GENERAL NOTES

• Audience suspending sense of disbelief- overacting (less realistic than today- focusing on “passions” (Stern)), boys dressed as “beautiful” women, props and costumes less realistic (Bottom turning into a donkey)
• Actors focusing on “passions” (Stern) – certain parts of the audience not being able to see/hear as well, focus on big gestures as opposed to subtlety
• More disruptions to performance due to less preparation, rowdiness of the audience affecting the actors
• Poorer people having chaotic experience due to weather, drunk people. Noise from outside of the theatre, e.g. pleasure houses, cockfighting, bullbaiting
• Violence of cockfighting, bullbaiting etc outside the theatre was representative of what people wanted to see, violence
• The plague- theatre could have been a dangerous experience particularly for poorer people due to the exposure to illness
• Poorer people encountering things/people on stage that they wouldn’t in real life, i.e. royals, people from different countries (the Swiss Traveller’s account of a play about “diverse nations”)
• Multiple theatres in one area, added a  competitive element, companies trying to have big names, choosing plays with the most drama
• Music in the theatre, luring people in, competiting with outside noise and noise of the audience
• Only in England where women couldn’t act, Swiss traveller’s account that there were men dressed as women shows how a foreign perspective highlights peculiarities about theatre during this time. Less documented by Londoners as theatre was normal part of life
• Travelling- more exhaustion during play due to journey? Poorer people taking the boat vs rich people taking a carriage
• Audience had a more personal relationship to the actors (and therefore to the characters) due to seeing them previously in different plays. Attracted people to see their favourite actors

 

CREATIVE RESPONSE

When this thing gets up to 88 miles per hour, you’re gonna see some serious Shakespeare… 

Great Scott! The streets are filthy and there’s a raucous going on around the corner. It can only mean one thing- we’re in Shakespeare’s London! 

Don’t panic, the abundance of diseases won’t get you (well, no promises…), we’re only here for a short trip to the theatre. We’ve plenty to choose from here on a fine late 1500s afternoon South side of the Thames, with theatres practically fighting for you to knuckle down in their yard and cheer and jeer for the classics such as Doctor Faustus and Julius Caesar. Shakespeare didn’t have a monopoly over drama in London, and there’s a fair amount of competition amongst the playhouses. One of these popular playhouses is Philip Henslowe’s The Rose, which became home to the Admiral’s Men acting company in 1592. With more and more buildings and acting troupes popping up, theatre’s started to get creative to maintain business. Extensions, extra stage levels and added seating were some of the ways in which theatre’s tried to entice more audience members in. 

Henslow’s actually a pretty useful guy; his diaries have told us a fair bit about the theatre industry around here, so we aren’t completely thrown into the unknown. One particularly interesting tidbit is a list of props and equipment the theatre had:

Item, i rock, i cage, i tomb, i Hell mouth… i bedstead.

Item, viii lances, i pair of stairs for Phaethon*.

Item, i globe, & i golden sceptre; iii clubs

Item, i golden fleece, ii racquets, i bay tree.

Item, i lion’s skin, i bear’s skin; Phaethon’s

limbs, & Phaethon’s chariot, & Argus’s head.

Item, Iris’s head, & rainbow; i little altar. . .

i ghost’s gown; i crown with a sun*.

It can be hard to imagine what things had been crafted for performance, given the lack of smoke machines and strobe lights. Yet the Elizabethan theatre did make use of certain effects such as smoke and cannons, they weren’t afraid of pyrotechnics to aid the drama of a performance. Parading a golden sceptre and lion’s skin around on the stage brings a certain regality to a performance, don’t you think? 

If you’re feeling ever so-so, or just want to save yourself the backache, you can cough up a couple of pennies (yes, pennies!) and nab a seat in an upper tier of the theatre. This is where the line between the low and the high class is drawn. Higher seats = better view = better public image. 

The Globe Theatre, built from the remains of The Theatre (England’s second ever permanent playhouse), is the longtime home of Shakespeare’s dramatics, and it’s existed since 1599. Granted, it’s been reconstructed since then into what we can visit in the present day, but this is the birthplace of the ‘box office’. No, really: boxes that collected everyone’s admission were a sure way of determining how successful a certain play was, ie in how much money it actually made the theatre.  Being so famous nowadays, it clearly did quite well for itself. 

Watch out for pickpockets as you muscle your way into the land of the ‘groundlings’ (us folk that hang out in the theatre’s yard), the theatre going experience wasn’t quite as policed as it is today. One familiar thing, however, is the chance to purchase yourself some refreshments. You needn’t wait until any interval, as food and drink is available during the performance. Try not to spill your hazelnuts on your neighbour. You’ll need them to throw about when your favourite character kicks the bucket (spoilers!). We’re a pretty rowdy bunch, and I bet you two pennies that a good few people will leave the theatre before the end. You couldn’t imagine doing that in modern times, but here, once a main character dies, some people have simply had enough. Pass the tissues. 

If you’re still bloodthirsty (weren’t all those murders enough?), we can head out into the streets and follow the squawks and cheers to the cockfights. The setup actually looks a bit like a theatre, giving us a great view of the violence once more, but instead of passionating, there’s a lot of pecking. Some traveller’s accounts have told us that people would be there to take bets, so maybe you can even make your money back and we can do all of this again tomorrow. I hear they’re performing a second part to Tamburlaine. See you in the pit!