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3 - Domestic and commonplace
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
These works are thoroughly characteristic of Mr Robertson's method in art. They are simple almost to baldness in plot, and altogether free from improbable incident or melodramatic situation. Their hold upon an audience is due to three gifts … power of characterization, smartness of dialogue, and a cleverness in investing with romantic associations commonplace details of life … In all there is a scene of lovemaking, the effect of which is heightened by surrounding selfishness and cynicism. Love is the diamond in the play[s], worldliness its setting.
The Athenaeum, 23 January 1869Tom Robertson lived and breathed the theatre from his cradle. Even his comedies-in-miniature at the Prince of Wales's, regarded by his contemporaries as so astonishingly natural, gave priority to the stage picture, elevating easy feeling above truth to life. Away from the Bancrofts' theatre, when he could not control the intimate style of each production, he felt compelled to explain his intentions in warning notes. For Dreams which opened at the Gaiety in March 1869, ‘The Author requests that this Drama may be played after the style and manner of Comedy, and not after the manner of Melodrama.’ Yet the play is melodrama for much of the time and bears a striking resemblance – on a less grand scale – to Bulwer's romantic dramas of thirty years before.
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- The Making of Victorian Drama , pp. 63 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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