5 - Victorian and Edwardian audiences

Summary

Victorian and Edwardian theatre audiences were so diverse that it is impossible to consider a generic audience for this period. Audiences varied from theatre to theatre and even within theatres to such an extent that any essentializing description is bound to be flawed. Consequently, Michael Booth's call for a more precise investigation of such audiences must be heeded, if we wish to understand the contexts in which Victorian and Edwardian playgoing took place. Booth laments that:

Never, or hardly ever, are we told anything about audiences: what kind of audiences went to what theatres, what their class was, what jobs they did, how much they got paid, what their non-theatrical tastes were, how often they went to the theatre, where they lived and under what conditions. Such information, however, is essential if we are fully to understand the repertory or style of a particular theatre at a particular time in history, and ultimately the character and content of the drama itself.