Elizabethan Drama

1. Elizabethan Drama

2. Theatre buildings • Prior to 1576, plays frequently performed at inns • 1576 – The Theatre • 1577 – Curtain Theatre • 1587 – The Rose • 1595 – The Swan • 1599 – The Globe • 1600 – Fortune • 1604 – The Red Bull • 1599-1629 - Indoor theatres: Blackfriars, Whitefriars, Cockpit, Salisbury Court Theatre

3. Three types of stage

4. The Globe Stage • Outer stage • Inner stage • Upper stage • Hell • Actors' entrances • Special effects level

5. The Performance • All the actors were men or boy apprentices • Hearing the play / viewing the play • Setting created through dialogue • Many stage props • Elaborate costumes (but anachronisms) • Audience participation

6. Mimesis – realism - illusion • Definition of mimesis • Puritans mainly reacted against theatre as “trickery” and actors as “con men” • “Illusions are the Devil’s work!” • The plays of the age became deliberately anti-mimetic to quieten this view • Anti-mimetic devices: the artificial language, boys playing women, soliloquies, three-dimensional playing, familiarity with actors, metatheatrical jokes etc.

7. Performance Conditions • Great crowd – traffic - “parking” problems • Plays lasted 2-3 hours • Food and drink – apples, nuts, water, bottle ale • “Toilets” in the corridors (buckets) or the river • Smells: the industries, perfume, tobacco, garlic • The hats • Cutpurses, prostitutes, fights, riots

8. Special effects • The blood, gore, limbs • Trapdoors in floor and ceiling • Wires, ropes and harnesses • Cannon in the attic • Fireworks • Sound effects