Abstract: This chapter surveys how Georgian theatricality permeated every area of contemporary popular culture. Its methodology is to trace how popular dramatics percolated down through all levels of society. These include aristocratic private theatricals (which sometimes had a paedophilic content) and London’s urban private theatres, establishments bordering on illegality and frequented by lawyer’s scribes and apprentices who sometimes paid to act. The chapter stresses the sheer variety of contemporary venues and opportunities for acting or for following drama. It suggests that clear-cut distinctions between actors and audiences were being rapidly eroded. In tracing the plebeian following of drama, it reassesses Marc Baer’s (1992) study of the Covent Garden 1809 Old Price Riots by finding more discharged labourers than he allows and examining the audience implications of the dead at a Sadler’s Wells theatre stampede.

Keywords: private, theatricality, paedophile, riots,