Meilinda Petra Christian University: November 2015

Secondment Report for Dramaturgy Class of Playhouse Creatures: A Theatre Performance at NIDA, Sydney Australia 23- 30 June 2004

This report is made as a final project to accomplish the dramaturgy class expectations. I chose to do my project as dramaturge at NIDA for a theatre performance namely: Playhouse Creatures. It portrays the theatre actresses’ life from King Theatre Company at England in 17^thC when for the first time women legally allowed to act on public stage. This performance was produced by NIDA’ students from a variety of years (the actors are third years students) and directed by Tony Knight NIDA’s head of acting department on 23^rd - 30^th of June 2004. The process of this performance started from 3^rd of May 2004. This theatre performance held at NIDA-Sydney and also in Hobart. However, I studied the NIDA - Sydney production as primary source in my evaluation. My evaluation toward the performances will also be connected to limited visits that I made during the rehearsals time, my interview to the director and also my analysis toward the play and performance.

Since my project task as a dramaturge, I concentrated to the history background connected to the play and also to see how the script was working on the stage with a high respect to the writer’s aim in the play. This report mainly, is divided into two major parts; i.e. the formal dramaturgical report and historical background. There are a lot of similarity between the fact and the play. However, it is important to keep in mind that: this is a play, a fiction, with fictional characters. The similarity exists only because this play is inspired by the first actresses’ life in England. Due to this fact, knowing the history of that period is extremely important as fundamental background of the play. Historical background will be divided into two parts; history of the characters and also the England theatre and society in the restoration period. This performance is based on April De Angelis’ Playhouse Creatures revised and expanded from its original 1993 version to include Elizabeth Barry, Rochester and Thomas Otway as minor characters. It is justifiable since their characters’ existence was able to expand the messages which the writer wanted to state.

April De Angelis is well known as a woman writer who dramatically specialises in the group dynamics of women. She wrote Iron mistress, The Life and Times of Fanny Hill, Hush, Soft Vengeance, Playhouse Creatures, The Warwickshire Testimony and an opera, Flight.[1] For Playhouse Creatures she tried to tell us a story about the great first women on stage in England. How they lived and what struggle they faced as being first women on the public stage. It is difficult to find information about this writer and I share this feeling with the director. There is no formal statement from her about Playhouse Creatures that I can find, except a line in her acknowledgement page. It is written that this play is inspired by Elizabeth Howe’s The First English Actresses. Therefore, I would like to approach her point of view toward the play based on that book.

From eight chapters in The First English Actresses, I conclude, generally that actresses existence on stage became a “two edge sword”, it brought positive and negative effect toward theatre, society and human life. Actresses did (mostly) not look from the point of view of quality, instead they considered it from the point of view of flesh. Actresses were exploited to satisfy men’s and women’s (society) lust. They did not regard as subject but as object. It was written in that book that “they additional Object… of real, beautiful women could not but draw a proportion of new Admirers to the Theatre”.[2] Their ability in being a good actor was taken for granted by “the demand of beautiful women” on stage, feminine sexuality which closely related to the legs and breasts. They were considered and became prostitute, mistresses, or the flower of a garden; even though there were some actresses who were able to show good quality like Nell Gwyn, Mary Betterton, Mrs. Marshall and Elizabeth Barry.[3] However, there are also positive points, that there were many great melodramatic restoration plays written regarding the coming of actresses on the stage. Of course it is a celebration for women for being able to be freed from an act that forbid them to act on the public stage.[4]

There is one Angelis’ statement that I like to highlight that “women were banned from theatre because of their sex, sexuality. …that you could be infected by a woman’s desire”.[5] I connect this statement to Playhouse Creatures, then I find a pattern that Angelis tried to reveal one of the issues that the first actresses’ on stage had, how was it like to be the first actresses on stage? How did the actresses struggle to win her position? And how did they handle the problems which came up as the consequences for being actresses? Also to wrap up, it is a moment that has to be celebrated since the first actresses opened opportunities for the next female generation to be on the stage.

This meets Tony Knight’s goal like he said in the playbill that actresses’ existence on stage is a revolutionary, extraordinary event. Therefore, opening up the curtain of first actresses’ life and their secret is a very interesting topic to observe and this play is trying to reveal it. Moreover, it is one of the goals of this play to be a celebration of that event. Like Tony wrote in the playbill: “after all what would our theatre be without women?” He also believes that this play tries to reveal the fragile women (in this case: actresses) position in the society. Also, how does the circle of life of success and failure, happiness and sadness touch every human being including the first actresses? This performance is designed to present the gay of theatre and the magic of it.

Tony directed this play with open mind and hand. He believes that theatre performance is a progress process; there is always possibility to improve or to change every single part in the play to make it better and more meaningful.

Playhouse Creatures, the title itself is an offensive statement. Creatures here, refers to the actresses; it is an uncommon word to represent human being. Creatures refer more to something which is different, ogre, animals instead of human being. This term is given for the England actresses at 17thC by Mrs.Squeamish in The Country Wife, given to actress who could not find protector for herself. This fact shows a bit about actresses’ position in the society at that time, that actresses were suspected as something rather than somebody, like Doll Common says in her line “Playhouse creatures they called you like you was animals”.[6]

In my point of view, this play is about women’s life and struggle to achieve what they want, their dream and their desire in their capacity as actresses at the time of first the England actresses on the stage. Playhouse Creatures is a comedy tragedy play. The best point of this play is the characters, especially the main characters. Every character in this play is uniquely written and supported by different conflicts and different characteristic. There are five major characters in this play, all women, Doll Common, Mrs. Betterton, Mrs. Marshall, Mrs. Farley and Nell Gwyn. Also three minor parts which are Otway, Rochester and Elizabeth Barry. Each character has its own matter to take a part in this play. Male characters represent the masculine side of the society, even though it is not developed very well since they are minor character. Rochester is the symbol of how powerful man is so that he is able to make/ create a great actress. Elizabeth Barry is a symbol of the future, the hope, success that the first women on the stage group inspired and its consequences becomes a sequence in this play. Otway is the representative of writer at that time who is inspired by the actresses to make his career as writer.

The plot of this play is very interesting; it is opened by the prologue and almost at the end, there is the epilogue but then continues again with some more lines. This act for me is a significant symbol of women writer that they try to present the play differently by not following the pattern of ordinary plot which is acclaimed as male writer plot. However, the director decided to replace the epilogue at the end of the play after Mrs. Barry’s sequence and before closing dance, which is added to the play in order to represent the gay celebration of women’s arrival on the stage. Mrs. Barry’s last sequence is showing her as almost doomed actress who turned to be a famous and the best English actress. She successfully gains power, money, fame and freedom and control upon men. This minor plot is an important plot, as a representative of the future hope of actresses and to celebrate women’s existence on the stage, that women are able to reach success on the stage. This scene is properly placed at the end of the play before the director changed it. This decision is made to make the audience understand the play easily since it follows ordinary path which they are used to. For me, this act erasing one significant symbol of female writers, different plot form.

Playhouse Creatures was written uniquely by using pattern of cause and effect, conflict and resolution. The first act becomes the cause, the struggle to be a star, to reach fame as actresses. The second act becomes the fall and the resolution of the first act, not including Mrs. Berry’s plot. There is a tendency that the women characters in this play follow the same path. They have to struggle to get what they want but success followed by failure is standing at the end of the road that they took.

Mrs. Mashall got her fame in theatre, but then she wants something more, freedom. A Freedom to do what she wants freedom from not having protector, freedom to refuse men’s power upon her life, freedom to revenge which then leads her to leave theatre. However, the point is her struggle in her life to get her freedom even though there is always consequences of her act, leave theatre, sacrifice, leave something that she loves.

Mrs. Farley, a puritan girl, has to find away to survive after her father’s death. By cheating Nell Gwyn she takes the chance to be actress. She becomes famous and attracts the King’s attention by using and showing her legs and breasts in her feminine sexual appearance. Then she wants more, she wants protector, suitor, lover. She sacrifice her body to get her will until she ends up pregnant without a husband and has to leave theatre, source of her living and ended as beggar and prostitute on the street.

Mrs. Betterton a high skilled actress who always tries to be the best on stage becomes the enemy of time, the enemy of beauty and flesh. She wants more, she wants eternity fame on stage but age conquers her, she was also expelled from the stage.

Nell Gwyn from the lower class who wants to be an actress has to fight for it. She even lied to Mrs. Betterton to get the job. Audience love her because of her legs and witty appearance and she becomes famous, she get everything even The King’s heart. Then she learns something, about fear, afraid of losing all the fancy things she got like her other colleagues who banished out from theatre. Then she wants more, she wants safety, security, protection which she will get from the King then she also has to leave the stage.

There are similarities of plot in these characters above that they want to be actress, they struggle for what they want, they become famous, and wanting more, and they are banish from theatre for what they want. All of their struggles are put in the first Act and the results are in the second act.

Moreover, there is one important point that I see in this play through the scenes, that actresses were sexually exposed by the company to get more audience. Legs and Breast are the main parts that help actresses to be famous. This can be seen in Act 2 Scene 3, when Otway reads his play in front of the actresses. The actresses interpret his play as “tits play” even though there is no clue at all about it in the play (the part is saintly martyr Dorothea). This shows that they were shaped to think based on the societies request to do so, to show their body.

