Books

Plays by H. J. Byron (editor), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984

John Liston Comedian. London: Society for Theatre Research, 1985

The Britannia Diaries: Selections from the Diaries of Frederick C. Wilton 1863-75 (editor), London: Society for Theatre Research, 1992

Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840-1880, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001 (with Victor Emeljanow) (Winner of the Theatre Book Prize, 2002)

Lives of the Great Shakespearian Actors, Part II: Edmund Kean (editor), London: Chatto and Pickering, 2009.

Victorian Pantomime: A Critical Reader (editor), London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Critical Essays on European Theatre Performance Practice 4 volumes (editor with M. A. Katritzky) Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014. [Sole editor European Theatre Performance Practice 1750-1900]

Comic Acting and Portraiture in late-Georgian and Regency England,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. (Winner of the David Bradby Prize 2017)

Theatre & Entertainment, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Plays from Dickens: Volume 2 (editor) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

The Cambridge Companion to Circus (editor with Gillian Arrighi) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

 

Chapters in books

"'His Own Triumphantly Comic Self’: Self and Self-consciousness in Nineteenth Century English Farce" in James Redmond ed., Themes in Drama X Farce, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp.115-130.

"The Only Way and The Other Way: A Dickens Adaptation for the 1890s" in Richard Foulkes ed., British Theatre in the 1890s: Essays on Drama and the Stage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp.59-70.

"A Play for England: The Royal Court Adapts The Playmaker" in Peter Reynolds ed.) Novel Images, London: Routledge, 1993, pp.175-90.

"The East End" in Michael Booth & Joel Kaplan eds., The Edwardian Theatre: Essays on Drama and the Stage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp.201-219.

“‘The Empire Right or Wrong’: The Boer War on the Australian Stage 1899-1901” in Michael Hays and Anastasia Nikolopoulou eds., Melodrama: The Cultural Emergence of a Genre, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996, pp.21-37

"Sarah Lane: Questions of Authorship” in Tracy Davis & Ellen Donkin (eds.), Nineteenth Century British Women Playwrights, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp.125-147.

“"Presence, Personality, Physicality: Actors and their Repertoires 1776-1895" in Joseph Donohue, ed., The Cambridge History Of British Theatre 1660-1895, Vol.2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp.272-29.

“The Audience” in Kerry Powell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 93-108. (with Victor Emeljanow)

“Spectatorship”, in Jane Moody and Danny O’Quinn, eds. The Cambridge Companion to English Theatre 1730-1830, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 57-69

“Collins and the Theatre” in Jenny Bourne-Taylor, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 168-181

“Boxing Day” in Tracy C. Davis and Peter Holland, eds., The Performing Society: Nineteenth-Century Theatre’s History Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 13-31

‘“He danced, he did not merely walk – he sang, he by no means merely spoke”: Irving, Modernity and Twentieth Century Acting’ in Richard Foulkes, ed., Henry Irving: A Re-evaluation Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008, pp. 27-36

“’Auntie, can you do that?’ Representing the Victorian Theatre through Caricature and Cartoon” in Heinrich, Newey & Richards, eds., Ruskin, the Theatre, and Victorian Visual Culture Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 216-238.

“Das Londoner Theaterpublikum des 19. Jahrhunderts. Quellen und Interpretationsansatze fur seine Rekonstruktion’, in Erika Fischer-Lichte & Matthias Warstat, eds. Staging Festivity: Theatre und Fest in Europa, Tubingen und Basel: A Francke, 2009

‘Theatre History and Historiography’ in Baz Kershaw & Helen Nicholson (eds), Research Methods in Theatre, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011 (with Katie Normington, Gilli Bush-Bailey & Jacky Bratton)

‘”Only an Undisciplined (Nation) would have done it”: Drury Lane Pantomime in the Late Nineteenth Century’, in Jim Davis, ed., Victorian Pantomime: A Collection of Critical Essays, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 100-117.

‘Looking Towards 1843 and the End of the Monopoly’, The Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Theatre, 1737-1832, ed. Julia Swindells & David Francis Taylor, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 156-173.

‘Melodrama On and Off the Stage’, The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture, ed., Juliet John, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. pp. 686-701.

‘Shakespeare in the visual arts’ in Jill Levenson & Rob Ormsby, eds., The Shakespearean World Routledge Worlds Series, London & New York: Routledge, 2016, pp. 314-338.

‘Social Function’ in Peter Marx, ed., The Age of Empire, 1800-1920, as part of the six volume series Cultural History of Theatre, ed. Chris Balme & Tracy Davis, London: Bloomsbury, 2017, pp. 51-76..

