The Restoration Period
The play is set in the second half of the 1600’s
during the Restoration Period. The Restoration Period came about after the end
of the English Civil War, or the Wars Of the Three Kingdoms, which was waged
between the English, Scottish and the Irish and started when King Charles the 2nd
came to power. Along with the Restoration of the monarchy came the end of the
Puritan regime which had been upheld by Oliver Cromwell, this regime had
previously been discrediting and even dismantling a lot of the theatres. When
the Restoration period started all of these theatres were reopened and the King
invested in the development of the theatre, with the two leading companies –
The Kings Men and The Duke’s Men, beginning to experiment with staging,
lighting and writing of new plays. With this came the first female actresses,
an idea that King Charles the 2nd brought over from his exile in
France.
Actresses at that Time
Whilst King Charles the 2nd was exiled in
France during the British Civil War, he was introduced to the concept of female
actresses which had already come about in France. Before he instated the female
actresses in England all female roles had been played by boys, usually before
they had hit puberty and had their voices dropped, and the new wave of female
actresses changed the form of theatre. Now, men came to see the women, who were
often given roles involving them baring their breasts, and the sexualisation of
women was one of the primary uses of the theatre. This was for another reason,
which was that actresses got paid very little, only just enough to live on and
not enough to support them once they left the theatre. What actresses would
have to do would be to become the mistress of a wealthy man who would become
her Protector. At first actresses were thought of as little more than
prostitutes and many men would treat them as such. However, Actresses And
Whores suggests that “The success of the actress/whore also suggests that
‘whoreishness’ was not always already negative during the Restoration...whore
implies that her audience might also have recognised her as a challenging and
transgressive woman” (page 25, Actresses and Whores: On Stage and in Society,
Kirsten Pullen, 2005)
Your Character
Although I did not find a huge amount of information on Mrs Farley, what I did find was incredibly interesting. Elizabeth Weaver, maiden name Farley had a very interesting life. For starter, she was apparently never married to James Weaver of Grays Inn, as she claimed, in fact the same James Weaver sued the poor woman for £30. It was later discovered that she was pregnant with his supposed child. She was subsequently sued no less than 5 times by Miles Lovett (3rd March 1663), Robert Kerby (13th June 1663), David Little (March 1664), George Langford and Henry Rooke (1665) and Francis Poyntz and Anne Hame (1665). She did, however, continue to act.
References
Actresses and Whores: On Stage and in Society, by
Kirsten Pullen http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9eu_n-etYpUC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=female+actresses+restoration&source=bl&ots=wdzBwuxxHT&sig=Q2rH6fQRzv4sQ6fRZrrT3qWU6eQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CMvTUsvBB8iVhQfz14HwCQ&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=female%20actresses%20restoration&f=false
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