In Search of an Identity: The Changing Fortunes of Liverpool’s Theatre Royal, 1772 – 1855 Alexandra Appleton PhD, School of English Royal Holloway, University of London Table of Contents Declaration of Authorship 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Chapter One: In Search of a Theatre Royal 14 Chapter Two: Revival, Growth and Tension at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 82 Chapter Three: A Transatlantic Outlook and an International Theatre 133 Chapter Four: Competition and Responsibility in 1830s Liverpool Theatre 182 Chapter Five: Global Versus Local – A Theatre of the World 234 Epilogue 291 Appendices 294 Works Cited 309 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Alexandra Appleton, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Alexandra Appleton Date: 5 February 2015 2 Abstract My thesis provides the first analytical study of the Theatre Royal Liverpool from 1772 to 1855. It offers a new and original contribution to the increasing volume of provincial theatre studies in Britain. Liverpool’s theatrical history has hitherto been left in the annals of time, despite the port’s important national and international position during the long nineteenth century. I believe that by examining Liverpool’s theatrical and cultural identity during this period, we gain a fresh and important perspective on its complex and evolving regional character. Much has been written on the port’s economic and commercial history but such an analytical study of its theatrical productions and performance history provides an incredibly important cultural insight in to Liverpool’s developing maritime identity from the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century. I have focused my research primarily on events occurring at the town’s Theatre Royal as this was the only theatre to exist throughout this whole period. Although little is known about the history of the Theatre Royal and the pivotal role it had in the cultural evolution of the present day city, I believe that its pattern of productions, fortunes and managerial decisions provide a fascinating insight into the changing character of this North West port. This thesis brings a new dimension to the well-known historical character of Liverpool by examining the evolution of theatrical practice within the port. Beginning with the town’s application for a royal patent in the early 1770s, I explore Liverpool’s dramatic engagement with naval warfare, changes in attitude to the slave trade, local social decline, expanding transatlantic links, and changes in theatrical taste. My thesis concludes with the establishment of Liverpool’s celebrated global reputation in the mid-nineteenth century. I use playbills, newspaper reports, archival resources and contemporary narratives to examine the role of the Theatre Royal in Liverpool’s cultural development and self-conception. 3 Introduction Historian Graeme Milne describes the historical representation of Liverpool and its immediate locale as “a place of greater extremes than most, and not quite in the mainstream of British history” (Trade and Traders 2). He argues that its distinct maritime outlook and peripheral geographical character afforded it a unique identity unmatched by any other urban centre in the British Isles throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This thesis seeks to demonstrate the ways in which an examination of the port’s theatrical identity during the long nineteenth century provides a new perspective on its complex regional character. I argue that, although Liverpool believed itself to hold an exceptional position within the nation across this time period, it was fundamentally insecure in its identity and reputation. I will show how the town’s theatrical history highlights its ongoing struggles with pride, local and national reputation, and civic development. This thesis offers the first cultural history of Liverpool’s Theatre Royal from 1772 to 1855, analysing the link between the theatre’s productions and performance choices and the complicated identity of the town1. My research focuses primarily on the Theatre Royal (the only theatre to exist throughout this time period) and traces its pattern of productions and changing fortunes, ending in its critical decline. Little is known about the history of the Theatre Royal and, in particular, the pivotal role it had in the cultural evolution of the present day city. It has all but faded from public memory and little has been written about its history or relationship with the town. Substantial studies of Liverpool’s theatrical history have tended to begin in the early years of the twentieth century when the city’s first repertory company was formed at the Playhouse Theatre in 1911. Harold Ackroyd’s chronological and geographical study of Liverpool’s theatrical landscape, The Liverpool Stage (1996), traces the development and growth of local theatres from the nineteenth century onwards from a very factual point of view, highlighting particular changes in management and name, architectural 1 Liverpool did not receive city status until 1880 and for the purposes of my research I therefore refer to it as a town (although many of the historical texts cited within this thesis tend to describe it as a city from the 1830s onwards). 4 design and technical advancements. Indeed the only existing text that looks at the Theatre Royal at any great length is R.J. Broadbent’s Annals of the Liverpool Stage (1908), which provides an anecdotal and subjective narrative of the history of all the city’s theatres from the seventeenth century onwards. This thesis traces the changes in the town’s character from the Romantic period through to the mid-Victorian age and explores how the productions and dramatic literature emerging from the town during this period provide a fresh perspective on the core issues underlying Liverpool’s civic identity. Although the town presented a proud image of its own regional and theatrical uniqueness, such professed exceptionality was not always the case and I believe that this is substantiated through such an extensive study. It is tempting to endeavour to provide one micro-argument for the whole thesis but this is impossible to do when dealing with such a lengthy time period. I have therefore found it useful to put the theatre in context and, where appropriate, to compare it with provincial and national trends and practices to present a finely calibrated examination of the theatre which reflects the complexities of its history. I have concentrated in this respect particularly on Manchester (whose developing civic identity offers a useful comparison to neighbouring Liverpool), maritime-based Bristol, and Bath (whose close proximity to London and early patent made it a key player in eighteenth-century provincial theatre), as well as providing brief glimpses into other regional theatres. Although it is again tempting to dwell further on lengthy and detailed provincial comparisons, the parameters of a thesis, and the need for a hitherto undeveloped piece of research on Liverpool’s theatrical history, do not allow for this. It is my hope however that, with this initial groundwork completed, further provincial comparisons can be explored at length. Although very little has been written on Liverpool’s pre-twentieth-century theatrical history, developments in theatre studies in recent years have led to increased attention to drama in other provinces. Since the turn of the century an increased volume of new work specifically looking at regional theatre and its practices has fought back against an earlier “prevalent assumption regarding 5 provincial homogeneity” (Sullivan 2). Kathleen Barker’s original ground-breaking provincial research on Bristol’s Theatre Royal has since been succeeded by a growing wave of contextualised research in the twenty-first century which deliberately engages with the immediate environment in which the theatres practised. Joanne Robinson’s study of performance culture in Nottingham (“Mapping Performance Culture: Locating the Spectator in Theatre History”) offers a new insight into the possibilities for exploring regional practices, whilst Linda Fitzsimmons provides a focused study of the position of the Theatre Royal York within its immediate locale during the mid-nineteenth century (“The Theatre Royal, York, in the 1840s”). Equally important in terms of regional identity and theatrical practice is Jill Sullivan’s analysis of the provincial pantomime in the nineteenth century, The Politics of the Pantomime: Regional Identity in the Theatre 1860-1900, focusing on productions in Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham. My thesis considers these works in particular as constructive examples of environment-focused theatrical research in the provinces and aims to contribute a new, important regional study of a unique and distinctive maritime town. Until the 1960s, studies of popular theatre were discouraged as they did not fit in to the accepted traditional literary practices carried over from the late nineteenth century. Jane Moody noted that only in recent years had interest in the late Romantic era risen, before which “scholarship on the Romantic theatre rarely strayed far from the plays of canonical poets such as Coleridge and P.B. Shelley” (“The State of the Abyss” 119). Peter Thomson believes that many literary critics ignored or criticised early nineteenth-century English theatrical genres, such as the burlesque and extravaganza, because of the difficulties