‘Writing for actors: The Dramas of Thomas Dibdin’ in Charles Dibdin and Late Georgian Culture, ed. Oscar Cox Jensen, David Kennerley, Ian Newman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp. 189-203.

'John Johnstone and the Possibilities of Irishness', in David O'Shaughnessy, ed., Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 57-78.

'The Audiences and Theatres of Melodrama in Carolyn Williams, ed, The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 78-92.

'Dickens and Nineteenth-Century Adaptations’ , Dickens and the Arts, ed. Juliet John & Claire Wood, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021 (in press)

Articles in refereed journals

"On Dramatic Performances in Schools: Some Historical Views", Speech and Drama, 26:3 (Autumn, 1977), pp.12-21.

"’Like Comic Actors on a Stage in Heaven’: Dickens, John Liston and Low Comedy", The Dickensian 74:3, (1978), pp.161-166.

"The Importance of Being Caleb: The Influence of Boucicault's Dot on the Comic Styles of J.L.Toole and Joseph Jefferson", The Dickensian 81:1 (1986), pp. 27-31

"The Royal Dramatic College Fetes", Theatre Notebook, XL: 2, (1986), pp.61-70.

"Jingle Without The Bells", The Dickensian, 81:3 (1987), pp.175-180.

"British Bravery or Tars Triumphant: Images of the British Navy in Nautical Melodrama", New Theatre Quarterly, IV:14 (May 1988), 122-43.

"Colonial Experience: English Comedians in Australia in the Nineteenth Century" Nineteenth Century Theatre, 16:1 (Summer 1988), 5-35

"Stage-Managing the Brit: The Diaries of F. C. Wilton", Theatre Notebook, XLIII:3 (1988), pp.101-108.

"A Night in the Workhouse or The Poor Laws as Sensation Drama", Essays in Theatre, 7:2 (May 1989), 111-26.

"Scandals to the Neighbourhood: Cleaning Up the East London Theatres", New Theatre Quarterly, VI:23 (August 1990), 235-243.

"The People of the "People's Theatre": The Social Demography of the Britannia Theatre (Hoxton)" (with Tracy C. Davis), Theatre Survey, 32:2 (November 1991) 137-65

"The Gospel of Rags: Melodrama at the Britannia 1863-74", New Theatre Quarterly, VII: 28 (1991), 369-89.

"Festive Irony: Aspects of British Theatre in the 1980s", Critical Survey 3:3 (September 1991) Text into Performance, pp.339-50

"Jessie H. Wilton, Victorian Provincial Actress: Two Historiographical Approaches to Documentation" (with Tracy C. Davis), Theatre History Studies XII (1992), 107-37.

"Reminiscences in Retirement: Theatrical References in the Post-Britannia Diaries of F. C. Wilton", Theatre Notebook, XLVII:2 (1993), pp.106-113.

“Imperial Transgressions: the ideology of Drury Lane Pantomime in the late nineteenth century”, New Theatre Quarterly XII:46 (1996), 147-55

“Androgynous Cliques and Epicene Colleges: Gender Transgression On and Off the Victorian Stage”, Nineteenth Century Theatre 26: 2 (Winter 1998), 50-69

‘“They shew me off in every form and way”: The Iconography of English Comic Acting in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries’, Theatre Research International, 26:3 (November 2001), 243-56

“‘Wistful Remembrancer’: The Historiographical Problem of Macqueen-Popery” (with Victor Emeljanow), New Theatre Quarterly XVII:4, no.68 (November 2001), 299-309

“Self-Portraiture On and Off the Stage: The Low Comedian as Iconographer” Theatre Survey 43:2 (2002), 177-200.

‘Representing the Comic Actor at Work: The Harlow Portrait of Charles Mathews’, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film 31:2 (Winter 2004), 3-15

“Freaks, Prodigies and Marvellous Mimicry: Child Actors of Shakespeare on the Nineteenth-Century Stage”, Shakespeare 2:2 (December 2006), 179-93

“The Sublime of Tragedy in Low Life”, European Romantic Review (April 2007), 159-67

“Chaste as a picture by Wilkie”: The Relationship between Comic Performance and Genre Painting in Early Nineteenth-Century British Theatre’, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film 35:1 (Summer 2008), pp.3-16

Afterword: The Cannibalisation of Sweeney Todd’, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film (38:1 (Summer 2011), 86-91.

