Feeling Public: Sensation Theater, Commodity Culture, and the Victorian Public Sphere

Abstract

In January 1863, The Trial of Effie Deans; Or, The Heart of Midlothian opened at the Westminster Theatre in London's West End and became an immediate critical success and box-office hit. Written by Dion Boucicault, the premier "sensation playwright" of the "sensational" 1860s, Effie Deans was an adaptation of Walter Scott's novel and featured several "sensation scenes," including a representation of Effie's trial that captivated audiences and reviewers with its air of authenticity. "Mr. Boucicault has aimed at a literal copy of a judicial proceeding so close to the legal practice," noted the Illustrated London News (ILN), "that the spectator feels as if present at an actual trial." 1 Sensation dramas like Effie Deans were all the rage in 1860s London, attracting vast crowds that marveled at tumbling waterfalls, speeding trains, and burning ships. What most astonished audiences, though, was neither the sheer showiness of such stage effects nor the increasingly sophisticated technology that made them possible. Instead, playgoers were amazed because sensation scenes seemed so real; they grew excited because they could feel as if they were really there. And they saw themselves as united in that response, a throng of individuals brought together by their shared excitement.