Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater

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Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater
Lincoln'sInnFieldsTheatre-1811-Shepherd.jpg
location
Address: Portugal Street
City: London
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '54 "  N , 0 ° 6' 57"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '54 "  N , 0 ° 6' 57"  W.
Architecture and history
Construction time: 1660-1661
Opened: June 28, 1661
Spectator: 650 seats
Named after: Location  (1661)
New building opened on December 18, 1717

Demolished: 1848

William Davenant converted Lisle's Tennis Court into a theater in 1661. His ensemble continued to play there after his death.

The Lincoln's Inn Field Theater , also Lincoln's Inn Field Playhouse (from English play (play)), was an English theater that emerged from Lisle's Tennis Court . It was on Portugal Street , near what is now London 's largest public square , Lincoln's Inn Fields.

The Lisle's Tennis Court was as Ballhaus (comparable to today's indoor tennis courts built) and later in two periods as theater used: 1661-1674 and 1695-1705. During the first period the theater was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse or The Duke's Playhouse , The New Theater , but also The Opera . The house was then torn down and replaced by a purpose-oriented theater building for a third period: 1714–1728. The indoor tennis court was the first public theater in London to have movable backdrops. A technique that soon became standard in the theaters of the Restoration era .

background

Immediately after his enthronement in 1660, King Charles II allowed public theater performances again. Since he had previously experienced French culture and the French theater during his exile in France, he wanted to use these impressions to create a new theater landscape in England. For this purpose, on August 21, 1660, he granted the playwright Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant the 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").

architecture

There are no pictures of the interior of the Lincoln's Inn Theater, but certain aspects of the design can be explained by the usual furnishings of the subsequent theaters during the restoration period. A good example is the interior of the Theater Royal in Richmond , England, which contains elements of the restoration theater and still exists today. Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater was very small and was originally used as a tennis hall. Thomas Lisle's wife, Anne Tyler, and a man named James Hooker developed the indoor tennis court at Lincoln's Inn Place in the winter of 1656. Tudor-style tennis halls were long buildings with high ceilings and auditoriums. Their sizes were approximately 75 feet (23 m) long and 30 ft (9.11 m) wide, corresponding to the size of theaters of the time. Tennis halls were often used for theatrical performances, as they had a similar structure to theaters due to their narrow rectangular construction and raised rows of seats ( galleries ). The Lisle's Tennis Court was also approx. 23 m long and 9 m wide and could only hold 650 people. In fact, as Milhous sums up, the rather small capacity of the house was the reason why the Duke's Company , which resides there, was soon looking for a new venue. (Milhous 71). The stage was inclined and had a smooth transition to the vertical in the rear of the stage, which increased the perspective view. The auditorium was divided into the pit , boxes and galleries. The pit had no backrest benches and rose slightly backwards. As was customary for the cheap seats in the pit, this was where the loudest and rudest crowd sat, mostly men. The lodges housed aristocrats and other people from higher classes who liked to appear with their spouses and also wanted to be seen. The gallery was populated by the lower class, mainly the servants accompanying the upper class.

The English stage, in contrast to French or Italian theaters, had a very deep front stage to allow the actors enough space for the performances (see Apron Stage ). The Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse orchestra was under the stage. The front stage protruded more than half a meter in order to completely cover the orchestra pit and ensure the greatest possible proximity to the audience. Another specialty of English theaters were the typical proscenium doors on both sides of the stage, which had a balcony above that could also be used. Candelabra provided light in the room and manually movable backdrops made the presentation dynamic.

The Duke's Company

Sir William Davenant received the theater patent from King Charles I in 1639 , but could not use it due to the theater ban issued by the " Long Parliament ". When theater was restored, Davenant and a man named Thomas Killigrew wanted to return to theater in England. Killigrew was assured that he would "be allowed to build a company [ensemble] and a theater, provided [the right] that his company and Davenant's should be the only two allowed to play in London" (Hotson 199). Davenant then drafted a joint contract and after long debates about whether or not their future appearance in the theater might curtail the powers of the Master of the Revels (a kind of censorship authority and regulatory body), they turned to Charles II, who renewed his concessions confirmed.

Competition between the two companies soon became apparent. Both companies played in houses that survived the English Civil War and the Interregnum (including the Cockpit Theater and the Salisbury Court Theater ), but made great efforts to acquire their own houses, which met the current needs of the audience far more. They took up a hint from the king who brought this idea with him from his French exile, namely to convert economically ailing ballrooms into theaters.

