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London Stage in the Nineteenth Century
By Robert Tanitch
Carnegie Publishing £24.99
360 Pages
Dateline: 13th July, 2010
Robert Tanitch has repeated the feat that he achieved with The
London Stage in the 20th Century, only covering the topic a
century earlier. This new book is physically smaller, which makes it
easier to read and manoeuvre but, beyond that, is equally valuable.
In particular, with assistance from the archivists at the City of Westminster,
this finely produced volume is lavishly garnished with illustrations
and photographs from the period, and these also helped to form a separate,
complementary exhibition at the National Theatre.
Where information about relatively recent events can be gleaned quite
easily, the scholarship that has gone into this book must be even greater.
The formula is very much the same, with each major stage production
of the period listed in chronological order. This includes Dickensian
readings, spectacle, opera and to an extent ballet as well as drama.
We learn the names of the leading actors, get a four or five line summary
of the plot and, in many cases, some extracts from actors' books or
newspaper reviews, some of which make the critics of today seem positively
benign. Perhaps wisely, Tanitch has stuck with the best of their period,
writers such as William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt in the early years through
to Shaw by the end.
This was certainly a dramatic age in theatrical terms, since not only
did critics have their say but audiences were prone to fits of hissing
and booing as well as the occasional liar.
To set the stage into context, for each year an inset box sets out
significant births, deaths and theatrical matters as well as the most
important historical happenings such as the Battle of Waterloo or the
birth of Queen Victoria (the good lady's longevity means that her passing
did not occur until the later book). Strangely, in a volume where meticulous
research is visible on every page, there is a blip here, as several
individuals are shown as being born or dying in more than one year.
Tanitch also picks up on relevant events both in the theatre and beyond,
the century being distinguished for the numbers of fires, seemingly
razing every big theatre in the city to the ground.
Unusually to modern aficionados, animals on stage (including lions
and an elephant as well as the more domesticated species) were very
popular and so too was that other acting anathema, the child. The latter
category was personified by 12-year-old Master Betty, a seemingly talentless
prodigy who struggled on to his teenage years playing many of the most
significant Shakespearean (male for the avoidance of doubt) roles.
The early years of the century are characterised by a lot of Bowdlerised
Shakespeare and the domination of the stage by the extended Kemble family,
which included the leading actress of the day, Sarah Siddons.
1814 hailed the sensational arrival of Edmund Kean, the head of another
dynasty and an actor so good that, after debuting as Shylock, he was
instantly recognised as the new superstar and played most of the other
meaty Shakespearean roles before the year was out. Thereafter, leading
performers including many forgotten today included the likes of William
Charles McCready and Helen Faucit.
Later on, the Black American actor Ira Aldridge caused consternation
in times before political correctness engendering astonishing racist
diatribes, even in the supposedly respectable press.
The writers of the period mix novelists such as Dickens and Bulwer
Lytton with Shakespeare, the substandard Lord Byron and those sadly
now long forgotten.
The middle years are characterised by the sensation plays of Dion Boucicault,
whose London Assurance
has so recently given great pleasure to audiences at the National, and
the two Toms, Taylor and Robertson.
They also introduced WS Gilbert who soon enough entered into that legendary
partnership with Arthur Sullivan. At the same time the acting side of
the profession was graced by two legends with intertwined careers, Henry
Irving and Ellen Terry.
The century plays out with Wilde, Shaw and especially Ibsen, the last-named
outraging the English, who could not believe that his plays would ever
catch on.
London Stage in the Nineteenth Century whets the appetite and,
as the author says in his introduction, it would be fascinating to see
at least a handful of the forgotten plays and writers of the era resurrected,
as they were certainly popular in their time.
In addition to the text, the wondrous collection of photos and drawings
make this a perfect gift book that will have great appeal to anyone
interested in the theatre or its history.
Philip Fisher
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