by CAROLINE HODAK

The  toy theaters , or  juvenile drama , are miniature theaters (on average 50x50x50 cm) in wood and cardboard which allow you to re-enact the most famous plays, with sets and characters to cut out and color. Figures are depicted in their theatrical postures on boards on printed image boards. Like the sets, they are to be painted or colored or even enhanced with different materials (sequins, feathers) and possibly mounted on pieces of wood to be manipulated on the stage of the rebuilt theatre. Invented around 1811 in London, these "indoor games" testify both to the importance of theater attendance at the beginning of the 19th century and to the spread of theatrical culture in what is known as home entertainment .

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Typical element of edutainment - educational pastime - the toy theaters   are the developed version of the souvenir sheets that the public could buy after a play. Originally, these sheets represented a scene, usually the climax of the play, or the hero-characters. Specialized designers attended the premiere of the show and illustrated the highlights of the play sold plain - black and white - at the price of 1 penny, or colored  - colored, painted, even embellished withsequins -, at the price of 2 pence.

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From 1811, William West, a London papermaker, had the idea of offering both individual sheets and reproductions of the play in its entirety: the play's booklet and 30 to 40 toy theater sheets representing all the characters and the sets of the main scenes of the play.  For the practical application, it is then a question of cutting the boards, painting the sets and animate the whole thing on the proscenium (see illustrations), in order to reproduce the play. It is therefore necessary to acquire the element which constitutes the support (the theatre) and the facade boards of the theaters in order to then be able to reconstitute the staging by following the text of the booklet.

 

Animating the whole allows, like puppet shows, to present a  domestic performance - for family and friends. However, what distinguishes toy theaters from puppet shows is truly the reproduction of plays that have met with great success on "real" stage. The subject is therefore not only about theatricals but about the dissemination, within the domestic sphere, of a theatrical culture which finds the means to radiate and beyond the theaters themselves.  More than intended truly for children, the  toy theaters are games for teenagers intended as family entertainment . It is a hobby that requires a certain meticulousness to assemble and reconstitute the settings, manipulate the characters and claim the texts. It is therefore also necessary to know how to read the librettos to interpret or narrate the play, sometimes involving adults along.  

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In the middle of the 19th century, more than 300 plays from London theaters were published in a format dedicated to  toy theatres. After the 1860s, no new plays were reproduced for toy theatres . However, it remained very popular until the end of the 1890s, based on the repertoire published during the first half of the century and issued by several publishers who forged their reputation as specialists in toy theaters editing such as Green, Hodgson, Skelt, William West, Webb and Benjamin Pollock whose shop closed in 1944. 

 

See Speaight (G.),  The History of the English toy theatre , Boston, Publishers Plays Inc., new ed. 1969. 

In France, there are paper theaters for children, from the years 1830-1840 although it is really only from the 1880s that these really spread (printing of Epinal). However " the boards are more often composed of historical and geographical types rather than by actors in specific plays " [ Speaight (G.), "Toy theatre", in Fawdry (K.), dir., ed.,_cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ Toy theater , London, Pollock's Toy Theaters Ltd, 1980, p.17] Indeed, the success and distribution of  toy theaters remains a very British specificity.

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If in London, go check out Pollock's Toy Museum in Bloomsbury and Pollock's Toysshop in Covent Garden.