Articles

1. Crime and Theatre in England and Wales, 1800-1939: An Exploratory Study

   Bernard Ince

   Here we have adopted a narrative and statistical mode of analysis focusing on two opposing categories of theatre-related crime committed by males and females over the period 1800 to 1939 in England and Wales. These we collectively refer to as “theatrical crime”. In the first category were members of the theatrical profession (actors, actresses, music hall artists, theatrical managers and miscellaneous workers, agents etc.). In the second were a diverse group of offenders, some loosely connected with the theatre but who may have possessed knowledge of theatrical affairs, while others were in occupations unconnected with the theatre. In the former group, offense types were predictably as varied as might be found in other occupations within the population as a whole. By contrast, in the latter category, the sole intent was to defraud those who, directly or indirectly, supported the theatrical enterprise. Of the numerous questions posed by this research, we have focused on determining: (1) if a specific crime linked to the theatrical profession existed; (2) if theatrical crime patterns were influenced by offenders’ age and/or by economic factors, and (3) to what extent theatrical crime mapped onto national crime patterns.

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2. "The Pantomimes of an Englishman": The Danish Court Theatre Performances of James Price, 1801-1803

   Ellen Karoline Gjervan

   In Theatre Notebook Vol. 1, No. 8, 1947, the editors stated that: “in a brochure sent us by the Theatre Museum of Denmark we read of the pantomimes of an Englishman, James Price, of whom we would like to learn more, being produced at the Court Theatre.” (Rosenfeld and Southern 101). This is a rather belated attempt to answer their enquiry. In this article, I will shed some light on James Price as well as the pantomimes he produced at the Court Theatre in Copenhagen in the spring of 1801 and during the winter of 1802-03.

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3. Looking into the Drama's Levée for Clues to Madame Vestris's Reception Across the Atlantic

   Purificación Ribes Traver

   The present essay looks into The Drama’s Levée, the last burletta performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre before its manager and main actress, Madame Vestris, embarked on her American tour in 1838. The piece critically reviews London’s last theatrical season and announces madame Vestris’s departure for the United States. Close attention to its content and tone uncovers its audience’s horizon of expectations, and, at the same time, discloses some of the likely reasons for the hostile reception ‘The Queen of the Olympic’ would meet in The United States. The analysis sets the text in its geographical, ideological, cultural and theatrical context, and takes advantage of the valuable information its varied paratexts provide about its diverse contexts of reception.

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