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The Contrivances
''The Contrivances'' is a 1715 comedy play by the British writer Henry Carey. A farce, it produced was an afterpiece to follow on from a revival of ''Bonduca''. The original Drury Lane cast included Henry Norris as Argus, James Quin as Rovewell, Joe Miller as Robin, Richard Cross as Constable and Mary Willis Mary Willis was a British stage actress of the eighteenth century. She was the daughter of the actress Elizabeth Willis and sometimes appeared alongside her billed as Miss Willis. Like her mother she spent a number of years in the company at th ... as Arethusa.Van Lennep p.364 References Bibliography * Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Van Lennep, W. ''The London Stage, 1660-1800: Volume Two, 1700-1729''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960. 1715 plays West End plays Plays by Henry Carey Comedy plays {{1710s-play-stub ...
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Henry Carey (writer)
Henry Carey (c. 26 August 1687 – 5 October 1743) was an English poet, dramatist and songwriter. He is remembered as an anti- Walpolean satirist and also as a patriot. Several of his melodies continue to be sung today, and he was widely praised in the generation after his death. Because he worked in anonymity, selling his own compositions to others to pass off as their own, contemporary scholarship can only be certain of some of his poetry, and a great deal of the music he composed was written for theatrical incidental music. However, under his own name and hand, he was a prolific songwriter and balladeer, and he wrote the lyrics for almost all of these songs. Further, he wrote numerous operas and plays. His life is illustrative of the professional author in the early 18th century. Without inheritance or title or governmental position, he wrote for all of the remunerative venues, and yet he also kept his own political point of view and was able to score significant points ...
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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 ...
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Comedy Play
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, the ''Divine Comedy'' (Italian: ''Divina Commedia''). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. The predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play insti ...
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Farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense; satire, parody, and mockery of real-life situations, people, events, and interactions; unlikely and humorous instances of miscommunication; ludicrous, improbable, and exaggerated characters; and broadly stylized performances. Genre Despite involving absurd situations and characters, the genre generally maintains at least a slight degree of realism and narrative continuity within the context of the irrational or ludicrous situations, often distinguishing it from completely absurdist or fantastical genres. Farces are often episodic or short in duration, often being set in one specific location where all events occur. Farces have historically been performed for the stage and film. Historical context The term ''farce'' is deri ...
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Afterpiece
An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, opera or pantomime was a popular theatrical form in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was presented to lighten the five-act tragedy that was commonly performed. A similar piece preceding the main attraction is a curtain raiser. An example is ''The Padlock'' by Charles Dibdin, first performed in London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ... in 1768. Notes Theatrical genres Opera genres {{Theat-stub ...
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Bonduca
''Bonduca'' is a Jacobean tragi-comedy in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, generally judged by scholars to be the work of John Fletcher alone. It was acted by the King's Men c. 1613, and published in 1647 in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio. The play is a dramatisation of the story of Boudica, the British Celtic queen who led a revolt against the Romans in 60–61 AD. Critics, however, have classified ''Bonduca'' as a "historical romance," rather than a history play comparable to those written by Shakespeare; historical accuracy was not Fletcher's primary concern. The play constantly shifts between comedy and tragedy. The principal hero is not Bonduca herself, but rather Caratach (Caratacus), who is anachronistically depicted as her general, despite having been exiled from Britain almost a decade prior. Nennius, the legendary British opponent of Julius Caesar, is also included. However, most of the action takes place from the Roman point of view, centring on the Rom ...
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Henry Norris (actor)
Henry Norris may refer to: *Sir Henry Norris (courtier) (c. 1482–1536), Groom of the Stool to Henry VIII, alleged lover of Anne Boleyn *Sir Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys (1525–1601), Elizabethan courtier *Henry Norreys (colonel-general) (1554–1599), English soldier and son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys *Henry Handley Norris (1771–1850), English High Church clergyman *Sir Henry Norris (businessman) (1865–1934), British businessman, football chairman and politician *Henry Norris (engineer) (1816–1878), British civil engineer See also *Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957), US astronomer *Norris (other) *Norreys Norreys (also spelt Norris) may refer to various members of, or estates belonging to, a landed family chiefly seated in the English counties of Berkshire and Lancashire and the Irish county of Cork. Famous family members * Baron Norreys of Rycote ...
