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theatrical, a. and n.|θiːˈætrɪkəl|
[f. as theatric + -al1: see -ical.]
A. adj.
1. a. Pertaining to or connected with the theatre or ‘stage’, or with scenic representations.
1558Parker in Burnet Hist. Ref. (1681) II. Collect. Records ii. iii. viii. 355 To dispense God's Word..in poor destitute Parishes..more meet for my decayed Voice..than in Theatrical and great Audience. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 19 The straunge fables and Theatricall fictions. 1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 6 There were also some theatricall playes. 1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 335 The Power and Extent of the Theatrical Law. 1905A. C. Benson Upton Lett. (1906) 72 He drifts up to London and joins a theatrical company.
†b. = theatric a. 1 b. Obs.
1766T. Amory Buncle (1770) IV. 22 In a theatrical space of about two hundred acres, which the hand of nature cut, or hollowed out, on the side of a mountain.
2. That ‘plays a part’; † representing or exhibiting in the manner of an actor (obs.); that simulates, or is simulated; artificial, affected, assumed.
1649J. H. Motion to Parl. Adv. Learn. 37 Man in businesse is but a Theatricall person, and in a manner but personates himselfe. 1691Boyle Greatn. Mind i. 6 Philosophers..can easily distinguish betwixt that real Greatness..and that Theatrical one, that Fortune may have annext to his Condition. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. vi. iii. (1737) III. 368 The good Painter must..take care that his Action be not theatrical, or at second hand; but original and drawn from Nature her-self. 1830Macaulay Ess., Moore's Byron (1887) 169 How far the character in which he [Byron] exhibited himself was genuine, and how far theatrical, it would probably have puzzled himself to say.
3. Having the style of dramatic performance; extravagantly or irrelevantly histrionic; ‘stagy’; calculated for display, showy, spectacular.
1709–10Steele & Addison Tatler No. 136 ⁋3 His Theatrical Manner of making Love. 1751Affect. Narr. of Wager 60 [He] read it to the Captain in a theatrical Tone. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. II. viii. 277 The signal..was given with a theatrical bravado. 1883Mrs. Oliphant Sheridan ii. 57 Sheridan's art, from its very beginning, was theatrical, if we may use the word, rather than dramatic.
4. Special collocations, as theatrical agency, theatrical agent, an agency, agent whose business is to act as an intermediary between actors and actresses seeking parts and producers offering them.
1825P. Egan Life of Actor ii. 62 We are engaged at the Harp to meet Mr. Schemer, the theatrical agent, to-morrow night. 1828J. Ebers Seven Yrs. King's Theatre vii. 196 Been actively engaged in theatrical concerns, and the business of theatrical agency. a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. v. 126 She read an advertisement of a theatrical agency. 1973D. Ramsay Deadly Discretion 111 Why not go to Actors' Equity and theatrical agencies and dance studios? 1978Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. 13c/5 Marco talks Mrs. Hopkins into letting him stay on as boarder by becoming her theatrical agent.
B. n.
1. pl. The performance of stage plays; now, dramatic performance by amateurs (usu. amateur theatricals); formerly in a private house (private theatricals). Also fig. doings of a theatrical character; ‘acting’, pretence.
1657–83Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) II. 291 Turning their..services and ceremonies into theatricals. 1804Miniature No. 21 (1806) I. 280 Private theatricals, when many of the first personages in the land choose to make themselves fools for the good of a large company. 1808H. More Cœlebs (1809) II. xxxiii. 116 What the news-papers pertly call Private Theatricals. a1849H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 12 If Charles had not carried his love of theatricals to church. 1873, etc. [see amateur 3 a]. 1892G. & W. Grossmith Diary of Nobody viii. 118, I..totally disapproved of amateur theatricals. 1897E. L. Voynich Gadfly (1904) 30/2 It's only the usual theatricals, because he's ashamed to face us. 1965Listener 23 Sept. 462/3 He proved..fond of..amateur theatricals.
2. pl. Matters pertaining to the stage and acting; in quot. 1855 concr. = stage properties. Also transf., the theatrical column of a newspaper.
1763D. Garrick Let. 8 Oct. in R. B. Peake Mem. Colman Family (1841) I. iii. 84 God bless you! my dear Colman, and have a corner of your eye upon my theatricals. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 106 note, He..dedicated his mind to the study of theatricals. 1819Keats Let. 22 Sept. (1958) II. 176, I purpose living in town in a cheap lodging, and endeavouring, for a beginning, to get the theatricals of some paper. 1829Censor 224 The depressed state of theatricals. 1855Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 397, I have some theatricals at home.
3. A professional actor.
1859Sala Gaslight & D. ii. 18 How hard-working..and persevering theatricals..generally are. 1863Dickens Let. 1 May in Holman-Hunt Pre-Raphaelitism (1905) 238 That half-gipsy life of our theatricals. 1888Harper's Mag. Nov. 945/2 All the theatricals went there. |