ABSTRACT
The incident reveals a number of aspects the conditions of reception and the nature of theatrical engagement in nineteenth-century theatres: the way in which the role of the stage could be appropriated by the auditorium as a site for spectacle, the transgression of established boundaries between stage and auditorium, and most significantly, that spectators and performers inhabited a single illuminated space. The very nature of Gothic melodrama is imbued with a desire for atmosphere and romantic gloom: otherworldliness suggests the absence rather than presence of light. While the critics proselytized for decorous behavior, the actor-managers seized upon their most powerful instrument for sensory deprivation, the control of auditorium lighting. Theatre managers in the first part of the nineteenth century who were themselves actors were generally keen to accommodate the wishes of their patrons, and criticism of the lit auditorium and the conditions of viewing remained tentative at best.
