#victorian theatre

[keepthisholykiss]

In continuation of my thesis research I learned that queer Russian poet (Марина Цветаева) Marina Tsvetaeva’s favorite performer was Sarah Bernhardt. She became enthralled with her and this interest and mention of it are heavily attributed to early understanding of Tsvetaeva’s sexuality. We may never be able to watch Sarah Bernhadt’s Hamlet but I think this poem from Tsvetaeva portrays everything we need to know about what that portrayal may have been like, or at the very least, what emotions it evoked. Dialogue Between Hamlet and His Conscience

—  She's — She's in the riverbed, in algae And weeds...She went to them To sleep, — but there's no sleep there, either! — But she's the one I loved Like forty thousand brothers Couldn't love!                      — Hamlet! She's in the riverbed, in algae: Algae! . . And her last garland Has surfaced in the logs by the bank... — But she's the one I loved Like forty thousand...                      — Less, Even so, than a single lover. She's in the riverbed, in algae. — But she's the one —                                       I loved??

#hamlet #shakespeare #victorian theatre #marina tsvetaeva #queer literature #sarah bernhardt

[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt and Anne Blake

Part I: Intriguing, But Less Than Ground-Breaking [A recording of this play is available at Librivox] John Westland Marston’s 1852 play, “Anne Blake” makes me glad I’m writing a blog. As you may have noticed, researching Anna Cora Mowatt’s acting roles has caused me to develop a taste for mid-19th-century popular drama. I found this script to be a wonderful example of the genre. If you too find…

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#anna cora mowatt #Anne Blake #charles dickens #E. L. Blanchard #Edward Bulwer-Lytton #John Westland Marston #Robert Browning #The Lady Actress #theater history #theatre history #Victorian Actress #Victorian Literature #Victorian theater #victorian theatre #William Macready

[mariocki]

Play 19: Granny by Lucy Whitehead

First published: c. 1890

Quote: "Oscar! What does this mean? Why are you an old woman? Oh whatever are you doing?" (Maud)

Notes: one of hundreds of single-act plays, farces, and melodramas published by Abel Heywood & Son's in the late 19th and early 20th century, intended for amateur production or for entertainment in the home. There's precious little information available about the works or authors of these plays, but I found a single academic reference suggesting an 1890 publication for Granny. That fits with the style and the tone of this brief comedy, a predictable tale of young lovers and miscommunication, crossdressing, and potatoes. There isn't much here, though it is valuable as an artefact of its time and as a comparatively rare example of women's writing for the stage in this era (albeit not the professional stage). With its blustering, bellowing colonel and complaining, busybody 'country woman', this was almost certainly written with a middle class audience in mind.

Read: for the first time.

#100plays #granny #lucy whitehead #1890 #victorian theatre #amateur dramatics #abel heywood and son's #i own a couple of the Heywood pamphlets (they're not really long enough to be called books) #and they're all fairly similar; silly little vignettes that may clumsily attempt to teach a moral lesson (Heywood snr had been a radical #and later a liberal with largely failed political ambitions‚ who turned instead to publishing) but are generally more concerned with #providing a brief farce that can end in (presumed) bouts of laughter. 1890 was a real Moment in theatre history as the well made play #began to lose favour to the first signs of true modern theatre; the era of Ibsen and Shaw was approaching and soon theatre #audiences would demand a lot more from their shows than a little silliness and perhaps a song. #am dram would keep works like these in business however‚ and there would always be a home for short asides in the music halls and #vaudeville. and it's not like vaudeville was going anywhere... aheh...hrm

[sofiaivanovna]

Helena Modrzejewska as Ophelia, (1871)

#theatre #19th century #photography #victorian era

[eyesaremosaics]

Stage actress Maude Adams, the LGBTQ icon who (allegedly) was the inspiration for Peter Pan. Though she was never publicly “out”, she never married, and had many close female friendships throughout her life. Including Ethel Barrymore (Yes from the illustrious Barrymore family—the most recent being Drew).

Maude was very popular with female audiences, and due to her disinterest in men, her chastity helped her to maintain a pristine reputation throughout her life. She was often rumored to be engaged to men as an effective “smokescreen” to shield her from rumors of lesbianism. None of these relationships were anything more than just that—rumors.

After playing Peter Pan on stage, Maude reached monumental levels of stardom for the time, which made having a private life very challenging. She lived with her “secretary” until she died, and both were buried on the same plot.

Maude was a serious actress, who claimed she would never marry due to her dedication to her craft. This was a common excuse for closeted gays in the Victorian era. Her fearlessness, and paradoxically childlike innocence are inspiring to me. She lived a colorful life, and is definitely worth looking into.

