Restoration - The New Stage

Restoration: The (New) Stage

On May 29th, 1660, the English king Charles II mounted the throne again. Monarch who gained the ‘Merry King’ nickname for his temper, didn’t stir, and decided to surround himself with mirth immediately. Country’s politics needed dramatic changes, and one of the first acts issued was the Act of theatres restoration, ‘cause theatres have been closed for 12 years before, according to the command of Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan government. The action aforementioned was imposed as a duty to William Davenant (the head of ‘Duke’s Theatre’) and to Tom Killigrew (from ‘King’s Theatre’). Their little playhouses could seat about three hundred. The audience was represented by aristocratic elite, as a rule. The consequence of this, playwrights of Restoration had to accommodate to the tastes of these people by creating the plays which fell into two categories only: gallant comedies (such as works of George Etherege and William Wycherley) and heroick tragedies (works of John Dryden).

So, in the age of new theatrical life, the most part of remarkable literature was written for the stage.

But how did it look like, that Restoration stage?

Playhouse was represented by the closed building which contained the pit with seats, and boxes at circles. The large proscenium remained still, but the stage itself looked like the one more habitual for the modern spectator.

The process of plays’ remaking soon followed. Comical elements were cut from tragedies, and from comedies – the tragic ones. Perhaps it is not such a legend that Charles II personally asked to change the final of ‘Othello’ into the happier one. Romeo and Juliet were reuniting alive; plenty of tragedies were altered into comedies.

Edmund Waller wrote the epistle, with such a title:

To Mr Killigrew, Upon His Altering His Play, 'Pandora,' From a Tragedy Into a Comedy, Because Not Approved On The Stage.
 
’Sir, you should rather teach our age the way
Of judging well, than thus have changed your play;
You had obliged us by employing wit,
Not to reform Pandora, but the pit…’

‘Сэр, лучше б вы развили в нас талант
Судить как должно ранний вариант;
Вы обязали нас, явив пример
Ума, менять не пьесу, а партер…’

The plays have been also altering structurally. The new theatre had no means to perform the continuous action, as it was in the Elizabethan theatre. We all are used now to the classical five-act composition of the play; this division appeared in England just in the period being discussed.

The theatre of Restoration fell upon the influence of Italian opera theatre. Musical numbers and dances were included into the performance. For example, in some new productions the famous Hamlet’s monologue ‘To be or not to be’ was performed in the form of ballad. 

It is not surprising that in the times of Puritan government, when all the theatres were closed, the English actors were eager to leave the country and to try their luck in the other ones. They had a great success in Germany, and especially in France. After Restoration they returned back bringing home the spirit of French stage.

Sir Carr Scroope – Prologue to ‘The Man of Mode’ by George Etherege.
 
‘But I'm afraid that while to France we go,
To bring you home fine dresses, dance, and show,
The stage, like you, will but more foppish grow…’

‘Когда вернусь из Франции едва,
Неся вам моду, танцы и слова,
Боюсь на сцене больше щегольства,
Как в вас, узреть…’

And it has grown, actually! It is a well-known fact that before all the female parts were impersonated at stage by the young beardless boys. Restoration was the time of triumphal theatrical appearance of the real woman. This event led to the change of the actor performance – erotic motives were accentuated. At that time, the first woman-playwright appeared on literal stage, and her name was Aphra Benn.

The plays performed were counted on educated audience. Charles II was endeavoring to turn his Court into the central point of arts able to support the politics of new regime – the Restoration. And, at last, the mirth was restored, and the age of wit and foppery began. When England was tortured with grieves – Dutch Wars, plague, the Great Fire of London – high life continued still, as ingenious and profligate feast amidst this pestilence. Should we consider it to be nonsense? But, as once the great English poet, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester wrote,

‘As charms are nonsense, nonsense seems a charm’.