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The three periods
English Renaissance Theatre, as a term, describes three parts of the period dating from 1561/1562 until 1642. The three periods are called:
- Elizabethan theatre (dating from 1562-1603)
- Jacobean theatre from (dating from 1603-1625)
- Caroline theatre (dating from 1625 to 1642)
The start of Elizabethan theatre – and English renaissance theatre in general – is marked by the first performance of the English play called Gorboduc. It was performed at “Inner Temple” in 1562, and was written by Thomas Norton and Thmas Sackville. The year after, it was performed before Queen Elizabeth I, and three years later, bookseller William Griffith published the play. The picture on the right shows the title page. The inner Temple, where the play was performed, is still today part of the four “Inns of Court”, associations for barristers and judges in London. Just as today, this was very prestigious. Inner temple was and is located near the Royal Courts of Justice, within the city of London. The Gentlemen of the Inner Temple therefore performed the performance in 1562, before Queen Elizabeth.
During the three periods under English Renaissance Theatre, the audience and target groups changed.This was under three different monarchs:
- Queen Elizabeth I (Reign: 17 nov 1558 – 24 march 1603)
- King James I (24 march 1603-27 march 1625)
- King Charles I (Reign: 27 march 1625-30 january 1649)
Under the period of “Elizabeth”, there wasn’t any differentiation between who watched the plays.The Court and Queen Elizabeth herself watched the plays, just as the common public did.But when Charles I was declared king of England, the view on English Renaissance theatre changed dramatically (this change was not seen during the reign of James VI). Charles I (1625-1649) was famous for his quarrelling with the parliament, and for his at times religious policies. Therefore, as time went on under the reign of king Charles I, fewer and fewer plays were written for the public, and only for the wealthier, prestigious people. Movements like the puritans were therefore against the English Theatre, as actors and playwrights supported the Royalist cause and politically supported the monarchy. This led to the end of English Theatre in 1642, and seven years later, in 1649, king Charles was executed in the Palace of Whitehall.
The English theatrical life
The English theatrical life was mostly placed right outside of London, because the theatre was banned inside the city itself. It was the Mayor and Corporation of London that first banned the plays in 1572, and afterwards the players were formally expelled from the city as well in 1575. Before the permanent theatre, they were “touring”, almost like circuses do today.
The first permanent English theatre was called the ”Red Lion” and it opened in 1567, but this theatre turned out to be a failure, which is why some people see “The Theatre”, which was the first successful theatre, as the “first” permanent theatre. It opened in 1576.
All the theatres had small differences, which made them unique and dissimilar to the other theatres, but the main theme and function of the theatre remained the same:
The public theatres:
- Three stories high
- Build around open space at the centre
- Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect
- Essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience.
- The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony (Romeo and Juliet) or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd.
Usually, the playhouses were built with timber and plaster and they needed to be constructed to hold a lot of people.
In 1599 a different model was used on a long-term basis. It was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre. It was smaller compared to the earlier theatres and had a roof, as distinct from the open-air playhouses.
Other theatres built the same way followed notably the Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617).
In 1629 the Salisbury Court Theatre was built near the defunct Whitefriars, which gave the London audience six theatres to choose from: Three remaining large open-air “public” theatres, the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull, and three smaller enclosed “private” theatres, the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court.
In general the ticket prices varied during this time period. The price was based on what a person could afford, or where in the theatre a person wished to be situated.
People would pay more for their entrance, if they wanted a better view of the stage or to be more separate from the crowd.
Around 1580 the total theatre capacity of London was about 5000 spectators. With the building of new theatre facilities and the development of new companies, London’s total theatre capacity reached 10,000 after 1610.
During the time of Shakespeare one Londoner in eight went to the theatre each week. A city of 160,000 people was providing a weekly audience of about 21,000. There is only one comparable example of such a high level of attendance at places of entertainment and that is in cinemas in the 1930s.
Costumes
The costumes appearing in the English renaissance theatres were an integral part of the play. During this period, theatres invested great amounts of money in the costumes. They were visually entrancing because of the bright colours and luxurious materials that were used. The costumes were often decorated with embroidery, lace and sometimes-even jewels. However, the costumes had more purpose than just looking beautifully. At the time, every colour symbolized something, which the audience understood. The colour of the costumes could therefore reveal the class and wealth of a character. This allowed the viewers to know the characters from the moment the actors came on stage. For example black would be seen as an evil and dark character. Purple was the colour of the royalties and the audience would therefore see the character as being important.
The English Sumptuary Law of 1574, a law that clearly defined the colour, style and material different classes of society could wear, was the reason why the audience knew the meaning of the colours of the costumes. However, a clause was built in so actors were allowed to dress above their social rank when they appeared on stage. As noted, materials also indicated the class of the character. If an actor was wearing fur and silk he would instantly be recognized as an upper class and in opposition if he was wearing cotton he would be recognized as someone from a much lower class.
Because of the very high costs of every costume they were maintained and saved carefully. Each piece was made so it could be worn in almost every play. That meant that the costumes not always were historically accurate in style to time of the play.
Women were not allowed to act. Instead, young boys would play the character of a woman. Trying to cover the traces of masculinity the boys were wearing a lot of make up. They did not know that the make up was very poisonous which meant that many of the boys got severe skin diseases and some even died from the substances.
Playwrights and Genres
The renaissance in England can be explained as a cultural explosion, which took place in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This period is marked by a big growth in art especially in drama and theatre. The explosion of theatre was a reaction of the growing wealth in London at the time but the influence came from all over Europe especially from Italian renaissance. .
The most famous playwrights from this time were Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. These three playwrights wrote plays about the themes: history, love, life and death and their plays are still read today.
Christopher Marlowe:
Marlowe was born in Canterbury in England in year 1564 and he died in 1593
He has inspired a lot of playwrights eg. William Shakespeare
"The Jew of Malta" and "Edward II" is two of his most famous plays
Ben Jonson
Jonson was born in 1572 and he died in 1637
He was one of the playwrights who was well educated, not many playwrights were well educated at this time.
"Every man in his humor" is a very famous satirical play by Jonson
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare lived from 1564-1616
He was not just a playwright, but also a poet and an actor.
"Hamlet", Romeo and Juliet", "Othello" and Macbeth" is among his most famous plays
The plays were both including tragedy and comedy. The plays were mostly written in rhymed verse and with a style of poetic language.
In the renaissance the playwrights turned away from subjects about religion only. In the 16th century they started to write sophisticated plays.
Being a playwright didn’t pay much. Once a company had bought the play they have all rights and the ownership, and the playwright did not get to decide anything about the play - not about the cast, the performance, the revision or the publication.
A few of the playwrights were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but most of them were not.
The genres of the plays were history, tragedy and comedy.
The historical plays were about recent events both in England and in the rest of Europe. These events were often dramatized.
The tragedy ones was the most popular genre. The greatest tragedies are Shakespeare's Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth.
Comedies was a big a genre as well. City comedies was a sub-genre that deals with satirically life in London - the everyday life.
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