Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London - Hardcover

Baer, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198112505 ISBN 13: 9780198112501

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1992

Synopsis

In September of 1809 during the opening night of Macbeth at the newly rebuilt Covent Garden theatre the audience rioted over the rise in ticket prices. Disturbances took place on the following sixty-six nights that autumn and the Old Price riots became the longest running theatre disorder in English history. This book describes the events in detail, sets them in their wider context, and uses them to examine the interpenetration of theatre and disorder. Previous understandings of the riots are substantially revised by stressing populist rather than class politics. Baer concentrates on the theatricality of audiences, the role of the stage in shaping English self-image and the relationship between contention and consensus. In so doing, theatre and theatricality are rediscovered as explanations for the cultural and political structures of the Georgian period. Based on meticulous research in theatre and governmental records, newspapers, private correspondence, and satirical prints and other ephemera, this study is an unusually interesting and original contribution to the social and political history of early 19th-century Britain.

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Review

'rich and multifaceted case study ... His copious references masterfully knit his story into the fabric of theater, history and theory, anthropology, and social, cultural, and political history.' John Bohstedt, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, American Historical Review, February 1993 'clear and well-researched monograph ... Marc Baer offers a minutely detailed chronicle of the ruckus' Roy Porter, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, Labour History Review, Vol. 57, No. 3, Winter 1992 `enthralling new book ...Baer's book is a ground-breaking attempt at synthesis, bringing together orthodox theatre history, politics, and the study of popular culture. As such it is greatly to be welcomed, and its complex conclusions should be required reading for anyone interested in the behaviour of crowds, be they in the theatre or at the football stadium.' Ian A. Bell, Theatre Research International 'Baer's impressive study persuasively questions recent interpretations of the riots as a dramatic form of class war. Marc Baer makes a useful contribution to our knowledge of both the riots and the political underworld of theatre in early nineteenth-century London.' Times Literary Supplement

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198112505
• ISBN 13: 9780198112501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320