ABSTRACT

In the 1740s and 1750s, conventional staging and lighting, essentially still the system devised by Inigo Jones in the early seventeenth century, came to be seen by many as dated and inadequate. Actors still performed in front of painted scenes which ran in grooves, the upper grooves being concealed by flown clouds, or painted perspective ceilings, or swags of drapery. Occasionally this was varied by drop scenes attached to rollers and let down from above, but even the painting on these was emblematic and conventional, stock pictures of generic locations. Lighting was by chandeliers which illuminated stage and auditorium alike, and perhaps footlights and lights on battens in the wings. Mostly candles were used, though occasionally oil lamps were preferred.