In 1809 in a tavern on Dundas Street near present day Bay Street, the first recorded theatrical performance in York (now Toronto) took place when a travelling group of American actors presented the play School for Scandal.
It wasn’t until 1820 at the popular Franks Hotel now the site of the Front Street Metro Pharmacy that the first theatrical performance made up entirely of local actors took place when they too performed School for Scandal.
Considering York was founded by the British in 1793 what took so long for theatre to be accepted? The first generation of citizens of York were very class conscience and held steadfast to the old ways and the theatre with its wicked women and fancy men was viewed on the same scale as prostitution.
It would take the second generation, the sons and daughters of these aristocrats together with the great tides of immigration to get things going.
In 1824 an editorial written in the Upper Canada Gazette proposed that a proper theater should be built.
“The hypocritical religionists who rail against the stage should be glad to see something like a permanent theatrical establishment in this country. A stage that could be converted into a school for practical morality where virtue and vice are placed in the strongest possible point of view.”
Where the meat section now stands in the Front Street Metro Grocery store was the Colborne Street Theatre, again just a room at the back of tavern, where in 1829 a murder took place. This murder between two rival gangs only added to theatre’s already intoxicating image. It turned the public against the idea of a proper theatre being built and put a stop to all theatrical events until 1833.
With live theatre still banned, Torontonians turned to Opera as it was mostly performed in foreign languages and therefore less political. The earliest known Opera staged in Toronto was The Mountaineers by Colman in 1825 at Franks Hotel.
In 1826 the Colonial Advocate (William Lyons Mackenzie’s paper) wrote of its appeal… “The chief beauty of an opera is its close resemblance to scenes in real life.”
By 1842 after the theatre ban was lifted Toronto had a population of nearly 15,000. A barn on the north side of Front Street, where the dog fountain now gushes in Berczy Park, was turned into the Deering Theatre.
It didn’t last long and after financial problems was converted into a restaurant. For the most part what “acting” was seen on early Toronto stages only slightly amused or just plain annoyed audiences as it would be best described as overly melodramic.
These early theatres weren’t anything to write home about, with hard wooden benches for seats and candles for light.
However, on December 28, 1848 all this would change with the opening of Toronto’s first purpose built theatre, the Royal Lyceum a 700 seat theatre complete with dressing rooms, a large stage and comfortable seats. Long gone, this once great theatre stood where the TD Centre stand today.
By 1900 Toronto had over a hundred theatres large and small and today our city is second only to New York City as the theatrical center of North America.
Photo credit: Royal Lyceum Theatre by John Wesley Cotton courtesy of Toronto Public Library