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Early Nineteenth Century Stage Settings in the British Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

James H. Butler
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Extract

There has been a good deal of speculation by theatre scholars concerning when realistic interior stage settings, or to be more specific, the box-set was first used on the English stage. Waitzkin contends that the box-set made its first appearance in England at the Olympic Theatre in a production of The Conquering Game by W. B. Bernard given on November 3, 1832. Armstrong agrees with Waitzkin's contention except he dates the performance as given on November 28, 1832. Rowell believes that the etched frontispiece to The Conquering Game“…is insufficient to confirm that this ‘more perfect enclosure’ involved flats entirely surrounding the scene and a ceiling cloth as well.” Hunter agrees with Rowell and can find “No positive indication” in the etching for the claim that this was the first box-set used on the English stage (l).

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , May 1965 , pp. 54 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1965

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References

NOTES

1 Waitzkin, Leo, The Witch of Wych Street (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933), pp. 22, 55.Google Scholar

2 Armstrong, William A., “Madame Vestris: A Centenary Appreciation,” Theatre Notebook, II, No. 1 (October-December, 1956), 276.Google Scholar

3 Rowell, George, The Victorian Theatre (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

4 Hunter, Jack W., “Rise of Realism on the Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Stage,” The OSU Theatre Collection Bulletin, V, No. 1 (Spring 1958), 29.Google Scholar

5 Ibid.

6 The Theatrical Observer, Feb. 10, 1834.

7 Gilder, Rosamond, Enter the Actress (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1960), p. 276.Google Scholar

8 Watson, Ernest Bradlee, Sheridan to Robertson: A Study of the Nineteenth-Century London Stage (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926), p. 273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Waitzkin, Leo, The Witch of Wych Street, p. 55.Google Scholar

10 1814–1880. The son of Pierce Egan, the elder. He was noted for sketches made of plays in performance, afterwards converted into etchings. He was also a successful novelist.

11 The Old Stager, Stage Reminiscences: Being Recollections, Chiefly Personal, of Celebrated Theatrical and Musical Performers, During the Last Forty Years. 2nd ed. (Glasgow: James Hedderwich & Son, 1870), p. 75.Google Scholar