Type: Article
Greene, John. ‘The Repertory of The Dublin Theatres, 1720-1745’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 2 (1987), pp 133-148.
In 1938, theatre historian La Tourette Stockwell wrote of eighteenth-century Dublin that the policy of Dublin theatre managers was to copy London stage productions and that the taste of Dublin audiences was rooted in the provincialism of expatriate Englishmen. Greene asserts that Stockwells theory is an exaggeration, and provides evidence based on his own compilation of a daily calendar for the Dublin Theatres from 1720-1745. He offers a thorough analysis of the repertory system of eighteenth-century Dublin play houses, and includes four figures of tables with a breakdown of the types of performances showing which London plays were thereafter performed in Dublin theatres. Greene discusses the London influence and the successes and failures of London plays in Dublin. Based on the statistics provided, Greene concludes that the Dublin managers shared London tastes but were very selective about which new plays to produce.