BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.7//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news558@dslw.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20220329T103328 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20220421T101500 SUMMARY:A Night at the Theatre: Cultural Practices of Late 18th- and Early 19th-Century Melodrama DESCRIPTION:George Colman’s Blue-Beard\; or\, Female Curiosity! is a spec tacular Gothic melodrama first staged at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in 1798. It was the talk of the town that year and it remained one of the mos t successful melodramas throughout the early 19th century. When Dickens re fers to it in his last completed novel\, Our Mutual Friend (1864–5)\, he still takes for granted that readers would be familiar with the play. In order to account for the popularity of this melodrama\, which is largely f orgotten today\, we cannot just look at the words on the page of the print ed play-text (although I am making this available should you want to read the play beforehand). We need to explore the theatrical event. Going to th e theatre in the late 18th/early 19th century was\, after all\, a signific ant cultural activity. In my talk\, I will reconstruct a single night at D rury Lane\, on a Monday in March 1798\, in order to discuss what it meant to go to the theatre at that time\, how audiences actively engaged with pl ays\, and what role newspapers\, censors and the police played in fashioni ng Blue-Beard’s popularity. This will also bring into focus how melodram a\, as a theatrical genre\, as a mode\, and as a sensibility\, was embedde d in larger social and political contexts\, and the cultural and ideologic al work that it performed.\\r\\n\\r\\nIf you would like to obtain more inf ormation on this guest lecture\, please contact: Prof. Dr. Ina Habermann. [https://english.philhist.unibas.ch/en/persons/ina-habermann/] X-ALT-DESC:

George Colman’s Blue-Beard\; or\, Female Curiosity! is a sp ectacular Gothic melodrama first staged at London’s Drury Lane Theatre i n 1798. It was the talk of the town that year and it remained one of the m ost successful melodramas throughout the early 19th century. When Dickens refers to it in his last completed novel\, Our Mutual Friend (1864–5)\, he still takes for granted that readers would be familiar with the play. I n order to account for the popularity of this melodrama\, which is largely forgotten today\, we cannot just look at the words on the page of the pri nted play-text (although I am making this available should you want to rea d the play beforehand). We need to explore the theatrical event. Going to the theatre in the late 18th/early 19th century was\, after all\, a signif icant cultural activity. In my talk\, I will reconstruct a single night at Drury Lane\, on a Monday in March 1798\, in order to discuss what it mean t to go to the theatre at that time\, how audiences actively engaged with plays\, and what role newspapers\, censors and the police played in fashio ning Blue-Beard’s popularity. This will also bring into focus how melodr ama\, as a theatrical genre\, as a mode\, and as a sensibility\, was embed ded in larger social and political contexts\, and the cultural and ideolog ical work that it performed.

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If you would like to obtain more in formation on this guest lecture\, please contact: Prof. Dr. Ina Habermann.

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20220421T120000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR