Elusive Illusions: Charles Durang’s 1825 Staging of Cherry and Fair Star

In 1825, Philadelphia’s “Old Drury”—the Chestnut Street Theatre—staged the English melodrama-pantomime-ballet spectacle, Cherry and Fair Star; or, the Children of Cypress. The work, premiered in April 1822 at Covent Garden, had a long run in London and other British cities. Typical of the American dramatic scene, Cherry and Fair Star soon became a staple in the United States. Theater-dance professional Charles Durang, ballet master for the Chestnut, noted that “the most important” new show that theatre staged in 1825 “was ‘Cherry and Fair Star,’ which had occupied nearly the entire season in its preparation.” Durang had likely seen the play’s US premiere in New York barely a month before the Chestnut’s production, and he had, perhaps, consulted eyewitnesses who saw the London show. Still, he was stymied by one scene, “The Grove of Illusion,” requiring use of mirrors to “quadruple” the apparent number of “fairies” on the stage. Collaborating with scenic designers and specialists in the science of optics, Durang struggled to achieve the desired effect, failing repeatedly in his—their—efforts. After much trial and error, he reported that “all went well.” That staging, its motivations, struggles, and ultimate success are the subjects of this presentation.

Lynn Matluck Brooks, Professor Emerita at Franklin & Marshall College, earned the Bradley Dewey Award for Outstanding Scholarship and the Lindback Award for Teaching. Brooks holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Temple University and is a Certified Movement Analyst. With grants from the Fulbright/Hayes Commission, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Mellon Foundation, she has researched dance in Golden Age Spain, eighteenth-century Netherlands, and the early United States. Brooks served as performance reviewer for Dance Magazine, editor of Dance Research Journal and Dance Chronicle, and writer and editor for Philadelphia’s thINKingDance. Her current research, on antebellum Philadelphia and on interconnections of dance, science, and cultural discourse, inform her two recently published volumes: Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century: The Articulate Body (lead editor and introductory essay) and Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia (author).