In March 1660, Davenant signed a lease for Lisle's Tennis Court so that it could be used as a theater after renovation and remodeling. For the purpose of an expansion, he also bought neighboring land. However, Killigrew's Theater on Vere Street (in Gibbon's Tennis Court ) first opened in November 1660. Davenant put more effort into the design, so Lincoln's Inn Fields didn't open until June 28, 1661. However, it was then the first theater in Great Britain which had movable or exchangeable sets and a proscenium arch . Large backdrops could be gently and mechanically exchanged in grooves in the floor between - or during - the individual files.

A reworked new production of Davenant's opera The Siege of Rhodes , which is also considered to be the first English opera, was scheduled for the opening . The future actor, Thomas Betterton , performed the prologue . The performance attracted so much attention that the king himself, together with his aunt Elisabeth Stuart , attended a public theater for the first time. This play at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse "literally emptied Killigrews Theater," wrote Milhous. Milhous also stated that both companies "provoked willful, head-on collisions by putting on the same pieces" (19). The diary writer and devoted theatergoer Samuel Pepys also noted "The competing King's Company suddenly played in front of empty houses"

I went to the theater [in Vere Street] and there I saw Claracilla (the first time I ever saw it), well acted. But strange to see this house, that use to be so thronged, now empty since the opera begun — and so will continue for a while I believe.

The Siege of Rhodes "ran for 12 days without a break with great applause," wrote prompter John Downes. That was a remarkable result for the audience that could be recruited for such productions at the time. Other highly acclaimed Duke's Company productions followed during the year at Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse. Including Hamlet and Twelfth Night . The chronicler Pepys was enthusiastic about it.

The King's Company was forced to give up its own, technically inadequate and poorly attended tennis court theater and to commission the construction of a new theater on Bridges Street, where the new Theater Royal was opened in 1663 - a forerunner of today's Theater Royal Drury Lane on the same Job.

The Prince Cosimo III. de 'Medici attended the theater in 1669. His scribe noted:

[The pit] is surrounded by separate boxes in which there are different gradations of seats for the greater comfort of the ladies and gentlemen who, in keeping with the liberal custom of the country, share the same box. Below [in the pit] there is a large space for the other parts of the audience. The backdrops are interchangeable, with different transformations and nice perspectives. Before the piece begins, and to make the wait less annoying and uncomfortable, very graceful instrumentals are heard, with the result that many come early just to enjoy this part of the entertainment.

Thomas Betterton , painted by Godfrey Kneller

The Grand Jury of Middlesex spoke up on July 7, 1703, because they criticized "profane, irrelevant, lewd, indecent and immoral expressions" during the performances. In the area around the theater in the then notorious West End of London there were also unauthorized crowds, riots, even murders and other crimes, but despite these difficulties the theater remained quite popular and loved. Purcell's “ Dido and Aeneas ” were premiered there in 1700 and Handel's two last operas in 1740 and 1741 (“ Imeneo ” and “ Deidamia ”).

Davenant died in 1668 and the Duke's Company, now under the direction of Thomas Bettertons , played at Lincoln's Inns Fields until 1671. Then they moved to the newly built Dorset Garden Theater , which was well received and successful. In 1672 the theater on Bridges Street burned down and the King's Company temporarily moved into the vacant Lincoln's Inn Field Theater until their new theater on Drury Lane could be used for the first time in 1674.

Takeover by Betterton

The building at Lincoln's Field, no longer needed as a theater, was turned back into a tennis hall and served that purpose for 20 years until it closed. In 1682 the Kings Company and the Dukes Company merged to form the United Company and resided together in their homes at the Theater Royal Drury Lane and Dorset Garden Theater. This merger was not without conflicts, to which the theater manager Christopher Rich contributed in his rather dominant way. For example, each of the companies has so far had its own Hamlet actor; the question of who should take this prince role in the future led to a dispute and after several years of quarrels, also about other issues, Betterton asked the king for permission to found a new theater company. Betterton left in 1695 together with some other actors (including Anne Bracegirdle and Elizabeth Barry ) the United Company for Lincoln's Inn Fields, where they converted the abandoned ballroom back into a theater. The new Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater opened in April 1695 with William Congreve's comedy "Love for Love". Later Congreve's pieces "The Mourning Bride" (1697) and "The Way of the World" (1700) were premiered. Betterton and his company moved to the newly built Queen's Theater in 1705 . Betterton died five years later.

The End

In 1714, after a long vacancy, the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater was demolished. The reason was the establishment of a new "real" theater under the same name. The driving force was Christopher Rich, who was forced out of Drury Lane after 16 years and many quarrels. However, Rich died shortly before the new theater opened in 1714. His son John , who inherited 75% of the shares in the theater, opened the house on December 18, 1714 and continued to run the business until 1728. On January 29, 1728, John Gay's " The Beggar's Opera " premiered extremely successfully (it was said to have made "Rich gay and Gay rich"). The proceeds enabled Rich to build the Theater Royal in Covent Garden , a predecessor of what is now the Royal Opera House on this site. The move took place in December 1732.

The Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse was then the following season 1733/34 by the Opera of the Nobility recorded, which under the direction Nicola Porpora her Arianna in Nasso aufführte there. Despite the efforts of the famous castrato singers Senesino and Farinelli , this season was unsuccessful. Afterwards, the aristocratic opera, as it was also called, moved to the Kings's Theater on Haymarket , as did Betterton . The Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse was played in the 1736/37 season and then again in the winter 1742/43 season by a Henry Giffard's Drama Company . The United Company also occasionally used it for individual performances.

Afterwards the house was used as a barracks, auction hall and warehouse for porcelain goods and was demolished in 1848 to make room for an extension (Hunterian Museum) of the Royal College of Surgeons .

Web links

literature

  • Avery, Emmett L., and Arthur H. Scouten. The London Stage 1660-1700: A Critical Introduction. Arcturus Books. Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. Print.
  • Donohue, Joseph ed. (2004). The Cambridge History of British Theater: Volume 2, 1660 to 1885 . Cambridge University Press. Excerpt online .
  • Hartnoll, Phyllis; Found, Peter (1996). Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theater. Oxford University Press.
  • Hotson, Leslie. The Commonwealth and Restoration Stage. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928. Print.
  • Langhans, Edward (2001). The Post-1660 Theaters as Performance Spaces . Owen, Sue A Companion to Restoration Drama . Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Milhous, Judith (1979). Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695-1708 . Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
  • Styan, John (1996). The English Stage: A History of Drama and Performance . Cambridge University Press.
  • The Restoration Theater: From Tennis Court to Playhouse. 2004. film.
  • Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb. Living Theater: History of Theater. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2012. Print.

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. ^ The Annals of English Drama 975-1700 edited by Sylvia Stoler Wagonheim, Routledge Verlag, London, 2012 in the Google Book Search
  3. ↑ Styan, John (1996). The English Stage: A History of Drama and Performance. Cambridge University Press. P. 238.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb. "Living Theater: History of Theater". 6th edition, p. 249
  5. ↑ The Diary of Samuel Pepys
  6. ↑ The Diary of Samuel Pepys , Thursday July 4, 1661.
  7. ↑ in Roscius Anglicanus , p.20 by John Downes, 1708
  8. ↑ Milhous p. 19; Pepy's awards saw Davenant's The Wits on Thursday, August 15, 1661, [1] and on two other occasions within the next eight days [2] [3] ; Hamlet, Prince of Denmark on Saturday, August 24, 1661; [4] ; Twelfth Night on Wednesday, September 11, 1661 [5] ; and Davenants Love and Honor three times in 4 days in October [6] [7] [8] ; The Bondman by Philip Massinger twice in November, [9] [10] , The Siege of Rhodes [11] and Hamlet [12] one more time and ended his theater year with Cutter of Coleman Street by Abraham Cowley on Monday, March 16. December 1661, and previously gave a negative rating for the first time, based on the piece The Mad Lover , on Monday, December 2, 1661 [13] .
  9. ↑ "[The pit] is surrounded within by separate compartments in which there are several degrees [steps] of seating for the greater comfort of the ladies and gentlemen who, according to the liberal custom of the country, share the same boxes. Down below [in the pit] there remains a broad space for other members of the audience. The scenery is entirely changeable, with various transformations and lovely perspectives. Before the play begins, to render the waiting less annoying and inconvenient, there are very graceful instrumental pieces to be heard, with the result that many go early just to enjoy this part of the entertainment. "Source: John Orell (1980). "Filippo Corsini and the Restoration Theater", Theater Notebook 34, 6.
  10. ↑ Langhans p. 16. For a short time it was assumed that Cosimo III. attended a performance at the Theater Royal Drury Lane on Bridges Street, not the theater at Lincoln's Inn Fields .
  11. ↑ Donohue p. 7.
  12. ^ The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theater, edited by Jonathan Law in Google Book Search
  13. ↑ [ http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/234e/site/bckgrnds/maps/lndnmprstrtnthtrs.html London approx. 1676 Restoration Theaters] ( English ) instruct.uwo.ca. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  14. ↑ http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/TheatreRoyalPortugalStreet.htm Theater-historical website
  15. ↑ LONDON THEATRES ( English ) http://world-theatres.com/.+ Archived from the original on September 1, 2006. Retrieved on August 17, 2019.
  16. ^ Portugal Street ( English ) In And Around Covent Garden. Archived from the original on December 9, 2006. Retrieved August 17, 2019.