Doll Common is a very special character in this play; she is the symbol of theatre’s slave, who gives everything she has for theatre since she loves it. Even though she cannot act anymore, she still stays at theatre and finds another option of job in it. Through this play, she struggles to say what she wants to say, since it is a hard thing to do for her. It is proven by her line almost at the end when she said about her disagreement of the term playhouse creatures for actresses “what I always thought but never said out loud till now…”

Success and failure of women for being women and the story behind it become the general theme of the play and are represented appropriately by the characters and the plot. Additionally, the idea of human beings’ greediness also takes a part in this play showing by the actresses’ demand to be share holders of theatre, since they believed that they are the cause of audience’s arrival. There are other themes which I explain above about Mrs. Marshall’s freedom from the society’s expectation that actresses are mistresses, secret lovers, and prostitution, Farley’s hypocrisy, uprising and the downfall connected to love and sex and many others. There are a lot of facts connected to the actress at that time which the writer tried to represent. Beside all, they become sudden shining stars who were trapped in their women sexuality. That it is all right to be on the stage as long as they are beautiful and were able to meet the audience’s expectations, which is flesh and sex. The existence of the sequences from other plays is chosen correctly to support the belief above. The usage of language is very well done by Angelis, to show drastic difference between women on the stage as character and when they become themselves again. In a play they speak with a beautiful poetic language while in real life they speak with improper language, straight forward and very confident. The choice of sequence which is taken from other plays are able to support how women were expected to act on the stage by the audience. This play is an interesting play because every character has her conflicts which support the general conflict of being first actresses on the stage so that the play is full of conflicts which is a good point since the audience did not become bored. However one notion that I like to underline is the time of the play, it was set in three different times 1663, 1669 and 1686, to show the difference is importance, to make the audience realise the change.

Tony Knight is able to package the performance into an entertainment. The performance was in coherence of acting, setting, props, music, lighting and the costume. All of them specifically represent certain period of time and support each other. The setting is honestly following the idea of playhouse creatures. It was a bear pit before it became playhouse by using the wood. It is able to emphasis that women actresses are important and remembered by the world with the names of famous actresses all over the wall and stage. The props and the lighting built many different places, starting from the fire place side, the stage, tiring room, the street and the bar with flexible props and lighting effect. The magic atmosphere of theatre is also represented beautifully by the smoke and the music. I categorize the music as classic country music in happy joyful tone which is able to represent 17^th C society and the situation at the time not to mention others type of music during the serious critical moments, especially when they performed the sequence from Macbeth with the voodoo-doll. The costumes are able to tell different period of time especially the actresses’ dresses supported by the make up and hair do. The difference of time are supported by the make up and costume for example Nell’s costume when she is not famous and when she becomes a star, the same case with Elizabeth Barry. While Rochester’s make up is different between when he is still young and hot blooded compared to act 2 scene 9 when he is dying.

The performance is able to represent Playhouse Creatures as a comedy not really tragedy play. Obviously, the idea of celebration for women on the stage is presented beautifully especially the last dance which is very gay, happy, naughty and nasty in a form of circle which symbolize the circle of life that the actresses have to follow, their suffering and happiness, success and failure, young and old always stand side by side to colour the life. The language is used very effective by presenting it in various accents which help to show characters’ society background. Nell’s debut dance appeared as a brilliant reflection of the script in Tony’s hand. The abortion scene is well presented and absorbed audience’s attention which is well supported by the background music. One more credit to Mrs. Betterton’s announcement scene when she must leave theatre, it is able to present the idea that younger actresses’ really respect the senior actresses and her achievements which at previous scenes hid behind their harsh nasty language and behaviour. The way Tony brings the scene to life is significantly shown at the scene when they reclaim share in theatre by making Doll’s distribute the pamphlets of shareholder. This simple touch brings the scene to life. Moreover, the first actresses’ struggle to be on the stage and they also have to struggle again to face the audience and the society. I think the performance is successfully representing those ideas with highlight women’s feminine sexual appearance.

A change in the last part (epilogue) of the play loses a significant point that the writer wanted to portray i.e. the future of actresses on stage. Playhouse Creatures is able to expose the story of first actresses with its positive and negative points but it is the starting point to give hope for women to be on the stage in the future. However, Playhouse Creatures indeed is an important play for theatre since it is significantly celebrating the arrival of women upon the stage. The last but not the least, quoted from the director, Tony Knight, that theatre performance is a process and is always in progress, and so is Playhouse Creatures. This performance might be over but there is always an open door for other interpretations of this play.

The Change during the Process

I was in the rehearsal five times. The first and second visit focussed on the history of the play connected to England history at 17^thC. The third and fourth ones were the run through Act 1, dress rehearsal and of course the performance. There are few things captured my eyes which then changed by the director as the play in progress.

In the first run of Act1:

Barry sequence when she came to the theatre is successfully describe Barry as stupid, over reacted fellow when she hold the corner of the table and passionately rubbed it, which I think is not working. It changed at the Dress Rehearsal so that her appearance looked with more dignity and elegance. That is exactly what I thought about Barry’s appearance that she is passionate but still elegance.

At the Dress Rehearsal:

1. Mrs. Farley walked very fast (it is too fast) for a woman who just tried to attempted a painful abortion, which is not make sense. However, during the performance it changed, that she walked slower and painfully then before.

2. The slander scene by the audience to the actresses did not work very well since the pace is a bit slow but it is working when they did it in the show with faster pace.

3. There is one significant scene between Mrs. Betterton and Doll Common when Mrs. Betterton asked Doll whether she is old or not. It is better for Doll to take a moment of before she answered the question considering the fact that indeed Mrs Betterton is the oldest among other actresses.

4. When Elizabeth Barry came desperately because of her failure to be an actress, she was weeping. However, it is obviously is a fake one which is not working at all. However, they change it at the performance that Barry shows more anger and desperate instead of weeping.

The Act and Scene list based on the dramaturge’s interpretation

Specific Time Act 1 1663

Act 1 scene 1 give an extended prologue about how theatre and its background about how and what is the function of actress on the stage at that period.

Doll: Our play we performed for you this night Nell: This is a dream

For no greater cause than your delight One I forget me lines

Their sentences above show that theatre performance is dedicated for the audience to create the audience’s “delight”. Furthermore, being an actress is a “dream” for some women at that time where their quality of memorising the lines is not sophisticated since she said that she forgets her lines. Then it goes to the flash back, the story begins.

Act 1 scene 2 is the starting point for Elizabeth and Nell into a struggle to win the position as actress. This scene is very strong as the foundation to deliver the audience to the latter result especially for Nell and Elizabeth. Nell is described work at a bar with harsh language and lower class behaviour. Elizabeth described as a puritan woman who preach based on the bible and curse theatre as “the pit of pestilence”. Ironically, Nell characteristic is more honest than Elizabeth. When Nell informed Elizabeth of the advantage for being an actress, Elizabeth cheats Nell and gets the job as the actress first. Otway and Rochester existence here is giving the reason why they choose women instead of men to act on the stage.

Act 1 scene 3 is giving the reason why they open theatre again since it is irresistible, like Doll said “It was a foul place, really. But the punters came back time after time”. It describes the wilderness and crowded condition of theatre even though when the play is on. The existence of scene from Fatal Maiden obviously the writer’s weapon to describe how women’s flesh and legs becomes the main reason for them to be on the stage. It is also shows that being an actress is a different thing for women at that time, it looks challenging and being famous is the dream. Like Elizabeth Farley said that being an actress is a “popular profession with considerable advantages”.

Farley here is already get her fame while Nell is still struggling to be accepted in theatre.

Act 1 Scene 4 is a sequence from Cleopatra and Anthony; I see this scene as the representative of the themes in the restoration period, love, stupid decision, suicide and death like Elizabeth Howe said as the major themes in restoration plays. It is also as the representative of the beauty of women on the stage. At the end of this scene there is social attack, insult from the audience to the actresses and how actresses deal with it, that they have to be nice even though they are angry.

Act 1 Scene 5, the theme acknowledgement of the period. Like Mrs. Betterton says the list of the plays, modern girl choose with whom she wants to marry, reluctant shepherdess, Shakespeare with its female roles. Fact revelation of male audience act by paying some money to see actresses changing. Mrs Marshall complained that male cheated, haunted, played women.

Act 1 Scene 6, the arrival of Nell by deceiving Mrs.Beterton and how she teaches Nell to act. Furthermore, it shows Mrs. Betterton’s practice in order to act perfectly.

Act 1 Scene 7. Mrs.Farley reveals her fortune to be chosen by the king. It shows how an actress becomes a mistress; she came from the back not the front as secret affair. Mrs.Marshall tells her passion of being free to say and do what she wants.

Act 1 Scene 8 is basically Nell’s debut showing legs and sing and dance

Act 1 scene 9 is the conflict and resolution of Nell lies, the passion of theatre which makes Nell addicted to. The actress quality as long as being able to please the audience then there will be no problem. The way men at that time see actresses, that they can do whatever they want to do toward the actresses, even haunted her like Doll said “at you at you like a wolf.”

Act 1 scene 10 there are a lot of things happen in this scene, Mrs. Betterton’s regular exercise in her play and says one important line about being actresses: “It is a task of an actress to discover the motivation latent in every role”. How actress use their costume for personal purpose is an important notion to be noticed which then implicitly tell the economic condition of actresses. Mrs. Farley is parted by her protector only by one coin which pictures how cheap actresses regarded. It then leads her to be someone who hunger of protector and the cause of her pregnancy later. Moreover, there is Mrs. Marshall’s witchery scene as the vengeance action to Earl of Oxford which then leads her away from theatre. The last point is Mrs. Barry sequence her arrival and passion of theatre inspired by English first actresses and the magical moment of Mrs.Barry’s dream.

Specific time Act 2 1669 and 1686 (Act2 scene 9)

Act 2 Scene 1 is the share reclaim from the actresses after a performance which shows that actress also cast for male parts.

Act 2 scene 2 Mrs Betterton’s monologue as if she talks to invisible Mr. Betterton about the condition of the actress’ will to be shareholder of theatre. This scene explains the former scene of the actresses act to be shareholder.

Act 2 scene 3 This scene shows how actresses influenced the writer at that time. It is the beginning point where everything crumble for the actresses, started by Mrs. Farley because of her pregnancy without husband. It contains Mrs. Farley’s abortion scene and cast away from theatre.

Act 2 scene 4 Another sequence of Mrs Barry and Rocherster, where Rochester make a bet that he is able to transform Barry into the greatest actress at that time.

Act 2 scene 5 Mrs. Betterton cast away from theatre and Doll also experienced the same thing. This scene is important to show Mrs. Betterton’s passion of theatre and how magical it is for being in the theatre.

Act 2 scene 6 The actresses win their share, but Mrs. Marshall has to go away from theatre since there is someone open her mouth about the witchery vengeance that she did to earl of Oxford.

