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The Apprentice (1756)
''The Apprentice'' is a 1756 afterpiece by Irish dramatist Arthur Murphy. This two-act farce, which was Murphy's first play, satirized London's amateur spouting clubs. Like George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham's ''The Rehearsal'' (1671), the play relies, for much of its humor, on impersonation and personal satire in the acting. Performance history The farce was first performed on January 2, 1756 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr .... From its premier until 1800, ''The Apprentice'' was performed 223 times. Comedian and pantomimist Henry Woodward first performed the title character, Dick, and remained popular in the part for years. Later in the century, John Bannister took on the part. Plot Act I introduces Wingate, a character ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Murphy (writer)
Arthur Murphy (27 December 1727 – 18 June 1805), also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer. Biography Murphy was born at Cloonyquin, County Roscommon, Ireland, the son of Richard Murphy and Jane French. He studied at the Jesuit-run College of Saint-Omer, France, and was a gifted student of the Latin and Greek classics. He worked as an actor in the theatre, became a barrister, a journalist and finally a (not very original) playwright. He edited '' Gray's Inn Journal'' between 1752 and 1754. As Henry Thrale's oldest and dearest friend, he introduced Samuel Johnson to the Thrales in January 1765. He was appointed Commissioner of Bankruptcy in 1803. Murphy is known for his translations of Tacitus in 1753. They were still published in 1922. He wrote also three biographies: his 1792 '' An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson'', his 1762 '' Fielding's Works'' and his 1801 ''Life of David Garrick''. Murphy is thought to have coined the legal ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Villiers, 2nd Duke Of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros, (30 January 1628 – 16 April 1687) was an English statesman and poet. Life Early life George was the son of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I and Charles I, and his wife Katherine Manners. He was only seven months old when his father was assassinated at Portsmouth by the disaffected officer John Felton. Subsequently, he was brought up in the royal household of Charles I, together with his younger brother Francis and the King's own children, the future Charles II and James II. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained the degree of Master of Arts in 1642. For a time he was taught geometry by Thomas Hobbes. During this time he was also acquainted with George Aglionby, whose influence he later accredited with persuading him to follow the English King in the Civil War. Involvement in the English Civil War In the Civil War he fought for the King, and too ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rehearsal (play)
''The Rehearsal'' was a satire, satirical play aimed specifically at John Dryden and generally at the sententious and overly ambitious theatre of the English Restoration, Restoration tragedy. The play was first staged on 7 December 1671 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, Theatre Royal, and published anonymously in 1672, but it is certainly by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and others. Several people have been suggested as collaborators, including Samuel "Hudibras" Butler, Samuel Butler of ''Hudibras'' fame, Martin Clifford (writer), Martin Clifford, and Thomas Sprat, a Royal Society founder and later Bishop of Rochester. The play concerns a playwright named Bayes attempting to stage a play. The play he is going to put on is made up almost entirely of excerpts of existing ''heroic dramas''. The name "Bayes" indicates the poet laureate. The previous poet laureate had been William Davenant, and Davenant did stage spectacles and plays with exceptionally bombastic speeche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Woodward (English Actor)
Henry Woodward (2 October 1714 – 17 April 1777) was an English actor, among the most famous in his day for comedy roles. Early life and career Woodward was the eldest son of a tallow chandler in the borough of Southwark, London, and intended for his father's occupation. He attended Merchant Taylors' school from 1724 to 1728. After his father's failure in business, Woodward joined the troupe of John Rich, whose stage name was "Lun", at Lincoln's Inn Fields, playing in January 1729 in ''The Beggar's Opera'' as the Beggar and Ben Budge. During the season the performance was repeated fifteen times, and Woodward, thoroughly stage-struck, remained with Rich, who instructed him in harlequin and other characters. From October 1730 he appeared at Goodman's Fields Theatre, where he remained until 1736. After the company moved to Lincoln's Inn Fields, Woodward appeared in January 1737 as Harlequin Macheath in ''The Beggars' Pantomime, or the Contending Columbines''. The authorship of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bannister (actor)
John Bannister (12 May 1760 – 7 November 1836), (also called 'Jack' Bannister), English actor and theatre manager. The principal source for his life are his own ''Memoirs'', and as a leading performer his career is well documented. Biography John Bannister was born at Deptford. He was the son of Charles Bannister, also an actor. He first studied to be a painter, but soon took to the stage. His first formal appearance was at the Haymarket Theatre in 1778 as Dick in Arthur Murphy's farce ''The Apprentice''. The same year at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane he played in James Miller's version of Voltaire's ''Mahomet'' the part of Zaphna, which he had studied under David Garrick. The Palmira of the cast was Mrs Robinson ("Perdita"). His reputation increased with his personification of Don Whiskerando in ''The Critic'' in 1779, and he was well known in the character of Joseph Surface in ''The School for Scandal''. Bannister married Elizabeth Harper on 26 January 1783 who was a skil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1756 Plays
Events January–March * January 16 – The Treaty of Westminster is signed between Great Britain and Prussia, guaranteeing the neutrality of the Kingdom of Hanover, controlled by King George II of Great Britain. *February 7 – Guaraní War: The leader of the Guaraní rebels, Sepé Tiaraju, is killed in a skirmish with Spanish and Portuguese troops. * February 10 – The massacre of the Guaraní rebels in the Jesuit reduction of Caaibaté takes place in Brazil after their leader, Noicola Neenguiru, defies an ultimatum to surrender by 2:00 in the afternoon. On February 7, Neenguiru's predecessor Sepé Tiaraju has been killed in a brief skirmish. As two o'clock arrives, a combined force of Spanish and Portuguese troops makes an assault on the first of the Seven Towns established as Jesuit missions. Defending their town with cannons made out of bamboo, the Guaraní suffer 1,511 dead, compared to three Spaniards and two Portuguese killed in battle. * Febr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Plays
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Plays
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב maarav 'west' from עֶרֶב erev 'evening'. Navigation To go west using a compass for navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
