATRO POR
HORAS. A leading writer of the genre was
saddle-iron See FLAT. Ramón de la Cruz (1731–94).
Sadler’s Wells A theatre in Finsbury, Saint-Denis, Michel Jacques
London, formerly renowned for its (1897–1971) French actor and director, who
productions of opera and ballet. The name founded the Compagnie des Quinze in Paris,
derives from a holy well that was once the London Theatre Studio, the Centre
located on this site; it was blocked up at the Dramatique de l’Est in Strasbourg, and the
Reformation but rediscovered by Thomas Bilingual National Theatre School of Canada
Sadler in 1683, when workmen were digging in Montreal.
for gravel. (It still remains under a trap door Saint-Denis began his acting career under
beneath the theatre’s stalls.) At first Sadler his uncle Jacques Copeau (1879–1949) at the
opened a medicinal spring here; when Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. In 1930 he
attendances declined, he erected a wooden founded the Compagnie des Quinze from his
‘Musick House’ to provide entertainment, uncle’s troupe, which made its debut the
and from the 1690s this became the chief following year with André Obey’s Le Viol de
attraction under the management of James Lucrèce, Noé, and La Bataille de la Marne, all of
Miles. which Saint-Denis directed. Although the
In 1765 a builder named Thomas company achieved a high reputation in Paris
Rosoman built a proper stone theatre, which and London, it disbanded in 1934.
became famous for burlettas, musical In 1936 Saint-Denis founded the London
interludes, and pantomimes. Edmund Kean, Theatre Studio to train young actors, but it
Dibdin, and Grimaldi all appeared here. In closed three years later at the outbreak of
1844 Samuel Phelps took over and specialized World War II. In 1937 he directed Laurence
in productions of Shakespeare’s plays but, after OLIVIER and Judith Anderson in Macbeth at the
his retirement, the boom in West End theatres Old Vic. Fulfilling the curse of the SCOTTISH
left Sadler’s Wells somewhat isolated. It PLAY, Saint-Denis narrowly escaped death in a
became, in turn, a pickle factory and boxing taxi accident, Olivier was nearly crushed by a
arena, was revived as a music hall, and falling sandbag on stage, and Lilian Baylis, the
eventually became a cinema, which closed in theatre’s manager, died on the eve of the
1916. opening night. Nevertheless, Olivier said he
444 St George Play

had had immediate faith in Saint-Denis: “I’ll records. It concludes with a dream epilogue
believe in you, boy. Whatever you say, I’ll that sets out to explore the issues arising from
believe in you.” Joan’s canonization in 1920.
During the war Saint-Denis headed the
French section of the BBC under the name of St Martin’s Theatre A London theatre
Jacques Duchesne, for which he was made an built as one of a pair with the AMBASSADORS
THEATRE. The Ambassadors opened in 1913
honorary CBE. After the war he again directed
at the Old Vic, becoming head of the theatre’s but the opening of St Martin’s was delayed
drama school (with George Devine and Glen until 1916 because of the outbreak of World
Byam Shaw) in 1946. The drama school War I. Both were designed by the architect
was closed in 1952 after a purge by the William Sprague, who followed the new
administrator Llewellyn Rees (who also closed classical (neo-Georgian) style rather than the
the Young Vic and fired Olivier and Ralph older fashion for ornate French decor. The
Richardson for being too interested in outside façade of St Martin’s was damaged during
activities). World War II.
Saint-Denis subsequently returned to In 1923 St Martin’s was one of the first
France to establish the Centre Dramatique de London theatres to introduce matinée
l’Est in Strasbourg. In 1957 he became artistic performances, under the title of ‘The Playbox
Theatre’. Arnold Ridley’s The Ghost Train was
adviser to the Vivian Beaumont Repertory
produced in 1925 with extraordinary SOUND
Theatre Project at the Lincoln Center in New
EFFECTS, and Edward Percy’s The Shop at Sly
York and in 1962 joined Peter Hall at the
Corner was presented in 1945. Anthony
Royal Shakespeare Company as general artistic
Shaffer’s Sleuth opened in 1970 with Anthony
adviser. In 1960 he published Theatre: The
Quayle and ran for three years before
Rediscovery of Style, on the subject of training
transferring to the Garrick and then the
for the stage.
Fortune for a total of 2359 performances. THE
St George Play See MUMMERS’ PLAY. MOUSETRAP transferred from the Ambassadors
in 1974 and was still running in 2010.
Saint Joan G. B. SHAW’s historical drama
about JOAN OF ARC, often regarded as his saint play See MIRACLE PLAY.
masterpiece. It was first performed in 1923 in
Saint’s Day A play by John Whiting
New York and opened the following year at
(1917–63), first performed in London in 1951
London’s New Theatre, becoming Shaw’s
at the Arts Theatre Club. The play’s violence
greatest commercial success. Sybil THORNDIKE
and black humour were several years ahead of
played the title role for 244 performances at
contemporary taste. The plot centres on Paul
the New Theatre with another 321 at the
Southman, a reclusive poet who is lapsing into
Regent Theatre. The critic James Agate
senility, together with his granddaughter Stella,
described her characterization of Joan as
and her husband Charles. Southman hates the
“boyish, brusque, inspired, exalted, local villagers and is not upset to hear that
mannerless, tactless and…a nuisance to three soldiers on the run have ransacked the
everybody.” village. Convinced that the villagers have
Shaw wrote the play for Thorndike and poisoned his dog, Southman insists that
read it to her in his room. “Shaw himself was a Robert Procathren, visiting the old man on his
perfect Saint Joan,” she said later. “He could birthday, help him with his revenge. The poet
have played it far better than any of us.” hands him a gun, but it discharges and kills
He wrote on her rehearsal book, “To Saint Stella. Procathren flees and tells the soldiers to
Sybil Thorndike from Saint Bernard Shaw.” kill Southman and Charles, which they do
Other actresses to appear in the role include without remorse.
Katharine Cornell (1936), Joan Plowright
(1963), Lynn Redgrave (1977), and Anne- Sakhi Kundhei A type of Indian puppet
Marie Duff (2007). show found in the eastern state of Orissa. The
Shaw was fascinated by Joan of Arc’s plays are usually performed at village festivals
genius. “She had an unbounded and quite or fairs and the travelling puppeteers are often
unconcealed contempt for official opinion,” he families, who depend upon donations collected
said. The play climaxes in the scene of Joan’s from the villagers. The form is also known as
trial, which Shaw based on actual court Sakhi Nata, Kundhei Nata, and Gopa Lila,
 sandae-togam-guk 445

terms which refer to the dancing of the His documentary drama Boulevard Durand
marionettes. The puppets have heads and was performed in Le Havre by the Centre
hands made of paper or light wood and stand Dramatique du Nord in 1961.
about 18 inches tall. Animal puppets also exist,
especially elephants, tigers, horses, and goats. Salmacida Spolia The last English court
MASQUE. Written by William DAVENANT and
The stage, resembling that of the
KATHPUTLI of Rajasthan, has a curtain about
designed by Inigo JONES, it was first staged in
three feet high to mask the puppeteers and is 1640 at Whitehall, with King Charles I and
often decorated with pieces of colourful cloth. Queen Henrietta Maria among the performers.
The stories, which are based on events in the Jones had introduced four sets of flat wings
life of Lord Krishna, are narrated by musicians, and several back shutters sliding on grooves for
who sing folk tunes or adapt popular songs rapid changes, creating possibly the first
from films. The musical accompaniment is completely changeable setting on an English
provided by a harmonium, cymbals, and stage.
pakhavaj drum. Salmacida Spolia was an allegorical
glorification of Charles’s reign. In the anti-
Sakuntala The heroine of Kalidasa’s masque Discord and other evil spirits arrive to
great Sanskrit drama Abhijnanasakuntala disturb England, “envying the blessing and
(5th century AD). The daughter of a sage, tranquillity we have long enjoyed”. This is
Viswamita, and a water nymph, Menaka, she soon halted by the arrival of Wisdom
is brought up by a hermit. King Dushyanta (Charles), titled Philogenes or ‘lover of his
visits the hermitage and persuades her to marry people’. The Queen is then sent down from
him: later, however he returns to his throne, heaven as a reward to Wisdom for turning the
leaving her a ring as a gift. Sakuntala bears a storm into calm. The final scene included a
son, Bharata, and sets out with him to find GLORY, in which eight actors richly attired in
his father. On the way she loses the ring, and clouds appeared high above the stage: as music
the king fails to recognize her. The ring is filled the theatre, the heaven opened to reveal
subsequently found by a fisherman, the king its deities.
recognizes his wife and she is publicly
Salomé A one-act play by Oscar WILDE,
proclaimed his queen. Bharata becomes the
based on the biblical story of Salome, who
founder of the glorious race of the Bharatus.
danced for her father Herod and demanded
Sir William Jones (1746–94) translated the
the head of John the Baptist in return. The
drama into English.
play, which was written in French for Sarah
Salacrou, Armand (1899–1989) French BERNHARDT in 1891, was banned from
playwright and journalist. His first success, performance in England by the Lord
Patchouli, was produced in 1930 by Charles Chamberlain. Bernhardt finally produced it in
Dullin, who also staged Salacrou’s hit comedy Paris in 1896, by which time Wilde had been
Atlas-Hôtel (1931) and the historical drama La imprisoned for sexual offences. Salomé was not
Terre est Ronde (1938). Some of Salacrou’s allowed on the British stage until 1931,
themes were later developed by SARTRE, who although the operatic version by Richard
apparently used L’Inconnue d’Arras (1935) as a Strauss, with a German libretto, was presented
source for his Huis-Clos. in 1905. In 1949 Peter BROOK mounted a
Salacrou became internationally known in production of the Strauss opera, with designs
1946 with Les Nuits de la Colère, about the by Salvador Dali, at Covent Garden.
collaboration and Resistance in German- saltica See FABULA.
occupied Chartres. First produced by Jean-
Louis Barrault at the Théâtre Marigny, Paris, it sandae-togam-guk A form of Korean
was presented in New York in 1947 as Nights masked dance-drama, also called Kamyon-guk,
of Wrath. Barrault brought the French- which has many local variations. The sandae-
language version to London in 1951 and the togam was originally the authority in the
BBC broadcast it in English as Men of Wrath. Choson court that supervised and controlled
Salacrou also contributed the new social all forms of entertainment. The modern
drama that emerged after World War II dance-drama is derived from rituals formerly
as part of the decentralization movement used to exorcize evil spirits, ensure a plentiful
associated with the CENTRES DRAMATIQUES. harvest, and bring health and happiness to the
446 Sandow, Eugene

population. It involves vigorous dancing, scene for the debut of a young comedy duo,
traditional gestures, singing, jesting, and Morecambe and Wise.
commentaries on everyday life. A musical
accompaniment is provided by string, Sardoodledom George Bernard SHAW’s
woodwind, and percussion instruments. disparaging term for the type of WELL-MADE
PLAY produced by the French dramatist
Sandow, Eugene (1867–1925) German Victorien SARDOU.
weightlifter and strongman, who won Sardou’s plan of playwriting is first to
international fame by presenting the first invent the action of his piece, and then
‘Hercules’ act on stage. Sandow had developed to carefully keep it off the stage and
his physique through a system of body have it announced merely by letters
building that concentrated on muscle groups. and telegrams.
His stage programme mostly consisted of GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
lifting enormous weights: at his London debut
in 1889 he lifted a 600-pound carthorse. In a Sardou, Victorien (1831–1908) Prolific
blaze of publicity orchestrated by Florenz French dramatist, who dominated the Parisian
ZIEGFELD, he appeared at the 1893 Columbian stage in the late 19th century with his well-
Exposition in Chicago, wearing brief costumes crafted melodramas. The successor to Eugène
and lifting his pianist together with the grand SCRIBE, he influenced A. W. Pinero, Henry
piano. Sandow increased his income by Arthur Jones, and numerous other playwrights.
endorsing such products as health oils and After years of poverty and failure, Sardou
corsets. He retired at 40 and died at the age of scored his first major success in 1860 with Les
58, while attempting to lift a car out of a ditch. Pattes de mouche, seen a year later in London as
A Scrap of Paper; he went on to write 20 plays
Sanger, ‘Lord’ George (1827–1911) in the next six years (and some 70 in the
British circus proprietor, who originated the course of his career). Of his later works, one of
three-ring CIRCUS. He adopted his unofficial the most popular was the melodrama Fédora
title after the US showman BUFFALO BILL had (1882) which starred Sarah Bernhardt when
been referred to as ‘the Honourable’ William first staged in Paris. In the 1895 London
Cody during a lawsuit. “If Cody is an production, Mrs Patrick Campbell played
Honourable,” Sanger remarked, “then I am a Fédora, a role that Beerbohm Tree, playing
Lord!” Queen Victoria made a point of using opposite her, called “a part to tear a cat in”.
the title on greeting Sanger. The play gave its name to the soft felt hat, as
Sanger launched his first circus at Charter worn by the heroine, a Russian princess.
Fair in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. In 1860, at Bernhardt also starred in Sardou’s La Tosca
Plymouth Hoe, he created the first three-ring (1887), the source of Puccini’s opera (1900),
circus, but expenses later forced him to reduce and several other dramas written especially for
this to one large ring. He also popularized the her by the playwright. His other successes
circus street parade, which passed through the included the historical dramas Patrie! (1869)
town to the tent; on one occasion he joined his and MADAME SANS-GÊNE (1893) and the social
ornate circus wagons to a procession escorting drama Dora (1877), which was produced
Queen Victoria through London. in London as Diplomacy in 1878. See also
In 1871 Sanger and his brother John LOBSTER THERMIDOR.
bought ASTLEY’S AMPHITHEATRE, enlarged it,
and returned it to its former use as a circus Saroyan, William (1908–81) US
under the title of Sanger’s Grand National novelist and playwright, born in California of
Amphitheatre. He staged extravagant Armenian parents. In 1939 the GROUP
spectaculars at the venue until 1893, when the THEATRE’s production of Saroyan’s first play,
amphitheatre had to be closed as unsafe; it was the one-act My Heart’s in the Highlands,
subsequently demolished. established him as one of the leading
Sanger, who was married to the lion-tamer experimental dramatists of the period. His next
Ella Chapman, continued with his famous play, THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE (1939), was an
show until 1905. Six years later he was axed to innovative but accessible piece in which a
death by an insane farmhand. Sanger’s Variety group of bar-room eccentrics discuss their lives
Circus continued to perform for another half and philosophies. The play was an enormous
century; after World War II it provided the commercial success and became the first drama
 satire 447

to win both a Drama Critics’ Circle Award who assumes the identity of the Soviet
and a Pulitzer Prize. However, Saroyan turned ambassador, and the wartime drama Les
down the Pulitzer Prize on the grounds that Séquestrés d’Altona (1959), produced in 1961
material awards were dangerous to the in London as Loser Wins and in 1965 in New
recipient and that The Time of Your Life was York as The Condemned of Altona. Sartre’s
“not any more good or great” than anything adaptation of the elder Dumas’s Kean was seen
else he had written. in 1953 in Paris, reworked as a US musical in
Although Saroyan continued to write plays 1961, and produced at the Oxford Playhouse
throughout the 1940s and 1950s, none of in 1970 (later transferring to London).
them captured the success of the first two.
These later works include Hello, Out There Satin Slipper, The The last play by the
(1942), about the lynching of a harmless French poet and playwright Paul Claudel
tramp, and The Cave Dwellers (1957), a (1868–1955), written between 1919 and 1924
strange play set in an abandoned theatre. In and regarded as his masterpiece. Because of its
1960 Saroyan wrote Sam, the Highest Jumper of length and complex symbolism (at one point
them All for the THEATRE WORKSHOP. After the the hemispheres converse and at another the
failure of this play Saroyan wrote little else for earth becomes a bead on a rosary), it was
the theatre, concentrating on novels and considered impossible to stage until 1943,
autobiographical writings. when it was produced at the Comédie-
Française by Jean-Louis BARRAULT. Barrault
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905–80) French drew on all his technical resources to present
existentialist philosopher, novelist, and Claudel’s work, evolving the approach that
playwright who, with Jean ANOUILH, became known as THÉÂTRE TOTAL. More
dominated the postwar French theatre. In recently, a version lasting some 12 hours
1964 he refused the Nobel Prize for literature. was staged by Olivier Py and the Centre
In 1929 Sartre graduated from the École Dramatique National d’Orléans in 2003. The
Normale Supérieure, where he formed a play has also been presented in a shortened
lifelong partnership with his fellow student version.
Simone de Beauvoir, the writer and feminist. Set in the late 16th century, the action of
His melodramatic plays explore moral conflicts The Satin Slipper ranges from Spain, Italy, and
with a deep Gallic pessimism, while also Africa, to America; the play also includes
expounding the philosophical existentialism he scenes on board ships in the Mediterranean
popularized in the 1940s. The first, Les and Atlantic. Its main characters, Don
Mouches, an interpretation of the Orestes story, Rodrigue and Doña Prouhèze (who rarely
opened in 1943 in Paris. As The Flies it was appear together), resist their earthly passions in
produced in New York in 1947 and in London order to attain Christian salvation.
in 1951. The one-act Huis-Clos opened in
Paris in 1944 and was subsequently produced satire The use of ridicule to expose the
in London as Vicious Circle and in New York pretensions, folly, and evils of human beings
as No Exit. The plot involves a man and two and their institutions. The word comes from
women who are imprisoned in an ornate the Latin satira, meaning a dish of mixed fruit,
sitting-room; it transpires that they have probably because the first satires were long
recently died and are condemned to spend verses containing a mixture of literary styles.
eternity together. As each begins to taunt the Satire has been employed by dramatists since it
other two they gradually realize that they have was first used on the stage by ARISTOPHANES,
been thrown together to create a special hell who drew upon it to attack his country’s
for one another: in Sartre’s celebrated phrase political and military leaders, as well as fellow
“Hell is other people.” playwrights. Some scholars have suggested that
Morts sans sépultures (1946), about a group masks were worn in the ancient Greek theatre
of captured Resistance fighters, was seen in so that actors could remain anonymous while
London as Men Without Shadows (1947) and delivering their satirical lines.
in New York as The Victors (1948). Le Diable Satire was also prominent in the MYSTERY
et le bon dieu (1951), based on the Faust of PLAY of the Middle Ages. John Skelton’s
Goethe, is often regarded as Sartre’s best MORALITY PLAY Magnyfycence was an early
dramatic work. His other plays include 16th-century satire condemning Church
Nekrassov (1955), about a confidence trickster abuses. Romantic love was a favourite target of
448 satyr-play

Shakespeare and the Elizabethans. By the late was recording only one such production each
16th century, satire had become an essential year.
part of European comedy: it has been
estimated that three-quarters of the plays Saved A play by Edward BOND; the LORD
produced in London between 1599 and 1613 CHAMBERLAIN’s refusal to grant it a licence
were satires. Ben JONSON was the chief satirist helped to speed the abolition of stage
of the Jacobean period. censorship in 1968. The play was first
In Restoration England the men and performed in 1965 as a club production of the
women of society were satirized in the COMEDY English Stage Company at the Royal Court
OF MANNERS of Congreve and others, while in Theatre; controversy immediately arose over a
France, MOLIÈRE’s clever use of satire drew scene in which a baby was stoned to death in
attention to such vices as greed, snobbery, and its pram. The Director of Public Prosecutions
religious hypocrisy. In 18th-century England issued 18 summonses against the company and
satire became increasingly political; John Gay’s ordered them to pay £50 costs.
THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (1728) was so pointed The play is set in south London: Len has
and successful in its attacks on the government moved in with Pam and her parents, but Pam
of Robert Walpole that strict controls were breaks with Len and becomes pregnant by his
imposed on drama. Although the 19th century friend, Fred. One day, pushing the baby in the
saw a reaction against satire, 20th century park, she meets Fred and his gang. The youths
writers have used the theatre to expose and shove the pram, spit into it, and then stone the
attack social, political, and economic ills. Two baby to death. Fred goes to prison; on his
of the greatest satirists of the modern era have release he rejects Pam, who wants him back.
been George Bernard SHAW, who attacked Len, still a lodger, refuses to leave Pam’s
conventional attitudes to a wide variety of parents’ house, and they welcome him into the
subjects, ranging from prostitution to war, and gloomy atmosphere of the family.
Bertolt BRECHT, who ridiculed military valour
in Man is Man (1926). Savoy Operas The series of eight light
operas written by GILBERT AND SULLIVAN for
satyr-play In the ancient Greek theatre of
production at the SAVOY THEATRE: the operas
the 5th century BC, an obscene farcical play
were IOLANTHE (1882), Princess Ida (1884),
that burlesqued tragedy. Aristotle claimed,
THE MIKADO (1885), Ruddigore (1887), THE
perhaps incorrectly, that Greek tragedy was
YEOMAN OF THE GUARD (1888), THE
directly derived from the satyr-play. A
GONDOLIERS (1889), Utopia (Limited) (1893),
dramatist presenting his three tragedies at the
DIONYSIA contest was required to add a satyr- and the unsuccessful The Grand Duke (1896).
play as an afterpiece: it was usually related to Prior to their Savoy works, Gilbert and
the tragedies in theme, making ribald Sullivan had established their reputations on
comments on the gods and legendary heroes. both sides of the Atlantic with HMS Pinafore
These pieces were characterized by swift (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1880),
action, vigorous dancing, and indecent speech written for London’s Opera Comique.
and gestures. The form was named after its
Savoy Theatre A theatre in the Strand,
CHORUS of satyrs, companions of Dionysus
later depicted by the Romans as half-goat, half- London, designed and built by Richard D’OYLY
CARTE as a home for Gilbert and Sullivan’s
man. Each member of the chorus wore a mask
and goatskin loincloth that included a phallus light operas and the D’Oyly Carte Opera
and a horse-like tail. The chorus leader, Company. The original Savoy had some 1000
Silenus, wore an animal-skin cloak over fleecy seats in three tiers, and was the first public
tights. building in the world to have electric lights. It
The satyr-play was supposedly created by opened in 1881 with Gilbert and Sullivan’s
Pratinus of Philius at some time between 534 Patience, which had transferred from London’s
and 500 BC. Other famous exponents included Opera Comique; Iolanthe (1882) was the first
Euripides, whose Cyclops is the only complete of the so-called SAVOY OPERAS. In 1907 Harley
surviving example, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, Granville-Barker and J. E. Vedrenne became
whose The Trackers has survived in fragments. managers and began to present works by Shaw
Satyr-plays gradually diminished in and Shakespeare. R. C. Sherriff’s realistic play
popularity: by about 431 BC the City Dionysia about World War I, Journey’s End, was staged
 scene dock 449

in 1929, the year the building closed for again. The Prince of Wales’s was condemned
reconstruction. and closed, being used for a time as a Salvation
The remodelled Savoy, with 1121 pink Army hostel, before being demolished in 1903.
and gold seats in two tiers, opened later the The old portico survived as the stagedoor
same year with a revival of Gilbert and entrance for a new theatre, the Scala, which
Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. The influence of opened in 1905. The new venue had little
Broadway was felt in the 1940s, when success, however, and turned to amateur
Kaufman and Hart’s long-running The Man shows, dance exhibitions, and films. In World
Who Came to Dinner (1941) was followed by War II it was used as the headquarters of the
further US comedies, including Ruth US Army Theatre Unit. The Scala was
McKenney’s My Sister Eileen (1943) and eventually demolished in 1972.
Clarence Day’s Life with Father (1947). Later
successes have included William Douglas Scapino In the 17th-century COMMEDIA
Home’s The Secretary Bird (1968), which had DELL’ARTE, one of the servant characters or
the Savoy’s longest run (1463 performances), ZANNI. Traditionally dressed in green and
and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s white, Scapino was a quick-witted rogue who,
productions of Shaw’s Man and Superman true to his name (which means ‘run off’),
(1977) and the musical Kiss Me, Kate (1988). would flee at the first sign of real danger. The
The theatre was severely damaged by fire in role was created by the Italian actor Francesco
1990 but has since been restored. In recent Gabrielli (1588–1654) and ultimately evolved
years it has played host to the musical into Scapin, the cunning and unprincipled
production Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas character of the COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE. Scapin
(2005), Trevor Nunn’s revival of Porgy and is the principal character in Molière’s Les
Bess (2006), and the musical Legally Blonde Fourberies de Scapin (1671).
(2009).
Scaramuccia or Scaramouche One
Curiously, the precinct to the Savoy
of the stock characters of the COMMEDIA
Theatre (and its neighbour, the Savoy Hotel)
DELL’ARTE and COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE.
is the only public road in the UK where cars
Scaramuccia was effectively the creation of
are required to drive on the right. A special
Tiberio Fiorillo (1604–94), who combined
measure to this effect was enacted by
elements of two stock characters: the boastful
Parliament so that visitors could alight straight
soldier Il CAPITANO and the scheming servant.
from their carriages to the theatre entrance.
Fiorello played the part in a plain black
Scala Theatre A theatre in Tottenham costume with no mask and a guitar. The
Street, London, opened (as the King’s Concert character’s military origins are reflected in
Rooms) in 1772. Despite several changes of his name, scaramuccia being Spanish for
name and management in the first half of the ‘skirmish’.
19th century, it failed to dispel a somewhat
second-rate and down-at-heel reputation. In scenario A name formerly used for the
1865, however, the actress Marie Wilton synopsis of a dramatic work; it originated
leased the Queen’s, gave it a luxurious in the early 18th century for the largely
remodelling, and reopened it (in the presence improvised plots of the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE.
of the future Edward VII) as the Prince of These were informal outlines of the action,
Wales’s Theatre. That same year she produced including some stage directions. In modern use
T. W. Robertson’s Society (the first of his CUP- the word normally means a brief summary of
AND-SAUCER DRAMAs), and A Winning Hazard
the plot of a musical or film.
with Squire Bancroft, whom she married two scene A subdivision of a play, consisting
years later. The BANCROFTS made the Prince of of a single episode with one setting and a
Wales’s the leading comedy theatre in London, continuous time frame; its end is usually
playing together in such hits as The School for marked by the fall of the curtain or an empty
Scandal, London Assurance, and Diplomacy. It stage. In ancient Roman and classical French
became one of London’s favourite venues, dramas, the beginning of a new scene was
drawing such famous names as Ellen Terry (see marked by the entrance or exit of any actor.
TERRY FAMILY) and the KENDALS. Compare ACT.
In 1880 the Bancrofts left for the
Haymarket and the theatre went downhill scene dock or dock A backstage area of
450 scene of releave

a theatre used for the storage of scenery and advent of ‘virtual’ scenery, in which backdrops
flats. Also called the scene bay, it is usually are filmed or generated by computer and
situated near the stage for the convenient projected onto the back of the stage. See also
movement of scenery. DESIGNER.

scene of releave or scene of relief Scheifflin, Eugene (1827–1906) US

In Restoration drama, a three-dimensional theatrical enthusiast, whose fascination with
scenic effect created by the use of cut-out Shakespeare was such that in the 1890s he
scenery. It was usually viewed through open conceived the idea of introducing all the bird
shutters. species mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays into
America. He accordingly released flocks of
scenery Anything placed on stage to imported birds in Central Park; it was thus
indicate the location of the action. Scenery that the ubiquitous sparrow and starling
consists chiefly of painted FLATS, CLOTHs, entered US skies for the first time.
furniture, and PROPS. The use of scenery is a
comparatively recent development in the Schembartläufer Masked participants
history of the theatre. Greek plays were acted at the Fastnachtszeit carnival in Austria and
against a stage wall, which the Romans turned Bavaria, particularly in Nuremberg. Carrying
into a grand façade, the scaenae frons; in the staves, they variously parade, run, and leap
Middle Ages plays were staged in church or in wildly at spectators, tossing ashes over them.
the open air using the convention of MULTIPLE The name is derived from the German
SETTING. Scenery first became important Schönbartläufer, meaning ‘pretty beard runner’,
during the Renaissance, with the introduction the masks, even those for women, being
of wings and perspective painting in the mid- generally bearded.
15th century. In the 16th century Sebastiano
Schicksaltragödie See FATE DRAMA.
SERLIO created three basic stage settings that
were used for nearly 300 years. Schiller, (Johann Christoph)
In the Elizabethan theatre, location was Friedrich von (1759–1805) One of
evoked by a few props, such as a tent or Germany’s greatest playwrights and poets,
throne, and by the poetry of the dramatist. whose lengthy works for the stage are noted for
Heavy scenic devices were left on stage and their lyrical beauty. After Shakespeare, he was
ignored when they were inappropriate. Inigo the most popular dramatist in 19th-century
JONES was the first to copy the painted scenes Germany.
used on the Continent and to adopt sliding Schiller’s first play, DIE RÄUBER, was
side wings. His example was generally followed produced in 1782 at Mannheim by Baron von
in the English theatre after the Restoration. Dalberg. It was an astounding success,
In the 17th century the BIBIENA FAMILY especially with younger playgoers, who fainted
introduced diagonal perspective scenery to the and embraced one another in the theatre.
Continental baroque theatres. The 18th Somewhat belatedly, it provided the STURM
century was marked by a growing taste for UND DRANG movement with one of its most
naturalistic and historically accurate scenery, as characteristic works, fraught with emotional
in William Capon’s designs for John Philip intensity and great dramatic drive.
KEMBLE’s revivals of Shakespeare (1794–1802) Having left his military post (as medical
at Drury Lane. In 1832 the London stage officer with a Stuttgart regiment) without
saw its first BOX SET, with three walls and a authorization to see the première of Die
ceiling, real furniture, and working doors and Rauber, Schiller was ordered to stop writing
windows. plays. Instead he fled to Baron von Dalberg,
In the early 20th century the movement but failed to interest him in his second play,
against realism was led by Gordon Craig (see Fiesko. This was primarily because Schiller
CRAIG FAMILY), V. E. MEYERHOLD, and the insisted on reading it aloud to the director and
advocates of expressionism. The vogue for company: he was such a bad actor (although
nonrepresentational staging was introduced to he had once considered the profession) that the
America as the ‘new stagecraft’ by Robert reading came to a grinding halt after the first
Edmond JONES. In the contemporary theatre act. Years after Schiller’s death, Fiesko was
scenic designs range from the naturalistic to rediscovered and staged.
the abstract. One recent development is the Schiller briefly became the official
 School for Wives, The 451

dramatist to the Mannheim theatre, living in for performance by pupils at schools and
debt and under an assumed name to avoid the colleges. The genre began under the influence
military. An admirer, Christian Gottfried of the humanists. One important branch was
Körner, became his patron and close friend, JESUIT DRAMA, although these plays soon began
supporting Schiller as he finished his first to be written in the vernacular.
historical verse tragedy, Don Carlos (1789), School plays flowered in England in the
which at 6000 lines was nearly twice as long as 16th century, outstanding examples being
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. RALPH ROISTER DOISTER, presented originally
In 1790 Schiller married Charlotte von at Eton, and the comedy GAMMER GURTON’S
Lengefeld. By this time, however, he was NEEDLE, first produced at Christ’s College,
suffering from tuberculosis and his health soon Cambridge. The only English school play still
began to fail. He earned a meagre living as a regularly performed is the WESTMINSTER PLAY,
professor of history at the University of Jena, which has been presented annually in Latin at
where he carried out research on the Thirty Westminster School, London, since 1560.
Years’ War that led to his great historical
trilogy, WALLENSTEIN. This work was School for Scandal, The A COMEDY
completed in 1799, the year he became co- OF MANNERS by Richard Brinsley SHERIDAN,
manager of the Weimar Court Theatre with which opened on 8 May 1777 at Drury Lane.
GOETHE. Despite their very different
George Washington called it one of his very
personalities, their collaboration continued favourite plays, and Charles Lamb later
successfully until Schiller’s death six years later. recalled, “Amidst the mortifying circumstances
Owing to his disillusionment with the attendant upon growing old, it is something to
outcome of the French Revolution, Schiller’s have seen The School for Scandal in its prime.”
later historical dramas are concerned less The play has survived over two centuries of
with politics than with the psychological changing tastes and fashions in the theatre, one
mainsprings of human action. MARIA STUART of the most acclaimed modern versions being
(1800), Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801), Die Jonathan Miller’s 1968 production.
Braut von Messina (1803), and WILHELM TELL The comedy lampoons the activities of
(1804), all of which were staged by Goethe at scandalmongers. Two of the worst, Lady
Weimar, treat history in an increasingly Sneerwell and Joseph Surface, circulate
mythical light. Schiller died while writing rumours about Joseph’s brother Charles, an
Demetrius, a drama with a Russian theme: its honest wastrel, to prevent him from marrying
brief fragments suggest that the work could Maria, a ward of Sir Peter Teazle. The
have become a masterpiece. duplicitous Joseph wants Maria for himself
and shamelessly flatters Lady Teazle to further
Schnozzle Nickname of the US comedian his suit. The brothers’ rich uncle, Sir Oliver
Jimmy Durante (James Francis Durante; Surface, dons a disguise to find out their true
1893–1980), who was famous for his bulbous feelings towards him; as a result, he chooses to
nose (his ‘schnozz’ or ‘schnozzle’), his gravelly reward Charles’s basic honesty with his
New York accent, and his unsophisticated financial support.
humour. He later confessed that he greatly
disliked his nose until it became a factor in his School for Wives, The (L’École des
commercial success. Durante started his show- femmes) A comedy by MOLIÈRE, first produced
business career as a pianist, working first at in 1662 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal and
Diamond Tony’s Saloon on Coney Island. He then with great success at the public theatres in
subsequently teamed up with Eddie Jackson Paris. The controversy aroused by the piece,
and Lou Clayton, and throughout the 1920s which some critics considered immoral,
the trio worked New York’s vaudeville and provoked three more plays, all produced the
nightclub circuit. Durante’s contribution to following year. LA CRITIQUE DE L’ÉCOLE DES
FEMMES, written by Molière in response to
the act included such songs as ‘Ink-a-Dink-a-
Doo’ and ‘It’s my Nose’s Boithday Today’, criticism of the original play, included a
which later became stock items in his solo caricature of the playwright Edmé Boursault.
cabaret act. Boursault responded with an attack on Molière
in Le Portrait du peintre, causing Molière
school drama Plays written in Latin to counterattack with L’IMPROMPTU DE
during the Renaissance by European scholars VERSAILLES, which again ridiculed Boursault
452 Schröder, Friedrich Ludwig

and the Hôtel de Bourgogne company. The finally assumed complete control, prospering
two dramatists were later reconciled. sufficiently to retire to a country estate in
The plot of The School for Wives involves a 1798. See also HAMBURG STYLE.
middle-aged Parisian, Arnolphe, who intends
to marry his young ward, Agnès. To ensure her sciopticon See PROJECTOR.
innocence he has had her raised by nuns; scissor cross See STAGE DIRECTION.
however, the sheltered Agnès falls for Horace,
the son of Arnolphe’s friend Oronte. Arnolphe scissor stage See BOAT TRUCK.
discovers the affair, becomes increasingly
jealous and frustrated, and nearly kills Horace. Scofield, (David) Paul (1922–2008)
Eventually, Oronte persuades him that the British actor, who made his first professional
young lovers should marry. appearance in 1940 at the Westminster
Theatre. Scofield subsequently joined the
Schröder, Friedrich Ludwig Birmingham Repertory Theatre under the
(1744–1816) Germany theatre manager, and direction of Sir Barry Jackson, whom he
playwright. Schröder was a dominant force followed to the SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL
during the most formative period of the THEATRE at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1946. At
German stage and introduced theatregoers to Stratford, Scofield embarked on a series of
Shakespeare and Goethe. prominent Shakespearean roles that greatly
Friedrich was born in Schwerin, the son of enhanced his reputation; these included
an alcoholic father and the actress Sophia Hamlet in a 1955 production that toured to
Schröder (1714–92), who subsequently left her America and Russia and Lear in Peter BROOK’s
husband to join the travelling company of celebrated 1962 production for the RSC.
Konrad Ackermann (whom she eventually Scofield subsequently played almost all of the
married). The young Schröder began as a child major Shakespearean roles.
actor in his stepfather’s company. At the age of He was also highly praised for his portrayal
12 he accidentally became separated from it of Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s A MAN
and survived by working as an acrobat and FOR ALL SEASONS (1960) as well as powerful
rope-dancer until he found the company again performances in works by contemporary
in Switzerland. Schröder was trained by the dramatists as diverse as John OSBORNE,
company’s most renowned actor, Konrad Christopher Hampton, and Peter SHAFFER.
EKHOF. From 1767 onwards they both assisted Highlights of his later career include West End
Ackermann in his efforts to establish the first productions of Herb Gardner’s I’m Not
German National Theatre in Hamburg. Rappaport (1986), Shaw’s Heartbreak House
Mismanagement doomed the project, (1992), and Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman
however, and when Schröder began to take (1996). He became a Companion of Honour
over most of Ekhof’s parts, the older actor in 2000, having rejected the offer of a
decided to move on. knighhood on three occasions.
Following Ackermann’s death in 1771,
Sophia retained financial control of the Scottish Play An alternative title used by
company and Schröder, by now the leading actors for Shakespeare’s MACBETH, in deference
actor, became artistic director. Schröder to the curse allegedly attaching to the play.
improved the company’s standards and ‘That play’, ‘the unmentionable’, and ‘Mr and
reputation, producing such important works as Mrs M’ are amongst the other euphemisms
G. E. Lessing’s Emilia galotti in 1772 and used. Popularly regarded as the unluckiest play
Goethe’s first play Gotz von Berlinchingen the in the dramatic repertory, Macbeth has become
following year. In 1771 he became manager of the focus of many theatrical traditions and
the Hamburg theatre, where he introduced his superstitions. If an actor refers to the play in a
own adaptations of Shakespearean works dressing room by its real title he or she must
including Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. In immediately leave the room, turn around three
1782, after years of tension with his mother, times, break wind or spit, knock on the door,
Schröder moved to the BURGTHEATER in and ask permission to re-enter. Alternatively
Vienna where, as guest artist for four years, he the line “Angels and ministers of grace defend
established the refined ensemble acting that us”, from Hamlet (I, iv), may be quoted.
was to remain a feature of the company. In Nobody knows the origin of the
1786 he returned to his mother’s company and superstition, but the witches’ incantations on
 Seagull, The 453

stage may be responsible for the idea that the important influence on Eugène LABICHE,
play contains genuine ‘bad magic’. The history Victorien SARDOU, and even Henrik Ibsen’s
of bad luck began with the first performance at first play Catilina (1850). Scribe was elected to
the Globe Theatre, when the boy-actor playing the Académie Française in 1836.
Lady Macbeth is said to have died of a sudden He began writing for the theatre in 1810
fever in the middle of the play. More recent and became known in 1815 with the
years have seen the postponement of Olivier’s vaudeville success Encore une nuit de la Garde
first production at the Old Vic due to the Nationale, in which he substituted figures from
death of Lilian Baylis on the eve of the contemporary society for the conventional
opening night (1937), three deaths in the characters of the genre. His most successful
company during the first production with play was Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849), written
Gielgud (1942), and – on an eventful tour in in collaboration with Ernest Legouvé
1954 – an attempted suicide, an accident in (1807–1903); the first production featured
which the company manager broke both legs, Rachel in the title role of the 18th-century
the electrocution of an electrician, and the actress, who was supposedly poisoned by her
death of a visitor from a blow by a stage spear rival (see LECOUVREUR, ADRIENNE). Sarah
after a member of the crew uttered the fateful Bernhardt played Adrienne for the first time in
word to him in conversation. 1880 and it subsequently became one of her
Many attempts have been made to ward most famous roles.
off the curse, including an exorcism of evil By the latter half of the 19th century
spirits in 1926 by Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Scribe’s dull characterization, contrived plots,
Casson at the Princes Theatre. A more and feeble language were increasingly
powerful defence was used during Orson recognized. Even Bernhardt decided in 1905
Welles’s famous 1928 all-Black Macbeth in that the original version of Adrienne Lecouvreur
Harlem’s Lafayette Theatre. John Houseman was too bad to perform (“I don’t know how
recalled, “Our supernatural department was Rachel managed…I can’t do a thing with it”)
very strong at the Lafayette.” It included an and wrote her own version for a US tour. Later
authentic witch doctor who sacrificed live generations blamed Scribe for corrupting the
goats in the theatre at night. When the critic art of playwriting, and none of his works are
Percy Hammond attacked the production, performed today. It is said that when the
the witch doctor led a voodoo session and German poet Heinrich Heine was dying he
Hammond died a few days later of a sudden was asked if he could hiss: “No, not even a
illness. play of Scribe’s,” he replied weakly.
Others have suggested more prosaic
reasons for the long catalogue of accidents and scruto A flexible sheet of scenery made
other misfortunes associated with the play. For from thin strips of wood fastened to a piece of
example, it is probably the case that Macbeth canvas. It may be used for a TRANSFORMATION
contains more swordfights and stabbings than SCENE or to conceal an opening, such as the
any other frequently performed play of Corsican trap (see GHOST GLIDE), through
Shakespeare. Moreover, productions tend to be which an actor can make a surprise entrance or
dimly lit – partly for reasons of atmosphere exit.
but also because an unusual number of the
scenes take place at night. See TABOOS AND Seagull, The A play by CHEKHOV, first
SUPERSTITIONS.
performed in 1896 at the Alexandrinsky
Theatre in St Petersburg, where the first night
Scribe, (Augustin-)Eugène proved a famous disaster. One critic wrote,
(1791–1861) French playwright, who “We have not been present for a long time at
developed the WELL-MADE PLAY with its close- so complete a failure.” Chekhov had tried to
knit plot. He dominated the Paris theatre for introduce naturalistic acting, but admitted
more than 30 years of the early 19th century, that the audience showed “a strained state of
earning a fortune from his output of over 400 boredom and confusion”. However, when
works (many of which were written in The Seagull was revived in 1898 at the Moscow
collaboration). Most of his works were light Art Theatre under STANISLAVSKY’s watchful
vaudevilles; he also wrote 35 plays – comedies, direction, it was an enormous success,
tragedies, and historical dramas – as well as establishing Chekhov’s reputation as a serious
opera libretti and a ballet. His work was an playwright. In London, the play ran for 109
454 Second Mrs Tanqueray, The

performances in 1936 at the New Theatre. segment stage See JACK-KNIFE STAGE.
There have neen numerous English-language
revivals, including a 2007 production starring Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4 BC–
Mackenzie Crook and Kristin Scott Thomas. 65 AD) Roman tragedian, philosopher, and
The plot centres on the ageing actress statesman. Seneca’s nine surviving tragedies on
Madame Arkadina, her neurotic son legendary Greek subjects are the only plays
Konstantin, an unsuccessful playwright, and from the Imperial era to have survived. The
Nina, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. As plays (dates unknown) are Phaedra, Thyestes,
a sign of his love for her, Konstantin shoots a Troades, Medea, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens,
seagull and places it at Nina’s feet: her reaction Hercules Oetaeus, Oedipus, and Phoenissae.
is one of horror and confusion. Nina proceeds They were all written for recitation, rather
to fall for Boris Trigorin, the famous author than stage production.
who is also Arkadina’s lover, and resolves to Seneca’s plays are flawed by their artificial
run away with him and follow a career as an language, stereotyped characters, and
actress. Years later Nina unexpectedly returns melodramatic plots. Nevertheless, they had a
to see Konstatin: he learns that her affair with great influence on the drama of Renaissance
Trigorin is over, their baby is dead, and her Europe, especially the REVENGE TRAGEDIES
career as an actress has failed. When Nina goes of the Elizabethans. Shakespeare’s TITUS
on to reveal that she still loves Trigorin despite ANDRONICUS (1592) borrowed the device of
everything, Konstantin shoots himself. a pie made of human flesh from Seneca’s
Thyestes.
Second Mrs Tanqueray, The A Seneca himself led a dangerous and
serious ‘problem play’ by A. W. PINERO, first eventful life: the emperor Caligula, jealous of
performed in 1893 at St James’s Theatre with his success, refrained from executing him only
Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL as Paula Tanqueray. because he thought Seneca was already dying;
Although Pinero thought the subject (a mother the wife of Claudius I subsequently exiled him
and stepdaughter having an affair with the to Corsica on charges of adultery with the
same man) likely to cause offence, the play was emperor’s niece. He later became Nero’s tutor,
an overwhelming success. Mrs Pat became and committed suicide at Nero’s command
famous overnight, entering what George after being accused of conspiracy.
Bernard Shaw called “the heyday of her
Tanqueradiance”. She later toured in the role sentimental comedy A popular form
and, according to the critic James Agate, “burst of comedy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
upon the provincial darkness”. Moralistic and redolent with pathos,
Gladys Cooper starred in a 1922 revival at sentimental comedies were a reaction against
the Old Vic with Mrs Pat in the wings as the licentiousness of the Restoration stage; they
drama critic of the Daily Mail. Another revival appealed especially to the new middle-class
at the Haymarket in 1950 had Eileen Herlie as audience, which included many women.
Paula and Leslie Banks as her husband, with Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift (1696) is
sets by Cecil Beaton. Mrs Pat’s daughter usually considered the first sentimental
refused an invitation to the premiere, having comedy. The leading exponent of the genre in
been badly treated by her mother and not England was Richard Steele, whose final
wishing to be reminded of her. comedy and greatest success, The Conscious
The plot concerns Aubrey Tanqueray’s Lovers, opened in 1722 at Drury Lane under
second marriage, to Paula. Eileen, his 18-year- Cibber’s management. The work was
old daughter from his first marriage, comes translated into German and French, giving
home to announce her engagement to Captain impetus to the wave of sentimentality
Hugh Ardale. To protect her, Paula is obliged engulfing Europe. The French version of the
to tell her husband that she also had an affair genre, COMÉDIE LARMOYANTE, was led by the
with the man many years ago. As a result, the dramatist Le Chaussée, whose offerings
marriage is forbidden and all three members of included L’École des mères (1744) and La
the family become alienated from one another. Gouvernante (1747).
Paula finally kills herself, convinced that she
cannot escape her past: “I believe the future is Separate Tables Two one-act plays
only the past again, entered through another on a single bill by Terence RATTIGAN, first
gate.” performed in 1954 at St James’s Theatre,
 set 455

London. The two plays, Table by the Window killed, but a massacre is prevented by the arrest
and Table Number Seven, evoke the sadness of the two remaining deserters. The innkeeper
and isolation of life in a small residential hotel. comments that “you can’t cure the pox with
The opening production, directed by Peter further whoring” – a pithy reflection on
Glenville, starred Eric Portman (giving “as Serjeant Musgrave’s problem.
good a performance as England can show”
according to critic Ronald Barker) and Serlio, Sebastiano (1475–1554) Italian
Margaret Leighton. In 1956 it opened at the painter and architect, who was the first
Music Box in New York, where Leighton won scenic artist to publish his drawings. They
the Tony Award for her performance. During appeared in 1545 in the second part of his
the run her husband Max REINHARDT divorced L’Architettura, translated into English as The
her on the grounds of misconduct with the Second Book of Architecture in 1611. Serlio’s
actor Laurence Harvey, whom she married the designs dominated the European stage for
following year. The play was filmed in 1958 some 400 years. His ideas were followed by
with David Niven (who won an Oscar for Inigo Jones, Molière, and others, and copies of
his performance as Major Pollock), Burt his sets appeared as late as the 19th century in
Lancaster, Wendy Hiller, Deborah Kerr, and scenery for melodramas.
Gladys Cooper. Serlio designed for temporary theatres set
Set in the dining room of the Beauregard up in aristocratic banqueting halls. He was
Hotel, Bournemouth, the plays explore the a clever fund-raiser among his patrons,
lives of its lonely and ageing residents. In Table explaining:
by the Window, the ex-wife of the disgraced The more costly these things are, the
politician John Malcolm discovers that he is more they are worthy of praise, because
having an affair with the manageress. Malcolm in truth they then express the
still loves his former spouse, despite their generosity of rich lords and their
stormy past, and they depart together. In Table enmity to ugly stinginess.
Number Seven Mrs Railton-Bell uncovers the His sets featured wooden or painted canvas
fact that Major Pollock’s military credentials houses with a painted backcloth behind. In his
are bogus and incites the other residents book he illustrated three types of perspective
against him. Her plain and timid daughter set, each of which featured central avenues
Sibyl, finding that she has much in common with houses or trees on either side: the scena
with Pollock, defies her mother and persuades tragica depicted palaces, the scena comica had
him to stay. city houses, and the scena satyrica portrayed a
landscape of trees, hills, and cottages.
Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance A play Another section of Serlio’s book concerned
protesting against war and violence by John lighting, including coloured light, sunshine,
ARDEN. This “historical parable” was first
and moonlight. Among his suggestions for the
performed in 1959 at the Royal Court production of red lighting on stage was a
Theatre, London; its action was quickly bottle of red wine placed in front of a torch.
compared with events during the last days of He also dealt with the creation of thunder and
British rule in Cyprus. Although the original lightning effects. See also SCENERY; SET.
production was a failure, the work has since
been hailed as a classic and is frequently set The scenery, props, and lighting used to
revived. evoke the location or mood of the drama. The
Set in Victorian England, the story follows word ‘set’ comes from set scene – a term
four soldiers who desert their overseas unit formerly used to distinguish an arrangement of
after the death of their comrade, Billy Hicks. scenery, furniture, and props set in place for
Musgrave leads them to Billy’s home town, a the duration of a scene from a flat scene,
northern mining community weakened by a consisting of flats that could be slid on and off
coal strike. Here they publicly exhibit Billy’s stage. The BOX SET, representing the three
skeleton to the locals in order to turn them walls and ceiling of a room, was introduced in
against the colonial war. They receive no the early 19th century.
support from the townspeople and after the In the later 19th century the movement
accidental death of one of the soldiers they towards REALISM demanded a new style of set
decide to kill “five times five” civilians as a design incorporating many details from
lesson to the community. Another soldier is everyday life. The director André Antoine
456 set a stage

(1858–1943) insisted on using real furniture Shadow, the See HEAVENS, THE.
and even had real beef hanging in his set of a
butcher’s shop. Beerbohm TREE ordered real Shadow of a Gunman, The Sean
O’CASEY’s first play, which opened in 1923 at
broom for his production of Richard II at the
Haymarket but prickly gorse was installed by the ABBEY THEATRE, Dublin, and later in
mistake, causing the leading actor to leap up in London (1927) and New York (1932).
agony after pronouncing the lines “For God’s The tragicomic story is set in 1920, at the
height of the Anglo-Irish conflict. Two feckless
sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad
young men, the poet Donal Davoren and the
stories of the death of kings.” Perhaps the
pedlar Seamus Shields, share a tenement in the
grandest attempt to create a totally realistic set
Dublin slums. Believing that Davoren is an
came from David BELASCO, who had a real
IRA man on the run, the landlord treats him
New York boarding-house bedroom ripped
royally and Minnie Powell, another tenant,
out and installed on stage for a play called The
falls in love with him. Reality intrudes on this
Easiest Way. Many theorists have pointed out fantasy when Shields’s pedlar friend Maguire
that since the audience knows the set is not leaves his case of ‘samples’ with the boys and is
real, it is pointless to try to create the illusion later shot by the British. Davoren and Shields
of reality. Ellen Terry once described stage discover that the case contains guns, and when
realism as “real goats, real dogs, and real litter”. the Black and Tans raid the house Minnie
Expressionist or experimental plays usually hides it in her room. She is arrested and taken
have abstract sets to represent themes or away in an army lorry that is then ambushed
moods. See also SCENERY. by the IRA. Minnie yells “Up the Republic!”
set a stage To arrange scenery and props but is killed by her own side as she tries to
on a stage. The New York Daily Tribune escape.
explained in 1889: “An elaborate scene is ‘set’ shadow puppets Two-dimensional
when it is arranged upon the stage, and ‘struck’ puppets whose shadows are cast on a
when it is removed.” See also STRIKE. translucent screen illuminated from behind;
they are usually manipulated by rods or wires.
Seven Against Thebes A tragedy by
Shadow-puppet theatre originated in the
AESCHYLUS, first performed in 469 BC in
Orient: in India, shadow puppets have been
Athens. One of the first plays to be dominated
used since ancient times to enact the Hindu
by the PROTAGONIST rather than by the chorus,
national epics Mahabharata and Ramayana,
it is the third and only surviving part of a and in China they were used to present
tetralogy based on the legend of Oedipus, his miniature operas in the Song Era (960–1279),
father Laius, and his sons. The first two while their use is also traditional in Bali, Java,
dramas, Laius and Oedipus, showed how Laius Burma, and Cambodia.
had disobeyed the oracle and fathered a son, In France the puppets were known as
bringing doom on his family and peril for their ombres chinoises. Dominique Séraphin opened
city. a shadow theatre in 1774 in Versailles; this
The play opens with a prologue explaining later moved to the Palais Royal in Paris and
that Oedipus has been expelled from Thebes was continued by Séraphin’s descendants until
and that his sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, 1859. From 1887 Henri Rivière devised
have quarrelled over the succession. The city is sophisticated plays for the Chat Noir cabaret
now besieged by an army from Argos that is in Montmartre.
determined to place Polyneices on the throne. Shadow puppets were taken to America in
Eteocles promises the chorus of fearful women the 18th century, and in 1893 Léon-Charles
that he will defend the city’s seven gates Marot presented the Théâtre des Ombres
against seven champions of the enemy. Parisiennes at the Chicago World’s Fair. In
Polyneices is the champion at Eteocles’s gate Britain shadow plays known as galanty shows
and the brothers meet in combat, fulfilling were presented in conjunction with PUNCH
Oedipus’s curse that his sons shall divide their AND JUDY in the late 19th century. In the
inheritance with the sword. At the end of the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s Lotte
play a messenger announces that the brothers Reiniger made black-silhouette films such as
have killed each other, but that Thebes has Prince Achmet (1926); her puppets, like those
been saved. used in France and Britain, were cut out of tin.
 Shakespeare, William 457