Act 2 scene 7 Mrs. Farley’s monologue describes how she starved on the street and become a prostitute.

Act 2 scene 8 Nell leaves the theatre after seeing and learning from what happened to her colleagues. She is now has fear and before she is cast away, she decided to leave theatre and to accept The King’s offer.

Act 2 scene 9 Time:16 years later. Mrs. Barry’s sequence as a successful actress who has money and power and fame, but she rejects Rochester’s love. This is a significant scene since it shows how women have power of male chauvinism.

Act 2 scene 10 The Dance of Celebration!

Historical Background from variety sources

I consider historical background as an important section for this play since all the characters in the play was based on true characters, first England theatre actresses and artists who lived in 17^th C, specifically when women on the stage for the first time. Obviously, social reaction from society will be an advantage to known. They are sources of knowledge which can be the foundation to understand the play even further. The list of sources is provided on different sheet.

I provide the characters’ background in the order of appearance.

Katherine Corey/ Mrs. Corey/ Doll Common

Time of career: 1663-1692. Pepys, the diarist, called her "Doll Common." She is famous as a mimic and for old women's parts. She is one of the actresses ( Mary Betterton and Anne Marshall) who was believed as the first woman on England theatre stage.

Eleanor Gwyn/ Nell Gwynne

Nell Gwyn was born on February 2, 1650. Her exact birthplace is unknown, but is believed to be either London or Hereford, England. Nell never really knew her father as he died in an Oxford debtors' prison while Nell was still an infant. This left Nell to be raised by her mother in the Covent Garden district where she ran a "bawdyhouse" or a brothel. As a young girl, Nell could often be found there serving guests brandy. This unconventional childhood almost certainly helped to shape Nell's spirited personality and quick witted style At the tender age of fourteen and at her sister's urging, Nell began selling oranges outside the Drury Lane Theatre. Her infectious spirit immediately attracted the attention of the lead actor, Charles Hart. Soon thereafter she became his mistress and subsequently in December, 1665, made what is believed to be her first stage appearance in John Dryden's The Indian Emperor. Her role as Hart's mistress would be short lived as she soon joined the King's Company where she was the leading comedienne from 1666-1669.

It was during this time that she pursued other love interests while her excellent singing and dancing talents helped to popularize such roles as Dryden's Florimel in Secret Love and Jacinta of Evening's Love. Nell is well known as an actress with pretty legs. She is a famous actress for comedy. She is famous for “gay couple” roles. A roles as a playful couple, witty lovers whose love contains an element of antagonism- each desire the other but is wary of commitment. She and her lover (famous England actor, Hart) became famous gay couple for England theatre. Even John Dryden wrote a part for Nell in Secret Love. She played in theatre from 1965 to 1970 for ten performances, mostly Dryden’s plays. In 1669, Nell found love in the royal court when she became a mistress to King Charles II. Charles was not fussy about the status of his women. A pretty face and a comely figure were enough for a mistress to be taken on the strength, and he was particularly prone to actresses. . The stage provided a handy hunting- ground for the regular royal theatre goers. 1670 had Nell giving birth to her first son by the king and also saw her last stage appearance when she once again joined with her first love in the production of Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards. Of all the king's mistresses, Nell was the only one embraced by the public as her generosity, even temper, recklessness, and indiscretions made her irresistibly appealing to a generation that saw in her Puritanism's nemesis. She charmed not only the King but his subjects - who cordially disliked most of his other mistresses, in particular the Catholic Frenchwoman Louise de Keroualle. When crowds booed Nell's carriage, thinking she was Louise, she leaned out of the window and called 'I am the Protestant whore!' She was never ashamed of her position, and never ceased to delight the King.

Nell was readily accepted into the inner circles of the high court where she lived out the remainder of her life entertaining and living "a king's life." She would give birth to a second son in 1671, only to see him die before her in 1680, and just one year after the drowning death of her own mother in 1679.Nell was totally committed to the King, so much so that she punched the Duke of Buckingham over the ear when he tried to kiss her. Buckingham was not the only would-be seducer at court, but like him, all of them found Nell was completely uninterested. Nell lived her life an illiterate managing only to scrawl her initials "E.G." on letters that others had penned for her.

However, it is widely believed that she remained faithful to King Charles II even after his death in 1685. Unfortunately, Nell was deep in debt after his death, but his brother, James II, honored the king's deathbed request to "Let not poor Nelly starve." He largely paid off her debts and gave her an annual pension. In 1687, Nell suffered a crippling stroke; she lived with partial paralysis until her death in November 1687 at only thirty-seven years of age. Though it is over 330 years since she sold oranges to audiences at the King's Theatre in London, then became the most popular actress in England and finally the mistress of King Charles II, Nell Gwyn's name is still familiar to most people - and it can only be because of a personality which was delightful in every way: 'pretty, witty Nell', as Pepys called her. Afterwards, Nell became something of a legend, as a goodnatured charmer, and an ordinary girl from the slums who was probably the only mistress of King Charles who truly loved him.

Thomas Otway (1651-1685)

Otway's life, which lasted only thirty-four years, was passed in poverty and desperate circumstances. in an obscure house in Tower-Hill, where he was said to be hiding from his creditors--according to tradition, choked with the bread which charity had given to satisfy his hunger His fame did not bring him to affluence. In one of his prefaces he says that he was "rescued from want" by the Duchess of Portsmouth. Some idea of the compensation received by dramatists in Otway's time may be gained from the fact that The Orphan and Venice Preserved each sold for one hundred pounds

Otway has now lost all credit, and would hardly be remembered at all but for the extreme sterility and affectation of English drama between the age of Shakespeare and that of Goldsmith. However--Dryden, so greatly superior to Otway in poetic resource, and Congreve so superior in wit, have neither of them pictures of such exquisite tenderness as a few of Otway's best, such as in the characters of Monimia and Belvidera. It has been said that "the love-scenes between Jaffier and Belvidera are unparalleled by anything in our later drama." Taine thinks that he belongs by force of imagination to the dramatists of the 16the century, and he reminds us of Ford and Webster. Venice Preserved, however tedious and overstrained to us now, kept the stage for 100 years. "It was more frequently represented," says Hallam, "than any tragedy after those of Shakespeare." "It is the work of a man not attentive to decency, nor zealous for virtue; but of one who conceived forcibly, and drew originally, by consulting nature in his own breast" (Johnson). In this he shows some of the quality of Metastasio and of Richardson, enough to redeem from oblivion his pitiful life and much else of coarse and stupid work

John Wilmot/ Earl of Rochester (1647- 1680)

He was born in Ditchley, Oxforshire, the son of a Puritan mother and a Royalist father. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Rochester was rewarded with a royal pension of £500 a year for his father's loyalty to Charles I. In those short 33 years, he acquired a reputation in the court of the newly reinstated king Charles II as a poet and dramatist, and also as an incorrigible brawler and rake. Born as the trauma of the English Civil War was winding down to a Commonwealth conclusion, he took quickly to the education of a gentleman, in the classics and in, by some contradiction, courtly behaviour. From 1662 to 1664 he traveled on the Continent with is tutor, the Scottish physician Sir Andrew Balfour. In 1665, after a failed attempt to abduct the heiress, Elizabeth Malet, he was appointed a commander in the navy and distinguished himself in battle. In 1667 he married Elizabeth Malet and began to write a series of love lyrics, ostensibly addressed to her. Within a few years Rochester's reckless personality involved him in a series of escapades. Though his poetry and satires were much admired and he became a leading literary figure, he gradually sank into illness and depression. On his deathbed he experienced a religious conversion and repented his lifelong excesses.

The Restoration of 1660 brought a tremendous change to England, one which would colour his behaviour for some years to come. Rochester's short life was rife with scandal and remorse, with acts of heroic bravery and of cowardice. He is implicated rather convincingly in an assault upon the poet Dryden, after some minor disagreement. His crimes were often pardoned by the King, although he did not always escape punishment for his misdeeds. On the whole, he is a fascinating character in the history of seventeenth century England, and one deserving of greater study. A posthumous edition of his collected works was published in 1680 to some small scandal. Attributed to him are a number of letters, several hundred poems, and fragments of several plays, some of which may be spurious. These are collected in various editions, some of which, in an example of much-vaunted 'donnish' humour, were shelved by members of the Bodleian Library in the closed stacks under the Greek letter 'phi'. In the twentieth century there have been several editions of Rochester, although they have often been expunged or severely edited. Recent editions have been much more liberal in their reproduction of those texts that survive. Additionally, a biography of Rochester by the noted author Graham Greene, and recent critical editions of his work have led authors and other non-scholars to a new recognition and appreciation of his work, one of the most conspicuous of these being the subtle part played by Rochester's work in Colin Dexter's novel Last Bus to Woodstock and its subsequent adaptation for British television by ITV, which featured a lecture on Rochester by a character in the story.

The attraction of Rochester's work is twofold: first, there is the stark contrast between his writing, which, given his position in court and among the nobility, must represent a fairly accurate and real depiction of the way in which people might actually have spoken, full of the vulgarities of the age, of ages hence and since. Rochester's writing expresses the darker side of the age of Dryden and others. More importantly, though, is the fact of the tragedy of Rochester's own life. His early death, the anger, lust and fervour of his work makes him a figure worthy of interest and study.

Rochester loved Elizabeth Barry deeply, even there is a statement that Elizabeth Barry is his passion in his life. Rochester relationship with Mrs Barry lasted for about four years, with a daughter. Rochester by that time immured in the country, crippled and virtually blind from disease.

Elizabeth Farley/ Mrs. Farley / Mrs. Weaver

She was born about 1640. She is a member of The King’s Company from 1660 to 1665. Elizabeth Farley was first spoiled/ seduced by the king but it did not last long since by the winter 1660, Elizabeth Farley was living with James Weaver. She never married to Weaver but acclaim the status as Mrs. Weaver which listed at the cast lists of theatre. However, Weaver cast off Elizabeth Farley in pregnant condition and sued her to pay back her debt to him. But since she is a member of King’s company she is immune from arrest.

