Images of Philip Astley and the Amphitheatre: Equestrian Dance and London’s Illegitimate Theatre

Images of Philip Astley and the Amphitheatre: Equestrian Dance and London’s Illegitimate Theatre During his lifetime Philip Astley (1742-1814) was probably the best-known theatrical figure in Britain. This fame came as an equestrian performer – dancer and acrobat on horseback – and as an impresario of a theatre, the Amphitheatre, which hosted such performances. The amphitheatre and its imitators are widely perceived as the origins of the modern circus tradition. Yet the image record for Astley is strikingly sparse, particularly compared with that of contemporary dancers and actors of comparable renown; the situation is made odder by the fact that his career coincided with a boom in theatrical portraiture in paint and print. The paper (based on a recently published chapter) will explore what images do survive, and make the case that the position of the Amphitheatre at the margins of legitimate London theatrical life – financially, legally, geographically, socially – can be thought of both as part of the amphitheatre’s immense appeal and the patchy image record. The nature of the entertainments at Astley’s – equestrian dance, acrobatics and drama – will be explored in the light of these images to draw out some broader reflections on the nature of dance and theatre history in general. Joe Lockwood is a Teaching Assistant and DPhil candidate at New College Oxford. His Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research explores the reception of Handel's music in Revolutionary North America. His chapter on the American reception of Handel’s music is forthcoming in Annette Landgraf and Helen Coffey (eds.), Handel in Context (Cambridge University Press) and his chapter on the equestrian performer Philip Astley, in Michael Burden and Jennifer Thorp (eds.), With a Grace Not to Be Captured: Representing the Georgian Theatrical Dancer, 1760-1830 (Brepols, 2021) has just been published