THE THEATRE OF RESTORATION

1. Defining and delimiting the period

The Restoration begins in 1660 with the coronation of Charles II. His father, Charles I, had
been executed in 1649. He had consistently dismissed and confronted Parliament and was
executed for treason after a civil war between his supporters and his opponents.
A period of Parliamentary government and purity ascendancy lasting 11 years (1649-1660)
followed. This period is known the Interregnum or the Commonwealth. In 1663, Oliver
Cromwell, who had led the opponents to Charles I, became Lord Protector, and was succeeded
by his son. This period, from 1653 to 1660 is known as Protectorate. It was essentially a
republican system. It did not last long, only seven years, and after the period (or by the end of it)
the son of Charles II, the executed king, was invited to return to England and to be crowned as
Charles the II. This was, as I have said, at the beginning of 1660. So, this is the basic historical
context.
As a period of the history of English drama, the Restoration spans roughly the last four decades
of the 17th century. From 1660-1700 more or less. It is characterized by the prevalence of drama
and, more specifically, of comedy. Restoration comedy is considered a sort of a golden age of
British English drama on a pair with Renaissance drama.
2. The return of theatrical activity
So in 1660 theatrical activity returns to England, Puritans disapproved of leisure or
entertainment for its own sake. They thought of theatre as an expression of moral dissolution
and banned any public performances when they had the political power in Parliament to do so.
This was even before Cromwell’s victory, as early as 1642, English theatres were closed by a
mandate of Parliament, which was controlled by the Puritans.
Professional theatrical activity for the London public starts again shortly after the king’s arrival
in England in 1660. Charles II himself was very fond of theatre and this contributed to an early
reinstatement of theatre in England after his arrival. There are two key characters: William
Davenant and Thomas Killigrew. They enjoyed royal patents to manage the only two theatres
in London, the so called “Patent Theatres”. They managed the theatres, the spaces and also the
regular companies based on those theatres. These two companies were named after Charles II
and his brother James, the Duke of York, who later became James II (he succeeded his brother).
Killigrew, who was better connected to the King, managed the company called the King’s
Company, which was based at the Theatre Royale in Drury Lane. Davenant, on the other hand,
managed the company named after the king’s brother James, the Duke of York, called The
Duke’s, and it performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields (also in London).
So we have a situation of duopoly – two theatres and companies controlled by the Monarchy.
Approximately up to the 1680s, so the first two decades of the Restoration, Elizabethan and
Jacobean drama were mostly performed. There were many revivals of plays that had been
successful before the Interregnum. Shakespeare remained a favorite dramatist with audiences
and his plays were performed very often, sometimes adapted, and we know this from the diaries
of Samuel Pepys’s, a key figure of the Restoration period. He was a Navy officer, a civil
servant we would say today, and his Diaries are an invaluable source as a record of daily
Restoration life. He was a frequent theatre goer and he often writes about plays and not only
about the plays themselves but the social experience of going to the theatre. Apart from these
revivals, there were also new plays inspired by French and Spanish contemporary drama,
mainly Corneille and Calderón.
Their plays were often adapted – foreign plays, French or Spanish, were adapted and translated
into English.
Aphra Behn, who is one of the main dramatists of the early Restoration, even dramatized an
episode of Don Quixote, the famous episode called El curioso impertinente. She called it “The
curious husband”.
3. Theatres and performing spaces
As happened during the reign of his predecessors, plays were performed for the King Charles II
in court as well as in public spaces for a general public. During the first years of the Restoration,
there was a lack of adequate spaces for performing spaces so that tennis courts were used as
theatres, and this was the case with Davenant’s The Duke’s Company, which initially produced
plays at little tennis courts (Lincoln’s Inn Fields). The other company used the Drury Lane
theatre.
Drury Lane, which was the first and main theatre of the Restoration, was rebuilt by Christopher
Wren, who was the main English architect of the period, in 1674. Wren’s rebuilding of the
theatre survived until the end of the 18 th century. This Drury Lane could be considered a
prototype of a modern playhouse or theatre, with a proscenium (place in front of the curtain),
the proscenium arch (separates the back of the stage from the front of it) there was an apron
stage -and this is important- was a projecting part of the stage beyond the Proscenium. There
was also a vista stage at the back of the stage, consisting of a number of panels in which scenes
were painted. There were wings and shutters, which created distribution and separations on the
stage, and allowed actors and actresses to enter and exit, to hide, etc. this was relevant as it was
used by dramatists to create comic effects. Then, this is in the stage. Then there was the pit, the
main sitting area opposite the stage, what we would call in Spanish la platea. The galleries
above the pit and the boxes (palcos) on the sides. This was Wren’s Drury Lane theatre which
was imitated in subsequent centuries.
The Restoration was also a period of technical innovations in terms of stage craft, especially for
the staging of heroic tragedies, and it is a period known basically for the comedies, but there
were also heroic tragedies. This, as I say, introduced important technical innovations because
the aim was to create very impressive effects in accordance with the epic themes of these
tragedies. Davenant was famous for this kind of grand productions.
The distribution of the audience in the space is also relevant, as it reflected social distinctions.
The bulk of the fashionable male audience would sit in the pit, women would watch the play
from the side boxes. Spectators of a higher class would sit in the upper boxes. Middle class
citizens, referred to a cits at the time, and prostitutes, would sit in the middle galleries. It was
common for prostitutes to go to the plays to look for clients. Then footmen and lackeys and
servants would sit in the upper gallery.
Audiences would have been considerably louder than today, and often interacting with actors.
Orange girls were also a typical figure of Restoration theatres, young girls that would stand on
the pit and would sell oranges in between the acts.
I referred to as the apron stage a moment ago. It was characteristic of Restoration drama, and it
was part of the stage where the main action focused. It was a projecting part of the stage which
allowed everyone in the playhouse to see and to listen. In the early 18 th century, it was sacrificed
and disappeared in favor of an extension of the sitting space. This meant that a wider section of
the population could afford to go to the theatre but also resulted in worst acoustic and visibility,
especially for those sitting further away from the stage (cheapest area) couldn’t listen as well as
when the apron stage was used.
By the end of the Restoration, in the early 18 century, there continued to be two theatres in
London: The Queen’s Theatre at Haymarket (opera, which was beginning to be very popular at
the beginning of the century) and Drury Lane (specialized in spoken drama). This was after the
reign of Charles II, then James, then William and Mary and then Queen Ann (named after her).

