Theatre in the Victorian era

Generally it was a period which brought prosperity to the middle class of England, and started to challenge the old hierarchical order of the country.

According to Allardyce Nicoll, author of History of Late Nineteenth Century Drama, during this time theatres became very popular with masses.

According to Nicoll "When rail and omnibus became popular the whole of the area north, south and west of London was brought into the association with theatre".

"Between 1860 and 1870 the Royalty, The Gaiety, The Charing Cross, The Globe, The Holborn, The Queen’s theatres were remodelled.

Nearly half a century later, in 1899, London boasts sixty one theatres, thirty eight in the west end twenty-three in the nearby suburban districts.

The old conventional devices clung tenaciously to the boards of the stage and blocked the development of new ideas for the theatre.

"Wilde’s easy wit insured an immediate success for the brilliant series of dramas that he wrote in the early nineties.

In early 1892 Lady Windermere's Fan appeared at the St James' Theatre and was at once popular.

An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, both filled with wit and brilliant paradoxes, appeared in 1895.

[3] They were the last things that Oscar Wilde was to write, before he developed meningitis, and suffered his untimely death."

[4] Other plays include Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880), The Duchess of Padua (1883), A Florentine Tragedy (La Sainte Courtisane 1893).