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An original study of the relationship between comic acting and the visual arts in late-Georgian and Regency England.
About the author
Jim Davis is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick. As a researcher, he specialises in British theatre during the long nineteenth century. He has published a biographical study of John Liston, an edition of the plays of H. J. Byron and an edition of the diaries of the stage manager of the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, Frederick Wilton. With Victor Emeljanow he co-wrote a prize-winning study of nineteenth-century theatre audiences, Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing 1840–1880 (2001), and more recently he has edited a collection of critical essays on Victorian Pantomime (2010) and a volume on Edmund Kean. He has also co-convened Theatre Historiography groups for the International Federation for Theatre Research and for the British Theatre and Performance Research Association, and is an editor of the journal Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film.
Summary
Jim Davis explores the relationship between comic performance and the visual arts in England c.1780–1830, focussing on the influence of Hogarth and Wilkie on theatre criticism and portraiture, caricature as critique and the contribution of comic actors to notions of national identity.