The visible sign of pregnancy cause Elizabeth Farley expelled from theatre. Sir Robert Howard said that Elizabeth Farley is dismissed from theatre because she was big with child and shamefully so since she was not married. Therefore for the integrity of theatre she must cast off. Later, Farley did return to the stage but debt continued to pursued her. When theatre was closed in the summer 1665 owing the plague, she vanished from view. There is a belief if Mrs. Farley named in the poem of Rochester’s she became prostitute.

She never played the lead role, she used to play secondary role at the Theatre Royal. She usually performed in comedy. Elizabeth Weaver. She is noted for her extravagance, lawsuits, and light behavior. In Dryden's The Indian Emperour, 1665.

Mary Saunderson/ Mrs. Betterton ( ?- 1712)

She married to great actor- manager Thomas Betterton in 1662 when she was about twenty five. She is believed as the first English actresses on the stage who created this position for others women. She believed “having, by nature, all the accomplishments required to make a perfect actress. She added to them the distinguishing characteristic of a virtuous life” wrote Betterton biographer, Charles Gildon. So wondrous her virtue so that she enganged to coach the young princess Mary and Anne in Calisto.

She seems to have been at her best in Shakespeare roles, and as lady Macbeth. Both she and her husband were much esteemed by their contemporaries, both as actors and as private individuals, and were noted for their kindness to young and and aspiring players. She ended up as a trainer for young actors.

Mrs. Betterton was buried in Westminster Abbey on 13 April 1712.

Notion from Pepys: Mrs. Betterton is always referred as Ianthe, from her excellent playing of that part in Davenant’ Siege of Rhodes.

Rebecca Marshall/ Mrs.Marshall

She is known as the sister of Ann Marshall, daughter of a country parson. Her nick name was Beck. The equation of dark tints with tragic grandeur marked both Rebecca and Ann out for the proud and passionate female roles created pre-eminently by Dryden, in the new type of heroic drama the opposite pole to the brightness and lightness of Restoration comedy. Rebecca Marshall had the additional advantage for queenly roles- of which there was a plentiful supply of being very tall. She was a very beautiful actress with black eyes and hair.

Rebecca Marshall joined her sister at The King’s Company sometimes in the summer 1663. She always plagued with debt and had a stormy character.

There are significant differences between her characters on the stage and the backstage life. At the backstage Rebecca Marshall waas noted as a very confident, how do many man do hover about them as soon as they come of the stage, how confident they were in their talk.

She appeared on stage at 1667- and continued being the leading actress until 1677 acted in more or less 19 plays when she was caught up with her sister for few months before leaving the theatre for good.

The difficulty of RM, underline the vulnerability of the actresses’ situation. When marshal unwisely, boasted that she had a gracious promise from his Maty that she should not be injured by the courtier Sir Hugh Middleton, she was set upon on her way home from the theatre by a Ruffian employed by Middleton who flung excrement in her face and hair and fled away.

Another occasion, Marshall appealed to the protection king for protection from one Mark Trevor who had assaulted her violently in a Coach and pursued her with his sword in his hand but the attacker escaped without punishment

Elizabeth Barry/ Mrs. Barry

BARRY, ELIZABETH (1658-1713), English actress, of whose early life the details are meager. At first she was so unsuccessful on the stage as to be more than once dismissed. She is described as an actress who lack of musical ear. However she was coached by her lover the earl of Rochester, who had laid a wager that in a short time he would make a first-rate actress of her, and the results confirmed his judgment. He would rehearse her in a part more than thirty times.

Mrs Barry's performance as Isabella, queen of Hungary, in the earl of Orrery's Mustapha, was said to have caused Charles II. and the duke and duchess of York so much delight that the duchess took lessons in English from her, and when she became queen she gave Mrs Barry her coronation robes in which to appear as Elizabeth in Banks's Earl of Essex. Mrs Barry is said to have created over 100 parts, and she was particularly successful in the plays of Thomas Otway. Betterton says that her acting gave "success to plays that would disgust the most patient reader." Dryden pronounced her " always excellent."Gibber is authority for the statement that it was on her behalf that benefits, which up to that time were reserved for authors, were first established for actors by command of James II. Mrs Barry had a child by Lord Rochester and a second by Sir George Etheredge, both of whom were provided for by their fathers. In 1709 she retired from the stage and died on the 7th of November 1713. She is an actress who earned most from theatre compare to her colleagues. She never married. She is the start of both sexes (she was able to play male or female characters successfully).

From the time of her appearances at the Theatre Royal (1682-95) until her last performance at the Haymarket in 1710, she was Betterton's leading lady and reigned as the greatest tragic actress of the Restoration stage. She created the heroines in the tragedies of Thomas Otway , who all his life nourished a hopeless love for her.

She died in 1713 for being the victim of a bite from lap-dog who seized by madness. A quotation from Colley Cibber described her: “Mrs. Barry in a character of greatness has the presence of elevated dignity, her mien and motion superb and gracefully majestic; her voice full, clear and strong so that no violence of passion could be too much for her; And when distress or tenderness possessed her, she subsided into the most affecting Melody and Softness. In the art of exciting Pity She had a Power beyond all the actresses I have yet seen, or what your imagination can conceive.”

I present the history background of the theatre in a form of question and answer.

1. When did English women appear on English stage for the first time?

Few months after 12 August 1660 royal warrant, sometimes in November or December 1660.

In The Moor of Venice as Desdemona. No name found.

2. Were there any women on the stage before the time above and how English accept them?

Yes, they were, they are French and Italian women, foreigner who were traveling

performance or mountebanks.

English people accept them as being immoral and hissed off the stage.

Evidence: William Prynne in Histriomastix criticized them as “notorious whore”

During Queen Elizabeth time, in Lyme, they felt both thrilled and threatened

by the “unchaste, shameless,unnatural tumbling of Italian women.”

3. What were the reasons which brought English Woman on the stage?

So that play should become useful and instructive representations of human life

from being merely harmless delight.

A informal story : One day theatre performance was delayed even though the King was

arrived, when the KING asked the reason, one of them answered “ the queen is

shaving her leg” therefore the King asked them to “ bring the women on the

stage”.

4. How did the actresses deal with this fact?

a. 1674, court masque Calisto, Margeret Godolphin shamed for became an actress

and believed that it is sinful, therefore she spent all her time backstage by

reading a book of devotion and rushing to her small chapel to pray.

However, the behaviour of the rest of the cast did not live up to this high standard.

b. Backstage was crowded with gallant, men whom the actresses were playing

around with.

c. There were tendency actresses became mistress.

For example Nell Gwyn.

d. They represented what people expect at that time for having women on the

stage like Mary Sounderson (Mrs Betterton) for “she added to them a

distinguishing characteristic of a virtuous life”. They also, sometimes, played

male characters.

e. There were tendency actresses end to become prostitutes. Elizabeth Farley.

f. There is tendency believed young lady wanted to be an actress in order to find

rich admire and for this she.must sacrifice her virtue to obtain a coveted place

in the theatre from one of its patron.

g. Pregnant and unmarried, Elizabeth Farley.

5. How did the society deal with this phenomenon?

a. English people believed that it became more distasteful, foul and indecent

women now permitted to act

b. It is belief in 1670 that “ a woman could not give her profession as that of

actress and expect to keep either her reputation or her personality”.

c. In 1680s actresses = kept women/ prostitute

d. Actresses depicted their promiscuity, and the audience merged actress’

personality with the character on the stage.

e. They must be pretty.

f. 1670s, the gallant believed that actresses cost bad management and predator

“ Our women who adorn each play, bred at our cost, become at length your

prey” at least this “for better or worse for fact or fiction” this was believed until

250 years later.

6. What effect that this phenomenon brought for theatre itself?

New plays were inspired by women existence on the stage, there were brilliant

comedies of manners, turgid tragedies of emotions or the mix of two categories above which

exploited women’ sexual body through the violence in the plays, i.e, murder, rape which

exposed the actress breast or the legs.

7. How theatre as organization pattern in this time?

King

London Stage

The King’s Company The Duke’s Company

Thomas Killinggrew Davenant

There was a rule to prevent actresses moved from one theatre to others without permission.

It became worse in 1682-1695, The United Company did monopoly.

The plays run for 2-3 days no more than 30 -35 weeks in a year.

8. Who was the first actress of English stage?

Both theatres claimed for having the fist actress, therefore there are three names:

Anne Marshall ( Mrs. Anne Quinn, founder member of The King’s company, leading lady there from 1661 onward, she has dark hair, played as Zempoalla, The Indian Queen. )

Marry Sauderson ( Mrs. Betterton, married to Mr Thomas Betterton in 1662, 25 years old, a great actress, she has all accomplishments required as a perfect actress, end up by training young actresses. Her fabulous performances noted when she acted as princess Marry and Anne in Calisto also The Dutchess of Malfi )

Katherine Corey ( specialist for old woman role)

9. How many actresses in the restoration stage that is noted by the history?

80 women, 12 enjoyed reputation as courtesan or mistress, this group suit with the

people expectation and people believed; 12 straight forward kept

women and prostitutes, 30 vanished into prostitution, a while on the stage.

10. How did the actresses live?

a. Unmarried actresses lived as close as possible to the theatre

b. Leading actress was boarded by the manager.

c. Actress who became kept woman got everything from her master.

d. Wages/ week: 10s – 15 s for young actresses. For doing nothing really.

30 s for leading actresses. Mrs Barry at the height of her

fame.

50s for Mrs Betterton, enormous amount

e. Leading actresses have their own room, the backstage.

f. Actresses must provide their own cost of living and other expenses ( shoes,

stocking petticoats, etc.).

11. Who was the greatest actress at this time?

History noted that Elizabeth Barry, famous Madam Barry, is the greatest actress in restoration period.

She is “The finest woman on the stage, the ugliest woman off it”. She is not belonging to the actresses’ stereotyped at that time. She is one of goose whom The Earl of Rochester turned into swan. Mrs. Barry could wipe away real tears when acting out a tragic death scene. She left the stage in her fifties.

12. The meaning of money:

Penny: smallest unit of currency, the plural was pence.

12 pence = 1 shilling

240 pence = 1 pound

Shilling: there were 20 shilling to 1 pound

It was used to buy food and household necessities like coal, candles, soap.

