ABSTRACT
Mainstream or ‘highbrow’ theatre struggled in Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century. Many actors in Scottish theatres were actually English, and it was said that the new trains from London brought ‘fish and actors’ to Scotland, the actors being members of successful London companies who toured Scottish cities. In 1842 David Prince Miller erected the Adelphi Theatre as a permanent feature on Glasgow Green. James Calvert’s large Royal Hibernian Theatre was a semi-permanent wooden building, and Cooke’s Circus was also a feature. Glasgow’s theatre was hardly flourishing financially, despite the burgeoning population. The highland clearances and the subsequent expansion of Glasgow into a sprawling industrial giant altered Scottish culture entirely. In 1818 Macready staged Isaac Pocock’s adaptation of Rob Roy Macgregor, or Auld Lang Syne at Covent Garden with interpolated Scottish airs and songs by John Burns and William Wordsworth. Brick-built theatres were another matter, being seen as infringing the ancient privileges of the Green.
