Celebrity, Performance, Reception - British Georgian Theatre As Social Assemblage

Worrall presents an innovative transposition of social assemblage theory into eighteenth-century British theatre and performance history.

List of contents

Introduction: theatre, performance and social assemblage theory; 1. Theatrical assemblages and theatrical markets; 2. Georgian performance and the assemblage model; 3. Theatrical celebrity as social assemblage: from Garrick to Kean; 4. Celebrity networks: Kean and Siddons; 5. A working theatrical assemblage: 1790s representations of naval conflict; 6. Theatrical assemblage populations: the Turkish ambassador's visits to London playhouses, 1794; 7. Historicising the theatrical assemblage: Marie Antoinette and the theatrical queens; 8. The regulatory assemblage: The Roman Actor and the politics of self-censorship; Conclusion; Appendix: actor-network theory.

About the author

David Worrall is Professor of English at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of Theatric Revolution: Drama, Censorship and Romantic Period Subcultures, 1773–1832 (2006), The Politics of Romantic Theatricality: The Road to the Stage (2007) and Harlequin Empire: Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular Enlightenment (2007). He has held fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust, Lewis Walpole Library, Folger Shakespeare Library and Huntington Library, and the Library Company of Pennsylvania.

Summary

By 1800 London had as many theatre seats for sale as the city's population. This was the start of the capital's rise as a centre for performing arts. Worrall brings to life a period of extraordinary theatrical vitality, re-examining the beginnings of celebrity culture amidst a monopolistic commercial theatrical marketplace.

Product details

• Authors: David Worrall, David (Nottingham Trent University) Worrall, Worrall David
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.09.2013
• EAN: 9781107043602
• ISBN: 978-1-107-04360-2
• No. of pages: 311
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; English, DRAMA / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Theatre Studies, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literary theory, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Literary studies: plays and playwrights