A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named ‘Shakespeare’s Globe’, London.

The Elizabethan theatre Performer Heritage

Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2016
 The Elizabethan theatre

1. The origins of the theatre

• linked to religious celebrations;

• took place in the nave of the church;

• later they moved outside.

• English replaced Latin;

• lay people took the place of monks and priests;

• the plays were called Mystery Plays.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

2. Reasons for development

Why did drama become the main form of art?

BECAUSE
•entertainment was rooted in communal life;
•the public were more trained in listening than
in reading;
• permanent theatres were built on the South Bank
in London;
• they prospered as economic enterprises.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

3. London’s permanent theatres

The building of permanent playhouses in London

was a break with the past.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

3. London’s permanent theatres

Towards the end of the 16th century,

several theatres were built:

• the Theatre (by James Burbage, 1576);

• the Curtain (by James Burbage, 1577);
• the Rose (by Philip Henslowe, 1587).

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

3. London’s permanent theatres

Towards the end of the 16th century,

several theatres were built:

• the Swan (by Francis Langley, 1595);

• the Globe (by Cuthbert and Richard Burbage, 1599);
• the Fortune (by Philip Henslowe, 1600).

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

4. The structure of theatres

The playhouses:

• were round or octagonal in shape;

• were 12 metres high.

The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s

playing company, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613.
A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named ‘Shakespeare’s
Globe’, opened in 1997. It is on London South Bankside.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

4. The structure of theatres

The playhouses:

• had a diameter of 25 metres;

• had a rectangular stage, the apron stage;
• had no curtain.

A reconstruction of the Globe Theatre.

Folger Shakespeare Library.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

5. Internal layout

The same basic structure consisted of:

• a stage partially covered by a thatched roof, or ‘shadow’,
supported by two pillars and projected into a yard or pit.

Globe Theatre Stage, 1997.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

5. Internal layout
The structure included:

• three tiers of roofed galleries around

the stage with the actors’ tiring house
at the back;
• a trap door in the front of the stage
used for apparitions or disappearances;
• an inner stage used for discoveries or
The interior drawing of “The Swan” by
Johannes de Witt, circa 1596. The Swan
concealments. Theatre was built by Francis Langley about
1594, south of the Thames.
The Swan was one of the largest and most
distinguished of all the playhouses in London.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

6. The audience

The ‘box-offices’ offered a wide range of prices:

• a penny (=1/12 of a London worker’s weekly salary) granted

entrance to the pit (standing room around the stage);

• six pence granted access to seated places in the covered

galleries. Only city merchants and the nobility could afford the
price.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

6. The audience

• The spectators ate and drank during

the performance.

• They freely expressed their emotions

with laughter or tears.

• They relished language and long

speeches.

Geoffrey Rush in Shakespeare in Love,

directed by John Madden, 1998.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

6. The audience

• They were eager for sensation and overwhelming emotion.

• They loved metaphor and extremes.

• They enjoyed thrills and horror.

• They loved chronicles and history plays with heroic deeds

(strong national feeling).

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

7. The actors

• Actors had to join a company of a prominent figure and bear

his livery and arms (The Chamberlain’s Men of Elizabeth I
and the King’s Men of James I).

• An actor’s shareholding depended on the sum he invested to

buy props and costumes of which he was joint owner.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

7. The actors

• They had to vary their repertoire.

• They had no more than two weeks to prepare a new play.

• They often found themselves playing several roles in the

same performance.

• They needed an excellent memory.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

8. Female roles

• Companies included 5-6 boys to play female roles until their voices
broke.

• They learnt singing, dancing, diction and feminine gestures and

intonation from a very young age.

• Contemporary audiences found them very convincing.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

9. The clown and the fool

The clown The fool

Rough peasant whose

language Professional jester
counterbalanced other dressed in motley,
characters’ heroic or cap and bells.
romantic language.

Performer Heritage
 The Elizabethan theatre

10. The sources

• The Italian Commedia dell’Arte.

• The works of Niccolò Machiavelli with their display
of horrors, unnatural crimes, vice and corruption.
• Greek tragedies and the Latin philosopher and tragedian
Seneca division of the play into five acts,
a taste for blood and revenge.
• Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy the play
within the play.

Performer Heritage