A
Glimpse of Theatre History
DAVID
GARRICK, (1717-79)Actor,
Manager
David Garrick was the most innovative and successful actor and manager of the Eighteenth Century. In the British Isles, then year 1776 is not remembered as the year of the unpleasant revolt of the English colonies but as the year of Garrick's retirement from the stage. "Davy" did not come from a theatrical background. His father, Captain Peter Garrick was a recruiting officer who married the daughter of the vicar-cathedral of Hereford. Young David began his education at the Lichfield Grammar School, but was sent in 1736 to study at the "academy" newly opened by Samuel Johnson at Edial. When the school failed six months later, Johnson and Garrick walked up to London together intending to study for the bar. Instead, they had come up to London to conquer their respective worlds.
Garrick
soon tired of his legal studies and entered the wine trade, but soon found his
time spent in amateur theatricals. A play he wrote, Lethe, was accepted
at Drury Lane. He broke into the ranks of professional actors in 1741 when an
actor took ill and Garrick took his place as Harlequin in a panto, Harlequin
Student. It was sufficiently successful that Garrick decided to go to the
provinces to truly hone his skills. After a few performances under an assumed
name, he triumphed as Richard III (above, right, as played at Drury Lane years
later) at the out of the way Goodman's Fields theatre in the title role. William
Pitt, who was there for the debut, declared Garrick "the only actor in England."
Thomas Davies, Garrick's first biographer, describes the event:
...so many idle persons, under the title of gentlemen acting for their die version, had exposed their incapacity at that theater, and had so often disappointed the audiences, that no very large company was brought together to see the new performer. However, several of his own acquaintance, many of them persons of good judgment, were assembled at the usual hour; though we may well believe that the greater part of the audience were stimulated rather by curiosity to see the event, then invited by any hopes of rational entertainment. An actor, who, in the first display of his talents, undertakes a principal character, has generally, amongst other difficulties, the prejudices of the audience to struggle with, in favor of an established performer. Here, indeed they were not insurmountable: Cibber, who had been much admired in Richard, had left the stage. Quin was the popular players; but his manner of heaving up his words, and his labored action, prevented his being a favorite Richard. Mr. Garrick's easy and familiar, yet forcible style in speaking and acting, at first through the critics into some hesitation concerning the novelty as well as propriety of his manner. They had been long accustomed to an elevation of a voice, with a sudden mechanical depression of its tones, calculated to excite adoration, and to entrap applause. To the just modulation of the words, and concurring expression of the features from the genuine workings of nature, they had been strangers, at least for some time. But after he had gone through a variety of scenes, in which he gave evident proofs of consummate art, and perfect knowledge of character, their doubts were turned into surprise and astonishment, from which they relieve themselves by loud and reiterated applause. ... |
The super-declamatory Quin said of Garrick's relaxed, natural playing style, "if this young man is right, then all of us are wrong." The young man was right. In short order, he was established at Drury Lane under Fleetwood's management for 600 guineas a year. He set up housekeeping with Charles Macklin, the premiere actor of the day and Peg Woffington, the fabled actress.
Fleetwood's
management was inefficient at best, and when Macklin and Garrick tried to expose
his ineptitude to the Lord Chamberlain, they found themselves pitted against a
popular and deft politician. Garrick, shamefully, threw in with Fleetwood, abandoning
Macklin to the streets. The streets responded by rioting in favor of Macklin until
he was back on the boards. An icy few years ensued.
By 1746, Macklin had
departed, Fleetwood had been forced to sell and Garrick alone was the star and
artistic director. He brought in John Lacey, an excellent businessman and administrator
and the fabled Garrick years began. When Garrick married a charming young dancer,
Eva Marie Veigal, in 1749, the Woffington departed for Covent Garden.
