Playing Spaces in Early Modern England

Shakespeare's Playing Spaces

In this course, Dr Sarah Dustagheer (University of Kent) thinks about the physical spaces in which Shakespeare’s plays were performed. In the first lecture, we think about the different kind of playing spaces in early modern England, both before and after the creation of permanent theatres in London. In the second and third lectures, we think about outdoor and indoor theatres, respectively, focusing in particular on the Globe and the Blackfriars, before turning in the fourth and fifth lectures to two specific performances of Macbeth – the (outdoor) performance at the Globe in 1611, and the (indoor) performance in the Great Hall of Hampton Court in 1606, possibly in front of King James himself.

Playing Spaces in Early Modern England

In this lecture we think about the kinds of playing spaces that existed in early modern England, focusing in particular on: (i) the kinds of spaces in which plays would have been performed before the creation of permanent theatres, e.g. market squares, stately homes, etc.; (ii) the opportunities and limitations of particular playing spaces, e.g. the weather if outdoors, artificial lighting if indoors, etc.; (iii) the creation of permanent theatres in London from the later 16th century onwards, beginning with The Theatre in 1576; and (iv) the extent to which playwrights such as Shakespeare wrote plays with a specific playing space in mind.