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ii Drawing-Room Drama
Jim The Penman
SINCE it was the Bancrofts who brought the atmosphere of the drawing-room into the theatre, their cup-and-saucer comedies may be confused with the drama named after so peaceful a place. But while they were chiefly concerned with bringing its furbishings into the auditorium, the term " Dra wing-Room Drama " refers to what occurs on the stage. It is the kind of melodrama on which the curtain does not rise until deeds of blood and violence are past — until, that is, the characters are living in well-bred retirement, surrounded by outward and visible signs of respectability, and so far removed from the sensational occurrences which have set the plot in motion that their gestures, movements, language, and manner are controlled by polite restraint. Here, then, is that retrospective method of telling a story which created such a fuss when employed by famous dramatists, but the " Drawing-Room Drama " is of more importance for another development. Special attention must be paid to its vogue in the 1880s because it modified the public's moral attitude. The change may appear technical if baldly stated, but when its effect on the susceptibility of middle-aged men in beards or waxed moustaches is noted, it reveals itself as far more revolutionary than most theatrical fashions of the day.
All that it amounted to was that criminals, while not unsympathetically treated even though in modern dress, could occupy the limelight instead of being execrated in minor positions. Twenty years earlier the Mathews' sponsorship of Black Sheep had been treated as the temporary lapse of usually reliable people, but the objective attitude to dishonesty shown in that play was now to become the mode. Since it follows so hard upon " Nana ", the influence of Zola may be seen in this, for people who are at first obstinate over small things do become more tractable after being rudely shaken by big things. Those old susceptibles had been shocked, and it had done them a power of good. Henceforward anything the drawing-room drama might do while maintaining an air of ease and refinement would be tolerated.
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