1775 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

Theater: The Rivals by Dublin-born London playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 23, 1/17 at London's Royal Theatre in Covent Garden, with John Quick as Bob Acres. Sheridan left his native Ireland at age 8 and has never returned. "'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion," he writes (I, ii). His Mrs. Malaprop delights audiences with "malapropisms" such as "headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" (III, iii); The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Le barbier de Séville, ou La précaution inutile) by Pierre de Beaumarchais 2/23 at the Comédie-Française; St. Patrick's Day, or The Scheming Lieutenant by Sheridan 5/2 at London's Royal Theatre in Covent Garden; The Jews (Die Juden) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 9/13 at Frankfurt-am-Main (one-act comedy). English tragic actress Sarah Siddons (née Kemble), 20, makes her London debut in December playing the role of Portia in Shakespeare's 1596 tragedy The Merchant of Venice but is not well received and will work in the provinces until 1782.