Guest Post: Author Jack Jewers On Celebrating Theatre Royal Drury Lane In New Book SEETHING LANE

Few streets are as redolent with the history of British theatre as Drury Lane, in the heart of Covent Garden. So famous is it, in fact, that The Theatre Royal – which has occupied the space between Catherine Street and Drury Lane itself since 1663 – is more often referred to by its address than by its own name. And yet, we know surprisingly little about the theatre’s early history. Almost all of its original records, including any illustration of what the original building looked like, were lost – probably in the fires that razed the structure twice, first in 1672, and again in 1809.

Fortunately, we have a first-hand witness to some of its early productions, thanks to one London’s most famous theatre fans – Samuel Pepys (1633-1703). Pepys kept a diary between 1660 and 1669. It’s an astonishingly detailed record of his daily life, both at home and at work, as a civil servant in the court of King Charles II. He recorded many plays that he saw at Drury Lane and beyond. His reviews were pithy and sometimes devastating. Take this, for example, from September 29th 1662: ‘To the King’s Theatre, where we saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.’

My first novel, The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, imagined what Pepys did after putting down his pen for good in the summer of 1669. In my version, he becomes a reluctant investigator for the crown. My new book, Seething Lane, takes place in 1670, when London’s theatres were booming. And while I thought that I knew plenty about Restoration Theatre – as the whole of that theatrical era has become known – it was only when I did a deep dive into the subject as part of my research that I fully appreciated what a seismic cultural moment it was.

Theatre had been banned outright in England for eighteen years, from 1642 to 1660 – first during the Civil War, and then during the period of strict Puritan government that followed. Jump forward four years and Charles II returned to England as its king. At last, the theatres reopened, but nothing would ever be the same again. There were now such things as stage sets, for example. And a new, more naturalistic style of acting became fashionable. But most exciting of all, women were legally allowed on the stage for the first time. The world had changed in more ways than one.

Today, runaway ticket prices and the extortionate cost of putting on a play are a greater threat to London’s theatre scene than small matters such as civil wars and revolutions. But the survival of a venue such as the Theatre Royal, sometimes against the odds, is emblematic of London’s turbulent relationship with its cultural heritage. And while I can only imagine what Samuel Pepys would have made of Disney’s Hercules or Jesus Christ Superstar, the name Drury Lane remains as synonymous with the history of London theatre as Broadway is with New York.

In Seething Lane, I send Pepys undercover at Drury Lane, where he must track down a killer. One of the real-life historical figures he encounters is Nell Gwyn – a woman who rose from abject poverty to become the king’s mistress and the first true celebrity actress. One of my greatest joys when writing the book was getting to fantasy cast her as Shakespeare’s greatest heroine, Rosalind, in a production of As You Like It. Now there’s a ticket that would have been worth any price.

Seething Lane will be published on 3 September by Moonflower Books – available to pre-order here.