34. Restoration Drama Flashcards
(52-54) (14 cards)
What kind of audience does the Restoration drama consist of?
Consists of upper class audience.
What are the Restoration theatres?
There are two licensed theatres: the Theatre Royal and Duke’s House.
What is the place for women in theatres?
Actresses could finally perform: Mrs. Coleman (first).
What can you say about the status for theatres of Restoration period?
They were still officially suppressed.
What happened to the plays of the Restoration period? Why? Which major plays were absent?
They had gone through changes. Shakespeare’s plays were adapted, Marlowe’s rewritten to adapt to the new tastes. “The Tempest” and “Doctor Faustus” are absent.
The disturbing elements were cut.
What kind of tragedy is Restoration tragedy?
Heroic.
What is Restoration drama best known for?
For it’s comedy.
What was Restoration comedy like?
It was mostly on the topic of sex: attraction, conquest, etc. It’s known as “the comedy of manners” reflecting its main upper class audience. It represents the frivolous upper class after exiles at the French court.
What’s the important even of this period?
Puritan Commonwealth have been thrown off.
What does the overthrow of Puritan Commonwealth end with?
It causes plays to manifest excesses of freedom.
What kind of characters are of this period? What can you say about the female characters?
The characters are obsesses with fashion, gossip and their own circle. The women are often depicted as predatory young widows and older ladies trying to be attractive to young men.
What led to the strict censorship? Who caused it? Why? Recall what happened.
Collier complained about mockery of the clergy, profanity, bad language. Actors and writers were prosecuted and fined. They tried to fight back. It resulted in a royal order prohibiting anything acted contrary to religion and good manners. Less than 40 years later, censorship became official.
What was the reason for the decline in drama? When? Why? What was popular instead?
It went into critical decline in 1707 and 1737 while theatre was popular. Collier led to this along with the middle class turning to journals, newspapers and the new developing genre - fictional prose.
Farce and musical plays became popular, too.
What’s the Theatres Licensing act? When did it happen? Who is the leading figure? What did it lead to?
In 1737. Lord Chamberlain - an official government censor who decided to whom he granted the license and whom not. The drama was successfully silenced till the 19th cen.
