SEASON OF
1782-1783
YEAR was one of great activity. All four of the major
theatres underwent extensive alterations, and at Drury Lane
the reappearance of Mrs Siddons brought an excitement to
~-%i theatre-going that entirely repaid those audiences who had
Deen obliged to undergo the comparative tedium of the two or three preceding
seasons.
The house that was the most thoroughly overhauled was Covent
harden. Its manager hired John Inigo Richards, his leading scene-painter,
to design the new building. The entire interior was reconstructed; work
eSan early in June and was completed in time for a briefly delayed opening
°n 23 September. Contemporary reports describe the changes in considerable
detail.
Nothing remains of the old structure but the outside walls . . . The first gallery
Projects equal to the front of the boxes, and four seats beyond the front of the second
gallery . . . The boxes are increased, and are built upon the stage as far as the space
rtrierly occupied by the side stage doors, which now stand behind the curtain . . .
lc roof [has] a large ventilator over the center of the pit... The color is white,
^th gold and crimson trim.1
I The passages at the end of the benches on each side [of the pit] are now a step
. Wer than the floor on which the benches are placed, to prevent the standers from
^terceptmg the view of the company in the front boxes; and by altering the
CVation of the seats in the pit, those in the front boxes are raised about five inches.2
This theatre is 86 feet long from the stage-opening to the opposite wall at the
d of the gallery, and 56 feet wide between the walls; 31 feet 6 inches high from
2 'Jniversal Magazine, Sept. 1782, pp. 163-64.
0ni:n Magazine , Sept. 1782, p. 437.
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