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  • Chapter 4 - Everyone’s a Playgoer Now!

  • from Part II - Theatre during the War
  • Edited by Helen E. M. Brooks, University of Kent, Canterbury, Michael Hammond, University of Southampton
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre of the First World War
    Published online:
    19 October 2023
    Print publication:
    19 October 2023, pp 74-90

  • Summary

    In examining how practices of theatregoing were impacted by the war this chapter provides a partner to Claire Cochrane’s examination of theatre-making in Chapter 3. It considers changing audience demographics over the war and reveals how the ‘new’ audiences were often blamed for the deterioration of theatrical quality. It pays particular attention to the two groups of audiences that received the greatest attention during the war: women (especially single women and mothers) and servicemen. Whilst recognising the value of newspaper and magazine commentaries on audience, the chapter also draws on letters, memoirs, commentaries and diary entries to understand and draw out the first-person experience of theatre-going during the war. It highlights the impact of air raids, lighting restrictions, the Amusements Tax and other wartime conditions on audiences. It also shows how changing social realities and relations in the wider world impacted on the theatre, bringing new class and gender dynamics into the auditorium.