The Busie Body
Thomas King as Marplot
Thomas King as Marplot (engraving, 1777). This image of King as Marplot is an example of the popularity of small engraved images of actors in character. Marplot sports a bandage or plaster on his nose, indicating his haplessness and past beatings. The prints also appeared in and help to advertise the collection Bell’s British Theatre.
From The Busie Body
Mr. Munden as Sir Francis Gripe in The Busy Body. De Wilde, pinxet.
Bell’s British Theatre, London: George Cawthorn, 1791. Folger: ART File M965.6 no.3.
The image shows Munden as Gripe waving the £100 that Sir George Airy has given him for the short audience with Miranda, and the inscription below includes his line as well as the stage direction...
From The Busie Body
Anon. advertisement for new plays, in the back of Evelina
Vol. 1 (London: Printed for T. and W. Lowndes, No. 77, in Fleet Street, 1784).
The list of plays included in The New English Theatre, a collection of 60 plays in 12 volumes, mentions contemporary actors in key parts. Henry Woodward is featured as Marplot, a role he reprised in Centlivre’s sequel, Marplot in Lisbon. Shuter’s performance of Obidiah Prim also merits mention with the listing of A Bold Stroke for a Wife.
From The Busie Body
Morning Post, July 13, 1797, Issue 7905. Advertisement for The Busy Body in Botany Bay.
This copy of a playbill from Botany Bay, reported as a news item, illustrates attitudes about the civilizing function of theatre, a strong counter-current to anti-theatrical discourse. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1988 Our Country’s Good, based on Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker, tells the story of a group of transported convicts and officers who stage The Recruiting Officer in New South Wales. Robert Sideway, a character in that story, is mentioned below.
From The Busie Body
A documentary about the making of The Busy Body
In February of 2017, The Clarence Brown Theatre (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) presented The Busie Body, directed by John Sipes. The production still from the performance and a short documentary, with selected footage from live performances.
From The Busie Body