In this study, Gould argues that it was in the imperial capital
's theatrical venues that the public was put into contact with the
places and peoples of empire. Plays and similar forms of spectacle
offered Victorian audiences the illusion of unmediated access to
the imperial periphery; separated from the action by only the thin
shadow of the proscenium arch, theatrical audiences observed
cross-cultural contact in action. But without narrative direction
of the sort found in novels and travelogues, theatregoers were left
to their own interpretive devices, making imperial drama both a
powerful and yet uncertain site for the transmission of official
imperial ideologies. Nineteenth-century playwrights fed the public
's interest in Britain 's Empire by producing a wide variety of
plays set in colonial locales: India, Australia, and to a lesser
extent Africa. These plays recreated the battles that consolidated
Britain 's hold on overseas territories, dramatically depicted
western humanitarian intervention in indigenous cultural practices,
celebrated images of imperial supremacy, and occasionally
criticized the sexual and material excesses that accompanied the
processes of empire-building. An active participant in the
real-world drama of empire, the Victorian theatre produced popular
images that reflected, interrogated, and reinforced imperial
policy. Indeed, it was largely through plays and spectacles that
the British public vicariously encountered the sights and sounds of
the distant imperial periphery. Empire as it was seen on stage was
empire as it was popularly known: the repetitions of character
types, plot scenarios, and thematic concerns helped forge an idea
of empire that, though largely imaginary, entertained, informed,
and molded the theatre-going British public.
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