Slang word for shilling: a bob

Pound: a pound was the basic unit of currency. It came in the form of a paper bill, called a note,

or a gold coin, called a sovereign.

Slang word for pound: quid

NOTE:

A belief : “Tis as hard a matter for a pretty woman to keep herself honest in a theatre, as tis for an apothecary to keep his treacle from the flies in hot wheater; for every libertine in the audience will be buzzing about her honey pot.” * Tom Brown, Letters From The Death To The Living*

Prepared by: Meilinda, SN: 3123802, UNSW, Theatre, MA Coursework

For: Dramaturgy Class

Convenor: Mr. Ken Healey

Some information about Actresses in Restoration Period

1. When did English women appear on English stage for the first time?

Few months after 12 August 1660 royal warrant, sometimes in November or December 1660.

In The Moor of Venice as Desdemona. No name found.

2. Were there any women on the stage before the time above and how English accept them?

Yes, they were, they are French and Italian women, foreigner who were traveling

performance or mountebanks.

English people accept them as being immoral and hissed off the stage.

Evidence: William Prynne in Histriomastix criticized them as “notorious whore”

During Queen Elizabeth time, in Lyme, they felt both thrilled and threatened

by the “unchaste, shameless,unnatural tumbling of Italian women.”

3. What were the reasons which brought English Woman on the stage?

So that play should become useful and instructive representations of human life

from being merely harmless delight.

A informal story : One day theatre performance was delayed even though the King was

arrived, when the KING asked the reason, one of them answered “ the queen is

shaving her leg” therefore the King asked them to “ bring the women on the

stage”.

4. How did the actresses deal with this fact?

a. 1674, court masque Calisto, Margeret Godolphin shamed for became an actress

and believed that it is sinful, therefore she spent all her time backstage by

reading a book of devotion and rushing to her small chapel to pray.

However, the behaviour of the rest of the cast did not live up to this high standard.

b. Backstage was crowded with gallant, men whom the actresses were playing

around with.

c. There were tendency actresses became mistress.

For example Nell Gwyn.

d. They represented what people expect at that time for having women on the

stage like Mary Sounderson (Mrs Betterton) for “she added to them a

distinguishing characteristic of a virtuous life”. They also, sometimes, played

male characters.

e. There were tendency actresses end to become prostitutes. Elizabeth Farley.

f. There is tendency believed young lady wanted to be an actress in order to find

rich admire and for this she.must sacrifice her virtue to obtain a coveted place

in the theatre from one of its patron.

g. Pregnant and unmarried, Elizabeth Farley.

5. How did the society deal with this phenomenon?

a. English people believed that it became more distasteful, foul and indecent

women now permitted to act

b. It is belief in 1670 that “ a woman could not give her profession as that of

actress and expect to keep either her reputation or her personality”.

c. In 1680s actresses = kept women/ prostitute

d. Actresses depicted their promiscuity, and the audience merged actress’

personality with the character on the stage.

e. They must be pretty.

f. 1670s, the gallant believed that actresses cost bad management and predator

“ Our women who adorn each play, bred at our cost, become at length your

prey” at least this “for better or worse for fact or fiction” this was believed until

250 years later.

6. What effect that this phenomenon brought for theatre itself?

New plays were inspired by women existence on the stage, there were brilliant

comedies of manners, turgid tragedies of emotions or the mix of two categories above.

7. How theatre as organization pattern in this time?

King

London Stage

The King’s Company The Duke’s Company

Thomas Killinggrew Davenant

There was a rule to prevent actresses moved from one theatre to others without

permission.

It became worse in 1682-1695, The United Company did monopoly.

The plays run for 2-3 days no more than 30 -35 weeks in a year.

8. Who was the first actress of English stage?

Both theatres claimed for having the fist actress, therefore there are three names:

1. Anne Marshall ( Mrs. Anne Quinn, founder member of The King’s company, leading lady there from 1661 onward, she has dark hair, played as Zempoalla, The Indian Queen. )

2. Marry Sauderson ( Mrs. Betterton, married to Mr Thomas Betterton in 1662, 25 years old, a great actress, she has all accomplishments required as a perfect actress, end up by training young actresses. Her fabulous performances noted when she acted as princess Marry and Anne in Calisto also The Dutchess of Malfi )

3. Katherine Corey ( specialist for old woman role)

9. How many actresses in the restoration stage that is noted by the history?

80 women, 12 enjoyed reputation as courtesan or mistress, this group suit with the

people expectation and people believed; 12 straight forward kept

women and prostitutes, 30 vanished into prostitution, a while on the stage.

10. How did the actresses live?

a. Unmarried actresses lived as close as possible to the theatre

b. Leading actress was boarded by the manager.

c. Actress who became kept woman got everything from her master.

d. Wages/ week: 10s – 15 s for young actresses. For doing nothing really.

30 s for leading actresses. Mrs Barry at the height of her

fame.

50s for Mrs Betterton, enormous amount

e. Leading actresses have their own room, the backstage.

f. Actresses must provide their own cost of living and other expenses ( shoes,

stocking petticoats, etc.).

11. Who was the greatest actress at this time?

History noted that Elizabeth Barry, famous Madam Barry, is the greatest actress in restoration period.

NOTE:

Source:

Fraser, Antonia. The Weaker Vessel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE CHARACTERS

Nell Gwynne,

Nell Gwyn was born Eleanor Gwyn on February 2, 1650. Her exact birthplace is unknown, but is believed to be either London or Hereford, England. Nell never really knew her father as he died in an Oxford debtors' prison while Nell was still an infant. This left Nell to be raised by her mother in the Covent Garden district where she ran a "bawdyhouse" or a brothel. As a young girl, Nell could often be found there serving guests brandy. This unconventional childhood almost certainly helped to shape Nell's spirited personality and quick witted style

At the tender age of fourteen and at her sister's urging, Nell began selling oranges outside the Drury Lane Theatre. Her infectious spirit immediately attracted the attention of the lead actor, Charles Hart. Soon thereafter she became his mistress and subsequently in December, 1665, made what is believed to be her first stage appearance in John Dryden's The Indian Emperor.

Her role as Hart's mistress would be short lived as she soon joined the King's Company where she was the leading comedienne from 1666-1669. It was during this time that she pursued other love interests while her excellent singing and dancing talents helped to popularize such roles as Dryden's Florimel in Secret Love and Jacinta of Evening's Love.

In 1669, Nell found love in the royal court when she became a mistress to King Charles II. Charles was not fussy about the status of his women. A pretty face and a comely figure were enough for a mistress to be taken on the strength, and he was particularly prone to actresses. . The stage provided a handy hunting- ground for the regular royal theatre goers. 1670 had Nell giving birth to her first son by the king and also saw her last stage appearance when she once again joined with her first love in the production of Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards.

Of all the king's mistresses, Nell was the only one embraced by the public as her generosity, even temper, recklessness, and indiscretions made her irresistibly appealing to a generation that saw in her Puritanism's nemesis. She charmed not only the King but his subjects - who cordially disliked most of his other mistresses, in particular the Catholic Frenchwoman Louise de Keroualle. When crowds booed Nell's carriage, thinking she was Louise, she leaned out of the window and called 'I am the Protestant whore!'

She was never ashamed of her position, and never ceased to delight the King - who grew very bored indeed with Louise, and with his earlier mistress Barbara Villiers. And she never attempted, as they did, to interfere in politics. The King was greatly relieved - though he was a master politician, he tried hard to keep state affairs separate from his private life- to which he gave a great deal of time and energy, with the help of his pimp-in-ordinary, a Mr Chiffinch, who arranged the schedule by which his mistresses moved in and out of his palace at Whitehall.

When Nell used her influence with Charles, it was often in the cause of others. She persuaded him, for instance, to free the disgraced Duke of Buckingham from prison and campaigned for the foundation of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea after coming across an old soldier begging in the street. Her great worry, though - and his - was their twenty year age gap.

Nell was totally committed to the King, so much so that she punched the Duke of Buckingham over the ear when he tried to kiss her. Buckingham was not the only would-be seducer at court, but like him, all of them found Nell was completely uninterested.

Nell lived her life an illiterate managing only to scrawl her initials "E.G." on letters that others had penned for her. However, it is widely believed that she remained faithful to King Charles II even after his death in 1685. Unfortunately, Nell was deep in debt after his death, but his brother, James II, honored the king's deathbed request to "Let not poor Nelly starve." He largely paid off her debts and gave her an annual pension. In 1687, Nell suffered a crippling stroke; she lived with partial paralysis until her death in November 1687 at only thirty-seven years of age.

Though it is over 330 years since she sold oranges to audiences at the King's Theatre in London, then became the most popular actress in England and finally the mistress of King Charles II, Nell Gwyn's name is still familiar to most people - and it can only be because of a personality which was delightful in every way: 'pretty, witty Nell', as Pepys called her,

Afterwards, Nell became something of a legend, as a goodnatured charmer, and an ordinary girl from the slums who was probably the only mistress of King Charles who truly loved him.

Source:

“Charles II. His Life and Likeness” by: Hesket Pearson, London; William Heinemann, 1960

The Mistresses of Charles II, by Brenda Ralph Lewis

Mary Saunderson/ Mrs. Betterton ( ?- 1712)

Wife of leading actor Thomas Betterton. One of the first English actresses. She seems to have been at her best in Shakespeare roles, and as lady Macbeth. Both she and her husband were much esteemed by their contemporaries, both as actors and as private individuals, and were noted for their kindness to young and and aspiring players. Mrs. Betterton was buried in Westminster Abbey on 13 April 1712.

Notion from Pepys: Mrs. Betterton is always referred as Ianthe, from her excellent playing of that part in Davenant’ Siege of Rhodes.

Sources: The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, ed. Phyllis Hartnoll, London: Oxford Uni Press, 1967

Rebecca Marshall/ Mrs.Marshall

On June 1666, a warrant was issued granting the actresses Rebeca Marshall and Nell Gwyn and others ‘foure yards of bastard scarlet cloath and one quarter of a yard of velvet for their liveryes From the king. It is a symbol that they are the servant of the king. And meant most usefully that they could not be sued or arrested for debt without the express permission of the Lord Chamberlain of the Household.

