In and About Drury Lane, and Other Papers Vol. 1 (of 2)

Dr. John Doran was the resident chronicler of Drury Lane, and his essays function as a kind of time machine. Writing in the late Victorian period, he looks back at a theatrical world that was already vanishing, the gas-lit auditoriums, the great actor-managers, the customs and rituals that made the English stage a distinct civilization. These papers capture the lane itself: its architecture, its history, the ghosts of Garrick and Siddons who walked its boards, and the living legends of Doran's own time. The essays range widely, from sharp character sketches of famous performers to observations about audience behavior, from the economics of production to the peculiar psychology of the actor's life. Doran writes with the affection of someone who genuinely loved his subject, but never with blind worship. He can be wry about theatrical pretension, clear-eyed about the business end of the enterprise. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not just how 19th-century theatre worked, but why it mattered to the culture that packed its houses night after night.