Restoration Period: Restoration Theatre

Restoration Theatre

Charles II developed a taste for theater while at the court of French as well as the new Spanish dramas taking England. He also held Catholic sympathies and enjoyed the pageantry of the high mass. One of his first actions as king was to reopen the theaters, and Thomas Killigrew received an special patent to establish the King’s Company and the first patent theater at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. The second patent went to Sir William Davenant, who established the Duke of York’s theater company for his own theater in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. ​

 

 

Christopher Wren was the architect responsible for the sumptuous decoration of both of these new playhouses, which he fitted with moveable scenery and machines that could produce sounds like lightning and thunder. This was especially important because of a new genre emerging in theater during the period known as the machine play or Restoration spectacular. These baroque era dramas employed vivid illustrations, changeable scenery, expensive costumes, special effects, trapdoor tricks and fireworks. Sometimes they were staged outside to accommodate features such as naval battles. The two theaters did their best to outdo each other through performances.

These plays drew from the French opera, court masques and pageantry. There were those who thought these performances were vulgar and for the lower classes, especially as they drew Londoners from all walks of life in record numbers, allowing the mingling of classes. Dorset Gardens was a popular location for these pieces outside though they were also staged at the Theatre Royal, Duke’s Theater and at the theatre on Vere Street. Often times, these works were only staged once and included older works like those of Shakespeare as well as newer productions as Sir William Davenant’s Siege of Rhodes or Elkanah Settle’s Empress of Morocco. While these machine plays were seen as lewd for their mixing of classes and over-the-top performances, the comedy plays produced in the Restoration era were known for their bawdy humor and sexual permissiveness​.

 

Those who prefered a more serious performance without class mixing would go see the dramas of this period, which included the male-dominated heroic dramas as well as the female-dominated she-tragedies. Popular heroic dramas includes Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada and Aureng-Zebe, which focused on the exploits of aggressive and overtly masculine characters. The she-tragedies of pathetic tragedies focused on the sufferings of women, usually after committing some type of sexual sin. These plays included Thomas Otway’s The Orphan, Thomas Southerne’s The Fatal Marriage and Nicholas Rowe’s The Fair Penitent and Lady Jane Grey. ​

 

The reason these female-based tragedies emerged was because of the popularity of female actors who were the first time allowed to appear on stage in England. Prior to the restoration, all female roles were played by boys. Many actresses played what was called the “breeches role” in which a female character spent much of the play pretending to be a man. Some of the most famous actresses of the day included the king’s mistress Nell Gwyn, tragedy actress Elizabeth Barry, comedienne Anne Bracegirdle and Susanna Mountfort, who was known for her breeches roles. Actors and actress were also becoming celebrities for the first time, leading to an actor's revolve in 1695 when the actors unionized for higher pay to reflect their growing status. In addition to the famous female actresses, actors including Thomas Betterton became household names.​

 

 

While Charles II enjoyed drama, his son James II did not and his granddaughters, both heavily Protestant, were not big fans either. Thus, the reign of Charles II from 1660 to 1685 proved to be the golden age of the Restoration drama. Later on, the strict moral code of the Victorians would find these plays too explicit to stage and they would fall out of favor. Only in more modern times have they regained their popularity.