Style for Actors

Ch.7 Restoration’s Relatives (Georgian)

The population of England nearly doubled between 1650 and 1800. The group that enojoyed the greatest expansion was the Middle Class; powerful citizens, who were neither upstairs nor down. They embraced some aristocratic and some lower class virtues, struggling to design their place in society.

Plays of this period are often called comedies of goodwill. Most scripts are cloyingly sentimental, but two writers represent the period's true strengths: Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Oliver Goldsmith both react against the treacle and in so doing reflect the best of the times.

In 1772, Goldsmith published his famous Essay on Theatre which decries sentiment and cries out for ‘laughing comedy’. He does more than criticize. The next year, he produced She Stoops to Conquer. This play had so little in common with others of the time that only through the influence of the powerful and popular Samuel Johnson did it get produced at all. Both Goldsmith's plays and Sheridan's place more emphasis on character than Restoration theatre, while retaining some of the biting wit. They identify the difference between real and feigned virtue. By our standards, there is plenty of sentiment left in both playwrights' work — goodness is inevitably rewarded and gentility supported.

Georgian Warm-Up

Zounds! We are big, with panniers, jabots, and wigs to the sky.
Egad! We are white, pale, padded and powdered.
Lud! We are wholesome, fresh and respectable.
Pshaw! Good riddance to the Restoration wickedness.
Heigh-ho! Welcome to the robust and proper Middle Class!
For Gad! We love our gadgets and gizmos!
Heyday! We want to know HOW things work, not why.
Tilly Nilly! We want plain, simple good speech.
Gadzooks! Leave behind your fancy highfalootin’ phrases.
Oh lordy! Our ideal state is Benevolence.
Tilly Tally! Your obedient servant tries never to be a thoughtless booby.
Harrumph! Let’s be cheerful and at least PRETEND to be kind.
Ya-Hooh! If you must say something mean, always add “present company excepted.”
Hail hearty! We love to go to the theatre to see our favorite stars!
Zooks! We cheer and shriek and applaud and guffaw!
By the Lud! We live in the age of Enlightenment!
Pish Posh! We’re full of life and climbing up the hill!
Tish tosh! We’ll fill you with Comedy of Goodwill!

The Georgian Interview

This is an audio recording of the ‘period personality’ featured in Chapter 8. Some of you may find you can relate better to this character by actually hearing his inflections and the way he times his ideas. It may also assist in providing examples of the kind of delivery that can work within Georgian style.

Georgian Merchant: Robert Barton, Interviewer: Andrew Barton