Theatre in the Victorian era is regarded as history of theatre during the era ruled by Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. It was a time during which literature and theatre flourished. During her reign a lot of new theatres were built along with theatre schools. It was also during her reign when political reforms came into practice which led to the openness of theatre and literature. Theatre openly displayed and played dramas relating to social problems. Generally it was a period which brought prosperity to the middle class of England, and started to challenge the old hierarchical order of country.
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A theatre in Victorian England
The Victorian era is the era of the reign of Queen Victoria. During this period of time, theatre flourished. According to Allardyce Nicoll, author of History of Late Nineteenth Century Drama, during this time theatres became very popular with masses. (The Audience 8). Theatrical atmosphere was not particularly restricted to certain classes of the society. One of the main reasons of masses attending the theatre was the improvement in the transportation system. The streets became safer for travelling at night time, Nicoll observes, which prolonged timing for the theatre (9). Plays could run for a longer time now. This all led to greater profits and an increase in the number of theatres. With an increase in theatre resulting from the increase in the number of spectators, production of stage plays and drama proceeded to surpass the quantity of dramas produced in the past periods. According to Nicoll “When rail and omnibus became popular the whole of the area north, south and west of London was brought into the association with theatre”(8). As a result, the number of ticket buyers increased many fold. Typical audiences in those days were mostly the citizens from the lower section of the society, with some representation from the aristocracy. The great alteration, however, didn't come until the middle of the Victorian era. The greatest work done to improve theatre’s perception was done by none other Queen Victoria. The Queen’s encouragements of the theatre not only pumped fresh air into the London theatre, but theatre was also understood as “something destined to yield a rich harvest in the future” (9).
The theatre
The new audiences which were being built in both the metropolitan and provincial areas demanded new theatres. It was also the need of the time to remodel the old theatres. “Between 1860 to 1870 the Royalty, The Gaiety, The Charing Cross, The Globe, The Holborn, The Queen’s were remodel. Later in the following decade of 1870 to 1880 The Court, The Opera Comique and The Imperial were built.”(The Theatre 27). This brief list is proof of steadily increasing interest of the common public in the theatre. According to Allardyce Nicoll, “there were nineteen theatres in London during the summer of 1851. Nearly half a century later, in 1899, London boasts sixty one theatres, thirty eight in the west end twenty three in the nearby suburban districts.”(The Theatre 28). Their significance as centers of entertainment was enormous. The stage of these theatres had a picture frame. The picture frame had a realistic feeling. With this picture frame effect, far more could be achieved scenically than had ever been dreamed of before. The old conventional devices clung tenaciously to the boards of the stage and blocked the development of new ideas for the theatre. In the eighties there was a definite improvement in the scenic design, and second the definite change in orientation from conventionalism to more naturalistic. It was also during this period stage managers were introduced. They were the modern directors and producers. Before, things related to theatre were very chaotic. There was a lot of confusion when it came to coordinating. Some managers tried to supervise but there was no serious attempt to establish proper coordination among so many workers working on stage and back stage. But now stage managers definitely had full control of the stage and all workers respected his authority. “ Murray Edinburgh was considered peculiar because he insisted upon every member of his company acting at the rehearsal exactly as they intended to do at night. He demanded decency and order and an ideal was set up for a unified realism in stage presentation.”(The Theatre 31)
Playwrights in the Victorian era
Oscar Wilde is one of the most prominent playwrights of the Victorian era. “Wilde’s easy wit insured an immediate success for the brilliant series of dramas that he wrote in the early nineties. In early 1892 Lady Windermere's Fan appeared at the St James' Theatre and was at once popular. The same year Wilde also wrote Salome. It was followed the next year by A Woman of No Importance. An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, both filled with wit and brilliant paradoxes, appeared in 1895. They were the last things that Oscar Wilde was to write, before he developed meningitis, and suffered his untimely death.”(Oscar Wilde 951). Other plays include Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880), The Duchess of Padua (1883), A Florentine Tragedy (La Sainte Courtisane 1893). Wilde's work has inspired many other fellow writers. His work has been translated into many languages, and has been on the stage over and over again.
Other important writers include John Millington Synge, whose plays include Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World (1907). (John Millington Synge 985). George Bernard Shaw was another famous playwright of the Victorian era. He wrote more than sixty plays. His plays were mostly about social problems such as education, religion, marriage, and class privileges. Arms and the Man and You Can Never Tell are his famous plays. Dion Boucicault was another famous playwright of the Victorian era. His famous plays include The Colleen Bawn, and The Shaughraun.
Comedy in Victorian England
Nearly all the writers mentioned above have tried to introduce laughter in their work. Comedies in Victorian era were mostly a combination of high and low comedy. The plots were usually full of coincidences, mistiming and mistaken identities. Characters were usually puppets of fate. They are unable to wed, and are too poor, or too rich. The characters also suffer from loss of identity due to some accident. They are also sometimes twins, who are separated, or are oblivious to their double. Humor mostly consists of dirty or vulgar jokes, dirty gestures, and sex. The extremes of humor range from exaggeration to understatement. The physical actions on the stage included slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, collisions. There is one problem after and another. One of the most famous comedies of the Victorian era was “The Importance of Being Earnest”. It is probably one of the most played comedies with the same absurd situations. It is a social satire. It shows a world where no character has the slightest responsibility or can be counted to say or do the usual thing.