Theatre is ‘a pleasure for most social kind’: Illegitimate Performances as Personal Enjoyment and Social Improvement in Leigh Hunt’s Reviews.

Leigh Hunt was a frequent playgoer and esteemed critic of the London stage. Although he deplored the “degradation of the modern theatre” (The Examiner, 1811), he portrayed theatrical amusement as a means of bringing together different classes (Pratt, 2001). In this essay, I explore Hunt’s critical comments on his experiences as a spectator and journalist, especially for performances belonging to illegitimate genres. As a site of “political, moral and indeed generic transgression” (Moody, 2000), illegitimate theatre appealed to Hunt for its political radicalism and cultural subversion. He believed that minor houses and illegitimate genres such as pantomime, burletta or extravaganza, were endowed with a political connotation that influenced all social classes. Starting with an analysis of these genres and the dramaturgy of illegitimate theatre, I investigate Hunt’s compelling response to the discourse of dramatic illegitimacy.