The Physical Structure of the Restoration Theatre

Audiences seated on floor. Stage is raked, that is, sloped upward away from the viewers. Terms “upstage” and “downstage” develop. Elaborate scenery and mechanical equipment used. Move to the indoors, artificial light. Middle-priced tickets were in the pit before the proscenium-arched stage. The first-level boxes against the walls were most expensive. The lowest-priced seats were in the upper ranges of the balconies.

 

Theatres began to display the proscenium style of architecture, although the forestage remained the principal place where the acting took place, and the area behind the proscenium was reserved for the display of scenery changes which were slid into view by means of panels on tracks. It was also during this time, when theatre was designed specifically for the royal pleasure, that theatres began to be roofed in. It was at the time of the Restoration of the Crown in England, that women first began to appear on stage (a convention borrowed from the French), instead of female roles being played by boys and young men. Although theatres were again licensed and controlled by the state, with the dawn of the 18th Century approaching, it would not be long before the echoes of the Republican period in England and the influence of similar movements abroad would force a broadening of theatre's appeal – first to property owners and merchants, and ultimately to the masses.

 

After the Puritan closing of the theatres in 1642 did not mean the absolute disappearance of the English drama. Plays were performed in the private residences of country gentlemen. Some actors attempted public performances surreptitiously. Another and more effective circumvention of the authorities consisted of drolls, brief excerpts from dramas that could be quickly presented at fairs before a raid could be launched. Yet the theatrical tradition was essentially broken. Most actors of the Caroline stage were dead or out of practice when the Restoration gave the stage a new birth. Upon his resumption of the throne in 1661 Charles II granted two patents, assigning the monopoly of London theatrical performances to the King’s Company, and to the Duke of York’s Company.