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James Quin
James Quin (24 February 1693 – 21 January 1766) was an English actor of Irish descent. Life Quin was born in King Street, Covent Garden, London, an illegitimate son of James Quin, an Irish-born barrister, and his partner (whom he apparently never lawfully married) Mrs. Grinsell. He was the grandson of Mark Quin, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1667–8. William Whitshed, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was his first cousin. He was educated in Dublin, and probably spent some time at Trinity College, Dublin. His grandfather, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who caused a sensation by committing suicide in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin in 1674, supposedly because of his wife's infidelity, was one of the richest men in Dublin. James unsuccessfully claimed a share of the family fortune,Sturgeon, Sinéad "Quin, James" ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' but he could not prove that his parents had been lawfully married, since his mother had a previous husband who was still alive. Soon after his fathe ...
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Joe Miller (actor)
Joseph Miller (1684 – 15 August 1738) was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's ''Committee'' at Drury Lane in 1709 as Teague. Trinculo in '' The Tempest'', the First Grave-digger in ''Hamlet'' and Marplot in Susanna Centlivre's ''The Busybody'', were among his many favourite parts. He is said to have been a friend of Hogarth. In 1715 he appeared on bills promoting a performance on the last day of April, where he played Young Clincher in Farquhar's comedy, ''The Constant Couple''. On 25 April 1717 he played Sir Joseph Whittol in William Congreve's "Old Batchelor". Tickets for this performance were adorned by a design by William Hogarth showing the scene where Whittol's friend Captain Bluffe is kicked by Sharper whilst his friend Bellmour tries to pull him away. This is described as a "very valuable engraving" in 1868. This ticket design was used for Joe Millers benefit performance on 13 April 1738. In "vacation periods" between working at ...
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Richard Cross (actor)
Richard Cross was a British stage actor of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. It is probable that he began his career at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin before moving to London in 1700. It is also likely he was the brother of Letitia Cross. From 1710 to 1724 he appeared at the Drury Lane with a brief period at the Queen's Theatre in Haymarket.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.66 The actor also named Richard Cross was likely to have been his son. Selected roles * Charino in ''Love Makes a Man'' by Colley Cibber (1700) * Major Bombard in ''The Old Mode and the New'' by Thomas d'Urfey (1703) * Salathiel in ''Farewell Folly'' by Peter Motteux (1705) * Sir Hary Atall in ''The Double Gallant'' by Colley Cibber Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling ... (1707) * Slouch in ''T ...
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Mary Willis
Mary Willis was a British stage actress of the eighteenth century. She was the daughter of the actress Elizabeth Willis and sometimes appeared alongside her billed as Miss Willis. Like her mother she spent a number of years in the company at the Drury Lane Theatre but also appeared at the Haymarket Theatre and Lincoln's Inn Fields. Debuting as a child actor in 1701, she mainly appeared in revivals but occasionally acted in new plays. Her last known stage appearance was in York in 1734 when she played Selima in Nicholas Rowe's ''Tamerlane''.Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.155 Selected roles * Manselia in ''Love's Victim'' by Charles Gildon (1701) * Angelina in ''Love Makes a Man'' by Colley Cibber (1709) * Grace in ''Bartholomew Fair'' by Ben Jonson (1710) * Peggy in ''The London Cuckolds'' by Edward Ravenscroft (1710) * Alinda in '' The Pilgrim'' by John Fletcher (1710) * Mrs Christian in '' Sir Martin Marall'' by John Dryden (1710) * Franchibel in '' The Villain'' by Thomas Po ...
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1715 Plays
Events For dates within Great Britain and the British Empire, as well as in the Russian Empire, the "old style" Julian calendar was used in 1715, and can be converted to the "new style" Gregorian calendar (adopted in the British Empire in 1752 and in Russia in 1923) by adding 11 days. January–March * January 13 – A fire in London, described by some as the worst since the Great Fire of London (1666) almost 50 years earlier, starts on Thames Street, London, Thames Street when fireworks prematurely explode "in the house of Mr. Walker, an oil man"; more than 100 houses are consumed in the blaze, which continues over to Great Tower Street, Tower Street before it is controlled. * January 22 – 1715 British general election, Voting begins for the British House of Commons and continues for the next 46 days in different constituencies on different days. * February 11 – Tuscarora War: The Tuscarora and their allies sign a peace treaty with the Province of ...
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