Traits of Restoration Theatre:

Competition: In 1660 Charles II granted theatrical patents to two men:

Thomas Killigrew, who founded the King’s Company at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, a converted indoor-tennis court &

Sir William Davenant who formed the Duke of York's theatre company at The Theater in the old Salisbury Court playhouse and then moved to Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661, when it was fully converted from a tennis-court to a playhouse for scenery.

This set up a competition between these two theater companies that would last for nearly a century.

Women on Stage & Women Writers: A line in the patent for 1662 asserts "all the women's parts to be acted in either of the said two companies for the time to come may be performed by women" rather than by menin women's clothes "at which some have taken offence"(Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, John Russell Brown, 207). Ironically, women in breeches roles (i.e. parts in which a female character disguises herself as a man by wearing pants) became all the rage -- by some estimations, nearly a quarter of Restoration plays have a breeches role.

Female writer Aphra Behn's play The Rover is among the best of the period. Here's the text.

Scenery and Perspective: Here is a wonderful site explaining the Restoration theater. And check out this one about the development of stage spectacle.

Court & Elite Audience: "Under Charlies II's permissive eye, popular playhouses were consigned to history. Three features of the early Restoration playhouse advertise its desired clientele: admission costs ruled otu the majority of Londoners, the capacity (between 600 and 800 at the comparatively ambitious Drury Lane of 1674) fed exclusiveness, and the starting time of three o'clock suited the leisured town and court better than the busy city"(Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, John Russell Brown, 206)

Traits of 18th Century Theatre:

Increasingly middle-class audience: “The theater of the Restoration had reflected the mood and interests of a small, closed society. The all-important fact about eighteenth-century theater is that it belonged increasingly to the middle-class” (Gassner & Quinn, The Reader’s Encyclopedia of World Drama, 228)

Continued Rise of Celebrity: Celebrity actors became increasingly powerful as actors and producers.

Shakespeare's "the man": Although rehashing Shakespeare's plays became the fashion, they were often edited or Bowdlerized to make them more suited to the decorum of the day (taking out what we'd consider the good juicy bits) and to increase their impact as star vehicles.

Drury Lane

Cross-section of Wren's design, perhaps for Drury Lane (1674). This drawing clearly displays the deep forstage and separate scenic stage of the Restoration Theatre.

Drury Lane interior, 1674. site

Drury Lane interior, 1808.

The social scene in the lobby. Pierce Egan's Real Life in London (1821) site

(check out these later pantomimes at Drury Lane)

Covent Garden Theatre, built in 1732 to replace the Lincoln's Inn Fields theater, picking up that patent.

A theatre riot in 1763, when the management of the Covent Garden Theatre threatened to abolish half-price admission after the third act (i.e. to see part of the show). Note the stage lighting, and the boxes overlooking the stage. Picard, Dr Johnson’s London, 2000, p 266-7. site

The theatres were often laid out with a horseshoe of boxes around a pit fronting the stage. W. C. Oulton describes the Covent Garden Theatre in his book The History of the Theatres of London … from the year 1771 to 1795, published in 1796. "The seats are considerably elevated, so as to give a complete uninterrupted view of the Stage. Its decorations have been sufficiently attended to: it is neat airy, and lofty, and has a proper degree of elegance. The ceiling is painted as a sky, the opening to which is surrounded by a Ballustrade supported by enriched frames... The Proscenium is composed of pilasters and columns of the Corinthian order." site

Thomas Rowlandson (London, 1756-1827) ROWLANDSON was born in London, England in 1756. Political lampoonists and caricaturists of the era of King George III. This is a plate from the Dr Syntax series of books. site

Rowlandson, Covent Garden, 1808.

Covent Garden, c. 1750. Inigo Jones designed this elegant square in 1631 for the rich and fashionable. By 1750 they had moved west, and Covent Garden became a noisy produce market by day and a notorious red-light district by night. Picard, Dr Johnson’s London, 2000. site

Rolandson, Covent Garden Bird's Eye, 1811.

Some backgound on the title, an allusion to Dryden's Amphitryon:

“Th’offending Lover, when he lowest lies,
Submits, to conquer; and but kneels, to rise. 

Quoted in the Earl of Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son, 1746-1747 site

"A versatility of manners is as necessary in social, as a versatility of parts is in political life. One must often yield, in order to prevail; one must humble one's self, to be exalted; one must, like St. Paul, become all things to all men, to gain some; and, by the way, men are taken by the same means, 'mutatis mutandis', that women are gained--by gentleness, insinuation, and submission: and these lines of Mr. Dryden will hold to a minister as well as to a mistress:

        "The prostrate lover, when he lowest lies,
        But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise."

In the course of the world, the qualifications of the chameleon are often necessary; nay, they must be carried a little further, and exerted a
little sooner; for you should, to a certain degree, take the hue of either the man or the woman that you want, and wish to be upon terms with."

Oliver Cromwell - ran the Protectorate and killed Charles II's father, Charles I

(1599-1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. His New Model Army defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. A committed Puritan, he closed down the theaters. After Cromwell’s death, his son, Richard (aka “Tumble Down Dick”), served as Lord Protector for 8 months, then Charles II was brought back to power. (Wiki, 12/6/07) Cromwell, who had executed Charlies II’s father, said of Charles, “He’s so damnably debauched, he would undo us all.” (John Russell Brown, The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, 204)

Charlies II - created the Restoration drama landscape upon his return in 1660

(Charles Stuart; 1630-1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
“According to royalists, Charles II became king when his father Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, the climax of the English Civil War. The English Parliament did not proclaim Charles II king at this time, passing a statute making it unlawful, and England entered the period known to history as the English Interregnum. The Parliament of Scotland, on the other hand, proclaimed Charles II King of Scots on 5 February 1649 in Edinburgh. He was crowned King of Scots at Scone on 1 January 1651. Following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Charles fled to the continent and spent the next nine years in exile in France, the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands. After the Protectorate collapsed under Richard Cromwell in 1659, General George Monck invited Charles to return and assume the thrones in what became known as the Restoration. Charles II arrived on English soil on 25 May 1660 and entered London on his thirtieth birthday, 29 May 1660. Charles was crowned King of England and Ireland at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. … Known as the Merrie Monarch, in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of Braganza was barren, but Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses.” (Wiki, 12/6/07)

George III - The King of England during She Stoops to Conquer

Famous for losing the Colonies and for going mad -- although, arguably, he did neither.

"The Peace of Paris (1763) ended the Seven Years' War with France, with the strenuous, anti-French policies of the elder Pitt emphasizing naval superiority in the colonial warfare. Great Britain emerged from the conflict as the world's greatest colonial power. England thrived under peacetime conditions, but George's commitment to taxing the American colonies to pay for military protection led to hostilities in 1775. The colonists proclaimed independence in 1776, but George obstinately continued the war until the final American victory at Yorktown in 1781. The Peace of Versailles, signed in 1783, ensured British acknowledgment of the United States of America. The defeat cost George dearly: his sanity was stretched to the breaking point and his political power decreased when William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783. George reclaimed some of his power, driving Pitt from office from 1801-04, but his condition worsened again and he ceased to rule in 1811." site

The Madness of King George, the 1994 film adapted by Alan Bennett from his own play The Madness of George III, is set in 1788.