Theatre History - Victorian

Theatre in the Victorian era is regarded as the history of theatre during the era ruled by Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. It was a time during which literature and theatre flourished. During her reign, a lot of new theatres were built along with theatre schools. It was also during her reign when political reforms came into practice which led to the openness of theatre and literature. Theatre openly displayed and played dramas relating to social problems. Generally, it was a period which brought prosperity to the middle class of England and started to challenge the old hierarchical order of the country.

Staging

Illustration of Covent Garden Theatre

This staging is the closest to modern theatre especially regarding attempting to make scenes look real. Lighting tech effects and sets tried to do this as well as rather big attempts of realism such as bringing real horses on stage. The two winter theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane, had a dramatic duopoly granted in the 17th century, meaning theirs were the only managements officially allowed to put on plays in London during the winter season. They had developed over the years into large, often rowdy meeting places for all kinds of purposes. They did put on serious drama, but also anything that would please a large crowd, including lion taming in a cage and battles on horseback. There were two royal boxes, a huge gallery, and on the ground floor the pit, where people came and went, leaping over the backless benches, calling to their friends up in the boxes.

Acting Style 

The main acting style was that of Melodrama where stories were emotionally massive so the performance was vastly over the top. Melodrama consisted of short scenes interspersed with musical accompaniment and was characterized by simple morality, good and evil characters and overblown acting style. Characters in melodrama were stereotypical - there was always a villain, a wronged maiden and a hero. The emotions of the actors were played out in the music and accompanied by dramatic tableaux.

Popular Plays

The first drama in Britain to be labelled a melodrama was Thomas Holcroft's A Tale of Mystery in 1802. There were a variety of other playwrights who wrote melodrama such as the writer of Peter Pan J.M.Barrie

Why did people go? 

This was the time of the Actor/Manager where actors would hire a theatre, get the main part in the play they wanted to put on and direct it themselves. The audience would come to see the actors rather than watch the piece.

Basis/Past

Initially, performance at the start of the 19th century was only allowed in two theatres with a predominantly Shakespearean programme. However, musicals and burlesque were allowed as they had musical interludes and thus were not regarded as proper plays. An extensive history can be found at the links below.

Costume

Shakespeare was the most popular writer of these actor-managers. It became fashionable to give Shakespeare's plays detailed and historically realistic sets and costumes. The stage spectacle was often more important than the play, and texts were cut to allow time to change the massive sets and to give maximum exposure to the leading role.

Sources: 
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/0-9/19th-century-theatre/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_in_the_Victorian_era
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/19th-century-theatre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodrama#Victorian