Eighteenth-century Brechtians : theatrical satire in the age of Walpole / Joel Schechter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schechter, Joel, 1947- author.

Series:

Exeter performance studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956--Influence.

Brecht, Bertolt.

Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956.

Political satire, English--History and criticism.

Political satire, English.

English drama--18th century--History and criticism.

English drama.

Theater--England--History--18th century.

Theater.

England.

History.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Political satire.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 276 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

18th century Brechtians

Place of Publication:

Exeter, UK : University of Exeter Press, 2016.

Summary:

Eighteenth-Century Brechtians is a collection of essays by a well-known author on comic and radical political theatre. It looks at stage satires by John Gay, Henry Fielding, George Farquhar, Charlotte Charke, David Garrick and their contemporaries through the lens of Brecht's theory and practice. Discussing the actor mutiny of 1733, theatre censorship, controversial plays and Fielding's forgery of an actor's biography, the book contends that some subversive Augustan and Georgian artists were early Brechtians. Reconstructions of lost episodes in theatre history include a recounting of Fielding's last days as a stage satirist before his Little Haymarket theatre was closed, Charlotte Charke's performances as Macheath and Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera and the 1740 staging of Jonathan Swift's Polite Conversation on a double bill with Shakespeare's Merry Wives ... Some documents in this collection offer another perspective on theatre history by employing fiction - speculative reconstructions of Georgian theatre events for which historical facts are scarce or missing.

Contents:

1 Eighteenth-Century Brechtians 7

2 Cross-Dressing Soldiers and Anti-Militarist Rakes 34

3 Polly Peachum and the New Naiveté 42

4 Pirates and Polly: A Lost Messingkauf Dialogue 53

5 The Duchess of Queensberry Becomes Polly Peachum 55

6 Macheath Our Contemporary 62

7 Swift in Hollywood: Another Messingkauf Dialogue 65

8 Swift's Polite Conversation with Falstaff 66

9 Henry Fielding, Brechtian Before Brecht 75

10 Fielding's London Merchant, and Lillo's 114

11 Literarization of Fielding's Plays 123

12 Tom Thumb Jones, Child Actress 126

13 A World on Fire 131

14 Fielding's Cibber Letters: Counterfeit Wit, Scurrility and Cartels 134

15 Bertolt Brecht Writes The Beggar's Opera, Fielding Rewrites Polly 148

16 Stage Mutineers 169

17 Charlotte Charke's Tit for Tat; or Comedy and Tragedy at War: A Lost Play Recovered? 209

18 Mrs Charke Escapes Hanging 216

19 Garrick and Swift's School for Scandal-With a Digression on Yoko Ono 219

20 Brecht Praises Garrick's Hamlet 231

21 A Portrait of the Artists as Beggar's Opera Disciples-Including David Garrick, Epic Actor 237

22 Walpole in America 251

23 The Future of Eighteenth-Century Brechtiana: Polly Exonerated 256

24 Conclusion: The Future Promise of an Earlier Age 258.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-269) and index.

ISBN:

9780859899970

0859899977

OCLC:

917373649