Love's Contrivance | |
---|---|
Written by | Susanna Centlivre |
Date premiered | 4 June 1703 [1] |
Place premiered | Theatre Royal, Drury Lane |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
Love's Contrivance is a 1703 comedy play by the English writer Susanna Centlivre. The cast featured Robert Wilks as Bellmie, Anne Oldfield as Belliza, William Bullock as Selfwill, Benjamin Johnson as Sir Toby Doubtful and Jane Rogers as Lucinda.
It was staged at Drury Lane Theatre and ran for five nights, which was considered a moderate success eclipsing Centlivre play's previous play The Stolen Heiress . [2]
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1715.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1723.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1702.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1669.
Anne Oldfield was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time.
Susanna Centlivre, born Susanna Freeman, and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and "the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century". Centlivre's "pieces continued to be acted after the theatre managers had forgotten most of her contemporaries." During a long career at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the second woman of the English stage, after Aphra Behn.
Robert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition.
Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse, also known as The Duke's Playhouse, The New Theatre or The Opera. The building was rebuilt in 1714, and used again as a theatre for a third period, 1714–1732. The tennis court theatre was the first public playhouse in London to feature the moveable scenery that would become a standard feature of Restoration theatres.
William Rufus Chetwood was an English or Anglo-Irish publisher and bookseller, and a prolific writer of plays and adventure novels. He also penned a valuable General History of the Stage.
The Busie Body is a Restoration comedy written by Susanna Centlivre and first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1709. It focuses on the legalities of what constitutes a marriage, and how children might subvert parental power over whom they can marry. The Busie Body was the most popular female authored-play of the eighteenth century, and became a stock piece of most anglophone theatres during the period.
The Platonick Lady is a 1706 comedy play by the British writer Susanna Centlivre. Staged at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket in November 1706, it was published the following year and is sometimes dated as 1707. In the play's prologue the author defended the right of woman to write plays. The plot revolves around the question of platonic friendship.
Love in a Veil is a 1718 comedy play by the British writer Richard Savage. It was inspired by a seventeenth century play by the Spanish writer Pedro Calderón de la Barca. The cast included Charles Williams as Lorenzo, Henry Norris as Alonzo, John Mills as Sir Charles Winlove, John Thurmond as Don Philip, William Mills as Diego, Anna Maria Seymour as Leonora, Mary Willis as Fidelia and Joe Miller as Aspin.
The Artifice is a 1722 comedy by the British writer Susanna Centlivre. It was her final play, returning to the more robust style of restoration comedy which was very uncommon by this era.
Love in a Forest is a 1723 comedy play by Charles Johnson. It is a substantial reworking of Shakespeare's As You Like It cutting out characters and passages, while borrowing from other Shakespeare plays amongst other things.
The Beau's Duel is a 1702 comedy play by the English writer Susanna Centlivre.
The Stolen Heiress or, The Salamanca Doctor Outplotted is a 1702 comedy play by the English writer Susanna Centlivre.
The Man's Bewitched is a 1709 comedy play by the British writer Susanna Centlivre. It is known by the longer title The Man's Bewitch'd; or, The Devil to do about Her.
George Pack was a British stage actor, singer and theatre manager of the eighteenth century. His first known performance on the London stage was as Westmoreland in Shakespeare's Henry IV at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre and he remained with the company until it transferred to the Queens's Theatre in the Haymarket in 1705. He played in a mixture of comedies and tragedies, originating roles in plays by many of the leading dramatists of the era including Nicholas Rowe, Mary Pix, John Vanbrugh and Susanna Centlivre.
The Contrivances is a 1715 comedy play by the British writer Henry Carey. A farce, it produced was an afterpiece to follow on from a revival of Bonduca.
Henry Norris (1665–1730?), also known as "Jubilee Dicky", was an English actor.