Advancing theatre: theatrical experiments, networks, communities, and the Independent Theatre Society

Thesis

The 1890s were marked by intense dramatic debate, activity, and innovation. Accounts of this important period in British drama largely focus on increasing psychological and social realism onstage as well as theatre’s grappling with ‘the woman question’. This thesis seeks to challenge this dominant conception of ‘avant-garde’ theatrical culture by offering a fuller account of 1890s dramatic experimentation across a variety of British theatrical communities and genres. It uses the Independent Theatre Society, the non-commercial subscription theatre organisation, as a methodological node to achieve this aim.

The first substantive chapter of this thesis focuses on mapping and characterising the various inter-relations and interactions between Independent Theatre Society members and associates. It argues for a recognition of the more fluid dynamic between so-called ‘mainstream’ theatre and the ‘avant-garde’ and an appreciation of the period’s complex continuum of theatre making. Building upon these observations, subsequent chapters examine the types of multifaceted and critically under-considered dramatic innovations that permeated through 1890s British theatrical culture. Each chapter is organised around a central issue or impulse that was filtering through contemporary theatrical networks. The aim of each chapter is to illustrate the various types of underappreciated innovations and debates that had entered theatrical discourse and analyse how such experiments not only influenced each other but also intersected and interacted with the financial and cultural considerations of a range of theatre and performance environments. 

As a whole, this thesis seeks to challenge established narratives about British theatrical culture in the 1890s and by extension the birth of modern theatre. By foregrounding the fluidity and heterogeneity of experimental theatrical culture, this thesis seeks to offer a more contemporary vision of late-nineteenth-century theatre – one in which, as we see in today, experimental or artistic productions are often deeply intertwined in more ‘mainstream’ media ecology.

Authors: O'Nunain, RE

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zb9xvn0a0
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English