Presenting the Theatre of Drottningholm
David Wiles
Chapter from the book: Schneider M. & Wagner M. 2023. Performing the Eighteenth Century: Theatrical Discourses, Practices, and Artefacts.
Part of
Chapter from the book: Schneider M. & Wagner M. 2023. Performing the Eighteenth Century: Theatrical Discourses, Practices, and Artefacts.
A transcript of the keynote lecture given to the International Federation for Theatre Research which met in Stockholm in 2016. The lecture introduced delegates to the Theatre of Drottningholm, presenting it not as inert heritage but as a living laboratory for exploring eighteenth-century acting. Staged excerpts from Handel, Rameau, and Rousseau’s Pygmalion demonstrate how language was harnessed to gesture in order to distinguish and embody human passions. This was not a static system of acting but kept changing, and the theatre architecture itself reflects a tension between different historical ideals.
Wiles, D. 2023. Presenting the Theatre of Drottningholm. In: Schneider M. & Wagner M (eds.), Performing the Eighteenth Century. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/bce.n
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Published on June 20, 2023