Shaffer, Sir Peter (1926– ) British After refurbishment in 1963 the theatre
dramatist, who has said that a great play must reopened under its present name with the
come “bolting out like rabbits out of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without
hedge”. A native of Leeds, Shaffer served as a Really Trying. History was made in 1968 when
‘Bevin Boy’ during World War II and worked the controversial ‘hippie’ musical HAIR opened
as a librarian and a publisher’s assistant before the day after censorship by the Lord
beginning to write for the stage. His brilliant Chamberlain was abolished. It logged 1997
first play FIVE FINGER EXERCISE, directed by performances before literally bringing the
Gielgud at the Comedy Theatre in 1958, ran house down: as celebrations were being
for 607 performances; this was followed by organized for its 2000th performance, part of
further success with two one-act plays billed the roof collapsed and the theatre was closed
together, The Private Ear and The Public Eye for repairs. Under threat of demolition, it was
(1962). In another one-act play, the brilliant rescued by the efforts of the Save London’s
Black Comedy (1965), the characters behave as Theatres campaign; having been listed as “a
if they are in a totally dark room (although the building of special architectural or historic
stage is lit as normal). interest”, it reopened in 1974. More recent
In 1964 Shaffer’s epic tragedy THE ROYAL musicals to have played in the 1358-seat
HUNT OF THE SUN (1964) gave the National auditorium include Kiss of the Spider Woman,
Theatre Company its first triumph with a which won the 1992 Evening Standard Drama
contemporary work. In this play, set in Peru Award for Best Musical, Jonathan Larson’s
following the arrival of the conquistadors, Rent (1998), and Marc Shaiman’s Hairspray
Shaffer began to explore his characteristic (2007), which was nominated for a record 11
themes of reason versus faith and greatness Olivier Awards.
versus mediocrity. The National Theatre also The first theatre to be constructed
staged the two plays that are probably Shaffer’s in Shaftesbury Avenue, also called the
best-known works: EQUUS (1973) and Shaftesbury, opened in 1888 with As You Like
AMADEUS (1979). His subsequent plays include It. It also found success with musicals, such
the comedy Lettice and Lovage, which opened as The Belle of New York (1898) and The
in 1987 with Maggie Smith, and The Gift of Arcadians (1909), which starred Cicely
The Gorgon (1992). Courtneidge and ran for more than two years.
Shaffer collaborated with his twin brother, The theatre was destroyed by bombs in 1941.
Anthony Shaffer (1926–2001), on three
detective books in the early 1950s. Anthony Shakespeare, William (1564–1616)
found success with his first play, SLEUTH English dramatist, poet, and actor, generally
(1970), and wrote other stage thrillers, such as regarded as the greatest playwright of all time
Murderer (1975). (but see ANTI-SHAKESPEAREANA). His works
have been performed more frequently
Shaftesbury Theatre A theatre in and in more languages than those of any
Shaftesbury Avenue, London, that opened in other dramatist in history. The official
1911 as the New Prince’s Theatre. The Shakespearean canon comprises the 36 plays of
management intended to specialize in popular the FIRST FOLIO (1623), two collaborative
melodrama, with seat prices ranging from contributions, the Sonnets, the long poems The
sixpence to five shillings. Since 1916, however, Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis, and a
musicals and light opera have predominated. few lyrics. Most scholars now accept that he
In 1919, when the theatre was managed by also wrote some scenes and speeches in the
C. B. COCHRAN, an association began with the chronicle plays Edward III and Sir Thomas
D’Oyly Carte Opera Company which was to More.
last more than 40 years. When the Astaires Of Shakespeare’s life little is certainly
performed in Gershwin’s Funny Face in 1928, known apart from the approximate dates of his
the run was interrupted by a gas explosion. birth, marriage to Anne HATHAWAY, and death.
Regular drama was also produced: Sarah From 1592 it is possible to find references to
Bernhardt appeared in 1921 in Louis Shakespeare’s early plays in the works of other
Verneuil’s Daniel, Sybil Thorndike in 1926 in writers and contemporary records show that he
Macbeth, and Michael Redgrave and Peggy was also much admired for his poetry. Despite
Ashcroft in 1953 in their highly praised Antony this, reliable information about Shakespeare’s
and Cleopatra. personal life, character, and beliefs remains
458 Shakespeareana

virtually nonexistent, leading to much while his old school proudly displayed the
speculation on the basis of the plays. Several actual desk at which he sat.
recent studies have stressed his Catholic The most spectacular items of
background and connections. Shakespeareana were the forgeries of William
Shakespeare’s first work for the stage is Henry Ireland (1777–1835), which included
usually considered to be the three parts of the play Vortigern and Rowena and letters
Henry VI, although the imprecise dating of his between ‘Willy’ Shakespeare and ‘Anna’
plays makes even this uncertain. By the mid Hathaway (see IRELAND FORGERIES). He was so
1590s Shakespeare was a shareholder in the insistent that these were genuine that several
CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN, who were later to distinguished visitors, including James Boswell,
become the King’s Men. From 1599 his plays were persuaded to sign a ‘Certificate of Belief’,
were presented at the new GLOBE THEATRE, in attesting to their origin. Others remained
which he owned a tenth share. The great sceptical: at the height of Ireland’s success the
tragedies that are usually seen as the summit of Telegraph printed its own satirical item of
his achievement were written over the next six Shakespeareana, a letter from Shakespeare to
or seven years. By about 1610 he had made his cheesemonger:
enough money to retire to the second largest Thee chesesse you set mee werree tooee
house in Stratford. He had been dead for seven sweattie, and tooe rankee inn flauvorre,
years before two of his friends arranged and butte thee redde herringges were
paid for the publication of the First Folio. addmirablee.
The theory that Shakespeare was not the
writer of the works attributed to him was first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre A
put forward by Herbert Lawrence in 1769 (see theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, built by
BACONIAN THEORY). public subscription in 1879 on land donated
The striking peculiarity of Shakespear’s by the owners of a local brewery. It was the
mind was its generic quality, its power venue for an annual festival of Shakespeare’s
of communication with all other minds plays from 1886 until 1926, when the theatre
– so that it contained a universe of was destroyed by fire. A new theatre, designed
thought and feeling within itself, and by Elizabeth Scott, was built on the same site
had no one peculiar bias, or exclusive and opened in 1932. After World War II the
excellence more than another. He was theatre became increasingly influential under
just like any other man, but that he the successive managements of Sir Barry
was like all other men. He was the least Jackson (1945–47), who brought in such
of an egotist that it was possible to be. talented newcomers as Peter BROOK, Anthony
He was nothing in himself; but he was Quayle (1948–56), whose production featured
all that others were, or that they could such well-known actors as John Gielgud and
become. Peggy Ashcroft, and Glen Byam Shaw
WILLIAM HAZLITT: Lectures on the
(1956–61). In 1961 a new director, Peter
HALL, took over the theatre, renaming it the
English Poets (1818)
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and founding the
Shakespeareana Relics said to be linked resident ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY.
to William SHAKESPEARE. In 1787, 171 years Over the years Scott’s art deco building has
after the playwright’s death, the only genuine come in for a good deal of criticism for its
relic – apart from certain legal documents – inflexible spaces, poor sightlines, and other
appeared to be his chair. However, by the design flaws; its elongated shape and
late 19th century inhabitants of Stratford- uninspiring exterior have also led to its being
upon-Avon had mysteriously unearthed nicknamed the Jam Factory by professionals.
Shakespeare’s walking-stick, gloves, tobacco Antony Sher compared the building’s
box, cutlery, and many other curiosities appearance to “an oil tanker on the water”,
associated with him – even the sword he is while another anonymous performer likened
supposed to have used while playing Hamlet its acoustics to “acting from Calais to the
(despite the well-established tradition that the White Cliffs of Dover.” Nevertheless, when in
author took only minor roles in his own 2001 the RSC announced plays to demolish
works). The owners of two local hotels claimed the theatre and rebuild it from scratch there
to have Shakespeare’s clock and shovel-board, was a considerable outcry. Instead, the theatre
 sharer 459

was closed for three years (2007–10) and before the magistrates for poaching deer in the
subjected to a comprehensive redevelopment park. In revenge, the future playwright is
costing some £112 million. supposed to have written a doggerel attack on
Sir Thomas:
Shakespeare of Triviality, the A
malicious nickname given to the German A Parliament member, a Justice of the
playwright Ernst Raupach (1784–1852) by Peace,
the theatre manager and playwright Heinrich At home a poor scarecrow, at London
Laube (1806–84). Jealousy may have played a an asse;
part, since Raupach was the most popular and If lowsie is Lucy, as some folks miscalle
prolific dramatist of his time, turning out well- it,
constructed histories, such as the 16-play cycle Then Lucy is lowsie whatever may
The Hohenstaufens (1837). The epithet may befall it.
have been prompted by Raupach’s output of Perhaps significantly, in The Merry Wives
melodramas. Falstaff is caught poaching Shallow’s deer;
Shallow’s coat of arms is also similar to that of
Shakespeare’s Globe See GLOBE the Lucy family, containing “a dozen white
THEATRE; RYLANCE, MARK. luces” or pikes.
Shakespeare villages A group of shaman A tribal priest or witch doctor
villages near Stratford-upon-Avon in believed to have supernatural powers,
Warwickshire, made famous by a rhyme including gifts of healing, cursing, and
improbably attributed to SHAKESPEARE: foreseeing the future. Their methods involved
Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, ritual dances and other dramatic techniques.
Haunted Hillbro’, hungry Grafton, Shamanism was especially prevalent amongst
Dudging Exhall, papist Wicksford, Siberian nomads and Native American tribes;
Beggarly Broom and drunken Bidford. the word comes from a Siberian language. In
The verse is supposed to have been written the 20th century, directors such as Antonin
after Shakespeare and some friends accepted a Artaud (see CRUELTY, THEATRE OF) and Peter
BROOK have attempted to rediscover the
drinking challenge from the men of Bidford-
on-Avon. Shakespeare and his companions lost shamanistic roots of theatrical performance.
the contest and had to sleep off the effects sharer In the Elizabethan theatre, a
before returning to Stratford the next day. member of a company who held shares in the
According to another legend, it was alcohol PROMPT BOOKS, costumes, and properties. The
that precipitated Shakespeare’s death: having financial risks were divided among the sharers,
fallen down some steps after a drinking bout as were the profits. The evening’s take was split
with Ben Jonson and other literary friends, he up after each performance on a sharing table
contracted the fever from which he died. marked out like a draughtboard with the
shaking the ladder A technique sharers’ initials chalked inside the squares.
formerly used by actors to build up their Sharers normally made up less than half
nervous tension offstage, thereby enabling the employees. Important actors were
them to enter a scene in a state of excitement. encouraged to put up the money necessary to
Actors waiting for their cue used to shake the become shareholders, as this would ensure
rope ladders hanging from the flies to raise their loyalty. The sharers formed a self-
their pulse rates and quicken their breathing. governing body that chose and produced plays.
This technique has given way to other devices, Members usually had other duties, such as
such as breathing exercises. acting, writing plays, or supervising props or
costumes.
Shallow, Justice A foolish country In 1635 a witness in a court case stated
judge in Shakespeare’s plays THE MERRY WIVES that sharers in the King’s Men earned about
OF WINDSOR and HENRY IV, PART II. According £180 annually, although others claimed the
to tradition, the character was based on Sir figure was nearer £50. A nonsharing member,
Thomas Lucy (1532–1600), a justice of the or HIRED MAN, worked under contract for very
peace who owned Charlecote Park near little money. By 1690 the sharing system had
Stratford-upon-Avon. Legend has it that the been dropped in London as theatres declined
young Shakespeare was arrested and brought and actors demanded fixed salaries.
460 Shaw, George Bernard

Those who had shares in the theatre and PYGMALION (1914; filmed in 1938 and
building but not in the scripts and costumes produced as the musical MY FAIR LADY in
were known as housekeepers. They paid the 1955). During World War I Shaw’s reputation
building’s rent and maintained it, receiving an suffered seriously from his pacifist essay
agreed percentage of the admission receipts. Common Sense About the War (1914), in which
Shakespeare was a housekeeper at the Globe he proposed that the soldiers on both sides
Theatre. should mutiny. However, the London
Other countries also had sharing troupes. theatregoing public had forgiven him by 1921,
In 16th and 17th century Spain they were when HEARTBREAK HOUSE appeared (one year
called compañias de parte, while in early 17th- after its first performance in New York). The
century France all companies were organized series of plays BACK TO METHUSELAH was
in this way. staged later that year. SAINT JOAN (1924), in
which Sybil Thorndike played Joan of Arc, was
Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950) another great success and is often regarded as
Irish playwright and critic, whose plays are his most important play. His later plays
famous for their wit, eloquence, and interest in include THE APPLE CART (1929).
provocative ideas. Shaw was a determinedly controversial
Born and educated in Dublin, he moved to figure, who could be relied upon to be
London in 1876 to join his mother and two provocative and witty in almost any situation.
sisters. By the mid-1880s he had established If some of his plays have dated, this is partly
himself as a critic on the Pall Mall Gazette because the avant-garde opinions of a century
(books), World (art), and Star (music). Over ago are now accepted as commonplace. Others
the next decade he emerged as a powerful still retain their poignancy – largely because
advocate of both Wagner and IBSEN. Inspired of the eloquence of his characters. He was
mainly by the social dramas of Ibsen, he began awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925.
to write plays of his own, although they were
not performed until later. Plays Pleasant and His brain is a half-inch layer of
Unpleasant, published in 1898, included MRS champagne poured over a bucket of
WARREN’S PROFESSION, which was banned Methodist near-beer.
by the LORD CHAMBERLAIN until 1925, BENJAMIN DE CASSERES

WIDOWERS’ HOUSES, an exposé of slum

Shaw Festival An international theatre
landlordism, and THE PHILANDERER. The other festival held annually from May to October at
plays in the collection, ARMS AND THE MAN, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. When the
YOU NEVER CAN TELL, CANDIDA, and The Man
festival was founded in 1962 by the playwright
of Destiny reveal the author’s gift for sparkling Brian Doherty (1906–74) it concentrated
comedy. Unable to find commercial audiences exclusively on the works of George Bernard
for these plays, Shaw wrote extensive Prefaces SHAW. It now features works by a variety of
for them, elaborating on the social and moral dramatists.
themes that they explore. These pieces
reflected the socialist beliefs that had led him Shaw’s Corner The name by which
to become a founding member of the Fabian George Bernard SHAW’s house at Ayot St
Society in 1884. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, became known.
His next collection, Three Plays for Puritans Shaw acquired the house in 1906, the decisive
(1901), included THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, CAESAR factor being a gravestone he spotted in the
AND CLEOPATRA, and CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND’S village cemetery with the legend: “Jane
CONVERSION. Although these plays were Eversley. Born 1825. Died 1895. Her time was
performed (indeed Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL short.” Shaw, with his philosophy of human
appeared in the first performance of Caesar and longevity (see BACK TO METHUSELAH), instantly
Cleopatra in 1899) Shaw’s reputation as a declared “this is the place for me.” His
dramatist was not established until JOHN confidence was well placed; at the age of 94 he
BULL’S OTHER ISLAND and MAN AND SUPERMAN was still able to prune the trees in his garden
had been seen in the London theatre in 1904. there – although it was a fall while doing so
Subsequent plays included MAJOR BARBARA that hastened his death in 1950. His ashes
(1905), THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA (1906), were mixed with those of his wife and scattered
MISALLIANCE (1910), FANNY’S FIRST PLAY in the garden. The National Trust received the
(1911), ANDROCLES AND THE LION (1913), house and grounds, complete with ‘The
 Shepard, Sam 461

Wilderness’ – the hut in which Shaw wrote same season with Chicago, Icarus’ Mother, and
and which he could rotate to catch the sun’s Red Cross: La Turista, his first full-length piece,
rays – under the terms of the author’s will. The followed suit in 1967. By the end of the 1960s
house itself has few aesthetic merits: one Shepard was also playing in a rock band (“I
National Trust inspector described it as “very don’t want to be a playwright, I want to be a
ugly” and another as “an example of the nadir rock and roll star”) and was embroiled in a
of taste to which a distinguished writer could turbulent relationship with poet-singer Patti
sink.” Smith, with whom he wrote Cowboy Mouth
(1971). He had also developed a drug
Sheldon, Edward Brewster problem. To escape both, Shepard decamped
(1886–1946) US dramatist who pioneered to London, where he wrote The Tooth of Crime
REALISM on the US stage with his first play
(1972), a fantasy about two gangster-like rock
Salvation Nell. First produced at Hackett’s stars, and Geography of a Horse Dreamer
Theatre on Broadway in 1903, it starred (1974), which was seen at the Royal Court’s
Minnie FISKE as a parish scrubwoman, Nell Theatre Upstairs.
Sanders, and was directed by her husband, In the mid-1970s Shepard returned to
Harrison Grey Fiske. Sheldon, who had been a America, where he took up a ten-year
member of ’47 WORKSHOP at Harvard appointment as writer-in-residence at the
University was instantly acclaimed as the
Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Subsequent
leader of a new US school of naturalistic
plays showed a more conventional approach to
playwrights. This standing was confirmed by
narrative and a new preoccupation with
subsequent works such as The Nigger (1904),
themes of family conflict. This is first evident
which explored the race problem, and The Boss
in Curse of the Starving Class (1978), in which
(1911), about contemporary employment
the dysfunctional Tate clan struggle for control
abuses.
of the family farm, and Buried Child (1978), a
Sheldon’s biggest hit, however, was
gothic drama of incest and infanticide that
Romance (1913), a far less realistic piece in
earned its author the Pulitzer Prize (Shepard
which Doris Keane starred in the role of an
later remarked that he took more pride in his
Italian opera singer. The play, one of the
youthful victory in a rodeo roping contest).
first to use flashbacks, enjoyed long runs in
The so-called ‘family trilogy’ of plays was
New York and London. Owing to his ill
completed by True West (1980), a black
health most of Sheldon’s later work was in
comedy about the near-murderous rivalry
collaboration with other writers.
between two brothers. The play enjoyed a
Shepard, Sam (Samuel Shepard Rogers; lengthy run in New York, as did the torrid
1943 ) US playwright and film actor, whose Fool For Love (1983), about the explosive
works explore issues of masculinity and family quarrelling of two lovers who turn out to be
breakdown in “the whacked out corridors of half-siblings.
broken off America”. Shepard was born in The 1980s also saw Shepard’s first big
Illinois, the son of an army pilot, but grew up success as a screen actor, with his Oscar-
mainly in California, where his parents ran a nominated performance in The Right Stuff
farm. His relationship with his violent, (1983). He has since appeared in some 40
alcoholic father informs much of his work, as films, including the screen version of his own
do his early experiences as a ranch-hand and a Fool For Love (1986). His other work for the
performer in rodeos. At the age of 19 he cinema has included the screenplay for Paris,
abandoned his college studies to join a touring Texas (1984) and Far North (1988), which he
theatre troupe and made his way to New York, wrote and directed for his long-term partner,
where he became immersed in the nascent OFF- film star Jessica Lange.
OFF-BROADWAY scene. His first plays, the one- Since the mid-1980s new works for the
acters Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were stage have appeared only sporadically. They
produced as a double-bill in 1964. Over the include the award-winning A Lie of the
next 10 years Shepard would make his name Mind (1986), another epic study of family
with some 30 short plays that blend European- breakdown and domestic violence, the
style absurdism with grass-roots Americana blackmail drama Simpatico (1993), The Late
and the disruptive energies of the new youth Henry Moss (2001), and Ages of the Moon
culture. In 1965–66 he won three OBIES in the (2010).
462 Sher, Sir Antony

Sher, Sir Antony (1949– ) British to do,” Lord Byron wrote, “has been, par
actor, best known for his daring interpretations excellence, the best of its kind.”
of Shakespeare. A native South African, Sher He was the son of the Irish actor-manager
travelled to Britain in the late 1960s to train as Thomas Sheridan and his wife Frances, a
an actor. He made his West End debut (1975) popular novelist. In 1775 the double success of
in the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Sheridan’s first great comedy, THE RIVALS, and
Bert and that same year gave a much-praised his comic opera THE DUENNA allowed him to
performance as Khlestakov in Gogol’s The buy Garrick’s share in DRURY LANE; he became
Government Inspector. In 1982 he became an manager in 1776 and sole owner two years
associate member of the RSC and played his later. Another brilliant COMEDY OF MANNERS,
first major Shakespearean role, that of the Fool THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL, opened in 1777 at
in King Lear. He also became known to a Drury Lane to universal acclaim. He also wrote
wider public as the devious sociology lecturer a burlesque of heroic drama, THE CRITIC
Howard Kirk in television’s The History Man. (1779). All are high comedies, featuring such
Charismatic but dangerously manipulative memorable characters as Mrs MALAPROP, Lady
characters have since become a speciality for Teazle, and Mr PUFF.
Sher, the best known being his startling Unfortunately he was not so brilliant
RICHARD III (1884–85). Against the modern in his management of Drury Lane. His love
trend, Sher chose to emphasize the character’s of extravagant spectacles almost led to
physical deformity, playing him as a grotesque bankruptcy, and he constantly became
spider-like creature on crutches. The result was embroiled in legal action against managers of
hailed as the strongest interpretation since unlicensed theatres (see LICENCE). In 1794 he
Olivier’s 40 years earlier. Sher went on to give rebuilt his theatre to such vast proportions that
similarly bold readings of Shylock and Mrs Siddons called it “a wilderness of a place”.
Malvolio (both 1987). His non-Shakespearean In 1780 Sheridan abandoned the theatre to
roles have included the drag queen Arnold in enter parliament, where he gained a reputation
Torch Song Trilogy (1985), an Auschwitz as a fine orator (on one occasion speaking for
survivor turned ruthless slum landlord in Peter over five hours). When Drury Lane caught fire
Flannery’s Singer (1987), the title character in in 1809 he drank a leisurely glass of wine at
Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1991), the GREAT PIAZZA COFFEE HOUSE, watching the
and the artist Stanley Spencer in Stanley flames consume his theatre and remarking “A
(1996). In 1995 he returned to South Africa in man may surely be allowed to take a glass of
a production of Titus Andronicus directed by wine at his own fireside.” He died in poverty.
his partner, Gregory Doran. Sher himself Sherlock Holmes A play by the US actor
directed Fraser Grace’s play Breakfast with and playwright William Gillette (1855–1937)
Mugabe in 2006. that opened in 1899 in Buffalo. At its London
Sher is also a talented writer and illustrator; opening (1905) at the Duke of York’s Theatre,
his books include The Year of the King (1986), the role of the page Billie was played by the
about his preparations for the role of Richard young Charles Chaplin for 50 shillings a week.
III, and several novels. In 2003 he wrote and Gillette, who played the title role for nearly 40
starred in I.D., a play about the assassination years, had obtained Conan Doyle’s permission
of Henrik Verwoerd, the architect of to present his detective on the stage (and later
apartheid. This was followed by Giant (2007), the radio). From the play’s profits, he built
a play about Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Gillette Castle in Hadlyme, Connecticut, an
their young apprentice. Sher has continued to eccentric mansion with its own miniature
appear regularly on the British stage, notably as railway in the grounds.
Iago in the RSC’s Othello (2003), in the title
role of Kean (2007), and as Dr Stockmann in Sherwood, Robert (1896–1955) US
Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People (2010). playwright, whose works emphasize the role of
personal sacrifice in both peace and war.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley Sherwood himself had dropped out of Harvard
(1751–1816) Dublin-born British playwright in 1917 to enlist in the Canadian Black Watch
and theatre manager, who produced three Battalion, with which he served in France.
classic comedies within a five-year writing After his discharge he worked as the drama
career. “Whatever Sheridan has done or chosen editor of Vanity Fair (1919–20), becoming a
 shingeki 463

member of the famous Algonquin Round but played along, allowing Goldsmith to treat
Table of Wits. In 1938 he was cofounder the family to their own wine and not ending
with Maxwell ANDERSON and others of the the joke until, on departing, his visitor asked
Playwrights’ Company. for the bill.
Sherwood’s first successful play was The
Road to Rome (1927), an anti-war satire about She Would if She Could A comedy by
Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps. Subsequent George ETHEREGE, first performed at Lincoln’s
works included Reunion in Vienna (1931), Inn Fields Theatre, London, in 1668. Much
starring the LUNTS, and the tragedy THE influenced by Molière, it was the first English
PETRIFIED FOREST (1935), starring Humphrey comedy of manners to be written entirely in
Bogart. In 1936 he won a Pulitzer Prize for prose.
Idiot’s Delight, in which the Lunts appeared as In the play Sir Oliver and Lady
US actors working in Europe who decide to Cockwood, together with Sir Joslin Jolley and
become social activists. He also won Pulitzer his nieces Ariana and Gatty, travel from their
Prizes for Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938) and country homes to London, seeking dubious
There Shall Be No Night (1940), in which a pleasures. Lady Cockwood pursues Mr Courtal
group of Finnish pacifists resolve to take up who, with his friend Freeman, escorts the three
arms against the Soviet invaders. When the women to the Bear Tavern in Drury Lane. Sir
play moved to London in 1943 it had to be Joslin and Sir Oliver also arrive at the tavern,
reset in Greece, as the Soviet Union had where Sir Oliver, too drunk to recognize his
become an ally. own wife, dances with her. The ladies flee
During World War II Sherwood served as home with their men friends. When Sir Oliver
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech arrives, Courtal and Freeman attempt to hide
writer and subsequently as head of the overseas but are discovered and matched with the
branch of the Office of War Information. In nieces. For her part, Lady Cockwood resolves
1946 he scripted the film The Best Years of Our to “give over the great business of the town”
Lives, which won eight Academy Awards, and attend to her own family.
including Best Screenplay. A fourth Pulitzer
Prize came in 1949 for his book Roosevelt and shimpa (Japanese: new school) A modern
Hopkins: an Intimate History. version of the Japanese KABUKI drama that
reflects Western influence, even allowing
She Stoops to Conquer Oliver women to appear on stage. Beginning in the
GOLDSMITH’s classic comedy, first performed 1880s, the movement reached a peak in the
in 1773 at Covent Garden. On opening night, early years of the 20th century and then
Goldsmith’s friends stationed one of their declined. Attempts have been made to revive
number with “the most contagious laugh” in shimpa in the post-war era, usually with works
an upper box, hoping that every time he that are rather sentimental.
laughed the rest of the audience would join in.
The ploy was unnecessary, as the play proved shingeki (Japanese: new drama) A 20th-
an immediate success and has remained century movement that aimed to create a more
popular ever since. Western style of drama in Japan. It began early
In the plot Young Marlow and a friend are in the century with a commitment to realism
tricked into mistaking Mr Hardcastle’s house and the principles of STANISLAVSKY. Many
for an inn; consequently they treat him as the Japanese dramatists, actors, and playgoers still
landlord and his daughter, Kate, as a servant. have difficulties accepting the genre, partly
Marlow, who is painfully shy with women of because the Japanese tradition of stylized
his own class but forward with serving acting does not fit easily with realistic Western
wenches, pays avid court to Kate while his staging, and partly because women appear on
friend pursues her cousin. By the time the stage.
misunderstanding is cleared up, two matches The shingeki repertory includes works by
have been made. Western playwrights as well as modern
Goldsmith had himself made a similar Japanese dramatists such as Kobo Abe
mistake. When travelling in Ardagh he had (1924–93) and Yukio Mishima (1925–70).
asked for “the best house” in the area, meaning Abe, who was much influenced by Bertolt
an inn, and was directed to the home of Sir Brecht, wrote several protest plays, including
Ralph Featherstone. Sir Ralph saw the mistake Slave Hunt (1952), which attacked the traffic
464 Shirley, James

in the remains of those killed in war. Mishima subtitled “A pleasant comedie of the gentle
wrote such works as The Nest of the White Ant craft”. It was first performed in London in
(1955), about the dismal lives of Japanese 1599 and proved the most popular of the
living in Brazil. In recent decades Shingeki has author’s works. Dekker derived the story from
become more experimental and aware of The Gentle Craft by Thomas Deloney
international trends. (1560–1600), which included the story of
Simon Eyre, the 15th-century shoemaker’s
Shirley, James (1596–1666) English apprentice who became Lord Mayor.
playwright, who was the last important pre- The Shoemaker’s Holiday was among the
Restoration dramatist. His 40 plays, which
plays presented on Broadway in 1938 by the
include five masques, reflect the influence
Mercury Theatre company of Orson Welles
of Ben Jonson and John Fletcher. More
and John Houseman. Another notable revival
interestingly, his satirical comedies of
was John Dexter’s 1981 production at the
fashionable London society can be seen as
National Theatre, starring Alfred Lynch.
foreshadowing the Restoration COMEDY OF
In the play Rowland Lacy, a relation of the
MANNERS. At least eight of his works were
Earl of Lincoln, loves Rose, the daughter of the
revived after the Restoration.
Lord Mayor of London. The Earl, intent on
Shirley’s first offering, Love Tricks, or the
breaking up the match, sends Lacy off to
School of Compliments, was produced in 1625
at the Phoenix Theatre. Subsequent comedies France to command a company; Lacy,
included Hyde Park (1632), The Gamester however, resigns and returns in the disguise of
(1633), which David Garrick later adapted, a Dutch cobbler. Finding employment with
and The Lady of Pleasure (1635). He also wrote the eccentric Simon Eyre, a master shoemaker,
a number of successful revenge tragedies who supplies the Lord Mayor’s family, Lacy
including The Traitor (1631) and The continues his pursuit of Rose. They are
Cardinal (1641), which Samuel Pepys saw married, Lacy is pardoned by the king, and
twice. Shirley’s most elaborate masque was The Eyre becomes Lord Mayor.
Triumph of Peace (1634), performed at the shortest plays The shortest play ever
Inns of Court with scenery by Inigo JONES. written is almost certainly Samuel BECKETT’s
When the plague closed the theatres in Breath (1969), which lasts about 35 seconds. It
1636, Shirley moved to Dublin to become the has no dialogue or actors, using recorded
resident dramatist at St Werburgh’s Theatre. sounds and changing lighting to depict life
On the death of Philip Massinger in 1640 he from the cradle to the grave. The piece begins
returned to London to become playwright with a newborn baby’s cry and ends with the
with the King’s Men (see CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN) dying gasp of an old man. Breath was ‘written’
at Blackfriars Theatre. He was thus England’s on the back of a postcard for Kenneth TYNAN’s
leading writer for the stage when the Puritans
1969 revue Oh, Calcutta! but subsequently
closed the theatres in 1642 (see INTERREGNUM,
withdrawn when Tynan attempted to
THE). After returning to his old profession of
incorporate mass onstage nudity. Other
teaching he produced few works, the best-
notably short plays include Harold Pinter’s
known being the ‘semidramatic entertainment’
Mountain Language (1988: 12 minutes) and
The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, in which
The New World Order (1991: 8 minutes). See
the two characters contend for the armour of
also LONGEST PLAYS.
Achilles. The famous dirge that closes the piece
alludes to the fate of Charles I: shortest runs See RUN.
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down, shortest titles There are many one-word
And in the dust be equal made play titles, but the shortest are probably Eh?
With the poor crooked scythe and (1964) by Henry Livings (1929–98) and X
spade. (1972) by Barry Reckford. T. W. ROBERTSON
Shirley and his wife are said to have died of specialized in one-word titles such as Ours
exposure after being forced from their Fleet (1866), Caste (1867), Play (1868), and School
Street home by the Great Fire of London. (1869). Among contemporary writers, Jim
CARTWRIGHT has achieved notable brevity with
Shoemaker’s Holiday, The A Road (1986), Bed (1989), and Two (formerly
boisterous comedy by Thomas Dekker, To; 1989). See also LONGEST TITLES.
 Shubert brothers 465

showboat The US riverboat theatres that from the first scene after Black groups
were an institution for more than a century, protested.
during which flatboats were replaced by The story, based on Edna Ferber’s novel,
steamers and paddlewheelers. They plied the follows a cast of characters from the Cotton
larger western rivers, such as the Mississippi Blossom showboat over a period of nearly 50
and Ohio, to bring entertainment to the years. Along the way, the players encounter
backwoods regions of the developing country. problems with love, money, drink, and racial
Although records exist of river-borne actors prejudice (the leading lady, Julie La Verne, is a
performing on shore as early as 1817, the first mulatto illegally married to a White man).
purpose-built showboat was that launched in However, all ends happily at a reunion many
1831 in Pittsburgh by the British-born actor years later. The songs include ‘Only Make
William Chapman (1760–1841). His crude Believe’, ‘Why Do I Love You?’, and ‘Can’t
‘floating theatre’ was lit by candles and poled Help Lovin’ That Man’. Besides its many stage
down the river to New Orleans. During the revivals, Show Boat was filmed in 1929, 1936
voyage Chapman’s family, including his five (with Robeson), and 1951.
children, would perform such dramas as Shubert brothers Three US brothers
Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and who held a virtual monopoly of theatres in
Kotzebue’s The Stranger. His imitators New York and other cities in the early 20th
replaced drama with song-and-dance to attract century through their Shubert Theatre
larger audiences. Before the Civil War Corporation. Lee Shubert (1875–1953), Sam
interrupted operations in 1861, the trade S. Shubert (1876–1905), and Jacob J. Shubert
produced such spectacular enterprises as the (1880–1964) were instrumental in breaking up
‘Floating Circus Palace’, launched in 1851 in the THEATRICAL SYNDICATE but replaced that
Cincinnati, which carried a large menagerie vast theatrical empire with one of their own,
and had seating for 3400. estimated to be worth $4 million.
After the war, the new showboats relied on The brothers were born in Syracuse, New
VAUDEVILLE. Augustus Byron French managed York, and managed their first theatres in that
five boats from 1878 to 1901 and pioneered town. In 1900 they leased Broadway’s Herald
the use of marching bands on shore to drum Square Theatre, the first of many they would
up business. However the settling of the acquire during the VAUDEVILLE era. Sam died
frontier, the development of films and radio, in 1905, however, at the age of 29.
and the Great Depression of 1929, all spelled David BELASCO and other independent
doom for the big boats. Their numbers fell producers backed the Shuberts’ organization
from 26 in 1910 to five in 1938, the last during the battle against the syndicate. The
authentic showboat being Philip Graham’s brothers made a point of renting venues to
Goldenrod, which was still running in 1943. producers who had been hurt by the
monopoly. After their victory, which had
Show Boat A nostalgic musical about become clear by about 1912, the two surviving
Mississippi riverboat days by Jerome Kern and Shuberts opened the Sam S. Shubert Theatre
Oscar Hammerstein (see RODGERS AND in their brother’s memory (see SHUBERT
HAMMERSTEIN), first produced on Broadway in THEATRE). The Shuberts now began to
1927. It created a new direction for the produce so many plays that they booked
musical by integrating the songs with the out most of their theatre chain, stifling
action; another innovation was to open the competition. Their contracts were so unfair
show with a group of Black dockworkers that Equity called a successful strike in 1919,
instead of a conventional chorus line. Florenz in which both stars and stagehands joined.
ZIEGFELD of the Ziegfeld Follies was brought in A lesser defeat came in 1919 when
to stage the lavish first production. The Tallulah BANKHEAD, appearing in 39 East at
London premiere, given at Drury Lane in the Broadhurst Theatre, refused to wear
1928, saw Paul ROBESON’s first performance stockings on stage in the hot summer weather
of the show-stopper ‘Ol’ Man River’. The and was hissed by outraged ladies in the
role had been written for Robeson, but audience. It was Lee Shubert, always the
production delays in New York meant that dominant brother, who had to plead with her
Jules Bledsoe became the first to sing the song. to cover her legs. She refused.
Hammerstein had to remove the word ‘nigger’ The Shuberts moved into London’s West
466 Shubert Theatre

End in the 1920s but were unable to meet the however, prevented him from creating a one-
strong British competition. In 1950 the US dimensional villain. His portrait of Shylock
government accused the Corporation of evokes both revulsion for the relentless
violating the law prohibiting monopolies. After persecutor of Antonio, coldly insisting on his
Lee’s death the surviving brother, Jacob, sold ‘pound of flesh’, and compassion for a
12 theatres in 1956 to meet the government’s wounded and humiliated outsider. Shakespeare
demands. gives him a good and memorable case:
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew
Shubert Theatre A New York theatre
hands, organs, dimensions, senses,
on West 44th Street, opened in 1913 by Lee
affections, passions?…If you prick us,
Shubert and Jacob J. Shubert, who named it
do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do
after their late brother Sam S. Shubert.
we not laugh? If you poison us, do we
Although originally intended as a venue for
not die? And if you wrong us, shall we
musicals, it began by presenting serious drama,
not revenge?
the opening production being Hamlet, starring
Johnston Forbes-Robertson. This aspect of the role was first emphasized by
Other successes included The Copperhead Charles MACKLIN’s performance in 1741, when
(1918), starring Lionel Barrymore (see he played Shylock as a tragic and dignified
BARRYMORES, THE), James Fagan’s And So To
figure. A similar interpretation persisted in
Bed (1927), with Yvonne Arnaud as Mrs many 19th-century productions; William
Pepys, and Sinclair Lewis’s Dodsworth (1934). Hazlitt noted in 1818 that Shylock “becomes a
The THEATRE GUILD sponsored productions of half-favourite with the philosophical part of
Margaret Kennedy’s Escape Me Never (1935), the audience…Shylock is a good hater; a man
which gave Elizabeth Bergner her Broadway no less sinned against than sinning.” This is
debut, Robert Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight even more true today, when an anti-Semitic
(1936), with the LUNTS, and Jean Giraudoux’s caricature would be totally unacceptable to
Amphitryon 38. most audiences.
The first musical (1937) to play at the Siddons, Sarah (Sarah Kemble;
Shubert was Bloomer Girl, which ran from 1755–1831) One of the great British actresses
1944 to 1946; it has been followed by Lerner of all time. William Hazlitt wrote of her, “She
and Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon (1951), was tragedy personified. To have seen Mrs
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s Stop the Siddons was an event in everyone’s life.”
World – I Want to Get Off (1962), Neil Simon Siddons’s furious performance as Queen
and Burt Bacharach’s Promises, Promises Katherine in Henry VIII so frightened an actor
(1968), and Marvin Hamlisch’s A Little Night playing one of the minor roles that he vowed
Music (1973) and A Chorus Line (1975). In he would “not for the world meet her on the
2005 the Shubert saw the premiere of Eric stage again”.
Idle’s Spamalot, a musical adaptation of Monty Her acting once made George III weep.
Python and the Holy Grail that would run for The king, who could not stand even a hint of
over 1500 performances. tragedy in a play, went to see her in the
shund theatre In the late 19th century, comedy The Mysterious Husband, not realizing
a term used in the US Yiddish theatre for the that the last act contained a death scene. When
melodramas and sentimental works that found the actors reached this part of the play he
great popularity among the unsophisticated sobbed loudly and said to his wife, “Charlotte,
immigrant audiences. ‘Shund’ means don’t look, it’s too much to bear!” The play,
‘nonsense’ or ‘rubbish’. by royal request, was never performed again.
Sarah was the eldest of 12 children of
Shylock The vengeful Jewish usurer in Roger Kemble and Sarah Ward, who managed
Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE a touring company; her brothers John,
(1596). Shakespeare is thought to have created Charles, and Stephen Kemble were all actors
the part in response to the anti-Semitic (see KEMBLE FAMILY). She made a poor debut in
feelings aroused by the execution in 1594 The Merchant of Venice in 1775 at Garrick’s
of Dr Roderigo Lopez, a Jewish physician Drury Lane but seven years later won renown
convicted of trying to poison Queen Elizabeth. there as a tragic actress in Garrick’s Isabella.
Shakespeare’s consummate skill as a dramatist, Later in her career she became known for her
 Simon, Neil 467

Shakespearean roles, most notably Lady with the Abbey, O’Casey would not allow his
Macbeth; her performance in the sleepwalking work to be performed in Ireland; when The
scene was particularly celebrated. In 1802 Silver Tassie was finally produced there in
Siddons and her brother, John Philip Kemble, 1935, it was attacked by both the critics and
took over Covent Garden. She continued to the Church.
appear there until her last season (1811–12), In the play O’Casey expresses his
during which she gave an amazing 57 opposition to war through the experiences of
performances. two World War I soldiers, Harry Heegan and
Off stage Siddons was unpopular: actors Barney Bagnal, who return home on leave
found her unapproachable and she gained a from the Western Front. While there Harry
reputation for being discourteous to her leads the local football team to win a trophy,
admirers. She never forgot the hardships of the Silver Tassie of the title. After they return
her childhood; even when she was well off to the Front, Harry is wounded and his life
she was known for her stinginess, gaining saved by Barney, who carries him to safety
the nickname ‘Lady Sarah Save-all’. while still under fire. When Harry’s girlfriend
A play about her, Mrs Siddons, starred Jessie sees his crippled state, she switches her
Sybil Thorndike in 1933. She is also said to be attentions to Barney, and Harry sinks into
the resident ghost at the Bristol Old Vic (see depression, smashing the Silver Tassie. Notable
GHOSTS). revivals have included the 1969 RSC
production with Richard Moore in the lead.
sightline The line of vision from a
member of the audience to the action Simon, Neil (1927– ) US playwright,
occurring on stage. Visibility varies greatly whose numerous hit comedies have made him
from one theatre to another, and set designers the most commercially successful playwright in
must keep these individual factors in mind. the history of the US theatre. In the 1960s he
Walls can be dispensed with and doors and produced six successive hits and at one time
windows reduced to simple frames to solve had four plays running simultaneously on
sight-line problems. When a director blocks Broadway. Simon usually finances his own
out the movements of actors (see BLOCKING), productions and invariably adapts his works
he usually views these from seats in every for films (which in Britain have been more
section of the house to ensure that all of the successful than his plays). Reviewing his career,
audience can see the main action. Simon commented, “When I was good, I was
very, very good. When I was bad, we folded.”
Silence, Theatre of A theatrical The son of a travelling salesman, Simon
movement of the 1920s, characterized by the began by collaborating with his brother,
use of long pauses in the dialogue to allow the Daniel, on sketches for revues; in 1961 they
audience to imagine the unstated meanings or wrote their first full-length work Come Blow
emotions. The symbolist playwright Maurice Your Horn. Simon’s first solo work was the
MAETERLINCK was a founder of the genre, book for the musical Little Me (1962). His
which the French call le Théâtre de l’Inexprimé. string of hits began with BAREFOOT IN THE
Jean-Jacques Bernard (1882–1972) PARK (1963), followed by THE ODD COUPLE
contributed such works as The Sulky Fire (1966), and Plaza Suite (1968), which
(1926) and The Springtime of Others (1934). consisted of three one-act plays. Four serious
comedies followed, THE LAST OF THE RED HOT
Silver Tassie, The A play by Sean LOVERS (1969), The Gingerbread Lady (1970),
O’CASEY. It employs a markedly different style about an ageing alcoholic singer, The Prisoner
from his previous work, moving from realism of Second Avenue (1971), about an unemployed
to expressionism in the second act. Owing man heading for a breakdown, and The
mainly to this change of style, the ABBEY Sunshine Boys (1972). In 1976 he returned to
THEATRE, which had produced all his earlier writing short farcical pieces, combining four of
work, declined to produce The Silver Tassie these in the hit California Suite. Most of his
when O’Casey offered it to them. This plays of this period were premiered at New
rejection prompted O’Casey’s decision to leave York’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre, which Simon
Ireland for good and the work was premiered owned from 1969 until 1982.
in 1929 in London with Charles Laughton in In the 1980s Simon produced several
the lead. For several years following his rift autobiographical works, including BRIGHTON
468 Sisterly Feelings

BEACH MEMOIRS (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985), family, including his stepdaughter, in a
which won a Tony Award, and Broadway brothel; then a silent little girl drowns as a
Bound (1986). His more recent offerings have silent little boy looks on before shooting his
included Lost in Yonkers (1991), which won stepbrother. This impresses the producer so
both a PULITZER PRIZE and a Tony Award, much that he begins to assign his own actors to
Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993), and The play the parts. The ‘real’ characters, however,
Dinner Party (2000). complain that they are closer to the roles and
New York’s Alvin Theatre was renamed that the actors would distort the truth. The
the NEIL SIMON THEATRE in honour of the producer and actors eventually go home
playwright in 1983. leaving the characters to themselves.
Sisterly Feelings An experimental skene In the ancient Greek theatre, a
comedy by Alan AYCKBOURN, in which the wooden building behind the PROSCENIUM used
course of the plot is determined by the toss of as a dressing room and backstage area. The
a coin in the first scene and subsequently by front of the skene was decorated with painted
the choice of an actress. It was first performed panels, from which the English word ‘scene’
at the Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-Round, derives. The building had three doors (later
Scarborough in 1980, subsequently five) through which the actors made their
transferring to the National Theatre. entrances and exits; each of these had a
The story begins on the day after the symbolic meaning, for example, one entrance
funeral of Dr Ralph Matthews’s wife, Amy, was reserved for an arrival from a distant place.
when Matthews takes his family to the remote During the 5th century BC the skene became
site where he had proposed to her. Ralph’s son, stone rather than wood. A century later it
Melvyn, is infatuated with Brenda Grimshaw, acquired a long platform that elevated the
while his daughters, the unmarried Dorcas and principal actors above the chorus in the
Abigail, whose husband is away on business, orchestra.
are attracted to Brenda’s brother Simon.
Because the car is full, one sister must walk Skin Game, The A play by John
home with Simon, and a coin is tossed to Galsworthy (1867–1933), first performed in
determine whether Dorcas or Abigail will 1920 in London. The story involves the
accompany him in the next scene. When conflict between the families of a country
Dorcas’s boyfriend, the poet Stafford, arrives, gentleman and a prosperous manufacturer.
she must choose between the two, a choice Squire Hillcrist is furious with his loud
(left to the actress) that determines the next nouveau-riche neighbour, Hornblower, for
scene. The play ends with the marriage of going back on his promise and evicting tenants
Melvyn and Brenda. from cottages that he had bought from
Hillcrist. When the squire’s wife snubs Chloe,
Six Characters in Search of an the pregnant daughter-in-law of Hornblower,
Author A play by Luigi PIRANDELLO. First the gloves come off and ‘the skin game’ (or
seen in 1921 in Rome, it made Pirandello bare-knuckle fight) begins. Hornblower buys
internationally famous when it was produced a land overlooking the Hillcrist house and
year later in London and New York. The play, announces his intention to build kilns on it.
a paradoxical exploration of the nature of Hillcrist’s agent, Dawker, investigates the other
fiction and theatrical illusion, forms part of a family and finds that Chloe was once a
trilogy with Each in His Own Way (1924) and ‘professional co-respondent’ in divorce cases.
Tonight We Improvise (1929). Memorable The squire blackmails Hornblower, who agrees
revivals include the 1963 production at the to sell the land to Hillcrist at a loss and
Mayfair Theatre, London, in which Ralph reinstate the tenants if Chloe’s secret is kept.
Richardson starred as the Father. However, Chloe’s husband is suspicious and
The play begins with a producer and cast makes Dawker reveal the truth. She tries to
rehearsing Pirandello’s play Rules of the Game. end the marriage and commit suicide.
Six fictional characters suddenly appear, Hillcrist, the victor, is left with a sense of
looking for the author who created them but shame at having abandoned his own principles.
has now rejected them. In an attempt to take
control of their own fate, they perform a Skinners, the The US actor Otis Skinner
drama in which a father is reunited with his (1858–1942) and his daughter Cornelia Otis
 Sleuth 469

Skinner (1902–79), who were among the Tallulah Bankhead in the leading role. The
theatre’s most versatile performers. Otis was a play, which won a Pulitzer Prize, tells the story
classical tragedian, romantic hero, comedian of mankind through the fortunes of one
and character actor, while his daughter became family, the Antrobus’s. Mr and Mrs Antrobus
an actress, singer, diseuse, humorist, poet, and survive the Ice Age by burning furniture and
dramatist. relive the Adam and Eve story: Mr Antrobus is
Otis Skinner worked as a clerk before made President of the Order of Mammals and
making his debut in 1877 at the Philadelphia invents the wheel. The conclusion is that
Museum Theatre (see DAVIDGE’S SNAKE SHOP). mankind has always managed to pull through
He played 92 different roles during his first by the skin of its teeth.
year in the professional theatre before making The London opening on 18 May 1945,
his Broadway debut in Enchantment in 1879. starring Vivien Leigh, was also memorable as
In 1884 he acted with Edwin Booth (see the night Laurence Olivier punched the The
BOOTH FAMILY) and Augustin Daly at Toole’s Sunday Times’s critic James AGATE.
Theatre, London. After several years touring
with Helena Modjeska, he started his own skomorokhi Traditional itinerant players
touring company in 1894, hiring Maud of Imperial Russia. The skomorokhi, who
Durbin as leading lady and marrying her a year included musicians, dancers, boxers, and other
later. entertainers as well as actors, were condemned
Skinner’s most famous role was Hajj the by the Church as heathens and pagans in the
beggar in Edward Knoblock’s fantasy Kismet, 11th century. Traditionally, they would dress
which he created in 1911 at the Knickerbocker as women and animals on New Year’s Eve and
Theatre. He played Hajj for a year on paint their faces for Easter.
Broadway and then toured in the part for a By the late 16th century these troupes,
further three years, making a silent film version often consisting of more than 100 players,
in 1916 and a ‘talkie’ in 1930. were extremely popular. The leading
Skinner mostly concentrated on entertainers wore peasant costumes decorated
Shakespeare in his later years; one of his last with ribbons, adopted names such as Foma
roles was that of the title character in Uncle and Erema, and drew large crowds with their
Tom’s Cabin at the Alvin Theatre in 1933. He stories, puppet shows, and trained bears, dogs,
wrote several volumes of reminiscences, and rats. However, after an uprising in
including Footlights and Spotlights (1924) and Moscow, the skomorokhi were once more
The Last Tragedian (1939). banned in 1648 by Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich;
Cornelia Otis Skinner made her debut they retreated to the rural north to preserve
beside her father in 1921 in Blood and their traditions, working mainly as entertainers
Sand. She later wrote and performed in at private functions. They exerted a major
MONODRAMAs, which she toured in America influence on the development of the Russian
and Britain. These one-woman shows included circus and variety acts.
The Wives of Henry VIII (1931), The Empress
Eugénie (1932), and The Loves of Charles II slapstick Originally, the name of the
(1933). They were generally well-received, but divided paddle used by HARLEQUIN to strike
the critic George Jean Nathan noted “A other performers with a resounding slap or
woman talking steadily for two hours is hardly crack but without injury. The term later came
my idea of entertainment whether in the to encompass all boisterous comedy involving
theatre or in private.” knockabout action and horseplay. Modern
Cornelia also starred in Candida (1939), stage practitioners have included the CRAZY
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1946), and The GANG in Britain and OLSEN AND JOHNSON in
Pleasure of His Company (1958), written in America. The slapstick tradition was continued
collaboration with Samuel Taylor. She wrote in the cinema by Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and
several acclaimed theatrical biographies Hardy, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges,
including Madame Sarah (1967) about Sarah and Abbott and Costello and on television by
Bernhardt. Benny Hill amongst others.
Skin of Our Teeth, The An Sleuth An ingenious two-act thriller by
idiosyncratic comedy by Thornton WILDER, Antony Shaffer (1926–2001), twin brother of
first produced on Broadway in 1942 with the playwright Peter SHAFFER. After opening in
470 slips

1970 at London’s St Martin’s Theatre it wife. Modern producers of Shakespeare’s play

transferred to the Garrick and Fortune for a sometimes incorporate the additional Sly
total run of 2359 performances. It also ran for scenes from A Shrew.
1222 performances on Broadway. The 1973
film version brought together Laurence Olivier Smith, ‘Gentleman’ Nickname for the
(then 65) and Michael Caine. Olivier was paid English actor William Smith (1730–1819),
$200,000, his highest-ever single fee, for the because of his educated demeanour, elegant
performance. dress, and aristocratic wife.
The plot introduces Andrew Wyke, a Smith joined Covent Garden for the 1753
successful writer of detective fiction who lives season and remained there for two decades. In
in a remote manor house in Wiltshire. When 1774 he moved over to join David Garrick at
his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle, visits, the two Drury Lane and in 1777 created the role of the
begin a series of dangerous psychological honest wastrel Charles Surface in Sheridan’s
games, which escalate out of control towards a The School for Scandal. Smith became best
violent denouement. known for tragedy, however, playing Macbeth
to Sarah Siddon’s first portrayal of Lady
slips A British 19th-century name for the Macbeth and alternating the roles of Hamlet
seats at the extreme right and left of the gallery and Richard III with Garrick. In 1788 he
in a theatre. Covent Garden still retains the retired to live the life of a country gentleman
term. in Bury St Edmunds. Of his acting career,
Smith boasted that he had never played in
slosh A slushy substance hurled around the
farces or roles that required him to blacken his
stage in ‘custard pie’ fights and other slapstick
face or fall through a trap door.
routines. It is traditionally made from a
mixture of shaving cream, cornflour, and food Smith, Dame Maggie (1934– )
colouring. British actress and comedienne, known for
playing “the impossible nanny goat” roles. The
slote or sloat In the 19th-century British
critic Alan Brien wrote in 1974 that “it is
theatre, a mechanical arrangement of weights
Maggie Smith, all those knees and elbows
and rails used to raise or lower actors or pieces
and pointed toes like an umbrella in a
of scenery, often through a TRAP. The slote was
thunderstorm, or a sleepwalking bat, or a
invented in the early 1800s and had become
spider escaping from treacle, who keeps us
standard equipment in London theatres by the
continually watching her in incredulous
middle of the century. In 1853 a theatre article
delight.”
in Punch mentioned the “workings of various
She made her debut in 1952 in the OUDS
mysterious engines of machinery, called ‘sloats’
production of Twelfth Night. After training at
and ‘scruto-pieces’”. Henry Irving described in
the Oxford Playhouse School, she appeared on
1887 how a slote once struck him on the head
Broadway in the revue New Faces of ’56 at
instead of carrying him up into the FLIES. The
usual US term is hoist. the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The following
year she was back in London in Bamber
Sly, Christopher A drunken tinker who Gascoigne’s revue Share My Lettuce, in which
appears in the Induction of Shakespeare’s THE she appeared with Kenneth Williams. She
TAMING OF THE SHREW. Shakespeare associates claimed to have picked up her nasal delivery
him with several hamlets near Stratford-upon- from Williams. One night he unexpectedly
Avon, and it seems possible that in him we added new material and ruined her next line;
have an actual portrait of a contemporary. Smith rushed angrily to his dressing room,
Sly is found dead drunk by a nobleman, where Williams explained it seemed such a
who has him taken back to his own manor and good joke that he couldn’t wait for the next
put to bed. When he wakes up, the servants rehearsal to add it. Smith defused the situation
attend upon him like a lord and fool him into by leaning over his dressing-room sink and
believing that he is a great man; the play that asking “Have you been peeing in here? I
follows is performed for his pleasure. suppose you couldn’t wait for that either?”
In The Taming of a Shrew, another In 1959 she joined the Old Vic company
Elizabethan play with the same plot, Sly and a year later replaced Joan Plowright in
interrupts the performance more than once Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. She joined Olivier’s
before going home resolved to tame his own National Theatre company at the Old Vic in
 Society of London Theatre 471

