Venison Pasties

This summer I went to see The Beaux' Stratagem at the National Theatre, one of my favourite London haunts.  The play, which was first performed in 1707, less than two months before the death of its author, the Irish playwright, George Farquhar, is a late Restoration play.

Restoration drama refers to the plays written and performed following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.  In 1642, at the height of the English Civil War, with the Parliamentary Puritans in power, all theatres were closed by an Act of Parliament and remained so for the next 18 years.  To the Puritans, and their leader Oliver Cromwell, theatres were places that encouraged immoral and debauched behaviour.  

The re-opening of the theatres in 1660 paved the way for a new type of drama that was different from what came before.  Restoration plays were characterised by their comedy, their sexually explicit content, their contemporary setting and the first use of professional actresses - in earlier drama, women's roles had been played by men.