#lgbtq #maude adams #theatre #stage #actress #stage actress #victorian woman #lgbtq history #forgotten history #peter pan

[lonelylittledot]

I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING THERE

#jack kelly #jack dawson #jack dawkins #broadway #musical theatre #newsies #jeremy jordan #titanic #titanic 1997 #leonardo dicaprio #the artful dodger #the artful dodger 2023 #thomas brodie sangster #venn diagram #parallels #victorian #edwardian

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Death and the Lady

#Death and the Lady #relationaship goals #goals #brodway #Ziegfeld girl #vintage #victorian style #flirting with death #vintage photography #photography #theatre #tales #memento mori

[sweeneytoddst]

A collection of Sweeneys for ya. I wanted to draw the lot of them together in a lineup again for a while. Last time I only drew four, so I added 4 more Sweeneys to whom I like or have seen. Enjoy ❤️💈🩸🔪🥧✨️

In order: Tod Slaughter - 1936 Len Cariou - 1979 George Hearn - 1982 Ray Winstone - 2006, BBC Film Johnny Depp - 2007, Tim Burton Film Gregg Edelman - 2008, Drury Lane Micah Cone - 2022, sierrastages Josh Groban - 2023 Revival, sweeneytoddbway

#sweeney todd #sweeney todd the demon barber of fleet street #my art #barber #musical #straight razor #musical theatre #stephen sondheim #victorian #horror #tim burton sweeney todd #tim burton #johnny depp #tod slaughter #len cariou #george hearn #ray winstone #gregg edelman #josh groban #sweeney todd 2007 #sweeney todd 2023 #sweeney todd revival #sweeney todd broadway #sweeney todd musical #theatre kid #broadway

[victoriansquirrel]

Went to the Sargent and Fashion exhibition last week and wasn’t prepared for this. Excuse the shoddy quality, I was too excited

#costuming #costume design #shakespeare #costume #1890s #1890s fashion #victorian #victorian fashion #aestheticism #pre raphaelite #lady macbeth #ellen terry #art history #fashion history #theatre history #john singer sargent #tate britain

[mcversipellis]

“But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart—by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute.”

― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

Insta @mchernovart

#illustration #book illustration #vintage illustration #book art #vintage aesthetic #quotes #vintage #books #reading #victorian #if we were villains #iwwv aesthetic #iwwv #fanart #dark academia #theatre #ілюстрація #james farrow #if we were villains fan art #shakespeare #macbeth #ілюстраториукраїни

[dixiaaa]

This veil is about 3 meters! 🫣 It’s soooo loooong. I made it with high quality white tulle. Additionally, I trimmed it with a decorative ribbon in white with a silver thread. 🥰

📷: @themrurk

#christine daae #phantom of the opera #dixie #singer #actress #cosplay #cosplayer #upiór w operze #costume #photo #wedding dress #dress #victorian #bustle #phantom london #phantom broadway #theatre #musical #phantom of the opera cosplay #christine daae cosplay

[keepthisholykiss]

On Marina Tsvetaeva and Hamlet

Ophelia: in Defence of the Queen

Prince, let’s have no more disturbing these wormy flower-beds. Look at the living rose, and think of a woman snatching a single day — from the few left to her.

Prince Hamlet, you defile the Queen’s womb. Enough. A virgin cannot judge passion. Don’t you know Phaedra was more guilty, yet men still sing of her,

and will go on singing. You, with your blend of chalk and rot, you bony scandalmonger, how can you ever understand a fever in the blood?

Beware, if you continue... I can rise up through flagstones into the grand bed-chamber of so much sweetness, I myself, to defend her. I myself — your own undying passion!

Ophelia to Hamlet

Hamlet, doubled up in thought, a sickly shadow beneath his halo of knowledge and doubts … (When was that play published?) I’m immune to your abuse and emptiness, spawned from your festering, adolescent den, you have already lain on this breast like some weighty chronicle. Chaste woman hater! (Why did they indulge this absurd chosen one?) Did you once think about what was plucked from the small flower garden of madness … Roses? … But – shh – that is surely the future. We pick them and new ones grow. Did the roses ever betray us? Did they betray lovers and were there then less of them? Having been fulfilled, having been fragrant you will drown, never existed … But you will remember us, at that moment when over the flowing river chronicle Hamlet with all your intensity you come once more into being.

------

I know I just posted about another Marina Tsvetaeva Hamlet poem but I just discovered these moments later. As I posted before Tsvetaeva was a queer Russian poet that found inspiration in Sarah Bernhardt. Her work is (in my opinion) largely undertranslated and needs more attention. She is one of many writers I am covering in my upcoming master’s thesis and someone that I believe everyone should read the work of. Please enjoy these additional poems and remember to thank your local dead lesbian poet for their art.

