The Ornament of Action
Text and Performance in Restoration Comedy

Peter Holland brings together the disciplines of theatre history and literary criticism in a close study of the staging of plays in the Restoration.

Peter Holland (Author)

9780521133944, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 March 2010

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.44 kg

How was Restoration comedies performed on the Restoration stage? How did Wycherley or Congreve expect their plays to be acted? How much were they influenced by theatrical conditions and conventions? What happened in performance, when the plays were graced with 'the ornament of action'? In this book, which was originally published in 1979, Peter Holland brings together the disciplines of theatre history and literary criticism in a close study of the manner and significance of the staging of plays in the Restoration. The dramatists, working with the strengths and weaknesses of their own theatre companies very much in mind, are shown using a whole range of staging techniques in order to help their audience understand their plays. The reader can visualise the plays as they must have looked at the time of the original performance. Throughout he challenges the conventional distinction between text and performance, and seeks to turn us from readers into spectators.

List of illustrations
Preface
Note on references
1. The text and the audience
2. Performance: theatres and scenery
3. Performance: actors and the cast
4. Performance and the published text
5. Text and performance (1): the comedies, 1691 to 1693
6. Text and performance (2): Wycherley's The Plain-Dealer
7. Text and performance (3): the comedies of Congreve
Appendices
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]