ABSTRACT
DESPITE THE PATENT THEATRES’ MONOPOLY on spoken comedy and tragedy, it is impossible to comprehend the financial viability of commercial theatre in the Georgian period without also considering the place of pantomime, or harlequinade, in the theatrical calendar. After Woodward and Rich’s successful adaptation of commedia dell’arte formulae early in the century, harlequinade, especially in the Christmas season, was not only a vital source of revenue but also an important source of scenographic and dramaturgical innovation. Omai is both typical of this theatrical phenomenon-it generated considerable receipts for Covent-Garden and was arguably the most scenographically advanced production of the age-and something utterly singular: namely, a harlequinade with serious pretensions to instruct the audience. As the title suggests, O’Keefe and De Loutherbourg’s production capitalized on the public interest in the passage through fashionable society of a Raiatean man popularly known as Omai and on the general fascination with the artificial and natural curiosities being circulated in London in the wake of Cook’s voyages to the South Seas. Into a mediascape already saturated with often leering accounts of Tahitian society, the pantomime used every resource at hand to present “realistic” views of Pacific locations and peoples. John Webber, one of the artists on Cook’s third voyage, was brought in to insure that the scene painting and the costumes were topographically and ethnographically accurate. But for all the accuracy of the vast ethnographic procession at the play’s conclusion, the managers were not above adding a completely fictional ethnic clown in order to make room for more songs and tricks from Edwin, a favorite comical and musical performer. This strange tension between empirical truth and fantastical fiction extends to the play’s plot. Omai took the basic plot structure of harlequinade, wherein Harlequin and Columbine foil some kind of blocking character in order to bring together two lovers or inamorata —in this case Omai and Londina-and sutured it to a tale of sorcery and vengeance that featured characters such as Oberea and Towha, who were based on actual historical figures encountered when Cook and Sir Joseph Banks first visited Tahiti.
