Duke's Company

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The Duke's Theater in Dorset Gardens, seen from the river side

The Duke's Company was an English theater company which, at the beginning of the Stuart Restoration in 1660 , received permission from King Charles II to perform plays. The company was under the patronage of Prince James , Duke of York and its director was Sir William Davenant . It went in 1682 with the competing King's Company in the United Company .

history

Immediately after his enthronement in 1660, King Charles II allowed public theater performances again. Since he had previously experienced French culture and the theater there during his exile in France, he wanted to use these impressions to create a new theater landscape in England. To this end, on August 21, 1660, he gave the playwright Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant preliminary permission to each establish a theater company ("Company"). Killigrews King's Company was supported and encouraged by the king himself; Davenants Duke's Company received patronage from his brother, the Duke of York , who later became King James II. These temporary privileges were later replaced by a letters patent , combined with the cementing of a hereditary theater monopoly for the patent holder ("Theater Royal").

The company began work at the old Salisbury Court Theater and occasionally used the cockpit on Drury Lane . After a year the actors moved into a new home, which was converted into a former ballroom (an early forerunner of today's tennis halls). On June 28, 1661, the new Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater opened with "The Siege of Rhodes," an older work by Davenant. This musical theater piece is also considered to be the first English opera. The troupe's future star, Thomas Betterton , performed the prologue. The performance attracted so much attention that the king himself, together with his aunt Elisabeth Stuart , visited a public theater for the first time. In the same year the Duke's Company brought Hamlet to the stage in a new production. This was the first time that new stage technology was used, which Davenant had built into the theater. Movable or interchangeable backdrops provided fresh stage sets and a proscenium with balconies above them enlivened the performance. The large backdrops could be gently and mechanically exchanged in grooves in the floor between - or during - the individual files. Samuel Pepys saw the production on August 24th and wrote in his diary: "Very good with all the sets, but above all of that, Betterton brought the role of the prince beyond imagination". Davenant tried to make the most of the ten Shakespeare plays he was allowed to perform. In 1662 he brought The Law Against Lovers , a heavily comedic version of Measure for Measure , which included parts of Much Ado About Nothing . This was the earliest of all Shakespeare adaptations produced during the Restoration era and the 18th century.

The company also performed some pieces from the canon of John Fletcher and his partner Francis Beaumont . The domain of the rival King's Company was traditional theater plays, while the Duke's Company also sponsored new work by other lesser-known authors and experimented with new forms of representation. The Duke's Company has staged plays by Davenant, John Dryden , Thomas Otway , George Etherege , Thomas Shadwell and others; Likewise, all of Aphra Behn's new plays from 1670 to 1682. Foreign plays, such as those from France, were also translated for the English stage. The comedy "The Adventures of Five Hours" produced in 1663 (by Sir Samuel Tuke and (possibly) George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol , adapted from Antonio Coello's comedy Los Empeños de Seis Horas ) ran for 13 sold-out evenings and thus formed the first great success of the restoration drama.

Just like the King's Company, Davenat's troupe brought actresses to the stage for the first time. Previously this was forbidden and all female roles were played by men. Mary Saunderson was famous, later the wife of Bettertons, who played many of the leading roles in Shakespeare's plays. Anne Gibbs (later married to Thomas Shadwell ), Hester Davenport and Mary Lee also had considerable careers here.

Samuel Pepys saw many of Duke's productions and wrote them down in his famous diary. King Karl also attended the performances, which represented a break with bygone traditions, as it was customary up to now for theater companies to make guest appearances at court. During the busiest seasons, the company put on 50 different pieces a year, a fifth of them premieres.

After Davenant's death in April 1668, Betterton took over the running of the company, in collaboration with Davenant's widow Lady Mary Davenant. To ensure the success to date, the management expanded its strategy, including a. by participating in three consecutive (and quite profitable) summer seasons at Oxford from 1669 . On November 9, 1671, the theater company moved into a newly built theater at Dorset Garden , later also called Queen's Theater. The Duke's Company successfully uses the novel scenic possibilities of the Dorset Garden Theater. The most successful of all of the Company's semi-operas was the Dryden / Davenant adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest , which premiered on November 7, 1669. From 1675 Elizabeth Barry played with the Duke's Company and became one of the most famous stars of the time.

