Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

77
The dramatists of the eighteen-eighties were not a very
impressive or effective group, hut they did explore a number
of ways in which later authors were able to follow.
play and
The improvement in remuneration of playwrights was accompanied
by a higher social standing and increased influence within tte
theatrical profession. The reasons for this are unclear - perhaps
the English stage adopted French attitudes to playwrights along
with the texts and production standards that it tried to
imitate* When Boucicault worked for Charles Kean, he was
essentially a poorly-paid hack with no professional influence
in the adaptations he made: when he re-appeared at the Princess's
now managed by Vining, in 1865, he was author, director and
chief actor in the Irish plays which made his fortune in
America, Ireland and England. As if by way of reparation, his
own translation of Arrah-na-Pogue was acted
...at the Theatre de la Galete, Paris, for 140
nights, and received by the French press and
public with the same pleasure it aroused in
England, amd wherever in the world the English
language is spoken*
Boucicault *s success was that of an actor-manager who wrote
his own plays, and may be claimed as a success for the dramatist
*s profession* As a stage-manager he has been credited
with the introduction of the "box-set" into American theatres
and the initiation of tke touring company - known in America
as the "combination" or road company-* The balance of power
between actor, company manager and author must have varied
from company to company, possibly from platj to play within a
company* It seems reasonable to suppose that the touring
companies owed their origin to a desire on the part of the
play*s proprietors to have it- adequately represented in the
provinces by touring facsimiles of the metropolitan production
wherever the original oast did not tour. By the end of the
eighteen-ei unties this proceedure had for most purposes replaced
the "stock" system, and many commentators complained that the
old regime had given young actors the chance to develop a
versalility which could not be acquired by the constant repetition
of one performance.