There are significant differences between her characters on the stage and the backstage life. At the backstage RM very confident, how do many man do hover about them as soon as they come of the stage, how confident they were in their talk. 1667-1677 on the stage 19 plays more or less.

The difficulty of RM, underline the vulnerability of the actresses’ situation. When marshal unwisely, boasted that she had a gracious promise from his Maty that shee should not be injured by the courtier Sir Hugh Middleton, she was set upon on her way home from the tehatre by a Ruffian employed by Middleton who flung excrement in her face and hair and fled away.

Sister of Ann Marshall.

Mrs. Corey/ Doll Common

Pepys called her "Doll Common." Famous as a mimic and for old women's parts. Tme of career: 1663-1692.

web.nwe.ufl.edu/~pcraddoc/table1.html

Elizabeth Farley/ Mrs. Farley / Mrs. Weaver

She never played the lead role. She usually performed in comedy 24.

Elizabeth Weaver. She is noted for her extravagance, lawsuits, and light behavior. In Dryden's The Indian Emperour, 1665

Source: web.nwe.ufl.edu/~pcraddoc/table1.html

The First English Actresses, Elizabeth Howe

Elizabeth Barry/ Mrs. Barry

BARRY, ELIZABETH (1658-1713), English actress, of whose early life the details are meager. At first she was so unsuccessful on the stage as to be more than once dismissed; but she was coached by her lover the earl of Rochester, who had laid a wager that in a short time he would make a first-rate actress of her, and the results confirmed his judgment. Mrs Barry's performance as Isabella, queen of Hungary, in the earl of Orrery's Mustapha, was said to have caused Charles II. and the duke and duchess of York so much delight that the duchess took lessons in English from her, and when she became queen she gave Mrs Barry her coronation robes in which to appear as Elizabeth in Banks's Earl of Essex. Mrs Barry is said to have created over 100 parts, and she was particularly successful in the plays of Thomas Otway. Betterton says that her acting gave "success to plays that would disgust the most patient reader." Dryden pronounced her " always excellent."Gibber is authority for the statement that it was on her behalf that benefits, which up to that time were reserved for authors, were first established for actors by command of James II. Mrs Barry had a child by Lord Rochester and a second by Sir George Etheredge, both of whom were provided for by their fathers. In 1709 she retired from the stage and died on the 7th of November 1713. She is an actress who earned most from theatre compare to her colleagues. She never married. She is the start of both sexes (she was able to play male or female characters successfully).

Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/B/Barry-E1l.asp

http://55.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BA/BARRY_ELIZABETH.htm

Thomas Otway (1651-1685)

Thomas Otway, the rival of Dryden, was the son of the Rev. Humphrey Otway, rector of Woolbeding; and was born at Trotten in West Sussex, in 1651. Thomas Otway was a scholar, and first tried his fortunes as an actor without much success. He was educated at Winchester College and at Christ Church, Oxford, which he quitted without a degree at the age of eighteen. We may adopt the words of Samuel Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets: "Of Thomas Otway, one of the first names in the English drama, little is known; nor is there any part of that little which his biographer can take pleasure in relating." He translated plays from the French, wrote several half-successful pieces, and at length made a name for himself in 1680 with a tragedy in blank verse called The Orphan. So great was the praise lavished on this drama that its author was called the English Euripides. In later years Dr. Johnson said that Otway "conceived forcibly, and drew originally, by consulting nature in his own breast." The Orphan kept the boards well into the nineteenth century, and famous actresses like Mrs. Barry and Miss O'Neill were renowned for their pathetic presentation of the part of the heroine. The second play on which the fame of Otway rests is Venice Preserved, produced in 1682. Even today it seems a good play, with fluency, imaginative wit and tragic power, such as inevitably holds the attention.
Otway's life, which lasted only thirty-four years, was passed in poverty and desperate circumstances. in an obscure house in Tower-Hill, where he was said to be hiding from his creditors--according to tradition, choked with the bread which charity had given to satisfy his hunger His fame did not bring him to affluence. In one of his prefaces he says that he was "rescued from want" by the Duchess of Portsmouth. Some idea of the compensation received by dramatists in Otway's time may be gained from the fact that The Orphan and Venice Preserved each sold for one hundred pounds
Otway has now lost all credit, and would hardly be remembered at all but for the extreme sterility and affectation of English drama between the age of Shakespeare and that of Goldsmith. However--Dryden, so greatly superior to Otway in poetic resource, and Congreve so superior in wit, have neither of them pictures of such exquisite tenderness as a few of Otway's best, such as in the characters of Monimia and Belvidera. It has been said that "the love-scenes between Jaffier and Belvidera are unparalleled by anything in our later drama." Taine thinks that he belongs by force of imagination to the dramatists of the 16the century, and he reminds us of Ford and Webster. Venice Preserved, however tedious and overstrained to us now, kept the stage for 100 years. "It was more frequently represented," says Hallam, "than any tragedy after those of Shakespeare." "It is the work of a man not attentive to decency, nor zealous for virtue; but of one who conceived forcibly, and drew originally, by consulting nature in his own breast" (Johnson). In this he shows some of the quality of Metastasio and of Richardson, enough to redeem from oblivion his pitiful life and much else of coarse and stupid work.

Sources:

Thomas Otway, The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic Harrison. London: MacMillan & Co., 1920

This article was originally published in A Short History of the Theatre. Martha Fletcher Bellinger. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. pp. 254-5. http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/otway001.html

John Wilmot/ Earl of Rochester (1647- 1680)

The Restoration of 1660 brought a tremendous change to England, one which would colour his behaviour for some years to come. Rochester's short life was rife with scandal and remorse, with acts of heroic bravery and of cowardice. He is implicated rather convincingly in an assault upon the poet Dryden, after some minor disagreement. His crimes were often pardoned by the King, although he did not always escape punishment for his misdeeds. On the whole, he is a fascinating character in the history of seventeenth century England, and one deserving of greater study.

A posthumous edition of his collected works was published in 1680 to some small scandal. Attributed to him are a number of letters, several hundred poems, and fragments of several plays, some of which may be spurious. These are collected in various editions, some of which, in an example of much-vaunted 'donnish' humour, were shelved by members of the Bodleian Library in the closed stacks under the Greek letter 'phi'. In the twentieth century there have been several editions of Rochester, although they have often been expunged or severely edited. Recent editions have been much more liberal in their reproduction of those texts that survive. Additionally, a biography of Rochester by the noted author Graham Greene, and recent critical editions of his work have led authors and other non-scholars to a new recognition and appreciation of his work, one of the most conspicuous of these being the subtle part played by Rochester's work in Colin Dexter's novel Last Bus to Woodstock and its subsequent adaptation for British television by ITV, which featured a lecture on Rochester by a character in the story.

http://www.idir.net/~nedblake/rochester.html

THE WRITER OF PLAYHOUSE CREATURES April De Angelis

April De Angelis (as at 7/7/02)

A Laughing Matter is April's second commission from Out of Joint, following The Positive Hour which premiered in 1997 in a co-production with Hampstead Theatre. Other plays for the theatre include Ironmistress (ReSisters Theatre co.); The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (Red Shift); Hush (Royal Court); Soft Vengeance (Graeae Theatre Company); Playhouse Creatures (Old Vic Theatre & Sphinx Theatre Company) and The Warwickshire Testimony (RSC). Opera includes the libretto for Flight (Glyndebourne). April is currently under commission from the Royal Court and the RSC.

De Angelis's dramatic speciality is the group dynamics of women, and here she has chosen to observe one of the most dynamic women's groups in history - the first generation of female actors who bestowed women with a profession, a public identity and a sense of control over their own destiny.

THE WORK: PLAYHOUSE CRATURES

Discrimination, sexual harassment and decisions regarding children and occupational stratification are all old news for women. But how old? Playhouse Creatures, April De Angelis' social drama about England's first actresses, shows these injustices have been present in the workplace for hundreds of years. Taking over the female roles from boy actors in an attempt to halt the "unnatural vices" rampant in 17th-century theaters, the actresses nevertheless were--as the boys before--the object of sexual attention, and most made their living from gifts bestowed on them by admirers. To satisfy lascivious crowds, the theaters staged not only Shakespeare (and we all know how meaningful his female roles are) but also titillating sex comedies emphasizing T&A rather than character development. A cutting and wholly justified attack on a chauvinistic occupation and society, Creatures--with its muddled plot and blunt conclusion--is not a great play, but it is an important one. www.peopleslight.org

Peopled with famous characters from Restoration London, April De Angelis' "Playhouse Creatures" at the Open Fist Theatre succeeds as both romp and tragedy. A vivid if somewhat messy valentine to the British theater, it is also a gritty glimpse of the often star-crossed women who were its earliest stars.

The main action is set in 1663, only a few years after Charles II's decree letting women take the stage. Previously barred from the acting profession, women actors became the rage of London. But life on the wicked stage is a precarious proposition for these newly minted celebrities. A fortunate few, such as the legendary Nell Gwyn, make a meteoric rise from the gutter to the bedroom of the king.

For the tragic Mrs. Farley, however, fame is followed by a crushing fall. Feisty Mrs. Marshall runs afoul of a vengeful suitor. Even the majestic Mrs. Betterton is sidelined by inexorable time, forced to watch younger actresses partner her actor-manager husband in roles she made famous.

Only aptly named Doll Common, the company's bawdy character woman and general utility player, lives long enough to tell the tale, which she does, looking back on events from 1687 -- a framing device for the main action. Throughout the play, Doll rings a bell to signal the end of scenes.

That bell is indicative of the episodic structure of De Angelis' cluttered narrative. Playwright Thomas Otway adds a humorous touch, but the relationship between the Earl of Rochester and his paramour-protégé Mrs. Barry seems a dramatic afterthought. Another stunningly graphic scene also seems tacked on -- a violation of the play's parameters and tone.

No matter. The play is sometimes sprawling but never boring. Under director Faye Jackson's guidance, snippets from Shakespearean and other period plays are performed to hilariously histrionic effect. Donna Marquet's set and Melanie Watnick's costumes are splendidly detailed, and the performers are all terrific, particularly the magnificently mannered Kenyon, a grande dame for the ages.