During the Papist conspiracy (1678-1681), the two theater companies suffered great losses and therefore decided in 1682 to merge to form the United Company . The theater continued in the Dorset Garden Theater , the previous seat of the Duke's Company for operas and galas, and on Drury Lane, in the theater of the former King's Company, with pure theatrical acting. From 1693, the controversial director of the Theater Royal Drury Lane Christopher Rich took over the management of the merged companies.

John Downes was the prompter of the Duke's Company between 1662 and 1706. In 1708 he published his book "Roscius Anglicanus", which is now considered the main source on the era of the Restoration Theater.

Establishing the company

management

Sir William Davenant

Sir William Davenant was the founder and general manager of Duke's Company. In addition, he was also the holder of the important royal patent , which gave him permission to perform in the theater. After Killigrew received his patent for the King's Company, Davenant drafted a contract that gave him and Killigrew the oligopoly of the new theatrical landscape. Davenant did this because he received a promise from King Charles I in 1639 to build his own theater. In addition, his collaboration with Charles I credited him, as well as the fact that he was the author of the two operas played during the Puritan regime, as an accomplished and reliable manager of the second company.

Davenant increasingly believed that spectacular drama was the way of British theater. Mary Edmond wrote that he "realized early on that theater-goers would be asking for stage theater pretty soon." This was continued by creating new sets with changeable backdrops, which were also changed and updated regularly to freshen up the performances so that they felt new to the audience. During his time as artistic director, Davenant continued the reputation of the Duke's Company. Compared to the competing King's Company, which put 108 pieces on stage annually, the Davenants troupe only had 23. So Davenant turned to the pieces of the pre-restoration period, rewrote them and adapted them to contemporary tastes. Here he worked with authors such as George Etherege , John Dryden and Roger Boyle .

He not only tried to keep the work of the Duke's Company modern, but also planned theaters of the highest quality and functional. This manifested itself in the Dorset Garden Theater. Although this was only completed after his death, he had previously managed to secure the financing of the ambitious project. To that end, he issued 7/10 the value of shares to individuals at a price between £ 600 and £ 800. In addition, the shareholders paid the remainder of the sizable sum of £ 9,000, roughly the cost of the theater and the associated 39 year lease on the property on the Thames bank (near what is now Blackfriars Bridge ).

Henry Harris and Thomas Betterton

The theater was completed under the direction of a new management. This is a collaboration between the leading actors Thomas Betterton and Henry Harris, in constant consultation with Davenant's widow. Together they continued to run Duke's Comany. The theater at Dorset Garden was in terms of interior design and stage technology the most elaborate and best that was possible at the time. The influence of continental European theaters was clearly visible here. For this reason, Betterton traveled to France shortly before the theater was built. The house also boasted new playwrights such as Aphra Behn, Thomas Otway, and again John Dryden. Unlike Davenant, Betterton and Harris did not write their own pieces for the house.

Financing and property rights

To whom the Duke's Company “belonged” ultimately remains unclear. What is certain is that shareholders were tied to the company through their contributions and were able to influence the business. The main shareholder, as well as the holder of the patent, i.e. the license to play, was William Davenant and is therefore certainly considered to be the main owner from 1660 to his death in 1668. Timely followed by his widow Lady Davenant. William Van Lennep supports this assumption by writing: “So the formal structure of this type of agreement consisted of an owner (the largest shareholder) who was the captain of the company in both theatrical and financial matters; a small number of participating actors who received a portion of the profits after the running costs were serviced; and a large number of actors who were only receiving their salaries. ”New shares were added from time to time to fund renovations and new productions issued so that anyone interested could become a co-owner of the company. However, it is assumed that only people of a certain class could join the company.

Women in the ensemble

In 1660 women were allowed to appear on the commercial stage for the first time in England. The significance of this innovation at the time was, however, rather minor and received little written evidence. The fact that this was not reported separately suggests that the social influence of women who appeared in the theater, and the fact as such, was only minor. An example of one of the women who first appeared on stage was Mrs. Eastland. However, her name did not appear in the role lists until 1669, nine years after joining the ensemble, and only played small roles. Despite the permission to perform for women, the patriarchal character of the theater was still quite evident. While the acting profession may be regarded as respected for men, it was said, however, that “no woman with real ideas of seriousness would ever strive for a stage career”. But because the job requires the quick study of roles and a civilized demeanor, the company had to find women with at least a medium social profile. This suggests the class differences and general importance of men compared to women within the ensemble.

