The Norwich Company of Comedians was an acting company based in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, East Anglia, during the 18th and 19th centuries. They used to perform on what was known as the Norwich Theatre Circuit, which consisted of an annual tour of six theatres. They were a professional, respected and comfortably-off band with better than average wages and popular headquarters at the White Swan inn. The company was treated with deference in every town it visited. Unusually, a good relationship had matured between the Norwich Theatre manager and the local

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

s, who under normal circumstances had little time for players. At some towns, when the season was drawing to a close, the

town clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a Tow ...

would even send a note of congratulation to the troupe; and by 1804, relations had progressed along such a friendly path that Lord Chedworth was recorded as having left legacies of between £13,000 and £14,000 to members of the company. Norwich owed its place among the top five provincial circuits in England to its dramatic tradition.

White Swan Inn

The White Swan Inn, near St. Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich, was the company's permanent home from 1731 to 1757 and soon became known as the White Swan Playhouse. The first reference to the group of actors who were to form the main part of the Norwich circuit appears in 1726. For a decade, they went by the name of "The

Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1675 by Charles II of England for Henry FitzRoy, his second illegitimate son by the Duchess of Cleveland. The most notable duke of Grafton was Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke ...

's Servants", a

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of the company in the early eighteenth century. In 1736 they assumed the cumbersome title of "The Norwich Company of Comedians, Servants to His Grace, the Duke of Grafton, Lord Chamberlain to His Majesty's Household".

Plays

The Company were careful to perform plays soon after their London première, reinforcing their professionalism by presenting the most recent plays possible. For instance, ''King Charles I'' by William Harvard appeared in the same month in London and Norwich in 1737. John Gay's ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...

'', new to London in January 1728, was performed to Norwich audiences three months later, and taken soon after to Bury St Edmunds,

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

and Ipswich.

Thomas Ivory

The era of prosperity began in 1758 when local architect

Thomas Ivory Thomas Ivory (1709–1779) was an English builder and architect, active in Norwich. Life Ivory was born in 1709. His early years and education remain obscure. His earliest recorded large commission was in his capacity as a builder and timber m ...

became proprietor of the circuit. In 1758, Ivory built Norwich its first proper theatre, a miniature

Drury Lane Theatre 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 Drur ...

Actors

* Benjamin Plim Bellamy *George Bennett, father of

George John Bennett George John Bennett (1800–1879) was for nearly 40 years a Shakespearian actor on the London stage, notably Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Life He was the son of the eminent popular comedian George Bennett anHarriet Morland, the daughter of ...

*Harriet Bennett (née Morland) *Robert Drury (1713–1741), uncle of

Joseph Drury Joseph Drury (11 February 1750 – 9 January 1834) was Head Master of Harrow School 1785–1805, and first of a dynasty of Drurys to teach at Harrow. Life Drury was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Admitted to Trini ...

, headmaster of Harrow School *John Saville Faucit, father of

Helena Faucit Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress. Early life Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a ...

*Harriet Faucit (1789–1857), mother of

References

*Elizabeth Grice, Rogues and Vagabonds, or the Actors' Road to Respectability; Terence Dalton Limited, Lavenham, Suffolk, 1997, {{DEFAULTSORT:Norwich Company Of Comedians Theatre companies in England