British Theatre Performance space and theatrical conventions Classical

British Theatre Performance space and theatrical conventions

Classical Antiquity Britain is one province in the Roman Empire Outdoor performance spaces – audience seated on hillside/slope above performers Surviving theatres in St. Albans and Chester http: //www. stalbansmuseums. org. uk/Sites/Roman -Town/Roman-Theatre www. chesterwalls. info/amphitheatre. html These traditions lost with fall of Rome.

audience backstage performance space audience St. Albans

Fall of Roman Empire ~450 AD Theatre disappears from Britain as Latin speakers lost

Drama re-emerges after ~1200 not from a revival of classical Roman traditions, but from the Christian rituals of the Mass.

Medieval Drama Place of medieval drama in history of European drama no connection to classical drama not entertainment not money-making begins as liturgy or ritual dramatizing supports earliest liturgical moments, i. e. . elevation of the host religious values and practices dramatized liturgy reenacts the Passion and the Resurrection

Plays performed in inner courtyards of medieval inns.

The George Inn in London

York Cycle (1 of 4 extant cycles) Begins sometime after ~1325; closed down by Reformation censors in Elizabeth’s reign (~1580); this is Shakespeare’s boyhood. Associated with towns – not villages or hamlets – showed wealth, power, pride, civic organization and institutions, literacy, and religious belief. Literate townsmen put on plays for less literate farmers http: //jerz. setonhill. edu/resources/PSim/applet/i ndex. html

Cycle plays performed on wagons in streets of York over 1 -3 days in late June. Audience stayed in place, and wagons moved to ~12 viewing stations. Played to crowds on 3 sides. Same script every year. Compare to tailgate party.

Tudor Drama (1485 -1603) Before Elizabeth – Some revivals of Latin/Roman dramatic forms, especially tragedy Elizabethan dramatists: first modern English playwrights – theatres and admission costs Theatre as business proposition Money in acting, writing, but esp. producing How to earn a living as a writer without a wealthy patron

London ~ 1590 Today’s West End Theatres National Theatre London Eye Many theatres south of the river in “Southwark” because outside of control of London’s conservative aldermen.

Early Modern Public Theatre Large, outdoor but partially roofed, daylight only illumination Variety of standing/sitting price options In the 3/4 ths (audience on three sides of a thrust stage Three levels of play space (below stage trapdoor; stage; balcony) Two back entrances

1599 Note thrust stage – audience on 3+ sides Thus daily at two in the afternoon, London has two, sometimes three plays running in different places, competing with each other, and those which play best obtain most spectators. The playhouses are so constructed that they play on a raised platform, so that everyone has a good view. There are different galleries and places, however, where the seating is better and more comfortable and therefore more expensive. For whoever cares to stand below only pays one English penny, but if he wishes to sit he enters by another door, and pays another penny, while if he desires to sit in the most comfortable seats which are cushioned, where he not only sees everything well, but can also be seen, then he pays yet another English penny at another door. And during the performance food and drink are carried around the audience, so that what one cares to pay one may also have refreshment.

1647 woodcut

Note thrust stage, the three levels on which the audience may sit, and the floor space for the “groundlings” to stand. ~1550 -1642

A modern production in the reconstructed Globe Theatre.

The stage lit by candles in the new Sam Wanamaker theatre at the Globe, where we will see The Little Match Girl.

Middle Temple in Inns of Court – banquet hall and first performance space for Twelfth Night

Puritan Commonwealth ~1642 -1660 Charles I executed 1649 Theatres closed 1642, but re-opened on Restoration of the Monarchy after death of Oliver Cromwell in 1660. Charles II returned from exile in France and brought “French fashions” into British theatre women performers proscenium stage rather than thrust stage

Mid 17 th C French theatre with stage behind curtain

Proscenium Stage Dominates British theatre from Restoration (1660) to modernism (early 20 th C) You have likely seen this theatre in your HS auditorium. Actors on stage behind curtain Scene changes indicated by curtain Audience sits in dark Actors pretend audience not present

Some 20 th & 21 st C innovations Often returns to earlier forms Theatre in the round Direct interactions audience/actors Chorus or narrator Musical Theatre American origins, but hugely popular in the UK

Stratford-Upon-Avon is home to three stages on which Early Modern (and other) plays are performed. This is the stage at the National Theatre on the South Bank near the London Eye and Houses of Parliament.

One stage on which we’ll see plays in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Curious Incident

Much Ado

Gielgud