Plays

The new theater at Dorset Gardens of the Duke's Company opened on June 28, 1661 with the spectacular opera "The Siege of Rhodes". Thanks to its modern technology, the new theater offered the ensemble new opportunities to create rich and dramatic performances. “A small stage and a proscenium arch; the scenery consisted of two-sided wings of large painted canvases, which could be moved along grooves in the floor and trains of the stage. ”The Dorset Garden Theater was the first public theater in England to use such innovations and this also influenced the selection of the plays. The pieces turned into spectacles; "Siege of Rhodes" was considered a "furious production". Other productions such as Hamlet (1661), Love and Honor (1661) and The Storm (1667) gave the restoration spectacles and operas of the Dukes Company their special character. Downes noted that the adaptation of "Love and Honor", a piece by Davenants, originally from 1643, should rather be called "Richly Cloth'd" (roughly: "Extravagantly dressed"), since Betterton is dressed in delicately fine robes and the set was extraordinarily opulent.

Shakespeare

The Duke's Company received the exclusive rights to perform ten Shakespeare plays: Hamlet, Macbeth , King Lear , Romeo and Juliet , The Tempest, What You Want , Much Ado About Nothing , Measure For Measure , Henry VIII and Pericles, Prince Of Tire . Together with talented actors such as Betterton, the company succeeded in putting together particularly successful, adaptive productions of Shakespeare's plays.

Davenant

As manager, artistic director and well-connected to the king, William Davenant, together with his patent rights and Betterton's talent, was able to produce his own pieces. Killigrew and Davenant wanted to perform tragedies, comedies, plays, operas, and other similar entertainment, setting reasonable entrance fees to "meet the high expense of sets, music, and new decorations [those] that have not previously been used."

censorship

The royal theater monopoly was overseen by the legal authority of Lord Chamberlain . Chamberlain's authority, represented by Master of the Revels , had the power to censor theatrical productions such as written works. For this purpose, the texts and libretti had to be submitted for review 14 days before the performance. Even Thomas Killigrew once held the position of Masters of the Revels (from 1673 to 1677). The Duke's Company came under the censorship crosshairs in 1667 when comedian and noted improvisational artist Edward Angel received an arrest warrant. The reasons are unclear, but it is believed that during one of his free improvisations he crossed the line of permissible political satire.

The licensing supervisor even checked the game plan and approved ensemble members. For example, on February 6, 1720 at the Theater Royal Drury Lane , the agency ordered that John Gay's new pastoral tragedy, "Dione: A Pastoral Tragedy," be played immediately after John Hughes' Siege of Damascus.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Milhous, Judith. Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1696-1708. Carbondale, IL, Southern Illinois University Press, 1979. page 4.
  2. ^ FE Halliday: A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Penguin, Baltimore 1964, OCLC 222822680. p. 62
  3. ↑ Deborah Payne Fisk (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theater (= Cambridge Companions to Literature). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 9780521588126 . Pages 43-44
  4. ^ John Harold Wilson: All the King's Ladies: Actresses of the Restoration. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1958, OCLC 492052383, p. 8
  5. ^ Gilli Bush-Bailey, Treading the bawds: Actresses and playwrights on the Late Stuart stage (= Women, Theater and Performance). Manchester University Press, Manchester 2006, ISBN 9780719072505 .
  6. ^ FE Halliday: A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Penguin, Baltimore 1964, OCLC 222822680. p. 140
  7. ↑ a b c d Mary Edmond: Rare Sir William Davenant: poet laureate, playwright, Civil War general, Restoration theater manager. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1987, ISBN 071902286X ; Pages 143-144
  8. ^ A b c d William Van Lennep (Ed.): The London Stage 1660-1800: Part 1: 1660-1700, 1st edition, Volume 1, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale 1960, OCLC 1083463.
  9. ^ Philip H. Highfill Jr. “A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, Volume 1, Belfort to Byzand”, 1973, p. 79, other authors: A. Burnim Kalman, Edward A. Langhans
  10. ↑ Judith, Milhous “Betterton, Thomas (bap. 1635, d. 1710)”, 2014
  11. ↑ Deborah Payne Fisk (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theater (= Cambridge Companions to Literature). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 9780521588126 . P. 4
  12. ^ A b Elizabeth Howe: The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660-1700. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 9780521422109 .