Introduction Early Victorian Drama  The Old Price Riots The Kembles Edmund Kean Melodrama Pictorial Drama Actor Managers  Women Managers Henry Irving Beerbohm Tree 19th Century Spectacle Cup and Saucer Drama

National Standard Theatre poster

The 19th century was the age of a truly popular theatre. New theatres opened to satisfy a demand for entertainment from the workers who flooded into the major cities as the Industrial Revolution took hold. Pantomime, ballad opera, melodrama, circus, equestrian drama, aquatic drama and burlesque were all popular forms of entertainment.

The Penny Show

Gaiety Theatre Souvenir brochure

Middle class support for the theatre diminished between 1820 and 1850. Actors were ‘rogues and scurvy vagabonds’ and audiences were often rowdy during the performance. The production standards were shabby and sets and costumes were thrown together from stock scenery and wardrobes. From the mid 19th century, there was a conscious effort by the theatre to throw off its rowdy associations and win acceptance by the new middle classes.

Ellen Terry and Henry Irving

Sarah Bernhardt

Victorian theatre was in essence spectacular and the advances in stage technology and lighting had a great effect on production styles. Pictorial theatre with its lavish and detailed sets and costumes reflected the Victorian obsession with history and archaeology and appealed to the educated middle classes. Theatres were redesigned and the cheap benches near the stage were replaced by comfortable padded seats. The rowdier audience members were moved up into the galleries. Carpets were laid in the aisles and the pit was renamed the stalls. By the 1890s theatres such as Drury Lane under Augustus Harris were spending enormous amounts on design and costume.

Marie Wilton (Lady Bancroft)

Poster for The Second Mrs Tanqueray

This was the era of the great actor-managers (male and female) who produced, directed and starred in their own theatres: the Kembles, Eliza Vestris, Charles Kean, Henry Irving, and Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Some actors became international stars touring to Europe and America.

Oscar Wilde

Mrs Patrick Campbell

Despite the advances in stage design and production the 19th century did not produce many notable dramatists, the exceptions at the end of the century being Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Pinero. The most produced author in the 19th century was Shakespeare. The Bancrofts at the Haymarket Theatre introduced ‘Cup and Saucer’ drama with its drawing-room manners and attention to the realistic details of everyday life. This heralded the start of the new drama of George Bernard Shaw and director Harley Granville Barker - influenced by the writings of Ibsen.

The Great World of London

Promptbook for Diplomacy