--F Kathleen Foley

There are some roles which could best be described in a list of dramatis personae by the simple words "Liz Smith". One such is Doll Common in April de Angelis's Playhouse Creatures; having seen Smith in the part, I find it impossible to imagine any other actress playing this skivvy-cum-historical throwback in a Restoration playhouse, and also acting as a kind of chorus introducing events to the audience. Her tone and timing put the perfect amount of spin on de Angelis's wry, sometimes anachronistic lines concerning the first actresses on the English stage.

Playhouse Creatures, revised and expanded from its original 1993 version to include Elizabeth Barry, the Earl of Rochester and Thomas Otway, sketcheeedds in the career curves of several female players: Elizabeth Farley, her career cut short by pregnancy; Rebecca Marshall, undone by the enmity of a courtier to whose desires she proved insufficiently pliant; Nell Gwyn, ascending thanks to a fortuitous combination of determined ambition, skill and luck from selling oranges via the stage to Charles II's bedchamber; and Mary Betterton, whose ultimate handicap was simply that she had aged out of her appeal. We now also see Mrs Barry climbing to prominence almost literally on the corpse of Rochester (Dominic Rowan, giving a fine reading of urbane dissolution).

Although her overall concern is with a number of women trying to do full justice to their individual potentials in a profession which requires them merely to be objects (whether to the audience in general or to particular spectators in private), de Angelis's principal tone is comic; camaraderie and rivalries alike are portrayed sardonically under Lynne Parker's adept direction. Sheila Gish as Mrs Betterton instructs Nell Gwyn on the positioning of the head as on a clock-face to signify emotions (six-thirty for anger and revenge, etc.) and with smiling diplomacy demands extensive rewrites from Otway; Jo McInnes' Nell barges her way to the top with cheerful rumbustiousness, while Rachel Power as Mrs Marshall manages as often as not to retain a degree of affability even in the face of the vendetta of the Earl of Oxford.

When poignancy does arise, it is stronger for the contrast. Mrs Farley (Saskia Reeves), some months after being forced to leave the company, reappears as a prostitute and, in a moment of lacerating pathos, mumbles plaintively, "Twopence... I'll do anything... you can punch me... look..." as she shows her bruises; Gish's Mrs Betterton arouses pity not by her final rendition of Lady Macbeth's mad speech, but by the defeated tone of her subsequent self-deprecating dismissal, "No, I'm not mad – I'm just eccentric." Playhouse Creatures is one of the successes of the Peter Hall Company's new (or nearly-new) plays strand under Dominic Dromgoole, and it is a great pity that the sale of The Old Vic will bring such (for the West End) innovative programming to a close.

Written for the Financial Times.

Alfred Hickling
Friday April 18, 2003

Employing an all-female cast of six, De Angelis celebrates the talent, achievements and camaraderie of this remarkable theatrical sisterhood. But she also reminds us not to get too carried away with the idea that the emergence of actresses on the Restoration stage struck a decisive blow for feminism.

The leading actress, Elizabeth Barry, received 50 shillings per performance, while her co-star Thomas Betterton pocketed £5. Actresses could achieve little without the attentions of an aristocratic patron, while theatrical managements exploited their sexual availability as a marketing tool. As one of De Angelis's characters remarks sourly: "We play what we are - where's the freedom in that?" At least Abby Ford's winning, sparky Nell harbours no illusions that she is a great deal more than amply arrayed set dressing: "Once they've seen a real tit a stuffed sock won't 'ack it any more," she says.

Gwyn's name and good fortune survived for posterity, though De Angelis is equally interested in those of her colleagues who were not so fortunate. Joanne Froggatt gives an extremely touching performance as an actress whose pregnancy determines a return to the streets. Susan Wooldridge is exceptionally poignant as the genteel Mrs Betterton, whose hard-won experience counts for nothing in the face of encroaching age. Only Sandra Voe's marvellously decrepit, flea-bitten Doll Common emerges as a perennial survivor, her devotion to the theatrical life as unchanged as her undergarments.

April De Angelis (as at 7/7/02)

Bearing in mind the issues around female sexuality

"Do you know I have never recognised the great pleasure of lovemaking when I didn't desire it myself. Oh, it's not that she hasn't her own kind of passion. She has the passion of a python. She just devours me whole every time, as if I were some over-large rabbit. That's me. That bulge around her navel - if you're wondering what it is - it's me. Me buried alive down there, and going mad, smothered in that peaceful looking coil. Not a sound, not a flicker from her - she doesn't even rumble a little. You'd think that this indigestible mess would stir up some kind of tremor in those distended, overfed tripes - but not her! She'll go on sleeping and devouring until there's nothing of left of me." And then Alison, his wife, at the end of the play when you kind of have an answer to that speech goes on to say, "It doesn't matter! I was wrong, I was wrong! I don't want to be neutral, I don't want to be a saint. I want to be a lost cause. I want to be corrupt and futile! Don't you understand? It's gone! It's gone! That - that helpless human being inside my body. I thought it was so safe, and secure in there.

it says the unsaid, the unsayable. I thought I'd talk a little bit on the back of that about putting into context women in plays in theatre; originally in medieval times women were banned from theatre because of their sex; sexuality. They were seen as dangerous; to actually see women on stage would arouse uncontrollable lusts and desires in the men watching so that the church - who were opposed to theatre and found it very threatening - prohibited women from appearing on stage. And I think that's really interesting; that you could be infected by a woman's desire. That somehow it was chaotic - "the devil's gateway", and all those kind of terms that we've got. Somehow a women's desire was uncontrollable and had to be restricted. And you get to the 17th century and - in my brief thumb sketch of theatre history - the first time you get women on stage.

And so there are all these ways in which women's sexuality was harnessed. And also prostitution thrived in theatres because when you came out having seen a show, your senses were alive; there's a crowd of people who have been titillated and there were prostitutes, traditionally through the history of theatre - to pick up. I don't think it's like that now at the Birmingham Rep

So coming on to the present day, the last twenty years and women writing for the theatre. I've picked out, at random, four great plays of the eighties or the most well known plays written by women. I came up with "Top Girls", "Masterpieces", "My Mother Said I Never Should" and "Low Level Panic". They're pretty representative, they're classics in a way of feminist theatre of the eighties. In a sense sexuality is absolutely integral to these plays. Very obviously in "Low Level Panic", it's about eroticism and pornography, and in "Masterpieces" that's about pornography from a woman's point of view. In "My Mother Said I Never Should" and "Top Girls" are focussing on women's reproduction in that sense of sexuality and male and female relationships. In a way feminist writing of the eighties has re-invented a place for women's sexuality on stage and I think they've done that very strongly under the umbrella of feminist ideals in which women's writing is very strongly linked to the women's movement

Also Alison has become an almost anti-heroine. It's always quoted how she is a demon; how she has been demonised, how absolutely atrocious the portrayal of women has been in the past. She's almost like a vampire

- we don't feel that she's right but we understand, it's in an accepted political context to us. I'm talking about me as a feminist and those used to feminist ideas and critiques and accepts them as good. But what that play's actually done is take a desire to be top and it places it in a context that contains it and makes it acceptable and that context is feminism

"it's not us who are saying women are weak, bad or stupid. It's her. If she's saying it, it must be true and if it's true we were right all along to say women have no rights in society, should get back to the kitchen, have children, etc"

they were writing of things that had been hidden, marginalised and were able to deal in sexuality

I think the premise behind all those plays was that people - men- who exploit other people - women - are wrong and people - women - who collude in it are also wrong but understandably so.

Women's sexuality is different. Shouldn't women be writing plays with a sort of shape that corresponds to women's sexuality. The sort of play with lots of peaky bits. You could still have the old premise of men exploiting women but you could inject new life into that old premise by having a different sort of shaped play.

. All the ideas that are based on Marxism and all the big humanist philosophies, encompassing philosophies that provided an answer for every part of your life, social, political, economical and the rest of it have failed us. The failure of communism - as well as capitalism. I think all that had a really being effect on our emotional space

I'm sure there were other people who had great scepticism - but I didn't, I totally and utterly embraced it, I just feel that it demands a kind of faith - the fundamentalist sort of faith - I feel that you're either going to be a fundamentalist - and you can see that in the world now - or there's a great sense of doubt about "an idea" that encompasses everything. So that gets back to the confusion of that

and if you don't have a voice you can't write or I think it's very hard to write

, they came out of an idea that progress was possible and that humanity was good. I think that has implications for plot. Progress through a play you're constructing. Something like "Angels in America" and "Butterfly Kiss" are much more fragmented. They focus on an intense personal experience and they don't really follow a notion of real progress as plays did in the past. That's my worry that if you abandon the big idea do you then abandon the idea of humanism, which is progress is possible, change is possible, people are basically good. Do you abandon a strictly feminist perspective when women aren't even liberated

RESTORATION DRAMA

This article was originally published in A Short History of the Theatre. Martha Fletcher Bellinger. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. pp. 249-59.

"THEN came the gallant protest of the Restoration, when Wycherley and his successors in drama commenced to write of contemporary life in much the spirit of modern musical comedy. . . . A new style of comedy was improvised, which, for lack of a better term, we may agree to call the comedy of Gallantry, and which Etherege, Shadwell, and Davenant, and Crowne, and Wycherley, and divers others, labored painstakingly to perfect. They probably exercised to the full reach of their powers when they hammered into grossness their too fine witticisms just smuggled out of France, mixed them with additional breaches of decorum, and divided the results into five acts. For Gallantry, it must be repeated, was yet in its crude youth. . . . For Wycherley and his confreres were the first Englishmen to depict mankind as leading an existence with no moral outcome. It was their sorry distinction to be the first of English authors to present a world of unscrupulous persons who entertained no special prejudices, one way or the other, as touched ethical matters."

-- JAMES BRANCH CABELL, Beyond Life.

