170301 VO Lecture: The History of Theatre (2023S)

FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF THEATRE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
Theatre historiography of the 19th century opens up a field with myriads of phenomena and materials. And despite an equally considerable wealth of research, it is difficult to gain an overview of such diverse forms of theatre between elitist high culture and popular amusement and to understand their social functions. One thing seems clear, however, namely that theatre in the long 19th century (roughly 1789-1918, the period between the French Revolution and the end of the First World War) can be understood as a leading medium in which the diverse transformation processes of the time find a reflection. Industrialisation and the resulting social problems, the political conflicts between the educated and propertied bourgeoisie and the aristocracy, the change in urban lifestyles in particular due to technological innovations – all this could be seen and experienced in performances, but often in a veiled, romanticised or parodic form. Theatre productions of the time often seem like cheerful shelters in which an audience could temporarily forget the impositions of modernity. Whereas in the 18th century the ideology of the Enlightenment had an impact on the theatre structure, in the 19th century it was above all consumer logic that shaped the cultural field. In the process, new spaces emerged with the circus, the music halls and all kinds of business and speciality theatres, in which what had been displaced from the bourgeois concept of theatre, and thus also the craft of actors and artists, came to the fore again.
The lecture provides insight into the forms and functions of theatre and entertainment arts in the 19th century. In its conception, it is based not insignificantly on the "Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Empire" edited by Peter W. Marx (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), which has the advantage of that global perspective in which modernity also becomes recognisable as a driving force of colonialism.