Elizabethan Theatre

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Elizabethan Theatre

• Why was Elizabeths reign such an important
  period in the development of the theatre?
• How does it still influence us today?

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Introduction

• Throughout the middle ages plays were performed
  by workers in towns and were religious based,
  often retelling stories from the Bible.
• However, this ended after Henry VIIIs break from
  Rome and formation of the Church of England in
  1533.
• Therefore playwrights took inspiration from the
  Roman theatre and writers like Seneca, who wrote
  about crime, revenge, witches and ghosts.
•       Elizabethan writers introduced theatre
  audiences to horror, the supernatural and GORE

3
Elizabethan Playwrights

• The most well known playwright of Elizabethan
  times is Shakespeare. But there were also other
  writers who in their time were just as, or even
  more famous than the Bard.

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Christopher Marlowe

• v      Born 1564
• v      Studied at King's School, Canterbury and
  Corpus Christi College, Cambridge with
  scholarships.
• v      For many years served the Elizabethan
  secret service as a spy involved with several
  extremely confidential missions.
• v      Had several brushes with the law,
  including being involved in an affray which
  resulted in someones death, arranging the
  counterfeit of some coins and failing to keep
  the peace with two constables.
• v      In May 1593 he was involved in a scandal
  when his room-mate and fellow playwright Thomas
  Kyd was found with heretical papers. Under
  torture, Kyd claimed they were Marlowes, and
  accused him of atheism.
• v      However, before the Privy Council took
  definite action on these charges Marlowe was
  stabbed in a tavern brawl on the 30th May 1593
  and died aged 29.

OR DID HE?
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Marlowes Murder

• v  According to the inquest Marlowe met with
  three men, Frizer, Skeres and Poley in a tavern
  in Deptford. They stayed there all day until an
  argument broke out and Frizer stabbed Marlowe in
  the eye out of self-defence.
• v     But there are several strange things about
  the murder. Why did Marlowe agree to visit three
  men he had never met before? How come a friendly
  meeting got so out of hand?
• v     If it was a murder that had been planned in
  advance, why had they spent the whole day there?
  Why hadnt they of just waited for him to be
  executed under the charges of atheism?
• v     If there wasnt some kind of conspiracy,
  how come the Coroner of the Queen's Household,
  William Danby, just happen to be staying nearby
  and decided to officiate, with no outside help?
• v      How come Frizer happened to be under the
  service of Thomas Walsingham, a close friend of
  Marlowes, at the time this took place? How come
  Robert Poley was under Her Majestys Service?

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The answer?

• One theory is that he didnt even die at all!
  With the help of his powerful friends he staged
  his own death and fled the country to escape
  execution. To make money he continued writing
  plays under the name

William Shakespeare! Evidence suggests that the
real Shakespeare was an illiterate businessman!
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Ben Jonson 1573 1637

• Ben Jonson was born into a poor and unhappy
  family. He was first recognised as a writer with
  his play Every Man In His Humour. This play
  painted a brilliant picture of Elizabethan life.
  Ben Jonson was thrown into prison several times,
  for his political writings and also for killing a
  man in a duel. Other famous plays were Every Man
  Out Of His Humour, and Jonsons masterpiece,
  Volpone.

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John Lyly 1553 1606

• Lyly began his career as a writer
• with several novels, called Euphues.
• He then began writing plays, at first
• mainly for young acting groups made up from boys
  choirs. His plays often contained songs and
  commented on court life. His famous plays are
  Endymion (1591), Galathea (1592), Love's
  Metamorphosis (1601), and The Woman in the Moon
  (1597).

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Thomas Kyd 1558 1594

• Kyd was well educated and shared a room with the
  other famous Elizabethan writer Marlowe. Kyd's
  play, The Spanish Tragedy (1589), was the most
  popular and influential tragedy of Elizabethan
  times. Other plays attributed to him are Cornelia
  and Arden of Feversham. In 1593, he was arrested
  on the charge of heresy. He was eventually
  released but died in poverty and disgrace.
•  

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The Performances

• The theatres often had mechanisms that allowed
  angels and gods to be lowered down onto the
  stage. Stages were also equipped with a trapdoor
  leading to a Hell beneath the stage. The
  trapdoor was also used as a grave in theatrical
  funerals.
• There was very little scenery available for
  theatres, so the writers often used to dialogue
  to explain to the audience where the scene was
  taking place.
• Costume was very important in Elizabethan
  theatre. Actors wore colourful and elaborate
  costumes that would tell the audience the
  characters status, family ties or profession.
• The emphasis that was given to a characters
  clothing made the theme of disguise a common
  convention of Elizabethan theatre. In order to
  exchange places with another character or conceal
  his identity, all an actor needed to do was to
  change his costume.
•  The Elizabethan theatre also used a variety of
  sound effects. Music played an important role in
  the setting the mood of the plays. Other sounds
  created were thunder, running horses, falling
  rain, and cannon blasts.

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Shakespeare Today

• Elizabethan theatre is still plays a part in our
  day to day lives, mostly through the influence of
  Shakespeare. You can find references to his work
  in films, novels, plays, musicals, songs, poetry,
  artwork, satireEven today his characters and
  storylines continue to inspire

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Shakespeare in Language

• Elizabethan theatre has had a very important
  effect on todays theatre, and other parts of
  every day life. For example
• Shakespeare coined over 1600 words still used
  today including countless, critical, excellent,
  lonely, majestic, obscene and its.
• Names coined by Shakespeare
• -         Imogen in the play Cymbaline,
• -         Jessica in the play The Merchant of
  Venice
• -         Miranda in the play The Tempest
• -         Olivia in the play Twelfth Night
• -         Cordelia in the play King Lear

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And lastly

• If you cannot understand my argument, and
  declare "It's Greek to me", if your lost property
  has vanished into thin air, if you have ever
  refused to budge an inch or suffered from
  green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and
  loose, if you have been tongue-tied, hoodwinked
  or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows,
  insisted on fair play, slept not one wink,
  laughed yourself into stitches, if you have too
  much of a good thing, if you have seen better
  days or if you think it is high time and that
  that is the long and short of it, if you believe
  that the game is up and that truth will out even
  if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you
  lie low till the crack of doom because you
  suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on
  edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason
  - it is all one to me, for you are quoting
  Shakespeare!

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The End