Hippodrama: The Real Thing

Hippodrama is a form of theatre that first surfaced in France and England during the early nineteenth century. In fact, there is a book devoted to the history of this phenomenon written by A.H. Saxon entitled Enter Foot and Horse: A History of Hippodrama of England and France. In this text, Saxon defines hippodrama as the following:

"The true hippodrama, as the name implies, is literally a play in which trained horses are considered as actors, with business, often leading actions, of their own to perform"(Saxon 7). Saxon continues to include that "improbable as it may seem, such plays were actually written in the nineteenth century, though it must be admitted at the outset that the strict definition given above cannot always be applied to plays which critics and spectators of this period called hippodramas. Viewed in the light of contemporary opinion, the term extended to any plays in which horsemanship was prominently displayed"(ibid). 

One of the causes of specialized forms of theatre such as hippodrama during the nineteenth century  was due to the Theatre Regulation Act of 1843. Individuals who owned theatre companies such as ex army man Philip Astley, had to find creative solutions to draw crowds despite the regulations they were forced to conform to. Saxon points out that, 

"if, for example, an ampitheatre like Astley's was licensed for exhibitions of horsemanship, then the authorities were not likely to object to acrobatics or even to performances of a dramatic nature so long as these were done on horseback. Such, at least, is one explanation for the appearance of the phenomenon whose history this book traces-the peculiar and highly popular form of entertainment known as hippodrama, which experienced its heyday in the first half of the nineteenth century"(Saxon 6).

Although this form of theatre may seem improbable or abstract, the people of the era loved these equine driven spectacles. One of the reasons for this was the fact that "at the time of the appearance of these plays Romanticism was in full bloom. Drawinism and the theory of the indifferent universe were still some fifty years in the future; nature was viewed, with childlike simplicity, as being sympathetic to man."(Saxon 8) Another reason why audiences were eager to attend these types of productions was the fact that they were dangerous. For example, "many horses and actors were killed or permanently injured during performances of Mazeppa, for in this play the horse, with the victim lashed to its back, had to dash up a series of ramps extending  to the flies"(Saxon 7). But, in reality when you consider the concept of Hippodrama it is easy to imagine that "although the horses were usually confined to a handful of scenes in these spectacles there can be little doubt that audiences took at least as much interest in the four-footed actors as they did in the two-footed"(ibid). 

Audiences were also more acceptable to these forms of theatre because during the early nineteenth century, 

"the interior arrangement of these amphitheatres or circuses was not dissimilar to that found in theatres of the period. Spectators had their choice among pit, boxes, and galleries, the only difference being that a large portion of the pit was reserved for the ride or circle, which soon came to be standardizeda t thirteen meters or around forty-three feet in diameter, enclosed by a painted barrier some four feet high. Remarkable, too, is the fact that as early as 1782, when the Royal Circus first opened its doors, proscenium stages were a part of these establishments." These details and the fact that audiences had positive responses to hippodrama which allowed "More than one nineteenth-century manange saved himself from bankruptcy by going illegitimate and engaging equestrian companies"(Saxon 15).

Theatre Zingaro, the modern equestrian theatre company explored in "The Horse as a Performer" is a hybrid of this early form of theatre. Here is a short video again displaying some hippodrama enacted on stage.

This is a clip showcasing a series of scenes from the show "Cavalia" that recently toured the United States and was a production from some of the creators of the highly successful "Cirque du Soleil"