ABSTRACT
Durfey 's plays written between the 1670s and 1710 reflect and are influenced by the changing conditions of a volatile half-century in drama. During this period the physical theatres changed and so did the way they were run. Taste changed, audience expectations changed, and stage personnel changed. The last, probably, had the most immediate influence on Durfey. His plays were conceived within a framework common to dramatists at the time which was crucially dictated by the availability of actors and actresses with special talents for comic or villainous roles, or for music, or for sexual appeal, whose unpredictable comings and goings were a fact of theatre life. Thus Durfey wrote as much with players in mind as with stage possibilities or audience make-up. The physical, social and human elements of the Restoration theatre world all played their part in influencing his comedies, tragedies and operas.
