ABSTRACT
Theatre was by 1700 a thoroughly commercial enterprise, and the struggle to attract spectators was often extremely fierce. Eighteenth-century theatre was suffused with music. People attended the theatre merely to hear the introductory music and then left, having a percentage of their admission money refunded. The candle snuffers tiptoed about the theatre, making sure the lighting was as it should be, but prepared also to be summoned to the stage to perform as extras in a large-scale scene. Colley Cibber boasted that Drury Lane spent good money on costumes, but John Downes, the long-serving prompter at the theatre, suggested that it was rare for plays to be ‘new cloath’d’. Actors wore make-up in this theatre, partly to offset the dimness of the lights, but partly also because it was socially fashionable. There may have been some attention paid to voice, intonation, gesture and similar matters, but the prompter often coached individual actors in these areas outside rehearsals.
