The Spectacular Century – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Spectacular Century

Theatre & Visual Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century Project

Arts

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/13d. Total Eps: 7

Nineteenth century popular entertainments were colourful, vibrant and exciting. Listen in on conversations between experts Jim Davis, Kate Holmes, Kate Newey and Patricia Smyth. Hear us talk about what made entertainments like melodrama, pantomime, movement and art so much fun and why we should care in this AHRC-funded podcast.

To find out more visit http://theatreandvisualculture19.wordpress.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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🇫🇷 France - performingArts
19/01/2026
#97

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilby_
1 share
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_burlesque
1 share
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glynne_Wickham
1 share

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCekdvSKQSfj0XPDyVUczu1A
1 share
https://youtu.be/YkCyQhi8JA8
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https://youtu.be/yPe7fIgqJHg
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RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 74%

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Engaged Audiences

Season 1 · Episode 6

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 • Duration 32:14

Kate Holmes visits one of our partner archives, the University of Bristol Theatre Collection. She talks to its Director Jo Elsworth, Archive Assistant Athene Bain and Catherine Hindson, who uses the collection in teaching and research within the Theatre Department. We discuss how their eclectic resources reveal how engaged nineteenth century audiences were and the archive as an inspirational place.

For more, including how to visit, see: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/theatrecollection

People, Plays, Places mentioned in this podcast:

Professor: Glynne Wickham
Object: Bristol Old Vic ‘Cannonball’ Counterweight
Fan Culture: Tinsel Prints
Actor/Manager: Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Actor/Manager: Henry Irving
Play: Davis, Leopold Davis (1871) The Bells
Theatre: Bristol Old Vic Theatre
Object: Artful Dodger Costume, Eric Jones Evans Collection
Play: Potter, Paul M (1895) Trilby
Object: Lillian Baylis’ desk (Theatre Producer & Manager)
Social Reformer & Manager: Emma Cons, London Old Vic
Suffrage Campaigner, Theatre Director & Costumier: Edith Craig
Performer: Maud Beerbohm Tree
Major Collection: Mander & Mitchenson Collection

Want to find out more after this podcast? Here’s our pick of free online resources.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Audiences in the Archive

Season 1 · Episode 5

Wednesday, April 27, 2022 • Duration 24:21

Kate Holmes and Kate Newey talk to Phil Wickham, Curator of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. Phil discusses how varied the museum’s nineteenth century holdings are and what they reveal about everyday audience-going.

For more on the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, including how to visit, see: https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk

People and Entertainments named in this podcast:

Filmmaker: Bill Douglas
Entertainment: Magic lanterns
Entertainment: Nineteenth-Century Panorama
Entertainment: Diorama Paintings
Entertainment: Peep (or Raree) Show
Performer: Albert Smith
Our YouTube Channel
YouTube video on Playbills
YouTube video on Music Hall Celebrity Postcards
Entertainment: Praxinoscope
Theatre Praxinoscope

Moving Bodies

Season 1 · Episode 4

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 • Duration 34:00

Kate Newey and Kate Holmes talk about moving bodies, equipment assisting movement and why we should care about silent moving bodies. They touch upon gendered ideas, costume, risk and how elite ballet developed from the popular entertainment of pantomime.

Entertainments, performers, movements & incidents:

Entertainment: Pleasure Gardens (including Cremorne & Vauxhall)
Entertainment: Music Hall
Entertainment: Concert Dance
Entertainment: Ballet. For more on differences between romantic & classical see: https://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/different-types-ballet
Entertainment: Nineteenth Century Burlesque – this doesn’t have the same meaning as today. For more see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_burlesque
Aerialist: Jules Léotard
Physical Culture Movement: Muscular Christianity
Aerialist: Mademoiselle Azella
Ballet: Adam, Adolphe (1841) Giselle, ou les Wilis
Train accident: 1918 Hagenbeck Wallace train wreck
Stage technology: trap doors. See this video for nineteenth century traps still working at the Gaiety on the Isle of Man.

Want to find out more after this podcast? Here's our pick of .