1963, playing the role of Desdemona to this amateur theatrical societies of ‘companies of
Othello in 1964. In the same year she fools’. When the Church suppressed the FEAST
appeared in a revival of Noël Coward’s Hay OF FOOLS in the 15th century the sociétés
Fever directed by the Master himself; when joyeuses took over many of its features, thereby
Smith starred in another Coward hit Private creating the first secular drama in France. The
Lives in 1972 he praised her as being “much local groups, mostly composed of young men,
better than Gertie” (his beloved Gertrude produced two kinds of farce, the SOTIE, in
LAWRENCE). which all the characters were fools, and the
Subsequent plays included the one-woman sermons joyeux, which were burlesque sermons.
show Virginia (1980), based on the life of
Virginia Woolf, Ronald Harwood’s Interpreters Society The first of the so-called CUP-AND-
(1985), and Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage SAUCER DRAMAs of Tom ROBERTSON, which
(1987). In 1993 she starred as Lady Bracknell began a new fashion for realistic plays about
in Nicholas Hytner’s revival of The Importance domestic problems. It was first produced in
of Being Earnest and in 1999 as the eccentric London in 1865 at the Prince of Wales’
Miss Shepherd in Alan Bennett’s The Lady in Theatre by the actor–managers Squire
the Van. More recent work includes David Bancroft and Marie Wilton (see BANCROFTS,
Hare’s The Breath of Life (2002), a two-hander THE), who also starred in the roles of Sydney
with Judi Dench, and Edward Albee’s The Daryl and Maud Hetherington. Society
Lady from Dubuque (2007). established their reputations as well as
Maggie Smith is probably still best known Robertson’s. In the play the gentleman Sydney
for creating the title role in the film The Prime Daryl is approached by a father and son, who
of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), for which she won want to use him to gain access to high society.
an Oscar for Best Actress. To the younger When Daryl refuses to cooperate, the son tries
viewer, however, she is most familiar as to ruin him without success.
Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry
Society for Theatre Research A
Potter series of films.
scholarly body dedicated to research into the
From 1967 to 1975 she was married to the
British theatre and to the preservation of its
actor Robert Stephens (1931–95); their son,
buildings, records, and other historical
Toby Stephens (1969– ), is also a well-
remains. It was founded in 1948 at the Old
known actor.
Vic Theatre with the theatre historian Gabriele
socialist realism The approved theory Enthoven as its first president. The Society
and practice of visual and literary composition makes annual grants towards theatre research
in the Soviet Union from the 1930s onwards. and sponsors lectures. In 1987 it helped to
Its aim was to educate the Soviet workers in found the national THEATRE MUSEUM, to
Marxist doctrine through simple naturalistic which it donated its library. It also publishes a
works. Although the application of the theory thrice-yearly journal, Theatre Notebook, along
produced some interesting results in the early with other publications and pamphlets. Since
years, the style later degenerated into idealistic 1998 the Society has awarded the Theatre
representations of the heroic successes of the Book Prize, for the best English-language
Soviet economy and society, which are almost theatre title published during the previous
totally devoid of merit. year.
The playwright and commissar for The Society hosted the first international
education, Anatoli Lunacharsky (1875–1933), conference on theatre history in 1955 in
was an early advocate of using the theatre as an London, an event that led to the foundation of
instrument of propaganda. Such experimental the International Federation for Theatre
directors as Vsevolod MEYERHOLD and Research. An associated body, the American
Alexander Tairov fell out of favour, their work Society for Theatre Research, was founded in
being declared too abstract to forward the 1956 in New York.
socialist dream. Two leading playwrights who
worked within the tenets of socialist realism Society of London Theatre (SOLT)
were Maxim GORKI (1868–1936) and The trade association founded in 1908 (as the
Vladimir MAYAKOVSKY (1893–1930). Society of West End Theatre) to represent
central London’s theatre owners, managers,
sociétés joyeuses In medieval France, and producers. The Society, based in Covent
472 sock

Garden, presents the annual LAURENCE OLIVIER to be performed in the theatre was written for
AWARDS to the profession and promotes the the play Girls of Summer (1956). Sondheim
45-or-so central London theatres through the subsequently supplied the clever lyrics for
Leicester Square ticket booth and its various Leonard Bernstein’s WEST SIDE STORY (1958)
publications. These include the free Official and for Gypsy (1959). In 1962 he wrote both
London Theatre Guide, published every two the lyrics and music for A Funny Thing
weeks with details of plays, times, and venues, Happened on the Way to the Forum, a hit show
and the annual Box Office Data Report. A based on the farces of the Roman author
version of the London Theatre Guide is now PLAUTUS. After the failure of Anyone Can
available online, together with a booking Whistle (1964), a series of highly successful and
service. often quite experimental musicals followed;
Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night
sock Comedy. The term comes from the Music (1973), which was written entirely in
soccus, a type of light low-heeled shoe worn three-four time, and the gruesome Sweeney
by actors in the classical Greek and Roman Todd (1979), all won New York Drama
comedies. The term sock and buskin is Critics’ Circle awards. In 1985 Sondheim won
sometimes used to refer to comedy and a Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park with
tragedy, or drama in general. Hence Dryden’s George, inspired by the works of the French
lines, which appear so ludicrous to modern pointillist painter Georges Seurat. Later works
readers: include Into the Woods (1987), a witty
Great Fletcher never treads in buskins reworking of several familiar fairy-tales, the
here macabre Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), and
Nor greater Jonson dares in socks Bounce (2003). The revue Side by Side by
appear. Sondheim, produced in London in 1976,
See also BUSKIN. featured a selection of his songs, as did Marry
Me a Little (1981) and You’re Gonna Love
Sokari One of Sri Lanka’s oldest forms of Tomorrow (1983). In 1990 Sondheim was
theatre, performed after the Sinhalese New appointed visiting professor of drama at
Year as an offering to the goddess Pattini. The Oxford University.
sexual symbolism of the drama links it with
earlier fertility celebrations. The all-night son et lumière (French: sound and
presentations are given in the open air; the light) A type of outdoor dramatic spectacle
performers, male peasants wearing masks, use presented after dark in appropriate natural
dance and mime to depict the actions settings or around historic buildings. Such
described in song. entertainments are dependent on lighting
Though the story differs slightly in the effects (such as coloured floodlights or laser
various villages, the basic plot involves the beams), music, and a recorded narrative, often
Indian Guru Hami and his wife, Sokari, who punctuated by dramatic sound effects; there
sail to Sri Lanka with their servant, Paraya, may or may not be a cast of performers
and are caught up in a series of humorous involved. The first son et lumière was staged in
adventures. Sokari, young and beautiful, 1952 at the Château de Chambord on the
becomes involved with a local doctor and at Cosson River in France. The first British
the end of the play has a child. production of this kind was staged in 1957 at
Greenwich Palace; the first US one was in
Soleil, Théâtre du See MNOUCHKINE, 1962 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
ARIANE.
song-and-supper rooms Small British
Sondheim, Stephen (Joshua) venues that featured popular entertainment in
(1930– ) US composer and lyricist, noted the early 19th century. They developed from
for his innovative and sophisticated earlier traditions of tavern entertainment, such
musicals. Sondheim was born to wealthy but as the ‘sing-song’ taproom concerts given at
dysfunctional parents in New York City. As a Sadler’s Wells, the Coal Hole, and the Cyder
young man he received encouragement from Cellars. When the Licensing Act of 1751 was
the lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (see passed (see LICENCE), ‘musick’ or ‘harmonic’
RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN) and studied with clubs were formed to avoid the new
the composer Milton Babbitt. His first music restrictions. Those attending the song-and-
 sotie 473

supper rooms were served food and drink at E. A. Sothern was born in Liverpool and
their tables while being entertained by ‘free’ acted in the provinces before travelling to
programmes of variety that included ballads America, where he joined Lester Wallack’s
and comic songs, jugglers, acrobats, and company at Wallack’s Theatre in New York
monologues. (see WALLACK FAMILY). His first success came in
The most popular of these venues was 1858, when he played Lord Dundreary in
EVANS’S in Covent Garden, London, which Tom Taylor’s Our American Cousin, a triumph
opened in about 1820 in the cellar of a tavern. he repeated at London’s Haymarket three years
Entertainers such as Sam Cowell and Charles later (see DUNDREARIES). It was during a
Sloman performed there and early MINSTREL performance of Our American Cousin by the
SHOWs were introduced. Like many other same company that President Lincoln was
song-and-supper rooms, Evans’s eventually assassinated (see FORD’S THEATRE). Other noted
became a MUSIC HALL. successes included leading roles in Tom
Robertson’s David Garrick (1864), which was
Sophocles (496–406 BC) One of the three written especially for Sothern, Brother Sam
great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece; he (1865), which he co-wrote, and H. J. Byron’s
wrote 123 plays during a career of 60 years and comedy A Crushed Tragedian (1878).
was still writing at the age of 90. His plays E. H. Sothern made his debut in his
dwell on the conquest of suffering. Only seven father’s play Brother Sam at the Park Theatre,
tragedies survive: Ajax (450 BC), ANTIGONE New York. He was a light comedian like his
(442 BC), OEDIPUS REX, also known as Oedipus father but also played romantic leads. He made
Tyrannus (429 BC), TRACHINIAE (425 BC), his London debut in 1881 and from 1885 to
ELECTRA (409 BC), PHILOCTETES (409 BC), and 1897 was leading man at the Lyceum Theatre,
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS (401 BC). New York. In 1900 Sothern played a
Sophocles studied tragedy under spectacular Hamlet at the Garden Theatre,
Aeschylus, whom he defeated in the DIONYSIA New York, but the production was cancelled
in 468 BC. He went on to win a further 18 after less than a week when he was stabbed in
contests in less than 30 years. However, his the foot during swordplay and contracted
most famous work, Oedipus Rex, won only blood poisoning. In 1904 Sothern began to act
second prize (as one of a group of three plays with Julia Marlowe, whom he married in
judged together). 1911. He frequently revived his father’s
Sophocles’s formal innovations included famous role of Lord Dundreary and in 1916
adding a third principal actor, limiting the role played his role in David Garrick. When his
of the chorus to one of commentary, and wife retired in 1924 they donated the
making plots more complex. He remains scenery, costumes, and properties from 10
popular with modern audiences largely because Shakespearean plays to the Shakespeare
of his sympathetic approach to his characters. Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon.
Oedipus Rex, which gave Freud the term Sothern continued to act occasionally until
‘Oedipus complex’, is the story of the King of 1927.
Thebes who unwittingly murders his father Julia Marlowe appeared as a child in HMS
and marries his mother. The most renowned Pinafore and other productions, making her
modern performance of Oedipus was given by adult debut in 1887 in New York in Mrs
Olivier in 1945 with the Old Vic at the New G. W. Lovell’s Ingomar (1887). She excelled
Theatre. The production is remembered by in Shakespeare (especially as Juliet and Lady
those who saw it for Olivier’s searing cry when Macbeth) and in classic comedy, starring as
Oedipus learns he has murdered his father. Lydia Languish in Sheridan’s The Rivals. In
Olivier claimed he was imitating a cry he heard 1897 the theatre manager Daniel Frohman
in a Canadian forest, where skunks were wrote: “This is the greatest emotional actress in
caught by making their tongues stick to a America but it will be a heart-breaking task to
block of salt. find plays equal to her strength”.
Sothern family The British–US actor sotie A type of satirical play, usually with a
Edward Askew Sothern (Douglas Stewart; political or religious theme, performed in
1826–81), his son Edward Hugh Sothern medieval France. The playwright Pierre
(1859–1933), and Edward Hugh’s wife Julia Gringore (1475–1538) was one of the most
Marlowe (Sarah Frances Frost; 1866–1950). successful writers in the genre. A sotie was
474 soubrette

often performed as a prelude to a MORALITY crash. Such a device can still be seen as the
PLAY; the performers, drawn from either Theatre Royal, Bristol.
amateur or permanent companies, were Wind Created by using a mechanical
called sots (French: fools) and dressed in the ‘wind machine’, in which wooden slats
traditional fool’s costume of dunce’s cap, short attached to a revolving drum rub against a
jacket, and tights with bells on the legs. Few piece of canvas.
extant texts exist, one of the best known being Rain, surf, and hail Created by shaking
the Recueil Trepperel. The form was prohibited dried peas, marbles, or lead shot in a box or
in the 16th century. See also SOCIÉTÉS cylinder.
JOYEUSES. Explosions Created by fireworks placed
and activated in tanks.
soubrette A minor female role in
Gunfire Created by using a starting pistol
comedy, especially a lady’s maid who is pert or
or by hitting wood with leather.
flirtatious. The soubrette (from a French word
Horses’ hooves Created by striking
for maidservant) became a key role in 17th-
coconut shells together or on a hard surface
century French comedy. One British critic
like slate.
wrote of a 19th-century actress: “Tragedy
Slamming door sounds are best created by
queens and comic soubrettes were alike to her,
slamming a real door offstage, breaking glass is
and she did not present them very differently
to her audience.” best done by breaking glass, and bells should
be bells. To avoid comical bad-timing, actors
sound effects The production of special should press working doorbells themselves and
sounds required during a play. They are used be able to cut off a ringing telephone by lifting
to establishlocale, weather, and time of day or the receiver.
year, as well as to reproduce the sound of
physical events crucial to the plot (e.g. Sound of Music, The RODGERS AND
HAMMERSTEIN’s musical based on the true
gunshots). Before the era of recording, sound
making was a technical art assigned to the story of the Von Trapp Family Singers. The
property department. Many of the traditional original 1959 Broadway production featured
effects were carried over to radio drama. Mary Martin in the leading role and won a
In the late 1940s recorded sound began Tony Award. In the 1961 London production
to be used but many theatres continued to at the Palace Theatre Jean Bayless appeared as
employ live effects to save money. The first Maria, while the extraordinarily popular 1965
major London production to use taped sound film version starred Julie Andrews and
effects was My Fair Lady in 1957 at Drury Christopher Plummer. A 1981 revival at the
Lane. Despite the sophisticated technology Apollo Victoria Theatre set a record for a
now available, theatrical wisdom has it that live single week’s attendance figure (2600 seats
effects are to be preferred because of their overbooked at 101%). In 2006 Andrew Lloyd
spontaneity and clarity. Webber’s West End revival set a new trend by
One of the greatest ever challenges to the casting its Maria (Connie Fisher) through a
sound-effects men was Arnold Ridley’s THE TV reality show. The musical is one of the few
GHOST TRAIN (1925), first staged at the to feature Nazi characters.
St Martin’s Theatre, London. Six sound Set in Austria in the 1930s, the story
technicians were required to create train noises concerns Maria Rainer, a postulant nun, who
by using whistles, garden rollers, bells, drums, becomes governess to the seven children of
wire brushes, milk churns, galvanized iron Captain Georg Von Trapp, who has recently
tanks, air cylinders, mallets, and thunder lost his wife. Maria’s high spirits soon cheer
sheets. the family, and a hesitant romance with the
Traditional methods of creating live sound captain leads to their marriage. The Nazis gain
effects include: power, however, and the singing family use
Thunder Created by means of a galvanized their appearance at the Salzburg Festival
iron ‘thunder-sheet’ vibrated by jerking a of Music to flee over the mountains to
handle at the bottom. This replaced the 18th- Switzerland. The songs include ‘The Sound
century ‘thunder-run’ in which cannon balls of Music’, ‘Climb Every Mountain’, ‘Maria’,
rumbled down wooden troughs to fall with a ‘My Favourite Things’, and ‘Do Re Mi’.
 Soyinka, Wole 475

This last, most remunerative and least just outside the modern borough boundary, in
inspired…of the Rodgers and Lambeth.
Hammerstein collaborations is square
and solid sugar. Southwark Theatre The first
JUDITH CRIST
permanent theatre built in Philadelphia and
possibly the first in America. David Douglas,
South Pacific A musical with a manager of the AMERICAN COMPANY, opened it
World War II setting by RODGERS AND in 1766 on South Street outside the city’s
HAMMERSTEIN, first produced on Broadway in jurisdiction. The red building had a brick
1949 starring Mary Martin and the operatic lower storey and a timber upper half topped by
bass Ezio Pinza. It ran for 1955 performances a cupola. The first production on its stage, lit
and won the 1950 Tony Award as Best by oil lamps, was Vanbrugh’s The Provoked
Musical. The London production, also with Wife, presented on 12 November. A year later
Martin, opened in 1951. Revivals include the Southwark presented Thomas Godfrey’s
Trevor Nunn’s production for the Royal The Prince of Parthia, the first work by a US-
National Theatre in 2001 and a much-praised born playwright to receive a professional
Broadway revival in 2008. staging.
The plot follows a US Navy nurse, Nellie The Southwark, known informally as the
Forbush, who is stationed on a Pacific island South Street Theatre, was closed by the
during the war and falls in love with a French Continental Congress in 1774 and briefly
planter, Émile de Becque. A widower with two became a hospital during the War of American
children, de Becque has fled France after Independence. British troops reopened it in
killing a local bully. A subplot concerns US 1778 to raise money for widows and orphans;
Lieutenant Joseph Cable who becomes the a drop curtain added by a British major at this
time continued in use for the life of the
lover of Liat, the daughter of islander Bloody
theatre. The American Company returned in
Mary. Both this relationship and that of Nellie
1784 to give ‘moral lectures’ – a device to
with Émile are overshadowed by racial
avoid a local prohibition against play-acting.
prejudice. Cable and de Becque are sent on a
From 1789 the Southwark returned to regular
dangerous mission in which the lieutenant is
presentations. However, new competitors
killed. The Frenchman survives, however, and
reduced its profits and a fire in 1821 was the
returns to Nellie.
coup de grâce.
The quality of the songs led some critics to
label South Pacific as a masterpiece. They Soyinka, Wole (Akinwande Oluwole);
include ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, ‘There is (1934– ) Nigerian dramatist, poet, and
Nothing Like a Dame’, and ‘I’m Gonna Wash novelist, considered to be one of the foremost
that Man Right Outa My Hair’ (memorable playwrights of his generation. In 1986 Soyinka
for being sung by Mary Martin, in both New became the first Black African recipient of the
York and London, while shampooing her Nobel Prize for literature.
hair). Soyinka was educated at the University of
Ibadan and subsequently at the University of
Southwark An ancient settlement on Leeds. After Leeds, Soyinka moved to London
the south bank of the Thames that was where he became associated with the Royal
incorporated into the City of London in 1550. Court Theatre and George Devine’s Writer’s
It has a wealth of literary and historical Group, which at the time also included the
associations, including the site of the Tabard dramatists Edward Bond, Arnold Wesker, and
Inn of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. In Ann Jellicoe. In 1959 Soyinka’s play The
Elizabethan times the Bankside area had Invitation was staged at the Royal Court under
numerous theatres, including the GLOBE, the his own direction.
ROSE, the HOPE, and the SWAN, as well as some Following his return to Nigeria, Soyinka
of London’s best known bull- and bear- formed the theatre group the 1960 Masks,
BAITING venues and a large selection of which subsequently became the Orisun
brothels. The rebuilt Globe Theatre provides Theatre Company. In 1960 his play The
modern Southwark with its leading visitor Dance of the Forests was staged as part of the
attraction; the South Bank arts centre, which celebrations for Nigerian independence. Other
includes the National Theatre building, lies notable plays include The Trials of Brother Jero
476 Spanish Tragedy, The

(1960), Kongi’s Harvest (1964), which opened century. They were ornately decorated and had
the first Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar stages equipped with an array of mechanical
in 1966, Madmen and Specialists (1970), devices. The only surviving examples, all in
which was first produced at a Playwright’s Italy, are Andrea Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in
Conference in America, Death and the King’s Vicenza (1585), Vincenzo Scamozzi’s Court
Horseman (1976), A Play of Giants (1985), The Theatre at Sabbioneta (1589), and Giovanni
Beatification of Area Boy (1995), and King Battista Aleotti’s Teatro Farnese at Parma
Baabu (2001). (1619).
In his other writings, which include
memoirs, collections of poetry, and several Spectatorium A gigantic theatre
highly acclaimed novels, Soyinka similarly designed by Steele MACKAYE for the 1893
attempts to fuse Western literary influences Chicago World’s Fair but never built.
with African tradition. A politically active MacKaye intended it to seat 12,000; the 25
writer, Soyinka was imprisoned briefly in 1965 moving stages would have incorporated the
and again from 1967 until 1969. In the mid most advanced European stage equipment.
1990s he emerged as a leading critic of the The first production was to have been The
military regime of General Abacha and was World Finder, for which Dvořák composed his
obliged to flee to America for safety. He was New World Symphony.
formally charged with treason – a capital Financial problems prevented the grand
offence – in 1997 but the charge was design from being realized and MacKaye died
subsequently withdrawn and he returned to his the following year. A scale model had been
homeland. In recent years he has again put constructed and demonstrated, however, and
himself at the forefront of the movement for theatre architects later employed some of its
political and constitutional change in Nigeria. new ideas for the stage.
Spanish Tragedy, The A play in blank spectatory An early Victorian word for
verse by Thomas KYD. First performed in 1592 an auditorium. It was also sometimes used as a
in London, it was one of the most popular collective noun for the mass of spectators
dramas of its day, initiating the fashion for themselves, this being considered a more
REVENGE TRAGEDIES. Since its plot is similar to accurate term than ‘audience’ (meaning
that of HAMLET, many scholars have suggested ‘hearers’).
that Kyd wrote the earlier, now lost, play
about Hamlet that Shakespeare drew upon to Speed the Plough A sentimental
create his masterpiece. The Spanish Tragedy comedy by the British playwright Thomas
was certainly one of Shakespeare’s sources. The Morton (c. 1764–1838), first performed in
play was frequently revived, sometimes with 1800. The play is mainly remembered for the
additions by other hands. The continuing unseen character Mrs GRUNDY, who became
popularity of the work is demonstrated by a popular symbol of rigid middle-class
Samuel Pepys’s note that he saw it in 1668. respectability. The main plot centres on Sir
Set in Spain in 1592, the play focuses on Philip Blandford, who mistakenly thinks he
the plight of Hieronimo, marshal of Spain, has killed his own brother.
whose son Horatio has been murdered for The US dramatist David MAMET also wrote
political reasons. Having failed to secure a play with the title Speed-the-Plow (1988).
justice, he carries out his personal revenge by
Spelvin, George See PLINGE, WALTER.
having a play acted out in which the two
murderers, employed as actors, are killed. Spieltreppe A form of multilevel staging
Hieronimo himself bites off his tongue before introduced by Leopold Jessner (1878–1945)
running from the stage to commit suicide. during his period as director of the Berlin State
spear bearer Theatrical slang for an Theatre (1919–30). He replaced conventional
actor in a very minor role with no dialogue. It sets with a number of different acting levels
probably refers to the officers, guards, etc, connected by stairways. This innovation was
required in productions of Shakespeare. also called Jessnertreppe. The many plays he
staged in this way included Shakespeare’s
spectacle theatres Europe’s earliest Richard III and Wedekind’s Der Marquis von
purpose-built playhouses, dating from the 16th Keith.
 stage direction 477

spill Stage lighting that spills or scatters Court Theatre. In 1974 it was revived by the
from a spotlight into areas that should not be National Theatre in a translation by Edward
lit. The problem can be corrected by adjusting Bond. A musical version of the play, by
the BARNDOOR shutters to tighten the beam. Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, opened on
Broadway in 2006 and proved an enormous
spill and pelt A routine of the English success, running until 2009; the show’s
HARLEQUINADE in which a costermonger’s
numerous awards include the Tonys for Best
barrow is overturned and the fruit and Musical, Best Book, and Best Score. There
vegetables are thrown by Clown and Pantaloon have since been productions in London,
at a mob of greengrocers, fishwives, bakers, Sydney, and several European countries.
police, and others.
Staberl, Chrysostomos A comic
spot bar See BATTEN. character of the 19th-century Viennese theatre,
spotlight In the theatre, a light that who is usually portrayed as a happy but crafty
produces a bright narrow beam that can be umbrella-maker. His character is similar to
focused on a particular actor or area of the that of the earlier clowns HANSWURST and
stage. It is usually mounted so that the beam KASPERL. Introduced by the Austrian
can be directed as required. The spotlight is playwright Adolf Bäuerle in his Bürger von
one of the most powerful symbols of the Wien (1813), he featured in numerous later
theatre and acting, and the term has come comedies by Bäuerle and others. The role was
into general use in such expressions as in created by Ignaz Schuster and refined by Karl
the spotlight, meaning to be the centre of Carl, who introduced Staberl to the Munich
attention. stage, from whence the character spread
In the early 19th century LIMELIGHT throughout Germany.
was used to create a spotlight effect. An
stage brace or brace A piece of wood
arrangement of electric arc-lighting behind
attached to the back of scenery to support it.
glass lenses was first used to spotlight the actors
One end is attached to the FLAT by a hook-
at the Paris Opéra in 1846. In 1907 improved
and-eye, while the other end is weighted down
filaments in incandescent lamps, enabling a
or secured to the floor by a stage screw. It
much higher wattage to be used, led to the
is usually adjustable. A French brace is a
creation of the first modern spotlights. By
nonadjustable triangular piece of wood
World War I 1000–watt lamps were in
attached to the flat as a permanent support.
common use in Europe and spotlights began
It is hinged to fold flat for storage or
to replace footlights as the primary source of
transportation.
illumination. More complex arrangements of
spotlights and DIMMERs were developed on the stage cloth A CLOTH consisting of canvas
US stage. Modern spotlights are often or other material that is laid on the stage
equipped with such devices as BARNDOOR floor. It can be either plain or painted to
shutters and a COLOUR WHEEL. See also complement the other scenery. Some stage
LIGHTING. cloths have specific purposes, such as the sand
Spring Awakening The first major play cloth used for desert settings.
by Frank WEDEKIND, written in 1891 and stage crew A general term for the
given its first public performance 15 years later backstage theatre staff under the direction of
in Berlin. In its attack on sexual repression the STAGE MANAGER. The crew includes stage
it anticipates the themes of Wedekind’s hands who move scenery and props and
subsequent dramas. Subtitled A Children’s operate the curtain, traps, and flying devices, as
Tragedy, the play depicts the tragic love affair well as those who build and set the scenery,
between Melchior and Wendla, two 14-year- handle lighting, and operate sound effects.
olds; the disapproval of their tyrannical parents
leads to an abortion and Wendla’s death. stage direction A theatrical instruction,
In 1901 the work was privately performed usually written into the script, telling an actor
in London by the STAGE SOCIETY. Owing to its to move to a certain area of the stage, or asking
controversial subject matter, it was not the stage manager for a specific stage effect.
produced for public performance in Britain Movements by actors are always described
until 1965, when it was seen at the Royal from the point of view of someone looking
478 stage door

from the stage towards the auditorium; the person who maintained the stage in a clean
therefore when an actress moves ‘stage left’ a and orderly condition for performances.
member of the audience sees her moving from
left to right. The primary movements on stage stage manager (SM) The person who
are labelled UPSTAGE (away from the audience) coordinates the physical aspects of staging a
and DOWNSTAGE (towards the audience), terms production. In the first place he or she
that derive from the early ‘raked’ stages that determines whether the visions of the director
sloped upwards towards the back. The stage is and stage designer can be physically staged;
divided into nine main zones: the three at the thereafter he coordinates the efforts of the
back are labelled ‘up left’, ‘up centre’, and STAGE CREW to realize them. He or she also
‘up right’; the three middle ones are ‘left’, draws up a PLOT SHEET listing the properties,
‘centre’, and ‘right’; and three at the front are makeup, and costumes, etc. needed by each
‘down left’, ‘down centre’, and ‘down right’. character in the play.
Directions of this kind are normally In addition, the stage manager is
abbreviated, as ‘UR’ for ‘up right’, etc. responsible for keeping order backstage during
If an actor is directed to stand above a the performance and for ensuring the safety
piece of furniture or other object he should and security of the area. He or she is supposed
stand upstage of it, while below indicates the to be the last to leave the theatre each evening.
opposite. Cross means that the actor should The SM also keeps copies of the PROMPT BOOK
move across the stage from one side to the and maintains the CALL BOARD. In large
other, while scissor cross means that two theatres, he or she is helped by an ASSISTANT
actors should exchange sides of the stage. Enter STAGE MANAGER (ASM) who sometimes serves
and exit require no explanation. Manet (Latin: as the PROMPTER.
he remains) was formerly used to indicate that The role of stage manager was established
the actor should remain on stage. during the second half of the 19th century.
Stage directions are also given in regard to Before the position of director developed in
scenery and stage effects. These are normally the early 20th century, the stage manager often
self-explanatory but can be complicated, as this ran the rehearsals. The designer Gordon Craig
direction from Thomas Shadwell’s production (see CRAIG FAMILY) believed that all actors
of The Enchanted Island (1674) shows: should serve a spell as stage manager during
This tempest…has many dreadful their careers, as this was the best way of
Objects in it, as several Spirits in learning what was effective and beautiful on
horrid shapes flying down amongst the stage. Many modern directors (examples
sailors then rising and crossing in the include Sir Peter Hall and Peter Brook) have
Air. And when the Ship is sinking, the also assumed the duties of stage manager.
whole house is darken’d, and a shower
of Fire falls upon ’em. This is Stage Society A British theatre
accompanied with Lightning, and organization that was founded in London in
several Claps of Thunder. 1899 to present plays with artistic merit that
were unlikely to be produced as commercial
stage door The door at the back or side ventures. The private Society was also able to
of a theatre for actors and staff. It is the normal perform works that had been refused a licence
gathering place for autograph seekers and was by the LORD CHAMBERLAIN. The plays were
formerly the haunt of stage-door Johnnies usually presented in West End theatres on
enamoured of chorus girls. Stage Door was the Sunday nights. Many plays introduced by the
title of a play by the US dramatist Maxwell Society later transferred successfully to the
Anderson.
commercial theatre.
The private entrance is usually guarded by
The first Stage Society production was
the stage door-keeper, who ensures that no
George Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell,
unauthorized person gains access. London’s
presented at the Royalty Theatre in 1899.
favourite example was the former music-hall
artist Harry Loman, who in 1955 became stage Later Shaw productions included Captain
door-keeper of the Criterion Theatre at the age Brassbound’s Conversion (1900), Mrs Warren’s
of 74 and remained in his post until he was 96. Profession (1902), and Man and Superman
(1905). Other dramatists whose works were
stage-keeper In the Elizabethan theatre, performed included Clifford Odets, Frank
 Stationers’ Company 479

Wedekind, Maxim Gorki, Luigi Pirandello, the loud comment from the stalls, “Well, I’m
and Jean Cocteau. bloody well not.”
In 1919 the Stage Society sponsored the
foundation of the Phoenix Society to perform Stanislavsky, Konstantin
early English drama. During the six years of its (Konstantin Alekstzev; 1863–1938) Russian
existence, the Phoenix produced 26 works, all director who sought “inner realism” by
but six of which were directed by Allan Wade. insisting that his actors find the truth within
Its successes included Fletcher’s The Faithful themselves and “become” the characters they
Shepherdess in 1923, for which Sir Thomas portrayed. His painstaking approach meant
Beecham arranged the music. that he would sometimes rehearse a cast for
In 1926 the Stage Society merged with the a year before feeling satisfied that they
Three Hundred Club, an organization with understood their roles. His work brought
similar aims and methods. During the 1930s, international fame to the MOSCOW ART
however, it was largely superseded as a patron THEATRE, which he had cofounded with
of new experimental drama by the GATE Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1897.
THEATRE and other London venues; it was
The son of a wealthy industrialist,
disbanded during World War II, the last Stanislavsky began as an amateur actor before
production being GarcÍa Lorca’s Blood founding a popular theatrical company, the
Wedding, given at the Savoy Theatre in 1939. Society of Art and Literature, in 1888. During
During its 40-year lifespan, the Stage his early years at the Moscow Art Theatre he
Society attracted some of the theatre’s finest directed the first productions of CHEKHOV’s
talent, including Laurence Olivier, Edith Uncle Vanya (1899), Three Sisters (1901) and
Evans, and Peggy Ashcroft. Theodore The Cherry Orchard (1904) as well as a
Komisarjevsky, married for a time to Ashcroft, series of celebrated versions of Shakespeare.
created innovative scenery for the Society’s Stanislavsky toured America with the company
productions. in 1923.
After World War II the US edition of
stage whisper A ‘whisper’ intended to Stanislavsky’s treatise AN ACTOR PREPARES
be heard by people other than those to whom (1926) became the bible of the METHOD school
it is addressed, as one on the stage is heard by of acting.
the audience. See also PULCINELLA.
star A top entertainer or performer in films,
Stainless Stephen Stage name of theatre, television, etc. The term is recorded as
the English comedian Arthur Baynes early as the 1770s, when it was applied to the
(1892–1971), who displayed his Sheffield actor David GARRICK (who has been called “the
origins on stage by wearing a stainless steel first modern superstar”). The Hollywood star
shirt front and hat band. His act included system was created by the studios in the 1910s
being overly proper with his speech; he always as a means of enhancing box-office receipts;
recited both the punctuation in the script and before this, the film companies tended not to
his stage directions. identify actors and actresses in order to hold
down their salaries. In the 20th century the
stall See VICTORIAN THEATRE SLANG. term has been devalued by indiscriminate use,
stalls The theatre seats nearest to the stage. leading to such aggrandized versions as
The US term for any stall seat is an orchestra superstar and megastar.
seat, whereas in Britain the term orchestra star trap A circular stage TRAP consisting
stalls applies only to the first row or rows (see of several triangular flaps of wood that are
ORCHESTRA). Among the most expensive seats
hinged to the rim and open outwards in the
in a theatre, stalls were introduced in the shape of a star. As it allows an actor to make a
1830s when many venues extended the pit of sudden appearance on stage it is often used for
the auditorium further back. The close ghosts or other supernatural characters. The
proximity to the stage sometimes prompts bristle trap is a similar contrivance in which
those seated in the stalls to hurl remarks at the bristles are attached to the rim of the opening.
actors. During the first London run of
Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT, for instance, Stationers’ Company An organization,
Vladimir’s remark to Estragon “I am happy” incorporated by royal charter in 1537, that
and the latter’s reply “I am happy too”, drew played a key role in the earliest literary
480 steal one’s thunder

CENSORSHIP in England. Under the terms of starts when the council decides to convert the
the charter only members of the company or baths into a library. The women unite to
holders of special patents could print any work petition the council, with Josie finding a new
for sale in the country. self-confidence as she presents their case at the
By the end of the 16th century state hearing. When the demolition order is
censorship was much in evidence. The confirmed the women barricade themselves
activities of professional informers, employed into the building in a last desperate attempt to
by the state to search out seditious meanings, save the baths.
were a particular source of annoyance. In his
Sonnets, written in the 1590s, Shakespeare Stein, Peter (1937– ) German theatre
complains bitterly of “art made tongue-tied by director, whose work with the Berlin
authority”. Schaubühne has had an international
In 1599 the Archbishop of Canterbury and influence. In 1969 Stein’s production of
the Bishop of London, who were mainly Goethe’s Torquato Tasso at Bremen was hailed
responsible for licensing books, issued an order as a milestone for the German theatre. His
for the suppression and burning of seven radical interpretation of this work criticized
satirical works, three books of allegedly Goethe for avoiding political reality and
immoral tendency including Marlowe’s poems, compared artists who accept state subsidies
with Tasso’s subordination to his aristocratic
and all the controversial works of the feuding
patrons. The director and several of his actors
pamphleteers Gabriel Harvey and Thomas
were dismissed when they insisted on reading
Nashe. Verse satire consequently died out until
left-wing political statements to the audience.
after the deaths of these licensers, but the
Stein and his colleagues then established a
satirical spirit reasserted itself with extra vigour
theatre collective, based in West Berlin’s
on the stage. At the beginning of James I’s
Schaubühne (a venue opened in 1962). The
reign there was a spate of prosecutions against
company, which included such leading actors
Jonson and others (see EASTWARD HO!).
as Bruno Ganz, Edith Clever, and Michael
The control exercised by the early censors
König, soon established a reputation as the
did, however, have one beneficial effect in that
most exciting troupe in Germany with
the register of published works compiled by
innovative productions of Shakespeare’s As You
the Stationers’ Company provided the basis for
Like It, Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Edward Bond’s
the first rules of COPYRIGHT. The register has
Saved, and Heinrich von Kleist’s Prince of
also proved an invaluable resource for scholars
Homburg. Stein and the company made
attempting to date the plays of the period.
exhaustive research into the ideology of the
steal one’s thunder See at THUNDER. plays and dramatists, often rewriting the texts
to draw out the contemporary parallels.
Steaming A play by the British writer Nell In 1982 Stein’s company moved into a
Dunn (1936– ) that caused considerable new $30-million theatre in West Berlin, the
interest because of the NUDITY of its all-female Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz; it featured an
cast. It was first performed in 1981 at the open acting space with 76 movable floor
Theatre Royal, Stratford, and subsequently sections.
transferred to London’s Comedy Theatre. The From the mid 1970s Stein gradually
title refers to the play’s setting in a ladies’ dropped his didactic left-wing approach and
Turkish bath. This required the creation of a began to concentrate on a new ideal of
stage pool containing 2000 gallons of water, fidelity to the written text. His naturalistic
heated and filtered by a mechanical unit that presentation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters in
ran for 21.5 hours a day; it was only turned off 1984 became the company’s most popular
during the performance to eliminate its noise. production. For his subsequent Chekhov
The plot concerns six women who productions Stein consulted STANISLAVSKY’s
regularly meet in a council-run bath in notebooks in an attempt to reconstruct the
London’s East End. The place answers original Moscow staging. In 1987 he left the
different needs for each woman, providing a Schaubühne to concentrate on opera
refuge from men for the party-girl Josie, a production, earning particular acclaim for his
place to renew an old friendship for Nancy and work with the Welsh National Opera. In 1990
Jane, and a haven from poverty for Mrs he became director of theatre at the Salzburg
Meadow and her daughter Dawn. Trouble Festival. Stein is now based in Tuscany but
 stooge 481

continues to direct work throughout Europe LADY MACBETH Ay.

and in a number of languages. More recent MACBETH Hark!
productions include the complete Oresteia in Who lies i’ the second chamber?
Russian at the Edinburgh Festival (1994), LADY MACBETH Donalbain.
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in Italian (1996), both MACBETH This is a sorry sight.
parts of Goethe’s Faust (2000), and the Elektra [Looking on his hands.]
of Sophocles (2007). LADY MACBETH A foolish thought, to
say a sorry sight.
Stephen Joseph Theatre in the
Round A theatre in Scarborough, North stock company In the 18th and 19th
Yorkshire. The original theatre was established centuries, a permanent troupe of actors who
in 1955 by the director Stephen Joseph performed a limited repertory at one or more
(1927–67) to produce THEATRE-IN-THE- theatres. The term summer stock is still used
ROUND. Since 1959 most new works by Alan in America for productions at provincial
AYCKBOURN have been premiered at the summer theatres. The first stock companies
theatre; Ayckbourn became artistic director in were those of London’s Drury Lane and
1970. The company moved in 1976 to a new Covent Garden theatres in the early 18th
300-seat arena theatre. century; the tradition continued with the
In 1993 a campaign was launched to CIRCUIT companies in both Britain and
finance the creation of a new theatre in a America. They reached the height of their
former cinema. Ayckbourn contributed strength in the 1850s; within 30 years,
£400,000 to the project. The theatre, which however, railways allowed professional touring
opened in 1996, has both a 400-seat theatre- companies to move easily about both
in-the-round and a 150-seat conventional countries, putting stock companies out of
auditorium. Despite its national reputation, business. The last true example was Henry
the theatre ran into grave financial problems Irving’s company, which gave its final
within months of opening; after fierce local performance at London’s Lyceum Theatre in
controversy, the town council agreed to a hefty 1902.
grant. The stock company was an excellent
training-ground for young actors, who were
stichomythia A type of dialogue in
called upon to play a variety of parts. Players
which actors exchange short remarks; it is
eventually developed specialities in the set
usually characterized by repetition and
roles. The company was led by the Tragedian,
antithesis and delivered at speed. It has also
who would star in parts such as Hamlet, Lear,
been called cat-and-mouse dialogue and cut-
and Macbeth; second in importance was the
and-thrust dialogue. The device was first used
Low Comedian, who played the leading parts
in the ancient Greek theatre to intensify the
in farcical comedies and minor roles in
drama of an exchange. It is now mainly used
for comic effect or to create tension. Noël tragedies. Other set parts were the Juvenile
Coward was a master of comic stichomythia, Lead, a youthful hero or heroine, the Juvenile
especially in his early plays, and the technique Tragedian, the Old Man and the Old
was also used to great effect in Beckett’s Woman, the Heavy Father (or Heavy Lead)
Waiting for Godot (1955). Perhaps the most who came into his own in the 1830s as a
famous example of stichomythia in English villain in melodrama, and the Heavy Woman,
literature is the tense exchange between who played roles such as Lady Macbeth.
Macbeth and his wife immediately after the Minor parts were played by the Walking Lady
murder of Duncan: and Walking Gentleman, General Utility or
Utility, and the Supernumerary, or Super,
LADY MACBETH My husband! who had a walk-on part. Specialized parts also
MACBETH I have done the deed. Didst existed, such as the First Singer and the First
thou not hear a noise? Dancer.
LADY MACBETH I heard the owl scream
and the crickets cry. stooge A comedian’s accomplice who acts
Did not you speak? as the foil for his jokes, usually by assuming a
MACBETH When? stupid or naive character. The term is
LADY MACBETH Now. sometimes used as a verb: Time magazine
MACBETH As I descended? noted in 1946 that “Entertainer Danny Kaye
482 Stoppard, Sir Tom

stooged for other entertainers”. The chaotic symphony orchestra as an element of its cast.
Hollywood film trio The Three Stooges began The plot concerned a political dissident in a
as comedians’ stooges who were often planted Soviet psychiatric hospital. The following year
in the balconies of vaudeville houses as if saw the production of NIGHT AND DAY (1978),
regular audience members. A straight man, the a defence of press freedom. THE REAL THING
serious and sometimes bullying member of a (1982) was a tragicomedy starring Felicity
two-man comedy act, differs from a stooge in Kendal and Tom Conti, the latter playing a
being less of a victim. dramatist whose writings contrast with the
sorry state of his own marriage. Stoppard’s
Stoppard, Sir Tom (Tomas Straussler; own marriage to the TV personality and
1937– ) British playwright, born in doctor, Miriam Stoppard, collapsed some years
Czechoslovakia. His ingenious comedies of later following a well-publicized affair with
ideas combine verbal brilliance and structural Kendal. Hapgood (1988) was a cerebral spy
deftness with a concern for serious moral thriller. After a few years of silence, Stoppard
issues, notably the freedom of the individual. produced another major play, ARCADIA, in
As Jews, Stoppard’s family fled 1993. His most recent works for the stage are
Czechoslovakia on the day of the German The Invention of Love (1997), about the poet
invasion and lived briefly in Singapore, and scholar A. E. Housman, The Coast of
Australia, and India before settling in Britain. Utopia (2002), an ambitious trilogy about
Having left school at 17, Stoppard worked in 19th-century Russian revolutionary exiles that
journalism while also beginning to write plays proved particularly successful on Broadway,
in the late 1950s. In 1966 ROSENCRANTZ AND and Rock ’n’ Roll (2006), about a dissident rock
GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (1966) was produced
band in communist Czechoslovakia.
by the National Theatre at the Old Vic six Other works have included translations of
months after being staged by the Oxford plays by Chekhov, Pirandello, GarcÍa Lorca,
Theatre Group at the Edinburgh Festival and Václav Havel as well as screenplays and
fringe. Stoppard won immediate acclaim for works for television.
this absurdist drama about two minor
characters from Hamlet who find no meaning Storey, David (1933– ) British
outside their roles in the play. This was playwright and novelist, whose works reflect
followed two years later by a West End his working-class Yorkshire background. His
production of Enter a Free Man, first plays have been compared to those of Pinter
performed in 1963 in Hamburg and on British and Chekhov for their realism and ambiguity.
television (as A Walk on the Water). The son of a miner, Storey became a
The successful one-act comedy The Real professional rugby player at the age of 17 while
Inspector Hound (1968) was a spoof on also studying to be a painter. He enjoyed his
detective thrillers; during the play two drama first literary success with the novel The
critics in the audience become drawn into the Sporting Life (1960), which drew upon his
murder mystery they are reviewing. The rugby-playing experiences. The cost of social
comedy JUMPERS, presented at the National mobility was also a theme of Storey’s first play,
Theatre in 1972 was widely regarded as an The Restoration of Arnold Middleton, which was
intellectual tour de force; the production a hit in 1967 at the Royal Court Theatre. It
featured Michael Hordern as George, the told the story of an uprooted schoolmaster
confused professor of moral philosophy, and driven mad by his bourgeois marriage and his
Diana Rigg as his wife Dottie, as well as a team homesickness for the North.
of acrobats. TRAVESTIES, first performed by the Storey’s second play In Celebration (1969),
Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974, was a used a fortieth wedding-anniversary party to
dazzling piece set in World War I Zürich; the contrast two generations of the Shaw family,
characters include James Joyce, Lenin, and the who find that success does not guarantee
unsophisticated British consular official Henry happiness. Lindsay Anderson directed this and
Carr. The double-bill of the short farces DIRTY several other Storey plays including The
LINEN AND NEW FOUND LAND (1976) ran for Contractor (1970), in which the assembling
four years. and dismantling of a marquee for a wedding
Stoppard’s play Every Good Boy Deserves reception reveals the different attitudes of the
Favour (1977), with music by André Previn, workmen and their employers. The same year
was the first play ever to feature a full saw the first production of Home, an
 Strange’s Men 483

examination of life in a mental institution, London. This opened in 1832 to stage

with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in burlesque and melodrama, reopened a year
the leads. It subsequently transferred to later as a school for actors, and became a
Broadway and was named the best play of the theatre again in 1836. In 1850 it was renamed
season; The Changing Room (1971), about the Punch’s Playhouse, becoming associated in
relationships between members of a rugby 1858 with H. J. Byron’s burlesques. In 1905 it
team, was similarly acclaimed in both London closed and was demolished to build Aldwych
and New York. tube station (now itself closed).
His other dramas have included Cromwell
Strange Interlude A nine-act drama
(1973), Life Class (1974), the black sex farce
that earned Eugene O’NEILL his third Pulitzer
Mother’s Day (1976), Sisters (1978), Early Days
Prize. It was first produced in 1928 by the
(1980), in which an elder statesman (originally
THEATRE GUILD in its Guild Theatre, New
played by Ralph Richardson) reviews his past,
York. The production starred Lynn Fontanne,
Phoenix (1984), The March on Russia (1989),
who played with “power, concentrated
and Stages (1992).
aggression, and magnetism”, according to the
Storey is noted for his temper, having once
critic Brooks Atkinson. In the play O’Neill
thumped Michael Billington about the head in
presents a psychological portrait of Nina
the bar at London’s Royal Court Theatre after
Leeds, who enacts the ‘seven ages of woman’:
the critic had written a caustic review of daughter, fiancée, wife, adulteress, mother,
Mother’s Day. widow, and child once more. He often freezes
Storm, The A tragedy by the Russian the action on stage to allow Nina and the other
dramatist Alexander OSTROVSKY, which is characters to deliver asides or soliloquies that
regarded as his masterpiece. It was first explain their motivation. In Nina’s case, this is
performed in Moscow in 1859 at the MALY primarily a search for love and acceptance. In
THEATRE. The play was presented in New York the end, Nina regards her experiences with
in 1900 but was not seen in London until wonder:
1929; it was revived by the National Theatre Strange interlude! Yes, our lives are
company in 1966 at the Old Vic. It is the only merely strange dark interludes in the
work by Ostrovsky to be well known in electrical display of God the Father!
English.
The Storm, one of a cycle of plays dealing Strange’s Men An Elizabethan theatre
with Moscow’s merchants, was interpreted as company that possibly included the young
SHAKESPEARE amongst its members. With Lord
an attack on the greed, ignorance, intolerance,
and brutality of the trading class. Set in a small Strange as its patron, the company toured the
town on the Volga, the play explores the plight provinces before making an appearance at
court in 1582. Lord Strange’s father also had a
of a young woman married to a trader who is
company at this time, a fact that has caused
shown to be a weakling but nevertheless cruel.
confusion for theatrical historians. Strange’s
In love with a man powerless to help her, she
Men, who included such leading actors as
takes her own life.
Richard Burbage and William Sly, performed
Straker, Henry The chauffeur of John works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Robert
Tanner in the play MAN AND SUPERMAN (1903) Greene, amongst others. As was the usual
by George Bernard Shaw. Straker is intended practice of the time, Strange’s Men would
to represent the ‘New Man’ of the technical perform with actors from other companies in
revolution. Skilled, confident, and a scientific public theatres. They joined the Admiral’s
socialist, he is superior in all practical respects Men for performances in 1590–91 at the
to his master, whose gentlemanly class, Shaw Theatre and in 1592–93 at the Rose, where
believed, was doomed to extinction by the new they may have performed Shakespeare’s The
economic and political forces embodied by Comedy of Errors and the first part of Henry VI.
Straker. They also produced several plays now lost,
including Titus and Vespasian (1592), which
Strand Theatre (1) The former name may have been the prototype for Shakespeare’s
(until 2005) of the NOVELLO THEATRE. Titus Andronicus, and Richard Tarlton’s The
(2) A former theatre, known sometimes as Seven Deadly Sins. When Strange’s Men
the Royal Strand, that stood in the Strand, returned to the provinces after 1594, several of
484 Strasberg, Lee

its members decided to stay in London and into a major showcase for classical drama, with
form a new troupe, the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN. concerts, opera, and a film festival being added
The company’s founding members included later.
Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare. In 1956 Guthrie handed over control to
another Englishman, Michael Langham,
Strasberg, Lee (1901–82) US director, whose first presentation was Henry V starring
producer, and drama teacher who formulated Christopher Plummer. The following year an
the system of METHOD acting from the ideas innovative permanent theatre was built
of STANISLAVSKY. Born in Austria, Strasberg featuring a semicircular auditorium and the
entered the theatre in 1924 as an assistant world’s largest open stage. Despite the size of
stage manager at London’s Garrick Theatre. the theatre an intimate atmosphere is retained
He subsequently studied at the American since no seat is more than 65 feet from the
Laboratory Theatre and acted with the Theatre stage. A tent-like effect was created by having
Guild. In 1931 he helped to found the GROUP girders reach up to the conical roof like the
THEATRE, and during its ten-year existence spokes of a wheel. The design has been the
directed plays such as Maxwell Anderson’s inspiration for new theatres in New York,
Night over Taos (1932) and Sidney Kingsley’s London, Minneapolis, Chichester, and other
Men in White (1933). cities. In 1963 the Festival opened a second
In 1950 Strasberg became director of the theatre, the Avon, a proscenium design that
Actors’ Studio, New York, and turned it into a seats 1100.
school for Method acting; his teaching placed The Canadians Jean Gascon and John
stress on improvisation and the actor’s use of Hirsch succeeded Langham in 1968 and
‘affective memory’ to supply appropriate began an ambitious expansion. Plays by Ben
emotions for stage roles. Professional actors Jonson and John Webster were added to
rushed to retrain under the Method; the repertoire, together with less familiar
Strasberg’s students included Ann Bancroft, Shakespeare works, such as Cymbeline and
Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Robert De Pericles. Gascon served alone from 1969 until
Niro, Julie Harris, Marilyn Monroe, Paul 1974 and in 1971 opened an experimental
Newman, Al Pacino, Maureen Stapleton, venue, the Third Stage (now the Tom
Shelley Winters, and Joanne Woodward. The Patterson). The Festival company toured
name most closely associated with the Method worldwide and in 1978 completed its ambition
was Marlon Brando. of presenting all of Shakespeare’s plays with a
However, not all professionals were production of Titus Andronicus.
enthusiasts for the Method. When Charles When Gascon resigned in 1974, the young
Laughton began directing Major Barbara in English director Robin Phillips was appointed
1956 on Broadway, he approached Eli to succeed him, provoking a storm of
Wallach, a student of the Method, and said nationalistic protest. He resigned in 1980 and
firmly, “I don’t want any of that Stanislavsky after bitter infighting within the selection
shit from you.” Nor was Strasberg always committee, John Hirsch became artistic
successful with his own productions. His director. Many leading actors protested and
version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, presented at boycotted the Festival, which suffered a
London’s Aldwych Theatre during the World financial crisis. This was eased when John
Theatre Season of 1965, was a memorable Neville took over in 1986 and presented
disaster. When Sandy Dennis delivered the popular revivals, such as Rodgers and Hart’s
line, “Oh it’s been a terrible evening”, The Boys from Syracuse and Brecht’s Mother
someone in the audience called out, “It sure Courage and Her Children. Subsequent
has been!” and the house roared with laughter. directors have included Richard Monette
(1994–2007) and Des McAnuff (2008– ),
Stratford Festival The summer drama who has restored the original emphasis on
and music festival held annually in Stratford, Shakespeare. Two more venues have been
Ontario. The first summer Shakespeare added, the thrust-stage Studio Theatre in 2002
Festival was held in 1952 under the direction and the outdoor Festival Pavilion in 2008.
of Tyrone GUTHRIE and the designer Tanya
Moiseiwitsch who created a temporary theatre Stratford Jubilee The celebrations
featuring an Elizabethan open stage under a organized by David GARRICK and others to
canvas roof. The event subsequently expanded mark the bicentenary of SHAKESPEARE’s birth.
 Streetcar Named Desire, A 485

