This introduction aims to share with readers the author’s enjoyment of the turbulent 240-year history of a theatre that tried, often against the odds, to be ‘modern’. In each of its five parts, it deals successively with history and cultural context, with the plays and the actors who caught the imagination of their era. Peter Thomson’s text, always approachable, is enriched by quotations and carefully selected illustrations that capture ‘the spirit of the age’ under consideration. Beginning with the reopening of the playhouses under licence from Charles II, Thomson introduces the modern English theatre by breaking off at key dates - 1700, 1737, 1789 and 1843 - in order to explore both continuity and innovation. Familiar names and well-known plays feature alongside the forgotten and neglected. This is a reading of dramatic history that keeps constantly in mind the material circumstances that produced, and sometimes oppressed, a supremely popular theatre.

Preface Part I. The theatre restored: 1660-1700 1. The material circumstance 2. The drama 3. Actors and acting Part II. The theatre reformed: 1700-1737 4. The material circumstance 5. The drama 6. Actors and acting Part III. The theatre tamed: 1737-1789 7. The material circumstance 8. The drama 9. Actors and acting Part IV. Theatre in the age of reform: 1789-1843 10. The material circumstance 11. The drama 12. Actors and acting Part V. The theatre industry: 1843-1901 13. The material circumstance 14. The drama 15. Actors and acting Index of plays.

Peter Thomson is Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Exeter.

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