The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre

This 2004 Companion examines the world of the Victorian theatre: the audiences, playwrights, actors, and music.

Kerry Powell (Edited by)

9780521795364, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 February 2004

308 pages, 14 b/w illus. 1 music example
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.1 cm, 0.497 kg

'All the contributions to this undeniably useful enterprise are sufficiently expert to ensure it a place on undergraduate and graduate reading-lists …'. Journal of Theatre Research International

This 2004 Companion is designed for readers interested in the creation, production and interpretation of Victorian and Edwardian theatre, both in its own time and on the contemporary stage. The volume opens with a brief overview and introduction surveying the theatre of the time followed by an essay contextualizing the theatre within the frame of Victorian and Edwardian culture as a whole. Succeeding chapters examine specific aspects of performance, production, and theatre, including the music, the actors, stagecraft and the audiences themselves; plays and playwriting and issues of class and gender are also explored. Chapters also deal with comedy, farce and melodrama, while other essays bring forward new topics and approaches that cross the boundaries of traditional investigation, including analysis of the economics of theatre and of the theatricality of personal identity.

List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Preface Kerry Powell
Part I. Introduction: Before the curtain Nina Auerbach
Part II. Performance and Context: 1. Actors and acting Joseph W. Donohue Jr.
2. The show business economy and its discontents Tracy C. Davis
3. Victorian and Edwardian stagecraft: techniques and issues Russell Jackson
4. Music for the theatre: style and function in incidental music Michael Pisani
5. Victorian and Edwardian audiences Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow
6. Performing identities: actresses and autobiography Mary Jean Corbett
Part III. Text and Context: 7. Comedy and farce Michael Booth
8. Encountering melodrama David Mayer
9. The Music Hall Jacky Bratton
10. Theatre of the 1890s: Breaking down the barriers Peter Raby
11. New theatres for a new drama Cary M. Mazer
12. The fallen woman on stage: maidens, magdalens, and the emancipated female Sos Eltis
13. Reimagining the theatre: women playwrights of the Victorian and Edwardian period Susan Carlson and Kerry Powell
14. The East End Theatre Heidi Holder
Index.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]