LIKE SOCCER, THEATRE TOO REVOLTED AT RULE OF GREED
Centuries before the Super League furore, the ‘Old Pricers’ fought a very similar battle
There was an almost religious fervour about the recent demonstrations and banners protesting against the proposed European soccer Super League, and attacking American and foreign millionaires.
‘We adored you and you Sold Our Souls’ — ‘Created by the Poor, stolen by the Rich’ — ‘You Can Buy our Club but you can’t buy our Heart and Soul.’ This was the lowly fan revolting against the greedy overlords.
The English ordinary man has been here before, in the 19th century, with the same emphasis on greed and class warfare, the ordinary people being abandoned, and their leaders bowing to the wealthy. The subject, however, was not football but the economics of the theatre, in what became known as the Old Price (OP) riots.
It began with a couple of disastrous fires that totally destroyed London’s Covent Garden theatre in September 1808, and Drury Lane theatre five months later. The fire in Covent Garden spread to neighbouring streets and houses, and at least 22 people died as a result.
For John Philip Kemble and his sister, the actress Sarah Siddons, it was particularly unfortunate. They had moved to Covent Garden in 1803, where Kemble became manager and part-owner. Siddons lost everything she had collected over 30 years’ theatrical work, and her brother lost ‘all he possessed and had to begin the world again’.
And that meant rebuilding the theatre from scratch while still in debt. In the meantime Kemble’s company was able to use another theatre, but the revenue was small and expenses were great. The insurance money for Covent Garden came nowhere near the damage caused, and Kemble still owed money for shares he had bought in Covent Garden.
But with contributions from aristocratic patrons and £50,000 raised by selling shares in the new theatre, Covent Garden was rebuilt within a year.
It cost in excess of £150,000, a vast sum at the time. Kemble always a spectacular showman, put on a lavish ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone, performed by the future King George IV, with two bands and parading soldiers. But the theatre still had enormous debts to repay and that’s where the trouble
‘The theatre had enormous debts to pay and that’s where the trouble began’
began. The newly designed theatre included a group of luxury private boxes, each with an ante-room attached: these boxes, replacing an old gallery, could be rented for £300 a year. Kemble hoped this would attract the wealthy and help pay off the huge debt.
The pit area, usually occupied by lawyers and merchants, was enlarged, but prices were raised there and in the regular boxes by about 12%. The top circle, popular with the labouring classes was squeezed into what became known as ‘pigeon holes’ from which spectators had a very limited view of the stage.
Added to that, Kemble had engaged a big-name Italian opera soprano, Angelica Catalini, for an enormous fee. This was a double insult: Covent Garden had been a theatre for English drama, not for Italian opera.
On opening night in September 1809, before his performance in Macbeth, Kemble addressed the audience in what was intended to be the patriotic launch of a new theatrical era. He could barely be heard above the booing, whistling, hooting and cries of ‘Lower the prices’, accusations that he was a pickpocket, and signs saying, ‘No Italian Private Boxes.’
The uproar was so great that Kemble called magistrates and Bow Street police to read the Riot Act. But the crowd didn’t stop or leave. By the end of the evening very few people were left.
The disturbances went on for an excruciating 67 nights, raucous but well controlled, without serious damage to property. Kemble even tried using the popular Jewish boxer Daniel Mendoza to stop the rioting, but the protesters known
‘The rhetoric was anti-foreigner, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish’
as the Old Pricers kept going, and even had their own OP dance.
The agitation was spread through pamphlets, newspapers and savage caricatures of John Kemble, represented as the reviled King John, the ordinary people drawn as the hearty John Bull. The rhetoric and caricatures became strongly anti-foreigner, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish. Banners proclaiming ‘English Theatre, No Catalini’ were waved, Kemble was drawn critically as a French-educated Catholic (which he was) and he and his colleagues were attacked in the rhyme — ‘Be Britons still, both true and brave/ and ne’er to Jew or Kemble slave.’
By mid-December Kemble had no option but to cave in. Prices were lowered, the number of private boxes was cut and he dropped charges against the rioters. Kemble had to apologise from the stage, and a large placard was raised saying, ‘We Are Satisfied.’
Before the ructions, Kemble, had provided productions of heroic proportions, and still acted occasionally, but by 1817, suffering from bad health, he retired.
And the question remains: can today’s chanting fans unseat the football overlords and match the triumph of the Old Pricers, or will money still dominate the game?