Set design by Joseph Harker for A Life of Pleasure, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 1893
Theatre Design
1892 (designed), 1893 (produced)
1892 (designed), 1893 (produced)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A Life of Pleasure was one of the extremely popular autumn ‘sensation dramas’ written by Augustus Harris and Henry Pettitt and staged by Augustus Harris at Drury Lane Theatre in September 1893, and at the Princes Theatre, Bristol in December, when the autumn melodrama was replaced by pantomime at Drury Lane.
The play was a typically eventful Victorian melodrama where the innocent heroine Norah falls victim to the heartless upper-class seducer Captain Chandos who rejects her in favour of the wealthy heiress Lady Mary. In contrast to this tranquil Thames-side scene of Act II, designed by Joseph Harker, the penultimate act set in ‘Burmah’ (Myanmar) referred to the Anglo-Burmese war of 1885 and shockingly ended up with ‘a stage full of dead Burmese’.
The play was a typically eventful Victorian melodrama where the innocent heroine Norah falls victim to the heartless upper-class seducer Captain Chandos who rejects her in favour of the wealthy heiress Lady Mary. In contrast to this tranquil Thames-side scene of Act II, designed by Joseph Harker, the penultimate act set in ‘Burmah’ (Myanmar) referred to the Anglo-Burmese war of 1885 and shockingly ended up with ‘a stage full of dead Burmese’.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Set design by Joseph Harker for <i>A Life of Pleasure</i>, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 1893 (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour and pencil on card |
| Brief description | Set design by Joseph Harker for A Life of Pleasure, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 1893 |
| Physical description | Watercolour and pencil scene design by Joseph Harker for A Life of Pleasure, depicting the lawn at Skindle's at Maidenhead with sloping banks and houseboat on the edge of the forest. The rendering has been painted in greys and browns with details in white and black. The back of the rendering includes notes regarding details of scenic elements. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Gabrielle Enthoven Collection |
| Summary | A Life of Pleasure was one of the extremely popular autumn ‘sensation dramas’ written by Augustus Harris and Henry Pettitt and staged by Augustus Harris at Drury Lane Theatre in September 1893, and at the Princes Theatre, Bristol in December, when the autumn melodrama was replaced by pantomime at Drury Lane. The play was a typically eventful Victorian melodrama where the innocent heroine Norah falls victim to the heartless upper-class seducer Captain Chandos who rejects her in favour of the wealthy heiress Lady Mary. In contrast to this tranquil Thames-side scene of Act II, designed by Joseph Harker, the penultimate act set in ‘Burmah’ (Myanmar) referred to the Anglo-Burmese war of 1885 and shockingly ended up with ‘a stage full of dead Burmese’. |
| Associated object | |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.43-2015 |
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| Record created | June 9, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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