How was Restoration comedies performed on the Restoration stage? How did Wycherley or Congreve expect their plays to be acted? How much were they influenced by theatrical conditions and conventions? What happened in performance, when the plays were graced with 'the ornament of action'? In this book, which was originally published in 1979, Peter Holland brings together the disciplines of theatre history and literary criticism in a close study of the manner and significance of the staging of plays in the Restoration. The dramatists, working with the strengths and weaknesses of their own theatre companies very much in mind, are shown using a whole range of staging techniques in order to help their audience understand their plays. The reader can visualise the plays as they must have looked at the time of the original performance. Throughout he challenges the conventional distinction between text and performance, and seeks to turn us from readers into spectators.
- ISBN13 9780521133944
- Publish Date 18 March 2010 (first published 26 April 1979)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 25 May 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Cambridge University Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 300
- Language English