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ENGLISH
RESTORATION
THEATRE
1660-1700
England and the eighteenth century
WHY IS IT CALLED “RESTORATION”
• After the time of Shakespeare, English drama
had been in a state of decline.
• Puritans had long rallied against theatrical
productions, calling them immoral.
• A state of civil war developed and the King
was deposed. Puritans were in power.
• Actors moved to the smaller towns, but were
still jailed, flogged, and ridiculed.
• In an attempt to stabilize
the government, in 1660
King Charles II was invited
back from his exile in
France and RESTORED to
the monarchy.
• Under Charles, strict
Puritan rule was relaxed.
• Charles has been
charmed by the plays he
had seen in France
which included female
actresses.
• Women began to appear
on English stages,
ironically as young boys
at first. Nell Gwynn was
a famous actress of this
time.
Playwrights
William Congreve – 1690-1729
William Wickerly - 1641-1716 (The Country
Wife, The Plain Dealer)
George Etheridge – 1632-1692 – The Man of
Mode
RESTORATION COMEDY
• All entertainments were aimed at pleasing the
aristocracy, not the common person.
• Known as “comedy of manners.”
• Style was not realistic.
• Presentations were full of intellectual wit and
clever lines.
• Plot was of less importance than the quality of
the dialogue.
• Influenced by Commedia- characters are
stereotypes.
Stagecraft
• Proscenium arch became standard
• Scenery became part of action
• Audience taste for spectacle: cloud effects,
thunder, trap doors…
• Light provided by many candles
• Men and women wore heavy white make up (
as did patrons)
• Men clean shaven with curled wigs.
Restoration
Theatre Building
Restoration
Theatre
Building
Interior
Wing and Drop
Scenery
Restoration Costume
Restoration Makeup
• Upper-class aristocrats and court members were
audience.
• Audience members sometimes sat ON the stage
and made comments.
• Audience demanded witty, rakish comedy.
• Plays dealt with illicit, extramarital love affairs,
but playwrights avoided coarse language.
• Character types: the young man refusing to
marry, the irritable duchess, the plain citizen, the
flirtatious wife, the rich old husband married to a
young wife, the country maiden.
• Presentational (vocal) focus. Blocking generally
limited to entrance and exit.
Playing High Comedy
•
•
•
•
Searching for “truth” in character is futile
Characters are not real – they are types
Comedy is intellectual, not slapstick
Detachment principle: successful actors detach
themselves from character. By being detached,
actors share the joke with the audience.
• Audience-Actor relationship: comedic actor is
figuratively part of audience. Actor shares with
the audience and is their contact with all that is
happening to character and on stage.
• Distortion: one facet of the comedic character
must be enlarged, like a caricature. The
distortion must be within limits of being
believable, not farcical.
• Comedic actor must convince the audience
that the actor is also enjoying the character’s
eccentricity.
The Restoration Style Voice
• Since the text is polished and witty, the voice
is its primary vehicle
• “The voice (should) be clear, finished, the lips
expert, the tongue striking well on the teeth;
the tone would always go up and down but
always be sure of its place in the throat, be
crisp, shining, in hand, like the satin and gold
of the furniture and costumes, the rapier at
the wrist, the lace over it, the worldliness and
the wit.”Stark Young, The Flower in Drama (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1923) p. 88.