#lesbian literature #hamlet #shakespeare #victorian theatre #sarah bernhardt #marina tsvetaeva #russian poetry #michelle does grad school

[theladyactress]

The Wealth of Walter Watts vs. the Poverty of Bob Cratchit

The Wealth of Walter Watts vs. the Poverty of Bob Cratchit

Part I: The Character of Clerks [An abbreviated video version of this essay is available for viewing on Youtube] As I am sure may be true for you, Dear Reader, watching adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is part of my yearly Yuletide routine.  While scouring the internet in search of new or obscure versions of the classic, I stumbled onto the perennial debate of “Is Bob Cratchit…

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#A Christmas Carol #Bob Crachit #charles dickens #edward stirling #Henry Spicer #Marylebone Theater #Royal Olympic Theater #theater history #theatre history #Victorian clerks #Victorian Literature #Victorian theater #victorian theatre #Walter Watts

[mariocki]

Mrs. Rattenshaw: 'Tisn't much I've got to offer you, but such as it is, you're heartily welcome. Will it be poached eggs, now, and a bit of bacon, or fried ham, and potatoes in their jackets?

Maud: Oh, poached eggs I think, thank you; don't you papa? [Aside to him] I don't know what she means by potatoes in their jackets.

-

Lucy Whitehead, Granny (c.1890)

#100plays #granny #lucy whitehead #1890 #victorian theatre #theatre quotes #one of a multitude of single act plays published by Manchester based Abel Heywood & Sons in the second half of the 19th century #the later victorian era saw an explosive growth in work for the theatre as rail expansion and electric street lighting made theatres more #accessible to the masses and historical restrictions on licensing began to be relaxed. but the boom wasn't restricted to the theatres #themselves; printworks had advanced too‚ with mass publications now more easily (and cheaply) achieved. enter Abel Heywoods‚ who seized on #the market for producing scripts that could be enacted in the home (as parlour entertainments) or were suitable for amateur dramatics #groups to stage: the Heywood pamphlets all state clearly that no fee was required for any group wishing to stage a performance of one of #their licensed works‚ so long as any announcements‚ advertisements or programmes carried the name Abel Heywood and that of the specific #author of the piece. thus hundreds of one act plays‚ mainly farce or melodrama‚ sometimes anonymously published‚ and with such hair raising #titles as: Mrs. Tubbin's Cat; A Learned Woman (a farce...); The Lost Umbrella; Mixed Pickles; The Haunted Bedroom; and personal favourite #In Slippery Places. looking through the catalogue of titles (every Heywood pamphlet carried a long list of available plays) some common #themes appear. there are the temperance plays (a popular issue of social concern in the mid to late 1800s)‚ there are 'rural dialogues'‚ #multiple mentions of a 'screaming farce' and‚ regrettably‚ a good deal of highly offensive racist titles (presumably minstrel plays). #one positive‚ though‚ is the high number of female names attached to plays. whilst theatre was still a very difficult area for women to #break into as creators‚ the less competitive but high demand area of writing for mail order amateur dramatics proved a place where women #like Lucy Whitehead could be published and hopefully see their work performed. there isn't a great deal to Granny; a slight comic scene #in which one of a pair of star crossed lovers must disguise himself as an old lady (that english obsession with drag as comedy‚ apparently #it's always been popular) until an inevitable showdown with much silliness and shouting. Whitehead provides a comedy commoner #(another ancient theatre tradition) in the form of plain spoken Mrs Rattenshaw. I'll admit the line about jacket potatoes took me by #surprise; just one of those things‚ but the term is so familiar to me that it hadn't occurred to me that it would be alien to some. #a little digging hasn't provided much info on the original use of the phrase‚ but it would have been common enough in the UK by 1890 #when baked potatoes were in fact a very popular street food‚ sold by vendors across the country (10 tons a day in London per wiki!) #perhaps the joke here then is on fine lady Maud‚ a gentle dig at her posh upbringing but lack of worldliness? #perhaps. alas despite a lot of research I've found almost nothing out about Whitehead or the play‚ and only a single reference to its #having been published in 1890 (the Heywood pamphlets carry no details that can accurately date them‚ but 1890 certainly fits with the style

[saltavenegar]

and the dead stood in the doorway

Roxie—

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐔𝐏𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐘 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐒

#art #ghost quartet #dave malloy #musical theatre #fanart #artist #digital art #horror #house of usher #grayscale #grey scale #victorian #aesthetic #dark #my art

[eviebane]

Just Crowley - part 8

part 7 | part 9

For those keeping up with progress on the mastercut, we are officially into season 2!! (Santa may indeed bring you it for Christmas 🎄)

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #just crowley series #good omens edit #hamlet #paris #victorian era #1800s #globe theatre