Three years after the Restoration which gave King Charles II his throne and the Puritans, who had shut down all the theatres, were removed from their positions of power, the Theatre Royal, Bridges Street, was built. It was not until later that it would be known as Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was 1663 and London was at the height of its post Puritan debauchery, the banned plays were popular again and the King himself commanded performances to be put on to the delight of people all over the capital. The era gave us the still popular Restoration comedy genre which is typified by their bawdy and sexual content. The first production shown at the theatre was 'The Humorous Luietenant' by John Fletcher, a play that was debuted less than 50 years before by the last of Shakespeare's theatre company. The great diarist Samuel Pepys wrote a review of both the theatre and the production from the opening night, you can find the diary year 1663 on this page here, and was critical of the building. The building survived the Great Fire of 1666 but the previous year had been shut down due to an outbreak of the plague. After surviving the fire the theatre thrived once again until it burned down in 1672. Its replacement, the second Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was built in 1674 and would remain for another 120 years.
On this date in 1680 Susanna Centlivre aka Susanna Carroll was born. Carroll is known to have been a contemporary of Aphra Behn and only a step behind her as the 'Second Woman of the English Stage.' It is believed that Carroll joined the Drury Lane Theatre in 1700 and in that first year the theatre produced her play 'The Perjur'd Husband' which was a risque tragedy. It was a hit which made her reputation as both a writer and an actor. Carroll wrote 19 plays and numerous poems and pressed through her writing the need for equality between men and women. She died in 1723 from a prolonged illness, she is buried in The Actors' Church, Covent Garden, London.