Undaunted by the fact that the true date had minutes for all time but passed a further
passed in 1764, and that Shakespeare had been resolution regretting the whole affair. Within
born in April, Garrick set the celebrations for weeks the organization had disbanded in
September 1769 and arranged for lavish disgust.
displays of fireworks, cannonades, music, fancy The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s
dress, and parades. birth was marked by the opening of the
The first of the four days of the festival Shakespeare Centre next to the playwright’s
went well, with 30 cannons firing a salute and birthplace.
musicians serenading the crowds. The
spectators included James Boswell and the Stratton, Eugene (Eugene Augustus
composer Thomas Arne, with whom Garrick Ruhlmann; 1861–1918) US entertainer who
had collaborated upon an Ode upon Dedicating graduated from MINSTREL SHOWs to become a
a Building to Shakespeare, specially written for popular MUSIC HALL star. Wearing black-face
the occasion. On the second day, however, the make-up, he sang ‘Lily of Laguna’, ‘Little
rain began. The triumphal procession never Dolly Day Dream’, and other sentimental
took place, the river burst its banks as the ‘coon songs’. He also danced in white hat and
soprano Mrs Baddeley sang ‘Soft Thou Gently gloves with a cane, whistling as he glided
Flowing Avon’, and guests at the fancy dress silently across the stage under a single
ball found themselves dancing minuets ankle- following spotlight.
deep in water. On leaving the ball, 150 guests At the age of 17 Stratton joined J. H.
fell into a flooded ditch; the rest waited in the Haverly’s United Mastodon Minstrels and
marquee until daybreak before attempting to accompanied them to London in 1880. The
escape. On top of all this, the only lines from next year he remained in Britain to become a
Shakespeare that were spoken during the member of the Moore and Burgess troupe,
festival were misquoted – nonetheless, they staying with them until their popularity
remained singularly appropriate: waned. In 1892 he took to the halls,
performing without black-face at the Royal
If there be any, speak, for him have I
Holborn. When this was not successful, he
offended.
returned to his minstrel act and became
One hundred years later it was almost London’s top black-face performer, remaining
inevitable that the idea of another jubilee so until he retired in 1914.
should be mooted. In 1863 it was announced
that a National Shakespeare committee had Streetcar Named Desire, A The
been formed to oversee celebrations of Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee
Shakespeare’s tercentenery – among its WILLIAMS; it opened on Broadway in 1947
members were Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, under the direction of Elia KAZAN. Jessica
Tennyson, and Charles Dickens. Tandy starred as the neurotic Southern Belle
The committee was dominated by Blanche DuBois, who is brutalized and
Hepworth Dixon, editor of the Athenaeum, eventually driven insane by her brother-in-law,
who – unknown to his colleagues – harboured Stanley (played by Marlon Brando). Williams
a deep grudge (based on an old quarrel) against later recalled how Brando arrived to audition
William Thackeray, who was strongly favoured for the part at his beach cottage; when the
to join the committee’s ranks. Through a series electricity failed the young actor immediately
of manoeuvres Dixon succeeded in having a repaired both the lights and the bad plumbing.
resolution passed to the effect that Thackeray Williams, who was openly gay, recalled, “He
would not be invited to join the committee. was just about the best-looking young man
This led to a furore in the press, which only I’ve seen, but I have never played around with
ended when on Christmas Eve the novelist was actors and anyhow Brando was not the type to
found dead in his bed. Somewhat taken by get a part that way.”
surprise, Dixon hastily delivered a laudatory Kazan directed a somewhat censored
speech in Thackeray’s memory at the screen version of Streetcar in 1951. Brando was
committee’s next meeting and suggested that joined by Vivien Leigh, who used her best
his resolution be deleted from the minutes. Scarlett O’Hara Southern accent to deliver
However, this time he had miscalculated; his Blanche’s famous line, “I have always
outraged fellow-committee members not only depended on the kindness of strangers.”
insisted that the resolution remain on the During a revival of Streetcar at Los
486 Street Scene

Angeles’s Ahmanson Theatre in 1973, a repertoire, establishing a particularly

woman in the audience turned around to distinguished record for productions of Brecht,
berate the man behind her for sniggering Shakespeare, Goldoni, and Pirandello.
through the performance. “Don’t you realize Between 1968 and 1972 Strehler also
this is a serious play?” she reprimanded him. worked with the Gruppo Teatro e Azione,
The offender was Tennessee Williams, who which he established in order to explore more
could never restrain himself from laughing at overtly political forms of theatre. From 1983
his own dialogue. “My tragedies are funnier until 1990 he was also artistic director of the
than my comedies,” he later told a journalist. Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris. In late 1992
Other major revivals include the 1992 Strehler resigned from the Piccolo Teatro,
Broadway production with Alec Baldwin and following allegations that he had seriously
Jessica Lange and the 2009 Donmar mismanaged a grant of £300,000 from EU
Warehouse production with Rachel Weisz. funds. The 71-year-old director announced his
The play’s curious title comes from Desire, resignation in these words:
a street in New Orleans. The tram bearing the
I resign from Italy…I resign from
street’s name rumbled past Williams’s tiny
civilized life, society, the theatre and
French Quarter apartment several times a day;
he is said to have drawn inspiration from its culture. I shall retain only my poetry,
clanging bell. The streetcar has been preserved my talent and the purity of my heart.
as a historic and literary monument. The Independent, 1 December 1992
After Strehler’s death the Piccolo Teatro
Street Scene An expressionist play by moved its main base to a new purpose-built
Elmer RICE about the futility of life in a New theatre, the Teatro Strehler.
York slum neighbourhood. It was first
performed in New York in 1929 with a Strife A play by the British writer John
striking set based on a real house at 25 West Galsworthy (1867–1933). It was first
65th Street. The production earned Rice the performed in 1909 in London and revived
Pulitzer Prize for drama. A film of the play was regularly for the next 25 years. In the play
made in 1931, while Kurt Weill produced a Galsworthy presents the obstinacy and
musical version in 1947. suffering on both sides of a prolonged
In the play characters from a variety of industrial dispute.
ethnic backgrounds chat and gossip on a hot Set at the turn of the century, the play
summer night. The most titillating subject is shows how a Welsh village is torn apart by the
the love affair of the Irishwoman Anna strike at the Trenartha Tin Plate Works. John
Maurrant and the romance of her daughter, Anthony, the company founder and chairman
Rose, with the Jewish boy Sam Kaplan. of the board, refuses to compromise with the
Tension is introduced with the arrival of strikers despite great financial losses. On the
Anna’s husband, Frank, who discovers his wife other side David Roberts, the firebrand head
with her lover and shoots them both. He is of the Workman’s Committee, refuses to yield
arrested, and Rose leaves her boyfriend to live even though the employees’ families are
with her brother. Neighbours decide she is suffering. The strike becomes a personal
being taken care of by a rich admirer. As events struggle between the two men. Roberts’s wife
settle down, a new couple arrives to enquire dies of malnutrition, and Anthony’s son tries
about the now empty apartment. in vain to convince his father to relent. The
workers finally accept a compromise worked
Strehler, Giorgio (1921–97) Italian
out by their negotiator, Simon Harness, while
theatre director, who became one of the most
Roberts is absent and the board of directors
influential figures in post-war Italian drama. In
1947 Strehler cofounded (with the actor- agrees, outvoting and ousting Anthony. The
director Paolo Grassi) the Piccolo Teatro della two broken enemies finally acknowledge their
Città di Milano, the company with which he respect for each other, and the play ends with a
continued to work for the next 45 years. conversation between Harness and the board’s
The establishment of the Piccolo Teatro Henry Tench.
marked the beginning of the TEATRO STABILE TENCH D’you know, Sir, those terms,
movement in Italy. Under Strehler’s guidance they’re the very same we drew up
the company developed an impressively wide together, you and I, and put to both
 stroboscope 487

sides before the fight began? All this – years Strindberg suffered a mental breakdown
all this – and – and what for? during which he became obsessed with the
HARNESS That’s where the fun comes occult and experimented with alchemy. He
in! emerged from this period as a disciple of the
mystic Swedenborg. In 1901 he married the
strike To take down or dismantle a stage
Norwegian actress Harriet Bosse but, again,
set, or to remove an item from it. The Pall
the relationship failed. His most innovative
Mall Gazette was amazed in 1891 to note that,
works were written during this time. Inspired
“It took 12 hours of work by a very large staff
by MAETERLINCK, Strindberg wrote a number
to ‘strike’ Ivanhoe and mount La Basoche.” The
word also means to turn off a stage light or of symbolic ‘dream’ plays, including the trilogy
terminate a sound effect. See also SET A STAGE. The Road to Damascus (1898–1901) and THE
DREAM PLAY (1902). He said of the form,
Strindberg, August (1849–1912) “Anything may happen; everything is possible
Swedish playwright, novelist, and poet. and probable. Time and space do not exist.
Although hailed in his own lifetime as a The characters split, double, multiply, vanish,
pioneer of NATURALISM, his most lastingly solidify, blur, clarify.”
influential works were the symbolic dramas he Strindberg returned to Sweden again for
wrote towards the end of his life. Strindberg, the last four years of his life. Although his
who had an interest in hypnosis, was the plans for a Scandinavian Experimental Theatre
first dramatist to explore the role of the were never realized, from 1907 to 1910 he
subconscious – an approach more easily helped August Falck (1882–1938) to run the
accepted by later audiences familiar with the 161-seat Intima Teatern (Intimate Theatre) in
theories of psychoanalysis. Although his works Stockholm. It was for this venue that he wrote
have never enjoyed wide popular appeal, his five ‘chamber plays’, the best known being
Strindberg was one of the most famous writers THE GHOST SONATA (1907). His last play, The
in the world when he died. Great Highway (1909) was an allegory of his
Strindberg was the son of a shipping agent own life.
who married his housekeeper after a long
illicit relationship; his unstable childhood is strip light See BATTEN.
described in the autobiographical work The
Son of a Servant (1886). After leaving Uppsala striptease A theatrical or cabaret
University without a degree he worked as a performance in which a woman (usually)
freelance journalist in Stockholm while writing undresses herself slowly and provocatively to
the historical drama Master Olof (1872) in a music. This erotic entertainment was
style influenced by Shakespeare and the early introduced to US BURLESQUE shows in about
Ibsen. The play was rejected by the Royal 1920 to counteract the lure of films; its effect,
Theatre. In 1877 he married the actress Siri however, was to provoke tougher censorship
von Essen, a relationship that was soon soured laws that led to the closure of many burlesque
by Strindberg’s pathological jealousy. houses. Traditional burlesque-style stripping
In 1883, prompted by his involvement in a continues today in some nightclubs, notably
bitter literary controversy, he left Sweden with those of New Orleans’s French Quarter, and
his family to travel somewhat aimlessly in has recently seen something of a revival. The
Europe. Meanwhile he established his performer is variously called a ‘striptease
reputation as a naturalistic dramatist with THE dancer’, ‘striptease artiste’, ‘stripper’, ‘exotic
FATHER (1887) and MISS JULIE (1888), grimly dancer’, or ‘ecdysiast’ (a term coined in 1940
pessimistic plays about the inevitable (as by H. L. Mencken). The most famous and
Strindberg saw it) conflict between the sexes. elegant stripper was Gypsy Rose LEE, who
After returning to Sweden in 1889 he wrote became the subject of the Broadway musical
CREDITORS (1891), a manically bitter play that Gypsy (1959; filmed in 1962).
reflects the breakdown of his marriage. He was
divorced in 1891 and lost custody of his stroboscope A unit of stage lighting that
children. produces a series of rapid flashes of light to
The following year he travelled to Berlin, create an effect of slow or jerky motion similar
where he married the Austrian journalist Frida to that in early cinema film. It is also called a
Uhl. When this marriage collapsed after two strobe or strobe lighting. Strobe lighting can
488 Student Prince, The

have a dangerous effect on those prone to fits Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and
and should be used with care. Montgomery Clift.
Following the death of her son, Sebastian,
Student Prince, The A romantic Mrs Veneble offers to finance the building of a
operetta by the prolific Hungarian-born US new wing for a mental asylum in his name. She
composer Sigmund Romberg (1887–1951). It stipulates, however, that this will only happen
was first performed in 1924 in New York
if the surgeon Dr Cukrowicz agrees to perform
under the full title of The Student Prince of
a lobotomy on her niece Cathy, who has
Heidelberg. The plot, which is based on the
suffered a breakdown. Cathy was with
play Old Heidelberg by Wilhelm Meyer-
Sebastian when he died mysteriously during a
Foerster, concerns the careless life and loves of
European holiday. She now has a memory
a prince studying in Heidelberg, especially his
block, which Cukrowicz tries to break. Mrs
romance with a local barmaid. Two years later
Romberg followed this hit with another Veneble, fearful of what might emerge, pushes
successful operetta, The Desert Song. Although for the operation but the doctor resists. When
the film version of The Student Prince (1954) Cathy recovers her memory she reveals that
featured the voice of Mario Lanza, he was Sebastian, a homosexual, had used her to lure
considered too fat to play the hero on screen boys to his rooms. Suddenly, last summer, he
(the part was taken by Edmund Purdom). became ill and the hungry local boys pursued,
murdered, and cannibalized him. The doctor
Sturm und Drang (German: Storm and makes Cathy reveal everything to Mrs Veneble,
Stress) A German literary and dramatic who is understandably led away in shock.
movement of the later 18th-century. The term
came from the title of a preposterous play by Summer and Smoke A play by
Friedrich von Klinger (1776). The movement, Tennessee WILLIAMS with loneliness as its main
essentially a reaction against 18th-century theme. The drama had a long and tortuous
neoclassicism, was greatly influenced by the route to success. First produced by Margo
idealism of Rousseau and the example of Jones in 1947 at her experimental theatre in
Shakespeare. Dallas, it failed when she directed it a year later
The plays of the Sturm und Drang are in New York. In 1952 the play contributed to
characterized by an emphasis on passionate the rise of the OFF-BROADWAY theatre when the
emotion, a disdain for the UNITIES and other Circle-in-the-Square presented a highly
literary conventions, and a concern with acclaimed production. Williams later rewrote
the individual’s struggle against tyranny the piece as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
and oppression. Leading works of the and it was revived under this title at the
movement include Goethe’s play GÖTZ VON Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford in 1967.
BERLICHINGEN (1773), his novel The Sorrows of There was no West End production until
Young Werther (1773), and Schiller’s play DIE 2006.
RÄUBER (1781). Other writers associated with The plot involves Alma Winemiller, a
the Sturm und Drang include Johann Gottfried shy spinster, and her dashing suitor John
Herder (1744–1803), the movement’s main Buchanan. As a young woman she rejects him
theorist, and Jakob Lenz (1751–92), who but after John becomes a respected physician
formulated the rules of Romantic drama in his the roles are reversed, with Alma hopelessly
treatise Anmerkungen übers Theater (1774). trying to win his love.
Sturm und Drang was imitated throughout
Europe and influenced early 19th-century summer stock See STOCK COMPANY.
English melodrama. It also spawned a sub-
super or supe Short for supernumerary,
genre called the RITTERDRAMA (Knight drama).
one of the traditional roles in a stock company.
Sub-Plot A nickname for the AMERICAN The super took silent walk-on parts and was
PLACE THEATRE. not usually paid. Dickens wrote of “wretched
supernumeraries or sixth-rate actors”. The
Suddenly, Last Summer A one-act term is still used in the theatre, often for
play by Tennessee WILLIAMS, first produced amateurs in crowd scenes.
off-Broadway as part of the double bill Garden
District (which also included Something superstitions See TABOOS AND
Unspoken). A 1959 film version starred SUPERSTITIONS.
 Svoboda, Josef 489

Suppliant Women, The (Hiketides) A blindfolds a surgeon and brings him home
tragedy by AESCHYLUS. Once thought to be the to bleed his wife to death. Afterwards, the
oldest surviving Greek play, it has now been physician marks the door of the house with his
redated to about 463 BC, making it less old bloody hand and informs the King. Don
than either THE PERSIANS or SEVEN AGAINST Gutierre, purely for honour’s sake, says his
THEBES. wife died accidentally. When the King orders
The CHORUS of suppliant women, which him to marry a certain Leonore, Don Gutierre
speaks more than half the lines, is the true agrees but warns her that if necessary he will
protagonist of the work, which has little once more defend his honour:
dramatic action and is noted for its lyrical And mark me, too, that, if already once
poetry. The 50 women, all daughters of Unto mine honour I have proved a
Danaus, king of Egypt, have fled to Argos, the leech,
home of their ancestors, to escape marriage to I do not mean to lose my skill.
their 50 cousins, the sons of Aegyptus. They
beg the king of Argos for protection, placing Susie See TOBY.
him in a grave dilemma: he knows he faces war
with Egypt if he protects them and the wrath Svanga A type of theatre found in the
of Zeus if he does not. He asks the people villages of northern India. It is performed at
of Argos to decide, and they welcome the Hindu festivals and family celebrations such as
fugitives. A herald comes ashore from the weddings and births of sons. Also called
Egyptian fleet and begins to drag the Swang, Sang, or Sangeet, the form dates from
suppliants violently from the altars where they the late 18th century and has spread to some
have taken refuge but the king rescues them. urban areas.
The play ends with the Danaids imploring the Svanga dramas usually have moralistic
gods for a favourable outcome. themes of love, honour, and duty. The plots
The Suppliant Women was the first play in are loosely derived from history and popular
the Danaid trilogy, the other parts of which are ballads. The all-male dramas are performed in
now lost. The Aegyptii apparently portrayed a an open space or occasionally on the veranda
battle in which the king of Argos was killed of a patron’s house. The actors dress in
and his city besieged by the Egyptians; in The ordinary village garments set off with elaborate
Danaides the women are forced to wed their headdresses and colourful cloth pieces; they
cousins but, on Danaus’s advice, kill them also use false wigs and beards. The spectacle
on their wedding night. Only Hypermestra begins with songs praising the Hindu gods,
spares her husband, Lynceus; in time their especially the elephant-headed Ganapati, the
descendants become the Argive kings. god of good fortune. The plays are acted in
Another tragedy with the same title but a regional dialect and usually include a number
totally different plot was written by EURIPIDES. of romantic love songs.

Surgeon of His Own Honour, Svoboda, Josef (1920–2002) Influential

The (El médico de su honra) A tragedy by Czech stage designer, who created designs for
CALDERÓN. First produced in 1635, the year of over 700 productions in a career of some 60
Lope de VEGA’s death, the play confirmed years. He is particularly noted for introducing
Calderón’s standing as Spain’s supreme MIXED MEDIA technology into the theatre, as in
dramatist. This grim and macabre work his 1965 production of Luigi Nono’s opera
remains controversial. Some critics accuse Intoleranza. Svoboda linked several studios to
Calderón of justifying the murder of an the main stage by two-way television, allowing
innocent woman to meet the requirements of performers some miles away to see the
an inhuman code of honour, while others say conductor and follow the main drama.
his purpose was to attack the code by creating In 1948 Svoboda became head designer of
a feeling of horror and sympathy. the National Theatre in Prague, where he
In the play Don Gutierre de Solis’s wife is presented a stunning production of Gogol’s
admired by the King’s brother but remains The Government Inspector. However, he was
entirely faithful. Don Gutierre, however, given little chance to develop his ideas until
becomes convinced of her infidelity. He grants the communist regime eased restrictions in the
her two hours to live, during which she late 1950s, allowing him to create an
prepares herself for a holy death. Don Gutierre unconventional Hamlet in 1959.
490 Swan of Avon, the

His multimedia ideas developed from brick foundation, it was constructed of

experimental work carried out in the 1930s by wooden pillars with flint-and-mortar work
E. F. Burian (1904–59) and Miroslav Kouril between. The interior was sketched by a
(1911–84), the latter offering Svoboda the visiting Dutch student in 1596 and a copy of
support of his Prague Institute of Scenography. this drawing is the only contemporary
In 1958 Svoboda collaborated with the depiction of an Elizabethan theatre known to
director Alfred Radok in devising a means of survive. It reveals a large raised platform stage
combining still and moving pictures on and three galleries running round the building.
screens. This Polyekran project was followed by The Swan had no permanent company.
the development of the Laterna Magika, PEMBROKE’S MEN were the first to lease the
which combined live actors with projections. theatre, but in 1597 a performance of the
The two techniques were a great hit at the “seditious comedy” The Isle of Dogs by Ben
1958 Brussels World’s Fair, and the following Jonson and Thomas Nashe led to the
year Svoboda began to incorporate them into suspension of stage performances for several
his stage work, projecting images onto such months. The venue also hosted sports,
surfaces as plastic, mirrors, and netting. The exhibitions, and other entertainments, such as
Laterna Magika established a base in Prague’s a contest of wit and versification in 1598. Plays
famous Theatre Behind the Gate and Svoboda were again halted in 1602 when the interior
created designs for many of the productions was wrecked by the audience after Richard
there. Vennar was arrested just before presenting his
During the 1960s Svoboda also spectacular play England’s Joy.
experimented with flexible staging using Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in
movable platforms. For the 1963 production Cheapside was presented at the Swan in 1611.
of Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex at the Prague LADY ELIZABETH’S MEN performed there from
National Theatre, Svoboda constructed a 30- 1612 until 1614, when they moved to Philip
foot wide semitransparent staircase rising from Henslowe’s HOPE THEATRE, which was
the bottom of the orchestra pit up to the grid modelled on the Swan. The success of this new
above the stage. Svoboda’s work was seen in venue was the Swan’s death blow. Prize fights
London during the 1965 WORLD THEATRE took over after 1621 and according to a
SEASON and a year later at the Edinburgh contemporary pamphlet it thereafter dwindled
Festival. He was subsequently commissioned “like a dying Swanne”.
by the National Theatre to create abstract sets
for Ostrovsky’s The Storm (1966) and swazzle A device held in the mouth of a
Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1967). In 1970 he puppeteer that enables him to speak in the
designed the sets for Simon Gray’s adaptation high-pitched voice of Mr Punch in the PUNCH
AND JUDY shows. It was first used in the early
of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot (1970) at the Old
Vic. Despite the communist clampdown on 18th century.
the Czech theatre in the late 1970s, Svoboda Sweet Bird of Youth A play by
was allowed to continue his work because of Tennessee WILLIAMS, first performed in 1959
his international reputation. He continued to at the Martin Beck Theatre, New York, in a
design for the Laterna Magika throughout the production by Elia KAZAN. Paul Newman
1980s and 1990s, becoming its managing created the role of Chance Wayne, while
director in 1992. Geraldine Page won the New York Drama
Swan of Avon, the William Critics Award for Best Actress with her
SHAKESPEARE. The nickname was coined by
performance as Princess Kosmonopolous.
Ben Jonson in allusion to Shakespeare’s Brooks Atkinson described her characterization
birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon and the as “loose-jointed, gangling, raucous of voice,
legend that Apollo, the god of poetry and crumpled, shrewd, abandoned yet sensitive
music, was changed into a swan. about some things that live in the heart”. The
two stars also appeared in the filmed version
Swan Theatre An Elizabethan playhouse, (1962).
the fourth built in London; it opened in 1595 The story focuses on the Hollywood drifter
despite opposition from the Lord Mayor. The Chance Wayne, who has become a gigolo to
theatre was situated on Bankside and named the ageing film star Princess Kosmonopolous.
after the swans on the Thames. Resting on a He now brings her to his home town of St
 Synge, J(ohn) M(illington) 491

Cloud, hoping to find Heavenly, the lost love North Carolina with a mixture of professional
of his youth. He does not realize that during and amateur actors. The first of the series
his last visit he impregnated Heavenly, and was The Last Colony (1937). Green had
that her father, the local politician Boss Finlay, previously won the Pulitzer Prize for his play
is set on revenge. When Chance hears the In Abraham’s Bosom (1926), about the
news, he refuses to leave with Princess despite decadence of the South.
threats. Boss Finlay and his henchmen had
Synge, J(ohn) M(illington)
once castrated a Black man, and Chance now
(1871–1909) Irish playwright, whose six
quietly awaits his fate.
produced plays established him as a leading
Sword Play See MUMMERS’ PLAY. figure in the Irish dramatic renaissance.
Synge studied languages at Trinity College,
symbolism A French-led movement in Dublin and music at the Royal Irish Academy.
the theatre and other arts that reacted against Hoping to become a musician, he spent much
REALISM in the last decade of the 19th century. of his youth wandering in Germany, Italy, and
Symbolist writers strove to penetrate beyond France. In 1897 he experienced the first
what they saw as the superficial trappings of symptoms of Hodgkin’s disease, from which
physical existence to express the inner meaning he would die 12 years later at the age of 38.
of life. In the theatre this usually involved a In Paris Synge had a crucial meeting with
deliberately artificial style of staging, the use of W. B. YEATS, who encouraged him to visit the
poetic language, and themes chosen from myth primitive Aran Islands in search of material; if
or fairytale rather than contemporary life. The he lived amongst the peasantry as one of
first symbolist plays were presented at the themselves he would be able to “express a life
Theatre d’Art from about 1890 by Paul Fort, that has never found expression”. Synge took
who produced The Intruder (1890) and the advice and spent his summers on the
The Sightless (1891), atmospheric works by islands from 1898 to 1902. The stories he
Maurice MAETERLINCK, the leading writer heard in his first week there inspired his early
of symbolist drama. Other symbolist one-act plays In the Shadow of the Glen (1903),
playwrights included the Austrian, Hugo which aroused hostility when produced by the
von HOFMANNSTHAL, in his Everyman (1911); Irish Literary Theatre, and the tragic RIDERS
the Irishman, William Butler YEATS, in early TO THE SEA (1904). The distinctive speech
works such as The Land of Heart’s Desire rhythms of the Aran Islanders echo through all
(1894), and the French Catholic dramatist, his works.
Paul Claudel (1868–1955). The later plays of The Well of the Saints (1905) was followed
STRINDBERG are often described as symbolist by Synge’s comic masterpiece, THE PLAYBOY
works, as are the dramas of Eugene O’NEILL. OF THE WESTERN WORLD (1907). Its
Fort was succeeded at the Theatre d’Art in unsentimental depiction of the Irish peasantry
1893 by Aurelien-Francois Lugne-Poe provoked riots and demonstrations amongst
(1869–1940), who renamed the venue the nationalists when it was staged at Yeats’s ABBEY
Theatre de l’Oeuvre. It closed in 1929. THEATRE. Synge’s other major plays are The
Tinker’s Wedding (1908) and DEIRDRE OF THE
symphonic dramas A series of 15 plays SORROWS, based on a famous love story from
based on events in US history by the US Irish mythology. A seventh play, When the
dramatist Paul Green (1894–1981). They were Moon has Set, was rejected three times by Yeats
all staged out-of-doors in his native state of and not published until 1968.
492 tabernaria

Being sure never to whistle backstage or to

T applaud from the wings (see WHISTLING).

Any actor or stage hand who breaks any of
these taboos is usually expected to leave the
room immediately and to turn around three
tabernaria See TOGATA. times and spit before being readmitted.
Many other beliefs concern omens and
tableau vivant See LIVING PICTURE.
auguries, notably:
table legs The nickname devised by The belief that a good dress rehearsal
Gordon Craig (see CRAIG FAMILY) for loyal portends a disastrous opening night (and vice
supporting actors. versa).
The belief that leaving a bar of soap behind
taboos and superstitions Few in the dressing room means that you will never
professions have more taboos and superstitions play that theatre again.
than the theatre. Lucky items include black The belief that it is unlucky for a visitor to
cats, three-leaved clovers, horseshoes, and enter the dressing room with the left foot first.
anything made of ivory, while unlucky ones The belief that the length of a run can be
include peacock feathers, green clothes, and predicted from the age of the first person to
real flowers anywhere on stage (excepting only buy tickets when the box office opens (the
the bouquet presented to the leading lady at older the person, the longer the run).
the curtain call). STANISLAVSKY would not play See also DR FAUSTUS; GYPSY ROBE; TOI TOI
Mephistopheles because he believed that TOI!
something bad always happened to him tabs See CURTAIN.
afterwards. Eleonora DUSE once talked a
chimney-sweep into giving her his broom as a Taganka Theatre The popular name for
good-luck token for opening night, while the Moscow Theatre of Drama and Comedy,
Katharine Hepburn always crossed herself Taganka being the suburb in which it is located.
when entering a theatre in which she once Founded in 1946, it has enjoyed a reputation
flopped. Florenz ZIEGFELD carried a tiny red as the most experimental and controversial
elephant for luck and left his name off the theatre in Russia since the mid 1960s. Under
billing for Follies of 1907 to avoid having more Yuri LYUBIMOV, who took over in 1964, the
than 13 letters in the title. Noël Coward once Taganka won the loyalty of students and
claimed his only superstition was never to sleep young playgoers but aroused official disapproval
13 in a bed. by staging works that were critical of Soviet
Many actors believe it is a sign of good values. Lyubimov was also criticized for
luck to fall flat on one’s face when making a employing ‘formalistic’ production techniques,
such as the use of dance, mime, projections,
first entrance, since nothing worse can then
puppets, and masks. The authorities banned or
happen. Most superstitions, however, are
censored several of the Taganka’s offerings. In
about bad luck. They include:
1977 the company was given permission to
Never calling Macbeth by its title (see
tour internationally. Finally, while working
SCOTTISH PLAY).
abroad in 1984, Lyubimov was removed as
Not rehearsing the last line of a play. head of the theatre and stripped of his
Never peeping out at the audience from citizenship.
the ‘unlucky’ side of a lowered curtain (as there His replacement was another highly
is disagreement about which is the unlucky controversial director, Anatoly Efros (1925–87),
side, most theatres provide a peep hole in the whose productions at other theatres had
middle). often been censored. When he died, a loyal
Never leaving a theatre entirely dark, even communist, Nikolai Gubenko (1941– ), was
when it is unoccupied (see GHOST LIGHT). appointed to run the theatre, which nevertheless
Not wishing an actor good luck on benefitted greatly from the new era of glasnost.
opening night (the jovial injunction BREAK A In 1989 Gubenko was named Soviet Minister
LEG! is preferred). of Culture – the first professional artist to hold
Not unpacking your make-up box until this post since the 1920s – and Lyubimov was
the reviews appear. reappointed to his old position at the Taganka.
 Tamasha 493

The subsequent decade proved as stormy as Abbé Geoffroy to write: “His triumph lies in
any in the theatre’s past. In 1991 Gubenko the portrayal of passion worked up to delirium,
publicly denounced his successor, set up a to insanity.”
rival Community of Taganka Actors with In 1789 Talma played the king in Marie-
disaffected members of the company, and Joseph de Chénier’s anti-monarchical Charles
demanded a share of the theatre building and IX, provoking demonstrations in the theatre
other assets. A bitter struggle followed, with his passionate performance. He also
culminating in Gubenko’s occupation of the fought a duel with the royalist actor Naudet,
building with the protection of a state militia who had avoided playing the role by feigning
unit in July 1993. After a long and tortuous illness. The bitter divisions between
legal process the theatre was eventually monarchists and republicans led to the
restored to Lyubimov. disintegration of the company in 1791.
The following year, Talma and a number
tail See BORDER. of likeminded actors from the Comédie-
Française joined those from the Variétés
Tale of Mystery, A A sensational play
Amusantes to form a company in the Théâtre
sometimes described as the first English
de la rue de Richelieu, which they renamed the
MELODRAMA. First produced at Covent Garden
Théâtre de la Révolution. It soon became
in 1802, it was an adaptation by Thomas
France’s premiere theatre (partly because many
Holcroft (1744–1809) of the French drama
royalist actors were in prison at the time).
Coelina, ou l’enfant de mystère (1800) by Talma continued to appear in works by
Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773–1844), who Corneille and Shakespeare, his usual
was not acknowledged. The plot involves a companion in tragedy being Mlle Duchenois
murder planned by Count Romaldo in order (c. 1777–1835).
to marry a rich heiress. A Tale of Mystery was a In 1803 Talma reunited the old Comédie-
great success, and the melodrama soon became Française at his theatre and Napoleon, a great
a mainstay of the secondary theatres. admirer of the actor, subsequently restored the
Talma, François-Joseph (1763–1826) company’s pensions and subsidies. Talma
The greatest French tragedian of the travelled with the emperor throughout Europe,
Napoleonic era, sometimes considered the playing in 1803 in Erfurt, Germany, to an
finest of all French actors. He made numerous audience that included five crowned heads. He
reforms to the theatre of the day, not least by also had an affair with Napoleon’s beautiful
adopting historically accurate costumes and a sister Pauline, the duchess of Guastalla. After
naturalistic acting style. the return of peace, he was a frequent visitor to
The son of a French dentist who had London, appearing at Covent Garden in 1817.
moved to London to practise, the young Talma gave his last performance in 1826 in
Talma organized amateur theatre performances Delaville’s Charles VI, dying four months later.
His last words were “Voltaire!…comme
for the French community, acquiring a love for
Voltaire…toujours comme Voltaire…”
the comparatively restrained English acting
style. He returned to Paris in 1786 to become Tamasha A popular type of folk theatre in
one of the first students at the newly opened India’s west-central state of Maharashtra. Its
Ecole de Declamation, where he trained under origin is uncertain, although it is thought to
François-René Molé (1734–1802). have been introduced to the region in the early
Talma made his professional debut at the 18th century by Mogul armies. The name
Comédie-Française in 1787 in Voltaire’s Tamasha is Persian for ‘fun’, ‘entertainment’,
Mahomet. He soon became known as a or ‘commotion’. The plays adapt themes from
troublemaker because of his revolutionary history or mythology to satirize politicians,
ideas in both politics and the theatre. He businessmen, priests, and others.
disliked bombastic acting, elaborate staging, There are various kinds of companies. The
and the use of contemporary costume. In 1787 dholki-barris folk-drama troupes have a leading
he stunned audiences by appearing on stage in actor, clown, six actor-singers, one or more
a toga with bare arms and legs. Despite his female dancer-singers, and several musicians.
unconventional ideas the strikingly handsome The loknatya, or people’s theatre, perform for
and spirited Talma became an immense star. urban playgoers in the modern theatres of
The intensity of his performances led the critic Bombay, Nagpur, and elsewhere. In the 1960s
494 Tamburlaine the Great

government programmes were introduced to strolling players. Katharina, the shrew of the
help companies with financial problems. title, and Bianca, her beautiful sister, are the
Tamasha is either performed outside in any daughters of a rich Paduan merchant. While
open space or, especially during the monsoon Bianca has numerous wooers, the older
season, in roofed theatres. The entertainment Katharina, whom her father is determined
opens with a gan, or song praising the deities. to see married first, drives men away with
This is followed by the gaulan, a humorous her furious temper. Eventually Petruchio, a
skit featuring Krishna and his clown attendant. blatant fortune-hunter, marries the unwilling
Next is the vag, a brief humorous dialogue Katharina and carries her off to his home in
play. This was only added in the 19th century, Verona. Here he successfully tames her
but is now the main feature of the drama. through a campaign of deliberately outrageous
Also popular are the lavani, or love songs, behaviour that echoes and outdoes her own. In
which are now sung by professional dancing the final scene Katharina, who seems to have
girls (they were performed by male singers genuinely fallen for her unconventional
disguised as women until the late 19th husband, astonishes her family by delivering a
century). Tamasha dance combines classical long speech on marital obedience.
and folk forms. The Taming of the Shrew was rewritten by
Tamasha is also the name of a London- Garrick in 1754 as the popular Catherine
based theatre company founded in 1989 with and Petruchio. Cole Porter later adapted
the goal of bringing new Asian writing to the Shakespeare’s original for his Broadway
stage. Its productions include Ayub Khan musical KISS ME KATE (1948). In 1967 the
Din’s groundbreaking East is East (1996) and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor film of
the acclaimed A Fine Balance (2006), adapted The Taming of the Shrew credited three writers,
from the novel by Rohinton Mistry. none being Shakespeare.
In 1978 at Stratford Jonathan Pryce played
Tamburlaine the Great A tragedy in the drunken Sly so convincingly, fighting in
blank verse by Christopher MARLOWE, written the stalls and ripping down scenery, that several
in two parts and first produced in London in members of the audience left their seats to call
1587. It is based on the career of the Mongol the police. The 14-year-old Laurence Olivier
conqueror Timur Leng (1336–1405). The first gave one of his first stage performances as
part describes how Tamburlaine, a Scythian Katharina in an all-male schools production at
shepherd, becomes king of Persia, goes on to Stratford in 1922. “I can’t remember any actress
defeat the Turkish emperor BAJAZET, and woos in the part who looked better,” wrote the critic
Zenocrate, daughter of the Sultan of Egypt. In W. A. Darlington.
the second part of the play Tamburlaine “the
scourge of God” extends his conquests as far as Tantalus A 10-hour cycle of plays about
Babylon, whose inhabitants he slaughters the Trojan War written by John Barton
indiscriminately. He finally dies of a fever, (1928– ), the distinguished British director
with no sign of weakness or remorse. The play often regarded as the éminence grise of the
was a huge popular success owing to its Royal Shakespeare Company. After a long and
grandiloquent blank verse – incomparably famously troubled gestation, it was finally
superior to anything previously heard on the staged in 2000 by Sir Peter HALL and his son
English stage – and its ruthlessly aspiring Edward in Denver, Colorado.
antihero. The origins of Tantalus date back to the
mid 1980s, when the RSC commissioned
Taming of the Shrew, The Barton to create a series of linked plays retelling
SHAKESPEARE’s comedy of rough wooing, the story of the Trojan War and its bloody
written c. 1591–93 with the date of first aftermath. Barton had already shown himself
performance unknown. Its precise relationship an exceptionally gifted adapter of epic materials
to another anonymous play called The Taming with his versions of Shakespeare’s history plays
of a Shrew has sparked much scholarly debate. (as THE WARS OF THE ROSES, 1963) and works
The play opens with an Induction in by Euripides and others (as The Greeks, 1980).
which Christopher SLY, a drunken tinker, is From the start, Barton’s long-time friend and
tricked into believing that he is a lord. The collaborator Peter Hall, who had directed The
story of Katharina and Petruchio is then Wars of the Roses, was seen as the obvious
performed for his pleasure by a troupe of choice to bring this new work to the stage. In
 Tartuffe 495

the event, however, Barton seems to have been Dick Whittington at the Grand Theatre,
overwhelmed by the task and the project was Islington. She also sang it in the burlesque
repeatedly shelved. By the time he was happy Cinder-Ellen-Up-Too-Late, which she was
with his text, the RSC had lost interest and an appearing in at the Gaiety, dashing from one
alternative backer had to be found. This did theatre to the other to perform it. Collins
not prove easy. The Greek government eventually went to America, where she was
withdrew its promise of financial support in paid £200 a week for her one-song act.
the 1990s and a plan to stage Tantalus as part
of the 2000 Olympics celebrations likewise Tarlton, Richard (d. 1588) England’s
came to nothing. Salvation finally arrived from first professional comic actor. He is thought to
an unlikely source when Donald R. Seawell, an have inspired the characters of Bottom in A
88-year-old US businessman and theatre Midsummer Night’s Dream and Yorick in
enthusiast, agreed to provide the $8 million Hamlet. Tarlton was short and slightly
thought necessary to stage Tantalus, provided hunchbacked with a squint and a flat nose
that it opened at the Denver Centre for the (this had been damaged while he was
Performing Arts, which he had himself separating dogs and bears during bear-baiting).
endowed. Determined to seize this chance, He joked that he still had “sagacity enough to
Hall moved to Colorado with a team of actors, smell a knave from an honest man”. In 1583
designers, choreographers, and literary and he joined the Queen Elizabeth’s Men and
technical advisers, but would soon find that remained the queen’s favourite jester until she
the production’s troubles were far from over. banned him from court for telling jokes about
During long months of intensive rehearsals, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Leicester.
crisis suceeded crisis: one actor, Larry Lamb, Tarlton wrote the successful play The Seven
was sacked; another, John Carlile, walked out Deadly Sins (1585) and several other lost
when Hall announced suddenly that the cast works, while many of his witticisms are
would perform in masks; and Mick Gordon, recorded in Tarlton’s Jests, published
one of Hall’s associate directors, failed to posthumously in 1611. He also popularized
return from a short break citing “artistic the comic JIG and was famous for improvising
differences”. With deadlines looming, Hall on stage. Hamlet’s comment to the players,
took a series of radical decisions, the most “Let those that play your fools speak no more
drastic of which involved cutting or rewriting than is set down for them” was probably
about a third of the text without consulting written with Tarlton in mind.
Barton. This high-handed treatment enraged
Tartuffe Molière’s comedy about religious
Barton and brought to an end a friendship that
hypocrisy, first performed in 1664 before
had lasted 50 years: “I am violently against
Louis XIV at Versailles. Molière’s young wife,
what he has done,” Barton fumed, “I think he
Armande Béjart (1641–1700), played Elmire
has behaved dishonestly….”
while he himself played Orgon (wearing a
Tantalus finally opened in October 2000,
to mixed reviews. In its reduced form it black satin cloak lined with shot silk trimmed
consisted of nine plays in three groups – in English lace and with lace on his shoes and
The Outbreak of War, The War, and The garters). When Molière revised the play for
Homecomings; the lead players included Greg public performance, it was immediately
Hicks as Agamemnon and Priam, Annalee banned following protests by the Church. The
Jefferies as Clytemnestra and Andromache, chief judge of Paris told the author, “You are
and Ann Mitchell as Hecuba. There was a an honour and a glory to France, but it is not
short tour of UK venues, including London’s the theatre’s business to dabble in religion.”
Barbican Theatre, the following January. The king was baffled by the strength of feeling
aroused by the play, which does not directly
‘Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay’ The song, attack Christianity or the Church, until a
written by Harry Sayers (1857–1934), that member of his court explained: “Molière
transformed the career of Lottie Collins mocks the men themselves. That’s what they
(1866–1910), the British music-hall cannot bear.” Molière, who was determined
performer. She began as a skipping-rope that the comedy should be staged, revised it
dancer, but became an overnight star in 1891 twice and added a final speech praising the
when she introduced ‘Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay’ king. When finally produced in 1669, it was
with a high-kicking dance in the pantomime an instant success.
496 Taste of Honey, A

In the story, Tartuffe uses a show of and worse playwright”. Despite this handicap,
religion to worm his way into the household of he was appointed poet laureate in 1692 (and
the gullible merchant Orgon. While feigning historiographer royal in 1702).
abstinence, he is eating, drinking, and even Tate’s own works include the farce A Duke
stealing from his supporter. When Tartuffe is and No Duke (1684); he also collaborated with
finally caught trying to seduce his wife, Elmire, Dryden on the second part of Absolom and
Orgon throws him out. Having been totally Achitophel (1682). He is mostly remembered,
discredited, Tartuffe resorts to blackmail but is however, for his eccentric adaptations of
finally arrested on the orders of the King. Shakespeare’s plays. When he adapted Richard
The word tartuffe is still used in France to II as The History of King Richard II (1680), his
mean a sanctimonious hypocrite. There have work was banned for emphasizing usurpation
been numerous modern adaptations in which and abdication at a time of political tension.
the character is reinterpreted to stand for some His response was to move the action to Sicily,
more contemporary form of hypocrisy. retitling the word The Sicilian Usurper (1681).
Tate’s The Ingratitude of Common-Wealth
Taste of Honey, A A two-act play by (1681) was adapted from Coriolanus, but
Shelagh Delaney (1939– ). It was first incorporated part of Titus Andronicus in the
performed in 1958 at the Theatre Workshop, last act.
London, where it enjoyed great success before Tate’s most infamous adaptation was his
transferring to Wyndham’s Theatre. The story rewriting of King Lear (1681), in which he
centres upon the love–hate relationship omitted the character of the Fool, allowed
between the working-class Helen and her Cordelia to survive to marry Edgar, and
rebellious daughter Jo, who live together in a introduced a happy ending with Lear
drab Manchester flat. When Helen leaves with restored to the throne. This farrago replaced
her boyfriend, Peter, the neglected Jo has an Shakespeare’s play on the British stage for over
affair with a Black serviceman. She becomes 150 years, until William Macready resurrected
pregnant and takes in Geoff, a homosexual art the original, at Covent Garden in 1838.
student. Together they prepare for the coming Although Tate’s adaptations were
of her baby, but Helen reappears and forces subsequently ridiculed, they were extremely
Geoff out. When Helen learns that the baby popular in their day, winning the admiration
will be Black, she rushes off to the pub, leaving of Dr Johnson amongst others.
Jo deserted again.
The play won awards in both Britain and Tavistock Repertory Company See
America and was made into a successful film, LITTLE THEATRES.
starring Rita Tushingham, in 1961.
Taylor, Tom (1817–80) British
Tate, Harry (Ronald Macdonald playwright, who was the author of around 100
Hutchison; 1872–1940) British music-hall dramatic works and often took part in the
comedian, who perfected a series of riotous private amateur productions organized by
sketches about motoring, golfing, fishing, and Charles Dickens. He also edited Punch
other sports. They usually featured an elderly (1874–80).
man and his moronic fat son. Tate’s motoring Taylor’s first play, A Trip to Kissingen, was
sketch became one of the most renowned on produced in 1844 at the Lyceum. Subsequent
the halls, while the fishing sketch ended with works included To Parents and Guardians
dozens of prop fish of all shapes flying through (1846), Masks and Faces (1852; with Charles
the air on rods. Reade), which was based on the life of Peg
Born in Scotland, Tate took his stage name WOFFINGTON, Still Waters Run Deep (1855),
from his former employer, the sugar refiners which was considered sexually frank in its day,
Henry Tate and Sons. He made his debut in and the influential melodrama THE TICKET-OF-
1895 as a mimic at the Camberwell Empire LEAVE MAN (1863).
and went on to perform at the London Taylor’s successful comedy Our American
Hippodrome in such successful revues as Cousin is now mainly remembered as the play
Business as Usual. Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was
assassinated in 1865. It was first produced in
Tate, Nahum (1652–1715) Irish-born 1858 by the actress-manager Laura KEENE at
writer who has been described as “a poor poet her theatre in New York; E. A. Sothern (see
 Teatro Olimpico 497

SOTHERN FAMILY) starred as the simpleton 1926), and Massimo Bontempelli

Lord Dundreary (see DUNDREARIES). Keene’s (1878–1960). Italy’s greatest 20th-century
company was performing the play in FORD’S dramatist, Luigi PIRANDELLO, was also
THEATRE when the president was shot by John associated with the movement.
Wilkes Booth (see BOOTH FAMILY).
Teatro Farnese A majestic Renaissance
teapot school A derogatory term for the theatre in Parma, Italy, famous as the oldest
early 19th-century school of acting in which surviving venue with a PROSCENIUM ARCH. It is
the performer would declaim stiffly while now seldom used for performances. Designed
striking a statuesque pose – typically with one by Giovanni Aleotti (1546–1636), it was
hand on the hip and the other outstretched begun in 1619 and opened in 1628. In
like a teapot spout. The style was particularly addition to the proscenium arch, it had two
associated with John Philip KEMBLE, whose similar frames further back on the deep stage,
rather stiff manner was aggravated by gout and allowing actors to use the entire area. The
asthma. theatre originally had a set of wings, which are
Teatro Abierto (Spanish: Open Theatre) also thought to have been designed by Aleotti.
An Argentine theatre movement founded in In front of the proscenium arch, which had a
1981 to fight political repression and revitalize Roman-type curtain, there was a large open
the country’s drama. Osvaldo Dragún was space used for dancing; on one occasion
amongst those who launched an appeal for this was flooded for a water spectacle. The
new works that resulted in the choice of 20 auditorium was that of a traditional court
one-act plays for production. These were theatre, providing raised seating in a horseshoe
staged by 20 different directors at the Teatro arrangement for 3500 spectators.
Picadero in the space of a week. Suspiciously,
the theatre burned down at the week’s end, teatro invisible (Spanish: invisible
but public demand ensured that further theatre) In Argentina in the 1970s, a type of
performances took place at the Teatro TabarÍs. HAPPENING presented in public places to
The impact of the second season was weakened unsuspecting audiences by the Brazilian
by mediocre scripts and the outbreak of the playwright and director Augusto Boal
Falklands War; the movement has since been (1931– ). An exile from his own country
less influential owing to Argentina’s return to because of his Marxist views, Boal also devised
democracy. the teatro jornal, a type of LIVING NEWSPAPER.
His first work of protest theatre was the drama
Teatro Campesino See CHICANO Revolução na América do Sul (Revolution in
THEATRE.
South America), presented in 1961. Boal’s ideas
Teatro del grottesco (Italian: Theatre about the revolutionary potential of the theatre
of the Grotesque) A movement in modern are set out in the 1975 volume Teatro do
Italian drama that originated in World War I Oprimido (Theatre of the Oppressed).
as a reaction against the heroic plays of
Teatro Olimpico The oldest surviving
Gabriele D’ANNUNZIO. The movement, which
Renaissance theatre. The magnificent venue in
lasted through the 1920s, sought to renew the
Italian theatre by introducing elements of Vicenza, Italy, was built by the Olympic
parody, irony, violent realism, and grotesque Academy of Vicenza, a body founded in 1555
humour. The works explored hypocrisy and for the study of Greek drama. It was designed
the gap between illusion and reality. by Andrea Palladio (1518–80), who aimed to
Teatro del grottesco derived its name from create the effect of an indoor Roman theatre.
the subtitle to one of its best-known works, the Palladio died soon after beginning the
1916 farce Le Maschera e il volto (The Mask construction work in 1580 and the theatre was
and the Face) by Luigi Chiarelli (1884–1947). completed four years later by Vincenzo
This satirical look at modern society has been Scamozzi (1552–1616). The theatre’s
widely translated and performed. Other semicircular raised seating curves around a
important writers were Pier Maria Rosso di small ORCHESTRA and the raised acting area.
San Secondo (1887–1956), who wrote Behind the stage is an elaborate stone wall with
Marionette, che passione! (Puppets, What five openings, three being doors painted with
Passion!; 1918) and La Scala (The Ladder; perspective views of streets leading away. The
498 teatro por horas

Teatro Olimpico opened in 1585 with to have one technical rehearsal and two dress
Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. rehearsals.
teatro por horas In late 19th-century Tempest, Dame Marie (Mary Susan
Spain, a type of light comedy drama. Derived Etherington; 1864–1942) The leading British
from the SAINETE, it began in about 1868 and comedienne of the early 20th century. She
reached the height of its popularity just before made her debut in 1885 in Suppé’s comic
the turn of the century. The one-act plays opera Boccaccio, later winning acclaim as Kitty
satirized everyday Spanish life, especially in Carol in The Red Hussar (1889), which she
Madrid. The vogue for the teatro por horas was took to New York the same year. Her greatest
associated with the revival of the musical success came in 1902, when she played Kitty
ZARZUELA. They were superseded by the Silverton in The Marriage of Kitty, a play
astracanadas, comic sketches noted for their adapted from the French by her husband
bad puns and unrealistic plots. Cosmo Gordon-Lennox. She kept the piece in
her repertoire for 30 years. Another triumph
teatro stabile Any of the permanent was provided by Noël Coward, who wrote the
acting troupes formed in Italy after World War part of Judith Bliss in HAY FEVER (1925)
II in an effort to establish regional theatres. especially for her; the play ran for 3367
Ten existed by the 1960s, and others have now performances. In 1934 she played opposite
been formed throughout the country. The best Olivier in Kaufman and Ferber’s Theatre Royal,
known include the teatro stabile in Genoa, a play about the Barrymores. Her last big
founded in 1952 and led for many years success came when she appeared in Dodie
by Luigi Squarzina (1922–2000), and the Smith’s Dear Octopus (1938) at the age of 74.
teatro stabile in Turin, founded in 1955 and Short and plump, Tempest was fastidious
currently headed by Walter le Moli. about clothes and would never sit down in her
The first and most famous, however, was dressing room when in costume. Once when
the Piccolo teatro della città di Milano, an emotional young actress flung herself at
founded in 1947 by the director Giorgio Tempest’s feet to beg forgiveness for being late,
STREHLER, and the actor-director Paolo Grassi the grand lady commanded, “Get up! Get up!
(1919–81). The company was given rent-free Have you no respect for your management’s
use of a theatre by the city of Milan, and later clothes?”
received the first state subsidy awarded to an Rex Harrison recalled that she was so
Italian drama company. It opened with a nervous on opening nights that during the tea
production of Gorki’s The Lower Depths party scenes (that always seemed to feature in
starring Marcello Moretti (1910–61), the her plays) her cup had to be glued to the
famous Harlequin. The company later saucer. He also noted that whenever they left a
developed its own training school and now has scene, Dame Marie would wait until she was
three separate theatres in Milan. Today it has out of sight of the audience and then begin
an international reputation, being considered clapping; the audience, thinking the sound
one of the best regional theatre companies came from their midst, would take up the
in Europe. It introduced Brecht to Italian applause. She also milked extra applause by
audiences, and is equally respected for having her maid shoo her Sealyham dog on
its revivals of classics by Shakespeare and stage during the last CURTAIN CALL; she would
Goldoni as for its productions of works by appear surprised that the dog had followed her
contemporary Italian dramatists. and take it lovingly in her arms while the
audience roared approval, resulting in two or
technical rehearsal or tech A three extra calls. See also MARIE TEMPEST.
REHEARSAL, usually held shortly before opening
night, at which sound, lighting, and other Tempest, The The last play to be wholly
technical operations are practised. The director written by SHAKESPEARE. A romantic fantasy, it
usually runs through the show ‘cue-to-cue’, i.e. was first performed before James I at Whitehall
jumping from an actor’s entrance to the next in 1611; two years later it was staged to
sound cue, lighting change, etc., without celebrate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth
reading the dialogue. If actors have quick and the Elector Palatine.
changes, however, these will be rehearsed while The story is set on an enchanted island
the text is read. A production generally hopes ruled by PROSPERO, the deposed Duke of
 Termagant 499

