12 November 2007
The British Stage in Miniature 1821-1840
Hodgson’s Juvenile Drama - exhibition at Guildhall Library from
29 October 2007 – 2 February 2008
The English toy theatre – or juvenile drama – far from being
merely a child’s plaything, offers a unique record of the actors,
scenery, costumes and spectacle experienced by the London
play-going public of the early nineteenth century. As a barometer
of popular taste of the period it is unsurpassed and well deserves
its 1820s epithet of “The British Stage in Miniature”.
The exhibition at Guildhall Library will be arranged by theatre,
with Covent Garden, Drury Lane, The Coburg (today’s Old Vic), and
Astley’s Amphitheatre each represented in the exhibition as a
miniature stage.
Other exhibits will include a unique surviving
early-nineteenth-century toy theatre, original watercolour drawings
by Robert Cruikshank, playbills, theatrical portraits, and plates
of characters and scenes from public and private collections, most
of which have never been exhibited before.
The exhibition will be supplemented by a grand toy theatre
performance of Life in London on 30 November.
Although the English toy theatre dates back to 1811, it was not
until the emergence of Hodgson & Co as theatrical print
publishers in 1821 that it became a practical toy.
In Hodgson’s hands, this diminutive art form, hitherto
consisting merely of a few printed souvenir sheets serving as a
memento of a play, was transformed into paper productions of epic
proportions. These could run to as many as 32 plates of characters
and up to 29 scenes, which were then supplemented by vast
processions, grand cars and battle scenes. All of which were
designed to be hand coloured, pasted on cardboard, cut out and
performed on wooden toy theatres as a drawing room
entertainment.
Hodgson & Co’s repertoire was dominated by historical dramas
and exotic epics with far-flung settings, although Shakespeare was
not neglected and contemporary life was vividly represented by Life
in London. This was the stage adaptation of Pierce Egan’s novel
which, with its scenes of high-life and low-life, caused a
sensation when presented as a “Burletta of Fun, Frolic, Fashion and
Flash!” at the Adelphi Theatre in 1822.
Ends
For further details and jpeg images for publicity please contact
Peter Ross, Guildhall Library on 020 7332 1869 or email
printedbooks.guildhall@cityoflondon.gov.uk