Moving Shakespeare Indoors

This book explores the impact of indoor theatre on Shakespeare's performances, examining staging, lighting, and audience dynamics in the seventeenth century.

The year 2014 marked a significant milestone with the opening of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, a venue inspired by the designs of seventeenth-century indoor theatres. This book, Moving Shakespeare Indoors, delves into the transformative effects that intimate staging, advanced lighting, and music had on theatrical performance and repertory. Edited by Andrew Gurr and Farah Karim-Cooper, it explores the motivations behind the shift to indoor venues, particularly focusing on the experiences of Shakespeare's company, the King's Men, who performed at both the Globe and the Blackfriars.

In Moving Shakespeare Indoors, the authors analyze the essential knowledge required to recreate an archetype of these historic theatres. They investigate how the unique characteristics of indoor venues influenced audience behavior and reception, providing a rich context for understanding the evolution of theatrical practices. The book offers a comprehensive examination of how such environments shaped the writing and performances of Shakespeare and his contemporaries during the late Jacobean and early Caroline periods.

This volume is poised to attract a significant readership among scholars interested in Shakespeare and Jacobean theatre history. By examining the conditions of original performances in these indoor theatres, Moving Shakespeare Indoors contributes valuable insights into the cultural and artistic shifts that defined this era of theatre.