Entertaining Crisis in the Atlantic Imperium, 1770–1790 by Daniel O’Quinn (review)

The eighteenth century has proven fertile ground for theatre history and performance studies in recent years, with books by Mechele Leon and Virginia Scott winning major awards in the field. Theatre and performance studies are also well-represented in the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, where Joseph Roach has taken on a leadership role. Daniel O’Quinn is a key player in this cross-pollination, and his second monograph offers exciting contributions to both fields. Entertaining Crisis in the Atlantic Imperium is an engaging and erudite study of British reception of the American Revolutionary War through the combined media force of theatre and newspapers during the lateeighteenth century. O’Quinn develops detailed micro-histories of several social performances that garnered significant media response, situating each of these in a larger narrative about public opinion, political subjectivity, and eighteenth-century media culture. This micro/macro-narrative strategy anticipates a current methodological trend among theatre and performance historians, one that foregrounds the agency of theatrical productions as shaping and mediating historical change, rather than merely reflecting the social and cultural issues swirling around them. In chapter 1, O’Quinn deftly analyzes General John Burgoyne’s Fête Champêtre of 9 June 1774. A Francophile masque involving complicated erotic economies gives way to a second masque allegorizing the oak tree as a symbol of a nation thriving under a strong military, ultimately promoting the compatibility of social refinement and patriotism. A case study in theatrical topicality, this event gave rise to two plays: Burgoyne’s own The Maid of the Oaks at Drury Lane, and The Druids at Covent Garden. The Maid of the Oaks, in turn, led to a month-long debate combining theatre criticism and political commentary in the pages of the Morning Chronicle. As the chapter ends, O’Quinn imagines the effects of Antonio Zucchi’s portraits of the Fête Champêtre on a crestfallen Burgoyne after his 1777 defeat at Saratoga, a decisive moment in the war.

Continuing the useful strategy of studying social performances alongside scripted plays, the second chapter treats the Thames regatta, which took place on 23 June 1775, amid newspaper reports of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Paying careful attention to press discussions of the regatta’s deployment of space to develop a political narrative, O’Quinn analyzes Charles Dibdin’s play The Waterman as a topical critique of the regatta, both in the play’s initial incarnation at the Haymarket and in later revivals at Drury Lane. O’Quinn applies further spatial analysis to Sheridan’s opera The Duenna, arguing that the interplay of interior and exterior spaces suggests an allegory of potential compromise with the recalcitrant American colonies. Two years later, with this vision of reconciliation rendered untenable, the theatre-going/newspaper-reading public sought out the more complicated politics of The School for Scandal and Hannah More’s historical tragedy, Percy.

O’Quinn’s analysis of the aspects of social performance builds to his treatment of Captain André’s Mischianza, the deliciously weird event staged in Philadelphia on 18 May 1778. The Mischianza began with a regatta on the Delaware River, followed by a pseudo-medieval tournament, with dinner, dancing, and fireworks to conclude the evening. The event marked the departure of Sir William Howe, a popular commander who was criticized for allowing his officers to stage plays in New York and Philadelphia. O’Quinn argues that André developed the Mischianza in protest of Howe’s recall, and reads the subsequent performance of John Home’s Douglas as supporting not only the exotic Gothic medieval flavor of the Mischianza, but also this protest.

Theatre historians will find themselves on more familiar ground in chapters 4 and 5. In the former, O’Quinn offers an elegant discussion of the problems with mourning David Garrick, cogently engaging with Roach’s concept of effigy to argue that Garrick’s passing left a void similar to the impending loss of the American colonies. O’Quinn contends...