Title: Eighteenth-century Brechtians : theatrical satire in the age of Walpole /
Authors: Schechter, Joel, 1947-
Year: 2015
Subjects: Brecht, Bertolt, Influence.; Political satire.; Theater England History
Abstract: Eighteenth-Century Brechtians is a collection of essays by a well-known author on comic and radical political theatre. It looks at stage satires by John Gay, Henry Fielding, George Farquhar, Charlotte Charke, David Garrick and their contemporaries through the lens of Brecht's theory and practice. Discussing the actor mutiny of 1733, theatre censorship, controversial plays and Fielding's forgery of an actor's biography, the book contends that some subversive Augustan and Georgian artists were early Brechtians. Reconstructions of lost episodes in theatre history include a recounting of Fielding's last days as a stage satirist before his Little Haymarket theatre was closed, Charlotte Charke's performances as Macheath and Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera and the 1740 staging of Jonathan Swift's Polite Conversation on a double bill with Shakespeare's Merry Wives ... Some documents in this collection offer another perspective on theatre history by employing fiction - speculative reconstructions of Georgian theatre events for which historical facts are scarce or missing.
Contents: Eighteenth-Century Brechtians -- Cross-Dressing Soldiers and Anti-Militarist Rakes -- Polly Peachum and the New Naiveté -- Pirates and Polly: A Lost Messingkauf Dialogue -- The Duchess of Queensberry Becomes Polly Peachum -- Macheath Our Contemporary -- Swift in Hollywood: Another Messingkauf Dialogue -- Swift's Polite Conversation with Falstaff -- Henry Fielding, Brechtian Before Brecht -- Fielding’s London Merchant, and Lillo's -- Literarization of Fielding's Plays -- Tom Thumb Jones, Child Actress -- A World on Fire -- Fielding’s Cibber Letters: Counterfeit Wit, Scurrility and Cartels -- Bertolt Brecht Writes The Beggar's Opera, Fielding Rewrites Polly -- Stage Mutineers -- Charlotte Charke's Tit for Tat; or Comedy and Tragedy at War: A Lost Play Recovered? -- Mrs Charke Escapes Hanging -- Garrick and Swift's School for Scandal--With a Digression on Yoko Ono -- Brecht Praises Garrick's Hamlet -- A Portrait of the Artists as Beggar's Opera Disciples--Including David Garrick, Epic Actor -- Walpole in America -- The Future of Eighteenth-Century Brechtiana: Polly Exonerated -- Conclusion: The Future Promise of an Earlier Age -- Eighteenth-Century Brechtians: A Timetable of Events.