Milan, who lives there with his beautiful become popular summer entertainment.
daughter Miranda. A potent yet benevolent Known humorously as rag opries, the plays
magician, he is served by various spirits, were performed in a tent about 60 feet wide on
including the delicate ARIEL, and by CALIBAN, portable platform stages with basic props and
the misshapen son of a witch. In the opening scenery; the audience sat on wooden benches.
scene a ship carrying Antonio, the brother who The earlier tent shows generally produced
usurped Prospero’s dukedom, and Alonso, pirated or poorly rewritten melodramas, but
king of Naples, is wrecked through Prospero’s the advent of tougher copyright laws forced
magic. The courtiers are cast onto the island, them to commission original plays, mostly
where Prospero uses a variety of supernatural dealing with rural themes. A popular moralistic
devices to bring his enemies to a sense of their work was Charles Harrison’s Saintly Hypocrites
guilt. Finally he forgives them and renounces and Honest Sinners (1915). Many comedies
his art in a speech that has often been were written featuring the rustic hero TOBY. By
interpreted as Shakespeare’s own farewell to the late 1920s, some 400 tent shows were
the stage. drawing an audience of around 78 million.
When Beerbohm Tree produced The The shows were doomed, however, by the
Tempest in 1904, the opening shipwreck scene Depression of the 1930s and the growth of
was staged using an entire ship that rocked in a cinema.
sea with waves that splashed over the deck,
making some in the audience seasick. The play Terence (Publius Terentius Afer;
has inspired many adaptations, from an c. 190–159 BC) Roman playwright. He is
unfinished opera by Mozart to the 1954 believed to have been a Carthaginian slave
science-fiction film Forbidden Planet. The educated and freed by his Roman master. Six
most renowned Prospero of modern times was of his plays, all based on works of the Greek
NEW COMEDY, have survived: Andria (166 BC),
Sir John Gielgud, who played the part more
often than any other leading actor. Hecyra (165 BC), Heauton Timoroumenos
(163 BC), Eunuchus (161 BC), Phormio
Ten Times Table A comedy by Alan (161 BC), and Adelphi (160 BC). They show
AYCKBOURN that opened in 1977 at the Terence’s comedy to be more original and
Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, subtle with thoughtful characterization and a
Scarborough and transferred the next year to graceful style. His plotting and characterization
the Globe Theatre in London. The story influenced many Renaissance playwrights,
centres on the Pendon Civic Society which, amongst them Molière and Shakespeare.
inspired by an idea from its chairman, Ray, In his own day Terence was always
initiates a fund-raising PAGEANT based on the overshadowed by PLAUTUS, who produced
martyrdom of the ‘Pendon Twelve’, a group of more topical and less refined comedies. Julius
19th-century farm workers. When Eric, a Caesar criticized Terence’s plays for lacking the
leftist schoolteacher, decides to turn the true comic spirit. The playwright’s later
festivities into a propaganda show, the prologues sharply answer these attacks and also
organizing committee splits into two groups complain of the fickleness of the public, which
responsible for rehearsing the workers and the was developing a preference for circuses and
military. Eric handles the workers’ group gladiatorial combats.
adroitly but Ray’s gang have to bring in the
neo-fascist Tim, who carries a real revolver and Termagant A name given by medieval
directs his group like General Franco. On the writers to an idol or god that the Saracens
big day there is much disarray, but Ray has were supposed to worship. Termagant was
already hatched a plan for the next pageant: subsequently introduced into the MORALITY
PLAYS as a violent ranting character in Eastern
Romans battling Britons.
robes. This dress led to the character being
tent show In America, a travelling identified as a woman, which is how the name
company that staged plays under canvas. One later came to mean a virago.
of the first tent shows was that organized in To o’erdo Termagant is to overact,
1851 by Fayette Lodowick ‘Yankee’ Robinson especially by ranting and raging. In medieval
in the Midwest states of Iowa and Illinois. drama, volume was a measure of villainy and
Before the turn of the century, such outdoor Termagant (like HEROD and PILATE) was
offerings as the Harley Sadler Show had always played in an exaggerated bawling style.
500 Terpsichore

The phrase comes from Hamlet’s instructions was more successful; using the stage name of
to the players (Hamlet, III, ii), in which the Miss Yerret she once played Gertrude to
Prince tells them not to overdo the shouting. William Macready’s Hamlet. Of their 11
children, nine survived and five went on the
Terpsichore In Greek mythology, the stage. When young, the children slept in
MUSE of dancing and the dramatic chorus.
drawers in Sarah’s dressing rooms.
Hence the adjective Terpsichorean, pertaining Kate Terry danced hornpipes on the stage
to dancing. when three, played Prince Arthur in Charles
Terriss, William (William Charles James Kean’s production of King John at eight, and
Lewin; 1847–97) British actor, popularly at 14 was the youngest ever Cordelia in a
known as Breezy Bill for his swashbuckling professional production of King Lear. In 1862
style. Terriss spent part of his youth as a sheep she went on as an understudy in Victorien
farmer in the Falkland Islands before returning Sardou’s Nos Intimes and overnight became
to Britain, where he became a successful actor “the stage divinity of her day”. In 1865 she
at the age of 26. His legions of fans brought won acclaim in Tom Taylor’s The Ticket-of-
him constant presents, but Terriss always Leave Man and the following year took the
passed them on to the call boy or other female lead in Dion Boucicault’s Hunted
behind-the-scenes workers. His daughter Down, the play in which Henry Irving made
Ellaline became an actress and music-hall his spectacular London debut. Some critics
performer. considered her superior to her famous sister
In the 1880s Terriss became well known Ellen, but in 1867 Kate married and left
playing alongside IRVING at the Lyceum, where the stage, giving an emotional farewell
he specialized in such dashing roles as Mercutio performance as Juliet. Her eldest daughter,
and Laertes. Irving was particularly fond of the also called Kate, was the mother of Sir John
younger actor, and would tease him during GIELGUD.

rehearsals. “Bill, my boy,” he said on one Dame Ellen Terry was the most famous
occasion, “what do those last two lines mean?” member of the family and one of the most
Terriss put off the answer for a minute, then adored of her profession. Oscar Wilde
admitted, “So help me goodness, guv’nor, I’m once described her as “like some wan lily
blowed if I know what they do mean.” Irving overdrenched with rain”.
joined the cast in laughter: “No, I thought Ellen made her debut at the age of nine as
not.” From 1885 he starred in melodramas at Mamillius in Charles Kean’s production of
the Adelphi, which he also managed. The Winter’s Tale. In 1861 she joined the
Ironically, the much loved Terriss became Haymarket Company and three years later, at
the only actor to be murdered outside a 17, married the painter G. F. Watts, who was
London theatre. On 16 December 1897 he 47. The marriage lasted less than a year. She
was stabbed to death as he made to enter the later lived with the stage designer E. W.
Adelphi by a jealous small-time actor, Richard Godwin, bearing him two children, Edith and
Prince. Irving bitterly predicted, “Terriss was Gordon Craig (see CRAIG FAMILY).
an actor. His murderer will not be executed.” In 1878 she married the actor Charles
Prince indeed escaped the hangman to spend Kelly (Charles Wardell; 1839–85). That same
the remainder of his life in Broadmoor year she joined Henry IRVING’s company at
Asylum. the LYCEUM THEATRE to begin a famous
partnership that lasted for a quarter of a
Terry family A British family of actors, century. The highlights included numerous
consisting of Benjamin Terry (1818–96), his performances of Shakespeare – she excelled as
wife Sarah Ballard (1817–92), their four Beatrice, Cordelia, Desdemona, Olivia, and
daughters Kate Terry (1844–1924), Ellen Terry Viola – and the famous melodrama The Bells,
(1847–1928), Marion Terry (1856–1930), and which Terry and Irving gave as a command
Florence Terry (1855–1896), and their son performance for Queen Victoria.
Fred Terry (1863–1933). Terry was infamous for forgetting her
The elder Terrys were provincial actors. lines. Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL recalled a
Ben, the son of an Irish publican, never rose performance of Cymbeline in which Terry,
above mediocrity as a performer. Sarah, the playing Imogen, “forgot her words and, giving
daughter of a Scottish Wesleyan lay preacher, a delicious look at the audience and then
 THE 501

towards heaven, spoke three times in a voice appeared mainly in amateur productions after
that melted your bosom, this word: ‘Beyond… marrying in 1882.
beyond…beyond’. There was no ‘beyond’ in Fred Terry, known as the golden Terry,
the text, but it was the loveliest word I ever was a romantic actor who retained his florid
heard, and described her Imogen.” acting style into the 20th century. He disliked
After Irving’s retirement from the Lyceum his famous sister Ellen, who used to lock him
she became manager of the Imperial theatre in in cupboards when they were children. When
1903 and produced several plays with scenery he was 17 and his voice broke on stage, Ellen,
by her son Gordon Craig. In 1906 she instead of covering for him, imitated him to
celebrated her golden jubilee with a spectacular draw a laugh. From 1905 to 1913 Fred
matinée at Drury Lane, in which 22 members occupied the New Theatre for a six-month
of the Terry family appeared. She was then season with his actress wife Julia Neilson,
playing Lady Cicely Waynflete in CAPTAIN during which he gave an acclaimed performance
BRASSBOUND’S CONVERSION, a part created as Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
especially for her by George Bernard Shaw. He Their actor son Dennis Neilson-Terry
based the character on the personality she had (1895–1932) died in South Africa while
revealed in the flirtatious love letters they had touring. Fred also had two actress daughters
exchanged since 1897 (the two had never met). with his second wife Mary Glynne (Mary
Aitken; 1898–1954).
Playing opposite her was the 30-year-old
US actor James Carew (James Usselman; tetralogy In the ancient Greek theatre, a
1876–1938), who became her third husband. series of four works by the same dramatist,
In 1917 Terry attended a schools consisting of three tragedies followed by a
performance of Julius Caesar at All Saints’ SATYR-PLAY. These were presented in drama
School near Oxford Circus. Her companions contests at the City DIONYSIA. In the early
expressed admiration for the young actors competitions, the four plays had a common
playing Caesar and Antony, but Terry put theme and were given a common name. No
aside her bag of boiled sweets and said, “No: complete tetralogies are extant; THE ORESTEIA
the boy who played Brutus – he is a born of AESCHYLUS is the only surviving trilogy.
actor.” The 10-year-old boy’s name was
Laurence Olivier. Thaddädl A stock figure in Viennese
In 1925 she gave her last performance, in comedy. A ridiculous young man with a high
Walter de la Mare’s Crossings at the Lyric voice, Thaddädl was created by the Austrian
actor Anton Hasenhut (1766–1841) and
Theatre, Hammersmith. That same year she
proved a great success in Kringsterner’s Der
was created DBE, the second actress so
Zwirnhändler (1801). He did not retain his
honoured.
popularity beyond the 1820s.
Marion Terry, known to the family as
Polly, was noted for her refined manner, which Thalia The MUSE who presided over
brought her many parts as titled ladies; even in comedy and pastoral poetry.
old age Ellen delighted in spreading wild stories
about her well-bred sister. In 1892 Marion thanigratha In the Crow Indian tribes of
created the part of Mrs Erlynne in Wilde’s North America, a class of designated fools.
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and in 1902 the Their traditional comic instrument was a
role of Susan Throssel in J. M. Barrie’s Quality tortoiseshell rattle. Much of their humour
Street. At 64 she played the aristocratic Mrs involved satirizing the White man through
Higgins in a revival of Shaw’s Pygmalion. such antics as riding backwards, shooting arrows
over their shoulders, etc. They also mimicked
Marion retired in 1923, owing to arthritis.
the drunken White man and his inept
Florence Terry, known as Floss or Flossie
encounters with nature: when one of the
to the family, was considered the happiest and
thanigratha forded a stream, he would carefully
kindest of the sisters. She began acting as a
roll up one trouser leg and then hop across on
child and later played a supporting role to the other leg.
Ellen’s Portia in The Merchant of Venice. She
would also stand in for Ellen and Marion THE Theatre in Health Education. A British
when required. Critics expected her to become movement in which companies travel to
a star, but Florence had little ambition and schools, colleges, and universities to present
502 Theatre, the

dramas with health-education messages. The permanent home (see ODÉON, THÉÂTRE
subjects have included AIDS, drugs, and NATIONAL DE L’).
smoking. Funding comes from fees as well as The Théâtre de l’Europe was established as
from private and government sources. West a symbol of Europe’s common cultural
Midland companies, including Birmingham’s heritage. Major theatre companies from the
Theatre in Health Education Trust, charge no member states of the EU contribute
fees because they are financed by the regional productions, which tour the larger cities of
health authority. The Contagious Theatre Europe and overseas. The Théâtre’s first
Company (now defunct) was funded totally offering was a production of THE TEMPEST,
by Femidom, the manufacturer of female directed by Strehler himself, which eventually
condoms. See also TIE. toured as far as the Olympic Art Festival in Los
Angeles. The director won great praise for
Theatre, the Britain’s first public theatre, turning Shakespeare’s play into a story about
built in Shoreditch, London, in 1576 the theatre, transforming the character of
(sometimes called “the most significant date in Prospero into a director-magician who creates
the history of English drama”). It was situated all the characters and the dramatic illusions
just outside the City limits, a little to the north of the storm, etc. Strehler’s subsequent
of the present London Wall. This was to avoid productions for the Théâtre de l’Europe
the jurisdiction of the Puritan authorities, included works by Strindberg, Corneille, and
who were strongly opposed to the project. Lessing.
The Theatre was constructed by the actor In 1990 the original concept of the
James BURBAGE and played host to such early Théâtre de l’Europe was given new
theatrical companies as LEICESTER’S MEN, the institutional form in the Union des Théâtres
Queen’s Men, and the CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN de l’Europe (UTE), an alliance of publicly
(which included Richard Burbage and supported theatre companies from across the
Shakespeare amongst its members). The continent. There are currently 23 members,
audience, who paid one penny for standing including Britain’s Royal Shakespeare
room, had a wide choice of entertainments Company. Its functions include sponsoring
on different nights. Straight theatrical international theatre festivals, coproductions,
performances had to compete with swordplay, and translation work.
athletics, and bear-baiting.
Théâtre des Nations A major
In 1597 the lease on the land on which subsidized theatre festival first organized in
the Theatre stood ran out and the landlord, 1954 in Paris by the INTERNATIONAL THEATRE
Giles Alleyn, refused to grant a new one. INSTITUTE, as a summer season of works by
Accordingly, on the night of 28 December foreign companies. A. M. Julien directed the
1598, a number of conspirators led by Richard festival at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt (now
Burbage dismantled part of the building and the Théâtre de la Ville). In 1957 alone, 16
carried the timbers across London to a new site companies performed in nine languages;
on Bankside, south of the Thames. Relying on between 1955 and 1965 companies from 50
an obscure clause in the lease to protect countries appeared. The French actor and
themselves from the remonstrances of the irate director Jean-Louis BARRAULT took over its
Alleyn, they used these timbers to build the management in 1965; three years later the
largest playhouse in Elizabethan England, the festival was disrupted by the événements of May
GLOBE THEATRE. and June 1968, leading to its suspension (and
The Theatre, or what remained of it, was to Barrault’s dismissal from the management
never used again for drama; it was eventually of the ODÉON theatre). The festival has since
pulled down. been revived irregularly in other countries. The
organization produces its own journal Théâtre:
Théâtre de l’Europe An organization
drame, musique, danse, and also helped to
established in 1983 by the European found the International Association of Theatre
Parliament at the urging of the Italian director Technicians.
Giorgio STREHLER, director of the Piccolo
Teatro della Città di Milano. Strehler was Theatre Guild The New York
appointed head of the new body, which was production company founded in 1918 by
given the Odéon Theatre in Paris as a Lawrence Langner (1890–1962) to provide
 Théâtre Libre 503

theatregoers with the best of European and US theatre-in-the-round A form of

drama. It was based at the Garrick Theatre staging that places the acting area in the centre
until 1925, when a string of successes of the theatre with the audience on all sides. It
prompted a move to its own Guild Theatre. In provides an intimate atmosphere but creates
the 1920s the Guild helped to establish the technical problems with lighting, sound, and
international reputation of George Bernard the movements of actors. Although theatre-in-
SHAW. After staging the world premiere of the-round is often considered a modern
Shaw’s Heartbreak House (1920), the Guild development, this was the earliest way of
acted as his US agent and went on to produce staging drama, being used in open-air and
15 more of his plays, including world street presentations. After centuries during
premieres of Back to Methuselah (1922), Saint which the actors and the auditorium were
Joan (1923), The Apple Cart (1929), and Too separated by the PROSCENIUM ARCH, some
True To Be Good (1932). companies felt the need to be released from
Other European plays produced during the this confinement. In the 1930s the Soviet
early years included Ferenc Molnár’s Liliom director Nikolai Okhlopov introduced theatre-
(1921), Leonid Andreyev’s He Who Gets in-the-round for his experimental Realistic
Slapped (1922), and Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt Theatre. In 1937 Britain’s Robert Atkins, who
(1923). The Guild also presented work by ran the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park for
Tolstoy, Strindberg, Chekhov, and Marlowe. over 30 years, presented Shakespeare in the
The company was equally important in round in the Ring, Blackfriars.
developing the careers of contemporary US America’s first permanent theatre-in-the-
playwrights. In 1928 it produced Marco round was the Penthouse Theatre on the
Millions (1928) by Eugene O’NEILL, who University of Washington campus in Seattle,
maintained a long association with the which opened in 1940. The off-Broadway
company after his rise to fame. It also gave CIRCLE-IN-THE-SQUARE opened in 1951 in
crucial early encouragement to the Pulitzer Sheridan Square, and the ARENA STAGE in
Prize-winners Maxwell Anderson, Robert Washington, DC, opened in 1961. This form
Sherwood, and William Saroyan. of staging became a familiar part of US
Amongst the famous actors the Guild university drama during the 1960s and 1970s,
nurtured were Helen HAYES, the Russian largely because of the scope it gave for free
actress Alla NAZIMOVA, and Lynn Fontanne interaction between actors and audience.
and her husband Alfred Lunt (see LUNTS, THE), British examples of permanent theatres-in-
who appeared together (for only the second the-round include the New Victoria Theatre in
time) in the Guild’s 1924 production of Newcastle-under-Lyme, the Stephen Joseph
Molnár’s The Guardsman. Theatre in Scarborough, and Manchester’s
In musical theatre, the Guild made an Royal Exchange Theatre. Many other venues
outstanding contribution by producing have flexible staging. An innovative offshoot of
Gershwin’s PORGY AND BESS (1935) and theatre-in-the-round has been the PROMENADE
by bringing together Richard Rodgers and production, in which the audience remains
Oscar Hammerstein to create the innovative standing and accompanies the actors from one
OKLAHOMA! (1943). acting area to another.
In 1950 financial pressures obliged the Théâtre Libre A private theatre
Guild to sell its theatre to the American founded in Paris in 1887 by André Antoine
National Theatre and Academy (ANTA). It (1858–1943) to present contemporary works
then went into a long slow decline: although of NATURALISM. Antoine, who was much
effectively moribund from the mid 1970s, it influenced by the work of IBSEN, produced the
was not officially wound up until 1996. first French version of Ghosts at the theatre,
The company’s ‘Theatre Guild on the Air’ playing the role of Oswald Alving himself.
presented the nation with distinguished radio Other Ibsen plays were produced, as well as
and television play productions from 1945 to works by Hauptmann and Strindberg, and
1963. adaptations of Zola’s naturalistic novels. The
Theatre in Education See TIE. Théâtre Libre became a rallying point for the
‘plays of ideas’ of young French playwrights
Theatre in Health Education See such as Georges de Porto-Riche (1849–1930),
THE. Henri Lavedan (1859–1940), and Eugène
504 Theatre Museum

Brieux (1858–1932). It was not a great politically radical productions intended to

financial success and closed in 1896. See also expose the social divisions in modern France.
COMÉDIE ROSSE. “Our job,” Planchon has said, “is to keep the
wound open.” In 2002 he was succeeded as
Theatre Museum A London museum head of the TNP by Christian Schiuretti.
that opened in Covent Garden in 1987 to
house materials relating to drama, music hall, Theatre of Fact See DOCUMENTARY
opera, ballet, circus, the puppet theatre, and THEATRE.
even pop music. The Victoria and Albert
Museum created the collection in 1974, when Theatre of Satire A theatre in Moscow
materials of the British Theatre Museum that became noted for its avant-garde staging
Association were transferred to the V&A to in the 1950s. It opened in 1924 with a series
join those already held. of revues and subsequently produced works of
Until 2007 the museum maintained a satire and comedy under Nicolai Gorchakov.
permanent exhibition on the history of the In 1954 Valentin Pluchek created a sensation
theatre from the 18th century onwards, by staging MAYAKOVSKY’s The Bedbug and The
galleries for temporary exhibitions, research Bathhouse in a formalist manner similar to that
and reading facilities, and a 70-seat theatre. of V. E. MEYERHOLD, who had been officially
The items on view included playbills, denounced under Stalin. Pluchek became
programmes, scripts, costumes (including artistic director of the theatre in 1957.
those of the Diaghilev Ballet), theatrical The Theatre of Satire’s resident company
paintings and engravings, props, and stage transferred to a larger theatre in the 1960s, a
designs. Special exhibits included the Hinkins move that reflected their success.
Collection of Toy Theatre sheets and the
Anthony Hippisley Coxe Collection of circus Théâtre Panique See ARRABAL,
FERNANDO.
materials.
Although a popular attraction, the Theatre Royal A title chiefly associated
museum closed to the public in January 2007, with two London theatres, DRURY LANE and
when the V&A declined to renew the lease. COVENT GARDEN; it reflects the granting of
Most of the collections were transferred to the Letters Patent to their companies by Charles II
V&A in 2008–09. in 1662 (see PATENT THEATRES). A third
Théâtre National Populaire (TNP) London theatre, the HAYMARKET, adopted the
The government-supported French National title when it was awarded a patent in 1760.
People’s theatre. The original organization Many provincial British theatres later took the
of this name, founded in 1920 by Firmin name Theatre Royal, notably those in Bath,
Gémier, occupied premises in the Paris suburb Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
of Chaillot. When he died in 1933, the theatre and York. The Theatre Royal, Stratford East,
lay dormant until Jean VILAR, who had was for 20 years (1953–73) the home of Joan
founded the Avignon Festival, reestablished it Littlewood’s THEATRE WORKSHOP.
as ‘a public service’ in 1951. Vilar introduced
Theatres Act See LICENCE.
a number of radical innovations, such as
dispensing with the curtain, footlights, and theatre time A phrase alluding to the
painted scenery. The TNP’s administrator, tendency of stage managers to keep backstage
Jean Rouvet, also abolished evening dress and clocks running at least five minutes fast, as a
tipping. safeguard against lateness.
Under Vilar the TNP performed a mixed
repertoire of French classics, Shakespeare, and théâtre total A theory of theatrical
such modern works as Brecht’s Mother Courage technique that gained widespread currency in
and Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. He was Europe after World War II. According to this
succeeded in 1963 by the actor Georges theory, responsibility for all matters of
Wilson, who faced dwindling audiences. In interpretation and artistic control lies solely
1972 the company’s title was transferred to with the director (contrast COLLECTIVE
Roger PLANCHON’s subsidized provincial CREATION). Sometimes the director’s influence
company at Villeurbanne, near Lyon. This has even been extended to the text itself; Jean-
has since toured nationally with a series of Louis BARRAULT, one of the best-known
 theatrum mundi 505

advocates of théâtre total, often had a hand in was really a child, and not, as some alleged, a
creating the scripts of his productions. midget he replied:
Theatre Workshop An experimental Child! Why, Sir, when I was a very
left-wing drama group founded in Kendal in young actor in the York company, that
1945 by a group of actors dissatisfied with the little creature kept an inn at Tadcaster
mainstream theatre. From 1953 the Workshop and had a large family of children.
was based at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, Theatrical Syndicate An organization
London, with Joan LITTLEWOOD as artistic of US theatrical managers that held a
director, Gerald Raffles as general manager, monopoly on productions in the early 20th
and Ewan McColl (Littlewood’s husband) as
century. Formed by a group of businessmen in
writer or adapter of many of the group’s
1896, it took advantage of the country’s new
productions. Theatre Workshop sought to
railway system to book travelling troupes into
revitalize the British theatre with challenging
venues that had once been dominated by local
adaptations of the classics and new works
STOCK COMPANIES. The association began to
dealing with working-class issues. Many of
exert a stranglehold when Charles Frohman
these, including Brendan Behan’s The Quare
arranged a cooperative agreement between the
Fellow (1956) and Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of
booking agency of Marc Klaw and Abraham
Honey (1958), later transferred to London’s
Erlanger and two groups that controlled
West End. In 1961 Littlewood left the group,
disillusioned by the dilution of the radical theatres throughout the east and west.
content of its output as a result of the pressure Performers were required to sign exclusive
for commercial success. She did, however, contracts that dictated the time and place of
return to direct the occasional production, bookings. Within seven years, most of the
notably the musical OH, WHAT A LOVELY WAR! important productions in New York and the
(1963). She eventually left the UK in 1975 to regions were controlled by the Syndicate.
work in France; the Workshop disbanded soon This dominance continued for about 16
afterwards. years and was only broken by the emergence of
a new national monopoly. Performers, such as
Theatrical Phenomenon, the Billing the US actress Minnie Fiske and France’s
for the 8-year-old child actress Miss Mudie, Sarah Bernhardt, began to object to the
whose performance in 1805 at Covent Garden Syndicate’s rough treatment, as did David
in the adult role of Miss Peggy in The Country BELASCO, Frohman’s former stage manager,
Girl has been called “the most imperfect who owned his own Broadway theatre. This
performance ever witnessed on a London encouraged the SHUBERT BROTHERS, Sam, Lee,
stage”. The precocious Miss Mudie, who had and Jacob, to build up their own chain of
received rave reviews in the provinces, enraged theatres, which, by 1913, had twice the
a tough London audience when she attempted number of the Syndicate. Three years later,
to play the ludicrously inappropriate role of the Syndicate disbanded.
wife and mistress with the otherwise adult cast.
She was tiny for her age and theatregoers theatrum mundi A type of miniature
found the love scenes she played with the actor theatre that was used to recreate current
John Brunton either absurd or distasteful. events, especially military battles and natural
Hissing and cries of “Off! Off!” resulted in disasters, in the early 19th century. The
Miss Mudie stopping the play, coming forward figures, which were operated by strings, could
to confront the audience, and complaining: be moved backwards and forwards along a
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have done nothing to track through a wing-and-border set. In
offend you, and as for those who are sent here Britain, a well-known example was Brown’s
to hiss me, I will be much obliged to you to Theatre of Arts, which toured fairs from 1830
turn them out.” When a further plea from the to 1840 presenting scenes of Napoleon’s
manager Charles Kemble (see KEMBLE FAMILY) campaigns. The theatrum mundi was especially
fell on deaf ears, an adult actress, Miss Searle, popular in Germany. Goethe is known to
was substituted; nevertheless the uproar have possessed one, while a popular venue in
continued and the evening ended in chaos. the Luisenstrasse, Berlin, presented such
Kemble was not above enjoying the furore attractions as ‘The Battle of Schleswig-
generated by the small girl. When asked if she Holstein’.
506 Theoric Fund

Theoric Fund In ancient Athens, a state musicians sit upstage centre and are joined by
grant made to poor citizens to allow them to actors who sing when they are not performing.
attend the theatre during the DIONYSIA. This Accompaniment is by harmonium, kurukuzhal
small financial assistance was introduced (a wind instrument), hand drums, and
during the rule of Pericles. After being cymbals.
suspended by the Peloponnesian War, it was
reinstituted in 394 BC and continued until 338 Thespis (6th century BC) Greek poet,
BC.
playwright, and chorus leader who is
traditionally considered the founder of Western
Thérèse Raquin A play by Émile Zola, acting. According to legend, he was the first
based on his naturalistic novel (1867) of the performer to separate himself from the CHORUS,
same name. It was first performed in 1873, thereby introducing an element of dialogue to
setting a fashion for theatrical NATURALISM the choric lyric (see also BACCHUS). A native of
that spread throughout Europe. It was seen in Icaria in Attica, Thespis won the prize at the
London in 1891 and subquently revived as first contest for tragedies at the DIONYSIA in
Thou Shalt Not in 1938 in London and Thérèse 534 BC. None of his works is extant.
in 1945 in New York. The term thespian, used as both an
The story is set in Paris. Mme Raquin is adjective and a noun, came into use in the
grieving for her son, whom she believes to have early 19th century to refer to actors and the
been killed in a boating accident; in fact, he acting profession. Amateur companies often
was drowned by his wife Thérèse and her lover, used the word in their titles, and a Victorian
the painter Laurent. With Mme Raquin’s journal of the theatre was called Theatrical
approval they marry, but she overhears them Times, a Weekly Magazine of Thespian
discussing the murder and suffers a paralysing Biography. The term, which is sometimes
stroke. Overcome by guilt, Thérèse and abbreviated to thesp, is now mainly used
Laurent accuse one another of instigating the facetiously.
crime; the animosity so aroused destroys their
Thieves’ Carnival (Le Bal des voleurs)
love. Mme Raquin recovers sufficiently to
An early play by Jean ANOUILH, later classified
explain that she did not denounce them earlier
by the author as one of his pièces roses, or
because she wished to see them suffer. Their
romantic light comedies. It was first performed
response is to commit suicide in front of her.
in 1938 in Paris and first seen in English
Therukoothu (Tamil: street play) A translation in 1952. The director, André
traditional theatrical genre of south India, Barsacq (1909–73), was so impressed by the
popular mainly among the rural and urban potential shown by the young playwright that
lower classes in the state of Tamil Nadu. Its he chose to direct most of Anouilh’s works for
origins are obscure. The most acclaimed troupe the next 10 years.
is the Raghava Thambiran Company, named In the play Lady Hurf willingly allows
after its founding member. three confidence tricksters into her home
The plays, which are presented in Tamil, disguised as Spanish grandees. After an
are improvised around stories from the Puranas. appropriate amount of suspicion and confusion,
They are performed in any open space, the two of them develop romances with her nieces.
acting area being designated by tall bamboo thinking part Amongst actors, an ironic
posts with colourful banners stretched between. term for a role with no lines.
Actors wear skirts of cloth and grass, crowns,
colourful ornaments, and blue and red make- This Happy Breed A patriotic play by
up; heroes have waxed moustaches. Noël COWARD, sentimentally extolling the
The nine-hour entertainment begins with a values of the British middle class, from which
religious procession. The drama is explained by he himself had sprung. “You must never, never
the kattiakaran, a stage manager who also forget your roots,” he once told a producer.
performs comic antics. The actors dance to The work was originally scheduled to open
express emotion or to represent such action as with PRESENT LAUGHTER in 1939 but the plays
a battle. After the performance members of the were postponed when Coward, who intended
audience join the company in walking across to star in both, took an intelligence job on the
hot coals to demonstrate their faith. outbreak of World War II. The two plays were
About half of the performance is sung. The finally given a brief run at the Haymarket in
 Three Sisters 507

1943, after which they toured the provinces overseas tours. In 1963 she was called out of
with the original cast of Coward, Joyce Carey, retirement by Laurence Olivier to appear in
Judy Campbell, and Dennis Price. Uncle Vanya, the first production of the
The plot provides an episodic history of a National Theatre company. Her last
lower middle-class family in the London performance, as one of the murderous old
suburb of Clapham from 1919 to 1939. Frank women in Arsenic and Old Lace, was given at
and Ethel Gibbons share a house with Frank’s the age of 84.
unmarried sister Sylvia, Ethel’s mother, and
their children Reg, Queenie, and Vi. The play Threepenny Opera, The A musical
deals mainly with the love affairs and marriages drama by Bertolt BRECHT and Kurt Weill. The
of the three children, and ends with Frank and play was first performed in 1928 at the Theater
Ethel moving into a flat with Queenie’s am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, where it ran
illegitimate son. for 4000 performances. Brecht derived the plot
from John Gay’s THE BEGGAR’S OPERA, but
Thorndike, Dame Sybil (1882–1976) used it to emphasize the corrupting effect
Versatile British actress, who played parts of bad social conditions and to satirize
ranging from Shaw’s Saint Joan to the fool in contemporary German society. Hitler banned
King Lear. John Gielgud described her as it in 1933, the year that it flopped in New
“lively, passionate, argumentative.” She was York. Duke Ellington later wrote a version for
created a DBE in 1931.
Broadway entitled Beggar’s Holiday (1946).
The daughter of a clergyman, Sybil began
Brecht’s original was finally performed
to perform as a child in family plays that she
successfully off-Broadway in 1954 and ran for
and her brother, Russell, had written. Her
2611 performances; the first London
original ambition of becoming a professional
pianist had to be abandoned when she was production followed in 1956 at the Royal
found to suffer from weak wrists. Sybil Court Theatre. The musical’s opening song
subsequently trained for the stage at Ben ‘Mack the Knife’ became an international hit.
Greet’s Academy, making her professional Three Sisters Anton CHEKHOV’s
debut with his company, the Pastoral Players, poignant drama of lost illusions and thwarted
in 1904. During her three years with Greet, hopes. It was first presented in 1901 at the
she performed 112 parts. MOSCOW ART THEATRE; the cast included
She married the actor-director Lewis Chekhov’s actress wife, Olga Knipper-
Casson in 1908 while performing with Annie Chekhova, and STANISLAVSKY, who also
Horniman’s company in Manchester; they
directed. The play was not seen in London
appeared together in many plays over a span of
until 1926. A highly acclaimed modern
55 years. In 1914 she joined the OLD VIC under
production was Peter Ashmore’s 1951 version,
Lilian Baylis; during the four years she spent
starring Ralph Richardson and Margaret
with the company she built up a reputation as
one of the foremost tragic actresses of her day. Leighton. In 1991 the sisters were played for
Celebrated roles included Hecuba in The the first time by three members of the same
Trojan Women (1919) and the title role of family – Vanessa REDGRAVE, her sister Lynn,
Medea (1920). and Vanessa’s daughter Natasha Richardson.
In 1924 she created the title character of The story concerns the three Prozorov
Shaw’s SAINT JOAN, a part the author had sisters, Olga, Masha, and Irina, who live a
written especially for her. Of the role she later dreary provincial life with their brother in a
said, “I felt I’d reached something I could large country house in the north of Russia. All
never reach again, and I was just so grateful three reminisce wistfully about their happy
that the audience was there night after night to childhood in Moscow and talk of the great day
see me do it.” when they will return. The arrival of a military
During World War II, she and her unit seems to offer a way out of their constricted
husband took Shakespeare and Greek classical existence, but the lieutenant Irina hopes to
drama to the mining villages of Wales; after marry is killed in a duel and Masha’s love affair
one performance of Medea an elderly miner with a married officer ends when the troops
told her, “It kindles a fire.” In her later years, move on. Meanwhile Olga is promoted to
she created outstanding portraits of elderly headmistress of the local school and abandons
women and undertook many demanding her dream of moving to Moscow. Despite the
508 throwline

failure of all their hopes, the sisters face the drowned in a shipwreck a century earlier and is
future with determination. forced to reconsider his attitudes. The implied
IRINA A time will come when people critique of US isolationism is obvious.
will understand what it was all for, The London production was performed at
what the purpose was of all this the height of the Blitz. When the air-raid
suffering, and what was hidden from warnings sounded, Redgrave would stop the
us will be hidden no more. In the drama, walk to the front of the stage and offer
meantime, though, we have to live… to entertain the audience “in a rather more
basic manner” until the all-clear. He would
throwline A thin rope used to join then give rousing renditions of music-hall and
together FLATS and other parts of a set. The wartime songs, such as ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ and
usual US term is lashline. ‘We’re Going to Hang Out the Washing on
the Siegfried Line’. These performances were
thrust stage A stage that extends soon the talk of London, and members of the
forwards into the auditorium, with seating on audience from other theatres began to swell the
three sides. This arrangement, also called an ranks of the Globe whenever a siren sounded.
open stage, can improve the interaction For many it was a disappointment when the
between the actors and the audience. It performance of Thunder Rock resumed.
resembles the platform stage of the Elizabethan
and Restoration theatre, thereby permitting Ticket-of-Leave Man, The A
more authentic revivals of work from the early contemporary melodrama by the British
modern period. playwright Tom TAYLOR, which featured the
first stage detective and the first set of a
thunder. to steal one’s thunder London restaurant. Adapted from Léonard by
This idiom, meaning to reduce the effect of a Edouard Brisbarre and Eugène Nus, it was first
person’s words or actions by forestalling them, performed in 1863 and had a considerable
originated from an incident involving the influence on later writers of melodrama.
English playwright and critic John Dennis (see The story involves Robert Brierly, a naive
APPIUS). Dennis was the inventor of the young Lancastrian, who arrives in London and
thunder-run, a device in which cannon balls falls in with the low-life character James
were rolled down wooden troughs to create a Dalton. Brierly is arrested and imprisoned for
sound effect for thunder (see SOUND EFFECTS). innocently passing counterfeit money given to
He introduced the thunder-run in his him by Dalton. After serving a year, he receives
drama Appius and Virginia, which was produced a ‘ticket of leave’ for good conduct. Despite
at Drury Lane in 1709 but was taken off after losing his job and sinking into poverty, he
a few performances. Soon afterwards, while resists Dalton’s attempts to lure him back into
watching Macbeth at the same theatre, Dennis crime. Instead, he works with Detective
heard his thunder-maker in action. He leaped Hawkshaw to bring Dalton to justice.
up, faced the audience, and yelled, “The villains!
That’s my thunder they’re using. They won’t Tidings Brought to Mary, The
play my play, but they will steal my thunder!” (L’Annonce faite à Marie) A poetic drama in
the style of a medieval mystery play by the
Thunder Rock An allegorical play by the French poet and playwright Paul Claudel
US dramatist Robert Ardrey. It was first (1868–1955). Often considered his best work
performed in 1939 in New York, where the for the stage, it was first performed in 1912 in
GROUP THEATRE’s production was a notable Paris, then seen in London two years later in a
flop. The first London production, which production by the Pioneer Players under Edith
starred Michael REDGRAVE, was much Craig (see CRAIG FAMILY). It was not produced
more successful; it opened in 1940 at The in America until 1923, when its complex
Neighbourhood, a fringe theatre in Kensington, structure provided an opportunity for
before transferring to the Globe Theatre for a experimental staging.
long run. The plot concerns Charleston, a The play is based on Claudel’s earlier work
disillusioned war correspondent who has La Jeune Fille Violaine, (1898). It involves
become a lighthouse keeper to escape from Violaine, an innocent young woman who
humanity and the coming World War. One contracts leprosy after miraculously curing a
stormy night he encounters the ghosts of those victim of the disease.
 Time and Time Again 509

TIE Theatre in Education. A British of Helen. However, when Demokos falsely

movement, founded in 1965 at the BELGRADE claims to have been attacked by the Greek Ajax
THEATRE, Coventry, in which companies were this further inflames Trojan passions and war
established specifically to perform in schools. becomes inevitable.
In the late 1960s and 1970s the use of drama
as an educational tool spread throughout the Tilley, Vesta (Matilda Alice Victoria
country and equivalent movements were Powles, 1864–1952) The most famous male
established in America, Canada, and Australia. impersonator in British music hall. She made
The British companies, which receive her provincial debut at the age of four and her
funding from local education authorities, use first London appearance ten years later as ‘The
drama to illuminate subjects ranging from Great Little Tilley’, singing such songs as
social history to racism and the dangers of drug ‘Following in Father’s Footsteps’ and ‘Near the
abuse. They also provide an introduction to Workhouse Door’.
the theatre itself. Audience participation is Although famous for her tailored masculine
usually encouraged and students are often attire, she sang such hits as ‘After the Ball’ and
involved in making decisions about the ‘Jolly Good Luck to the Girl Who Loves a
content and staging of the play. Soldier’ in a very feminine soprano voice. Well
TIE has also provided an outlet for new known for her impersonations of soldiers, she
writing: Willy Russell’s hugely successful helped to recruit during World War I by
musical BLOOD BROTHERS was originally a donning uniform to sing ‘The Army of Today’s
Theatre-in-Education production. All Right’. She also performed as a principal
Although many TIE companies closed boy in pantomimes, usually at Drury Lane.
when their funding was withdrawn in the After her retirement in 1920 she spent the
1980s and 1990s, others continue, including remaining 30 years of her life as a charity
the well-known London outfits Half Moon, worker.
Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s
Theatre, and Theatre Venture. Provincial Time and the Conways A play by J. B.
PRIESTLEY, published in 1937 with I HAVE BEEN
companies include the Take-Away Theatre
HERE BEFORE as Two Time Plays. They were
Company in Scotland and the Anna Purna
Indian Dance Company in West Yorkshire. both performed that year in London at the
Some of Britain’s best-known theatres, Duchess Theatre. The story centres upon the
including the National Theatre and the middle-class Conway family. In the first act,
Theatre Royal, Stratford East, also do set in 1919, the widowed Mrs Conway and her
educational work. See also THE. six children gather to celebrate the 21st birthday
of Kay, one of the daughters, who aspires to
Tiger at the Gates (La Guerre de Troie become a novelist. The atmosphere is one of
n’aura pas lieu). A play by Jean GIRAUDOUX, relief at the end of the World War and great
first performed in 1935 in Paris. It did not hope for the future. The second act jumps to
open in London until 1955, when it was seen 1937 to compare these hopes with reality: the
at the Apollo Theatre in a translation by characters variously face money problems,
Christopher Fry. Michael Redgrave, who disappointed ambitions, and failed marriages,
starred as Hector, gave a performance while one of the daughters has died. In the last
described by Kenneth Tynan as “a monumental scene Kay’s brother, Alan, explains his theory
piece of acting”. He went on to play the role at of time as eternally present, rather than linear,
New York’s Plymouth Theatre, receiving the and this helps her to accept their changing
New York Drama Critics’ Award for 1955. world. The third act returns to the party in
The play, which is set during the Trojan 1919 and shows us the seeds of the family’s
War, explores the conflict between pacifism future troubles in their complacency and class
and patriotism. Hector, Troy’s greatest hero, arrogance.
returns from war intent on keeping the peace.
However, he soon learns that the Greeks, Time and Time Again A comedy by
under Odysseus, are coming to try to force his Alan AYCKBOURN, first performed in 1971 at
brother, Paris, to release the abducted Helen. Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-
Although the populace, urged on by the war- Round and subsequently transferring to the
mongering poet Demokos, cries out for battle Comedy Theatre, London. The play, set in a
Hector negotiates with Odysseus for the return suburban family garden, involves Anna and her
510 Time of Your Life, The

husband Graham, who have inherited her on the seashore. Alcibiades takes the city and
mother’s house. Unfortunately the property is offers peace.
occupied by her eccentric brother Leonard,
who gardens endlessly and talks to the resident Tingeltangel A type of cheap music hall
gnome. When the sports-loving Peter and his in Berlin in the late 19th and early 20th
fiancée Joan come to visit, Graham makes centuries. The most successful included the
several passes at her, only to see Joan fall for Singspielhalle, the Kuhstall, the Silberhalle and
the unworldly Leonard. Elysium, and the Klosterstiebel. The name
came from the title of a comic song made
Time of Your Life, The The second famous by the performer Tange at the Triangel
play by the US dramatist William SAROYAN, Theater. The entertainment, designed for an
first performed in 1939 in New York by the audience of male students and workers,
Theatre Guild. The production won the New consisted mainly of ribald songs performed by
York Drama Critics’ Award and the 1940 female singers to piano accompaniment. The
Pulitzer Prize, which Saroyan refused. A 1948 audience would sing along and goosestep
filmed version starred James Cagney and backwards and forwards around the small stage.
William Bendix.
Tinker Bell In J. M. Barrie’s children’s
The play is set in a waterfront bar in San
play PETER PAN (1904), a female fairy who
Francisco. The regulars are a crowd of lovable
accompanies Peter and the Darling children on
eccentrics whose conversation reflects Saroyan’s
their adventures. When she ‘dies’, the audience
belief in the value of the weak, poor, and is required to declare its belief in fairies in
obscure members of society. order to bring her back to life.
Timon of Athens A little-known tragedy tiring house or tire house The
by SHAKESPEARE, written between 1604 and wardrobe room in an Elizabethan theatre.
1607. No performances are recorded until The name derives from ‘attire’. The theatre
1678, when Thomas Shadwell presented employee in charge of the wardrobe was called
an adaptation entitled The Man-Hater. the tireman; besides looking after costumes,
Shakespeare’s version does not seem to have he often provided stools for members of the
been revived in London until 1851, when audience and attended to the lights.
Samuel Phelps produced it at Sadler’s Wells
Theatre. Some scholars believe that the loose ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore John FORD’s
plot, uneven writing, and thin characterization violent tragedy of incestuous love, first
indicate that the surviving play is a draft or performed in 1627 in London. The play
incomplete version. presents a largely sympathetic picture of the
More recently, Paul Scofield won acclaim doomed relationship between Giovanni and
for his performance as the misanthropic his sister Annabella. When Annabella weds her
Timon in a 1965 Stratford production, while suitor Soranzo, he is enraged to find that she is
Peter BROOK chose the play as the first full- already pregnant. On discovering that her
scale production for the International Centre brother was responsible, he invites Giovanni to
for Theatre Research in Paris (1970). a feast intending to kill him. Giovanni acts
The plot centres upon Timon, a rich first, however, killing his sister and returning
Athenian noble noted for his generous to the table with her heart impaled on his
benefactions. When his funds become depleted, dagger. He then slays Soranzo, upon which he
he asks his friends for help but they all turn is in turn killed by Soranzo’s followers.
him down. Stung by their ingratitude, he invites
Titania In Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER
them to a feast where the beautiful covered
NIGHT’S DREAM, the wife of OBERON and
dishes turn out to contain warm water. Timon Queen of the Fairies. The name was used by
turns his back on the city to become a Ovid in his Metamorphoses for Diana, Circe,
misanthropic hermit. While digging for roots and other female descendants of the Titans.
one day, he finds gold, which he gives to the
rebel general Alcibiades, who is about to lead Titus Andronicus SHAKESPEARE’s first
an army against Athens. The corrupt senators tragedy, a brutal and sometimes grotesque
visit Timon’s cave and beg him for help but he work featuring rape, cannibalism, multilation,
refuses. Soon afterwards he dies and is buried and numerous violent deaths. It was probably
 Toller, Ernst 511

first performed in 1592. Because of its featured in the PUNCH AND JUDY show since
crudeness, scholars have sometimes tried to the early 19th century. His name was probably
attribute the play to another author. It was not derived from the biblical story of Tobias, a
performed at Stratford until 1955, making it favourite subject for puppeteers, in which a
the last of Shakespeare’s works to be staged dog appears. Punch and Judy are usually
there; in a landmark production OLIVIER accompanied by a sprightly terrier wearing a
played the demented Titus with Peter BROOK ruff, sometimes with bells on. He sits on the
directing. Other modern directors to find ledge of the booth during the performance and
success with this difficult play include Deborah afterwards circulates amongst the audience to
Warner in 1987 and Lucy Bailey in 2006; the collect money in a small bag carried in his
latter’s gore-soaked production at Shakespeare’s mouth.
Globe became notorious for causing faintings (2) In America, a stock character in the
and even vomitings among the audience on a early 20th-century TENT SHOWs. Toby was a
nightly basis. naive country bumpkin with a freckled face
In the story, which is set in ancient Rome, and blacked-out front tooth, who wore a red
the emperor Saturninus and his wife Tamora wig, a calico shirt, and farmer’s working jeans.
determine to destroy the general Titus Despite his simplicity, he usually managed to
Andronicus. Tamora’s sons rape and maim his triumph over the sophisticated ‘city slicker’.
daughter, Lavinia, cutting off her hands and Eventually a female companion, Susie, was
tongue, and two of Titus’s sons are falsely added. The performer who played the role
condemned to death. In revenge, Titus kills needed considerable gymnastic abilities, because
Tamora’s sons and bakes them in a pie, which of the many comic falls involved. The part is
he serves to her and Saturninus. Titus then still played sporadically in rural areas.
kills his shamed daughter and Tamora before
being slain by Saturninus who, in turn, is togata In the ancient Roman theatre, a
killed by Titus’s remaining son. The play is type of FABULA that superseded the PALLIATA in
notorious for its grisly stage directions, which the 2nd century BC. The name came from toga,
include: the traditional garment of the Roman citizen.
Also known as the tabernaria, the genre had
Enter a messenger, with two heads and
fewer actors and simpler plots than the palliata;
a hand.
it was also more satirical, lampooning the
She takes the staff in her mouth and
urban lower classes in their everyday life.
guides it with her stumps.
The leading writer of the togata, with 44
Olivier, who was accident prone, once took a works to his credit, was Lucius Afranius
frightening backward fall down a flight of (2nd century BC), who is thought to be the
stairs during the play. He told Anthony first dramatist to introduce the subject of
Quayle that the worst thing about the role was homosexuality on stage. Other exponents
having to complain all the time: of the genre included Titus Quintius Atta
What you hate about Titus, he’s always (d. 77 BC), noted for his characterization of
going ‘oh, oh, oh, fancy them doing women, and Titinius (2nd century BC), who
that to me, oh, oh, oh.’ And how many was influenced by Menander. Only fragments
ways are there of saying ‘oh, oh’? of their comedies survive.
Tiv, the Nickname for the Tivoli Music toi toi toi! A good-luck phrase used in
Hall in the Strand, London. It was named the same way as the better known BREAK A
after the beer-hall that had previously stood on LEG!. It is current mainly among European
the site. The Tiv opened in 1890 but was actors and opera singers of all nationalities.
unsuccessful until Charles MORTON, the so- Suggestions as to its origins include (1) that it
called Father of the Halls, was hired to manage is a corruption of German Teufel, devil, and
it three years later. Under his direction it (2) that it is a polite substitute for the act of
became one of the country’s top music halls. spitting, which is a good-luck charm in many
When this type of entertainment waned, cultures.
however, the Tiv closed in 1914 and was
demolished to make way for a cinema. Toller, Ernst (1893–1939) German
playwright and poet, who pioneered
Toby (1) In Britain, the live dog that has EXPRESSIONISM in the theatre. His earliest and
512 Tollu Bommalu

most important plays were written during the Tom Thumb Originally, the tiny hero of
five years (1919–24) he spent in prison for an old nursery tale, which can be traced back
leading strikes and demonstrations in post- to the 16th century. Tom Thumb the Great, a
war Munich. The first of these works to be BURLESQUE by the novelist and dramatist
produced was Die Wandlung (Transfiguration), Henry Fielding, was first staged in London in
which was staged in Berlin in 1919. Based 1730. The full title was The Life and Death of
loosely on the events of Toller’s own life, Tom Thumb the Great; or, the Tragedy of
it depicts the evolution of an enthusiastic Tragedies. The tiny figure of Tom Thumb
volunteer soldier into a revolutionary pacifist. was used to mock the bombastic heroes of
Masse-Mensch (Man and the Masses), first seen contemporary tragedy and to satirize the prime
at the Volksbühne in 1920, showed working minister of the day, Sir Robert Walpole. Other
men rebelling against their condition of near- characters included Mr Noodle, Mr Doodle,
slavery. It was also one of the first modern Queen Dollaholla, and Mustacha. Tom
dramas to introduce the Sprechchor, or speaking becomes engaged to Princess Huncamunca but
chorus. after defeating his rival Lord Grizzle, he is
A number of Toller’s plays dealt with eaten by a cow. In the final 12 lines of the
historical subjects. The verse play Die play all remaining nine characters are killed,
Maschinenstürmer (The Machine Wreckers; including Tom’s ghost.
1922) explored the causes of the Luddite riots General Tom Thumb was the name given
of 1815, while Feuer aus den Kesseln (Draw the to the US DWARF Charles Sherwood Stratton
Fires!; 1930) depicted the 1917 Kiel mutiny (1838–83) when first exhibited by Phineas T.
that helped to spark the Bolshevik revolution. BARNUM. He was then around five years old
Another major work was Hoppla, wir leben! and less than two feet tall but eventually grew
(Hurrah, we Live!; 1927), staged in 1929 as to 40 inches. When in London he was
Hoppla! at the Gate Theatre, London. The summoned to Buckingham Palace by Queen
protagonist commits suicide when he discovers Victoria and mobbed by cheering crowds. He
that the former revolutionaries are now living married another US dwarf, Lavinia Warren, in
comfortable and satisfied lives. 1863.
When the Nazis took control in 1933,
Toller was driven into exile. He committed Tony Awards Awards given annually for
suicide in New York shortly after Germany’s excellence in the American theatre (primarily,
invasion of Czechoslovakia. but no longer exclusively, the Broadway
theatre). They were instituted in 1947 as the
Tollu Bommalu A popular form of Antoinette Perry Awards for Exellence in
shadow-puppet theatre in the southern Indian Theatre, Mrs Perry being the chair and
state of Andhra Pradesh. According to tradition
secretary of the American Theatre Wing,
it began in 200 BC, but evidence only dates
which presents the awards. The Tonys are
back to the 16th century. Stories are taken
regarded as the stage equivalent of the
from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the
film industry’s Oscars and an award (or
Puranas. The leather puppets have movable
nomination) can make a huge difference to the
parts; they are translucent and dyed with black,
commercial fortunes of a show. Awards are
red, and green pigments. More than one figure
currently given in 26 main categories and three
may be used for the same character.
special categories.
The puppeteers use thorns to pin the
figures onto a white screen stretched between Too True to be Good A play by George
two poles. The chief manipulator wears a set Bernard SHAW. One of his last works, it was
of bells on one ankle to jingle during the first performed in 1932 in Boston when Shaw
dance sequences. The improvised dialogue is was 76 years old. There is little plot. Instead,
interspersed with songs from classical and folk the characters, who include a thinly disguised
traditions as well as from Indian films. caricature of Lawrence of Arabia (see MEEK,
Performances last from four to eight hours; PRIVATE NAPOLEON ALEXANDER TROTSKY), take
the chief divisions are the introduction of part in lengthy debates about the virtues and
characters, songs sung in homage to Hindu vices of capitalism and the sorry moral state of
deities, a comic interlude between the drunken mankind.
Katikayata and his fat wife Bangavaka, and the
main drama. top drop See BORDER.
 Toys in the Attic 513

