Richard Abel, Motor City Movie Culture, 1916-1925

Aldridge who achieved fame on English stages beginning in 1824. A notable exception to this omission lies in Bridget Orr’s superb chapter on empire and sentiment in which she describes the attendance and reaction of two African men at a performance of Thomas Southerne’s Oroonoko at Covent Garden in 1749. That the Handbook does not tackle every aspect of inquiry related to the Georgian theatre should not be read as a flaw. Rather, it is a testament to the Handbook’s important purpose of presenting a broad overview of the field, while boldly exposing new questions that still need to be answered. Every chapter in the Handbook illuminates the cultural centrality of the Georgian theatre and points to the continued relevance of its study. The contributors, a diverse, multinational, and interdisciplinary group, further reflect the exciting expansion of Georgian theatre scholarship. The Handbook is sure to inform and inspire literary scholars, historians, instructors, students and theatre practitioners.