- English drama
Drama was introduced to England from
Europe by the Romans, andauditorium s were constructed across the country for this purpose. By themedieval period, the mummers' plays had developed, a form of early street theatre associated with theMorris dance , concentrating on themes such asSaint George and the Dragon andRobin Hood . These werefolk tale s re-telling old stories, and theactor s travelled from town to town performing these for their audiences in return for money and hospitality. The medievalmystery play s andmorality play s, which dealt with Christian themes, were performed at religious festivals.Renaissance and Elizabethan periods
The period known as the
English Renaissance , approximately 1500—1660, saw a flowering of the drama and all the arts. The most famous example of the morality play, "Everyman", and the two candidates for the earliest comedy in EnglishNicholas Udall 's "Ralph Roister Doister " and the anonymous "Gammer Gurton's Needle ", all belong to the 16th century.During the reign of Elizabeth I in the late 16th and early 17th century, a London-centred culture that was both
court ly and popular produced great poetry and drama. Perhaps the most famousplaywright in the world,William Shakespeare fromStratford-upon-Avon , wrote plays that are still performed in theatres across the world to this day. He was himself an actor and deeply involved in the running of the theatre company that performed his plays. Other important playwrights of this period includeChristopher Marlowe ,Ben Jonson , andJohn Webster . Various types of plays were popular. Ben Jonson, for example, was often engaged to write courtlymasque s, ornate plays where the actors woremask s. The three types that seem most often studied today are the histories, the comedies, and the tragedies. Most playwrights tended to specialise in one or another of these, but Shakespeare is remarkable in that he produced all three types. His 38 plays include tragedies such as "Hamlet " (1603), "Othello " (1604), and "King Lear " (1605); comedies such as "A Midsummer Night's Dream " (1594—96) and "Twelfth Night " (1602); and history plays such as "Henry IV, part 1—2". Some have hypothesized that the English Renaissance paved the way for the sudden dominance of drama in English society, arguing that the questioning mode popular during this time was best served by the competing characters in the plays of the Elizabethan dramatists.17th and 18th centuries
During the Interregnum 1649—1660, English theatres were kept closed by the
Puritan s for religious and ideological reasons. When the London theatres opened again with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, they flourished under the personal interest and support of Charles II. Wide and socially mixed audiences were attracted by topical writing and by the introduction of the first professional actresses (in Shakespeare's time, all female roles had been played by boys). Newgenres of the Restoration wereheroic drama , pathetic drama, andRestoration comedy . Notable heroic tragedies of this period includeJohn Dryden 's All for Love (1677) and (Aureng-Zebe ) (1675), andThomas Otway 'sVenice Preserved (1682). The Restoration plays that have best retained the interest of producers and audiences today are the comedies, such asGeorge Etherege 's "The Man of Mode " (1676),William Wycherley 's "The Country Wife " (1676),John Vanbrugh 's "The Relapse " (1696), and William Congreve's "The Way of the World " (1700). This period saw the first professional woman playwright,Aphra Behn , author of many comedies including "The Rover" (1677). Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for itssexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakisharistocratic ethos of hiscourt .In the 18th century, the highbrow and provocative Restoration comedy lost favour, to be replaced by
sentimental comedy ,domestic tragedy such asGeorge Lillo 's "The London Merchant " (1731), and by an overwhelming interest in Italianopera . Popular entertainment became more dominant in this period than ever before. Fair-boothburlesque and musical entertainment, the ancestors of the Englishmusic hall , flourished at the expense of legitimate English drama, which went into a long period of decline. By the early 19th century, the drama was no longer represented by stage plays at all, but bycloset drama , plays written to be privately read in a "closet" (a small domestic room).Victorian era and later
A change came in the
Victorian era with a profusion on the London stage offarce s, musical burlesques,extravaganza s andcomic opera s that competed withShakespeare productions and serious drama by the likes ofJames Planché andThomas William Robertson . In 1855, theGerman Reed Entertainments began a process of elevating the level of (formerly risqué) musical theatre in Britain that culminated in the famous series of comic operas byGilbert and Sullivan and were followed by the 1890s with the firstEdwardian musical comedies .W. S. Gilbert andOscar Wilde were leading poets and dramatists of the late Victorian period. [Stedman, Jane W. (1996). "W. S. Gilbert , A Classic Victorian & His Theatre". Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816174-3] Wilde's plays, in particular, stand apart from the many now forgotten plays of Victorian times and have a much closer relationship to those of theEdwardian dramatists such as IrishmanGeorge Bernard Shaw and NorwegianHenrik Ibsen .The length of runs in the theatre changed rapidly during the Victorian period. As transportation improved, poverty in London diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. The first play to achieve 500 consecutive performances was the London comedy "
Our Boys ", opening in 1875. Its astonishing new record of 1,362 performances was bested in 1892 by "Charley's Aunt ". [ [http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-longr.html Article on long-runs in the theatre before 1920] ] Several ofGilbert and Sullivan 'scomic opera s broke the 500-performance barrier, beginning with "H.M.S. Pinafore " in 1878, andAlfred Cellier andB. C. Stephenson 's 1886 hit, "Dorothy", ran for 931 performances.Edwardian musical comedy held the London stage (together with foreign operetta imports) untilWorld War I and was then supplanted by increasingly popular Americanmusical theatre and comedies byNoel Coward ,Ivor Novello and their contemporaries. The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. At first, films were silent and presented only a limited challenge to theatre. But by the end of the 1920s, films like "The Jazz Singer" could be presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if the cinema would replace live theatre altogether. Some dramatists wrote for the new medium, but playwriting continued.Postmodernism had a profound effect on English drama in the latter half of the 20th Century. This can be seen particularly in the work of
Samuel Beckett (most notably inWaiting for Godot ), who in turn influenced writers such asHarold Pinter andTom Stoppard .Today the
West End of London has a large number of theatres, particularly centred aroundShaftesbury Avenue . A prolific writer of music for musicals of the 20th century,Andrew Lloyd Webber , has dominated the West End for a number of years, and his works have travelled to Broadway inNew York and around the world, as well as being turned intofilm .The
Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Stratford-upon-Avon, producing mainly but not exclusively Shakespeare's plays.ee also
*
English literature
*Irish theatre
*Mummers Play Notes
External links
* [http://link.library.utoronto.ca/reed Patrons and Performances] , Records of Early English Drama
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