Torelli, Giacomo (1608–78) Italian its fortunes from the early 19th to the mid
architect and stage designer known as the 20th century. Although outlines of several
Great Magician because of the magical effects others were drawn up, A Touch of the Poet was
of his numerous inventions for the stage. the only play in the sequence to be completed
Torelli apparently installed the first ever set of before illness disease brought O’Neill’s writing
WINGS at the Teatro Farnese, while still a pupil career to an end.
of the theatre’s architect, Giambattista Aleotti.
From 1641 to 1645 he supervised the building touring company A theatre company
of the Teatro Novissimo in Venice, where he that travels to different venues, either with a
invented the CARRIAGE-AND-FRAME SYSTEM. single hit play or with a more varied repertory.
In 1645 Torelli moved to the Salle This may be on a set CIRCUIT within range of
du Petit-Bourbon in Paris to oversee the its home city or theatre, but often involves
production of opera. While there he created venturing into unknown territory. If the
various backstage mechanisms that helped to company is financially secure, it may be
launch the genre of the MACHINE PLAY. When accompanied by elaborate scenery and its own
the Salle du Petit-Bourbon was demolished in technicians. Touring is as old as the early
1660, most of Torelli’s stage machinery was Western theatre, being a feature of the
taken away and burned by a jealous rival, the 16th-century COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Before
court scene painter, Vigarani. West End plays came to rely upon tourists,
productions were often tried out on provincial
Torres Naharro, Bartolomé de tours before they were seen in the capital.
(c. 1485–c. 1524) One of Spain’s first Likewise, many West End hits would
important dramatists. He founded the comic subsequently tour the provinces rather than
tradition in the Spanish theatre (although his move to Broadway. In modern Britain touring
comedies were so bawdy they were banned by companies have proliferated with the decline
the Church) and wrote the first published of REPERTORY companies.
Renaissance theory of drama. Noël COWARD was a veteran tourer who
Torres Naharro was ordained as a young often squabbled with fellow actors on the road.
man and spent much of his adult life in service One of the worst incidents occurred early in
to noblemen in Italy. His plays were published his career, when he toured with Esme Wynn
in 1517 in one volume, Propalladia. In the Stoj and Arnold Raynor in Charlie’s Aunt.
preface he divided his plays into comedias a The producer, knowing that Coward was a
noticia, involving things “noted and seen in homosexual, insisted that he share a room with
true reality”, and comedias a fantasÍa, about the actress as if he shared with Raynor this
things “fantastic or feigned, which though not might give the company a bad name. Coward
true have the colour of truth”. His realistic and Stoj had their first row when he used her
works included Comedia soldadesca, concerning make-up; after several further disagreements,
a bragging Spanish captain, and Comedia she threw a punch at him backstage, knocking
tinellaria, about the lives of servants in an him to the floor just before his entrance in Act
Italian palace. An example of his fantastic plays III. Coward staggered on stage and afterwards
is Comedia Himenea, his most famous work; cornered Stoj in her dressing room, where the
based on LA CELESTINA by Fernando de Rojas, fist fight continued, with Coward getting
the piece foreshadows the later CLOAK-AND- much the worst of it. Only when Raynor
SWORD PLAY. dashed in and hit Stoj on the head with a
hairbrush did they all make up.
Touch of the Poet, A A play by the US
dramatist Eugene O’NEILL. It was written in Toys in the Attic A play by Lillian
about 1940 and first performed in 1957 in HELLMAN, first performed in 1950 in New
Stockholm. Kim Stanley and Helen Hayes York. A 1963 film version starred Geraldine
starred in the 1958 Broadway production, Page and Dean Martin. The drama is set in
while Jason Robards Jr won great acclaim New Orleans and concerns two middle-aged
in a 1977 revival. The story involves the spinsters, Carrie and Anna Berniers, who live
growing cultural gap between Con Melody, together in their old family home. For years
an immigrant, and his US-born son. they have gladly sent money to their prodigal
The drama was intended to be one of a younger brother Julian, believing that
nine-play cycle about the same family, tracing one day he will be a great success. They are
514 toy theatre

disconcerted when he suddenly arrives with a and sending a captured girl back to live with
new bride, $150,000 cash, and tickets for a Deianira as his mistress. Hoping to regain his
long-dreamed-of European holiday for the affection, Deianira sends him a shirt soaked in
sisters. Rather than being delighted, the what she believes to be a love potion; in fact, it
possessive Carrie is appalled at the prospect of is a deadly poison supplied by an enemy of
losing Julian and sets out to sabotage his new Heracles. When she learns the truth Deianira
happiness. In the process she uncovers the true kills herself. Finally Heracles arrives in mortal
source of Julian’s sudden wealth and the torment and dies.
insecurities of his wife, Lily. When Julian is Sophocles made the wronged wife Deianira
robbed and beaten, the sisters happily resume a moving and fascinating character, who has
their old routine of supporting him. been called “one of the most delicately beautiful
creations in literature”. By contrast the great
toy theatre A type of children’s play hero Heracles emerges as a somewhat inglorious
theatre that became very popular in the mid character. The Women of Trachis act as the
19th century. With their accurate replicas of chorus of the play.
contemporary sets and costumes, the toy
theatres are now a valuable source of Trafalgar Studios See WHITEHALL
information for researchers. The child THEATRE.
constructed the theatre by cutting out
tragedian An actor who specializes in
drawings from a sheet and mounting them on
tragic roles; the equivalent term for an actress
cardboard. Figures representing popular actors
is tragedienne. The term now has a somewhat
and actresses could then be drawn across the
old-fashioned or facetious ring. The leading
stage on metal slides. Simplified texts of well-
character in a STOCK COMPANY was called the
known plays were also available, so the child
Tragedian.
could present a complete performance.
The first toy theatre sheets were issued in tragedy A serious play with an unhappy
1811 by William West; between 1815 and ending. The word is often said to mean ‘goat-
1835 some 50 publishers are known to have song’ (Greek: tragos, goat; ode, song), although
existed. The sheets, available in penny-plain modern etymologists have disputed this.
and twopence-coloured versions, covered It was Aristotle who provided the classic
about 300 plays, including Boucicault’s The definition of tragedy, stating (in his Poetics)
Corsican Brothers and Pocock’s The Miller and that tragedy should move one “by pity and
His Men. The original blocks were being used terror” at the fall of a great person (see
to print sheets as recently as 1932. CATHARSIS):
Miniature theatres for children were also The plot ought to be so constructed
popular in Europe, especially in Germany, that, even without the aid of the eye,
Denmark, and Spain, but these only he who hears the tale told will thrill
reproduced juvenile drama. with horror and melt to pity at what
takes place.
trabeata See FABULA.
The genre developed in ancient Greece, where
Trachiniae (The Women of Trachis) A tragedies were expected to follow a fairly strict
tragedy by SOPHOCLES, first performed in form. Tragic protagonists were drawn only
about 420 BC in Athens. It shows the influence from deities, royalty, and the upper classes,
of EURIPIDES in its use of a Prologue and in the and their inevitable suffering and downfall was
reduced role given to the chorus; there are also brought about by a combination of fate and
specific similarities to the plot of MEDEA. their own HUBRIS. The three great authors of
Sophocles was criticized for using a plot in classical tragedy were AESCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES,
which one of the two main characters and EURIPIDES, all of whom wrote in the 5th
(Deianira) commits suicide two thirds of the century BC.
way through the play, and the other (Heracles, The rules of classical tragedy were
her husband) does not appear on stage until rediscovered at the Renaissance, as were many
after that event. of the Greek and Roman texts. The gory
The story begins with Deianira waiting tragedies of the Roman SENECA proved
patiently for Heracles to return from battle. particularly influential on the playwrights of
First, however, he ravages a city, killing its men the time. Typically, the tragedies of the
 trap 515

Elizabethan and Jacobean eras combined by the Jacobean and Caroline dramatists in
violent and sensational action with acute England. The last example of a romantic
psychological insight and intense poetry. The tragicomedy in English is probably Dryden’s
great tragedies of SHAKESPEARE are usually Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen (1667).
considered the pinnacle of world drama. In the Although it has disappeared as a distinct
17th century the Frenchmen CORNEILLE and genre, tragicomedy has arguably become the
RACINE led a return to the stricter Greek forms dominant mode of serious dramatic writing in
of tragedy. the 20th century. The works of CHEKHOV,
Thereafter the tradition of serious tragic O’CASEY, BRECHT, BECKETT, and PINTER could
writing declined, being largely displaced by all be described as tragicomic.
sentiment and MELODRAMA. It did not revive
until the late 19th century, when such writers transformation scene A sudden and
as IBSEN, STRINDBERG, and CHEKHOV managed spectacular change of scene in the English
PANTOMIME. It is usually effected using such
to combine the sombre themes and moral
seriousness of tragedy with a realistic depiction devices as FALLING FLAPs, RISE-AND-SINK
of contemporary life. Perhaps the only modern mechanisms, and transparent backcloths (see
TRANSPARENCY). The purpose is generally to
writer to attempt the classic tragic form was
the US dramatist Eugene O’NEILL. suggest a magical transformation, such as the
transportation of Aladdin’s castle by the
tragic carpet In the 17th-century sorceror Abanazer.
English theatre, a green baize cloth that was
transparency A piece of gauze, linen, or
traditionally spread on the dusty stage boards
other thin fabric that can be made to appear
during a tragedy to protect actors’ clothes
either transparent or opaque. If a backcloth
when their characters collapsed and died. The
made of such material is painted with a
practice, often mentioned in theatrical
transparent dye and lit from the front it
memoirs, continued into the 19th century.
appears to be a normal painted scene, but if lit
tragicomedy A genre that blends from behind the fabric becomes transparent,
elements of tragedy and comedy. Tragicomedies revealing whatever lies behind. If a transparency
tend to fall into two main categories; those in is gradually illuminated from behind, the
which a potentially tragic series of events is original scene fades or is supplemented by
resolved happily and those in which the comedy additional painting on the back. This can
has dark or bitter overtones. create such illusions as bare winter trees
Although the form can be traced back to blossoming in spring or a house suddenly
EURIPIDES and PLAUTUS, tragicomedy first catching on fire.
emerged as a recognizable genre in the The US stage designer Lee Simonson
Renaissance. In Spain, Fernando de Rojas’s (1888–1967) used transparencies to great effect
frequently staged dialogue novel LA CELESTINA in the original 1949 Broadway production of
(1499) was subtitled the Tragicomedia de Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
Calisto y Melibea, while in 16th-century Italy transpontine melodrama A
the term was applied to several plays by derogatory term for a crudely sensational play.
Giovanni Giraldi (see CINTHIO, IL). A number In 19th-century London the word transpontine,
of Shakespeare’s works – most notably, meaning ‘across a bridge’, was applied to the
perhaps, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, MEASURE MELODRAMAs produced on the south side of
FOR MEASURE, TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, and
the Thames at such theatres as the Old Vic and
CYMBELINE – are regularly described as
the Surrey. By the turn of the century, the label
tragicomedies. was applied to any sensational work; in 1901 a
Many PASTORAL works of the 16th and reviewer in The Scotsman wrote of “a new drama
17th centuries are essentially romantic strongly seasoned with transpontine flavour”.
tragicomedies. The first French tragicomedy,
Robert Garnier’s Bradamante, was published in trap An opening cut into the stage floor or
1582. Alexandre Hardy (c. 1575–c. 1632) scenery to allow actors to appear suddenly and
developed the genre in the early 17th century, dramatically on stage. They were often used
influencing his countrymen Molière and for the entrances and exits of ghosts in 19th-
Corneille, whose LE CID (1637) has been called century melodrama. The device made English
the perfect tragicomedy. He was also imitated actors internationally renowned for their
516 traveller, the

TRICKWORK. Traps are also used to raise and allow scenery to be changed while the action
lower stage equipment and for rapid scenery continued in front.
changes in pantomime.
Traps became established in the English Traveller Without Luggage The play
theatre in the late 17th century, the Drury that gave Jean ANOUILH his first great success.
Lane stage having several. It was not until the One of his melancholy pièces noires, it was
19th century, however, that the SLOTE and the first produced in 1937 by Georges Pitöeff
corner trap became favourite devices for moving (1885–1939) at the Théâtre des Mathurins,
actors quickly on or off stage. Paris. The title refers to an ex-soldier who is
Particular kinds of trap were often named suffering from amnesia. When he finally learns
after a play or scene. The long narrow the facts about his disreputable youth, he
Corsican trap (a type of GHOST GLIDE) was decides to concoct a new identity to escape his
devised to make a ghost appear to float across past. Anouilh’s own early life is reflected in the
the stage in Boucicault’s THE CORSICAN numerous bitter references to the effects of
BROTHERS (1852). The VAMP TRAP, an opening poverty.
with spring-leaves used to create the impression
Travers, Ben (1886–1980) British
of an actor passing through a solid wall, was
playwright, who was the king of farce in the
first used in the melodrama The Vampire
1920s. He wrote his first, The Dippers, in
(1820). The cauldron trap was named after its
1922. His subsequent comedies were known as
use in the witches’ scene in Macbeth, and the
grave trap after the gravediggers’ scene in the Aldwych farces, being first performed at
Hamlet. the ALDWYCH THEATRE, London. This series
Other traps included the STAR TRAP, which began with three works acknowledged as his
opened in the shape of a star, and the bristle best: A CUCKOO IN THE NEST (1925), ROOKERY
NOOK (1926), which ran for 409 performances,
trap, an opening covered with flexible bristles.
The footlights trap, a long opening in front of and Thark (1927), which was included in the
the curtain, was used to lower lamps into the National Theatre’s opening repertory in 1976.
cellar, either to darken the stage or so that they While Plunder (1928) was his last great success,
could be trimmed. Travers continued to write such farces as A Bit
Traps could be a source of considerable of a Test (1933) and Banana Ridge (1939). His
danger to performers. During one scene in The last, The Bed Before Yesterday (1975), was
Fire Worshippers, a melodrama presented at the produced in his 90th year. Despite a somewhat
Surrey Theatre, an actor was required to ride late start – he wrote his first play when he was
across the stage on a live camel. Unfortunately 36 – Travers enjoyed the longest career of any
the animal’s weight released a trapdoor and, playwright in the British theatre, exceeding
although the actor leaped safely away, the even that of George Bernard Shaw.
camel fell through and broke its neck. The Travesties A comedy about politics, art,
play proceeded as workmen cut the dead
and memory by Tom STOPPARD, first performed
animal out piecemeal from below.
in London by the Royal Shakespeare Company
The casualty rate among pantomime stars
in 1974. The production, directed by Peter
was especially great. When the great clown
Ward, opened at The Place before transferring
GRIMALDI was shot up through a trap one night
to the Aldwych Theatre. Travesties consolidated
in Manchester the ropes on the counterweight
Stoppard’s reputation as a writer with an
broke and he tumbled back into the cellar.
amazing flair for witty dialogue and intricate
Stunned and in dreadful pain, he completed
plot construction.
the scene. When the company reached
The story is based on the memories of
Liverpool, Grimaldi got a pledge from the
master carpenter that the accident would not Henry Carr, a retired diplomat who served as a
be repeated. However, just as his head appeared British consulate official in Zürich during
above stage to great applause, the ropes again World War I, when the city was also home to
snapped, dropping the clown into the Lenin, James Joyce, and the Dadaist Tristan
machinery below. Tzara. Carr recalls playing Algy in an amateur
production, organized by Joyce, of Oscar
traveller, the In the late 19th-century Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. This
British theatre, the nickname for a sliding allows Stoppard to set up a dazzling series of
CURTAIN drawn across the back of a stage to parallels between the action of Wilde’s play
 Triumvirate, the 517

and events in Zürich. Literary and other that create illusions. One of the earliest records
confusions abound, with Lenin’s writings of trickwork describes how a garden scene was
getting mixed up with sections of Joyce’s Ulysses. suddenly changed into a house during a
Carr becomes embroiled in a trivial legal battle production at Covent Garden in 1743. The art
with Joyce over production expenses and fails to depended heavily upon the use of TRAPs, which
prevent Lenin from leaving for Russia and a allowed actors to appear as if from nowhere, or
date with destiny. Like the title characters to pass through apparently solid walls, etc.
in Stoppard’s earlier ROSENCRANTZ AND Trickwork was especially popular during
GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, he remains unaware the Victorian era, when British actors became
to the end of the significance of the events famous throughout Europe and America for
taking place around him. the tumbling and other acrobatic skills that
Tree, Sir Herbert (Draper) were required by many of the commonest
Beerbohm (1853–1917) British actor- illusions. Two popular feats were the roll-out,
manager, a flamboyant showman who excelled in which an actor rolled through loose canvas
in large-than-life costume roles. The half- at the bottom of the scenery to appear as if
brother of the caricaturist and critic Sir Max from thin air, and what was probably the most
BEERBOHM, Tree made his acting debut in difficult physical stunt, the leap, an acrobatic
1878. His first real success did not come until jump up through a hidden opening in the
1884, when he played the Revd Robert scenery. Trickwork is still sometimes seen in
Spalding in Charles Hawtrey’s popular farce pantomime.
The Private Secretary.
tritagonist See PROTAGONIST.
Tree became manager of the Comedy
Theatre in 1887 before moving later that year Triumph of Horus, The or Abydos
to the more prestigious HAYMARKET, where he Passion Play An Egyptian drama written
remained for nine years. At the Haymarket, around 3200 BC and usually considered the
Tree staged works by Ibsen, Wilde, and world’s oldest known play. Although a few
Shakespeare, enjoying an enormous personal scholars discount this claim, saying it was a
success as Falstaff and an equally resounding religious ceremony rather than a true drama,
failure as Hamlet: a performance damningly it seems clear that some type of dramatic
described by W. S. Gilbert as “funny without performance did take place in Abydos as part
being vulgar”. of the worship of Osiris. Our knowledge of the
Tree’s success at the Haymarket enabled
play comes from a papyrus account written by
him to build Her Majesty’s Theatre, where
Ikhernofret, a performer of the 19th century
between 1897 and 1915 he staged a series of
BC, that was found at Luxor, the ancient
lavish Shakespearean productions. As an actor,
Thebes. Professional actors apparently played
Tree enjoyed two major successes at Her
the leading roles and pilgrims the minor parts.
Majesty’s; the first, playing Fagin in an
adaptation of Oliver Twist (1905) and the The play concerns the death, burial, and
second, as Henry Higgins in Shaw’s Pygmalion resurrection of Osiris. At the start of the play
(1914). he has married his sister, Isis, and is ruler of
Tree was married to the actress Helen Maud Egypt. His evil brother, Set, is jealous of
Holt (1863–1937), by whom he had three Osiris’s power and murders him, scattering his
children; he also had a further six children by a limbs far and wide. Isis and their son, Horus,
woman named May Pinney, with whom he gather the pieces together and resurrect Osiris,
appears to have conducted a simultaneous who goes to dwell in the afterworld to become
family life (one of his children by May would the judge of souls. Horus fights and defeats
become the film director Carol Reed). A minor Set, and the drama ends with his coronation as
actress, Muriel Ridley, gave birth to Tree’s last king of Egypt.
child in 1917, the year of his death.
Triumvirate, the The celebrated
Tree, who was knighted in 1909, is also
partnership of the three managers Colley
remembered for founding the Royal College of
Dramatic Art (see RADA) in 1904. See also Cibber, Robert Wilks, and Thomas Doggett,
RICHARD II.
who took over the running of DRURY LANE in
1710. Barton Booth later replaced Doggett.
trickwork A general term for stage devices Under the triumvirate arrangement, which
518 Troilus and Cressida

lasted until 1733, the theatre prospered as Odysseus and learns of her daughter’s murder.
never before. The play ends with the cries of the Trojan
women as the Greeks burn their city.
Troilus and Cressida SHAKESPEARE’s In one 20th-century revival at the Long
bitter tragicomedy of war and sex, which was Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut,
probably written in about 1602. The date of the young actress playing the distraught
the first production is unknown; it has been Cassandra would work herself up into a frenzy
conjectured that the play may have been on stage and strike the nearest actor. This was
written for private performance, possibly at the normally David Spielberg; although his fellow
Inns of Court. It was seldom seen before the actor Martin Macguire advised “Hit the bitch
20th century. Dryden rewrote Shakespeare’s back”. Spielberg took the blows patiently until
play as Truth Found Too Late (1679), in which one night, when the actress drew blood with a
Cressida remains faithful. direct blow to his mouth, he turned to two
In 1923 Lilian Baylis produced Troilus and sentinels on the parapet of Troy and ordered,
Cressida at the Old Vic to complete the first- “Guards, take her away.” The two extras
ever staging of all the works in the First Folio carried the stunned actress off in the middle of
by the same company. (The marathon project her scene.
had started in 1914). When Luchino Visconti
directed an outdoor production in Florence’s trope In the early Middle Ages, a brief
Boboli Gardens in 1949, he put half the cast sung passage interpolated in the Christian
on horseback. Peter Hall and John Barton liturgy to illustrate the meaning of a particular
directed a 1960 Stratford production staged in festival. It was a natural development from the
a sandpit. chanted NEUME and the beginning of the
The main sources for the story are tradition of LITURGICAL DRAMA. The earliest
Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (1385) and recorded trope featured in an Easter service at
Chapman’s translation of The Iliad (1598). the Monastery of St Martial at Limoges in the
The play is set during the Greek siege of Troy. 10th century. The most famous trope was the
Troilus, a Trojan prince, loves Cressida, the Easter Day QUEM QUAERITIS? a brief dialogue
daughter of a Trojan priest who has gone over between a priest representing the angel at
to the Greeks. When the armies agree to send Christ’s empty tomb and three choirboys
Cressida to the Greeks in exchange for a representing the three Marys.
Trojan prisoner, she and Troilus vow constant
fidelity. Once in the Greek camp, however, troubadours Poets of the south of France
Cressida forgets Troilus and falls for the in the 11th to 14th centuries, whose works
handsome Greek hero, Diomedes. Troilus were often performed by wandering minstrels
challenges Diomedes in battle but is defeated or JONGLEURS; they were probably so called
and killed. Shakespeare’s play presents a from the Occitan verb trobar, to find or
cynical picture of both military heroism and invent. They wrote in Occitan, principally on
romantic love. The anti-heroic tone is set by themes of love and chivalry. Their equivalents
the foul-mouthed Thersites, who provides a in the more northerly parts of France were the
scurrilous commentary on the action. trouvères. See also GOLIARD.

Trojan Women, The An anti-war play tumbler A BATTEN around which canvas
by EURIPIDES, first performed in 415 BC during scenery can be rolled to prevent creasing. Also
the Peloponnesian War. The message is an acrobat who performs such stunts as
summed up in a speech by Poseidon, the god handsprings and somersaults.
of the sea: Turgenev, Ivan Sergeivich
Foolish is the man who sacks cities and (1818–83) Russian playwright and novelist,
gives over to destruction temples and who laid the foundations of the modern
tombs which are sacred to the dead, Russian theatre with his realistic dramas of
only to perish himself. everyday life. His skilful use of domestic details
The play reveals the brutal cost of the to evoke the inner feelings of his characters is
Greeks’ victory over the Trojans in a series of seen most clearly in A MONTH IN THE
episodes: Cassandra is carried off as the COUNTRY, the first Russian psychological
concubine of Agamemnon, and becomes half drama. The play was a major influence on
mad; Hecuba, the queen, becomes a slave of Anton CHEKHOV.
 Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 519

Turgenev was still a student at the considered to have been at its most inspired in
university of St Petersburg when he published Gougenot’s La Comédie des comédiens (1631).
his first play, Steno (1834), a poetic melodrama
influenced by Byron. After returning from Twelfth Night 5 January, the eve of the
further studies in Berlin, he fathered an Feast of the Epiphany, which is the twelfth day
illegitimate daughter by his mother’s after Christmas. Formerly this was a time of
seamstress. In 1843 he fell in love with the revels and merrymaking, when plays and
married opera singer Mme Viardot, to whom masquerades were performed. The tradition
he remained devoted for the rest of his life. may derive from the ancient Roman
Between 1846 and 1852 Turgenev wrote a Saturnalia, which was held at the same season.
series of satirical comedies, most of which he The MUMMERS’ PLAY and its numerous regional
intended to be read rather than acted. His variants are particularly associated with
second play, written in the style of Nikolai Twelfth Night. See also PLOUGH MONDAY.
GOGOL, was Moneyless; or, Scenes from the Life Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
of a Young Nobleman (1846). This was Shakespeare’s last romantic comedy, often
followed by Where It’s Thin It Tears (1848), regarded as his finest work in the genre. It was
The Bachelor (1849), which was written for the written in about 1600, probably for Twelfth
great comic actor Mikhail Shchepkin, The Night festivities, and is known to have been
Boarder (1850), and A Provincial Lady (1851). acted in 1602 in London. The play has been
Turgenev’s masterpiece, A MONTH IN THE consistently popular. Granville-Barker
COUNTRY, was written in 1850 but not staged produced the comedy in 1895 on a
until 1872. reconstructed Elizabethan stage and then in
Censorship, imprisonment, and exile 1912 in black-and-white at the Savoy Theatre.
eventually drove Turgenev from the stage. In Productions of the play opened the Sadler’s
1852, he was imprisoned for a month and then Wells Theatre in 1931 and the Regent Park’s
exiled to his estate, Spasskoye, for 18 months Open Air Theatre in 1933. Modern players in
under police supervision. This was ostensibly Twelfth Night have ranged from Peggy
because of an obituary he had written praising Ashcroft (1950) to the comedian Ken Dodd
the officially disgraced Gogol, but was more (1971) and Mark Rylance (2002), who made a
probably a result of his attacks on serfdom. notably attractive Olivia. In 1968 it was
From 1854 Turgenev lived mostly in Germany adapted as the rock musical Your Own Thing.
and France, becoming the best-known Russian The main story, which derives ultimately
writer in the West with a series of masterful from an Italian play called Gl’ingannati
prose works, including his great novel Fathers (1531), involves the twins, VIOLA and
and Sons (1862). Sebastian, who are separated by a storm at sea.
turkey Broadway slang for a dull or bad Viola disguises herself as a boy, and becomes
production that is doomed to fail. For page to Orsino, Duke of Illyria, with whom
example, when reviewing a play called My she falls in love. The duke loves Olivia, but she
Dear Children in 1951 the critic Gene Fowler becomes enamoured of the disguised Viola.
wrote, “The management prudently kept the Eventually the twins are reunited, Olivia
turkey out of town.” See also FLOP. marries Sebastian and Orsino Viola. The
romantic plot is offset by a comic subplot
Turlupinades Popular farces presented involving the revenge of Sir Toby BELCH and
at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris, from 1618 Sir Andrew AGUECHEEK on Olivia’s pompous
to about 1630 by a trio of comedians, the steward MALVOLIO. Tricked into believing that
red-bearded Turlupin (Henri Legrand, Olivia is secretly in love with him, he behaves
1587–1637), the corpulent Gros-Guillaume so absurdly that he is taken for a madman and
Robert Guérin, 1554–1635), and the thin imprisoned. The melancholy tone of the play,
Gaultier-Garguille (Huges Guéru, d. 1633). which in places seems to anticipate the
Turlupin, after whom the farces were named, tragedies that Shakespeare would write in the
apparently began his act at Parisian fairs before next few years, is perfectly encapsulated in the
joining a professional company in about 1615. three songs of Feste the clown: ‘O Mistress
The antics of the three derived ultimately from Mine’, ‘Come Away Death’, and ‘When that I
the commedia dell’arte; their interaction is was and a Little Tiny Boy’.
520 Two Gentlemen of Verona, The

Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Palamon escapes, the two cousins meet to fight
SHAKESPEARE’s first and least successful attempt a duel over Emilia. Theseus interrupts the
at romantic comedy, written at an unknown proceedings and, when Emilia fails to decide
date between 1590 and 1594; the first between them, orders them to fight again in a
recorded performance was in 1672. The month’s time; the winner will have Emilia and
plot, which is derived mainly from Jorge de the loser will die. Arcite wins the encounter
Montemayor’s romance Diana, involves two only to suffer a fatal fall from his horse. Dying,
friends, Valentine and Proteus (the gentlemen he requests that Emilia should wed his cousin,
of the title). Their friendship is severely tested thereby saving him from execution. There is
when they both fall for Silvia, daughter of the also a lively subplot involving a jailor’s
Duke of Milan. In order to further his own daughter who goes mad from unrequited love
suit, the deceitful Proteus betrays Valentine to for Palamon.
the Duke, who banishes him. Meanwhile,
Proteus’s former love, Julia, disguises herself as Tynan, Kenneth (Peacock)
a boy and becomes his page, even carrying his (1927–80) British theatre critic, who wrote
love messages to Silvia. After a series of highly witty, acerbic, and controversial columns for
implausible adventures – including Silvia’s The Observer (1954–58, 1960–63) and the
capture by a group of bandits led by Valentine, New Yorker (1958–60).
and Proteus’s bungling attempt to rape her (for After leaving Oxford Tynan directed a
which he is immediately forgiven) – the friends provincial repertory company and even acted
are reconciled. Valentine weds Silvia, and as First Player to Alec Guinness’s Hamlet
Proteus weds Julia. It is the Bard’s only play to (1951) before moving into journalism. His
feature a dog (named Crab). sarcasm could devastate a play. Reviewing The
In most modern productions of the play Glorious Days (1953), he wrote, “There was a
the serious romantic plot is played mainly for heated division of opinion in the lobbies
laughs. The Royal Shakespeare Company during the interval but a small conservative
chose Peter Hall’s production as their first majority took the view that it might be as well
offering in 1960. A modern-dress version to remain in the theatre.” Sir Donald Wolfit
presented in 1975 at Stratford featured and several other managers tried unsuccessfully
actresses in bikinis beside a swimming pool. to bar Tynan from seeing their plays, while
There was a musical adaptation in 1927 called Richard Burton once physically attacked
Two Gentlemen of Soho, while Joseph PAPP later him. He could be equally ardent in his
produced a Broadway musical version that enthusiasms, famously declaring in 1956, “I
won the Tony Award for 1971. doubt if I could love anyone who did not wish
Two Noble Kinsmen, The A little- to see Look Back in Anger.”
known tragicomedy by SHAKESPEARE and John In 1963 Tynan was appointed literary
FLETCHER; it is probably the last play that manager to the new National Theatre, where
Shakespeare worked on. It was written in he worked closely with Laurence Olivier. Here
1613-14, performed at court in about 1619, he promoted the works of Anouilh, Brecht,
and published in a 1634 quarto, whose title and Beckett before clashing with the governors
page credits “the memorable Worthies of their over his desire to stage Rolf HOCHHUTH’s
time; Mr John Fletcher, and Mr William Soldiers, which presented Churchill as a war
Shakespeare, Gent”. It is believed that criminal. When censorship was abolished in
Shakespeare wrote the first and fifth acts, and 1968, Tynan co-produced the play at the
Fletcher the rest. The main plot was adapted New Theatre (now the Noël Coward). The
from Boccaccio’s Teseida and Chaucer’s The following year he left the National to produce
Knight’s Tale. the sex revue Oh, Calcutta!, a self-styled
The story centres upon the cousins “evening of elegant erotica” that ran for 1314
Palamon and Arcite, who have been captured performances in New York (1969) and for
in war by Theseus, Duke of Thebes. While in 2434 in London (1970). His later years, which
prison both fall in love with Emilia, Theseus’s were spent mainly in California, were clouded
sister-in-law. After Arcite is released and by writer’s block and deteriorating health.
 Uncle Vanya 521

Jarry continued Ubu’s story with less

U freshness in Ubu enchaîné (1899) and Ubu sur

la butte (1901).
Uncle Tom’s Cabin The most popular
Überbrettl A type of CABARET venue play of the late 19th-century US theatre. The
in early 20th-century Germany. The first first stage version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Überbrettl (literally, ‘super-gaff’) was the Bunte famous anti-slavery novel was presented in
Bühne (‘Motley Stage’), which was opened in 1852 in Baltimore, the year that the book was
1901 by Baron Ernst von Wolzogen and Otto published. From then on, certain US actors
Julius Bierbaum. The Bunte Bühne is usually made an entire career of ‘Tomming’. London
considered the first modern cabaret. saw seven productions in 1852 and an 1878
spectacular featuring “a hundred real American
Über-marionette The ideal actor freed slaves”. In 1879 almost 50 travelling
envisioned by the designer Gordon Craig (see troupes were performing the work under tents
CRAIG FAMILY); he or she would be an egoless in America and by the 1890s this had reached
‘super-puppet’, wholly at the bidding of the about 400. Soon, the plot became so well
play’s director. He insisted that “acting is known that individual companies began to
not an art” and believed that actors should introduce special attractions, such as real
represent a character’s emotions by “feeling as bloodhounds to chase the escaped slave Eliza
little of them as is necessary”. across the river (a scene that does not appear in
the book). Productions ranged in size from
Ubu, Père The outrageous character
one using only three actors to William
created by the French playwright Alfred JARRY.
Brady’s spectacular staging of 1901, which
Ubu is a fat, cowardly, greedy, stupid, and
involved 200 dancers and singers and 21
cruel bourgeois modelled upon one of Jarry’s
TRANSFORMATION SCENEs. A dozen companies
schoolmasters. He was introduced in the farce
were still touring with the play in 1927, but
Ubu Roi, a brutal and scatalogical work the melodramatic style of dialogue led to the
generally considered to have launched the play falling out of favour soon afterwards.
modern avant-garde theatre. The satirical
drama, written when Jarry was 15, was Uncle Vanya Anton CHEKHOV’s painful
performed in 1888 as a marionette play. It was drama of purposeless lives, rewritten from an
first produced on stage in Paris in 1896, when earlier unsuccessful play called The Wood
the director, Firmin Gémier, used many props Demon (1889). Uncle Vanya was first seen in
and conventions of the marionette theatre. STANISLAVSKY’s production at the MOSCOW ART
The play was revived successfully by Jean VILAR THEATRE in 1899. The first British production
at the Théâtre National Populaire in 1958, was that mounted by the Stage Society at the
while an English version was presented in Aldwych Theatre in 1914. Olivier played the
1966 at the Royal Court Theatre with complex role of Astrov at the Old Vic in 1944
costumes and decor by David Hockney. and again for the famous 1963 production at
Ubu Roi ridiculed both bourgeois morality the CHICHESTER FESTIVAL, which had Michael
and the conventions of the naturalistic theatre. Redgrave in the title role and Joan Plowright
In the plot, which is based loosely on that of as Sonya.
Macbeth, Ubu and his wife, Mère Ubu, Professor Serebryakov and his lovely but
conspire to kill the Polish king, assisted by lethargic wife Yelena retire to his country
Captain Bordure. Once the deed is done, Ubu estate. This has been managed for many years
double-crosses Bordure, forcing him to flee to by Vanya, a futile character eaten up with a
Russia. Ubu and his wife rule Poland with sense of his own failure. Also in the household
great cruelty, until Prince Bourgrelas, the dead is the professor’s daughter Sonya, who nurses a
king’s son, recaptures Warsaw. They escape to hopeless love for the local doctor, Astrov.
Lithuania, where Ubu throws Mère Ubu to a When Serebryakov suggests selling the estate,
bear, but then rescues her when he finds that Vanya goes berserk and tries to shoot him.
he needs her help against Bourgrelas, who has Characteristically, despite firing at point-blank
pursued them. They escape once more, and the range, he misses. The professor and his wife
play ends with Ubu eagerly preparing for his leave, and Vanya sinks back into his life of
new post as minister of finance in Paris. hopeless routine.
522 Under Milk Wood

In the words of the critic Desmond Theatre during a revival of Shaw’s THE
McCarthy, the play ends with “that dreariest PHILANDERER. A new polished parquet floor
of all sensations: beginning life again on the had been installed and when the actress Jane
flat when, a few hours before, it has run Arden made her entrance, she slid straight off
shrieking up the scale of pain till it seemed the the stage into the lap of a woman in the stalls.
very skies might split”. Arden was too shaken to continue, and the
understudy was called for. When this actress
Under Milk Wood A “play for voices” by appeared on stage she too skated right into the
the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–53), same woman, who left the theatre indignantly,
featuring a cast of characters numbering more thinking she had been the victim of a
than 60. Originally commissioned by the BBC deliberate practical joke.
for radio, Under Milk Wood was first broadcast
in 1954; it later transferred successfully to the Union des Théâtres de l’Europe
stage, being performed in Edinburgh and (UTE) See THÉÂTRE DE L’EUROPE.
London in 1956. Thomas had died in 1955,
before he was able to complete the final unities The NEOCLASSICAL doctrine that a
revision of the stage version. play should have a unity in three aspects: time,
The play depicts the life of Llareggub, a place, and action. In practice this meant that a
Welsh seaside village, through a series of stories play should present one basic action occurring
in one place during the course of a single day.
told by the villagers about themselves and their
Although Aristotle’s Poetics was cited as the
neighbours. They include the blind seaman
authority for these rules, only the unity of
Captain Cat, Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard and her
action was stressed in this work, the other two
two dead husbands, and the local flirt, Polly
unities being derived from Renaissance
Garter. Other characters include Nogood
misreadings of the text. The unities were
Boyo, Willy Nilly, Nasty Humphrey, Bessie
introduced to French classical tragedy by Jean
Bighead, and Dai Bread. The play is notable
Mairet (1604–86), whose Sophonisbe (1634)
for its rich poetic prose.
was the first modern work to embody them. In
understudy An actor who learns the part the writings of such French critics as Boileau
of another, especially that of a principal actor, (1636–1711) the need to maintain the unities
in order to substitute for him at short notice in became a rigid dogma. The unities also
case of an emergency such as illness. In the influenced the neoclassical drama of Spain
18th-century French theatre, this substitute and Italy but never replaced the tradition of
was called a double, and young actors usually Shakespearean free structure in England.
began their careers in this way. The world’s
University Wits A group of Elizabethan
longest-serving understudy was the late Nancy
playwrights educated at Oxford or Cambridge
Seabrooke (d. 1999), who from 1979 to
and noted for their wild and dissolute
1996 understudied the part of Mrs Boyle
behaviour. The name was coined by the
in THE MOUSETRAP. In the course of 6240 Victorian critic George Saintsbury
performances over 16 years she was required to (1845–1933). Prominent among the wits
go on stage a mere 72 times. were Christopher MARLOWE (1564–93),
Albert FINNEY first achieved recognition in Robert Greene (1560–92), Thomas Nashe
1959, when, as a 23-year-old understudy he (1567–1601), George Peele (1556–96),
replaced Laurence OLIVIER who had injured and the less well-known Thomas Lodge
his knee while performing in Coriolanus at (1557–1625), whose pastoral romance
Stratford-upon-Avon. Finney had previously Rosalind (1590) inspired Shakespeare’s As You
experienced great nervousness on the Stratford Like It.
stage, but when he replaced the star “all the
difficulties I seemed to be going through left upstage The area of a stage furthest from
me”. He summed up the advantages of the the audience, usually the back third. The word
understudy, noting: “It didn’t matter what is also used as a STAGE DIRECTION, meaning to
happened. It didn’t matter if I dried; they’d move away from the audience. When an actor
expect it. If I fainted, well it’s a lot of pressure faces the audience, ‘upstage right’ is to his right
on the lad, you know. So I didn’t worry.” and ‘upstage left’ is to his left.
One case of an understudy imitating the The phrase to upstage someone has
star too closely occurred at the Mermaid entered the general language, meaning to draw
 Utility 523

attention to oneself at the expense of another; serving in World War II, during which five
it derives from the fact that an actor moving of his plays were produced, he returned to
upstage of another obliges the latter to act with the stage as Petrovich in an adaptation of
his face away from to the audience. See also Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1946).
CENTRESTAGE; DOWNSTAGE. He then went to Hollywood to begin a
successful career in films.
useful theatre See DUMAS PÈRE AND FILS. As a playwright, Ustinov wrote strong
Ustinov, Sir Peter (Alexander) leading roles to suit his own comic abilities,
(1921–2004) British actor, playwright, which included a gift for mimicry. His
director, and raconteur, noted for performing successes included THE LOVE OF FOUR
in his own successful comedies. He came COLONELS (1951) and ROMANOFF AND JULIET

from a famous Russian theatrical family, (1956), a comedy of diplomatic life. While the
one ancestor having been the architect of latter was running, he was challenged to a
Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. Ustinov trained tennis match by a Mr Romanov, minister-
at the London Theatre Studio where his final counsellor at the London Soviet Embassy, who
report was unpromising: was amused by the use of his name. During
He has a long way to go. He is still the match, Ustinov strained his back and had
lamentably stiff. He seems to have to leave the play, remaining strapped to a
great difficulty in walking, or running, board for eight weeks.
or jumping. His mind wanders during At the 1968 Chichester Festival, he
gymnastics. His voice is unresonant performed in his play The Unknown Soldier
and monotonous. and His Wife and at the 1979 Stratford
(Ontario) Festival as Lear. His later works
Ustinov made his professional debut at the included Beethoven’s Tenth in 1987 at the
Players’ Theatre, London, in 1939, appearing Vaudeville Theatre and his acclaimed one-man
in his own sketches. His first produced play show, An Evening with Peter Ustinov, in 1990
was Fishing for Shadows, a translation of Jean at the Haymarket.
Sarment’s Le Pêcheur d’ombres, which was
staged at the Threshold Theatre in 1940. After Utility See STOCK COMPANY.
524 Valdéz, Luis

Vanbrugh had designed. The Queen’s was

V built as an opera house, but its acoustics

proved so unsuitable for drama that alterations
had to be made while the company moved
temporarily to Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
Valdéz, Luis See CHICANO THEATRE. After the playwright’s death, an unfinished
work called A Journey to London was found
vamp trap or vampire trap A type of
amongst his papers and completed by Cibber
TRAP introduced in James Robinson Planché’s
as The Provok’d Husband (1728). Cibber
melodrama The Vampire; or, the Bride of
once described Vanbrugh’s witty and natural
the Isles in 1820 at the Lyceum Theatre.
dialogue as “his common conversation
Consisting of two spring leaves or flaps in a
committed to paper”.
canvas FLAT, it was used to create the illusion
of a ghost or other supernatural character Vance, Alfred (Alfred Peck Stevens;
passing through a solid wall. 1839–88), a British music-hall performer
known for such comic Cockney songs as ‘The
Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664–1726)
Chickaleery Cove’. The Great Vance, as he
English playwright of the later Restoration era;
was often billed, adopted the role of a LION
also the architect who created the English
COMIQUE, developing a friendly rivalry with
Baroque style in architecture, designing
the first performer to earn that title, George
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and Castle
Leybourne (see CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE). They
Howard in Yorkshire.
both worked their way through comic songs
One of 19 children of a Flemish sugar
listing the wines, with ‘Cliquot’ being the
baker, Vanbrugh became an officer with the
Great Vance’s most popular offering.
Earl of Huntingdon’s regiment in 1686. Four
After making his debut at the St James’s
years later he was arrested and imprisoned in
Theatre, London, Vance appeared on the halls
Calais as a suspected spy, being moved in 1692
with his brother in a blackfaced act. He
to the Bastille. The regime was not brutal: he transformed himself into the first ‘coster
enjoyed four-course dinners and three bottles comedian’ in 1864 becoming noted for
of wine a day and amused himself by writing a moralistic ‘motto’ songs such as ‘Act on the
draft of THE PROVOK’D WIFE. Square, Boys’. Vance died while performing at
Vanbrugh’s first successful play was THE the Sun Music Hall, Knightsbridge.
RELAPSE; or, Virtue in Danger, a comedy about
a libertine and his long-suffering wife. It was variety In Britain, a type of popular
written and produced in 1696 as an ironic entertainment that developed from MUSIC
sequel to Colley CIBBER’s Love’s Last Shift, HALL in the late 19th century. It was
which was staged earlier that year. Vanbrugh characterized by the presence of diverse acts on
used his share of the profits from The Relapse the same bill. In America the term was used
to pay off the debts of one of the owners at more or less synonymously with VAUDEVILLE.
Drury Lane; similarly, he took no payment for The variety era saw the replacement of the
his Aesop, produced the following year. earlier halls and clubs, in which the audience
At Lord Halifax’s urging, Vanbrugh had been able to eat, drink, and smoke while
revised The Provok’d Wife for production at being entertained, with specially built variety
Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in 1697; it was a theatres. These were more comfortable, more
comedy about a miserable marriage that would expensive, and more respectable, lacking
later provide David Garrick with one of his much of the old boisterous atmosphere. The
most famous roles. The robust action and entertainment was often spectacular, with the
bawdy realism of his plays, however, were HIPPODROME offering aquatic dramas and the
beginning to attract attention from moralists. LONDON COLISEUM presenting chariot races.
Both works were singled out by Jeremy The famous ALHAMBRA Music Hall in London
COLLIER in his celebrated pamphlet A Short became the Alhambra Palace of Varieties.
View of the Immorality of the English Stage. The continuous programmes of the old
Two later and lesser works, The Country music halls, which often ran to midnight, were
House (1703) and The Confederacy (1705), replaced by twice-nightly bills that combined
were produced by Thomas Betterton at songs, comedians, ballet, spectacle, and short
the Queen’s Theatre, Haymarket, which dramatic ‘snippets’ that ran for less than 30
 Vauxhall Gardens 525

minutes. The popularity of these dramatic for films. New York’s PALACE THEATRE, the
pieces even attracted such stars of the nation’s top vaudeville house, closed in 1932.
legitimate theatre as Beerbohm TREE and Sarah Vaudeville produced many of America’s
BERNHARDT. In 1918 Diaghilev’s Ballets early film stars and radio performers, some of
Russes company appeared at the Coliseum on whom survived into the television era. The
the same bill as jugglers and comedians. With impressive list includes Danny Kaye, Harry
the advent of talking pictures, many variety Houdini, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, W. C.
theatres were converted into cinemas; however, Fields, Will Rogers, Jimmy Durante, Burns
the variety tradition continued at such major and Allen, the Marx Brothers, and the Three
venues as the London PALLADIUM and found a Stooges. Europeans introduced to the US
new platform with the coming of TV. audience through vaudeville included Harry
Lauder and Vesta Victoria.
vaudeville A US form of VARIETY
entertainment that was popular in the late Vaudeville Theatre A London theatre
19th and early 20th century. in the Strand. The first Vaudeville Theatre was
The name, which is French in origin, may designed by the architect C. J. Phipps and
be a corruption of vaux-de-vire (songs of the opened in 1870. It was noted for its elegant
Vire), referring to a region of Normandy interior and an innovative lighting system with
famous for satirical songs in the 15th century. brilliant ‘sun-burners’ in the centre of the
An alternative derivation is from vaux des villes ceiling and hidden footlights. The theatre was
(songs of the city streets). In the late 17th reconstructed in 1891, with a facade of
century the French critic Boileau applied the Portland Stone that remains today. In 1926
term to satirical ballads and to the dumb shows the inside was drastically altered and in 1969 it
(comédies en vaudeville) presented in Paris’s was completely refurbished with a gold and
booth theatres. It later came to be applied to cream decor, 694 seats, and a great chandelier
the popular musical dramas presented at the in the foyer.
Opéra-Comique and other venues. The Vaudeville is best known for its
In the later 19th century, the term comedy and musical productions. Early in its
vaudeville came to be used of variety history it drew such renowned performers as
performances, especially in America, where a Henry IRVING, Seymour Hicks and his wife
tradition of beer-hall entertainment had Ellaline Terriss, and Charles Hawtrey. One of
developed in parallel to the MUSIC HALL in the theatre’s early successes was H. J. Byron’s
Britain. Other influences on early US comedy Our Boys, which ran for 1362
vaudeville included MINSTREL SHOWs, performances from 1875 to 1879. Ibsen’s
MEDICINE SHOWS, and ‘dime museums’ of Hedda Gabler had its first English production
freaks and trained animals, such as P. T. at the Vaudeville in 1891. André Charlot
BARNUM’s American Museum in New York. presented a popular series of revues at the
The first regular vaudeville programmes were theatre beginning in 1915.
presented at the Franklin Theatre, New York, Later successes included William Douglas
in 1842. Like US BURLESQUE, vaudeville Home’s comedy The Chiltern Hundreds (1947)
remained rather suspect until Tony Pastor and Julian Slade’s musical Salad Days, which
created the “straight, clean variety show” in the ran for 2283 performances between 1954 and
1860s at New York’s American Theatre. A 1960. In 1969 the Gatti family, who had
typical bill would include juggling, a musical owned the theatre for 78 years, sold it to Peter
act, trained animals, a dramatic skit, a Saunders. Subsequent hits have included John
comedy sketch, an acrobatic act, and a magic Chapman and Ray Cooney’s farce Move Over
performance. At the turn of the century, short Mrs Markham (1970), Agatha Christie’s A
films would often be shown to clear the house. Murder is Announced (1977), Willy Russell’s
By this time vaudeville was big business: the Shirley Valentine (1988), Ayckbourn’s Time of
agency of B. F. Keith and Edward Franklin My Life (1993), and the dance entertainment
Albee booked acts for 400 theatres east of Stomp, which ran from 2002 until 2007.
Chicago, while Martin Beck ran the Orpheum
Circuit of theatres with houses from Chicago Vauxhall Gardens A popular pleasure
to California. After the advent of talking resort for Londoners, first laid out in 1660 as
pictures in 1927, however, vaudeville New Spring Gardens. The riverside gardens
performers began to dwindle into support acts are mentioned in Restoration dramas by
526 Veedhi Natakam

Congreve, Wycherley, and Vanbrugh and lively and natural dialogue. Many were based
were later described by both Dickens and on the conflict of love and honour.
Thackeray. Vauxhall was a place of musical Among his many notable works are
entertainment, fancy-dress balls, banquets, and Fuenteovejuna (c. 1614) in which villagers
fireworks, etc., and at night was lit by over murder their tyrannous feudal lord and are
1000 lamps. See also CREMORNE GARDENS; saved by the king’s intervention, and El castigo
RANELAGH GARDENS. sin venganza, in which a licentious duke
maintains his public reputation by killing his
Veedhi Natakam A form of rural theatre
adulterous wife and her illegitimate son.
in the southern Indian state of Andhra
Pradesh, where the tradition can be traced ventriloquism The trick of
back at least as far as the 16th century. The manipulating one’s voice so that it appears to
name means ‘street drama’. The travelling come from some other quarter. The word is
players perform in any open space, such as the derived from Latin venter, belly, loqui, to
square in front of a temple, with the acting speak (speaking from the belly), reflecting
area surrounded by rugs and mats for the the erroneous notion that the voice of the
spectators. The audience is segregated by sex. ventriloquist proceeds from the stomach. In
Songs are performed to the accompaniment of the Middle Ages it was often regarded as a sign
a harmonium and tabla (drums), although film of witchcraft or demonic possession. The
music has virtually replaced traditional folk modern type of ventriloquist act, in which a
melodies. performer speaks without moving the lips
Vega (Carpio), Lope (Félix) de while making his or her voice appear to issue
(1562–1635) Spain’s first great playwright. from a dummy, became a popular feature
The most prolific dramatist in the history of of MUSIC HALL and VAUDEVILLE in the later
the theatre, he is believed to have written some 19th century. Famous practitioners included
1500 plays of which about 470 survive. He Jules Vernon (1867–1937), Fred Russell
established the conventions for the Spanish (1862–1957), and the Great Lester (1878–
COMEDIA in the last decade of the 16th 1956).
century, influenced the development of the
Vere Street Theatre A former London
ZARZUELA, and wrote numerous AUTO
theatre in Clare Market, close to Lincoln’s Inn
SACRAMENTALes. He is regarded as the founder
Fields. During the Puritan INTERREGNUM
of the Spanish commercial theatre and the
most influential writer of Spain’s Golden Age. William DAVENANT used this former tennis
In his New Art of Writing Plays (c. 1609), court to present what he termed “music
Lope analysed the essentials of drama and and instruction”, thereby evading the law
admitted that he played to the popular taste. forbidding stage performances. In 1652 a
“I allow myself to be borne along in the group of actors who performed there were
vulgar current,” he wrote, “wherefore Italy betrayed to the authorities by an unknown
and France call me ignorant.” person whom a contemporary named an ILL
His personal life was as flamboyant as his BEEST.
dramas. The son of an embroiderer, he took On the Restoration of the monarchy
part in the conquest of Terceira in the Azores (1660) Thomas KILLIGREW reopened the Vere
(1583) and sailed with the Armada in 1588, an Street with Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I.
event that inspired his epic poem La Dragentea That same year Margaret Hughes became the
(1597), which attacks Drake and England. He first professional actress to appear on the
was also known for his passionate love affairs, English stage when she played Desdemona
which continued after he became a priest in there in The Moor of Venice, Killigrew’s
1614 and created a great scandal. adaptation of Othello. Killigrew remained at
Lope wrote initially for Madrid’s open-air the Vere Street for three years before moving
theatres and subsequently for the royal court, to his new theatre at DRURY LANE. Owing to
drawing his subject matter from history and new regulations that gave the PATENT
chivalric legend, peasant life, and biblical and THEATRES a virtual monopoly in the City of
mythological stories. His lyrical verse plays, London, his successor, George Jolly was
most of which have happy endings, are noted obliged to run the theatre as an acting school,
for their dramatic action, use of suspense, and or NURSERY. In 1675 the building became a
 Victoria, Queen 527

Nonconformist meeting-house, and in 1809 it plays that she presented were popular, the
burned down. theatre still lost money owing to the small
auditorium: she declared bankruptcy in 1837.
Verfremdungseffekt See ALIENATION In 1838 Vestris married the actor Charles
EFFECT.
James Mathews the younger (1803–78), a
verismo A movement towards greater member of the Olympic company, who was
NATURALISM in the Italian theatre in the late one of the best light comedians of his day.
19th and early 20th centuries. Playwrights They immediately toured America, where she
turned to social and political themes, setting received ecstatic reviews acting and singing in
their plots in working-class and regional The Loan of a Lover. The couple took over the
settings. The leading exponents of the style management of Covent Garden in 1839,
were Giovanni Verga (1840–1922), whose drawing large audiences for such productions
tragedies of Sicilian life include Cavalleria as the 1841 comedy London Assurance by Dion
Rusticana (1884), and Luigi Capuana BOUCICAULT, in which Mathews starred as

