Drama: Morality and the Theater

Sources

Background. For Americans of the early republic, theater was the most suspect of all the fine arts. A deeply rooted belief in the immorality of theater, dating from the Puritans, led some colonies to prohibit stage productions before the Revolution. Following the war, theatrical companies that had ceased to operate because of wartime restrictions tried to revive themselves. They first had to petition state legislatures for permission to perform, often provoking sharp opposition. The debate was especially fierce in Philadelphia, and similar disputes took place in New York, Charleston, Boston, and other cities. Opponents saw the theater as conducive to dissipation and vice. Plays came under fire for their often bawdy language and for plots involving immoral topics, especially seduction. Actors were portrayed as people of loose morals, prone to debauchery.

Democratic Audiences. Critics found the composition and behavior of theater audiences equally objectionable. They condemned, in particular, the presence of prostitutes in the audience. Theaters set aside special boxes for prostitutes in order to shield respectable women from contact with them, but critics charged that by admitting prostitutes at all, theaters turned themselves into nothing better than “Hot Beds of Vice” and “disguised Brothels.” Elite distrust of the masses (possibly fueled by their anxieties about democracy) also contributed to antitheater sentiments. The theater brought together large crowds of people from many social classes. Although hierarchical distinctions were preserved by the arrangement and division of seats into different price categories, the physical proximity of people made some wealthy patrons uneasy. The often rowdy behavior of such crowds confirmed elite prejudice against the vulgar masses and fed fears that their presence in such numbers would encourage social disorder. Audiences actively participated in theatrical performances and were uninhibited about expressing their approval or disapproval of what was happening on stage. Performances were frequently disrupted by rowdy audience members who shouted abusive obscenities or pelted actors and fellow patrons with objects such as apples and nuts.

Republican Concerns. Critics of theater feared its ability to undermine virtue and so endanger republicanism itself. A healthy republic, they said, depended on the moral character of the people. In making this argument they drew on the traditional view of drama as a cause and sign of decay and corruption in republican societies. The groundswell of hostility to theater reached a crescendo in 1786 with the passage in Pennsylvania of a bill prohibiting the building of theaters or the performance of plays in Philadelphia. This law was one in a series of statutes passed to ban or restrict theater in American cities after the Revolution.

Defenders of Theater. In defiance of such strictures, defenders of theater persisted in asserting the legitimacy of this art form and gradually gained ground over their opponents. Advocates of theater shared many of the critics’ objectives. Both sought to create a virtuous republican citizenry. Playwrights did not disagree with their opponents’ moral concerns, arguing instead that their plays would actually foster virtue in their audiences and assure the vitality of republican ideals. They also depicted theater as a valuable expression of American genius that would disprove European indictments of the deficiency of American culture. Furthermore, they pointed out that suppressing theater violated republican principles of freedom of expression. Petitioners for the legalization of theater in Philadelphia reasoned that if theater were banned, “every freeman must incur a forfeiture of a natural right, which he ought to possess—the right of acting as he pleases, in a matter perfectly indifferent to the well-being of the community.” These arguments eventually won the day, and the Pennsylvania Assembly repealed the antitheater law in 1789. In 1792 Massachusetts repealed its ban on theater, which dated back to 1750.

Sources

Joseph J. Ellis, After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture (New York: Norton, 1979);

David Grimsted, Melodrama Unveiled: American Theater and Culture, 1800–1850 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968);

Kenneth Silverman, A Cultural History of the American Revolution (New York: Crowell, 1976);

Gordon Wood, ed., The Rising Glory of America, 1760–1820 (New York: Braziller, 1971).