Restoration Plays and Players: An Introduction

Abstract

David Roberts. Restoration Plays and Players: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 260 pp. $27.99 USD, £17.99 (paperback). ISBN 9781107617971.David Roberts' Restoration Plays and Players: An Introduction is a delightful read. It is highly informative and disarmingly accessible in equal measure. Each of the nine chapters seamlessly interweaves the two traditionally opposing approaches to Restoration drama: theatre history and literary criticism. Not only does Roberts' engaging style help to disentangle complex political and ethical issues that surround the plays, but the large and wide-ranging number of allusions to contemporary entertainment (e.g., Roberts compares the comedian James Nokes to Rowan Atkinson) render the theatrical practices during the Restoration more tangible and immediate. This way of juxtaposing the past with the present, no doubt honed by decades of teaching Restoration theatre from Osaka to Oxford, is not simply a device to make the subject matter seemingly more relevant. This approach crucially goes hand in hand with Roberts' larger objective of encouraging scholarship beyond the confines of the established canon by seeing how, through revivals and adaptations, Restoration drama has influenced the modern stage. Restoration Plays and Players is an exemplary introduction as it represents a happy marriage between a compelling learning experience and scholarly rigor.The first two chapters of the book form what are described as "complementary chapters" on "parallel trajectories for Restoration plays" (viii). Specifically, the first chapter opens with an in-depth analysis of what is often considered the epitome of Restoration drama, William Congreve's The Way of the World (1700), as a way of guiding the reader through the intricate political and cultural concerns that influenced the period's drama. The chapter then borrows Robert D. Hume's five-part division of late seventeenth-century dramatic history and shows how the major plays of the period, each of which is discussed in the book, fit into each category. The list, albeit brief, nevertheless comprises what Roberts aptly describes as "Regime change theatre" (1). The second chapter consists of a brief survey of the major practical theatrical innovations during the late seventeenth century, followed by an account of the "life cycle of the play" which delineates the process by which Restoration plays were developed, produced, and revived. Although, as Roberts confesses, topics such as "Actors," "Re- hearsals," and "Audiences" are repeated in subsequent chapters, the two initial chapters together constitute the introductory part of the book and clearly set the agenda for what follows. …