Popular Tradition

1. Popular Tradition Popular here means “for or involving ordinary people rather than specialists or very educated people”. Scottish dramatists, from Sir David Lyndsay and his Satire of the Thrie Estatis [ 1554] onwards, have borrowed what we might regard as distinctive features of popular theatre and cheerfully mixed genres, used music and dialect, and exploited direct audience involvement to great effect. Popular entertainment in nineteenth century Glasgow: background and context for The Waggle o'the Kilt exhibition, by Alasdair Cameron

2. Originally … there were • Zoos (menageries), waxworks and freakshows which were all popular • Agricultural Shows (much like they are to this day) • And semi-rural amusements provided by traditional fairs

3. 12th – 17th Century • 'The (Glasgow) Fair' dates from the 12th century. A fair was annually staged on Glasgow Green, full of menageries, freak shows, waxworks and whisky booths. • In the 17th Century, the only regular theatre in Scotland was provided by rope dancers, menagerie owners and quack remedy sellers.

4. Glasgow Fair 1825

5. Also look in • What is the History of CST Powerpoint • Popular entertainment in nineteenth century Glasgow: background and context for The Waggle o'the Kilt exhibition, by Alasdair Cameron

6. Pantomime Click here for more information • Pantomime blends the traditions of the Italian "Commedia dell’ Arte, and the British Music hall to produce the art form that is Pantomime. Pantomime was, at one point, a short piece put on after the evening's main performance, and consisted largely of acrobatic tricks and knock-about humour. • 1751 - first known mention of pantomime in Glasgow was in with the presentation of Harlequin Pantomime • 1814 - Aladdin was produced at the Theatre Royal, described as a melodrama. 1866 - Theatre Royal, billed Aladdin as the "gorgeous pantomime" and describes it as "a most Magnificently Magnumptious Processional Production, Profusely Produced and Peculiarly Pretty."

7. 19th Century • British touring theatre which performed in Theatres Royal in town centres and became “legitimate” theatre • vital minor house tradition that resulted in a strong local tradition of performance in illegitimate theatre • popular voice in the tradition of the "penny geggies" (small-scale, fit-up touring theatres) that contributed to the rising phenomenon of the urban music hall

8. Spread of the railways led to • A rise of the London touring productions • The disappearance of the local stock companies • Few independent theatres in Scotland remaining. • Through the 19th century "real" theatre, that is legitimate theatre, became synonymous with London theatre and with companies who arrived by train one Sunday and left by train the next.

9. London touring theatre • Expensive and metropolitan • Patronised by Scotland's middle-classes • Indigenous theatre-making in Scotland was increasingly seen as rough, lacking sophistication and, at root, popular. • Popular here means “for or involving ordinary people rather than specialists or very educated people”.

10. Penny Geggies • The Pennie Geggies were the “popular” theatre of 19th Century • Geggy means “your mouth”. Originally a travelling side-show or playlet. • An old penny entry fee. Hence 'penny geggie‘ • Small and proprietor-driven Cheap and popular performances, exhibitions and displays. The Geggies would present Victorian melodramas like ‘Maria Martin and the Red Barn Mystery’. Will Fyffe (who immortalised ‘I belong to Glasgow’), the great character comedian travelled in these shows.

11. Conditions were rudimentary and comfort minimal. • Performances included short melodramas, music hall performances, social and political commentary and even short versions of Shakespeare's tragedies.

12. Scottish Plays • Plays by Scots, about Scotland and performed by Scottish actors were relegated either to the theatres in the poorest parts of town or to the "penny geggies". • Through the mid and even late 19th century, and in some rural areas of Scotland into the 20th century, the geggies continued to perform bawlderdised versions of Shakespeare and melodramas with a Scottish accent to audiences composed almost entirely of the urban and rural working classes. The geggies also played a vital role in the preservation of Scotland's "National Drama". • Plays about Scotland, or with Scottish themes and settings, provided more than half the geggies' repertoire. They thrived until musical hall, the variety theatre and cinema displaced them.

13. Music Hall • The most dynamic and successful popular theatre genre of the 19th century. • Reflected the lifestyles and preoccupations of working people in a way that only television in the modern era has done since. • Glasgow was the centre of a vigorous Scottish performing culture, one developed in a Presbyterian society with a very different experience of industrial urbanization. • Drew on older fairground and traditional forms in developing its own brand of this new urban entertainment.

14. Music Hall brought together a variety of different acts which together formed an evening of light hearted entertainment. • The origins of Music Hall are found in a number of institutions which provided entertainment in the populous towns and cities of Britain in the 1830s. These were: • The backroom of the pub, where simple sing-songs gave way to the singing saloon concert. • Popular theatre, sometimes in pub saloons but mainly at travelling fairs. • Song & Supper Rooms, where more affluent middle class men would enjoy a night out on the town. • The Pleasure Gardens, where entertainment became more low brow as the years passed.

15. Variety Shows • The heyday of the British Music Hall was from the 1890s up to the second World War. It was the most popular form of entertainment for ordinary people, at least until sound films began in the late 1920s. • Programme from the Britannia Glasgow 1897

16. Britannia Theatre - Original entrance was in centre of ground floor, with steps leading up to the theatre on first and second floor.There was a zoo in the basement, and a waxworks and freakshow on the third floor.

17. Elements of Popular Theatre • Comedy • One liners/punch lines • Long running jokes • Double acts • Visual comedy • Patter • Dramatic irony • Timing • Set Pieces • Music • Song • Dance • Pantomime • Variety • Humour / Pathos • Scots Language • Actor / audience relationship • Sentimentalising a Ritual • Local References • Monologues • Sketches • Use of Stereotypes

18. The Double Act • A double act or comedy duo • A comic pairing • Often uneven relationship between two partners • Drastically different personalities or behaviour. • The straight man, feed or stooge is portrayed as reasonable and serious • The funny man or comic is portrayed as funny, unintelligent or unorthodox • The term feed comes from the way a straight man will set up jokes for—or "feed" them to—their partner.

19. Double Acts • Famous Double Acts in Scottish Theatre include: • Francie and Josie • The Krankies In the 1960’s, as a couple of Glasgow wide boys, their patter was wonderful and entered the Scottish lexicon. The ritual chat up line "Yiz daancin'?" "Yiz aaskin'?" "Ah'm aaskin'." "Ah'm daancin'" still resonates to this day.

20. Audience Participation • Music hall performers in many Scottish halls were closely linked to their audiences, many were part-timers who lived with the people they played for.

21. Stereotypes • The use of stereotypes of Scotsmen on the music hall stage cannot only be understood as an English-inspired mockery. Scottish stereotypes were also used to project a unified image of Scotland in reality divided between town-dwellers and highlanders, and these images were very popular among exiled Scots.

22. Stars of the Traditional theatre • Harry Lauder • Others • Women in Scottish Popular theatre

23. Essay Question topics • Discuss the use of music, song, dance and character stereotypes • Comment on the use of humour. • How has theatre been influence by the popular stage? • Appeal of pantomime for Scottish audiences • In CST “recognisable bits and pieces of music-hall aesthetics can be found” Do you agree? • Can CST make effective use of song and music? • What are the characteristic features of Scottish comedy?