4. Moral dimension
During the first years of the Restoration, the master of the rebels, a royal officer, would act as a
censor. But given the context of political instability during the first years of Charles II’s reign,
and the eagerness to protect the king and the monarchy in a context of instability, the emphasis
was on politics rather than morale. The censorship would be more political than moral or
religious. The atmosphere at court was one of moral relaxation, reflecting the lively mercurial
character of Charles II. There were a number of court playwrights Such as John Wilmot, the
Earl of Rochester or Sir Charles Sackville who lived as rakes or libertines (immoral men) and
they wrote some of the bawdiest comedies of the Restoration.
Restoration comedy, however, has been considered amoral rather than immoral. It has been
associated with the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and its epicurean emphasis on personal
pleasure and appetite as sufficient justification for behavior. Interestingly, Hobbes had been one
of Charles II’s instructors as a child and had a quite an influence on him.
The moral climate of the Restoration can also be thought of a political reaction or patriotic
reaction to the puritan morality of the Interregnum, which was very strict and very restrictive of
entertainment and leisure, and of drama as well. There was almost a political patriotic
dimension to this attitude of moral relaxation.
But puritan prejudices continued, against the theatre. Some puritan preachers even attributed the
Great Fire of London, which happened in 1666, to the reopening of theatres as a kind of
punishment from God, an expression of God’s wrath because of the return of their activities.
In 1698, Jeremy Collier, a puritan divine and preacher, published a very influential essay called
Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. This was in 1698. And it
was an attack on contemporary theatre drawing on modern and classical sources. It generated a
pamphlet for and against, but theatrical activity at this point was too consolidated to be
influenced by Collier’s ideas.
Among the plays that Collier condemned drawing attention to specific characters and situations
were those of William Congreve. It is often assumed that Congreve’s The Way of the World
was a satirical response to Collier’s attack. In the play, Lady Wishfort, who’s a virtuous lady but
only on the surface, she has Collier’s book as a bedside reading. During the 25 years of Charles
II reign, plays gradually seized to reflect court morality and they became increasingly
accommodated to a bourgeois mentality and taste, which tolerated bodiness but within limits.
They expected the triumph of virtue over vice at the end of the comedy. This is an important
evolution – from drama intended primarily for the court to drama intended for a middle class,
bourgeois audience.

5. Theatrical and Social Transformations

Even though during the first years of the Restoration boys still played female parts as the
general practice during the Elizabethan period, the most important change in Restoration drama
was the emergence of the professional actress. Margaret Hughes is thought to be the first
actress to perform professionally; Mary Saunderson, Elizabeth Barry or Nell Gwyn (also
famous for being one of the King’s numerous mistresses).
With the incorporation of actresses, fashion for the Breeches parts was developed: male parts
played by actresses who cross-dressed as men. There was also an increasing interest in powerful
heroines (Millamant, for instance).
As regards acting or acting style, this was a time when stage directors did not really exist, so the
role of the dancing master was essential. His task was to choreograph the play to design poses
and interactions between characters expressed by conventional stylized movements.
Towards the end of the 17th century, patronage, which had been the usual thing before, was
being replaced with the benefit system, which meant playwrights received more money,
benefits, depending on how long their play run. Typically, they would receive their benefits on
the third night, if the play continued, they would receive more benefits on the 6 th, then the 9th.
The longer the play was showing, more the money they got out of it. This was a new system
which introduced a higher degree of professionalization for dramatists.
Theatre became less important at court partly because the monarchs that succeeded Charles II
enjoyed it less, they weren’t as fond as theatre as Charles II, and simultaneously drama became
more urban. Most plays of the Restoration are placed in London. They are bourgeois in their
situations and more market oriented. The Glorious Revolution, of 1688, which brought William
and Mary to power and were crowned, resulted in the consolidation of a middle class that had
leisure time to read and to go to the theatre.
Restoration drama reflected these social transformations, and the comedy of manners appears.
It will be very important up to the Victorian, and even the 20 th century. The comedy of manners
focuses on class distinctions, on class aspirations of certain characters who are portrayed as
foolish or ridiculous. It focuses on behavioral differences between witty courtiers and
sophisticated “cits”, silly country bumpkins… The comedy of manners exploits of all these
differences for a comical effect.

6. The Decline of Restoration Drama

This connects with the social changes. This social contrast became less acute, Restoration plays
became more dethatched from reality and less relevant to their audiences. They began to lose
their popular appeal.
At the same time, and coinciding with Hendel’s arrival in London, audiences were increasingly
attracted to Opera (new fashion) which replaced the Restoration comedy in popular demand and
appeal.
Another factor was the consolidation of the novel as the most popular literary genre which was
also detrimental to drama.
Finally, well into the 18th century (1737) we have a licensing act which regulated theatrical
activity and made censorship more systematic. All plays would have to go through the
censorship system – needed the approval of the Lord Chamberlain (who replaced the master of
the rebels) and they needed the approval to be performed, which made things more difficult for
playwrights.
7. Summary and conclusion