Restoration Staging, 1660-74 Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama Series

Restoration Staging 1660?74 cuts through prevalent ideas of Restoration theatre and drama to read early plays in their original theatrical contexts.

Tim Keenan argues that Restoration play texts contain far more information about their own performance than previously imagined. Focusing on specific productions and physical staging at the three theatres operating in the first years of the Restoration ? Vere Street, Bridges Street and Lincoln?s Inn Fields ? Keenan analyses stage directions, scene headings and other performance clues embedded in the play-texts themselves. These close readings shed new light on staging practices of the period, building a radical new model of early Restoration staging.

Restoration Staging, 1660?74 takes account of all extant new plays written for or premiered at three of London?s early theatres, presenting a much-needed reassessment of early Restoration drama.

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of figures

List of tables

Theatrical terms and definitions

Historical note

Introduction

1. Interpreting Restoration Drama: some facts and fictions

2. Visualising Restoration Staging

3. Modelling the Lincoln’s Inn Fields stage

4. Testing the Model 1: Analysing the Plays, 1661–74

5. Testing the Model 2: Exceptional Staging Demand

6. Applying the model: cracking the codes

7. Developing a scenic dramaturgy

8. Conclusion: the plays and the model

Works cited

Index

Tim Keenan is Lecturer in Drama (Shakespeare and the Classics) at Liverpool Hope University, and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Seville Restoration Comedy Project.