Do you think that Russians are a theatrical people? Are you a theatre goer?

3. Theatre.

The British have always been a theatrical nation. British theatre is among the liveliest and most innovative in the world. In Britain there are over 300 commercial theatres, 100 of these in London, and about 40 in the famous West End. However, the real vitality of the theatre in Britain is to be found less in the West End with its light entertainment than in the ‘fringe’ and pub theatres all over the country. The latter doubled in size during the 1980s, becoming a popular form of less conventional theatre. Certain theatres have become known for their presentation of new plays and powerful, sometimes controversial productions of classic ones. Among such theatres are the Glasgow Citizen’s, the Sheffield Crucible, the Bristol Old Vic, the Manchester Royal Exchange. Theatre in Britain is a powerful instrument of education as well as art and culture. Actors take drama to young people, even into primary school. In Britain young people have a fair chance to get leading roles if they are talented. The most obvious young star at the end of the 1980s was Kenneth Branagh. In 1988 K. Branagh formed his own company for small-cast productions of Shakespeare.

Theatre in Britain began in the form of short moralizing plays performed at the fairs in the Middle Ages. Frequently the plots of the plays were based on the Bible. The 16- th century was the age of Elisabethan drama. There were no actresses at the time. The male parts were performed by men. It was then that great Shakespeare created his plays. After the Civil War in the 17^th century Oliver Cromwell closed all the theatres as sinful places. The theatre revived during the Restoration period but for a long time it was under a strong influence of the French. In the 18^th century the brightest playwright was J. Sheridan. Theatres at times could be as rawdy as football matches, and one of the the great pleasures was shouting to the actors or throwing at the villain the balls made of their fish and chips wrapping. But in the Victorian time the theatre was becoming a place for the middle classes where eating, drinking, shouting were officially outlawed. The first of these attempts to create polite theatre was the management of Sadler’s Wells Theatre by Samuel Phelps, a former Drury Lane actor. The nature of the audience was determined by the starting time. Performances began at 6:30 pm and were thus suited to a more leisured class. As for the plays, it was only the talented Irish playwrights O.Wilde and G. B. Shaw who returned the former glory to British drama.