by David Chandler

 [Chandler, David. "'The Conflict': Hannah Brand and Theatre Politics in the 1790s." Romanticism On the Net 12 (November
                          1998) <http://users.ox.ac.uk/~scat0385/bwpconflict.html>]
 
 

'It is our St[o]urbritch Fair time and the Norwich Company are theatricalizing [sic]', Coleridge wrote to Southey on 26
September 1794. 'They are the first provincial Actors in the Kingdom'. (1) He was disposed to be generous, having just
contracted a friendship with the family of John Brunton (1741-1822), the Norwich Company's manager, and discovered an
attraction to Brunton's daughter Elizabeth (?1772-99), (2) an actress in the company. Nevertheless, Coleridge's assessment is
probably accurate. In the 1790s the Norwich Company toured with great success, enjoyed good relations with the London
theatres, and undoubtedly enjoyed a very high reputation. Much of this was due to Brunton himself. In 1700 Norwich had been
the largest, most prosperous provincial city in England. Nevertheless, dominated as it was by business interests, it was several
decades before its citizens took much interest in the arts. Indeed, it is striking that it was only after its 'Golden Age' of
commercial prosperity, conventionally given as c.1740-80, (3) that Norwich emerged as an important cultural centre. A theatre
was built there in 1758, 'the second oldest provincial theatre built as such in England', (4) which increased steadily in prestige
until a royal patent was obtained in 1768 and it became the Theatre Royal. By this time the builder and proprietor, Thomas
Ivory (1709-79), had built a second theatre at Colchester and made Norwich 'the centre of a strong and prosperous Circuit in
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex' (Eshleman 17). In the 1760s he also 'encrease[d] the emoluments to the performers by making it,
from a sharing, to a Salary Company' (Eshleman 72), thereby attracting more talented actors from London. However a more
than East Anglian reputation was not obtained in Ivory's lifetime due to his employment of very undistinguished managers. (5)
Wider fame came in the Brunton era.

Brunton was a great local success story. (6) Born in Norwich, the son of a soapmaker, he served M