One Audience

Season 1 · Episode 3

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 • Duration 31:41

One Audience: Art, Theatre & Visual Culture

Hear Patricia Smyth and Jim Davis talk about how popularity was an issue for the theatre and art and how newly expanded urban audiences’ emotional responses caused concerns for elite critics. They’ll talk about how theatre and art were part of a wider spectacular nineteenth century visual culture, what visual culture actually is and how it affected audiences’ lives.

Entertainments, books, paintings & people named in this podcast:

Painter: Paul Delaroche
Painting: Delaroche, Paul (1833) The Execution of Lady Jane Grey
Painting: Delaroche, Paul (1855) The Young Christian Martyr
Painting: Delaroche, Paul (1834) The Assassination of the Duc de Guise, Château de Chantilly
Entertainment: Nineteenth-Century Panorama, see more here: https://www.bl.uk/picturing-places/articles/the-spectacle-of-the-panorama
Entertainment: Diorama Paintings, see more here: http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Daguerre's_Diorama
Play: Boucicault, Dion (1860) The Colleen Bawn or The Brides of Garryowen
Painting: Millais, John Everett (1851-2) Ophelia
Academic Book: Meisel, Martin (1983) , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

Panto's Progress

Season 1 · Episode 2

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 • Duration 35:39

Kate Newey and Jim Davis are back talking about Pantomime as a rough demotic physical performance form that developed from Commedia dell’arte and defied censorship. They discuss panto as a profitable industry that continues to adapt and reflect its age and what that has meant over the last few hundred years.

Plays, people and performance forms named in this podcast:

16/18th century performance form: Commedia dell’arte
Pantomime clown: Joseph Grimaldi
Actor/Manager: John Rich
Actor/Manager: David Garrick
Actor/Manager: Augustus Harris
Music Hall Comedian & Pantomime Dame: Dan Leno
Actor/Manager: Eliza Vestris
Recent Pantomime Dame & Pantomime Writer: Chris Harris, Bath Theatre Royal
Recent Pantomime Dame: Clive Rowe, Hackney Empire
Interview: Kate Newey speaking to Chris Harris & Clive Rowe
Actor-Acrobat/Manager: George Conquest

Want to find out more after this podcast? Here's our pick of free online resources.

Music: Ambient piano & strings by ZakharValahaa.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Why Melodrama?

Season 1 · Episode 1

Wednesday, March 2, 2022 • Duration 29:28

Jim Davis and Kate Newey talk about the origins of melodrama in the French Revolution, the politics of it being a popular form of emotional realism and why dismissing melodrama is to dismiss popular culture today.

Plays & people named in this podcast:

Play: Holcroft, Thomas (1802) A Tale of Mystery (an unacknowledged translation of de Pixerécourt's Cœlina, ou, l'enfant du mystère)
Playwright: René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt
Play: Jerrold, Douglas William (1829) Black Eyed Susan
Actor: Thomas Potter Cooke
Diderot, Denis (1830 [written in 1770s]) The Paradox of the Actor
Actor: NT Hicks
Sensation novel: Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (1862) Lady Audley’s Secret. Melodrama adaptation: Hazlewood, Colin Henry (1863) first performed at the Victoria Theatre, London.
Play: Boucicault, Dion (1868) After Dark: A Tale of London Life
Play: Boucicault, Dion (1860) The Colleen Bawn or The Brides of Garryowen
Playwright, critic & political activist: George Bernard Shaw
Play: Lewis, Leopold David (1871) The Bells
Play: Pocock, Isaac (1831) The Miller and His Men

Want to find out more after this podcast? Here's our pick of free online resources.

Music: Ambient piano & strings by ZakharValahaa.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trailer

Season 1

Monday, February 28, 2022 • Duration 01:24

Find out what to expect from the first few episodes of our new podcast.

Music: Ambient piano & strings by ZakharValahaa.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Spectacular Century – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

The Spectacular Century – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other25

Wikipedia16

Youtube6

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other25

Wikipedia16

Youtube6