The Restoration and Eighteeth Centrury Drama Webproject

This is the home of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century Drama Project - a group effort of the students in English 132 to gather and present information about theatrical performances during this period: the actors, playwrights, theatres, audiences, critical reactions, and cultural contexts.

We will begin posting information on the following topics at the end of January 2001. Please check back often.

A map of London. A timeline . Please start here.

Theaters and Managers

  • Covent Garden
  • Drury Lane
  • Dorset Garden
  • Thomas Killigrew
  • William D'Avenant
  • John and Christopher Rich
  • Costumes
  • Set Design
  • Restoration Acting Style
  • Music
  • Women on the Stage
  • Restoration Audiences

    Actors and Actresses

  • Thomas Betterton
  • Elizabeth Barry
  • David Garrick
  • Colly Cibber
  • Ann Bracegirdle
  • Nell Gwynn
  • Charlotte Charke
  • Samuel Foote
  • Sarah Siddons
  • Anne Oldfield
  • Charles Macklin
  • Elizabeth Inchbald

    Playwrights

  • Aphra Behn
  • John Dryden
  • Thomas Southerne
  • Thomas Otway
  • George Villiers
  • William Congreve
  • William Wycherly
  • George Farquhar
  • Mary Pix
  • Susannah Centlivre
  • Henry Fielding
  • Joseph Addison
  • Richard Steele
  • John Gay
  • George Lillo
  • Oliver Goldsmith
  • Richard Brinsley Sheridan
  • Hannah Cowley

    Genres

  • Heroic Drama
  • Tragedy
  • Comedy of Manners
  • Sentimental Comedy
  • Ballad Opera
  • Afterpieces

    London Life

  • Coffee and Chocolate Houses
  • Map of the City
  • The South Sea Bubble
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Inns and Lodgings
  • Vauxhall and Ranleagh Gardens

    Criticism

  • Jeremy Collier
  • Thomas Rymer
  • Samuel Pepys
  • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
  • Covent Garden Journal
  • Alexander Pope
  • Elizabeth Inchbald
  • Samuel Johnson

    Legislation affecting drama

  • 1737 Act Regulating Theatres