‘First Bouquets, Big Heads and Obstinate Horses: Illustrating the Victorian Pantomime’, Popular Entertainment Studies 3:2 (2012), 4-30.

‘Disrupting the Quotidian: Hoaxes, fires and non-theatrical performance in nineteenth-century London’, New Theatre Quarterly, XXIX:1 (February 2013) 113, 3-12 .

‘Slap on! Slap ever!’ Victorian Pantomime, Gender Variance and Cross Dressing’, New Theatre Quarterly, 30:3 (August 2014), 119, 218-230.

‘Looking and being Looked at: Visualising the Nineteenth-Century Spectator’, Theatre Journal 69:4 (December 2017), 515-534.

'Dickens's Strange Gentleman: John Pritt Harley as Dickensian Actor and Low Comedian', Dickensian 117 Part 2: No. 514 (Summer 2021), 132-145.

Review essays

“Nineteenth Century Drama and Theatre”, The Year’s Work in English Studies 79-85, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000-2006.

“After Foucault: Performing Dickens for the Twenty First Century” (review essay), Nineteenth Century Theatre 28:2 (Winter 2000), pp.146-51

Book reviews

Book reviews have appeared in Australasian Drama Studies, Contemporary Theatre Review, New Theatre Quarterly, Nineteenth Century Literature, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, Theatre Journal, Theatre Notebook, Theatre Survey

Dictionary entries

"The Origins of a Colonial Culture", Entertaining Australia, ed. Katherine Brisbane, Sydney: Cambridge University Press & Currency Press, 1991, pp.20-23

"H.J.Byron", "George Colman the elder", "Thomas Holcroft", "W.S.Gilbert", The International Dictionary of the Theatre Vol.2, Playwrights London: St. James's Press, 1994

"George Cooke", "Charles Kemble", "John Liston", The International Dictionary of the Theatre Vol 3, Actors, Designers and Directors. London: St. James's Press, 1994.

"J. L. Toole", "C. J. Mathews", "English Theatrical Influences on the Development of Theatre in Australia to 1900", A Companion to Theatre in Australia, ed. Philip Parsons, Australia: Cambridge University & Currency Presses, 1995, pp.205-6, 346, 607-8.

“Actors, Actresses and other Entertainers”, “Drama and Dramatists before Dickens”, “Theatres and other Places of Entertainment”, “John Braham”, J. B. Buckstone”. “Charles Fechter”, “John Gay”, “J. P. Harley”, Ben Jonson”, “Charles Kean”, “Robert and Mary Keeley”, “Sheridan Knowles”, “M. G. Lewis”, “George Lillo”, “Westland Marston”, “John Martin Harvey”, “Charles James Mathews”, “R. B. Sheridan”, “B. N. Webster”, “Emlyn Williams”, “Frederick Yates”, Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens, ed. Paul Schlicke, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 2-3, 56, 63, 191-3, 232, 247-8, 259, 304, 309-10, 314, 332, 334, 365, 372, 528, 564-5, 587, 597.

“Bath”, “Bristol Old Vic Company”, “buskers”, “call-boys”, “John Payne Collier”, “Giles Cooper”, “female impersonation”, “Garrick Club”, “Harlequin”, “Seymour Hicks”, “Eugene and Willie Howard”, “Mike Leigh”, “Frank Marcus”, “Lola Montez”, “Charles Morton”, “Pierrot”, “riots”, “George Robey”, “Peter Schaffer”, “toy theatres”, “Vauxhall (London)”, in Dennis Kennedy, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

“Popular Entertainment”, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

“William Farren the elder”, “John Liston”, “Joseph Munden”, “John Quick”, “William Parsons”, “Richard Suett”, “F. C. Wilton”, New Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

“Janet Achurch”, ‘William Archer”, “Frank Benson”, “Burlesque”, “Marie & Squire Bancroft”, “George Frederick Cooke”, “Helena Faucit”, “Charles Fechter”, “Johnston Forbes-Robertson”, Joseph Grimaldi”, “William Hazlitt”, “Leigh Hunt”, “Edmund Kean”, ”Fanny Kemble”, “John Philip Kemble”, “Charles Lamb”, “G. H. Lewes”, “William Macready”, “Charles Mathews the Elder”, “Charles Mathews the younger”, “Melodrama”, “Pantomime”, “Samuel Phelps”, “William Poel”, “Realism”, “Sarah Siddons”, “Ellen Terry”, “Herbert Beerbohm Tree”, “Vaudeville”, “Eliza Vestris” in Simon Williams, ed.,The Cambridge World Encyclopaedia of Stage Actors and Acting, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.