(1839–1915), who wrote Malia (1859) and Dazzle. The cost of their opulent productions,
other works in Sicilian dialect. Other however, led to bankruptcy and imprisonment
playwrights associated with the movement for Mathews in 1842.
included Giuseppe Giacosa (1847–1906), In 1847 the couple took over the Lyceum
Luigi PIRANDELLO, and Gabriele D’ANNUNZIO. Theatre, where they introduced further
The style also influenced the earlier operas of innovations, such as the first TRANSPARENCY
Puccini. Although verismo was Italy’s first for Planché’s extravaganza The Island of Jewels,
distinctively national form of drama, it was and the abolition of half-price tickets for those
suppressed by the Fascists during the 1920s. arriving late. By 1854, however, they were
once more experiencing financial problems.
Vestris, Madame (Lucy Elizabeth Vestris gave her final performance that year in
Bartolozzi; 1797–1856) British actress and Sunshine Through the Clouds. When they left
singer. She was the first British actress to the Lyceum in 1855 Mathews was once again
manage a theatre, and became the first imprisoned for debt. He was released a week
PRINCIPAL BOY in English pantomime (playing before his wife died.
Ralph in Puss and Boots).
After studying music she married the Vice A stock character of the old English
French dancer Armand Vestris (1788–1825), MORALITY PLAYS, whose role was to tempt the
at the age of 16. Vestris was ballet master at hero into sin. He wore a cap with ass’s ears,
the King’s Theatre, where she made her debut and was generally played as a trickster and
in 1815 in Peter von Winter’s opera Il Ratto buffoon. The character appeared in some of
di Proserpina. Her first great success came at the later MORAL INTERLUDES and influenced
Drury Lane in 1817, when she played the title- the creation of such great figures of the
role of Moncrieff’s Giovanni in London, a Elizabethan stage as FALSTAFF and Iago.
burlesque of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. After Victor, ou l’Enfant de la forêt A
performing in Paris, where her husband melodrama by the French dramatist Guilbert
deserted her in 1820, she returned to London de Pixérécourt (1773–1844). It was first
to star at both Drury Lane and Covent performed in 1789 in Paris and helped to
Garden. She excelled in high comedy, playing establish the standard form of French
fashionable ladies such as Lydia Languish in melodrama for the BOULEVARD THEATRES.
Sheridan’s The Rivals (1826). Based on a novel by François-Guillaume
In 1830 she took over as manager of the Ducray-Duminil, the play explores the moral
Olympic Theatre, opening with Olympic Revels dilemma of Victor, who must kill his natural
by James Planché, who continued to write father (a bandit) in order to protect his
farces and burlesques for her. An excellent if adoptive father.
somewhat stern manager, Vestris introduced a
number of important innovations, including Victoria, Queen (1819–1901) Queen of
the BOX SET in 1832. Other reforms included Great Britain (1837–1901), who supported
the use of accurate costumes, realistic scenery, the theatre throughout her life and helped to
and real props, and shortening presentations change its disreputable image by knighting the
from the usual six hours to five. Although the actor Henry IRVING in 1895. Both Irving and
528 Victorian theatre slang

the queen regarded the honour as one since been played by Anna Neagle in The
bestowed on the whole profession. Although Glorious Days (1951), by Dorothy Tutin in
Victoria rarely made personal comments at Portrait of a Queen (1965), and by Polly James
investitures, when she knighted Irving she in the musical I and Albert (1972). In 1968
leaned towards him and announced, “We are Edward BOND’s Early Morning was refused a
very, very pleased.” licence for its scurrilous portrait of the queen
As a child Victoria had loved the theatre’s as a lesbian.
depiction of an exciting world beyond her
restricted life at Kensington Palace. The Victorian theatre slang The
Royal Coburg Theatre was renamed the following is a selection from the rich lexicon of
Royal Victoria in her honour in 1833; it would slang terms used in the London theatre during
become better known as the OLD VIC. the late 19th century:
As queen, Victoria attended the theatre up bus (pronounced ‘biz’) short for stage
BUSINESS
to three times a week; it was one of the few
places where she could behave informally. daddy a stage manager
Once, when attending the Haymarket Theatre dagger a bottle
she was met at the entrance by the manager, ducats money (from the former Venetian
comedian John Buckstone, who (following coinage mentioned in many of Shakespeare’s
plays)
tradition) walked backwards with lighted
fox to criticize a fellow actor’s performance
candles to direct her to the royal box. A
goose to hiss a play
sudden draught blew out the candles leaving
make-up a personal appearance
them in total darkness. “Now just look at
menagerie the orchestra
that!” chirped Buckstone, using one of his
mug-up to paint one’s face (see MUG)
famous catchphrases. The queen laughed, and
mutton-walk the saloon at Drury Lane
even let him take her by the hand to guide her
peeper a mirror
through the dark.
sal salary
Victoria encouraged her children to put on
stab to help oneself to food or (especially)
their own plays for guests. In one drama
drink; the expression ‘stab yourself and pass
presented at Balmoral, a gallant knight (the
the dagger’ therefore meant ‘help yourself and
Prince of Wales) returned from battle to rejoin
pass the bottle’
his loyal wife (the Princess Alice). The knight
stall to act a part
recounted his valiant adventures in a lengthy
supe a supernumerary (i.e. extra)
speech to which his wife replied “And we,
trunks short trousers worn over hose or
too, my lord, have not been idle during your
tights
absence!”, as she gestured towards her
See also CORPSE; GREEN; PONG.
‘children’, a vast array of dolls.
After the death of Prince Albert in Victoria Palace Theatre A London
1861, Victoria never visited a theatre again. theatre opposite Victoria Station, noted mainly
However, in 1881, after years as a recluse, for its musicals. It was built on the site of the
she began to ask such actors as Henry Irving, Royal Standard Music Hall, when that venue
John Hare, Ellen Terry, Eleanora DUSE, was demolished in 1910. The new theatre,
Sarah BERNHARDT, the KENDALS, and the designed by architect Frank Matcham,
Bancrofts to put on private shows for her in featured an entrance hall of grey marble and
the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor and at pillars of white Sicilian marble. The classical
other royal residences. London’s actor- facade later bore a statue of Pavlova, the
managers kept special scenery for these royal famous Russian ballerina, who made her first
engagements and would close their theatres for London appearance there in 1912. The dancer
the night. In her last 20 years, Victoria viewed was too superstitious to look at it; during the
28 of these command performances. Blitz the statue was removed and subsequently
For years after her death, the British lost.
censors would not allow Queen Victoria to The Victoria Palace opened in 1911 as a
be portrayed on the London stage. She was, music hall and quickly drew all of the great
however, represented in New York in 1923 by stars. The venue added Theatre to its name in
Beryl Mercer in Queen Victoria and in 1935 by 1934, the year it staged the much-ridiculed
Helen Hayes in VICTORIA REGINA. She has patriotic melodrama YOUNG ENGLAND, which
 Viola 529

ran for 278 performances, attracting theatre- the Lord Chamberlain, it was produced
goers with its reputation for unintentional privately by the New Watergate Theatre Club
comedy. Successes followed with revues and at the Comedy Theatre in 1956. Miller
musical comedies. Me and My Girl (1937) ran expanded the text into two acts for later
for 1646 performances, CRAZY GANG revues productions.
were produced between 1947 and 1962, and The play concerns the New York
The Black and White Minstrels opened in 1962 longshoreman Eddie Carbone. He and his
to run for 4344 performances. Later offerings wife, Beatrice, have raised her niece, Catherine,
included the first London production of Annie but Eddie finds himself increasingly attracted
(1978), Winnie (1988), a musical based on the to the young woman. Further problems arise
life of Winston Churchill, and the hugely when Beatrice’s two Sicilian brothers, both
successful Buddy (1994), a show built around illegal immigrants, arrive on the scene and one
the songs of Buddy Holly. Steven Daldry and of them, Rodolpho, wins Catherine’s love.
Elton John’s musical adaptation of the hit film Jealous and fearful of losing her, Eddie informs
Billy Elliot opened here in 2005 and was still immigration officers about the brothers. The
running in 2010. play ends with a fight in which Marco kills
Eddie. The lawyer Alfieri is used throughout as
Victoria Regina A series of one-act plays a CHORUS.
by Laurence Housman (1865–1959), dealing
with the reign of Queen Victoria. Housman, Vilar, Jean (1912–71) French theatre
the brother of the poet A. E. Housman, wrote director and actor, noted for his attempts to
and published some 30 plays about the queen make the theatre accessible to provincial and
but the Lord Chamberlain consistently banned working-class audiences. After training as a
them from public performance. In 1935 a stage manager under Charles Dullin, Vilar
selection was privately performed at the Gate began to direct in Paris with a small travelling
Theatre, London, under the title of Victoria company called La Roulette. In 1945 he
Regina with Pamela Stanley playing the queen. staged a memorable production of T. S.
A Broadway production opened the same Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral at the Vieux-
year at the Broadhurst Theatre, starring Colombiers, in which he also starred; this
Helen HAYES in the title role. She won the aroused considerable interest, especially when
Drama League of New York Medal for her it was subsequently staged in the open in front
performance and continued to play the of the Abbey de Bec-Hellouin. The production
part, which she based on her Victorian undoubtedly contributed to Vilar being asked
grandmother, for three years. The role required to organize an open-air drama festival at
her to age from 18 to over 80, leading the Avignon in 1947; he would remain closely
critic Brooks Atkinson to write: associated with the AVIGNON FESTIVAL for over
The girlish innocence, the eager 20 years.
propriety of her wooing of Albert, the His efforts to open up the theatre to all
unaffected joy of her devotion to him, classes were rewarded in 1951, when Vilar
her pettish anger when her authority was appointed head of the revived THÉÂTRE
was challenged, the moving humility of NATIONAL POPULAIRE, based at the Palais de
her surrender from queen to wife, her Chaillot in Paris. He managed the TNP for
courage and her simplicity were parts over a decade, during which time he also
of a memorable stage composition. returned annually to Avignon; his productions
In 1936 Edward VIII intervened personally to of classical and contemporary plays were
ensure that the play was granted a licence for equally admired. In 1962 he resigned from the
public performance in Britain. It was produced TNP because funding was not sufficient to
in 1937 at the Lyric Theatre with Pamela allow for expansion. Vilar continued to stage
Stanley once more in the lead. productions at Avignon until 1968, when he
undeservedly became the target for left-wing
View from the Bridge, A A tragedy demonstrators.
by Arthur MILLER. Originally a one-act play, it
was first performed in a double-bill with Viola The heroine of Shakespeare’s
another one-act work by Miller, A Memory of TWELFTH NIGHT. Having been shipwrecked on
Two Mondays, in 1955 in New York. Although the coast of Illyria, she disguises herself as a
banned from public performance in Britain by page under the name Cesario. In this guise she
530 Visit, The

woos the lady Olivia on behalf of Orsino, Volksbühne (German: People’s Theatre)
Duke of Illyria, with whom she herself is in A subscription organization founded in 1890
love. Eventually the various misunderstandings in Berlin (as the Freie Volksbühne) to bring
are unravelled and Viola weds Orsino. She quality drama to a working-class audience. In
speaks mainly in prose as Cesario and in verse 1914 it opened its own 2000-seat theatre on
as herself. the Bülowplatz. The Volksbühne produced
much socially committed work in the new
Visit, The (Der Besuch der alten Dame) A naturalistic style, introducing SHAW to German
black comedy by Friedrich DÜRRENMATT, first theatregoers and fostering the early careers of
performed in 1956. It was immediately hailed the directors Max REINHARDT, Jürgen Fehling,
as one of the most accomplished works by a and Erwin PISCATOR. By 1930 the Volksbühne
German-language playwright since World War boasted more than 300 branches and some
II. The plot revolves around the figure of 500,000 members throughout Germany.
Claire Zachanassian, a rich old woman, who Although the Nazis closed the Volksbühne
returns to her home town to seek revenge on in 1937, it experienced a postwar renaissance
those who wronged her many years before. A in 1948 in both West and East Germany. In
scathing satire on the corrupting influence of East Berlin, the rebuilt Volksbühne Theatre
wealth, the play ends with the death of her opened in 1954 and went on to stage
oldest enemy at the hands of the townspeople, impressive work under the management of the
who will do anything for a share in her Swiss director Benno Besson (1969–79). The
fortune. playwright Heiner Müller directed his popular
version of Macbeth there in 1982. In West
Vital Spark, the The usual billing for Berlin, the Volksbühne company returned to
Jenny Hill (Elizabeth Pasta; 1851–96), an its original ideals, moving into a new theatre in
early MUSIC HALL performer at the Pavilion in 1963 under Piscator. In the former West
London. She began her career by entertaining Germany, there were about 65 towns with
in East End public houses. After being deserted resident companies. Reunification of the
by her acrobat husband, she lived for years in country in 1990 led to a merger of the divided
poverty. Her act at the Pavilion included such Volksbühne.
songs as ‘The Little Stowaway’, dancing, and
male impersonations. Ironically the ‘Vital Volksstück (German: popular drama) An
Spark’ retired to Streatham in poor health and often scurrilous form of Viennese dialect
died at the age of 45. comedy popular in the 18th and 19th
centuries. The most famous example is Mozart
Vivat! Vivat Regina! A chronicle and Schikaneder’s opera The Magic Flute
play by Robert BOLT, which explores the (1791). The genre developed from the
relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary improvisational works of two Austrian actors –
Queen of Scots. It opened at the Chichester Joseph Anton Stranitzky (1676–1726), who
Festival Theatre in 1970, later transferring to created the comic figure of HANSWURST, and
London’s Piccadilly Theatre, where it ran for Gottfried Prehauser (1699–1769), who
over a year with 442 performances. Bolt’s wife, inherited and refined the stock character.
Sarah Miles, played Elizabeth and Eileen Philipp Hafner (1731–64) was a leading
Atkins appeared as Mary. exponent of the Volksstück, his most notable
The play begins with the young Mary’s work being Megära, the Terrible Witch (1755).
assumption of the Scottish throne. Her Although the Austrian censors banned
imprudent political dealings and disastrous improvisation in 1768, some playwrights,
marriages soon alienate the Scottish nobles, such as Joseph Felix von Kurz (1715–84),
who eventually ask Elizabeth to depose her. continued the tradition. Kurz, who created the
The English queen replies that she will not act popular character of BERNADON, and wrote
unless she has proof that Mary has conspired more than 300 plays.
with English Catholics. Confined to Sheffield During the 19th century, the Volksstück
Castle, Mary is almost inadvertently drawn produced two offshoots. The Zauberstück (Ger.
into a Catholic plot, an act that leads to her magic play) used music and spectacle to create
execution. The play originally concluded with a fairytale atmosphere; Ferdinand Raimund
a long and thrilling speech by Elizabeth but (1790–1836) wrote and acted in many of these
was revised to end with the execution of Mary. farces. The more realistic Lokalstück satirized
 Voltaire 531

Viennese manners; Johann Nestroy (1801–62) The son of a notary, Voltaire was educated
produced the best of these caustic works. The at a Jesuit school in Paris. While serving a
Volksstück declined at the end of the 19th prison sentence in the Bastille for writing a
century and was absorbed into either operetta satire on the regent, he finished his first play,
or broader-based comedy. the tragedy Oedipe (1718), which was
performed to great acclaim. While living in
Volpone, or the Fox Ben JONSON’s England (1726–29), he visited the elderly
satirical comedy about human greed. It was William CONGREVE and discovered the works
first performed in 1606 by the King’s Men and of Shakespeare. On his return to Paris, he
has often been revived. The drama was first wrote several plays on Shakespearean themes,
seen in New York in 1928 in a production by such as Brutus (1730), and his great success,
the THEATRE GUILD and in Paris in 1931, when ZAÏRE (1732). He also adopted his pen name,
it was directed by Charles Dullin. Volpone was an anagram of Arouet l(e) i(eune).
one of Donald WOLFIT’s most celebrated Voltaire, a good amateur actor, promoted
roles; he first played it in 1938 at London’s restrained acting styles and spectacular stage
Westminster Theatre, and it was included in effects. He also campaigned successfully
his repertoire for his New York debut in 1947. against the practice of seating a section of the
During the play’s subsequent run at the Savoy audience on the stage. Among his theatrical
Theatre, the critic Harold Hobson wrote,
acquaintances were the actor Henri-Louis
“Volpone has the teeming life of worms in a
LEKAIN, whom he discovered and trained,
rotting corpse, and Mr Wolfit plays it with all
and his close friend, the actress Adrienne
the 57 kinds of relish.” A musical version
LECOUVREUR. However, he also had his
entitled Foxy opened in 1964 at New York’s
detractors; when Voltaire asked the French
Ziegfeld Theatre. Despite critical reviews, its
playwright Alexis Piron (1689–1773) his
leading man, Bert Lahr, received the Tony
opinion of a new play, Piron predicted that it
Award for Best Musical Star Actor. Jonson’s
would be hissed. Voltaire invited him to the
play was later seen in National Theatre
first night, and, when the piece finished to
productions by Tyrone Guthrie and Peter
moderate applause, pointed out that nobody
Hall.
had hissed. “My dear Sir,” replied Piron, “how
The story concerns Volpone (the fox), a
can people hiss when they yawn?”
cunning Venetian who feigns a terminal
After publishing Lettres philosophiques
illness; aided by his ‘parasite’ Mosca (the fly),
(1734), which compared France unfavourably
he dupes three Venetians into showering him
with England, Voltaire had to take refuge for
with expensive gifts, in the hope of inheriting
15 years with Madame du Châtelet at Cirey.
his wealth. The would-be heirs are Voltore (the
Whilst there, he wrote a number of successful
vulture), Corbaccio (the crow), who disinherits
tragedies, including Alzire (1736), Mahomet
his own son to show his loyalty to Volpone,
(1742), and Mérope (1743). Mahomet
and Corvino (the raven), who even offers his
wife. Volpone goes too far, however, when he was banned until Voltaire passed off a
pretends to have died and left everything to commendatory letter from the pope about one
Mosca. When the treacherous servant tries to of his poems as an approval of his play. He
blackmail him, Volpone reveals all to the also embarked on a battle of plays with his
authorities. The magistrates give his fortune to adversary, the former dramatic censor Prosper
the infirm, order his imprisonment until he Jolyot de Crébillon; Sémiramis (1748) and five
becomes as weak as he pretended to be, and other works by Voltaire trumped plays by
have Mosca flogged and sent to the galleys. Crébillon on the same subjects.
When Madame du Châtelet died in 1749,
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet; Voltaire moved to the court of Frederick
1694–1778) French writer and thinker, whose the Great. In 1758 he settled at Ferney,
attacks on political and religious tyranny made Switzerland, where he wrote Tancrède (1760),
him a leading figure of the Enlightenment. which began a vogue for plays based on French
Amongst his numerous writings are 53 history. His fame was now so widespread, and
plays, more than half of which are tragedies: visits by the famous so numerous, that he
others belong to the genres of the COMÉDIE became known as the ‘Innkeeper of Europe’.
LARMOYANTE and the drame bourgeois (see In 1778, after an exile of 28 years, he
DRAME). returned triumphantly to Paris to direct the
532 vomitory

rehearsals for Irène. At its sixth performance, London. Coward later claimed that its succès de
his bust was ceremoniously crowned on stage scandale had caused him a nervous breakdown.
while he watched from his box. He died two He was succeeded in the lead role by John
months later, and was hastily interred by the Gielgud. Audiences were shocked by the play’s
priests of the Abbey of Scellières before the treatment of adultery, drug addiction, and
authorities could refuse a Christian burial. (indirectly) homosexuality; one critic referred
to it as “this dustbin of a play”. See also LORD
vomitory In a THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND, a CHAMBERLAIN.
gangway running underneath the auditorium The plot involves Florence Lancaster
to provide access to the stage. The term comes (originally played by Lilian Braithwaite), a
from the ancient Roman theatre, when it society hostess, whose despair at her fading
referred to a large door in an AMPHITHEATRE. beauty leads her into an affair with the young
In the modern theatre it is sometimes Tom Veryan. When her adult son Nicky
abbreviated to vom. returns from France with his fiancée, Bunty
Vormingstoneel (politiek) (Dutch: Mainwaring, they throw a party in their
country house. After Nicky and Bunty break
(political) educational drama) A left-wing
off their engagement, Florence finds Tom and
movement in Dutch and Belgian theatre in the
Bunty kissing; Florence’s tantrum provides
1970s. As in SOCIALIST REALISM, the theatre
Nicky with the opportunity to confront his
was seen as an instrument to further the
mother about her adultery and confess his drug
class struggle through political education.
addiction. She breaks down, promising to be a
The Dutch companies included Proloog
better mother.
(1964–83), De Nieuwe Komedie (1969–85),
and Sater (1971–85); while the main Belgian Vortigern and Rowena See IRELAND
troupes were Kollektief Internationale Nieuwe FORGERIES.
Scene, Mannen van de Dam (Men of the
Dam), and Het Trojaanse Paard (The Trojan Voysey Inheritance, The A comedy
Horse). by Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER, first performed
The scripts were often the product of in 1905 at London’s Royal Court Theatre,
COLLECTIVE CREATION. Performances took which he co-managed with J. E. Vedrenne.
place in such venues as factories and schools, There was a revival at the National Theatre in
or during political demonstrations, and were 2006. The story involves an ethical dilemma
usually followed by discussions relating the faced by Edward Voysey, a partner in a
drama to social needs and conditions. This solicitors’ firm in Lincoln’s Inn. He is
activist approach, especially strong amongst mortified to find that his father (the senior
the Dutch companies, led in the 1980s to the partner) has illegally speculated with clients’
withdrawal of their subsidies and the collapse funds and run the family business deep into
of the movement. debt. When his father dies unexpectedly,
Edward informs his family of the problem and
Vortex, The The controversial play that his intention to call in the police. They
established the reputation of the 24-year-old dissuade him from doing so, leaving Edward to
Noël COWARD, who wrote, directed, and tackle the problems on his own. His honesty
starred in it. The Vortex was first performed in and assertiveness win the love of Alice
1924 at the Everyman Theatre in Hampstead, Maitland.
 walk-through 533

the Classical Theatre of Harlem in a hurricane-

W devastated New Orleans in 2007. In 2009

there were highly praised revivals on both
Broadway, where Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin
played the two leads, and the West End stage,
wagon See BOAT TRUCK. where Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart
wait Originally a medieval nightwatchman attracted large audiences to the Haymarket
whose duty was to sound the hours on various Theatre. See also ABSURD, THEATRE OF THE.
musical instruments. In Elizabethan times Waiting for Lefty A polemical play by
groups of four to nine waits would serve a the left-wing US playwright Clifford ODETS. It
town as resident musicians much in the was first performed in 1935 at the GROUP
manner of a modern town band; alternatively, THEATRE, New York; three years later it was
they were sometimes employed by a nobleman, presented with equal success at the Unity
in which case they wore his livery. Their Theatre, London. Waiting for Lefty helped to
connection with the theatre began when, to raise the profile of drama as a medium for
earn extra money, they hired themselves
social comment.
out to provide music for plays. By the time
The play consists of seven loosely
nightwatchmen were replaced by organized
connected vignettes, framed by a meeting of
police forces in the early 19th century the
New York taxi drivers, who are deciding
waits’ main function was to serenade
whether or not to strike. Issues raised include
householders and perform street music at
the failings of the US medical system, the
Christmas time.
problems of an actor seeking work, and the
Waiting for Godot A tragicomedy by ethics of manufacturing poison gas.
Samuel BECKETT, considered by many to be
the most important work written for the Wakefield Master The unidentified
European stage since World War II. The author of the five extant MYSTERY PLAYs of the
play was originally written in French as En 32 in the early 15th-century Wakefield Cycle,
Attendant Godot in 1949 and received its first performed at Wakefield, Yorkshire; they are
performance at the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris, also known as the Towneley Cycle. The works
in 1953. The first English production was attributed to the Wakefield Master are
staged in 1955 by Peter HALL at the Arts Processus Noe cum Filiis (The Pageant of Noah
Theatre, London. The drama critic Penelope and his Sons), Pagina Pastorum (The Shepherds’
Gilliatt said the play arrived in London “like a Play), Secunda Pastorum (The Second Shepherds’
sword burying itself in an over-upholstered Play), Magnus Herodes (Herod the Great), and
sofa.” The 1956 Broadway cast included the Coliphizacio (About the High Priest Caiaphas).
comedian Bert Lahr, best known for his The plays are all written in the nine-line
Cowardly Lion in the film The Wizard of Oz stanza used only in the Wakefield Cycle (other
(1939). The play later toured America billed as cycles use a 13-line stanza). The language is
“the laugh sensation of two continents.” colloquial. Despite the biblical subject matter,
The two-act play, which has been humour and farce both feature strongly; the
described as one in which “nothing happens – Wakefield Master is considered to be one of
twice”, variously bewildered, fascinated, the wittiest and most accomplished of the
exasperated, or intrigued audiences and critics. authors of mystery plays.
The symbolism of the two bowler-hatted
walking gentleman or lady See
tramps (Vladimir and Estragon), waiting
STOCK COMPANY.
stoically for the mysterious Godot to arrive
and bring meaning to their lives has been a walk-on part A part in a play in which
subject of debate ever since. The play has been the actor has only to walk about on stage,
translated into over 20 languages and is sometimes with a word or two to say.
regularly revived across the world. Some
particularly resonant productions have walk-through An early rehearsal of a
included those staged by inmates of San play in which movements, entrances, and exits
Quentin Prison in 1963, by Susan Sontag in are first added in (see BLOCKING). It is usually
the besieged city of Sarajevo in 1993, and by carried out with the actors reading from the
534 Wall, Max

script while standing and walking. Compare in serious drama; he undertook his first
RUN-THROUGH. ‘legitimate’ role in 1956, when he appeared
as UBU in Jarry’s Ubu Roi. He later gave
Wall, Max (1908–90) British variety acclaimed performances in both Osborne’s
performer, noted for his grotesque physical THE ENTERTAINER (1974) and Beckett’s
comedy. The son of Jack Lorimer, an eccentric WAITING FOR GODOT (1981). In 1973 he
dancer known as the ‘Hielan Laddie’, Wall
played the British impresario Sir Charles
made his variety debut as a child, when he was
COCHRAN in Peter Saunders’s musical comedy
billed as ‘The Boy with the Obedient Feet’. As
Cockie at the Vaudeville Theatre. Two years
an adult he appeared in cabaret as ‘Max Wall
later he successfully revived his old variety act
and His Independent Legs’, making his West
as Aspects of Max Wall, and received a special
End debut in the London Review of 1925. His
award from the Variety Club.
eccentric dance would begin with a few quiet
taps, before building into a mad frenzied whirl, Wallace, Nellie (Eleanor Jane Wallace;
during which he would rip off clothes and tear 1870–1948) British music-hall comedienne
out his hair. In the 1920s and 1930s Wall famous for her broad humour. Often billed as
toured Europe and America, making his first the Essence of Eccentricity, she dressed as a
New York appearance in Earl Carroll’s Vanities tatty spinster in a tartan skirt, a hat with a
in 1932. It was during this period that he first skimpy feather, and a shabby fur, which she
began to intersperse his physical routines with called “me little bit of vermin”. She is
sardonic one-liners (example: “If they sawed a remembered for such songs as ‘I Lost Georgie
woman in half, I’d get the half that eats”). in Trafalgar Square’, ‘My Mother Always Said
Wall’s most famous creation was the Look Under the Bed’, and ‘Three Cheers for
grotesque pianist Professor Wallofski. The the Red, White, and Blue’.
antics of the professor, an outrageous figure Born in Glasgow, she made her debut in
in black shoulder-length wig, black tails, Birmingham in 1882 as a child clog dancer,
black tights, and large black boots, derived became part of an act called the Three Sisters
ultimately from the musical nonsense of the
Wallace, and finally went solo. In 1910 she
great Swiss clown GROCK. Wall invented the
appeared on the opening bill at the Palladium.
character while serving with the Royal Air
She eventually became one of the few
Force during World War II but did not
successful female pantomime DAMES, making
present him on stage until 1946, when he
an appearance in 1935 as the Wicked Witch
appeared in the revue Make It A Date at the
Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty at the
Duchess Theatre, London. Wallofski was
Vaudeville Theatre.
usually introduced by a statuesque lady, who
would attempt to engage him in polite Wallack family A British-US theatrical
conversation: family that produced four noted actors: Henry
LADY What are you going to play for John Wallack (1790–1870), his son James
us, Professor? William Wallack (1818–73), Henry’s younger
PROF Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody, brother, also named James William Wallack
number two. (1791–1864), and his son Lester Wallack
LADY Oh, Liszt! I love him! (John Johnstone Wallack; 1820–88), who was
PROF Do you really? Well, perhaps also a playwright.
you’d like me to dig him up? Henry John Wallack was born in London,
Infuriated by such exchanges the woman the son of William Wallack, a star of Astley’s
would lift the professor up to her height by his Amphitheatre, where young Henry appeared
lapels. When he finally reached the piano the with his father. In 1818 he emigrated to
professor would go through such absurd America and joined Thomas Wignell’s
routines as finding a little potty inside the company at Philadelphia’s CHESTNUT STREET
piano stool, attempting to play with the THEATRE. He appeared at the Chatham
keyboard lid down, crushing his fingers, etc. Theatre, New York, in 1924, taking over its
As he played the piano, one arm would appear management two years later. In 1837 he
to become longer than the other. became stage-manager at his brother James’s
Wall’s physical magnetism, mournful eyes, National Theatre in New York, where he
and lantern jaw proved just as effective achieved considerable success in 1847 as Sir
 Waltz of the Toreadors, The 535

Peter Teazle in Sheridan’s The School for it “not unlike Shakespeare’s historical plays – a
Scandal. species by itself”.
James William Wallack II, was born Wallenstein follows the career of the
in London and served an apprenticeship Austrian general Albrecht von Wallenstein
with his father before joining his uncle (1583–1634), who was victorious in the Thirty
James’s company at the National in 1837. He Years’ War until his defeat in 1632 by
specialized in tragedy and melodrama, playing Gustavus Adolphus at Lützen. He was later
many leading Shakespearean roles. In 1865 he murdered by his officers, who thought he was
joined his cousin Lester at Wallack’s Theatre, going to defect to the Swedish enemy. Schiller
New York. His later successes included Fagin first became attracted to the story while
in Oliver Twist and Mathias in The Bells. carrying out research as a professor of history
The elder James William Wallack began at the University of Jena. The drama explores
acting at the age of 12, and subsequently spent the corrupting effect of power.
nearly 10 years at Covent Garden. From 1818
Walnut Street Theatre A theatre in
onwards he played romantic and tragic roles in
Philadelphia, the oldest US theatre still in use
both America and Britain. He was general
today. Built in 1809 as a circus venue, it was
manager of the National Theatre, New York,
converted to use as a theatre in 1811 to
from 1837 until 1839, when it burned down.
compete with the established and successful
In 1852 he reopened the New York Lyceum as CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE. The rivalry
Wallack’s Theatre, which became one of the between the two theatres was such that both
city’s leading venues. He made his farewell lavished vast amounts of money on importing
performance there in 1859; two years later he fashionable British and European acts in
opened a second Wallack’s on Broadway, attempts to outdo each other. The appearance
shortly before retiring and leaving the theatre of another rival, the ARCH STREET THEATRE, in
to his son Lester and nephew James. 1828 proved too much for the two better-
James’s son Lester Wallack was born in established venues, both of which became
New York but began his career in the bankrupt in 1829 as a result of their wild
provincial theatre in Britain. His New York extravagance.
debut came in 1847 in Boucicault’s Used Up; The Walnut Street Theatre recovered,
he subsequently played romantic and comic however, and went on to support a talented
roles before joining his father at Wallack’s stock company, even though New York was
Theatre. He took over the management of already replacing Philadelphia as the centre of
Wallack’s in 1861; amongst his many successes the US theatre. The Walnut Street Theatre
was his own play, Rosedale, which opened in was redesigned in 1970 to accommodate an
1863. He opened a third Wallack’s in 1882 audience of 1052. The Philadelphia Drama
and managed both venues until his retirement Guild was based here from 1971 until 1980.
five years later. The Walnut Street Theatre Corporation now
Lester collected theatrical spoonerisms. His offers a subscription series of five main-stage
favourite occurred in a production of The plays every year, as well as a range of studio
School for Scandal at Wallack’s Theatre, when productions and children’s events.
the actor H. B. Crabtree tried to say “a bullet
in the thorax” but came out with “a thullet in Waltz of the Toreadors, The One of
the borax”. None of the audience noticed until Jean ANOUILH’s pièces grinçantes, or harsh
his fellow actor John Brougham (who never comedies. It was first performed in 1952 in
failed to inflate others’ mistakes) boomed out, Paris. The first London production (1956) was
“What the devil is his borax?” staged by Peter Hall at the Arts Theatre Club
and featured strong performances by Hugh
Wallenstein Friederich von SCHILLER’s Griffith and Beatrix Lehmann. A film version
dramatic masterpiece, a historical trilogy was later made with Peter Sellers.
completed in 1799. No record exists of its first The story concerns General St Pé, a former
performance at the Weimar Court Theatre, war hero now facing retirement with an
which Schiller managed with Goethe from unloved and bitterly neurotic wife. Although
1799 to 1805. The last two parts of he has enjoyed numerous affairs, his one true
Wallenstein were translated into English in love remains Ghislaine, the young woman
1800 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who called with whom he once danced the Waltz of the
536 Warburton’s cook

Toreadors nearly 20 years earlier. However, Forget-Me-Not by Herman Merivale and F. C.

when Ghislaine suddenly reappears in his life Grove at the Lyceum Theatre, London, a
and makes it clear that she still loves him, the venue which she briefly managed. In 1891 she
General finds himself unable to leave his wife. joined Henry Irving at the Lyceum, appearing
Ghislaine becomes so frustrated that she leaps first as Queen Eleanor in Tennyson’s Becket.
from an upstairs window: fortunately she lands She made her farewell appearance in 1920,
in the arms of St Pé’s young secretary, Gaston. playing Queen Margaret to Frank Benson’s
The ensuing romance between Ghislaine and Richard III.
Gaston, who turns out to be the General’s
illegitimate son, drives St Pé to the brink of wardrobe All the costumes assembled for
suicide. In the event, he contents himself with a stage production. These are either specially
beginning an affair with his new maid. created for a play or taken from a large
permanent collection kept in the theatre’s
Warburton’s cook The servant of the wardrobe room. Larger theatres have their own
English antiquarian and book collector John wardrobe mistress or master, whose duties
Warburton (1682–1759), who was responsible include buying cloth, sewing the costumes,
for the destruction of some 60 unique fitting actors, and making modifications, as
manuscripts of Elizabethan and Jacobean well as cleaning, repairing, and storing
plays, collected by her master. Betsy Baker by costumes.
name, she was clearly unaware or unheedful of Theatre properties can also be stored in the
the value of the manuscripts assembled by wardrobe room. Joseph Addison wrote in 1711
Warburton, the Herald of Somerset: of a visit to a playhouse wardrobe in which he
After I had been many years collecting saw “daggers, poniards, wheels, bowls of
these MSS playes, through my own poison”.
carelessness and the ignorance of my
servant in whose hands I had lodged war of the theatres or poetomachia
them, they was unluckely burnd or put A battle of insults between three of the leading
under pye bottoms… Elizabethan dramatists. The opening shot was
Of the total collection only three plays and a Ben JONSON’s Every Man out of His Humour
fragment of a fourth were saved from an (1599), which presents bitter portraits of
ignominious fate at Betsy’s hands and John his contemporaries John MARSTON and
Warburton has gone down in history as “the Thomas Dekker. Jonson struck again in 1600
pie-eating herald”. Although many of the lost with Cynthia’s Revels and in 1601 with the
manuscripts were probably of little interest, it devastating Poetaster. Marston counterattacked
has been conjectured that they may have weakly with What You Will (1601) before
included works by Thomas Dekker, John collaborating with Dekker to give an offensive
Ford, Philip Massinger, Cyril Tourneur, and portrait of Jonson as an inflated pedant in
William Shakespeare. Satiromastix (1602). The cause of the quarrel is
now obscure and some theatre historians
Ward, Dame (Lucy) Geneviève believe that the entire exercise may have been a
Teresa (1838–1922) US actress, who in publicity stunt for all three writers.
1921 became the first actress to be created a
Dame of the British Empire. Born in New Wars of the Roses, The The four
York, she began her career as an opera singer Shakespeare plays set during the Wars of the
using the stage name Madame Ginevra Roses – the three parts of HENRY VI and
Guerrabella, but turned to acting when she lost RICHARD III – adapted for performance as a
her singing voice through illness. Her career as cycle by John Barton. The Royal Shakespeare
an actress began in 1873 when she appeared in Company has given two highly praised
Manchester as Lady Macbeth, a part that she productions of the sequence. The first, in
also performed in French at the Théâtre de la 1963–64, was directed by Peter HALL with
Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris. A year later she Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Margaret, David
won acclaim in the role of Portia in The Warner as Henry VI, Donald Sinden as York,
Merchant of Venice. and Ian Holm as Richard III. The second, in
Ward made her New York debut in 1878 1978, was directed by Terry Hands and starred
in the tragic title role of Jane Shore by W. G. Alan Howard as Henry VI. The same general
Wills. In 1879 she produced and starred in title was given to the English Shakespeare
 Way of the World, The 537

Company’s staging of the complete sequence Nazi resistance with a price on his head and
of Shakespeare’s history plays (Richard II to attempts to blackmail him. Although Sara’s
Richard III) in 1987. family hope to avoid unpleasantness by buying
Teck off, Kurt knows this is no solution; he
Washington Square Players A US therefore kills the Romanian and leaves
theatre group formed in 1914 by amateur immediately for Germany. Hellman’s point –
players to perform a summer repertory season that Americans must brace themselves to
at Provincetown, Massachusetts. The founders confront the evils of Nazism – proved
included the Welsh-born producer Lawrence particularly timely: by the time the play closed,
Langner, who later helped to found the America was at war.
THEATRE GUILD in 1919. In 1915 the During the performances, the actor
Washington Square Players moved into a Charles Goldner ran a sweepstake in which
former stable in New York’s Greenwich members of the cast guessed the evening’s box
Village, before taking over the 40-seat office takings. Goldner always won because he
Bandbox Theatre, where they presented one- made the first entrance, walked to centre
act plays. In 1916 the company transferred to stage to kiss the leading lady’s hand, then
the 600-seat Comedy Theatre, where they straightened up and let his eyes roam slowly
performed their first full-length productions, from stalls to gallery, to assess the number of
including Chekhov’s The Seagull, Ibsen’s empty seats.
Ghosts, and Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession.
Members of the company included the water puppet show A form of puppet
actress Katharine CORNELL, who made her theatre in Vietnam; it is said to have been
professional debut there in Bushido in 1916, performed for 1000 years. Several troupes still
the set designer and director Robert Edmond exist. The plays are performed on pavilions
JONES, and the theatrical designer Lee built on landing stages in lakes. The
Simonson (1888–1967), who was later a puppeteers stand up to their waists in water
founder and director of the Theatre Guild. behind reed screens, and move the brightly
The Washington Square Players broke up in coloured puppets over the surface of the lake
1918, as a result of financial difficulties. with underwater rods.
The chief character is the smiling Teu,
Waste A tragedy by the British dramatist who often wears a red loincloth. The plays also
Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER. It was first feature an array of animals including the
performed privately in London in 1907 by the unicorn, phoenix, dragon, and tortoise,
Stage Society, after the Lord Chamberlain together with fish, ducks, and other creatures
refused to license it for performance at the swimming, flying, dancing, and fighting on
Royal Court Theatre. The ban, which was and below the water. The performance is
imposed because one of the characters has an accompanied by music provided by an
illegal abortion, was not lifted until 1936. The orchestra of flutes, drums, and gongs.
plot centres on Henry Trebell, an idealistic
MP who is brought down by an affair with a Way of the World, The William
married woman and the manoeuvrings of his CONGREVE’s finest comedy of manners, which
colleagues. Recent years have seen highly was initially such a failure that he retired from
praised revivals at the Old Vic in 1997 and the the theatre. It was first performed in 1700 at
Almeida Theatre in 2008. Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, which was
managed by Congreve and Thomas Betterton.
Watch on the Rhine, The Lillian The play’s cool reception was mainly owing to
HELLMAN’s anti-Nazi drama, first produced in its convoluted plot and sophisticated dialogue,
1941 in New York, where it ran for 378 both of which were difficult to follow. Critical
performances. opinion has since recognized the skill of its
The play, which is set in 1940, opens with construction and its serious appraisal of sexual
Sara Muller returning to America with her morality.
German husband, Kurt. Sara is shocked to find Following the first production, which
the Romanian aristocrat Teck de Brancovis, a starred Betterton, The Way of the World
fascist sympathizer, staying with her mother enjoyed only two revivals in the following 50
and brother in their country home. Teck years. Thereafter it was considered too old
discovers that Kurt is a member of the anti- fashioned and too bawdy for the public stage:
538 Way Upstream

it even shocked theatregoers as late as the while the short plump Weber played the
1920s, when it was revived at the Oxford innocent Mike. Both wore ridiculous padded
Playhouse to packed student audiences. A suits and small bowler hats.
highly successful production was staged in The sons of Polish Jewish immigrants,
1953, with John Gielgud as Mirabell, Pamela Weber and Fields appeared together in
Brown as Millamant, and Margaret Rutherford minstrel routines from the age of nine. They
as Lady Wishfort. later created a slapstick ‘knockabout Dutch
Mirabell is in love with the witty and act’ featuring comic broken English. In 1885
spirited Millamant, but conceals his pursuit by they formed their own company for writing
courting her aunt Lady Wishfort, who is and acting burlesques at the Broadway Music
opposed to the match. The lovers eventually Hall; 10 years later they opened their own
agree to marry after the famous ‘bargaining theatre. Weber eventually went on to direct
scene’, in which they negotiate an agreement as shows, while Fields moved into musical
to their rights within marriage. comedy and took over the Wallack Theatre in
1904. They performed together for the last
Way Upstream A comedy by Alan time in 1912. Weber retired in 1918 and
AYCKBOURN, first performed in 1981 at the Fields in 1929.
STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE IN THE ROUND,
Scarborough, where Ayckbourn is artistic Webster family The English actor-
director; it was produced at the National manager and dramatist Ben Nottingham
Theatre a year later. Webster (1797–1882); his grandson the actor
The plot centres on Keith and June, who Ben Webster (1864–1947) and his actress wife
are taking a canal-boat holiday with another Mary Whitty (1865–1948); and their daughter
couple, Alistair and Emma. The domineering Margaret Webster (1905–71), who became an
Keith orders his companions about as they actress, director, and author.
wend their way upriver, squabbling all the way. The elder Ben Webster began his
Keith’s secretary continually interrupts their theatrical career playing the violin at the
holiday with news of a growing labour dispute Croydon Theatre; for six weeks he walked
at his factory, until Keith finally has to from Shoreditch to Croydon on twopence a
leave, and soon the boat runs aground. The day (“one pennyworth of oatmeal and one
remaining holiday-makers are rescued by pennyworth of milk”). Webster’s special treat
Vince, who claims to be an old hand with came when the gallery pelted the orchestra
narrow boats. Vince soon takes over the with mutton pies, which he collected and ate
expedition, subjecting the others to a under the stage.
dictatorial regime and revealing himself as a His first parts were as Harlequin and
sadistic maniac. He seduces the grateful June, Pantaloon in the provinces and subsequently
at Drury Lane. He performed in broad comedy
and becomes involved in a brawl with the
at the Olympic Theatre before turning to
mild-mannered Alistair. Eventually Vince is
managing and acting at the Haymarket from
overthrown and Alistair and Emma head
1837 to 1853. He wrote comedies, farces, and
upstream alone. The element of political
adaptations, including one of Dickens’s The
allegory was not missed by the original critics.
Cricket on the Hearth. Webster’s finest role was
Weaver, John (1673–1760) English as Triplet in Taylor and Reade’s Masks and
dancing-master, who helped to create the Faces, which he produced in 1852 at both the
English HARLEQUINADE. Weaver introduced Haymarket and the Adelphi. He went on to
French balletic mimes or ‘scenical dancing’ to manage the Princess’s Theatre in 1869 and
the English theatre in his ITALIAN NIGHT retired in 1874.
SCENES, which were based on the scenarios of The younger Ben Webster first appeared
the commedia dell’arte. In 1728 he published a in London in 1887, going on to establish a
History of Mimes and Pantomimes. reputation with his performances in the works
of Shakespeare and Shaw. Webster, who
Weber and Fields A US BURLESQUE emigrated to America in 1939, was surprised at
comedy team consisting of Joseph Weber the US custom of rewriting a play during
(1867–1942) and Lew Fields (Lewis Maurice rehearsals. When he asked the actress Grace
Shanfields; 1867–1941). Fields, who was tall George which version of a particular play she
and thin, played the devious character Mayer, intended to act, she replied, “Whichever I can
 Weimar style 539

remember when I get to it.” He earned a Webster was much possessed by death
distinguished name on Broadway, making his And saw the skull beneath the skin;
farewell appearance there in 1940 as Montague And breastless creatures under ground
in Romeo and Juliet. Leaned backwards with lipless grin.
Mary Whitty married Ben Webster in T. S. ELIOT: Whispers of Immortality
1892. She made her debut in Liverpool in
1881 and a year later played at the St James’s Wedekind, Frank (Benjamin Franklin
Theatre, London. Eventually she joined Henry Wedekind; 1864–1918) German playwright
Irving’s company at the Lyceum, touring and actor, whose sexual, violent, and grotesque
America with the troupe in 1895. She themes shocked his audiences. His dramas
appeared in Harley Granville-Barker’s The mark a transition between REALISM and
Madras House (1910) and Emlyn Williams’s EXPRESSIONISM in the theatre. Wedekind was a
Night Must Fall (1935). Whitty went to New major influence on Bertolt Brecht who said,
York with Webster in 1939. “Like Tolstoy and Strindberg, Wedekind was
Margaret Webster, daughter of Webster one of the great educators of modern Europe.
and Whitty, first appeared on stage at the age His greatest work was his own personality.”
of 12. She made her adult debut in 1924 in the Wedekind worked as a journalist,
chorus of Euripides’s The Trojan Women. The advertising manager, and secretary to a circus
production starred Sybil Thorndike, with before becoming a cabaret singer and actor
whom she later toured in Shaw’s Saint Joan. in Leipzig. Excited by the new drama of
Webster joined Gielgud’s Old Vic company in Strindberg and Hauptmann, he turned to
1929 and played in his Hamlet the following playwriting in 1889, provoking a sensation
year. In 1937 she directed Maurice Evans in a with his portrayal of adolescent sexuality
successful Broadway production of Richard II. in The Young World (1890) and SPRING
Webster’s 1943 production of Othello, in AWAKENING (1891). The latter, featuring
which she played Emilia to Paul Robeson’s adolescent deaths resulting from abortion and
Moor, broke all records for Shakespeare on suicide, did not receive an unexpurgated
Broadway. In 1946 she helped to found the British production until 1974.
American Repertory Theatre, directing and Themes of sex and death were also
acting in the opening production of Henry explored in Wedekind’s plays about the amoral
VIII. Lulu, EARTH SPIRIT (1898) and PANDORA’S
Webster, John (c. 1580–1634) English BOX (1903). The part of Lulu was created by
playwright. Little is now known about Wedekind’s wife, Tilly Newes (Mathilde
Webster’s life. He was the son of a London Newes; 1886–1970), who appeared in many
coachmaker and appears to have studied law at of his plays.
the Middle Temple. Although he is recorded After Wedekind’s death the director
as the author of several other works, incuding a Leopold Jessner enjoyed a great success at the
history play, Lady Jane, his only surviving National Theatre in Berlin with his 1920
works are Westward Ho! and Northward Ho! production of Wedekind’s play about
(1604–05), written in collaboration with sophisticated crooks, Der Marquis von Keith
Thomas Dekker, the comedy The Devil’s Law (1900).
Case (1620), and the two tragic masterpieces,
THE WHITE DEVIL (1612) and THE DUCHESS OF Weimar style A style of acting outlined
MALFI (1614). With their eloquent poetry and by GOETHE in his ‘Rules for Actors’, written
superbly crafted plots, the two plays are when he was a director at the Weimar Court
amongst the most compelling of Jacobean Theatre (1791–1817). The detailed code of
REVENGE TRAGEDIES. Nevertheless, Webster rules, which dealt with articulation, ways of
has often been criticized for the violence and controlling tempo and tone when speaking,
morbidity of his work: George Bernard Shaw principles of posture and movement, and social
called him the “Tussaud Laureate” of English conduct offstage, was prompted by the
literature, while Rupert Brooke described his regional accents and undisciplined stage
plays as “full of the feverish and ghastly behaviour of members of Goethe’s poorly
turmoil of a nest of maggots”. Both The White educated company. Goethe expected his actors
Devil and The Duchess of Malfi have enjoyed to be models of decorum, both on and off
frequent modern revivals. stage. His aim was grace, formality, and
540 Weir, The

dignity – although some thought the end controversial ‘labour opera’ The Cradle Will
result rather stiff. Rock, Project officials closed the theatre two
The Weimar style did, however, create the hours before the curtain was due to go up.
most integrated ensemble of Goethe’s era, and Welles and Houseman simply moved the
influenced many actors in the early 19th audience to another theatre and performed
century. Goethe also expected high standards without scenery.
of conduct from his audiences and was known That same year the two men opened their
to reprimand them during a performance for renowned Mercury Theatre with an anti-fascist
indecorous behaviour. See also HAMBURG interpretation of Julius Caesar in modern dress,
STYLE; LEIPZIG STYLE. featuring Welles as Brutus. In 1938 the
Mercury’s radio version of H. G. Wells’s
Weir, The The spellbinding drama of love, The War of the Worlds caused panic among
loss, and the supernatural by Irish dramatist listeners, who thought that Martians were
Conor MCPHERSON. It was first performed in genuinely invading New Jersey. In 1940
1997 in a production by London’s ROYAL Welles took several of the Mercury players to
COURT THEATRE, which had commissioned the Hollywood, where he wrote, produced,
piece on the basis of McPherson’s earlier play directed, and starred in the film classic Citizen
This Lime Tree Bower (1997). Owing to the Kane (1941).
closure of the Royal Court for renovation, it After a decade in Hollywood, Welles
was premiered at the Ambassadors Theatre, returned to the theatre in 1951, making his
where Ian Dickson’s production ran for two London debut in the title role of Othello; in
months before transferring to the much larger 1955 he played Ahab in Moby Dick with “a
Duke of York’s. By the time the play closed voice of bottled thunder” (in the words of
in 2000 it had become the Royal Court’s Kenneth Tynan). He designed and directed a
most successful ever production. It also ran production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros at the Royal
successfully on Broadway, in Toronto, and Court Theatre, London, in 1960.
elsewhere, and is already emerging as a staple Welles, as a true showman, was never at a
of the amateur repertoire. loss on stage. When his false nose fell off
The play is set in a remote country pub in during Moby Dick, he kicked the putty
the West of Ireland. One winter’s evening, appendage straight into the stalls. In 1956,
Jack and Jim, two local bachelors, are when he broke one ankle and sprained the
exchanging banter with Brendan, the barman. other playing King Lear in New York, he
After a while Finbar, the village entrepreneur, disguised a wheelchair as a throne and rolled
comes in with Valerie, a pretty young through the part.
Dubliner who has just taken a house in the
area. At this point the men begin to compete well-made play English translation of
for Valerie’s attention by taking it in turns to the French phrase une pièce bien faite, used
tell long spooky stories. The play then takes an in the early 19th century to describe plays
unexpected turn when Valerie tells them about that depended on a well-crafted plot. In the
her own, much more shocking, brush with the hands of Eugène SCRIBE, the well-made play
supernatural – a story that compels the men to developed a formulaic structure still sometimes
examine some of their own deepest attitudes. used today: the protagonists meet with
complications that build towards a climax
Welles, (George) Orson (1915–85) followed by a denouement. By the late 19th
US director, actor, writer, and producer. century, however, ‘well-made play’ became
Welles made his acting debut at the age of 16 a pejorative term because characterization
in Jew Süss (1931) at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, was subordinated to an articifial action that
after falsely telling the management that he depended upon such manipulations as
was a member of the THEATRE GUILD. He coincidental meetings and mistaken identity.
subsequently toured in plays by Shakespeare The genre was particularly ridiculed by Zola,
and Shaw before collaborating with John who helped to usher in the fashion for
Houseman (1902–88) on the FEDERAL NATURALISM.
THEATRE PROJECT. As part of the Project he Besides Scribe, French exponents of the
directed a successful Macbeth (1936) with a well-made play included SARDOU, LABICHE,
Black cast at Harlem’s Lafayette Theatre (see and FEYDEAU. In Britain its techniques were
SCOTTISH PLAY). In 1937, when they devised a adopted by Henry Arthur Jones, A. W. Pinero,
 Westminster play 541

Terence Rattigan, Noël Coward, and even EVERYTHING (1962) was based on his National
George Bernard Shaw (who attacked Sardou’s Service with the RAF.
high-class melodrama as ‘Sardoodledom’). Many of Wesker’s plays deal with the
Well-made plays were also turned out by such struggles of the idealist in unsympathetic
US playwrights as Lillian Hellman. surroundings, a situation in which he has often
found himself in real life: a natural supporter
Wendy In J. M. Barrie’s PETER PAN (1904), of antiestablishment causes, he was imprisoned
the oldest of the Darling children, who briefly for his commitment to the campaign
exercises motherly control over Peter and her against nuclear weapons. In 1961 he
younger brothers during their visit to Never established the CENTRE 42 project at the
Never Land. The name ‘Wendy’ was Barrie’s Camden ROUNDHOUSE with the aim of
invention. The ‘Wendy house’, a toy house bringing the arts to working-class audiences;
that is large enough for a child to enter, is the centre was wound up in 1971 for financial
named after the little house that Peter and the reasons.
Lost Boys build around Wendy in the play. By this time Wesker’s writing career had
Werkteater (Dutch: work theatre) A co- also run into difficulties; such plays as The
operative theatre society founded in 1970 in Four Seasons (1965) and The Friends (1970)
Amsterdam to investigate and develop new met with a cool reception from the critics and
directions for drama. The company urges its another, The Journalists (1972), foundered
actors to identify totally with their roles and after most of the cast walked out in protest at
its political stance. In 1976 the Broadway
encourages a highly physical style of acting. It
production of Wesker’s Shylock, a reworking of
also aims to explore the interrelationship
The Merchant of Venice, closed after a handful
between actors and their audiences. Like the
of performances owing to the sudden death of
US LIVING THEATRE, the Werkteater
its star, Zero Mostel. Wesker’s later plays,
emphasizes collective creation – many of
none of which has re-established him as a
its plays come from improvisations built
major force in the theatre, include Caritas
on an actor’s personal experiences – and is
(1981), about a medieval anchoress, the
committed to airing social issues. These are
monologues Mothers (1982) and Annie
highlighted in such works as Situations (1972),
Wobbler (1983), Blood Libel (1991), Break My
about conditions in mental hospitals, Sunset
Heart (1997), and Longitude (2005), from the
Sky (1973), dealing with old age, Forest and Air
book by Dava Sobel. He has also written
(1979), about mentally handicapped people,
widely for television and radio.
and In For Treatment (1979), showing a cancer
patient’s treatment in hospital. The last-named West End The western district of inner
play has been filmed as Opname by Enkuan London, which contains most of the capital’s
Zuylen. In the early 1980s Shireen Strooker principal theatres. The term is used as a
formed Werkteater II for younger theatre synonym for the commercial theatre in
workers. London (as BROADWAY is used in America).
The main concentration of theatres is in the
Wesker, Sir Arnold (1932– ) British area bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue and the
playwright, who made his name with a trilogy Strand.
about the history of a Jewish family from 1936
to 1959. His own Jewish East-End background Westminster play A play presented
was the basis for the three plays CHICKEN SOUP in Latin by the ‘Scholars in College’ at
WITH BARLEY, which opened in 1958 at the Westminster School in London. Britain’s only
Belgrave Theatre, Coventry, and transferred to surviving SCHOOL DRAMA, the Westminster
the Royal Court Theatre, London; ROOTS, play has been staged since 1560 with two short
which followed in 1959; and I’m Talking breaks during the Civil War and World War
About Jerusalem, which appeared in 1960. The II. In the 18th and 19th centuries the play was
trilogy shows how the socialism and idealism noted for its topical prologues and epilogues;
of the younger members of the family are often the former became an annual review of school
in conflict with the disillusionment of the news while the latter satirized contemporary
older members. The Kitchen (1959) made use events.
of Wesker’s memories of his four years The tradition was begun by the headmaster
working as a pastry cook, while CHIPS WITH Dr Alexander Nowell (1507–1602) and
542 West Side Story

reaffirmed by Queen Elizabeth I, who attended The play is set in a small town in Scotland,
performances, of Plautus’s Miles Gloriosus in where the parents of plain Maggie Wylie
1564 and the anonymous Sapientia Salomonis promise to pay for the education of drab John
two years later. The works normally come Shand if he will marry her. When Shand
from the plays of Plautus, Terence, or other becomes an MP, the couple marry; he soon
classic authors. The most famous performer becomes known for his witty speeches, largely
was Barton Booth (1681–1733), who attended written by his new wife. When he is attracted
the school from 1689 to 1698 and appeared in to another woman, Maggie cleverly lets him
a cycle of plays by Terence, later becoming a discover this woman’s failings for himself. At
leading tragedian. last, John comes to appreciate his wife’s wit
The Westminster play was performed in and charm.
the New Dormitory in Little Dean’s Yard until Helen Hayes scored a great success in the
this was damaged by bombs in World War II; role of Maggie Wylie in a 1926 performance
the performances moved into the open air in on Broadway. She played the part for so many
1954, and are now given biennially in years, and revised her interpretation so
contemporary dress. thoroughly that the critic Brooks Atkinson
West Side Story The highly innovative became totally confused. In 1926 he wrote that
Broadway musical set in New York’s gangland, Hayes “is not quite up to the interpretation of
with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by so full-bodied a part…this Maggie is a woman
Stephen SONDHEIM. The idea of setting a of tougher substance than Miss Hayes
modern version of Romeo and Juliet in communicates…” Years later, he noted, “She
downtown New York was first suggested by was perfectly cast when she played in Barrie’s
Jerome Robbins, who subsequently directed What Every Woman Knows – a mousy,
and choreographed the musical. Arthur unassertive woman…”
Laurents wrote the book. After out-of-town
tryouts, West Side Story opened on Broadway What the Butler Saw The last full-
in 1957 and the critics immediately recognized length play by Joe ORTON, first performed in
a milestone in the history of musical theatre. 1969 two years after his murder. A Freudian
Robbins’s energetic dance patterns came in farce, it was a box-office success, although
for particular praise. A year later the show some audiences were shocked by its explicit
transferred to Her Majesty’s Theatre, London, discussions of sexual perversions; some critics
where it enjoyed a long run and won the believed Orton would probably have revised
Evening Standard Award. Songs include the work had he lived. The story takes place in
‘Maria’, ‘Tonight’, ‘America’, ‘I Feel Pretty’, the private clinic of Dr Prentice and involves
and ‘There’s A Place for Us’. Of the numerous rape, blackmail, transvestism, incest, and the
revivals, Arthur Laurents’s 2009 Broadway private parts of Sir Winston CHURCHILL.
production was notable for restoring a sense of
contemporary authenticity and danger to the Whelan, Albert See LUSTIGE BRÜDER.
show. When We Are Married A farce by J. B.
The first scene introduces two rival West PRIESTLEY, first produced in 1938 in London.
Side gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. Tony, a The plot involves three respectable Yorkshire
member of the Jets, falls in love with Maria, couples, who were married in the same church
the sister of the Shark’s leader, Bernardo. Tony on the same day and are now gathering 25
accidentally stabs Bernardo to death whilst years later to have a photograph taken for the
trying to prevent a fight; although Maria is local press. The Helliwells, Parkers, and
devastated, she forgives him and they plan to
Soppitts celebrate happily until the chapel
elope. Whilst waiting for her to join him,
organist, Gerald Forbes, reveals that a clerical
Tony is deceived into believing that Maria has
error 25 years ago made their marriages
been murdered. Devastated, he seeks out
invalid. All three couples now re-examine their
Maria’s former fiancé Chino, who shoots him
commitment to each other; when the press
and leaves him to die in Maria’s arms.
photographer discovers that they are all legally
What Every Woman Knows A social married after all, Parker bribes him to keep the
comedy by J. M. BARRIE, first produced at the whole affair secret. During the original
Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in 1908. production Priestley himself played the part of
 Whittington, Dick 543

the photographer for several performances 1930 and was for many years identified
when the actor concerned was injured. with farces and sex revues. The striptease
artiste Phyllis Dixey appeared here regularly
When We Dead Awaken The last from 1943 to 1947, when a run of R. F.
play by Henrik IBSEN, subtitled “a dramatic Delderfield’s Worm’s Eye View marked a return
epilogue”. It was first performed with great to comedy. An almost continuous string of
success in 1899 in Oslo, being seen three years Brian RIX farces began in 1950 with Colin
later in London, and in 1905 in New York. Morris’s army play Reluctant Heroes, which ran
The drama received high praise in the for four years. Rix managed the theatre from
Fortnightly Review, in an article by the 18-year- 1950 to 1967, bringing the era of the
old James Joyce. The story centres on the Whitehall farces to a close with his own
character of Rubek, a sculptor, and examines Uproar in the House. Paul Raymond found
the relationship between artistic creativity and equal success in 1969, when his nude show
truth. Pyjama Tops, opened to run for 2498
whistling One of the best-known performances. Two years later he bought the
theatrical superstitions holds that it is lease. The Whitehall subsequently offered
extremely bad luck to whistle anywhere in a more varied fare, including John Wells’s
theatre, but especially so in the wings. The political spoof Anyone for Denis (1981), the
prohibition is thought to date back to the late thriller Murder by Misadventure (1992), a
17th century, when stage crews were recruited dramatization of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting
largely from ex-sailors because of the rope- (1995), and Puppetry of the Penis (2000), in
handling skills required in a HAND-WORKED which two uniquely talented male performers
HOUSE. As at sea, these men would signal to demonstrated “the ancient art of genital
each other largely by a system of whistles. origami”.
Actors and others were therefore banned In 2003–04 the theatre underwent a major
from whistling because of the risk that a false refurbishment in which the interior was
signal could disrupt a performance or, worse, divided into two separate performance areas; it
produce a dangerous accident. reopened as the Trafalgar Studios in 2004 and
The theatrical taboo against clapping in has since presented mainly serious drama.
the wings may have a similar origin, as some Recent productions have included several short
stage crews are thought to have used handclaps seasons by the RSC and Katori Hill’s award-
in the same way. winning The Mountain Top (2009).