FROM 1642 onward for eighteen years, the theaters of England remained nominally closed. There was of course evasion of the law; but whatever performances were offered had to be given in secrecy, before small companies in private houses, or in taverns located three or four miles out of town. No actor or spectator was safe, especially during the early days of the Puritan rule. Least of all was there any inspiration for dramatists. In 1660 the Stuart dynasty was restored to the throne of England. Charles II, the king, had been in France during the greater part of the Protectorate, together with many of the royalist party, all of whom were familiar with Paris and its fashions. Thus it was natural, upon the return of the court, that French influence should be felt, particularly in the theater. In August, 1660, Charles issued patents for two companies of players, and performances immediately began. Certain writers, in the field before the civil war, survived the period of theatrical eclipse, and now had their chance. Among these were Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, who were quickly provided with fine playhouses.

APPEARANCE OF WOMEN ON THE ENGLISH STAGE

It will be remembered that great indignation was aroused among the English by the appearance of French actresses in 1629. London must have learned to accept this innovation, however, for in one of the semi-private entertainments given during the Protectorate at Rutland House, the actress Mrs. Coleman took the principal part. The Siege of Rhodes, a huge spectacle designed by Davenant in 1656 (arranged in part with a view of evading the restrictions against theatrical plays) is generally noted as marking the entrance of women upon the English stage. It is also remembered for its use of movable machinery, which was something of an innovation. The panorama of The Siege offered five changes of scene, presenting "the fleet of Solyman the Magnificent, his army, the Island of Rhodes, and the varieties attending the siege of the city."

DISAPPEARANCE OF NATIONAL TYPES

By the time the theaters were reopened in England, Corneille and Racine in France had established the neo-classic standard for tragedy, and Molière was in the full tide of his success. These playwrights, with Quinault and others, for a time supplied the English with plots. The first French opera, Cadmus and Hermione, by Lully and Quinault, performed in Paris in 1673, crossed the channel almost immediately, influencing Dryden in his attempts at opera. The romantic, semi-historical romances of Madame Scudéry and the Countess de la Fayette afforded a second supply of story material, while Spanish plays and tales opened up still another. Sometimes the plots of Calderón or Lope de Vega came to the English at second-hand through French versions. Whatever the case, it was now evident that the national type of play had ceased to be written. From this time on every European nation was influence by, and exerted an influence upon, the drama of every other nation. Characters, situations, plots, themes--these things traveled from country to country, always modifying and sometimes supplanting the home product.

PERSISTENCE OF ELIZABETHAN PLAYS

With this influx of foreign drama, there was still a steady production of the masterpieces of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The diarist Samuel Pepys, an ardent lover of the theater, relates that during the first three years after the opening of the playhouses he saw Othello, Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, two plays by Ben Jonson, and others by Beaumont, Fletcher, Middleton, Shirley, and Massinger. It must have been about this time that the practice of "improving" Shakespeare was begun, and his plays were often altered so as to be almost beyond recognition. From the time of the Restoration actors and managers, also dramatists, were good royalists; and new pieces, or refurbished old ones, were likely to acquire a political slant. The Puritans were satirized, the monarch and his wishes were flattered, and the royal order thoroughly supported by the people of the stage.
Richard Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), seems to have the doubtful glory of re-introducing the use of rhymed verse. Boyle was a statesman, as well as a soldier and a dramatist. During the ten years or so following the Restoration, he wrote at least four tragedies on historical or legendary subjects, using the ten-syllabled rhymed couplet which (at the moment) he borrowed from France. It runs like this:

"Reason's a staff for age, when nature's gone;

But youth is strong enough to walk alone."

No more stilted sort of verse could well be contrived for dialogue. Monotonous as well as prosy, it was well suited to Orrery's plots. He took a semi-historical story, filled it with bombastic sentiments and strutting figures, producing what was known as "heroic drama." Dryden, who identified himself with this type of play, described it as concerned not with probabilities but with love and valor. A good heroic play is exciting, with perpetual bustle and commotion. The characters are extricated out of their amazing situations only by violence. Deaths are numerous. The more remote and unfamiliar the setting the better; and the speech should be suited to the action: hence the "heroic couplet." Pepys saw Guzman, by Orrery, and with his engaging frankness said it was as mean a thing as had been seen on the stage for a great while.

PARODY OF HEROIC DRAMA

Other writers, Davenant, Etherege, and Sir Robert Howard, had also produced specimens of heroic plays, and by the time The Conquest of Granada reached the stage these clever gentlemen had grown tired of the species. Compared to Dryden they were nobodies in the literary world; but among them they contrived a hilarious burlesque called The Rehearsal, in which these showy but shallow productions were smartly ridiculed. Dryden is represented as Bayes (in reference to his position as poet laureate), and his peculiarities of speech and plot are amusingly derided. Though The Rehearsal was condemned as "scurrilous and ill-bred," yet it served a useful turn in puncturing an empty and overblown style.

NATURE OF RESTORATION COMEDY

In almost every important respect, Restoration drama was far inferior to the Elizabethan. Where the earlier playwrights created powerful and original characters, the Restoration writers were content to portray repeatedly a few artificial types; where the former were imaginative, the latter were clever and ingenious. The Elizabethan dramatists were steeped in poetry, the later ones in the sophistication of the fashionable world. The drama of Wycherley and Congreve was the reflection of a small section of life, and it was like life in the same sense that the mirage is like the oasis. It had polish, an edge, a perfection in its own field; but both its perfection and its naughtiness now seem unreal.
The heroes of the Restoration comedies were lively gentlemen of the city, profligates and loose livers, with a strong tendency to make love to their neighbors' wives. Husbands and fathers were dull, stupid creatures. The heroines, for the most part, were lovely and pert, too frail for any purpose beyond the glittering tinsel in which they were clothed. Their companions were busybodies and gossips, amorous widows or jealous wives. The intrigues which occupy them are not, on the whole, of so low a nature as those depicted in the Italian court comedies; but still they are sufficiently coarse. Over all the action is the gloss of superficial good breeding and social ease. Only rarely do these creatures betray the traits of sympathy, faithfulness, kindness, honesty, or loyalty. They follow a life of pleasure, bored, but yawning behind a delicate fan or a kerchief of lace. Millamant and Mirabell, in Congreve's Way of the World, are among the most charming of these Watteau figures.
Everywhere in the Restoration plays are traces of European influence. The Plain Dealer of Wycherley was an English version of The Misanthrope of Molière; and there are many admirable qualities in the French play which are lacking in the English. The Double Dealer recalls scenes from The Learned Ladies (Les femmes savantes); and Mr. Bluffe, in The Old Bachelor, is none other than our old friend Miles Gloriosus, who has traveled through Latin, Italian and French comedy. The national taste was coming into harmony, to a considerable extent, with the standards of Europe. Eccentricities were curbed; ideas, characters, and story material were interchanged. The plays, however, were not often mere imitations; in the majority of them there is original observation and independence of thought. It was this drama that kept the doors of the theater open and the love of the theater alive in the face of great public opposition.

WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS

Soon after the Restoration women began to appear as writers of drama. Mrs. Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was one of the first and most industrious of English women playwrights. Her family name was Amis (some writers say Johnson). As the wife of a wealthy Dutch merchant she lived for some time in Surinam (British Guiana). Her novel, Oroonooko, furnished Southerne with the plot for a play of the same name. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Behn was for a time employed by the British government in a political capacity. She was the author of eighteen plays, most of them highly successful and fully as indecent as any by Wycherley or Vanbrugh. Mrs. Manly and Mrs. Susannah Centlivre, both of whom lived until well into the eighteenth century, also achieved success as playwrights. The adaptations from the French, made by Mrs. Centlivre, were very popular and kep the stage for nearly a century.

COLLIER'S ATTACK ON THE STAGE

Although the Puritans had lost their dominance as a political power, yet they had not lost courage in abusing the stage. The most violent attack was made by the clergyman Jeremy Collier in 1698, in a pamphlet called A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, in which he denounced not only Congreve and Vanbrugh, but Shakespeare and most of the Elizabethans. Three points especially drew forth his denunciations: the so-called lewdness of the plays, the frequent references to the Bible and biblical characters, and the criticism, slander and abuse flung from the stage upon the clergy. He would not have any Desdemona, however chaste, show her love before the footlights; he would allow no reference in a comedy to anything connected with the Church or religion; and especially would he prohibit any portrayal of the clergy. Next to the men in holy orders, Collier had a tender heart for the nobility. He said in effect that if any ridicule or satire were to be indulged in, it should be against persons of low quality. To call a duke a rascal on the stage was far worse than to apply such an epithet to plain Hodge, almost as libellous as to represent a clergyman as a hypocrite. Collier made the curiously stupid error of accusing the playwrights of glorifying all the sins, passions, or peculiarities which they portrayed in their characters. He had no understanding of the point of view of the literary artist, nor any desire to understand it.
Collier's attack, unjust as it was, and foolish as certain phases of it appear today, yet it made an impression. The king, James II, was so wrought up over it that he issued a solemn proclamation "against vice and profaneness." Congreve and Vanbrugh, together with other writers, were persecuted, and fines were imposed on some of the most popular actors and actresses. Dryden, Congreve and Vanbrugh made an attempt at a justification of the stage, but it did little good. D'Urfey, Dennis, and others entered the controversy, which raged for many years. The public buzzed with the scandal set forth in The Short View, but did not stay away altogether from the playhouses. The poets answered the attack not by reformation, but by new plays in which the laughter, the satire, and the ridicule were turned upon their enemies.

[1] About Us and Our Work- Biographies, outjoint.co.uk, www.outofjoint.co.uk/abourtus/biogs.html

[2] Elizabeth Howe, The First Englsih Actresses, Cambridge: University Press, p.171.

[3] ditto

[4] ibid. p.176.

[5] April de Angelis, Writing For Performance, Women and Theatre, Online, Internet, www.writing.org.uk, ‘available’ http://www.robinkelly.btinternet.co.uk/angelis.htm

[6] April De Angelis, Playhouse Creature for NIDA performances, p. 121.

Senin, 16 November 2015

Secondment Report for Dramaturgy Class of Playhouse Creatures: A Theatre Performance at NIDA, Sydney Australia 23- 30 June 2004

April De Angelis (as at 7/7/02)