In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • From San Francisco Eastward: Victorian Theater in the American West by Carolyn Grattan Eichin
  • Maria Szasz (bio)
From San Francisco Eastward: Victorian Theater in the American West. By Carolyn Grattan Eichin. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2020. Pp. 304. $60.00 cloth)

"What can the study of Victorian Theater tell us about the West?," Carolyn Grattan Eichin asks at the beginning of this dynamic contribution to American theater history, From San Francisco Eastward: Victorian Theater in the American West (p. 4). A life-long resident of the American West, Eichin is an archaeologist and a historian. Beginning with the Gold Rush of 1849, she selects San Francisco as the epicenter for her discussion of the development of theater in several small western towns, mainly in California and Nevada. A voluminous researcher, Eichin rigorously references well-respected western historians and theater historians, positing the theater as an influential part of the economic and social development of the West. She offers fascinating details about key theater impresarios Tom Maguire, John and Henry Piper, and David Belasco; actors Charles Wheatleigh, Edwin Booth, and John McCullough; actresses Ella La Rue, Sue Robinson, and Rosa Rand; and playwrights such as Irish-born Dion Boucicault, who wrote wildly popular nineteenth-century melodramas. In San Francisco, where roughly a third of the city was of Irish descent in this era, Eichin explains that during the July 1875 San Francisco premiere of Boucicault's The Shaughraun ("the wanderer" in Gaelic), starring Boucicault as the wily hero Conn, a thousand people were turned away on opening night.

Eichin is particularly insightful in her reflections about escapist melodramas (including the first San Francisco performance of Boucicault's Under the Gaslight in 1867, with its climactic scene of the heroine Laura bravely rescuing the one-armed veteran Snorkey from a fast-moving, approaching train), and more problematically, misogynistic and racist minstrel shows. Eichin astutely interprets the popularity of minstrel shows among working-class audiences, explaining, "the complex social and cultural purposes underlying minstrelsy can be read as a vehicle for working classes to conceptualize and cope with change," including the rapidly evolving roles for women and minorities across nineteenth-century western towns (p. 60).

While Eichin touches on notable performances of classic roles played by famous actors and actresses who toured the West (such as Mrs. D. P. Bowers' Lady Macbeth and Lawrence Barrett's Hamlet), she addresses a broad range of performances, ranging from female and male lecturers to variety shows, both the sexualized and polite versions. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this detailed theatrical history is its focus on western audiences, particularly women, immigrants, and people of color. Eichin traces how western audiences shifted during the [End Page 703] Victorian era, beginning with mainly working-class, single men living briefly in mining towns, who preferred overtly sexual theatrical performances; local newspapers disparaged these reckless younger men as "peanut cannibals" (p. 152). She also explores the rise of middle- and upper-class audiences, who favored "civilized" entertainment and notably eschewed the bawdy.

Eichin devotes a considerable portion of her study to the connection between prostitution and theatrical performances, theater buildings, and specific seating areas in theaters, noting how "in the west, prostitutes remained theater patrons throughout the nineteenth century" (p. 36). She emphasizes women's contributions to the development of western theater during the Victorian era, known for its emphasis on decorum, propriety, and manners, as well as strict gender roles that continually devalued women. She considers both the omnipresence of "soiled doves" (a marvelously euphemistic Victorian term for prostitutes) and the rise of respectable women, whose presence as audience members and actresses encouraged the rise of legitimate theatrical performances and pushed the boundaries of acceptable behavior for Victorian women.

Eichen's reflections on the role of minorities and Native people in nineteenth-century western life and theater, as well as the rampant discrimination they faced as performers, employees, and audience members, are particularly strong. She highlights the singular contributions of the Irish, suggesting that western theater encouraged assimilation and acceptance of immigrants, especially the Irish. Eichin writes, "the theater as an influence for the melting pot is arguably greatest in the question of Irish assimilation in...

pdf

Share