White Devil, The A tragedy by John Whiteside, Sheridan The central

WEBSTER, written some time after 1609 and character, a venomous theatre critic, in THE
first performed in 1612. The passionate drama MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1939) by George
is loosely based on real events in 16th-century S. KAUFMAN and Moss HART. The play was
Italy. Modern revivals include Frank Dunlop’s inspired by a visit from the notoriously
1969 production for the National Theatre, outspoken US critic Alexander WOOLLCOTT to
with Geraldine McEwan, Edward Woodward, the house of Hart’s family. Woollcott proved
and Derek Godfrey. an impossible guest; among his many acid
The play centres on the adultery of the comments during his stay was the observation
Venetian lady, Vittoria Corombona, with the on Hart’s home: “Just what God would have
Duke of Brachiano. Aided by her brother, the done if he had the money”. Surprisingly,
cynical Flamineo, she incites the duke to kill Woollcott was amused by the piece – he even
her husband and his wife, Isabella. In a famous toured in the role himself with great success.
scene, Vittoria is tried for both adultery and
murder but defends herself with considerable Whittington, Dick In popular legend
intelligence. She is sentenced to confinement and PANTOMIME, a poor orphan who rises to
but escapes to become Brachiano’s duchess. become Lord Mayor of London through the
However, Isabella’s avengers, prompted by her rat-catching abilities of his cat. Dick makes his
ghost, poison Brachiano before murdering way to London when he hears that the streets
Vittoria and Flamineo. there are paved with gold, only to end up as a
kitchen boy in the house of a rich merchant.
Whitehall Theatre A London theatre in When his master encourages each of his
Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square. It opened in servants to take part in sending a cargo of
544 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

merchandise to Barbary, Dick sends his cat, learns that her father’s fortune comes from the
but subsequently runs away from the cook’s ill- ownership of slum houses. The horrified
treatment. He is recalled by the sound of Bow Trench refuses Sartorius’s financial help, but
bells seeming to say: “Turn again Whittington, then learns that his own private income derives
Lord Mayor of London.” He returns to find from a similarly tainted source. Worse,
that his cat had been sold for a vast sum to the Blanche rejects him for his indecisions.
King of Barbary, who was plagued by rats and Eventually a somewhat chastened Trench joins
mice. He marries his master’s daughter, Alice, Sartorius in a philanthropic but profitable deal
prospers as a merchant, and becomes Lord and is reunited with Blanche.
Mayor.
The real Richard Whittington, a wealthy Widow Twankey In the pantomime of
aristocrat who was three times Lord Mayor of ALADDIN, the hero’s mother, a washerwoman;
London, died in 1423. The familiar legend the part is traditionally played by a man in
first appeared in a 1605 play, The History of elaborate comic drag (see DAME). The character
Richard Whittington (now lost); it is also was first so-named in the 1861 version by H. J.
alluded to in plays by Thomas Heywood and Byron, Twankay being a variety of China
Beaumont and Fletcher. The first pantomimes green tea that was popular at the time.
on the subject date from the early 19th Wild Duck, The Henrik IBSEN’s
century. tragicomedy about the damaging effects
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? of idealism. Sometimes regarded as his
Edward ALBEE’s harrowing drama about an masterpiece, it was first performed in 1884 in
unhappily married couple. It was first Bergen. The idealistic Gregers Werle takes it
performed in New York in 1962 and received upon himself to save Hjalmar Ekdal’s family
its London premiere two years later, with from “a life based on lies” by telling Hjalmar
Uta Hagen in both productions. The play that his beloved 14-year-old daughter, Hedvig,
established Albee’s reputation and has enjoyed is not in fact his child. Although Hedvig
several revivals, including a 1996 London worships him, Hjalmar turns against her.
production with Diana Rigg and David Gregers advises the girl to shoot the wounded
Suchet. The 1966 film version starred Richard duck, which the family keeps in the attic, to
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as the battling prove to her father that she will sacrifice her
couple. greatest treasure for him. Instead, she shoots
The play is set in a small New England herself.
college, where George, a history professor, and There has been much speculation as to
his wife Martha are entertaining a young what the captive duck symbolizes; suggestions
couple, Nick and Honey. The evening have ranged from the family’s self-delusions, to
degenerates as George and Martha pursue their human weakness, to misplaced idealism. Ibsen
drunken game of embarrassing their guests and himself gave no clue. Neither would he suggest
humiliating each other. how the parts should be played. He once
attended a performance of The Wild Duck in
Widowers’ Houses The first play by Copenhagen to the great excitement of the
George Bernard SHAW; written in 1885–87, cast, who asked if their interpretations had
it was first performed privately in 1892 been satisfactory. Again, the playwright refused
at London’s Independent Theatre Club. to offer any opinion.
Widowers’ Houses was published as one of
the three ‘unpleasant’ plays in Shaw’s Plays Wilde, Oscar (Fingal O’Flahertie
Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898). It was Wills) (1854–1900) Irish playwright, who
originally planned as a collaboration between wrote one of the best loved comedies in the
Shaw and his friend William Archer, the critic English language – THE IMPORTANCE OF
who popularized the works of Ibsen through BEING EARNEST (1895). A leading wit and
his English translations. The play addressed conversationalist in London society, his career
the contemporary problem of slum landlords was destroyed at its height when he was
and their exploitation of the poor. imprisoned for homosexual offences.
The plot centres upon an idealistic young Wilde was born in Dublin and educated
doctor, Harry Trench, who falls in love with at Trinity College, Dublin, and Magdalen
and proposes to Blanche Sartorius. Later he College, Oxford. Settling in London, he
 Wilhelm Tell 545

became famous for his extravagant dress, long in the drama”, Wilder adopted a range of anti-
hair, and paradoxical views on art, literature, naturalistic devices in his plays. His characters
and morality. His first play, Vera (1880), a sometimes address the audience directly, as in
tragedy about Russian nihilists, was produced Our Town and THE MATCHMAKER (1954). In
in New York to poor reviews. Success in the 1955 Tyrone Guthrie commissioned him to
theatre came with the elegant drawing-room adapt Euripides’s Alcestis as A Life in the Sun
comedy LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN. After its for the Edinburgh Festival. Wilder’s Three
opening night at the St James’s Theatre, a Plays for Bleeker Street, a triple-bill of one-act
friend asked how the performance went. “Oh, dramas, was produced at New York’s Circle-
the play was a great success,” Wilde replied, in-the-Square in 1962.
“but the audience was a total failure.” A
WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (1893) was
Wild West exhibition A show
another success; when the audience called for featuring a demonstration of US frontier
the author at the end of the first performance, survival skills and scenes of Native American
Wilde rose from a box and announced “Ladies life. This type of entertainment was popular
and Gentlemen, I regret to inform you that Mr in America in the late 19th century and
Oscar Wilde is not in the house.” His other continued in some rural areas until shortly
after World War II.
works for the theatre were AN IDEAL HUSBAND
The first such entertainment was P. T.
(1895) and the biblical SALOMÉ (1896), written
BARNUM’s Indian Life, or A Chance for a Wife
in French for Sarah Bernhardt.
(1874). A vogue was then established by
Wilde flaunted his homosexual affairs,
William Cody, known as BUFFALO BILL, who
including his ill-fated liaison with Lord Alfred
collaborated with Ned Buntline on the play
Douglas. Following a celebrated trial in 1895
Scouts of the Prairie and starred in it at New
he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment
York’s Bowery Theatre in 1874. By 1884
with hard labour. The sentence led to public
Cody was touring with his own Wild West
humiliation, poor health, and bankruptcy. On
show, with the sharp-shooter Annie Oakley as
his release in 1897 he left for France and
one of its stars (see ANNIE GET YOUR GUN). The
remained in exile there until his death.
following year the show became part of Steele
He belongs to our world more than to Mackaye’s Drama of Civilization in New York.
Victoria’s. Now beyond the reach of Cody’s troupe merged with Pawnee Bill’s in
scandal, his best writings validated by 1909 and eventually went bankrupt.
time, he comes before us, still a The Miller Brothers and Edward
towering figure, laughing and weeping, Arlington’s Wild West Show flourished
with parables and paradoxes, so between 1908 and 1916 and was revived in the
generous, so amusing, and so right. late 1920s. After this Wild West acts were
RICHARD ELLMANN: Oscar Wilde (1987) mainly limited to brief exhibitions in rodeos
and closing acts at circuses.
Wilder, Thornton (1897–1975) The
US ‘anti-naturalist’ playwright and novelist, Wilhelm Tell The last finished play by
who won Pulitzer Prizes for his expressionist Friedrich von SCHILLER. It was first staged by
dramas, OUR TOWN (1938), about small-town Goethe at the Weimar Court Theatre in 1804,
America, and THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH (1942), a year before Schiller’s death. As Germany was
about humanity’s ability to survive the then experiencing a new spirit of idealism,
disasters of history. Schiller chose the legendary Swiss hero as a
Wilder’s early plays include the Civil-War symbol of the struggle for individual and
drama The Trumpet Shall Sound (1927). He political freedom. His source was a 16th-
established his reputation with three one- century chronicle, Chronicon Helveticum
act plays performed in 1931: Pullman Car (1834–36), by Gilg Tschudi. It was Schiller’s
Hiawatha, The Happy Journey to Trenton and play, however, that first brought the legend to
Camden, a look at rural US life performed on worldwide attention. Albert Basserman
an empty stage, and The Long Christmas (1867–1952), one of Germany’s best-known
Dinner, later adapted by the author as the naturalistic actors, took the title role in 1919.
libretto for Hindemith’s 1961 opera. The play was also the basis for Rossini’s 1829
Influenced by Strindberg, whom he called opera.
the “fountainhead of virtually all modernism The story, set in the 13th century, centres
546 Williams, Bert

on the Swiss peasant Tell and his defiance of Williams, (George) Emlyn (1905–87)
the tyrannical Austrian governor Gessler. It Welsh playwright and director, who also made
contains the famous incident of Tell shooting a reputation as a leading character actor. He
an apple from his small son’s head with a made his acting debut in London in 1927 and
crossbow, a punishment imposed by Gessler produced his first work for the stage, A Murder
because Tell refused to bow to a symbol of Has Been Arranged, in 1930. Three years later
Austrian power. Tell’s assassination of Gessler he adapted Fauchois’s Prenez-garde à la
raises moral questions as to whether violence peinture as The Late Christopher Bean, which
may be justified in the struggle against ran for more than a year with Edith Evans in
oppressive rule. the lead role.
A play also titled William Tell (1825) was Williams’s first great hit as both actor and
written by the British actor-dramatist Sheridan playwright came in 1935 in London with the
Knowles (1784–1862). thriller NIGHT MUST FALL. Other successful
roles included Angelo in Measure for Measure
Williams, Bert (Egbert Austin Williams; (1937) and Sir Robert Morton in Rattigan’s
c. 1874–1922) US comedian, who was the first The Winslow Boy (1946). He also gave
Black entertainer to perform in a White show, outstanding performances in his own works,
and the first to be recorded on gramophone particularly THE CORN IS GREEN (1938), in
records. Williams also organized the first which he played a young Welsh miner.
society for Black actors in 1906. In 1962 Williams replaced Paul Scofield as
Born in the Bahamas, he began his career Sir Thomas More in the US production of
in MINSTREL SHOWs, in which he had to Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons. In the 1950s he
blacken his light complexion and adopt the toured widely in a one-man show in which
comic dialect and shuffling gait of the stage he played the role of Charles Dickens. He
Negro. Whenever he could Williams followed this with A Boy Growing Up (1955), a
underplayed his characters, foregoing the sequence of readings from the works of Dylan
traditional eye-rolling exaggerations. Thomas.
A modest, sensitive, and scholarly man,
Williams, Roy (1968– ) British
Williams was humiliated by the indignities he
playwright, noted for his fearless approach to
endured before White audiences. “I’d like to
racial issues and his use of contemporary urban
stop doing piffle,” he once said, “and portray
patois. The son of Jamaican immigrants,
the real Negro on stage.” W. C. Fields called
Williams was born in London and brought up
him “the funniest man I ever saw and the by his mother, a nurse. After leaving school at
saddest man I ever knew.” 16 he spent nearly a decade working in dead-
From 1893 to 1908 he teamed up with end jobs while trying to become an actor.
George Walker (1873–1911), who played a When this culminated in a role as a rapist in a
flashy city slicker to Williams’s shiftless Crimewatch reconstruction, Williams signed
melancholy dupe. After a spell with Sieg’s up for a play-writing course at a London
Mastodon Minstrels, the duo appeared in New college. Remarkably, the play he wrote to
York in 1896 with The Gold Bug, becoming complete this, No Boys Cricket Club (1996),
famous with their song ‘Good Morning was accepted by the Theatre Royal, Stratford
Carrie’. They then starred in several all- East, where it became an immediate hit and
Black musicals, the most successful being In earned Williams the Writers’ Guild New
Dahomey (1902), which Williams produced Writer of the Year Award. The play, in which
in New York and subsequently in London a middle-aged woman looks back on her
(with a command performance at Buckingham teenage years in 1950s Jamaica, was based
Palace). loosely on the life of his own mother.
When Walker retired in 1909, Williams After the success of Starstruck (1998),
continued alone; a year later, despite protests another play about his parents’ generation,
from some cast members, he joined the Williams began to focus on contemporary
previously all-White Ziegfeld Follies. In issues with Lift Off (1999), a piece about the
February 1922 he collapsed on stage and had pressures affecting the friendship of two boys,
to be helped off, quipping, “That’s a nice way one Black and one White. The pitfalls of
to die – they was laughing at my last exit.” He interracial relationships are also explored in
died a few days later. Clubland (2001), an award-winning play set in
 Wilson, August 547

the dance clubs of South London. A year later 1930s, winning a Theatre Guild prize for the
the National Theatre staged the play that four one-act plays entitled American Blues in
would become Williams’s best-known work, 1939. Recognition as a major playwright came
Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (2002): set in a with THE GLASS MENAGERIE, a tender work
pub during an England v. Germany football inspired by the tragic life of his sister, a
match, the play explores White working-class schizophrenic. His next play, the brutal A
attitudes and ends with a shocking act of STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, opened in 1947,
violence. More controversially, Fallout (2003), winning the Pulitzer Prize and making a star of
a play based partly on the Damilola Taylor Marlon Brando. It was followed a year later by
murder case, dealt with Black-on-Black SUMMER AND SMOKE. In 1949, these three
violence and contemporary gang culture. plays were running simultaneously in London.
Williams has since kept up a prolific work rate, His later works included THE ROSE
with no less than seven new works in 2007 TATTOO (1951), Camino Real (1953), Cat on a
alone. Of these much the most important was Hot Tin Roof (1955), which won another
the RSC’s Days of Significance (2007), another Pulitzer Prize, ORPHEUS DESCENDING (1957),
dissection of White working-class culture that Suddenly, Last Summer (1958), and SWEET
switches from scenes of binge-drinking in an BIRD OF YOUTH (1959), which opened with
English market town to the battlefields of Iraq. Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in the leads.
Williams’s subsequent work has included Angel By the late 1950s, Williams was being accused
House (2008), an ambitious family drama of repeating himself, and after Period of
reflecting the changes in British society over 30 Adjustment (1960) and THE NIGHT OF THE
years, and Sucker Punch (2010), a play set in a IGUANA (1961), his plays were received
boxing gym. unenthusiastically.
During his later years, Williams became
There was a big thing about whether to
increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol,
be called a Black playwright, and I
suffering a nervous breakdown in 1969. He
thought, Do what you like, just don’t
died from choking on the cap of a bottle of
miss out the word playwright!
eyedrops, which he held in his mouth while
ROY WILLIAMS
applying the dropper. The critic Eric Bentley
Williams, Tennessee (Thomas Lanier concluded that Williams’s problem was “an
Williams; 1911–83) US playwright, whose ambiguity of aim: he seems to want to kick the
controversial plays dealt with themes of world in the pants and yet be the world’s
repressed sexuality and family conflict. sweetheart…”
Williams was the most popular playwright in
Will’s Coffee House Will Unwin’s
America between 1945 and 1960, winning the
famous hostelry in London’s COVENT GARDEN,
Pulitzer Prize twice and the New York Drama
which became a meeting place for writers, wits,
Critics’ Circle Award four times. Amongst
and theatrical people during the Restoration
serious playwrights, only Eugene O’Neill
and later. Also known as the Rose Tavern, the
equalled his achievements on the Broadway Russell Street Coffee House, and the Wits’
stage; several of Williams’s plays were also Coffee House, the building stood on the
made into successful films. corner of Bow Street and Russell Street. John
Williams, the son of a shoe salesman, Dryden and Dr Johnson were among the
grew up in some poverty in Mississippi and notables who frequented the after-theatre
Missouri. Many of his early frustrations, which gatherings in a room on the first floor.
are reflected in his plays, arose from the
prudery of his mother and the coarseness Wilson, August (Frederick August Kittel
of his womanizing father, who, as his son’s Jr; 1945–2005) US playwright, whose
homosexuality became apparent, invariably monumental Pittsburgh Cycle chronicles the
referred to him as ‘Miss Nancy’. The experience of African-Americans over the
playwright revealed his homosexuality in his course of the 20th century. Wilson was born
Memoirs (1975), having previously explored in Pittsburgh, the son of a Black American
the subject in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and cleaning woman and a German immigrant
SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER. baker, of whom he saw little. Although a
Williams tried his hand at fiction and compulsive reader and autodidact, Wilson was
poetry before turning to drama in the late forced out of one school by racial threats and
548 wind machine

dropped out of another when falsely accused of the work of O’Neill, Williams, and Arthur
plagiarism. For the next decade he worked in a Miller. However, the final play had barely been
series of menial jobs while attempting to make produced when Wilson announced that he had
a name as a poet. In 1968 he co-founded the months to live. An immediate decision was
Black Horizon Theatre in Pittsburgh, a made to rename Broadway’s Virginia Theatre
community-based theatre inspired by the ideas the August Wilson Theatre in his honour.
of Malcolm X and the Black Muslims. Having
learned the basics of stagecraft from a library wind machine See SOUND EFFECTS.
book, Wilson directed several plays for the Windmill Theatre “We never closed”
theatre and wrote the one-act Recycle, which was the proud slogan of the Windmill, the
was produced there in 1973. only London theatre to keep its doors open
Nevertheless, Wilson’s career as a throughout the London blitz (see at CLOSED).
playwright did not begin in earnest until the The theatre was built in 1910 as a small
late 1970s, when he moved to Minnesota and cinema in Great Windmill Street, near
in an apparent fit of homesickness began to Piccadilly, on the site of an 18th-century
write Jitney, a play set in a run-down cab windmill. The building, which has 326 seats
station in Pittsburgh. The play was staged in on two levels, reopened as a theatre in 1931
his native city in 1982 and provided the with Michael Barrington’s Inquest. A year
starting point for his Pittsburgh Cycle – a later the owner, Laura Henderson, and her
series of ten plays, each set in a different manager, Vivian Van Damm, began a
decade of the 20th century and all but one in programme of nonstop variety acts entitled
the Hill, the multiracial district in which he Revuedeville. The theatre subsequently became
grew up. The plays do not tell a continuous famous for its tableaux of nude girls (the
story but there are recurring characters – most Windmill Girls) interspersed with young
notably Aunt Ester Tyler, a folk priestess who comedians. Jimmy Edwards, Harry Secombe,
claims to be over 200 years old. The dominant and Tony Hancock all learnt their trade there,
mode is social realism, but there is a strong having to work doubly hard to win laughs
vein of symbolism and touches of the from an audience who had paid for titillation.
apparently supernatural. Revuedeville continued until 1964, when the
Wilson found a wide audience with the building reverted to being a cinema. The
second play in the cycle, Ma Rainey’s Black impresario Paul Raymond purchased it in
Bottom (1982), which deals with the 1974 and opened with the sex comedy Let’s
exploitation of Black musicians by the Get Laid, followed by another nude revue, Rip-
recording industry in the 1920s. The play Off. The Windmill was converted into a
transferred to Broadway, as did all its theatre-restaurant in 1981. The glory days of
successors, and earned the New York Drama the Windmill were recreated in Stephen
Critics’ Circle Award – the first of seven for Frears’s 2005 film Mrs Henderson Presents,
the series as a whole. Fences (1983), a play which featured Judi Dench in the title role.
about the troubled family life of a former
baseball player, notched up 525 performances wings In popular usage, the space offstage
on Broadway and earned Wilson the 1987 on either side of the acting area. In a more
Pulitzer Prize for drama. The series then technical sense, wings are FLATS at each side of
continued with Joe Turner’s Come and the stage, used both as scenery and to screen
Gone (1984), The Piano Lesson (1987), a off the backstage area from the audience.
Depression-era story that brought Wilson a Pairs of flats were first used in this way in
second Pulitzer, Two Trains Running (1990), late 16th-century Italy, whence they were
set against the background of the 1960s Civil introduced to England by Inigo JONES. Wings
Rights movement, Seven Guitars (1994), were eventually replaced by the BOX SET (first
and King Hedley II (1999); finally, Wilson seen in London in 1832) but remain in use as
bookended the series with Gem of the Ocean scenery pieces for pantomime, opera, and
(2002), set at the start of the 20th century, and ballet.
Radio Golf (2005), which deals with attempts The expression waiting in the wings is
to buy up and regenerate the area in the 1990s. used metaphorically to mean being ready
The cycle as a whole was instantly to step in when needed. To wing it is to
recognized as an epic achievement to rank with improvise or partly improvise a performance at
 Woffington, Peg 549

short notice – the implication being that the Perdita, who has been brought up by
actor has only had time to look at his or her shepherds, is courted by Polixenes’s son,
part whilst standing in the wings. See also Florizel. Finally, Perdita’s identity is revealed,
WHISTLING. Leontes is reconciled with Polixenes, and
Hermione is revealed to be alive.
Winslow Boy, The A play by Terence
RATTIGAN, first performed in London in 1946, Wizard of Oz, The A fantasy by Frank
when it won the Ellen Terry Award as best L. Baum (1856–1919), which first appeared
play of the year; it moved to Broadway the on the stage in 1902. Baum wrote the original
following year to take the New York Drama book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in 1900
Critics’ Circle Award as best foreign play. and turned it into a musical play two years
The story concerns the young naval cadet later. The story tells of young Dorothy, who is
Ronnie Winslow, who is expelled from college blown by a cyclone from her Kansas farm to
for stealing a postal order. Rattigan’s play, the strange land of Oz, where she meets the
which concentrates on the struggles and Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and the
sacrifices of the boy’s father in his campaign to Cowardly Lion. Other stage versions followed,
clear Ronnie’s name, was based on the true including the 1975 Broadway musical, The
case of George Archer-Shee, who was expelled Wiz, which featured an all-Black cast and
from Osborne Naval College on the Isle of music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. The
Wight in 1908 after being accused of petty famous film starring Judy Garland was released
theft. The cadet’s father engaged the famous in 1939.
barrister Sir Edward Carson to represent his
Woffington, Peg (Margaret
son in suing the Admiralty. The case ended
Woffington; c. 1714–60) Dublin-born actress,
with George Archer-Shee receiving £7000 in
noted for her beauty. After her father died a
compensation. He was killed at Ypres in
pauper she joined a children’s acting troupe,
World War I.
playing roles that included Polly Peachum in
Winter Garden Theatre See OLD MO. The Beggar’s Opera. In 1740 she joined the
Covent Garden company and made her
Winter’s Tale, The SHAKESPEARE’s reputation in the BREECHES PART of Sir Harry
tragicomic romance about the destructive Wildair in Farquhar’s The Constant Couple.
power of jealousy and the healing power She immediately became the toast of the town
of love. One of his last plays, it was first and her portrait was painted by Hogarth. Off-
performed in 1611 at the Globe Theatre, stage, however, she constantly quarreled with
London and revived in 1612–13 to celebrate other actresses, particularly Mrs George Ann
the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and the Bellamy, whom she is said to have wounded
Elector Palatine. It contains Shakespeare’s with a dagger on one occasion.
most famous stage direction: “Exit, pursued by After one season, she argued with manager
a bear.” John Rich over her salary and moved to the
In 1755 Garrick wrote and performed in Drury Lane Theatre, where she became the
his own adaptation, Florizel and Perdita. The mistress first of Charles Macklin and then of
US actress Mary Anderson made history by David GARRICK (who wrote the song ‘My
playing the roles of both Hermione and her Lovely Peggy’ for her). When Garrick brought
daughter PERDITA at London’s Lyceum in the actress Kitty Clive, however, Peg
Theatre in 1887, a feat not repeated until returned to Covent Garden, playing such roles
1969, when Judi Dench successfully took as Lady Macbeth to less popular acclaim.
on the roles with the Royal Shakespeare In 1751 she joined SHERIDAN’s company at
Company. A film version of The Winter’s Tale Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre, opening the
was released in 1966, with Laurence Harvey as season with The Provok’d Wife; she soon
Leontes. became a famous figure in the city, even
In the story, King Leontes of Sicily believes though she annoyed the Irish by presiding over
his wife, Hermione, to be pregnant by his the Beefsteak Club, which entertained English
friend King Polixenes of Bohemia, and orders aristocrats with luxurious meals. In 1754
the child to be abandoned. Hermione Sheridan took a chance by staging Voltaire’s
apparently dies of grief and Leontes is deeply politically dangerous play Mahomet with Peg as
repentant. Years later his abandoned daughter, Palmyra. The audience rioted and nearly
550 Wolfit, Sir Donald

destroyed the theatre; it was, however, Woman Killed with Kindness, A A

refurbished later that year, with Peg appearing domestic tragedy by Thomas HEYWOOD, often
in a benefit performance of All for Love. regarded as one of the finest of the genre. It
In 1757 Peg was starring as Rosalind in As was first performed in 1603 in London and
You Like It, when she collapsed as she came to often revived. In 1913 Jacques Copeau’s
the end of the epilogue. She immediately famous Théâtre du Vieux-Colombiér in Paris,
retired, having played more than 125 leading opened with the drama.
roles in 30 years. She apparently repented of The story involves the happily married
her former lifestyle, amazing friends and foes Frankfords. Their domestic peace is ruined,
alike by her piety in her last years. Her life however, when Frankford welcomes Wendoll
became the subject of Charles Reade and Tom into his home and soon finds his wife in
Taylor’s play Masks and Faces (1852), in which the arms of their guest. Instead of taking
Sybil Thorndike starred in 1915. immediate retribution, Frankford determines
to “kill her even with kindness”. He banishes
Wolfit, Sir Donald (Donald Woolfitt; her to a comfortable manor house but forbids
1902–68) The last of Britain’s great actor- her ever to see him or her children. Before she
managers. His famous roles included Shylock, dies of remorse, his wife sends for him to beg
Volpone, Richard III, King Lear, and Solness forgiveness, which he grants.
in Ibsen’s The Master Builder. He was knighted
in 1957. Believing that everybody should have Woman of No Importance, A Oscar
the opportunity to see Shakespeare’s plays, WILDE’s society comedy, first performed in
Wolfit spent much of his career making 1893 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Wilde
gruelling provincial tours. wrote the lively first act in answer to criticisms
Wolfit made his debut in 1920 in The that LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN lacked action. In
Merchant of Venice at York’s Theatre Royal. the story, Lord Illingworth decides to employ
He founded his own Shakespeare company in Gerald Arbuthnot, the son of a former
1937 and began to tour, visiting London only mistress, whom he dismisses as “a woman of
occasionally. Complaints were sometimes no importance”. When Mrs Arbuthnot reveals
made that Wolfit surrounded himself with to Lord Illingworth and Gerald that they are in
inferior actors in order to appear more fact father and son, Gerald demands that his
impressive himself; he was also said to hurry parents wed. Lord Illingworth is willing but
his company players through their parts to Mrs Arbuthnot turns him down. The play
make more time for his own lines. Once he contains many of Wilde’s best epigrams; Lady
omitted a scene in Twelfth Night, saying it Hunstanton, says of Lord Illingworth, for
was the work of another writer. “I cannot example:
learn it,” he declared, “and if I cannot learn it, I was in hopes he would have married
Shakespeare did not write it!” One young actor Lady Kelso. But I believe he said her
appeared in Wolfit’s Macbeth for several family was too large. Or was it her feet?
seasons. In his role as a messenger, he would I forget which.
come on crying “My Lord, the Queen is
Women, The A comedy by the US
dead.” After asking Wolfit several times for a
dramatist Clare Boothe Luce. The play, which
more demanding role and receiving no
features an all-female cast of 40, was first
response, he took revenge one evening by
performed in New York in 1936 at the Ethel
rushing on stage to announce, “My Lord, the
Barrymore Theatre; a revival in 1973 with
Queen is much better and is even now at
Rhonda Fleming and Alexis Smith leading the
dinner.”
cast was well received. The story involves the
When Wolfit played Falstaff he found lives, loves, and intrigues of a coven of Park
out that his padding had to be completely Avenue matrons. It is said that when the play
removed if he was to relieve himself during was submitted to the LORD CHAMBERLAIN for
the performance. Luckily, Falstaff is off-stage licensing, he initially ruled that it could only
for some time during the play. “Brilliant be performed in Britain if the title was
craftsman, Shakespeare,” Wolfit remarked. changed to ‘American Women’.
“Knew the actor would want to pee and
constructed the play accordingly. A master, a Women Beware Women A tragedy by
master!” Thomas MIDDLETON, sometimes considered
 Worthington, Mrs 551

his masterpiece; it was first performed in about farce Taking Chances, provoked the Shubert
1621 in London but not published until 1657. management to attempt to ban him from their
The play was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Broadway theatres. Although The New York
Company at the Arts Theatre Club, London in Times won an injunction restraining the
1962. Shuberts from barring him, they subsequently
Set in Renaissance Florence, the play is had this reversed. When the paper refused to
based on historical events. Bianca Cappello, accept the Shuberts’ advertising, they backed
the wife of the poor clerk Leantio, is seduced down and sent the critic a box of cigars. “The
by Francesco de’ Medici, grand duke of whole thing went up in smoke,” noted
Tuscany, who contrives her husband’s murder. Woollcott.
The play ends with a scene in which the main
characters die by drinking poison during a working lights In a theatre, ordinary
masque. The remorseful Bianca drinks lights that can be used when a play is not being
deliberately from the poisoned cup. performed for an audience, as when actors
rehearse or the stage crew constructs a set.
women’s gallery A separate GALLERY
(cazuela) for women in the Spanish CORRALES World Theatre Season An annual
DE COMEDIAS in the 16th century. theatre festival in London for foreign plays; it
ran from 1964 to 1973 with a revival in 1975.
Wood. Mr and Mrs Wood in front Sir Peter Daubeny (1921–75) founded the
A theatrical catchphrase, first heard in the early event as part of the celebrations for the 400th
20th century, meaning that the auditorium is anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. Works were
virtually empty, the performers being greeted presented at the Aldwych Theatre in their
with the sight of rows of empty wooden seats. original languages by such renowned
Woodward, Harry See LUN. companies as the COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE, the
MOSCOW ART THEATRE, and the ABBEY
Wooing Ceremony See MUMMERS’ THEATRE, as well as companies from America,
PLAY. Sweden, South Africa, Uganda, Turkey,
Greece, India, Israel, and Japan.
Woollcott, Alexander Humphreys
(1887–1943) US drama critic, who was Worthington, Mrs The lady to whom
portrayed as Sheridan WHITESIDE in the 1939 Noël COWARD addressed his advice in his song
comedy THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. ‘Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs
Woollcott went on to star in the part himself Worthington’.
and also appeared in S. N. Behrman’s She has nice hands, to give the
comedies Brief Moment (1932) and Wine of wretched girl her due
Choice (1938). He helped write two plays But don’t you think her bust is
himself, collaborating with George S. Kaufman
overdeveloped for her age?
and Moss Hart on The Channel Road (1929)
I repeat Mrs Worthington, sweet Mrs
and The Dark Tower (1932).
Worthington,
Woollcott wrote for The New York Times,
The New York Herald, The Sun, and The New Don’t put your daughter on the stage.
York World, before retiring to broadcast, write Mrs Worthington was, in fact, ‘Glitters’
for magazines, and lecture. His books include a Worthington, the wife of a Birchington GP.
biography of Minnie FISKE (1917) and The Her affair with the playwright Frederick
Story of Irving Berlin (1925). Lonsdale (1881–1954) produced a daughter,
Although he was an accomplished writer Angela, who developed early aspirations to
with engaging wit, his theatre criticism was become an actress. Coward’s song was well-
sometimes surprisingly naive. Tallulah intentioned advice to Angela’s mother to resist
Bankhead said “To him the acting nobility was the temptation. Although Angela did not
confined to Minnie Maddern Fiske and Harpo herself tread the boards she did marry Robin
Marx”. Since he valued players more than Fox, the theatrical agent and impresario. Her
plays, he had difficulty analysing complex main contribution to the theatre was through
works, leading him to call Eugene O’Neill’s her illustrious sons – the actors Edward and
contributions “worthless”. James Fox and the theatrical producer Robert
Woollcott’s scathing notice of their French Fox.
552 Woyzeck

Woyzeck An uncompleted play by Georg manager Sir Charles Wyndham, who opened
BÜCHNER, who died of typhoid fever at the the venue in 1899. The architect William
age of 23. It was written in 1836, but not Sprague designed the 759-seat theatre in Louis
published until 1879; the first performance XVI style; the bust over the proscenium is said
was given in Vienna in 1913. Since World to be of the actress Mary Moore, Wyndham’s
War II it has enjoyed numerous successful wife. The opening production, a revival of
revivals; the Austrian composer Alban Berg Tom Robertson’s David Garrick, was followed
(1885–1935) used it as the libretto for his first in 1900 by Henry Arthur Jones’s Mrs Dane’s
opera, the expressionist Wozzeck (1925). Defence, which ran for over 200 performances.
The play deals with an illiterate soldier’s Frank Curzon, who became manager in
mental disintegration and suicide after 1903, was joined the following year by Gerald
murdering his wife. It is one of the first Du Maurier. In 1916 they produced J. M.
dramas to sympathize with a working-class Barrie’s A Kiss for Cinderella and the next year
protagonist, anticipating the social dramas of his Dear Brutus. Tallulah BANKHEAD made her
the 1890s with their concern for society’s sensational London debut there in 1923 in The
oppressed. Woyzeck foreshadowed both Dancers. From 1926 to 1932 Wyndham’s
expressionism in its style and NATURALISM in produced six thrillers by Edgar Wallace, after
its subject matter. which the management was taken over by
Wyndham’s son, Howard, and his stepson, Sir
Wycherley, William (1640–1716) Bronson Albery.
English playwright of the Restoration era, Post-war successes included James Bridie’s
whose bawdy and satirical plays contain Daphne Laureola (1949) with Edith Evans and
elements of biting social criticism. Despite Peter Ustinov’s The Love of Four Colonels
their harshness, his works enjoyed a great (1951) with the playwright in the lead.
vogue, and Wycherley became a favourite of Transfers have also provided hits: The
King Charles II. Congreve was amongst those Boyfriend, which tranferred from the Players’
who saw Wycherley as an essentially moral Theatre in 1954 had a record-breaking run of
writer appointed “to lash this crying age”. 2084 performances at Wyndham’s. Shelagh
As a young man Wycherley studied law Delaney’s A Taste of Honey (1958), Brendan
but became bored and abandoned it: his first Behan’s The Hostage (1959), and Oh, What a
play, Love in a Wood, or, St James’s Park, was Lovely War! (1963) all transferred from Joan
produced at Drury Lane in 1671. He followed Littlewood’s THEATRE WORKSHOP. Transfers
this success with THE GENTLEMAN DANCING- from Broadway have included Godspell in 1972
MASTER (1672) and his two great plays THE and Side by Side by Sondheim in 1976.
COUNTRY WIFE (1675), and THE PLAIN DEALER In 1978 Ian Albery, the great-grandson of
(1676). However, as a result of his somewhat Mary Moore, became Wyndham’s new
dissolute lifestyle, he spent seven years in manager. His great success of the 1980s was
debtors’ prison until rescued by James II. Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist,
Once, when Wycherley was driving down which opened in 1980 for 622 performances.
Pall Mall in his coach, he passed the carriage of A still greater success was enjoyed by Yasmin
one of King Charles’s beautiful mistresses, the Reza’s ART, which opened in October 1996
Duchess of Cleveland. She called out to him, and ran for over 2000 performances before
“You, Wycherley, you are a son of a whore.” transferring to the Whitehall in 2001. The
He invited her to the next performance at theatre has undergone a major refurbishment
Drury Lane, where she sat in the first row of since being acquired by the Delfont
the king’s box. Wycherley and the king Mackintosh group in 2005. In 2008 the
eventually came to share the duchess’s favours. DONMAR WAREHOUSE company began a year-
long season at Wyndham’s with a much
Wyndham’s Theatre An intimate praised revival of Ivanov, with Kenneth
London theatre in the Charing Cross Road. Branagh in the title role. The theatre is
The Marquess of Salisbury allowed it to be currently showing the musical Avenue Q,
built on his land because he admired the actor- which transferred from the Gielgud in 2010.
 You Can’t Take It With You 553

stage hand gave a quick embarrassed reply,

Y “We can’t hold it, Sir. The bloody theatre’s on

fire.”
Yeoman of the Guard, The A light
Yates, Richard (1706–96) English opera by GILBERT AND SULLIVAN, set in the
comedian, who won fame playing clown roles Tower of London in the 16th-century and
in Shakespeare’s plays. He began his career in a subtitled The Merryman and His Maid. It was
booth at London’s BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, where first produced in 1888 at the SAVOY THEATRE.
he played PANTALOON to Ned Shuter’s Gilbert is said to have taken the idea from a
HARLEQUIN. After becoming a member of poster of a Beefeater advertising the Tower
Giffard’s company at Goodman’s Fields Furnishing Company. For his part, Sullivan
Theatre he moved on to play at Covent wrote the piece during a bout of depression in
Garden and Drury Lane for many years. He which he accused himself of wasting his talents
created the role of Sir Oliver Surface in the on musical comedies instead of writing grand
first production of Sheridan’s THE SCHOOL FOR opera; consequently Yeoman is one of his more
SCANDAL (1777). Yates’s second wife was the serious works.
actress Mary Ann Graham (1728–87), who The plot concerns the plight of Colonel
played at Drury Lane from 1754 to 1785, Fairfax, due to be beheaded in the Tower on
becoming one of her era’s most respected false charges based on the evidence of a cousin,
tragic actresses. who will inherit his estate if he dies unmarried.
Accordingly, he persuades Elsie Maynard, a
Yeats, William Butler (1865–1939) singer, to marry him in return for 100 crowns.
Irish poet and playwright, who led the Irish Meanwhile, Phoebe, the daughter of a Yeoman
dramatic renaissance in the early 20th century warder, has fallen in love with Fairfax. She
and, with the help of Lady GREGORY, created steals the keys to his cell, and Fairfax assumes
the ABBEY THEATRE. The first play performed the identity of her brother, Leonard. When she
at the Abbey (on 27 December 1904) was discovers that Fairfax has fallen in love with
Yeats’s On Baile’s Strand. It remained part of Elsie, Phoebe discloses his true identity to
the theatre’s repertoire with his other works, Wilfred Shadbolt, the Head Jailer and
which include THE LAND OF HEART’S DESIRE
Assistant Tormentor. To protect Fairfax and
(1894) and Deirdre (1907). Yeats, who was
escape a treason charge, Elsie now promises to
awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923,
wed Shadbolt “in a year – or two – or three, at
gave strong encouragement to other Irish
the most”.
playwrights including J. M. Synge and Sean
O’Casey. Yerma A poetic tragedy by Federico
The first of his 30 plays was the symbolist GARCÍA LORCA, first performed in 1934 in
drama The Countess Cathleen (1892), the Madrid and first seen in London in 1937.
heroine of which was modelled on Maud Yerma is the second play in a trilogy of folk
Gonne, a beautiful nationalist friend who tragedies that begins with BLOOD WEDDING
remained a source of inspiration throughout (1933) and is completed by THE HOUSE OF
Yeats’s life. In 1902 Maud took the title role in BERNARDA ALBA (1936). The plot involves the
his fiercely patriotic play CATHLEEN NI suffering of a childless gypsy woman who
HOULIHAN. Yeats reacted strongly against the murders her sterile husband.
fashion for NATURALISM in the theatre; in his
later works he aimed to create a form of ritual You Can’t Take It With You A
drama analogous to the Japanese Nō, making comedy by the US playwrights George S.
use of dance, poetry, and masks. Many of his KAUFMAN and Moss HART. It won the Pulitzer
plays deal with themes from Irish mythology Prize after opening in New York in 1936.
(see CUCHULAIN). The play is set in the eccentric New York
Yeats was a great stickler for detail. The household of Grandpa Martin Vanderhof. His
actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke recalled him trying granddaughter Alice has invited her fiancé,
for hours to find the right lighting effect for a Tony Kirby, and his strait-laced parents to
sunset. After the electricians had tried all the dinner, and she is concerned about the
possible colour combinations, Yeats saw a glow impression that her unconventional family will
and shouted, “That’s it! Hold it, hold it!” A make. Grandpa keeps snakes and avoids taxes
554 You Never Can Tell

by pretending to be dead, his son-in-law Paul Song or shouted lewd remarks at younger
makes fireworks in the basement, and female characters. It is estimated that 250 000
granddaughter Essie takes ballet lessons from people saw the play, before it finally closed in
the flamboyant Russian Boris Kolenkhov. May 1935 after 278 performances.
Tony’s family arrive on the wrong night to Away we go to camp and all its
find the usual chaos; they leave in disgust, pleasures,
as the fireworks factory is raided by the A merry mob, a merry mob!
authorities. When Tony returns on the next ‘Boy Scouts’ Song’
evening, followed by his father, Grandpa
succeeds in persuading Mr Kirby to take a Young Roscius See BETTY, WILLIAM
more relaxed view of life, and the engagement (HENRY WEST).
is saved.
Young Vic A theatre in Lambeth,
You Never Can Tell A light comedy by London, near the OLD VIC, that offers
George Bernard SHAW, written between 1895 professional productions for young people at
and 1897, published in 1898 in Plays Pleasant reasonable prices. The company also aims to
and Unpleasant, and first performed in 1900 at nurture the careers of young actors, directors,
the Strand Theatre, London. You Never Can and technicians. The Young Vic was founded
Tell was one of 10 Shaw works presented in by Frank Dunlop under the auspices of the
repertory (1904–07) by John Vedrenne and National Theatre and opened in 1970 in a
Harley GRANVILLE-BARKER at the Royal Court converted butcher’s shop. The first production
Theatre. was Scapino, an adaptation from Molière,
A farcical tale set mainly in an English which Dunlop directed in a modernized
seaside hotel, the play centres on the commedia dell’arte style.
independent Mrs Clandon and her three In 1974 the Young Vic became
grown-up children: the ‘new woman’ Gloria independent of the National Theatre and
and the giddy twins Dolly and Philip. Other Dunlop gave up his management role,
characters include the womanizing dentist Mr although he continued to direct from time to
Valentine and Walter, the wise old hotel waiter time. Michael BOGDANOV served as artistic
whose catchphrase provides the play’s title. director from 1978 to 1980 and David
Amid much discussion of sexual politics and Thacker from 1984 to 1993; the current
the class system, the Clandon children are director (from 1999) is David Lan. The
reunited with their estranged father by an company, which likes to maintain an informal,
absurd coincidence. The play ends with the unstuffy atmosphere, has presented a wide
conversion of Gloria and Valentine to a more variety of plays, ranging from Waiting for
conventional way of life as they decide to Godot to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
marry. Dreamcoat and Ibsen’s Ghosts, which
transferred in 1986 to Wyndham’s Theatre.
Young England A play intended as a Some more recent productions include
stirring morality tale, which opened at Marlowe’s Dr Faustus (2001), with film star
the Victoria Palace, London, in September Jude Law in the title role, and Annie Get Your
1934 and convulsed audiences with its Gun (2009), with Jane Horrocks.
unintentional comedy. Essentially a By 1999 the Lambeth theatre, which had
wholesome entertainment about young lovers only been designed to last five years, was
beset by a variety of villains, the play featured a showing signs of serious disrepair and faced
troop of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, who foil closure on health and safety grounds.
the plans of a devious scoutmaster. The Following a major fund-raising campaign, the
performances quickly degenerated into a riot theatre underwent a £12.5 million rebuild
of audience participation as theatregoers joined from 2004, reopening in 2006 with a
in with or supplemented the dialogue. The production of the community opera Tobias
author, Walter Reynolds, an 83-year-old and the Angel. As part of its education
dramatist and proprietor of the Theatre Royal, programme, the Young Vic still offers one free
Leeds, used to sit in a box glaring at the ticket to each school-age child in the boroughs
audience as they joined in the Boy Scouts’ of Lambeth and Southwark.
 Ziegfeld, Florenz 555

de la Cruz (1731–94), who created works with

Z plots taken from everyday life. Although he

experienced great success, the genre faded
again after his death and remained in obscurity
until 1856, when the Teatro de la Zarzuela
Zaïre A tragedy by VOLTAIRE, often opened in Madrid. Over the years, the zarzuela
regarded as his best work for the stage. First evolved into two forms, the one-act comedy
performed in 1732 in Paris, it is strongly known as the TEATRO POR HORAS and the
influenced by Shakespeare, whose works opera-like version called the grande. The
Voltaire had become familiar with during his modern zarzuela has been greatly influenced
stay in England (1726–29). The dedication by international musicals.
mentions Shakespeare’s historical plays, while
the plot suggests Othello as another source. Ziegfeld, Florenz (1867–1932) US
Set in the Middle East during the impresario and theatre manager, who became a
Crusades, the story concerns Zaïre, a slave, US institution with his Ziegfeld Follies, which
who is loved by her master, the sultan Osman. ran continuously from 1907 until his death in
She discovers that she is really the daughter of 1932, and then periodically until 1957. The
another slave, Lusignan, the former king and a Follies were an expensive REVUE (modelled on
Christian. She also finds that she has a long- Paris’s Folies Bergères), which featured
lost brother, Nerestan. Zaïre keeps this seminude girls, glamorous costumes, and
information from the sultan, and when he spectacular sets. As an impresario, Ziegfeld
discovers her meetings with Nerestan he developed the careers of several stars, including
becomes furiously jealous and murders them W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor,
both. Paulette Goddard, and Fanny Brice and
imported such international talent as Maurice
Zanni The comic servant characters of the CHEVALIER. He also worked with a number of
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. They included the America’s top composers, including Irving
foolish ARLECCHINO and the crafty SCAPINO. BERLIN, and George GERSHWIN.
The word is thought to derive from a Venetian Ziegfeld began his career in entertainment
form of the name Giovanni (‘John’). Several of at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893,
the Zanni later became major figures in the when he acted as publicist for SANDOW the
English HARLEQUINADE. In English ‘zani’ strongman. From 1896 he promoted the
became a term for a clown or buffoon, giving musical comedy performer Anna Held
rise to the modern adjective ‘zany’. (1873–1918), whom he married the following
He’s like the zani to a tumbler year. They were divorced in 1913 and Ziegfeld
That tries tricks after him to make men subsequently married the light comedian Billie
laugh. Burke (who later appeared as Glinda, the
BEN JONSON: Every Man out of his Good Witch of the North, in the film of The
Humour (IV, i) Wizard of Oz).
In 1927 he opened his own Ziegfeld
zarzuela A type of Spanish musical play or Theatre on Sixth Avenue and 54th Street with
operetta that developed as a popular court the musical Rio Rita. That same year he
entertainment in the mid 17th century; the produced the musical SHOW BOAT, which was
name comes from the Palacio de la Zarzuela, a an enormous success in London the following
royal hunting lodge near Madrid. The first year. When Ziegfeld died (leaving debts of
zarzuela, combining narrative passages with around $500,000), his theatre became a
music and dance, was El laurel de Apolo cinema. It was reopened by Billy Rose under
(1658), by Pedro CALDERÓN de la Barca. its old name in 1944 with the revue Seven
Another notable exponent of the genre was Deadly Arts, starring Beatrice LILLIE. From
Lope de VEGA. The zarzuela’s popularity 1953 onwards it was used for television
at court owed much to its heroic and broadcasts but in 1963 returned to live
mythological subjects. By the 18th century, entertainment, with Maurice Chevalier
however, Italian opera had become the fashion presenting an evening of songs and sketches.
and the zarzuela had to be revived by Ramón The Ziegfeld Theatre was demolished in 1967.