Theatre and the Aristocracy: Passion, Patronage, Power, and Politics, 1771-1893
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Sch of Theatre, Perform & Cult Poli Stud
Abstract
The Bedford Estates operates a substantial property portfolio including Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, which has been the home of the Russell family and the Earls and Dukes of Bedford since the 1620s. As one of England's ten 'treasure houses', its vast collections of artworks, furniture, objects, and papers are of international significance.
This CDA provides a timely opportunity for rethinking how the house, family, and collections can be narrated to future audiences. Since opening to the public in 1955, that narrative has remained largely unchanged, focussing chiefly on the political successes of a select number of Earls and Dukes and how they used their increased power and wealth to develop their properties and land. In doing so, other thematic approaches to, and contextualisation of, the collections have been fundamentally overlooked, as have the fascinating lives of their wives and lovers (male and female), their wider families and the thousands of people who lived and worked with them. When the house reopens in 2025, and in subsequent decades, there is a strong desire to ensure that the Bedford Estates' narratives are dynamic, responsive, and reflective of the diversity of its twenty-first century audiences, communicating fresh authentic stories from the estates, to widen access to more of its collections, to develop new audiences, and to nourish existing ones.
Through the delivery of a thesis, a display or exhibition, and a series of public engagement outputs, this CDA will begin this work by addressing the urgent need to rewrite the histories of the Bedford Estates. Approaching the collections from a social and cultural perspective, it will use the Bedford Estates as a case study to interrogate the manifold, complex relationships between an aristocratic family and theatre across six generations, between 1771 and 1893. The project's four key research areas are:
1. Passion: what is the significance of the Russell family's passion for theatre and how is this manifested in the collections?
2. Patronage: how did the role of the patron operate on national, regional, and local levels and what were the benefits to the family and the patronised?
3. Power: how do the shifting relationships between theatre and the Russells evidence changing power dynamics in British society in this period?
4. Politics: where and how do these emerging theatre histories intersect and what new insights do they provide on existing political narratives at Woburn Abbey?
Knowledge generated through this project will be disseminated at Woburn Abbey, impacting how the Russell family's histories and the collections are narrated for future generations.
As this CDA project uses the Russell family as a case study to explore the relationship between theatre and the aristocracy, its findings also have implications for country houses and private collections across the UK, opening opportunities for wider dissemination and aiding understanding and the interpretation of theatrical materials within private collections across Britain.
My key research questions are:
To what extent can private theatricals be used as a means of conceptualising female aristocratic power in the early nineteenth century?
In what ways did the Russell women engage with theatre and what were the socio-political implications?
How can Woburn's private theatre be understood as an example of 'social authority' (Davey, 2017, 824)?
Woburn's curator Matthew Hirst has highlighted the lack of scholarly attention on the house's Regency decorative history (Hirst, 2017). The private theatre was part of the 6th Duke and Duchess' extensive redecoration project in the first three decades of the nineteenth century and I will therefore be able to use this project to address this research gap. In researching overlooked narratives from the Bedford Estates, this is a rich and important area of study that aligns with Woburn's goal to 'provide new insights on existing p
This CDA provides a timely opportunity for rethinking how the house, family, and collections can be narrated to future audiences. Since opening to the public in 1955, that narrative has remained largely unchanged, focussing chiefly on the political successes of a select number of Earls and Dukes and how they used their increased power and wealth to develop their properties and land. In doing so, other thematic approaches to, and contextualisation of, the collections have been fundamentally overlooked, as have the fascinating lives of their wives and lovers (male and female), their wider families and the thousands of people who lived and worked with them. When the house reopens in 2025, and in subsequent decades, there is a strong desire to ensure that the Bedford Estates' narratives are dynamic, responsive, and reflective of the diversity of its twenty-first century audiences, communicating fresh authentic stories from the estates, to widen access to more of its collections, to develop new audiences, and to nourish existing ones.
Through the delivery of a thesis, a display or exhibition, and a series of public engagement outputs, this CDA will begin this work by addressing the urgent need to rewrite the histories of the Bedford Estates. Approaching the collections from a social and cultural perspective, it will use the Bedford Estates as a case study to interrogate the manifold, complex relationships between an aristocratic family and theatre across six generations, between 1771 and 1893. The project's four key research areas are:
1. Passion: what is the significance of the Russell family's passion for theatre and how is this manifested in the collections?
2. Patronage: how did the role of the patron operate on national, regional, and local levels and what were the benefits to the family and the patronised?
3. Power: how do the shifting relationships between theatre and the Russells evidence changing power dynamics in British society in this period?
4. Politics: where and how do these emerging theatre histories intersect and what new insights do they provide on existing political narratives at Woburn Abbey?
Knowledge generated through this project will be disseminated at Woburn Abbey, impacting how the Russell family's histories and the collections are narrated for future generations.
As this CDA project uses the Russell family as a case study to explore the relationship between theatre and the aristocracy, its findings also have implications for country houses and private collections across the UK, opening opportunities for wider dissemination and aiding understanding and the interpretation of theatrical materials within private collections across Britain.
My key research questions are:
To what extent can private theatricals be used as a means of conceptualising female aristocratic power in the early nineteenth century?
In what ways did the Russell women engage with theatre and what were the socio-political implications?
How can Woburn's private theatre be understood as an example of 'social authority' (Davey, 2017, 824)?
Woburn's curator Matthew Hirst has highlighted the lack of scholarly attention on the house's Regency decorative history (Hirst, 2017). The private theatre was part of the 6th Duke and Duchess' extensive redecoration project in the first three decades of the nineteenth century and I will therefore be able to use this project to address this research gap. In researching overlooked narratives from the Bedford Estates, this is a rich and important area of study that aligns with Woburn's goal to 'provide new insights on existing p
People |
ORCID iD |
| Hannah Bradshaw (Student) |