Sheridan, Garrick, and a Colonial Gesture: "The School for Scandal" on the Calcutta Stage

Abstract

When one thinks of imperial literature, the works of Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad immediately spring to mind; but the idea of an imperial or a colonial play-as I attempt to frame the construct here-seldom, if ever, conjures up such examples of high Georgian comedy as Sheridan's School for Scandal.' Providing an occasion for my discussion is a document that belongs to the obscure and marginalized realm of London's theatre history-its negotiations with in the late eighteenth century. title of Folger manuscript W. a. 237, a promptbook, reads The I School for Scandal lA I Comedy I Written by I Richard Brinsley Sheridan Esqr; the title on the Dramatis Persona [sic] page reads Calcutta Theatre; and the date on the title page indicates that it was presumably acquired or prepared circa March 25th, 1782.2 cast list with only the British actors' last names preceded by Mr. reveals that none of the actors was a professional in the contemporary London or provincial theatres and that both male and female roles were played by male actors. manuscript is clearly authentic. evidence in a book published relatively recently in Calcutta-Amal Mitra's Calcutta's Foreign Theatre (translation mine)3--as well as the evidence gleaned from some seemingly inconsequential theatrical trivia from the period of David Garrick's management of Drury Lane point conclusively to the following: East India