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A Conjectural Reconstruction of the Dorset Garden Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Edward A. Langhans
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Extract

The most magnificent of the Restoration playhouses, yet the one with the most lamentable history, was the Dorset Garden. Conceived by Sir William Davenant, the building was not erected until after his death. Though it was the most expensive and lavishly equipped of all the theatres built between 1660 and 1700, it fell into partial disuse eleven years after it opened and was demolished in 1709 after a life of only thirty-eight years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , November 1972 , pp. 74 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1972

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References

Notes

1 Quoted in Montague Summers, The Restoration Theatre (New York, 1934), p. 106Google Scholar. I have collected and commented on all of the pictorial material referred to in this and the following paragraphs in “The Dorset Garden Theatre in Pictures,” Theatre Survey, VI(11 1965), 134–146Google Scholar.

2 Quoted in Nagler, Alois M., Sources of Theatrical History (New York, 1952), p. 203. The reference to “seats” should not be taken to mean chairs instead of benches; the original reads, “on est assis dans le parterre qui est en Amphitheatre. …”Google Scholar

3 For a reproduction of the Wren section view and a conjectural reconstruction of its plan, see my “Wren's Restoration Playhouse”, Theatre Notebook, XVIII (Spring 1964), 91–100Google Scholar. For reconstructions of the actual 1674 Drury Lane, see Leacroft, Richard, “Wren's Drury Lane,” The Architectural Record, CX (1951), 43–46Google Scholar; Mullin, Donald and Koenig, Bruce, “Christopher Wren's Theatre Royal,” Theatre Notebook, XXI (1967), 180–187Google Scholar; and volume XXV of the Survey of London (London, 1970)Google Scholar.

4 In a letter quoted in Summers, p. 64.

5 Quoted in Summers, p. 105.

6 Quoted in Summers, p. 105.

7 Quoted in Summers, p. 106.

8 Shadwell, Thomas, Epsom Wells (London, 1673), p. 65Google Scholar.

9 Some Dorset Garden plays make references to draw curtains, but these were apparently within the scenic area, probably near or at one of the shutter positions; similar hangings were also used in the Duke's Company's earlier theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, according to stage directions in plays written for that house. The curtain depicted in Figure 6 in my Theatre Survey article is, I now find, not authentic and should not be used as evidence for the Dorset Garden playhouse.

10 (London, 1952), pp. 146–153. See also Marvin, Lee J., “From Forestage to Proscenium,” Theatre Survey, IV (1963), 3–28Google Scholar, where this dispersed shutter theory is also discussed. I presented my arguments against Southern's view in a review of Vol. VIII of The Works of John Dryden in Theatre Notebook, XVII (Spring 1963), 94–97; and in preparing the present reconstruction I found a dispersed shutter arrangement unworkableGoogle Scholar.

11 Pozzo's plans are reproduced in Nicoll, Allardyce, The Development of the Theatre (New York, 1957), p. 150Google Scholar. See also Troili, Giulio, Paradossi per pratticare la prospettiva … (Belogna, 1683 [but dedication dated 1672]), pp. 110–113Google Scholar. Some of the illustrations in Lambranzi's Nuova e curiosa scuola dei balli theatrali (Nuremburg, 1716) show wings set obliquely, and two continental theatres of the period are known to have employed angled wings: the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice and (though the wings did not slide) the first Schouwburg in Amsterdam. Better masking of the backstage was achieved in this manner, but the problems in figuring perspective, as Ferdinando Bibiena noted, were greatly increased. There appears to be no evidence that English theatres of the 17th and 18th centuries had wings set obliquely, and such an arrangement was rare even on the ContinentGoogle Scholar.

12 The proclamation cited is in the Public Record Office, LC 7/3, dated 1673; previous similar documents make no mention of the “vast Engines.”

13 I am indebted to Faith Fujimura, who drafted preliminary plans, and Karl J. R. Wylie, who made the final drawings reproduced here; both worked from my rough plans and gave me considerable help on architectural problems. For the model I must accept sole responsibility.