Vita teatrale e sviluppo culturale a Liverpool tra il 1740 e il 1820

The pace of theatrical life in Romantic Liverpool – as in the provinces in general – was a tight schedule that involved both the lives of managers, actors and actresses, and the management of every season, as the provincial theatres were places where the players, while experiencing theatrical conditions different from those in the capital, might serve their apprenticeship, practise their skills and test the reaction of the public as well. After tracing back the origins of the first theatres in Liverpool in the second half of the eighteenth century – through biographies, periodicals referring to Liverpool theatre, and Broadbent’s Annals of the Liverpool Stage –, the analysis will focus on the presence of managers such as Joseph Younger, Philip Mattocks, and Francis Aickin in Liverpool from 1772 until the end of the century, and their relation with actors of Kemble’s and Siddons’ calibre. The third aspect that will be highlighted is the importance of theatrical life in Liverpool seen in a wider perspective of cultural vitality strictly connected to forms of investment.