The Culture of Playgoing in Shakespeare's England

A debate about the relationship between playgoing and the cultural life of Shakespeare's England.

This book discusses the relationship between playgoing and the social and cultural life of Shakespeare's England. The debate structure of the book makes it unique and the authors' lively attacks and counter-attacks, as they contest each other's views in paired chapters, result in a dialectical account.How was the experience of watching a play influenced by practices beyond the walls of the playhouse, and what were the broader social and historical implications of the culture of playgoing? The book sets out to answer such questions. Interested first in what happened within the playhouse itself, the authors focus on the person of the actor, on stage props, visual pleasure and audience behaviour. At the same time, their discussion moves outward to consider a range of cultural assumptions and practices - such as eucharistic controversy, prostitution, social mobility, iconoclasm, Renaissance optics, the formation of national memory, and the dissemination of news. Since the two authors have very different perspectives on these issues, they have chosen a unique format: rather than submerging their opposition, they have highlighted it. Their attacks and counter-attacks, as they contest each other's views in paired chapters, result in a lively and illuminating debate.