ABSTRACT
The network of theatres in Georgian English market towns, cathedral cities and newly industrial regions is indicative of the pervasive presence of drama. It represents the tangible physical infrastructure providing the precondition for drama’s dissemination. Unlike the circulating libraries, the playhouses could influence those who were illiterate or, in the case of pantomime, didn’t understand English. Outside of London, the provincial playhouses and players accumulated exponentially larger audiences. The social and built environment of towns and cities provided the means by which actors could engage in their profession and present the contemporary dramatic repertoire to the general population. By 1800, in Georgian England a network of provincial playhouses had developed, often in places now little visited by drama. It is important to remember that, certainly as far as the built environment is concerned, there were probably far more Georgian playhouses than there are regular theatrical venues in Britain today. Very few of today’s market towns can boast a theatrical season of between one and three months entirely dedicated to live drama performed by a regular company. However, the vestiges of these theatrical environments are fairly easy to find. In a few cases, such as Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, Stamford in Lincolnshire and Richmond in North Yorkshire, much of the Georgian interior or exterior – and even some scenery – has survived intact. Elsewhere, as at Grantham, Lincolnshire, the basic structure of the building survives but has been adapted to a modern purpose. The towns named thus far indicate some of the main differences between the modern and the Georgian dramatic world. Playhouses existed not only in the principal cities and embryonic conurbations, but also – overwhelmingly – in the English market towns. The single most comprehensive record of these playhouses comes in the form of an unpublished manuscript at the Houghton Library, Harvard University: a commonplace book compiled by James Winston, later manager of the Haymarket and Drury Lane.
