ABSTRACT
In the production at the Little Theatre on the Haymarket, Foote played himself, Foote, but also Shift, who in the play plays Smirk, and also Mother Cole, a bawd. Theatre after 1737 strained to escape its legal constrictions, and perhaps the first genuine mavericks of British theatre emerged, edging towards a theatre embracing Dionysian, as well as the prevailing Apollonian, qualities. The place of Samuel Foote in the history of the theatre of the period is marginal, but it is also original. From the mid-1750s Foote had starred in productions at the Little Theatre, Haymarket, during the summer when Drury Lane and Covent Garden were dark. It had no Royal Patent and was in constant danger of being closed, but its small, intimate auditorium was particularly fitted for his style of work. In 1762 he took over as manager and his summer seasons became more popular every year.
